Smeltz in a goalscoring league of his own

Thats true but it does not help that people like Verbeek who want the players playing in a higher level competitions, and with our league we have to improve our product on and off the field, to give a much better standard to play on thats what the FFA want and certainly what we want to do overall.

It does not help A league crowds when the national coach publicly criticises it's quality and ignores v good players in the league. Simon Colosimo is in outstanding form for Sydney FC - if he was playing for a 3rd level English club or in the reserves at Sheffield Utd he would be a regular pick. Jedinak only got selected after he moved o/s. Amazing how quickly his game improved - he was only a few weeks away before he was considered good enough for national team. Verbeek has done a great job but he has to be reminded ofvhis responsibilities to the local game and locally based players.

onside.. i believe smeltz has a buy-out clause in the region of 300,000 dollars, which is absurdly low i think. the wellington offside was wrong i think. the player in the offside position was not drawing the defender away from the ball, they were running shoulder to shoulder towards the right-hand corner. as soon as the ball was played to Ifill, the defender dropped off the other wellington player. i'm not sure he had any effect on the play. as for attendance, i have heard that a ticket to a gold coast game is around 40 bucks. that is crazyn when one considers the fact that it is yet to build a regular supporter base and the nature of the competitive sporting market on the gold coast, with the titans and the new afl franchise being introduced.

I reckon one reason why the crowds are slighty down this season is becasue of the more home and away games this time around, i mean the fans would spend the tickets more spearingly as their is more home games this time around, plus maybe with the end of the NRL and AFL seasons finshed will see some the fans come back depending on whos doing really well, as aussies like a winner, if thats a saying lol i mean the a-league is not still not like or maybe it never will be their number 1 team to follow so they attend the NRL and AFL insteadthen the a-league as it seens as there fav 2 or 3rd team, also with our fans they still prefer the euro football, so it will take time for the a-league to get that type of following what Archie Frasers pointing,so the FFA really a thinking towards the benefit of the long term rather than short, they want to build the product first which is very important as the fans want to the see quality rather than sub-standard, the fans are not dumb they want the best, they want it to be like a NRL, AFL standard of entertainment, theirs a saying "Build the product and they will come", look what the FFA are doing now for our long term football Small Sided Games, National Circulium the 4-3-3 for developing our youth,The World Cup bid if succesful, will give a-league and the overall game a massive relief, so the FFA are building the league for the future, they are placing themselves ready for the long term, they are building the product overall for long term gain!!! What do you guys think? let me know

I doubt there over it. Cullina is the marquee and after him there good but not great. It looks similar to Sydney, Perth or Brisbane/ some of there big performers were nobodies. i must admit I have no idea what the brazilians are on and assume they were genuine bargains

Why do you continue to degrade the league ... and they are not the only ones BTW ... also helps that they have the best accountant in the A-League ... maybe in Australia sport ...that squad and all under the cap ....

That is absolutely shocking dive by Rooney In fact Rooney is the one holding on to the defenders shirt and he also tackle the defender. If anything that should have been a free kick to slovenia due to Wayne Rooney foul Shocking decision by the ref

What is Shane Smeltz worth if sold outside Australia.

I'm not exactly sure, but the Squadron always seems to have a drummer...

I heard people raging about some decision that dudded the Phoenix, so made sure to watch the highlights. It seemed a completely fair decision to me - the offside player was advancing and a defender had to shadow him, which gave the 'scorer' more time and space to take a shot. Essentially, the offside guy affected the play, even if he didn't get the ball.

Should probably just move the Gold Coast team to Western Sydney. Solve 2 problems at once. :)

Luke all fair enough questions, and you're right that the atmosphere itself should be sufficient to attract the pundits. When there's 32,000+ in the Dome under the closed roof - it's electric, and the North end South end chant is fantastic. When there are ony 18,000, I have to admit, it loses a bit of its gloss.and sounds like a handful of people in a tin shed. On the point about drums, not sure what the situation is round your neck of the woods, but for some strange reason, the FFA has been very tough on musical instruments of all descriptions.

I was going to write an article about the quality of Strikers Running around this year comapred to the 1st year of the HAL but looks like I wont have time. So I will just pull out this little gem Alex Brosque won the golden boot in the first season (21 games) of the HAL with 8 goals. Smeltz has 8 allready and we are only 5 games in. J Brokie with 4 was equal top scorer and pretty much the only shining light for the NZ Knights.... he was bought as a squad player for the NQ Fury.

"Imagine if Wellington had manged to snare porter and teamed him with Smeltz as they intended a few seasos ago?" Nice thought, OTOH what if there was no midfield to deliver the ball to them? What a waste that would have been!

The crowds this year for the A-League so far are pathetic, and it's about time the FFA did something about it. Ok, it doesn't help that the more established codes are heading into their finals series, but the FFA is shooting itself in the foot otherwise. First of all, lower ticket prices! Even if your charging people 10 bucks to get in, who cares. I think a large part of how football diversifies itself from the other codes in this country are the supporter groups with chants, drums, etc. I have been to a lot of sporting events in my life, but a packed EnergyAustralia Stadium with the Squadron in full voice is one of the best moments I can remember. However, the last two home games with crowds around 6k have quite honestly been boring. Lower the prices and get people through the gate. Also, what about pre-game entertainment? Why aren't the youth matches on before the A-League? Is it to preserve the pitch? Why bother when most of the pitches are terrible anyway! I'm really frustrated because there is no reason why all A-League clubs can't be playing in front of 10k people each week.

The crowd will simply help the FFA consolidate its already made up mind that it will move heaven and earth to get a 2nd Sydney in the comp before it considers anything else. That said, Canberra is there as a decent fall back position (just as Tassie is there for the AFL as a solid fall back position). It's good practice to have a decent Plan B.

5139 to be exact Whiskey, I was one of them. It was a pretty good atmosphere (disclaimer: I am a Mariners Member and was sitting in the Marinators bay). I think it was disappointing, even allowing for the fact that most Canberreans are notorious for not supporting out of area teams, excepting some of the Swans games. There were a few Capital Punishment (stinking name just quietly) jumpers around, but I don't think that crowd will enhance their call to be included any time soon.

5000+ in Canberrafor CCM v PG ... were they expecting more? i heard 5000 was the minumum for FFA to think favourably of the concept of HAL action there, but to just scrape over... any thoughts? IMO it was average - either good nor bad result.(hardly a glamour tie but HAL none the less).

i watch with interest to see what happens after the other football codes finish up

heh, heh, that's a bit of a statistical quirk, that Thursday now has the highest average!! (MV now played two games there for what is, by their standards, low numbers)