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A-League finals lost in off-field soap opera

Roar Guru
13th April, 2012
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It seems the A-League keeps getting its on-season and off-season confused.

A-League fans waited impatiently for the start of season seven, with one of the best off-season buildups ever over the signings of Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton.

The saga of whether Kewell would or wouldn’t sign kept fans and media waiting for more, and when the Victory and Sydney FC got their respective men, it ensured the Round 1 clash between the two would be a monster.

That’s the way to fuel your off-season. Unfortunately, recent dramas surrounding the axing of Gold Coast United and Nathan Tinkler’s decision to hand back the Newcastle Jets license have happened during the most important part of the season, and the on-field action is being swamped by the barrage of media surrounding off-field dramas.

I realise the FFA had no control over the timing of Tinkler’s decision, which was made on a day when the code was due to bestow the highest individual honour on a player.

It looked on the surface one of the most malicious and spiteful acts imaginable, gutting a region that is known as the cradle of football in this country, and indirectly denigrating the A-League awards night where the major prize is named after one of Australian football’s immortals, Johnny Warren.

The fact is, we have all bought into the debate, with multiple articles on this site and many comments from readers about the ills of the game, the FFA, billionaires and the future of the national competition.

What the FFA did have control over were the decisions on GCU and the entry of the Western Sydney team, and I really feel these needed to be left till the off-season.

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I don’t care how many rumours started circulating or how many opinions people had, at this stage of the season, the focus had to be about the A-League finals series – Central Coast Mariners and Perth Glory’s playoff for a place in the showpiece event of the domestic season.

Will the Mariners defence, having conceded five goals over two games to the Brisbane Roar, be able to contain the resurgent Shane Smeltz and Billy Mehmet? What sort of reception will Danny Vukovic, Dean Heffernan and Glory coach Ian Ferguson receive when they return to their former home at Bluetongue Stadium?

Apart from the Glory faithful, is their any neutral fan that doesn’t want to see another installment in the incredible Roar-Mariners rivalry in the grand final?

You know, off the top of my head, I don’t even know what day and time the Mariners-Glory game is. That’s partly my fault, because I too have been sucked into the soap opera of Battle Of The Billionaires.

And no, that’s not an original tag; four years ago, World Wrestling Entertainment used that very line to promote one of their feature matches at their annual Wrestlemania event, where WWE owner Vince McMahon and super-rich combover merchant Donald Trump picked combatants to represent themselves, with the loser getting his head shaved.

Come to think of it, Tinkler, Palmer and Frank Lowy all have reasonably hirsute domes, maybe we’re onto something…

In some ways, this war between Tinkler and the FFA is as absurd as any wrestling spectacle.

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There is no doubt that the FFA had to respond swiftly to the Tinkler drama, and there was also no doubt that it would be all over the media.

Football fans can again be forgiven for thinking that the game only gets banner headlines when someone wants to try to tear it apart, as Tinkler is obviously trying to do. But we all picked our sides and started voicing our opinions.

It would have made for great debate during the off-season.

In the meantime, roll on the Mariners-Glory game this Saturday at 5.00pm And let’s leave the soap operas for the off-season.

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