Enough of the gloom about A-League crowds

What a crock these comments are... How many delusional rugby union supporters haunt this inept website? Anyone who believes anything Spiro Zavos and his ilk say about rugby league have clearly no idea. I won't even bother to respond to the rubbish that has been posted here except to give the example of the 1954 Challenge Cup Final Replay in rugby league, which drew an estimated 150,000 fans, and is the second largest sporting crowd in English sporting history. But apparently, rugby league doesn't exist there etc. etc. Well moderated site this one. LOL. This certainly won't see the light of day though I bet.

Oikee, mi amigo Mayhem is the good thing about football. A family-oriented atmosphere would be really boring. Who wants to go to that.

Fortunes would be transformed if they changed the name of the young Socceroos. How about los socceros jovenes ??? Or you could call them The Young Winstanleys. The Junior Knick-Knacks The Elementary Soccer Chasers

Speaking of no ammunition masterless no NAB cup in UAE or Sth Africa, no international rules circus and no interest from 5.7 billion people. The melbourne game is firing blanks outside its pen.

re u20a....AndrewM said "will be VERY interesting to see how they play under the same 4-3-3 system in 3 years time… They should be light years ahead of the team which went to china."... and i tend to agree. disappointed as i am with results, if the long term view is taken, the coaching at these levels is in transition with a long term goal being the senior team's success (which will always far outweigh junior success).

I thought it was late August early september previous years but perhaps i was wrong.

Hasn't the A-League always started in August?

The 1 and Only Master, you are a complete tool mate. Lets just go back to what the OP stated.. Crowds are actually doing pretty well, with a few clubs struggling.. The main problem is ticket pricing, and entry into lower populated areas like NQ, and GC. If they can start to get ticket pricing for families on par with that of the RL or AFL then we may get somewhere with fixing the crowds.. Also this is the first season that has cut into the AFL and RL playing times.. If you have high ticket prices, and your fans also support other codes, you could be dishing out alot of money week in and week out. Will be interesting to see how the crowds go next week when all the major codes have stopped playing.. What are the sports news programs going to run for the next few months?? They will surely have to start paying more attention to the HAL now to fill up their miserable 5 minute sports piece at 6pm. Just on the U-20's.. I too stayed up and watched the game the other night.. Whilst i was dissapointed with the result, Australia compleley dominated the game.. Infact Costa Rica couldnt even hold onto the ball for large periods of the game.. They were dangerous on the counter, but that is to be expected.. What it really highlights is that for the first time an Australian team has gone out with a less defensive approach and played the 4-3-3 system.. When you play real football like this, weakness will be shown.. But it is ALOT better to play real football than to stand 10 players behind the ball .. Which is what most Australian teams have done in the past. So these exposed weaknesses need to be fixed, tweaked etc, but this team should be going to the Olympics in London, and will be VERY interesting to see how they play under the same 4-3-3 system in 3 years time... They should be light years ahead of the team which went to china.

I think the major reason for people not discussing the code wars anymore is that soccer fans have run out of ammunition

Pip I always think of Chipper and Emo. What a transformation that made for the Roos. Matt Thompson is another good example at the Jets. The worst recent example was the shocker Greg Owens had in the 6 - 0 MV v AU grand final. It would be good if club coaches did this but because of hte spread of talent they tends to put the quicker and more technical players in more advanced positions. I would argue that often it is only in the NT that you get the luxury of trying these things without weakening other positions. Better to try something at the U20's than go out timidly with safe but technically deficient players. We have a quite a few young quick wide players Oar, Kruse, Danning, Cole, Zullo, Minniecon, Jamison. Not all of them will make it as midfielders, maybe one of them is our next fullback.

o'Neill seems pretty intent on making sure that soccer and rugby union work together. He is the only CEO of any football code i have ever heard refer to a rival code as 'football'. Football, netball and cricket all seem to be working together. There are football and netball teams all over the country in the same club ... aka Gisborne Netball Football Club. And cricket and football use the same grounds...so good relationship there.

There is plenty of talk about average crowds being down, and cumulative crowds being up (are they still?). Anyway i would be interested to see the proportion of supporters for the new clubs who have supported previous clubs. This may be a big factor in Brisbane Roars (or should i say Brisbane Lions ... aka Queensland Lions), crowd decline. Another factor for the downfall would be the 'fashion' aspect. Lets face it soccer was, and still is. the fashion of the present (perhaps it is not as big a fashion as it was). Im not saying that soccer will go out of fashion completely and lose all the fans, but there would have been some going just for the ride. My sister was one of them (going for the drinking). I also wonder what impact Archie Fraser has had on the crowds. He may still be adjusting to the postion and figuring out what strategies work, and which ones don't. Another factor could possibly be that people liked the 8 team 'boutique' nature of previous years. One more factor could be that supporters are sick of travelling 'for the sake of the game'. Perhaps they have already travelled from Melb to Sydney enough times etc. Ive also noticed that both the NRL and AFL finals have been a lot more intense this year. The AFL had record finals attendances, and the NRL is on track for them (i think). People may simply be skipping this a-league season as they know they will be getting a huge soccer fix in July 2010. I think it will be very interesting to see what way the a-league crowds go after the 2010 world cup. Will it follow a similar pattern with steady increase, then a quick decline?? One other factor. All publicity is good publicity. THere are less and less people discussing the code wars nowadays.

Speaking of facing facts masterless have you started the bilge pumps on ss afl or are you still stuck hard on the murky bottom of the stagnant Yarra like a beached whale? Fired off a few distress flares perhaps? That would be a waste of time of course since the rest of us aren't watching. I did hear that the Irish had proposed a rescue mission aboard the international rules raft but it unraveled the moment it hit the water and went straight to the bottom, nestling alongside the wreck of the melbourne game. Meanwhile everyone else is sailing the seven seas enjoying the wondrous delights of the world.

True that, almost every club (with the exception of Melbourne, and even them after there is a second club there) is struggling financially. Compare that the the NRL/AFL where Cronulla and North Melbourne are the only clubs struggling and you get the picture. The A-League is dead - crowds exploded and then just and quickly imploded.

That is a disgustingly inaccurate statement. Having lived in England I can tell you that rugby in particular is a sport rapidly growing in popularity. Furthermore nearly one in 40 English people play it (which is comparible with football participation in Australia) and it is a sport where participation tends to end at a younger age whilst support for the game still remains. Rugby League is certainly a minority game however in many areas of northern England it is the main game and it has started to gain popularity in the south as well. Furthermore, rugby is showing significant growth in many European nations. I am all for football in Australia but it is people like you who put others off the game. I suppose you are one of these people that believe Europe is without exception absolutely football mad as well? It's people like you who achieve nothing for the game in Australia.

So the Football World Cup is bigger than the Rugby League World Cup - what a revelation!! Thanks for that contriubution. I think crowds being down by approx 30% is a bigger story than crowds being down by 2% or 7% but hey what would I know? Rugby League has been massive in the media for over 100 years in NSW and QLD.

Why does it surprise you? It is shown late because it doesn't rate.

Very True....If it was not for News Ltd propping up the Storm...they would be history. And with talk that News Ltd is going to withdraw from Rugby League altogether, the Storms days could be numbered. Having said all this, the Sydney Swans have been propped up by the AFL for years....as will the new West Sydney team...possibly for decades...

In fact, the MV vs Jets game was an interesting case study. Kemp at one end, Elrich at the other. Kemp probably stronger defensively - Elrich probably a better attacking option. Result. Kemp has the upper hand for the first 60 minutes, sound defensively, gets forward a fair bit - Elrich starts to find a way past Kemp in the last 30 minutes, and finally delivers the perfect cross that resulted in the goal that tied it up.

Mick If there is one position where players can be created (from other specialised positions) - it's full back - no doubt in my mind. Occasionally, the defensive skills of such players will be wanting - but they will more than make up for it by terrorising their opposite number going down their respective flank. Worth a try. The main problem is that it's very hard for an NT manager to take that responsibility on. By the way, is Jamo too old for the U20s? (I imagine he is now).