Thanks for the comment Lee.

With all the positive feedback, hopefully a few TV executives read The Roar and get cracking on making the shows a reality.

I should clarify that I can’t take all the credit for the Near and Far Post titles. They are actually titles of radio shows that you can hear down here in Canberra on a local station and I have always thought they were a great way to distinguish between coverage devoted to the local game and the international game. I included that info in the draft I sent in, but it obviously did not make the final edit for publication.

Thanks Bondy.

This idea has been floating around in my head for a while so I thought it was about time to write it up and get it published.

Hi Fuss,

Thanks for the comment.

I guess the point I was driving at was not necessarily what changes could be made to the laws of football, but rather that the A-League could be the testing ground for any such changes (which lets face it, often take years to get from idea to implementation).

Just like the ELV’s in rugby being tested at the lower levels of the game before being trialled in first class competitions, the A-League could offer itself up as a national competition testing ground which would hopefully also carry with it the benefits of Australian officials getting greater exposure/training/time with some of the game’s rule makers.

Whether we as fans agree with the changes or not, evidence will always be required before a decision is made, and I believe Australia would be a good candidate to be one of those testing grounds.

Thanks for the comment Mahony.

I included rule changes as part of the package, but the next major changes I can see FIFA experimenting with are things like goal-line technology and the way referees communicate with each other which will hopefully improve the quality of the decisions being made.

Fundamentally, I am not a fan of too many tweaks to the rules, but being a testing ground for FIFA could be an opportunity for Australia to gain a bit more prominence in the football family.

Morning whiskeymac.

The 90 minute suggestion is the old argument that has been around for a while, that is the referee killing the clock whenever the ball is not on the pitch and moving. The link to the Paul Doyle article is below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/may/18/innovations-next-season-premier-league

In the end I went with guinea pig for the title but there were other options considered, some suitable for printing, others not so much.

In my mind I draw a bit of a distinction between the world cup awarding part of FIFA and the law making part of FIFA, so my suggestion could be a way to build up some exposure for the local game without selling out too much.

Thanks for your comments, but I think you might have put two and two together and arrived at five kinkladze.

My article about Rebecca Wilson was making the point that the football community needs to listen to voices from outside of the game. This article makes the point that a lift in the quality of coverage should go hand in hand with the calls for a lift in quantity.

I can see the link you are trying to make, but my article emphasises that if all parties involved had a little better understanding of the game, there would be benefits for both football fans as well as the general sporting public who may only have a passing interest in the game. I think Kasey summed up that point pretty well a few comments above yours. This is consistent with my previous article about outsider views being listened to.

In addition, this was not a call for only favourable coverage, but for a lift in the quality of any coverage, both positive and negative. I love nothing better than a piece of analysis which is well researched, well delivered and which makes a valid point, even if it is talking about how badly my beloved Villains played over the weekend. What I am not advocating is knee-jerk, ad hoc, unprepared coverage which does little to advance the discussion.

And just because our code is the ‘fourth ranked footy code’ doesn’t mean we should not be striving to improve all facets of our game. Today there is some quality analysis that comes through from the US about the MSL and this is for a game that sits behind grid iron, ice hockey, basketball, baseball and probably the college levels of these sports in terms of coverage.

There is nothing wrong with being ambitious kinkladze; it’s a concept which as a Citeh supporter you should be familiar with.

Could that be a case of nervousness based opinion whiskeymac?

Thought a lighter-type subject was in order as sometimes we can all get caught up in the serious side of football.

Morning Fussball,

I guess having a headline like that will attract a fair bit of attention and I think it’s fair to say that I am engaging in some of the same behaviour that writers like Wilson and Fitzsimons do (starting a discussion by being provocative), but hopefully the main point of the article gets across, that is, criticism from both within and outside the football community has to be listened to. If Fozzie and Wilson make the same point (albeit from very different knowledge bases and for different purposes) then both should be listened to.

I included the link to the Lugt interview because it’s relevant to both events from the last week and this article. It shows an example of how to combat criticism of the game. Give some perspective of the scale and status of the game in this country and be realistic of where we are at, be proud of what we have achieved thus far and continue to grow the game. Personal attacks might make people feel better, but it doesn’t really lead to anything changing.

We’ll see what kind of reaction the article gets. I’m bracing myself for some very interesting comments.

Morning fussball,

I’m also a believer in keeping the game free of technology, but if this option is going to be explored, I think it needs to be given a fair go to succeed or fail on its own merits. Even if the way in which the trials have been designed has resulted in the outcome I want to see (no introduction of technology), if this this process has been unfairly set-up I wouldn’t be completely comfortable with the outcome as it stands.

The quality of football seen in this season’s A-League is the best that there has been, but you would hope that is the way it should be; continuous improvement from past seasons.

Whilst the league isn’t perfect, the product is developing over time and like any new product introduced into a market, it takes time to build up brand loyalty. Football continues to evolve as a sport and as the Australian game is opened up, greater exposure to global trends and thinking will only help enhance the product further.

The A-League is in the unique position in this country of not being one of the top leagues of the world unlike the NRL, AFL and Super Rugby which represent the pinnacles (or close to being the pinnacles) of club based competition for those sports. Whilst this means we are starting behind other codes in some respects, the potential that exists for the code to expand is what excites me the most. Managed properly, this potential can lead to bigger and better things.

To take Futbanous’ analogy one step further, there is no reason why our little transport cafe can’t can slowly take over the newsagent next door, and then the florist as it continues to expand and while it may never be like the Ritz, as long as the food is still good, the loyal customers will continue to eat there while the new customers will take greater notice of the fare it is serving and hopefully make it one of their regular places to eat.

Hi Axelv,

My original title for this piece was ‘Penalties: A cowardly way to score’ which was more in line with the Pele quote but it was changed (a small price to pay to hear the great responses from the Roar crowd).

In no way did I want to imply that Australia’s win over Uruguay was a cowardly win, more that the idea of penalties sits at odds with the the way the rest of the game is played.

As I mentioned in the piece, I still get shivers when I see that famous footage with Aloisi, but I still believe that there are some alternatives out there that deserved to be looked at.

Agree with you Fussball that a little bit of patience is required.

The A-League has come a long way in just a few seasons and I think its a good thing for all fans to remember this.

It’s probably because the game has been run so badly for so many years that so many A-League fans are so keen for the game to progress in leaps and bounds. For the game to have come this far so quickly is a great achievement in itself.

Whilst Australia is a sporting nation, it is yet to become a footballing nation. But hopefully over time, this shift will come about.

As other have already pointed out, if it weren’t for the intervention of Tinkler, we may not even be having this debate.

I don’t see much diference between a new owner coming in and making changes to the management of the club (which is a bigger factor in determining a club’s success) and changing the strip. If you own the club, you have a right to say how it is run.

I would have thought the fans should be focussing on things like Tinkler making sure players like Topor-Stanley and Jesic remain at the club which is a much bigger deal than changing the strip.

The way I look at these things is to see if you will worry about this matter in 10 minutes? If yes, then see if you will worry about it in 10 days? If yes again, think about whether you will be stressing about it in 10 months time? If its a yes again, use a 10 year time frame? That’s been a good way for me to priortise the things I should worry about.

As a fellow Canberra resident, I would love to see an A-league team here in the ACT, but I have to agree with the sentiments of MyLeftFoot and kinkladze….

The issues they mention will need to be overcome if a bid is to be succesful and if that happens, hopefully realistic goals are set in terms of the team’s success, crowd numbers etc.

To add to the issues they mentioned, the ACT isn’t a an area where the the codes are looking to expand. Union and league are well established and the AFL has strong roots here already. Part of why North Queensland and Western Sydney were targeted as expansion areas was that all the codes are looking to get in on the ground floor to take advantage of the population and economic growth in these areas and the A-League did not want to miss an opportunity. Western Sydney will remain the next frontier for the next few years in my view and then Canberra will get a look in as it does have a strong footballing heritage, geographically it isn’t too far away from Sydney or Melbourne (which would make it easier for away fans to travel here) and there are good facilities that already exist for the team to use.

Fingers crossed that one day in the not too distant future I can go to Canberra Stadium and watch a double header with the W-League team playing the curtain raiser before an A-League game featuring our very own team.

Good to hear from a fellow leftie MyLeftFoot,

In the Serbia game I’m pretty sure we started with Kennedy as the ‘front man’ of our attack and in the Ghana game Harry was asked to play a lone striker role supported by Emerton, Holman and Bresc if memory serves me correctly. In the Germany game Garcia and Cahill started as a front two but obviously that plan had to change once Cahill got sent off so i guess that is why i considerd the ‘no striker’ formation a post World Cup development rather than a continuation of what happened at the World Cup (although I did stop short of calling it a 4-6-0 formation as I’m pretty sure Spain would be about the only ones to be able to pull that one off).

I agree with you that this formation has some legs yet. I think Oseick is onto something with this formation, so it will be interesting to see if it is used in the Germany game that is coming up.

Hey whiskeymac,

I’m hoping the younger boys start putting pressure on the older more established players and McDonald seems to be running out of chances, but as long as Kewell, Cahill and Kennedy are fit and playing they will be the first three picked in my opinion.

On another note, glad to see the reference to the young players at Villa. I’m hoping Shane Lowry gets his chance in the green and gold in the years to come.

Thanks for the comments Fussball. Agree with you on your point about the Japanese keeper getting the MOTM award. A pity we weren’t able to put one past him in the final.

I thought the reference to the tactical switch by Japan in the final rated a mention as, in my opinion, Australia has not had a coach that can change a game though substitutions since Hiddink (although that might be because he was often chasing results in games rather than preserving a lead).

To be honest, Osieck’s introduction of Kilkenny in the Bahrain game was a shrewd move and he strikes me as a coach who can manage a squad through a tournament by giving key payers a break, but I still remember the last few years when we seemed only to make substitutions after the 70th minute and they weren’t aimed at changing the dynamics of a game. Maybe the tactics in the final is me making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I regard the ability to respond to changes in a game sitation as an essential element in any coach/manager’s armoury.

Here’s hoping Osieck continues the good work.