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Ange Postecoglou is named Coach of the Year. Matt Ryan takes out the Young Footballer of the Year award. And more than 33,000 Grand Final tickets have already been sold in some rare good news for the A-League, as the top two teams in the country prepare to square off in what should be an epic Suncorp Stadium showdown.
Postecoglou’s success proves there is room for redemption in football, and the former Australian youth coach fully deserves the plaudits for transforming Brisbane Roar from a squabbling bunch of has-beens into one of the most dominant teams in Australian sport.
Teenager Ryan’s success was somewhat more unpredictable, but after his superb performance against Gold Coast United on Saturday night, it’s not hard to see why the 18-year-old shot-stopper is so highly rated.
The youngster has stepped in seamlessly for the injured Jess Vanstratten, who looks like he’ll struggle to get a run anywhere next season following a disastrous return to the A-League.
Ryan almost single-handedly kept Central Coast in the Preliminary Final as he withstood a barrage of Gold Coast attacks, allowing Adam Kwasnik to slot home a late winner to send the Mariners through to the decider.
The first-versus-second scenario provides a fairytale finish to an often forgettable campaign, and with tens of thousands of tickets snapped up in the first two days of sales, it’s further proof the Australian sporting public loves to embrace a championship finale.
Every season since the competition kicked off, a number of vocal fans have called for the A-League to scrap the finals series and instead use a first-past-the-post system to decide the champions.
But with the Grand Final set to smash this season’s attendance record and the commercial TV networks belatedly getting on board to provide some coverage in the build-up to the match, it seems folly to suggest the A-League should do away with the finals.
Brisbane players may say the premiership is the title that matters most, but deep down we all know they’re burning to make their status as Australia’s champion team official, and they won’t do that unless they beat the Mariners on Sunday afternoon.
European leagues might employ a different system to decide their champions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the A-League should go fundamentally against the grain of Australian sporting culture and do away with the finals.
That’s particularly the case when it’s clear many casual fans treat the Grand Final as their one-off football event for the year.
Converting these kinds of fans into regular attendees must be the goal for Football Federation Australia, and it doesn’t help that they’ve jacked up the ticket prices for Sunday’s match.
Nevertheless, with the mainstream press finally showing some positive interest at a time when a couple of other codes are kicking off, there’s no reason the A-League season shouldn’t end on a high.
It’s fantastic to see the two best teams in this year’s competition reach the Grand Final, and anything can happen in a sudden-death decider.
That’s the beauty of finals football, and while circumstances may change in the future, right now a thrilling Grand Final is something the A-League desperately needs.