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At the time of writing, the A-League regular season had one more game – Gold Coast United versus Brisbane Roar – to go before the season ended and the play-offs began. However, Central Coast Mariners’ 2-1 win in Wellington earlier in the day had made the game meaningless.
It was a scheduling snafu by the A-League, or by Fox Sports, or whoever decided to play the Sunday games in the order they were ultimately contested.
The two early games produced pulsating action and drama. Sydney FC’s 3-2 win over the Newcastle Jets has extended the classy Vitizlav Lavicka’s coaching reign at Sydney by at least one more week and banked some more frequent flyer miles in his account as SFC head to Wellington next weekend.
Central Coast, after looking likely to street the field just two months ago, left it to the last game to deservedly clinch the Premier’s Plate with their win in New Zealand. The sudden onshore wind gust on the East Coast may well have been Graeme Arnold’s sigh of relief at the full-time whistle, as his overworked squad hung on to clinch the three points that ensured the Roar couldn’t catch them, no matter the result of their derby game with Gold Coast.
But back to that scheduling mess. Last weekend, Central Coast and Brisbane played concurrently and for TV viewers it provided great drama as news of the game they weren’t watching filtered through (both games were televised on the Fox Viewer’s Choice system).
Why on earth that didn’t happen again this week is beyond me. The manner of the scheduling also left the Mariners at a distinct disadvantage.
With both they and the Roar involved in the Asian Champions League, there are a lot of games and travel to contend with over the next month. Consequently, as soon as the Mariners result was known, Ange Postecoglou rested five players from his starting line-up, a luxury he would not have had if both games had been played at the same time, and a luxury Graeme Arnold never had.
This may work in Brisbane’s favour in the next few weeks as Mitch Nichol, Michael Theoklitos, Thomas Broich and Ivan Franjic all get a rest. (And totally wrecked my A-League fantasy team but this is not the motivation for the article, OK!)
If the scheduling was at the insistence of Fox Sports, then they have gambled and lost. Sure, it would have made compulsive viewing “right now” if the Mariners had failed to win in Wellington. It may have added more viewers to the final game to boost the ratings. But it has backfired and the last game of the season is a lame duck. It may well be a cracker but it means nothing to the neutral.
If it’s good enough for the English Premier League to play their final round concurrently, or for final pool matches at the World Cup to be played at the same time, why would it not occur to league administrators to do the same for at least the matches that had a direct bearing on the outcome of final places.
Would it have been too hard for Wellington-Central Coast to kick off at 6.00pm New Zealand time, Gold Coast-Brisbane kick off at 3.00pm Queensland time, then play the Sydney-Newcastle game at 6.30pm Sydney time?
In a season of great on-field action and generally positive organisation off the pitch, it’s disappointing that neither the league or the TV bosses got this one right.
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