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A couple of years ago, at the end of the A-League season, I was asked to bring a song in to play on the last episode of what was then SBS Radio’s A-League show, The Local Game. The track I chose was Ben Folds’ “In Between Days” simply because, with such a short season, the A-League has so many of them.
After having dished up an empty performance in their first game following the departure of foundation coach Ernie Merrick, a 2-1 Asian Champions League loss to Jeju United, I can’t help but feel the Victory are stuck in the middle of their own “In Between Days” at the moment.
It’s a strange place to be for such a proud club.
After having lead the way throughout the first six years of the A-League both on and off the pitch, the Victory are starting to lag behind, with their football exposed as tactically wanting and crowd numbers dwindling (less then 5000 fans turned up for the loss to Jeju).
As Archie Thompson so perfectly put it this week, the club has become “stale”.
Over the last few days I’ve heard a number of people claim that the time was right for Merrick to go but I’d disagree.
For me, the decision to axe a coach who failed to evolve along with the competition he was involved in was made too late.
I have believed for some time that, for the A-League to prosper, the competition needs flagship clubs. I’m talking about football institutions that play their football as well as they run their business.
Melbourne Victory should be one of these sides, but this season they’ve seen the Brisbane Roar take that title from them.
Essentially, that’s what the controversial timing of Merrick’s departure, announced the day before the A-League grand final, was all about.
The Victory’s board was saying “look at us! We’re Melbourne Victory and we’re still the big boys.”
Yet, the atmosphere that is currently surrounding the club would say otherwise.
Brisbane Roar, under Ange Postecoglou, has raised the bar for club football in Australia and there will be a lot of work cut out for Victory’s new board chairman Anthony Di Pietro if he is to bring his club back to that level.
In the meantime, the Victory remain stuck between what they want to be and what they actually are.
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