Football's growth leaves Perth, Adelaide behind

Unfortunately the FFA have decided to play Australia's two remaining home Asian Cup Qualifers in Melbourne (14/10/09) & Brisbane (3/3/10). This is certainly a blow to football in Adelaide & Perth & will disappoint many fans.

MIchael, "I always figure that when you turn up live - worrying about the view is a concern you packaged up and left at home on the couch in front of the tele" that very much depends on the sport. With Association Football, cricket, the rugby codes, that is true; with Australia Football it isn't. Which possibly partly explains the difference in crowds between the AFL and the top tier of most other sports. WA and SA (and Tas, but even with a stadium Tas doesn't have the population or corporate clout to host games of any note) don't have good enough rectangular stadia. Nor does Vic, but the sheer market size means games get held there regardless of whether the grounds are really suitable or not.

Will this(see link) work for Adelaide? In particular in securing more Socceroo matches generally:- http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,27574,25831480-2682,00.html

The best games should probably stay in Syd/Mel and Brisbane but you have to give the other cities a decent or good game once in a while. Keep the dream alive, their our national team and I think every kid in oz should get at least 1 chance every 4 years too see Timmy Cahill play for the socceroos.

I agree that the games should be played in the best stadiums and around the biggest populations, syd,mel & SE QLD. Maybe perth and adelaide should be happy to be the home of the u23 and womens national teams

...hard to think of a better poster boy for gum chewing.

Dont forget the Tea Cup/Pot he threw at the wall.

I beleive a prominent gum company in the UK has a whole factory dedicated to supplying Fergie on match days. Their dreading the day he hangs up his hairdryer.

Kaz would make interesting reading - like everyone, I had heard the story about him kicking a boot into Becks' head, or similar.

If you want to know what Fergie is like behind closed doors, have a read of Roy Keane's book. Apparently he likes to fire up his players at half time by calling them "bottlers."

General I think that's a fair enough point. Re Fergie - he's relatively calm! (I'm sure it might be a bit different behind closed doors - especially if he wants to get stuck into players!!)

AndyRoo - new generations like to pretend they 'own' a concept. Reality is - in the past, teams would do variations of flooding depending on weather (i.e. if kicking against a gale, you'd play wings back, forwards on the wing and midfielders would be more defensive - and perhaps chuck a forward pocket into defence potentially as a loose man). In the 90s 'flooding' was called 'Pagans paddock' at North Melbourne. Basically the arm wrestle is to congest the opposition forward line and open up your own. The more recent elements to come into play have been: 4 on the bench (with unlimited free interchange) far fewer grounds with a cricket pitch in the middle (and drier conditions anyway, so, all grounds generally easier to run across the top of rather than sink into) - - allows players to push back more easily and on the counter to push forward more rapidly and directly (through the middle of the ground where there used to be a chopped up muddy gluepot of a cricket pitch centre square area.) So - now, it's more common than before. And therefore, more a semi-permanent fixture of footy.

Fergie? Calm? Pips what are you saying! It will also be a unique angle for him to be watching a match, basically he will get a tactical view of the game as it progresses. It will also be interesting for him to see how players change position so wildly in the AFL! I reckon he will be shocked the first time he sees a forward moved into the defensive line! :)

Their are only so many International Football matches to go around. The reason that the games are played in NSW/VIC is because they have adequate Football infrastructure and the state government pay FFA millions for that right. Adelaide and Perth Will get a Football [only] specific stadium. Belaive me, no other sport will ride the back of Football to gain a better quality stadia. And certainly NOT the dinosaurs of the SA government. With their "the stadium will be for all sports with the stadiums right being controlled by the State AFL body"............as if. But that wont happen for another 10 years. In the mean time Socceroos games will continue to be played on the East Coast.

Man management and media relation are pretty important in both codes but it's probably the outside the box stuff he want's to have a look at. Also I was surprised when Flooding took the AFL by storm only just recently, I would have though such a tactic would have emerged as soon as you had your first professional coach. The tactic (and counter) is ery similar to what football has dealt with years ago.

...sorry, Staunton.

General I agree. The interesting aspect for Stanton will be to sit in the coach's box which is basically two hours of complete mayhem, swearing, chaos, tearing phones out of the wall, etc etc. It's a bit different to the calmness of Fergie in the dugout chewing his gum!!!!

Well coaching is coaching. Successful coaches know how to get the best out of their players and that overrides the actual code of sport being played.

Off topic again, bu there's an interesting article in the Australian about Steve Staunton coming to Australia to spend two days with the Saints, including a night in the coach's box in the big game against the Bullies, as part of a coaching study tour. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25822294-5003460,00.html

A bit off topic, but I just read that Neil is heading for Turkey. As I wrote about a week ago, with the numbers of Australians playing regularly at EPL continues to decline (unlikely to be replaced in a hurry), in the near future we will be thankful to have half a dozen Socceroos playing for top teams in the Turkish League.