Football Federation Australia probably wishes it wasn’t controversy-riddled Newcastle Jets kicking things off at Ausgrid Stadium, although the furore surrounding Branko Culina’s sacking will dissipate over time.
Culina’s dismissal will invariably have come as a shock to all concerned, but the fact is as head coach he has the final say on player recruitment, so signing a completely crocked marquee who also happens to be his son was never going to please the notoriously testy Nathan Tinkler.
At any rate, Culina’s dismissal takes some of the heat off Melbourne Heart coach John van’t Schip, who is probably relieved the season is finally upon us so he can try and win over his critics with some positive results.
A couple of weeks ago, former Socceroos captain Ned Zelic wrote an excellent column for the new-look FFA website, stating we should expect better from our imports in both the playing and coaching departments.
Aside from the insight, the column was notable for three things: firstly, the FFA and all ten clubs now have revamped websites; secondly, former players with obvious “old soccer” connections are starting to find a voice within the game and lastly; it seems we’re no longer expected to tiptoe around negative opinions for fear it might ‘damage the brand.’
In other words, the A-League finally seems to be growing up and for those of us who have followed it from day one, it’s about time.
The fact more than 10,000 fans turned out at Belmore on Monday afternoon to watch Sydney Olympic beat Sydney United in the NSW Premier League Grand Final is testament to how popular the game truly is in this country.
There’s a latent base of football fans out there who haven’t always been turning up to fixtures, so the key for the A-League is try and unlock this potential and encourage more of every type of fan to file through the gates.
And with players of the calibre of Brett Emerton, Thomas Broich and Paul Ifill on display, not to mention a certain Harry Kewell, there’s no reason to expect the quality of football to be anything but the same high standard set last season.
It’s impossible to ignore the buzz of optimism surrounding the new A-League season and it’s a positive energy the football community would do well to embrace.
We’ve been guilty of cannibalising our supporter base at times, but there’s hardly a better opportunity to talk up the attributes of the A-League and hopefully that’s reflected in attendance figures across the weekend.
The competition needs as many fans inside grounds as possible to better sell itself to potential advertisers and help attract new players to our shores.
Hopefully this weekend’s matches live up to all the hype, although the state of the pitch in at least three venues may prove somewhat of a hindrance.
This is no time to gripe though, with the weekend every football fan has been waiting for finally upon us.
It’s now or never for the A-League – a competition that has been knocking on the door of mainstream acceptance for the best part of six years now.
This should be one of the biggest rounds of club football in Australia in years, and for once, A-League fans across the country and beyond have every reason to be genuinely excited.
Betty B
Guest
Enough of the side issues - bring it on! Go the roar.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
And, the A-League has made the BIG TIME - the website at FIFA HQ! http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1522958.html?cid=rssfeed&att=
Kasey
Guest
Hindmarsh will be a billiard table as usual, Lang Pk vs Hindy for best pitch surely. Although we're lucky we don't have to share our pitch with a sport that carves up the grass:)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Got to pinch myself. 12 months ago, I was wondering where the HAL was heading. I wasn't heavily involved with the build up to HAL Year 1, but this build-up is better than any year I can recall - even bigger than the year after MVFC won our first double. I knew H would be BIG .. but, his presence in Melbourne has been even bigger than I anticipated. And, he hasn't yet played a game.
Bondy
Guest
Bit of a write up fuss. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/966604/a-league:-kewell-calm-ahead-of-melbourne-victory-debut?cc=3436
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
You are a good fiction writer Middy... I have met Les Murray, and his story is a lot different to what you have written. "The enemy within" What nonsense!!!! And that is what FOX would like you and us to believe... As I have stated SBS represent the World Game and you take that as an affront to Australian Football.. Ridiculous assumption!! What would you have them do---give up televising UCL and FIFA world cups? Please go and get educated in what has been the foundation of Football in Australia,..
Nathan of Perth
Guest
Western Force play there but their season is like January-April or so. WA Reds NRL bid team plans to play out of nib as well but for now that is simply a hypothetical.
Kasey
Guest
Dear John, thank you for your contribution, but I have to respectfully disagree with you. The finances of some of the teams are not yet sustainable, but what is encouraging is that well run clubs like Victory & Adelaide are capable of turning a profit. To me this means the other 8 clubs just need to tweak their business models and they should be able to achieve the same. Also encouraging is the ability and willingness of FFAHQ to step in where and when required to provide a bridge between old and new owners. Unlike last season, not one team heading into the new season is under FFA financial control. The division between football fans is unfortunate, but it also appears to be self sustaining to a degree. I wont deny that some fans have legitimate beefs with HQ, but the way some fans carry on could give the Palestinians and Israelis a run for their money when it comes to carrying a grudge. Sooner or later talks have to take place to mend the fences but I don't see these talks accomplishing much unless both sides bring something to offer to the table. In FFA's case it should be a Cup competition. For the ex-NSL clubs it should be a willingness to stop the incessant talking down of football at the highest level. The only sentence I agree with 100% in your post is he last one. This year WILL be a very good sign post to the future of the league, but I feel that the league is about to undertake its second phase of growth, after the initial launch and plateau, this current lead-up to the season has all the hallmarks of the lead up to season 2 which was the unquestionable high water mark of the HAL in terms of public consciousness and cut-through. It must have been good, some over zealous football fans were trying to run before we had learned to walk by implying that it was only a matter of time before all others knelt down before the new God of domestic sport;) IIRC things were going so well, that was about the time FFA decided to bid for the 2018/2022 WC. If this year is as successful as the second season, luckily we already have the 2015 AFC Cup in the bag;) so already next next season should avoid the pitfalls of FFA taking their eyes off the ball that is domestic football:)
Midfielder
Guest
Q We do understand... BUT we also understand that position football is in especially after the NSL was closed down.... SBS was bitter about the Fox deal.... and had [still has some not as many] folk around the the World Game that felt heart broken at losing their clubs... Hal 2 to Hal 4 SBS went on the attack... and I can tell you as was told too me by a client who holds a very senior management position at SBS .. LM was called in and told to change and support ... he did but it was an improvement still not great... Hal 6 he got a final warning and things changed a lot... Fox as we have spoken about played a major role as well in refusing in the early years to give SBS much use of football footage .... Q this was also told to me by the same guy and his mate who was a lower level manager at SBS... when the bidding rights for Hal were bid for .... SBS offered well under what they pay for the Tour De France ... it was nowhere near enough to fund the league and many believe it was set at this level so some of the A-League teams would fold meaning some NSL clubs would need to be invited in... that belief was also held by some in the FFA of the day... SBS have always supported football but not also supported the A-League ... it is past history but every single A-League fans forum ran anti SBS threads and many of them for about 3 or 4 years.... One of the reasons the SBS management panicked was the rating for TWC started to fall through the floor and heaps of complaints from A-League fans and it flamed the Eurosnob issue in the A-League was crap etc .... I understand your feeling towards SBS ... they have always supported football, they have not carried that support towards the A-League and Bozza to his huge credit said on air and in writing Football has an enemy within and we all know who they are... Most things have changed .... Jessie Fink has gone.... the new format, mostly support .. so it has changed .. but there is still a long way to go ... they still write many more negative articles to positive articles ... however things are changing and changing for the better...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Actually, I cheated - got that link via Twitter. Was never a fan of that channel, but it's an unbelievable resource for football news & info with the whole football world - fans, media, professional players, administrators - linked and sharing snippets of football information.
TomC
Guest
Ah, Fussball. Nothing gets by you, does it?
j binnie
Guest
John,- Sorry about the paragraphing & will try better next time ,but I did mention Mike's points before making comment so I thought it still rather easy to follow the gist of what I was trying to get across. I do note I failed miserably in converting you into knowing how long 'football","soccer" "wogball",call it what you may, has existed in this country, history telling us it was brought by the huge immigrant population,not the one that came to work on the Snowy River Scheme in the early 50's, but the one that came to man the coal mines & quarries of an economy slowly moving away from purely agronomic to industrial.The early 1900's saw the game well established especially around the Hunter region and the major population centres.So you see "old soccer supporters of the NSL" are actually rather "new soccer supporters" for, in your description ,it appears you think they only started to support the game in 1977.Sounds argumentive I know, but nevertheless true. Other people on these columns,better qualified than me, have gone to some length to explain the difference between a franchise being "handed in" rather than be described as "broke". You do mention a couple of clubs,I'll add more,Auckland,Adelaide,Newcastle ,Perth & Fury can be added to your list but only one, Fury,have apparently departed the scene permanently, for Auckland was replaced by Wellington immediately & I think the point you missed is that other investors don't appear too hard to find. Is this sustainable? I put it to you that we,you & I ,don't move in the right circles to decide if this form of ownership is "sustainable". As an aside I should mention that in it's day the NSL went through 42 clubs in it's 26 year history while at it's "peak" there were only 24 teams in actual competition,the seasons of 2 conferences, so the "wastage" rate (almost 22% are defunct) in the NSL was much higher than experienced so far in the HAL. You go on to back Mike's "do or die" statement, does that mean unless the HAL "takes off" (to where?) this year you see an early demise for the competition?. An opinion for sure,but I'm not so sure you would get too many people to back your,or Mike's observation, but as you correctly point out we live in a democracy & are entitled to an opinion. Cheers jb
JasonA
Roar Rookie
Force play out of NIB but the season ended many months ago. No issue there.
Bondy
Guest
Mike , i thought super rugby didnt use NIB stadium. Regardless N.I.B stadium is in good health pardon the pun. I woke up this morning thinking it was saturday, oh well one to go .
Bondy
Guest
Jason A. Lets concentrate on the football at hand rather than worrying about someone not being here in 5 yrs time you narc .
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
Just going on seasons past, Ausgrid Stadium and Skilled Park are rarely in the best condition after the long rugby-league season and Etihad Stadium's surface is always rock hard. Not sure how NIB Stadium is holding up (do the Western Force still play there?) but it's a shame we can't ferry the Suncorp Stadium ground staff all around the country, because the Roar consistently play on the best pitch in the A-League.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Don't ever recall an A-League club's press conference being reported in the English media, but that's the beauty of having H in OUR league. Source: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/match-centre/Melbourne-Victory-Press-Conference-article808905.html
Phutbol
Guest
The state of which 3 pitches Mike? please dont tell me the first week of the comp is going to be blighted by cow-paddocks....
John
Guest
It certainly is now or never for the A-league. But unfortunatly it may be the latter of the two. The finances of several franchises are still questionable, the lack of support for Gold Coast is still an ongoing issue and the FFA are constantly called upon to take over ownership of both minor and major franchises over the years, including Brisbane and Wellington. This is not sustainable. If all this isn't enough, old soccer supporters of the NSL are democratically voicing their concerns of the state of soccer in Australia, ranging from the A-league, the proposed FFA Cup and the national team. Regardless of who is right or wrong, their is a clear division of support, in particular financial support, for the game in Australia. Although I don't believe this is the last season of the A-league, this season will certainly be a tellling tale of the future of the comp in Australia.
John
Guest
Paragraphs please!