10play link to tonights game… starts at 10:00

https://10play.com.au/afc-cup/articles/afc-cup-fixtures/tpa230830lzpkh

Decent article on tonights game… at least their media is talking about it…

Abdysh-Ata brewing an upset in historic AFC Cup campaign

Waz

I have been saying for a while now to survive we need 15k average across 16 to 18 teams.

Deep within my soul I fear we will fail.

Nothing I see coming can save us.

We need a conceptual framework to work in were the league’s moves as a whole while allowing clubs to locally connect to their community.

Sadly those in charge are so preoccupied with day to day survival they are not managing pathways to the future at all.

Going to post some recent articles from the MLS…. they will take some time to appear is my guess as mods will need to check the links but I keep saying we could learn a lot from these guys…

MLS Scores Big: Young, Tech-Savvy Fans Drive Revenue and Fan Engagement
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mls-scores-big-young-tech-savvy-fans-drive-revenue-mbl7e

The Explosive Growth of Audience in MLS

https://mlsmultiplex.com/posts/the-explosive-growth-of-audience-in-mls-01hmstcy0bh4

Also anyone wanting a background in Football in the US and the US sporting environment the following vid is well worth watching [17 minutes]

Waz

You seem to be unable to separate, poor management, with everything they have done is not hopeless…

The never ending tearing at the league itself rather than the management has a massive effect…

Change sports, in RL they will tear certain management decisions to shreds, attack key decision makers, but they never question the competition itself…

The civil war to oust Frank & Co, was waged often attacking the A-League, we are still paying the price of all that… to only lay blame one way is dangerous and leads to the appointment of people like Danny Townsend…

Red

Agree…. we should look at how the MLS grew…. they looked to crowds not broadcast deals…

Further they looked to grow strong clubs, and they hardly ever measured themselves or compared themselves to other US codes… always other Football leagues…

and the treble

In reading the comments so far I fear history is repeating itself.

Stew, has identified some positives, and there are some…. as with uncle Frank and cousin Steve there were some positives.

For as long as I can remember, the way Football folk get change in Australia is to belittle others, point out everything wrong and tear em down.

Imagine if in 1955, when Sydney had a growing district competition if Frank and friends had invested in local teams of size at the time like Granville and Balmain.

No they tore apart the existing structure, as has every one else who has followed.

My often used phase is….”””” Everything they do and everything they say….. is not wrong””” neither is it right.

I am hugely critical of APL management, and the highly expensive marketing campaign in Keepup was kept alive way to long…. other mistakes are many….

Rumours abound pertaining to A-L broadcast rights, whether Newcastle can survive and if the Canberra bid will happen….

Things are looking bleak…

However, before any change is made we need to keep whats good, we need to develop a realistic pathway forward…. and MOST importantly don’t attack Australian Football as has always been used in the past to achieve change.

One thing I can be reasonably certain of, if the A-L falls over, no media broadcaster will look at Australian club Football for years …. there is no meaningful broadcast deal ahead if we go belly up…

Its not all bad folks…. and I think thats what Stew is trying to say…

Great write up and if we can win the thing and maybe take the treble….

An often sentence I use when commenting on Football in Australia an its huge player numbers, and low crowds and broadcast ratings is “””” the answer is not simple, its complex, otherwise in over 70 years it would have been solved””””

Again I often use a stat from years ago I read where the % of people playing and involved in a club, actually watch those leagues, AFL, League, Cricket, Rugby, the number varies between the mid to high eighties. In Australian professional Football its low to mid teens.

The burning question is why.

At a fundamental level huge clubs like Liverpool, Man U, Roma etc grew out of local clubs were over years and decent management they grew to where they are today. In our local competitions, most league and AFL teams also grew out of local clubs.

Football, back in the late forties and early fifties, was also growing out of local clubs. In 1955 it all changed especially in NSW.

Few teams across, the pre NSL ethnic teams, during the NSL, and in the A-League, have made any concerted effort over a long period of time to connect with the playing base…. other than to ask for something….

If you connected an average of 60 clubs to each team, and assume each club had a committee of say 8, its these committee members who hold the key to connecting the player and player friends to Australian Professional Football. Most committee members are Football fans already so that part of the job is done.

Going back to when the Roar first started I wrote an article about the A-L owners and it had 100’s of replies, and even had key Roar journalist of the time writing follow up articles. The crust of the article was that the A-L owners could run BHP, any of the Banks, and and major company listed on the stock exchange… However they would fail at being able to do the canteen roster for a local park club…. and in time that lack of field for the grass roots would hurt them.

Waz. was close to the mark when he said after winning the battle to take over the league, the winners had little idea of how to run it.

The other for me annoying part, is the “”””Everything they do, and everything they say”””” when attacking its full on, and the destruction and harm done in tearing down Steven and Frank, hurt the league….. because not everything Frank did was wrong.

Anyway, its complex, and me thinks at least part of the solutions lies in connecting to the committee members of local park teams. However again its not simple

Was

Arguably one of your best posts ever.

MV win
P Ants win
Mighty Mariners win
Roar win
south Gosford win
M City win
WU win

Wondering aloud if at seasons end an a-league squad be assembled and play matches against say NZ, Singapore, Fiji.

Would help keep them match fit, add some revenue, but most all showcase their skills for selectors

Goodwin IMO the second best left wing after Harry…

hand on heart not the other thing…. if we are as poor as what you say then the 180 nations ranked below us where most have Football as their number one sport must have terrible national coaches and terrible standards….

SBS did a lot for Football in Australia, but they always had as a theme we are not as good as Europe, its created a major issue in Australia, where the A-L is a reasonable standard and hardly ever gets the credit it deserves….

Australia Football in Australia, lacks respect from Football fans, and even if we win, we look to why the winning is not a great achievement, the other side was weak, the sun was in their eyes, the ball was too heavy.

APL, wrongly and foolish spent a fortune on Keepup, something everyone said they wanted, but so few used it,

This is even further added to, when we play in Asia were most teams from the Middle East are suppose to be easybeats as are all nations outside Japan & South Korea ….

As an aside take hhhmmmm lets say, Germany, Croatia, Holland, France, England, how many players the size of five foot nothing Nisbet have they picked.

For all the sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, of Australian Football, and all the issues we know of…. its still a beautiful game, and its played at a decent level….

The biggest thing holding back Football in Australia, IMO is the lack of respect for the local game by Football fans….. who can then blame the MSM if even the diehards bag it out.

Again I am not calling for nanny reactions, but its hard to get people outside Football interested if its continuous bagging

I am sorta with stew & Gem on this one…..

I understand Arnold is not the worlds best….. but how many players do we have playing in the top six leagues in Europe or the top three leagues in the America’s….

In Arnolds favour is he has knowledge of Australian Football issues that is arguably unequalled… further he has the confidence of the playing group …. beyond that he is excellent with and respected by media outlets….

Against this his technical ability… and willingness to change system is poor if measured against the worlds best.

The bigger question is what Stew raised is we are not respecting the rapid growth and improvement across Asia….

Farrell is also out and for at least a couple more weeks after the tackle he received in the Cows match.

Can’t help but applaud the effort .

Rating in… came in at number 28 while not broadcast on 10, but

28 FOOTBALL: SOCCEROOS V LEBANON 10 552,000 224,000 22,000

thanks its just such a good news story maybe 5 foot 1 in the old measurement

an imagine of him so you can see how small / tiny he is

https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/f8c0fb61c7386ccd1faaf52b25d59c0d

I think he would,

Nisbet has not signed with anyone for next season if anything looking to move overseas…

Hi Guys

Totally off topic…. sorry… very sorry to change the topic

But every now and then someone gets picked for a national team and its somehow special, and needs to be shared…. even across codes…

Got one for you, and as Football gets little media, I am sharing it on the Rugby site as you guys understand what its like to get selected for your country.

The smallest player ever to play in the A-League, and maybe the smallest player ever to play for Australia has been selected as a replacement for a player injured.

Worth keeping an eye on, when everyone told him he had no hope he was way to small… to play.

His name is Josh Nisbet …. loved this quote when asked how it felt after so many coaches rejected him….. BTW he is a midfield player and Australia has heaps of midfield players to choose from…. anyway he said….. PS note he is tiny often older ball boys are bigger…

Asked what he would say to younger players who found themselves unwanted and out of favour, Nisbet replied: “Have fun, back yourself and no matter who you are, there’ll be people who aren’t on your side.

“As long as the people you care about are with you, and you back yourself, then anything is possible.”

Good luck to the Nux, they play a very defensive style, but they are winning…. but like many have said winning with style is better…

IMO they have the best keeper in the league he has won them a lot of games….

I like the coach, he seems quite astute…. as do a number of our coaches now.

Mariners be thu to the next stage

Waz

The truest statement you have ever made… and I have been banging on for years we need to lift crowds to 15K…

I know this is an old record for me…

BUT

The MLS is arguably the league that has grown the most over the last 10 to 15 years…. This was done on a very poor broadcast deal, but essentially it was their crowds kept them afloat… most season over 20K average per match….

Tis about tiem APL made crowds not broadcasters there key focus