A-League changes to silence naysayers

I will have to agree with Midfielder and Sam about the need for a cohesive approach to football in western sydney, or anywhere for that matter, but until FNSW & FFA come out of the dark ages and take action football will remain 3rd or 4th tier sport. Western sydney as a region has tremendous growth opportunity for more clubs/teams from Youth League to ALeague. yet until the governing bodies take action implement promotion/relegation from Aleague all of the way through to Div1 or even to Conference Leagues football in this country will remain stale and not have the growth experiences as European countries enjoy. Until FNSW /FFA reform rules on the 4club / district for Youth, it, the game wouldn't grow. Until FSNW/FFA then allow more clubs per level of Youth, it, the game wouldn't grow. Until all clubs then conduct fair satistical/analytic objective trials to truely find the best players based on skill, without bias, nepotism, or other non game related influences, it, the game will not grow. There has to be more clubs to cater for the growing number of skilled young players that want to play at higher levels than park but can't get into the available clubs for the shortage of places. The game will be the loser if these kids are taken up.

A terrific second half when QR decided to release the shackles and try to win. Newcastle better in the first half. All the goals were of a very good standard particularly 1st and 3rd. Premiers to finish bottom of the table...gives an indication of the eveness of comp. AU need to play the game of their lives to get a result. For Oz football hopefully they will put in an excellent performance and with a lot of luck....

Roar v Jets game not a bad entree for the main course tonight.

ah yes - quite possibly - and it will definitely be a different AU tonight.

Pip Gamba will think they have this game won and be thinking of playing Man U. .... the winner of AU V Gamba play Man U next.

Sorry Mid - I had trouble following your post: "call it gut feel but AU will win tonight. … My reasoning Gamba will be playing Man U not AU..." did that read the way it was meant to read?

Pip Why I don't know why ... call it gut feel but AU will win tonight. ... My reasoning Gamba will be playing Man U not AU ... but Pip KB did send me some of those blue (LOL THE CHOPPERS GOT KICKED KB) pills maybe I should not have taken them .

Midfielder I agree. Let's hope it can be fixed. We should also mention that Sutherland and Manly districts are strong football districts in Sydney. I don't want to sound too parochial. They also have strong state league teams (as does Blacktown).

Nothing on the Roar about tonight's game? May as well hijack this thread. Even though I reckon Gamba will win again, there is one intriguing aspect abou this match. Ordinarily, in any continental CL, clubs can go years never playing against each other. When two teams meet in a final, the earliest they can ever hope for a rematch is maybe in 12 months time, maybe in a few years time - maybe even never! But because of this very unusual situation with Gamba and Adelaide both making the Club WC, they get to have have a one off rematch within 2 months. That's very unique. On top of that, Adelaide are now fairly well rested, fully acclimatised, and in the A-League at least, in their best form since the Kashima/Kuruvchi games. In other words, it will be a different ball game. Gamba are a cut above the A-League teams, but Adelaide is definitely primed to push them for the whole 90 minutes.

Sam No one said the ethnics were bad ... the thing is the ethnics (your term) brought the best aspects to Australian Football and also the worst aspects. I also grew up in the Liverpool area and spent until recently over 15 years working in Liverpool now I work in Blacktown. My simple point is all sides must want it to work together and be more open and less navel gazing. My Les Murry example was to illustrate how difficult it will be to bring all the leaders of the various interest groups under one common tent. Southern Districts is the association that has Liverpool Blacktwon has Blacktown etc we have in WS five state teams, SU, Marconi, Blacktown Demons, Western Bumble Bees, & Olympic, plus other associations ... now put in the new football people and old soccer (including association and former NSL teams). As I said I have no idea how to get all these people moving in the same direction for the common good .... but when someone does it will create a very powerful force in the most influential market place in Australia ... Western Sydney.. and as many have said WS is football heartland "untapped"

Midfielder I am of ethnic background and live in south west Sydney so I know the Sydney Utd's and Marconi.'s of this world very well. They are within 5 mins drive of eachother along with other powerful state league teams such as White Eagles and Liverpool FC Bossy. I was in the Marconi club the other week watching Newcastle v Sydney FC. All around me were young guys with Sydney FC jerseys and old immigrants watching the game and cheering when Sydney scored the winner. These people want to be part of the league too. It must be inclusive to be successful. I think Les was maybe going on a nostalgic trip. Even the great Johnny Warren appreciated what the European immigrants did for this game though.

Sam You would be aware in parts of WS, football is the only game that is talked about but each from who's league you follow. Pulling all this together under one roof and for the "greater good" is almost impossible given the leaders involved IMO needs as you said earlier the FFA to just get stuck in. How its done is well beyond me but I can say this SBS could play a major roll if it wanted to, .. but more often SBS only takes one view of history re Les Murry's recent opinion piece on Sydney United. So if even an enlighten football media with huge amounts of knowledge and have been there through it all cannot reconcile the pass it shows how hard it will be for other leaders in interest groups to guide their groups to reconcile their our history and the way forward.

Midfielder Yes living in NSW we live in the most politics obsessed state in the country. Look at our state government, the state of rugby league etc. All backstabbing for political gain. No one working for the greater good. An example is the Premier State FC bid recently to capture the hearts and minds of Western Sydney and supposedly Wollongong supporters (I live in Western Sydney). Firstly the name is arrogant and then they want to play out of ANZ Stadium. Now I love the Olympic Stadium (unlike most people in Sydney). Some of my greatest memories in sport come from there. But it is an events stadium not a week to week sporting stadium. These guys who are doing this bid are so unrealistic. The Lucas Neill bid playing out of Parramatta Stadium and representing Western Sydney is perfect. This is where the associations in Western Sydney should be looking to bring their juniors through. I have travelled all around Western Sydney and believe me when I say that 80% of grounds have football posts, 15% rugby posts and 5% AFL posts. Ben Buckley is the one who should be working a way to create one umbrella for Australian football. He seems like a diplomatic person so I have faith in him. P.S - I loathe the name Telstra/ANZ Stadium. I just wish they would call it the Sydney Olympic Stadium just like MCG and SCG have their own names and won't whore themselves to a corporate bank/organization.

Sam & Pip Pip I am shocked you found a media article that was wrong in what it said ... you raise an very good point on a broader scale I think that much that is written today is often not researched and very often simply a cut and paste of the sponsor or head body. I can recall a media watch program and the reports by motoring journalist ... say no more they were taken almost from the manufactures web sites... Reader beware of who wrote the article and who they represent Pip a thoughtful point and a handy reminder not all that is written is true. Sam, essentially the 1955 problem needs to be solved and TBH for your pyramid to work, I don't know how that is done. The pathway should be simple, park club plays in an association, associations play in an A-League zone with some associations having state teams as well but importantly the state teams are still playing in a A-League zone. This is the base of the pyramid from which rep sides and then national sides can be chosen. Just a simple post scribe Blacktown Demons a state team would be supported by the Blacktown association and both would play in the Western Sydney A-League franchise. The problem we have is that the associations and the state teams still by and large run their own race and in NSW anyway NSW Football control and develop this process. Our pass failed history shows how inept this model is yet it the FFA seem incapable of breaking it down. I offer no solutions but see a real challenge for someone one day to grab this ...maybe ...the final cog in the wheel to set up a football system to develop skill across football and unite the various football tribes.

Dave yeah the Chiefs/Pirates rivalry is huge (normally a sellout), I checked the PSL website and most other games get a few thousand. Also a lot of the clubs have millionaire owners (both South African and foreign) and I suspect these guys help the clubs out too - at the end of the day, sport is not a good business to be in (unless you're a player or coach of course), and if a sporting club can make a profit, then thats an achievement unto itself.

TT I'm not questioning the strength of the PSL vis a vis the A-League - the article says straight out that it's the 7th wealthiest league in the world, and then provides figures that clearly tell me no way is it the 7th wealthierst league in the world. That was all I was trying to point out.

Pip You're not telling me a media report is incorrect??? :) Seriously as TT mentions, the sport has obviously started getting its act together and this is a great thing to happen for the majority of sports fans (not just football) in SA. After so many years of bad news stories great to hear some positives. It certainly seems to have more money than HAL but whether it is 7th in the world as claimed is open to question. All the figures from all the leagues would need to be put on the table. TT I read an article (think 442) that said the Chiefs/Pirates game gets 60,000 and is fiercely contested. Other games in the league may only get a few thousand attendance? In view of HALS crowd issues at the moment may be a positive that TV and sponsorship od a league is not just reliant on big crowds?

Pip, I can confirm with Dave that PSL in SA has some huge sponsorship $$$, whether it makes it a stronger league or not I dont know, how would the likes of Supersport United, Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates go against Adelaide, Sydney or Central Coast. Also there have been issues about players pulling out of the national team so they can play for their club, so as you said Dave, I still reckon they have a lot of progress, hope a fair chunk is made before 2010...

But Dave, you can't seriously be suggesting that these numbers would make SA the 7th wealthiest league in the World? I'm sorry - that can't be correct.

Pip The $27m is US and 18m pounds is about $40m per year so well head of HALs $17m per year.