A-League Grand Final to be simply the best

Melb Victory won the rights to a home Grand Final and Demetriou challenged the FFA saying they will be not handing over the ground to the FFA under any circumstances. They had plans to play a NAB cup match on the same day and insisted they had the booking in place.. It was later discovered that it was the FFA who also booked the venue and had been promised the venue first if the home Grand Final was won by the Melb Victory. In the end---Demetriou had to back down---under enormous pressure from the Melburnian Football Community.

Because the AFL hasn't shared Etihad with the Victory...

All done ... Ernie Merrick is OUT. The official line is the club and coach have mutually agreed to part ways - so it is not a sacking. The club will undertake an extensive search - locally and globally - for the new manager, who fits the Board's plan for the future. The interim coach will be Mehmet Durakovic, who is the current coach of the MVFC Youth Team and one of the finest, technically-gifted Australian footballers, who played 64 times for the Australian National Team and over 200 games for South Melbourne FC. Thanks for the good times Ernie ... but, for me, this is the BEST football news I've had for quite some time.

AF Got to love the politics of football ... I'm sure Machiavelli would approve of how those in power at the FFA have gone from placing a dagger in Ange's back to patting him on the back! BREAKING NEWS ... SEN Radio have just announced that at 1:30 p.m. MVFC have confirmed they will be holding a press conference, and it is expected they will announce the sacking of Ernie Merrick at this time.

Would be devastated if Ange goes. Couldn't really blame him though as he deserves better backing so he can keep taking the game forward -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.

Whose complaining? I think we northern codes work well together and appreciative each others needs---unlike the elephant in the room south of the Murray who want to make mountains out of mole hills to get any sort of publicity going for themselves..

Fuss---read this---its ironic that the FFA sacked Ange when he was employed by the FFA; now they are sucking up to him to remain at the ROAR... :D http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/football-federation-australia-blocks-melbourne-victorys-bid-for-brisbane-boss-ange-postecoglou/story-e6frf4gl-1226020192195?from=public_rss

I think it's very hard for the A-League to complain when they have a movable grand final & we share grounds with other sports.

They should get a bumper crowd up there between 2 Queensland team for the No 1 sport in Queensland. You have to understand RL is it, nothing else comes close in Queensland & for that matter NSW.

Suncorp will be a perfect surface come Sunday----the groundsman there is a Genius---unlike the fool we have at Robina Skilled Park on the Gold Coast.

Maybe they could have had a supercross on the saturday to make it a real festival.

The other way to look at it is that it's a big weekend of sport for Brisbane and that it's good for Brisbane, to left their spirits, etc.

In this case, there's no doubt that there would be substance to the rumours surrounding Ernie, just because of the context (and we know the board is to meet soon). As for the Ange component, that definitely has little substance to it.

I agree Timmy, a bit co-operation and courtesy would have been apppreciated, it was bringing tears to my eyes as the players shredded the turf, even Wally Lewis noted that they would need to replace a few divits. Hopefully the codes can learn to work together one day.

I don't think too much can be done about it, it's a shared venue, and the Broncos have every right to use it once the League season started - they got a bumper crowd for their opening game.

IIRC, the NRL draw, which kicked off with the Bne/NQ match, was set last year, before the HAL finalists were known. If they wanted to quarantine the ground that game would've had to move, and I expect a fair bit of compensation paid to make up for a reduced crowd at the NRL game at a smaller venue.

AF I've found that, when officials (could be club officials, politicians or those in charge of business) issue a denial about a particular rumour it's a reasonable sign that the issue has been raised and a decision has been reached; but, it is not yet available for public dissemination. Only 10 days ago, there was a rumour that Marco Rojas had joined MVFC. Ernie & MVFC denied any knowledge. Yesterday, the club officially welcomed Rojas to the MVFC ranks. The imminent sacking of Merrick and the recruitment of Ange may, indeed, be just a rumour. But, as the saying goes: "where there's smoke, there's fire" ... of course, in the case of MVFC it's more likely: "where there's smoke you'll find the lads from the North End letting off a flare" ;-) (maybe celebrating the arrival of Ange to Olympic Blvd?)

Slightly off topic, but how on earth have they managed to schedule the HAL's 'big show' on a ground that hosted an NRL match 36 hours or so earlier? Shouldn't the pitch have been quarantined for a week or more prior? NOTE - this isn't an invitation to start a code war

Fuss I have just read that the Melb Vic have denied all reports of a pending sacking Ernie. The rumours must have been spread by those CCM PR machine---to upset the ROAR's morale ahead of the Grand Final :)

AF I think Muskie is a long way from a senior coaching position - for a start, I don't think he has any of the requisite licences.