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As a football journalist and fan of the round ball game in Australia, my brief viewing of FoxSports News yesterday morning left me feeling alarmed – Aussie Rules was everywhere.
It felt as if there was a continuous stream of initiatives being launched by the AFL, and all of them seemed to be designed with one eye on how to neuter attempts from rival competitions to grow their code.
Take the launch of the Foxtel Cup and subsequent development of the NAB cup – in my opinion this was the AFL striking the first blow as they attempt to fend off Football Federation Australia’s own prospective knockout competition. Of course all of this comes before College St even has a complete concept for the FFA Cup.
Meanwhile with the Gold Coast Suns plastered across all forms of the media, the only remarkable development for Gold Coast United is a statistical anomaly: the crowd figure from this week’s game against the Central Coast Mariners, 2037, is the exact amount who stumped up at Skilled Park for the same fixture earlier in the season.
So as the AFL is “kicking goals”, the A-League has seen one club change its colours without consulting fans, another alienate its largest supporter group and all the while North Queensland Fury continues to grind to a slow and painful death.
There’s a lesson for Football Federation Australia in how Melbourne Heart tried to develop their playing squad in the lead up to their debut season.
Essentially the Heart looked at the best two teams from last season, Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory, and tried to put together a group of players who could match them. In this they were successful but it wasn’t enough, the league had moved on and the Heart won’t play finals football this season.
In a competitive and evolving environment, like the A-League or Australia’s sporting market, you can’t just try to equal what was the best last year, you have to aim to surpass it or you risk getting left behind.
With their hesitant attempts at a cup competition and the complete bungling of expansion, FFA have done the latter.
If the AFL has one weakness it’s a lack of respect that, at times, almost verges on contempt for grassroots fans, particularly those who support the smaller Melbourne clubs.
From a revenue-slanted draw through to Grand Final ticketing geared towards filling the AFL’s coffers, Demetriou falls short in giving fans as fair a deal as possible.
While the AFL’s utter dominance in Victoria means they can get away with it, FFA can’t.
As former Socceroo and SBS pundit Craig Foster said on Shootout this week, “These fans are the ones keeping this game afloat… these passionate fans are the ones that are going to make this game successful so (FFA) better get in front of them and start talking directly with them.”
FFA, if you listen to the fans, football will thrive on its greatest asset and you’ll never have to worry about the AFL again.
You can follow Davidde Coran on Twitter @DaviddeCoran
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