“It all comes despite the sixth instalment of the A-League being arguably the best in terms of on-field entertainment.” And there it is again. This time by Age journalist Jonathan Howcroft.
The same line over and over again. Almost every article concerning the A-League Season Six leads to the same patronising line.
Hey you A-League fans! Don’t you know it’s the best season ever and you jokers are not turning up!
I’m sorry, but this is patronising knowledgeable Australian football fans that know much better than what the Australian football media is giving them credit for.
Save for some quality moments by Adelaide United ,Brisbane Roar, Central Coast and the Melbourne Derby (which I have to say has gone some way to being the saving grace of HAL Season Six) this has to be one of the worst seasons in domestic football history (save for the final years of the NSL).
When it comes to football you cannot distinguish between the on-field and off-field action. You have to look at the total package. During a game of football the fans feed the players, the players feed the fans, the referee incenses the players and the fans, and the cycle continues.
You can feel the energy passing back and forth between the two for 90 mins. Remember that A-League? 90 mins – 90 emotions. At times, it seemed that for 90 minutes both players and fans are going through the motions.
Instead of saying this is the best A-League season ever, I would be asking for my money back. Some games are more like glorified training sessions played on substandard pitches than top flight professional football. Tell me, how does this lead to the on-field action being the best ever?
Crowds of less than 10,000 I can handle but crowds of almost less than 1000 – are you kidding me?
Now is not the time to panic publicly, but privately, the FFA should be in emergency talks. Their two expansion clubs in QLD are not working. They are selling tea to coffee drinkers.
The second Sydney team was a disaster, and Melbourne Heart, while I’m sure will be thought of as a reasonable succuss has been anything but with empty stands and a club that stands for no-one.
There is no doubt that the A-League is in its biggest crisis point since its inception. And not like an NRL or AFL crisis that disappears the next day, it’s a crisis that should have everyone in football asking some hard questions.
Like: Now that the state leagues clubs are drawing bigger crowds than the A-League perhaps getting rid of the NSL clubs was not the right thing to do? Maybe we need to bring the “wogs” back into the fold.
I know clubs like Marconi, Sydney Olympic and South Melbourne would love to get back into the A-League. I would bet that these clubs averages would exceed the North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast, Central Coast and Melbourne Heart crowd figures; even Sydney FC’s for this season.
If you are worried about the ethnic tag just change the names and say they are Australian clubs with Australian values and pretend no-one is the wiser (it worked for Sydney FC and QLD Roar). Just keep saying it over and over again; I hear that trick can work sometimes.
Perhaps a good way to experiment with this idea would be to see what the reaction is if and when the state league clubs are asked to join the A-League teams during a proposed FA-Cup style competition.
Sure, the vision of violent ethnic football hooligans clashing on the six o’clock news was not a good look – but at least there was a crowd in the stand and at least the violence stood for something.
Don’t bring the NSL clubs back, you argue, it will just bring back the old ethnic rivalries and we don’t want trouble in the stands.
Well I don’t remember any Hatomoto security and risk management consulting firms that were around during the NSL days. In fact some home end experiences with Sydney FC have been very scary especially when police and fans started fighting each other during an away trip to the Central Coast a couple of years ago.
From memory pepper spray never used to be part of the price of admission to a game of football.
So what do you think, is this the best season of the A-League ever?
Con Stamocostas edits a football E-zine called Half Time Heroes, and is on Twitter.
MelbCro
Guest
How did they make you feel like you shouldn't be there? thats an absurd comment, it's all in your head. Like i said it says more about people such as yourself than it does about the clubs. I think you need to have a bit of self-reflection, and look at your own prejudices
Realfootball
Guest
Honestly, how do you infer that I "feel uncomfortable around people that are different from you"? Nothing could be further from the truth. I was a migrant kid, my friends were in large part the sons of migrant kids or migrant kids themselves - I counted Greek, Italian, English, Croats, Poles, Austrians and Germans amongst them. I knew them all through football. I think you will find my perception of the NSL was widely shared, and you didn't have to be a dinky di born and bred Aussie to feel that way.
Realfootball
Guest
A quote from the great American novelist Cormac McCarthy, speaking through an old Mexican cowboy: "People talk of what is in store. But there is nothing in store. The day is made of what has come before. The world itself must be surprised at the shape of that which appears. Perhaps even God."
Realfootball
Guest
I didn't realise I was opening a debate on the Roman Empire. The decline of Rome matches to an uncanny degree the economic mailaise of the United States now - in other words, the crippling cost of waging multiple wars. I am not convinced that 18 century England was as hospitable as you think for the working class; 1850s likewise. I think the 1890s is more like it.
Roarchild
Roar Guru
Sorry, you are arguing that people saying it's the best season on the pitch are wrong because of reasons of the pich.... I don't get it. If more people go to a Justin Beaber concert it doesn't make it any better. Still an average of 8.5k for a 30 game season isn't that bad, but your solution is to bring in teams that wouldn't average 8.5k.... is that to make 8.5k look even better? We already had that mix of mainstream and mono ethnic teams. It didn't realy work and since then those teams have been doing it tough as their supporter base gets older and stats dying off. You used to be cool Con, I don't know what happened :P
Robbie
Guest
RealFootball, I totally agree, that is what the NSL was mostly like. They didn't want my support either, until the likes of Perth and Northern Spirit came along. 'Melbcro' said: "That says more about you than it does about any club. I’m sorry you feel uncomfortable around people that are different from you No, that says alot about most NSL clubs. It wasn't that there were people from 'different' cultures at the game, it was the fact that they never made you feel like you should have come. That was always the feeling I got when going to Olympic, Croatia, or to a lesser extent Marconi.
Evan Askew
Guest
My apologies but I don't live in Melbourne. i live in Brisbane so it is a bit hard for me to get to South Melbourne matches. Like I said, I base my guess on what I see on television and the latest season at which crowd figures were recorded. http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/States/VIC/2008PLR.html THough I understand the lack of crowds recorded in later seasons may be due to smaller crowds not deemed worth recording. Do they announce the crowds at the matches?
jamesb
Guest
I reckon the A-league season is the best ever on the field. Someone says "yeah but no one turns up to the matches" Well the FFA could do something about it. Like promoting the A-league Average crowd of roughly 8500 is not bad considering: there was no marketing or promotion, you had Sydney FC playing 3 home games the same week as the NRL grand final, jets community game called off due to bad pitch from motorcross, Gold coast free entry game called off to bad pitch floods in brisbane, cyclone yasi, terrible schedule as far as the A-league draw is concerned with teams playing 4 games in less than 2 weeks and of course the uncertainty of furys future. For me the highlight, Brisbane Roar unbeaten in 25 games, but more importantly play the style of football that perhaps other clubs could try to emulate if not better. Tinkler and the jets doing some things off the field including reverse sponsorship and attracting beckham and la galaxy. BTW I like the proposed new jets jersey. The A-league just has to hang tough for a couple of years and hopefully it would be on FTA with increased revenue and viability. Con Stamocostas your looking at things with a glass half empty.
Jack
Guest
I watched them play twice last year, once was against green gully where the crowd looked 500..the other time i watched them against i think bentleigh and the crowd looked around 2,000....i guess it fluctuates based on opposition, weather etc...the grandstand seats about 4,000 alone so a crowd of 2,000 is still an empty stadium.
MelbCro
Guest
unlike yourself i actually attend VPL maches so i know what crowds south gets
Jack
Guest
Marconi and South Melbourne in 30 years time? thats ridiculous LOL. certain nsl clubs should have been fastracked for inclusion a few years back, its too late now.
Evan Askew
Guest
In reality the standard of living of the average person declined from the reign of Commodus onwards. A good 200 years before the western empire finally fell. The decrease in standard of living was due to Repeated invasions of Barbarians, Repeated endemics as a result of war and famine. Increased taxation to fuel military expenditure which crippled commerce and agriculture which caused reduction in production of food whcih also leads to famine and pestilence. And political instability due to the soldiers habit of proclaiming their own choice of emperor. In reality I would rather have lived in 18th century England than at any time during the Roman Empire outside the time of the Antonines. However it would all suck ass compared to 1850's onward. In terms of football, as good as things are like 2005 to 2008. It can all go to hell in a handbasket if it is mismanaged.
Evan Askew
Guest
I can't say I have ever had any trouble personally from security at Suncorp. This is what I have seen. I saw a Perth Glory fan evicted for no reason. I saw the police randomly pull this guy out from the crowd for no apparent reason. Maybe he said something? I was sitting about 40 to 50 metres away. About 20 metres right of the goal halfway down and the away fans sit in that corner of the ground. And when Roar played Adelaide United drew 1-1 with the ROar we were leaving the ground afterwards from the southern end toward the railway line and we saw about 5 security people, they weren't cops, and they had this guys arm behind his back and he was saying in an agitated voice, " your breaking my arm." Now I don't know what he did but he was one guy and he looked like your normal slightly overweight middle aged guy and if he was out of the ground I couldn't see him gettin back in so why the need to almost break his arm?
Evan Askew
Guest
Like I said, it is a guesstimate based on whatever TV footage I can find, which isn't much nowdays. And there are no longer any crowd figures available for VPL matches on the Oz Football website I put in my previous post. But from what I can see on TV while they were still playing in Bob Jane. THere would be at least 200 people sitting around the ground on the other side? And when a goal is scored most of the crowd noise comes from the Grand stand which would in theory have 3 times the number that are sitting around the ground?
Evan Askew
Guest
South Melbourne could probably still get in I certainly think they would get the same crowds as Heart. But comonsense dictates that it is not going to happen for a while now. And as for being a Greek club, well if I lived in Melbourne that is the team I would follow and while being an ameteur historian and having an appreciation for such figures as Socrates, Alexander, Heraclius and COnstantine XIV, I am definitely not Greek. Or of Greek descent.
Mick Dundee
Guest
You mean the forum that was run first in Sydney?
AnTHRaX
Guest
how much paint have you blokes at the roar been huffin' in the last week? it does not make you more creative. sculling cough syrup should be the G O
con
Guest
hatamoto's impact is most prominent for victory because we have the largest and most passionate fanbase. however, if you a-league club has active fans and if you now need a membership to sit with the active fans, thats hatamoto's fault
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
The thing to remember about the Rebels is that Harold Mitchell is involved, he will make sure that they get a decent play on the sports news of FTA
Futbanous
Guest
Damning evidence. keep it up. Lyall Gorman will be punch drunk soon. Email knockout. Hopefully they(FFA) return to consciousness & see sense.