Talking with a Victory supporter the other day about the goings-on in the VPL, I could see the confusion in his eyes. He was thinking visible panty line.
Fair enough. I don’t know where baby pigeons live. Why should an A-League supporter know where home-grown A-League players come from?
Then again, I’m not chewing my knuckles over pigeons.
Thanks, he said, but he just didn’t feel welcome at those lower leagues. Those clubs had turned their backs on the A-League. They hated his A-League club and they hated A-League supporters. He knew that.
He knew the story. They were all bitter about the NSL, even those haters attached to the three thousand or so clubs that never actually competed in the NSL including the ones that spent 20 years petitioning all and sundry to have it closed down because it was sucking the grassroots dry and arguing for a radical rethink of the national league…
He wouldn’t be darkening their ticket box and sending them the message that he tolerated bigotry and ignorance.
So, he said, what was I planning for the off-season? Other than dropping by the football club five or six times a week?
Only the HAL-snob gets an off-season. Elsewhere the football never ends. There are winter leagues, summer leagues, pre-seasons, post-seasons, it goes all year and longer now the national curriculum has kicked in.
We’re keen on achieving football excellence. Good on us. The national curriculum wants juniors exposed to more football and they are being exposed to more football.
For those dabbling in grassroots football who also follow the A-League, it pans out at about 19.8 months of football in every 12.
That doesn’t apply to many though. Active A-League supporters are in the minority, which is probably a good thing, because if more than half of the 1.7 million participants plus their entourages turned up they wouldn’t fit into the stadiums anyway.
HAL doesn’t have to worry about that because the majority at the grassroots are gainfully employed attending to football’s future and are so mentally and physically exhausted by about Week 2 of their 300-day-a-year 15-year journey through junior football they can’t get up the ramp to onto the concourse.
That is, they are not singling the A-League out by staying away from it in their droves. It goes with having a kid who’s set his sights on the A-League. They stop going to the cinema and taking holidays too. No one sees them any more. It’s just them, a ball and the cabbage.
It’s a gruelling journey, the Designated Pathway, and there are all sorts of prices being paid because battalions of kids have set their hearts on the A-League.
Ironically, the A-League looks to be paying some of them.
They’ve bought the product and now they don’t have time to sit around watching football or television, they’ve got work to do. If it’s any consolation to the coalminers, Sony is suffering too.
Junior football is where the mass of participants and their families are so it should be the engine-room for A-League attendances. It probably would be, too, if the federations hadn’t gone and designed such a mad, bad and expensive youth development program to help supply, again ironically, the A-League.
The A-League probably won’t be seeing them or their designated drivers for a while; not until a club signs the kid.
The increased workloads since we went Dutch and the knock-on effects have been a hot topic at the grassroots for about five years. Lifestyles, hobbies and relaxations have been jettisoned in the name of improving Australia’s standing in the world of football.
Alas, the lurid details rarely get a run on HAL’s terraces and forums where wiser ideas are afoot about the reasons behind the Great Disconnect. Everyone agrees on what those reasons are and unanimously so since the ones that disagreed were taken out the back and shot.
Most of those were trying to explain the concept of grassroots overload, and why not being across the A-League was not, as the tiny-minded HAL-snob is wont to allege, evidence of their being anti-something.
Most think the NSL was a telco and some think HAL is a computer. Some call it soccer because they know karate. It takes all kinds and football takes us all.
That was the other half of my point about the HAL-snob getting out to the cabbage patches.
If he knew what everyone else was doing and why they were doing it, he might begin to comprehend how the grassroots minutiae affects the A-League and vice-versa, and could himself help combat the bigotry and ignorance that bug him so.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
You made the claim that A-League games are around the 40K mark, whatever that means - back it up with some facts - not regurgitated Dugald-speak.
ItsCalledFootball
Roar Guru
I regularly watch the local games at junior levels boys and girls and I have found the skill levels to be very good and never "abysmal". There is a very definite develpment path at our club and if you are good enough there is advancement to skills training and representative teams. We are also scouted by the Mariners and Sydney FC and have a couple of graduates in both clubs youth teams. Don't judge the world of Australian football by one game that you just happened to pass in the night.
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
Yes, puberty is hell isn't it. Chin up DJ, it'll pass.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
jb My apologies - I focused on the issue of "it's too expensive for parents to have their kids playing football at junior levels" ... even though, anecdotal evidence suggests kids are being turned away despite these huge fees. In relation to lack of information filtering down to the grassroots clubs - yes, it's disappointing and I'd like the FFA to give me their version of event before I lay the boots in. I've noticed that, in most cases, what the FFA-attackers say is occurring & what is really occurring are seldom aligned.
j binnie
Guest
Fussbal - You are a man of many "faces".You keep referring to your long experience in the game and how it affected your life, and yet are so keen to take this angle that you appear to miss the whole point of what contributors are making.I'll try and simplify it for you. Last week in these columns there was some heavy debate into the cost of juniors playing football. I simply added the point about the $900 costs for 2 kids to add to that debate albeit a bit late. My main concern is that with many more millions of dollars being poured into a national curriculum made up of material at least 40 years old, it still, after 5 years of having a full time director of coaching to set up this curriculum,we still have no communication and help filtering down to the lower levels of our game,and even more worrying, last week, a video was circulating showing our present D of C admitting he was not happy about the progress being made and in fact had apparently pulled in help in the shape of Alfred Galustian,the co-founder of the Coerver method of skills coaching that has been around since being started in the USA by Alfred and Charlie Cooke,the ex Chelsea player in 1984. My question.What factor is it in that the Coerver method,(initially originated in Holland ) that our D of C did not know about that caused him to call in help and what did it cost????? jb
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
jb Am I concerned that Aussie kids are missing out on gaining access to elite sporting programmes because their parents can't afford it?? To be honest, and I'm going to sound uncaring but ... NO - it's not high on my items of concern about life in Australia. I'm far more concerned that many Aussie kids are missing out on the best possible education because their parents can't afford it. And, I'm extremely concerned by the fact that kids & adults are missing out on the best possible health care because they can't afford it. If parents find it's too expensive to have little Johnny playing for an existing football club - here's my advice: grab a few parents & start your own club. They may find the fees clubs charge are worth the hassle of doing it yourself. My mates & I did this when we left Secondary School - we formed our own Old Collegians' Football Club and played in the lower leagues of Victoria. It was a lot of hard work and, since we had time in those days, it was a fair bit of fun. Did we save a lot of money from reduced fees? Not really.
jbinnie
Guest
Fussball. On Saturday I drove past a major private school in Brisbane and,seeing some football in progress, I parked the car and took myself to the sidelines.At a guess I would say the 2 games I watched were between under 14's and under 15's. The enthusiasm was tremendous,the effort being expended,unquestionable, but the standards,that is skills and techniques,were abysmal. Being the way I am (a nosey b.....), I took it upon myself to seek out the coaches involved with these 4 teams and actually got on to one who was the school's "head" coach. My questions were along the lines of "Do you get much in the way of help or communication from the people who are running our national programme"?.The answer - a very short ," None,I search for all I need on the Internet." This was a sports teacher with 30 of a staff working under him.!!!!!!. I got the same answers from the four coaches I spoke to. Leaving that and watching the play for a while I noted one boy who seemed a bit further on than the rest and by sheer chance bumped into his father. When I asked if the lad had played elsewhere he told me the boy had played junior football at a Brisbane 1'st Div. club but as the cost for his 2 kids to play there had passed the $900 mark (before any gear was bought) ,he felt the boy should concentrate on his studies and just play for the school teams.(It was a high fee paying private school). Unfortunately I have had the same experience these last 3 years, at different venues, with different schools, and it saddens me greatly that there appears to be no connection between these schools and our much trumpeted grass roots connectivity. Such is life in the slow lane.Cheers jb
jbinnie
Guest
Cattery Once again I warn you to be careful when getting into statistical discussions for, depending where you source your info, you can be proved right or wrong. Let me give you an example, not using TV ratings figures, but actual attendances..Tonight at the termination of all league matches the total attendance figures for the season reads at 1,414,180 over 135 games giving a match average crowd of 10,475. Now if you use that figure over a week's matches it would mean an average weekly attendance of 52,375. However there are things to be considered when "breaking down" that average figure which would undoubtedly have been slightly higher if those "take the game to the country matches" had been played at a club's normal "home" ground. Then there is the other problem that has existed during the year of GCU'S crowds that also affect that average quite badly,for instance,if you take their total gates out of the equation it changes the overall average gate. GCU have been watched by 38,320 over their 13 home games. (Victory's biggest gate was 40,351.!!!!!.) If that is subtracted from the big equation it leaves 1,375,860 watching 122 matches for a match average of 11,278, or a week's attendance to a 4 match total of 45110.(or 56,390 if extrapolated to 5 matches) So you see figures can be manipulated, but if it helps your thinking there has been a drop in average attendances over the year (from 11500 at New Year to 10500 tonight.) This too can be debated for it has to be remembered that Perth,Adelaide United and Victory crowds have all dropped off no doubt helped by the way they were playing at different times during the year. These clubs do have the capability to increase their crowds quite quickly if and when they start to perform. That's stats for you Catterey ,and how the can be analysed from different perspectives. Cheers jb
David Jones
Roar Rookie
What a pointless article and irreverant comments. You are the blood sucking parasite mate who does not know the first thing he is talking about, except of a vitriolic hate of the FFA and Australian football. Another goobledy gook article about nothing, littered with so called first hand eye witness accounts of fictitious disgruntled football fans. Give us a break will ya!
The Cattery
Roar Guru
As they say: youth is wasted on the young.
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
That's the thing about the future, Rusty - we always get there but when we do we're old, infirm and infinitely wiser but you can't go back. You do realise I was lobbying for the A-League back in 1975? They shouted me down for being negative and eventually went with their ill-conceived B-league instead. There's probably a lesson in there for someone but I'm not sure if it's for me or you. No, you're right. I should have been much more negative then than I was and now we'd be where you reckon we're gonna be circa 2050 with attendances in their billions. My mistake. For my crimes I sentence you to a repetition of history. In 2050 you will be lecturing know-all what-about-meeee kids that it ain't really all about them and their unshakeable conviction that it is damages and divides the game's culture and gets them the opposite response to the one they want, and that if they keep it up you'll sentence them to doing what you're doing then in 2090. As for turning a blind eye to what's actually going now and spinning it up, that's probably a good thing or politicians wouldn't do it and they wouldn't respected in the community as they are. Historically Australians have admired a man determined to tell only one side of the story. They enjoy the outcomes too. That said, I do think we have to gild the lily from time to time to keep the vibe positive. I'm not a religious man so I'm saving up to get my head frozen. P.S. On a uglier note, my PA just called and apparently designer labels look to The Roar for inspiration and FKUC wants my permission to run off a ten million "It's called soccer: I know karate" T-shirts for the Asia-Pacific market. I'm not sure what to make of it.
Dugald Massey
Roar Guru
And that's my point, Fuss. You say the issue is getting the juniors and families to embrace HAL in the summer months when they've now got the state federations saying, no, these days it's a full-time 12-month commitment and you need to embrace playing football in the summer months. But you probably think I'm making that up because you remember what it was like and that memory hasn't changed so obviously nothing's changed here since Baggio missed except we scrapped the NSL for the A-League and qualified for the WC. Baan and Burger are figments of our imaginations. There's no need for you to to be feeling so rejected, Fuss. The grassroots are universally grateful to every HAL-supporter who's spilled bodily fluids for them. They know they have a moral obligation to square off one day, as do we. The bloodsucking parasites owe us big time. That should work.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Trust Me This article is about the A-League. It's not about other soccer leagues, and it's not about the AFL. In any event, even if the Australian ratings for these overseas competitions were huge (and they're not), how does that help the A-League and the FFA? Similarly, good ratings for the World Cup and Asian Cup doesn't help the A-League or the FFA, and anyway, single events like these spread out over many years do not bring in the dollars.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Fussball yes, over the second half of the season, the majority of games are back down to around the 40k mark on Fox - how is that untruthful? I'm simply saying that I agree with the notion of families not having time to attend A-League games because of the time dedicated to junior sport, I understand better than anyone the effort involved. But come Friday and Saturday night, I unwind by watching live sport on Fox (including the A-League) - and all those people involved in junior sport aren't doing the same - the numbers show us that quite clearly - so we have to dig deeper to understand why.
Trust Me
Roar Rookie
And FTA as well http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2006/4035/ AFL doesn't even make the top ten.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
The A league clubs visit the state league clubs in (A league) pre season. For me that was the trigger from going from a general fan of the league (only going to big occasion games like Yorke or Bozza in town) watching on TV to supporting an actual club. It was a very small commitment to drive down to our local club to see them play what turned out to be the Roar youth team. Entry was free and they had the first team squad there to sign autographs and mingle. I met Seo in the crowd, he had left the Roar by then but just showed up to watch as a general punter and Robbie Kruise was playing. I am sure that initiative was aimed at getting the kids in but it also wins over adult football fans as suddendly there is a connection.
RIP_Enke
Guest
I did enjoy your writing style Dugald Massey, very entertaining. The FFA do not help, remember not allowing MV or MH to entertain the thought of playing some VPL teams in some misbegotten competition? I cannot fathom the reasons why, you know bridges and burning fire and all that. Also do not underestimate the powers of passive ostracism, for the non ethnically polarised casual observer. As a footnote, I like cabbage.
Trust Me
Roar Rookie
I thought that the avge pay TV audience for A-League was around 100K. 6 of the top 15 all time PAY TV raters are Socceroos games - football isn't just the A-League. And what about the ratings for EPL, Premiera Liga, Bundesliga etc that get shown here and all the Champions League games on SBS. And the W-League on ABC. This isn't AFL where there is only one competition to watch. If you add them all up you'll find football is the most popular team sport on TV. http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/04/06/fifteen-years-of-fox-sports-football-on-top/
Rusty0256
Guest
Obviously Duggy wouldn't have written this article 3 months ago because it wouldn't have made sense; the seasons now have minimal overlap, a fact that 'happy Dug' fails to mention. Kasey, you are correct, traditions take time to build. We are only seven years into the 'history of the A-League' so the 16-24 year olds, populating the active areas of games will get older, marry, have kids and guess what? They will pass the stories on about the Reds/ Victory / Sky Blues / Mariners to their children and then eventually their childrens children. These generations will grow into their football passions, not be introduced to it by the type of 'cultural shock' method that so many underwent in 2006. These later generations will be have parents who will not only help the kids in their football education (all the Dug says they currently do) but will also introduce them to the wonders of the A-League team they passionately support, in the fervent hope that their sons might support and even perhaps play there in the future. This is how it happens in AFL and this is how it happens in football worlwide. Patience and the ongoing passionate support of football in this country will inevitably lead to this outcome. Unfortunately, writers like Dugald focus so much on this is the way it is now, there is little or no allowance for the probable realities of the future.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"majority of games are back down around the 40k mark, and we have to be perfectly frank here, it’s a deplorable number." The Cattery there have been 130 HAL matches played this year. Is it your assertion that 66 or more HAL matches this year have rated below 40k? Or are you using "majority" as a pejorative - rather than a statistical - term? I can't understand why you'd want to create such mischief by making statements that are easily exposed as untruthful.