The 2011-2012 A-League Season is over and we’ve also moved through the period of annual club award nights and the announcement of each club’s ‘Player of the Year’.
All clubs, with the exception of Perth, (to be held in June) and GCU (unknown), have announced their season’s best as follows.
– Brisbane Roar: Besart Berisha
– Central Coast Mariners: Matt Ryan
– Wellington Phoenix: Ben Sigmund
– Sydney FC: Ivan Necevski
– Melbourne Heart: Clint Bolton
– Newcastle Jets: Ben Kennedy
– Melbourne Victory: Ante Covic
– Adelaide United: Zenon Caravella
There is something decidedly disturbing about this list, but it isn’t that any of the players are undeserving of the award. The problem is that five out of eight recipients are goalkeepers.
With Danny Vukovic having a stand out season for Perth it is entirely possible that the number could jump to six out of nine.
Statistically that is an alarming figure. The goalkeeper is outnumbered by outfield players by a ratio of ten to one, which would translate to goal keepers winning one player of the year award on a pro-rata basis.
For goalkeepers to win five from eight suggests something is not quite right with their outfield counterparts.
The problem seems to be the lack of consistency of the outfield players during the past season.
On the forward line, Berisha shone all season and was a standout so it’s no wonder he took out all of the Roar’s awards.
Archie Thompson kept pace in the first half of the season but couldn’t buy a goal in the last eleven matches and while Smeltz popped up here and there he only stood out with two big bags at the end of the year.
In the midfield Broich and Fred both played major roles for their respective teams but they did so in injury-plagued seasons which saw them missing for considerable periods of time.
Kewell shone in half a dozen matches only. Nichols and Dugandzic had good periods but were invisible at other times or on Olyroos duty.
Hernandez scored three of the top six goals of the season, displaying his extraordinary skills, but he never did enough work to earn a single man-of-the-match award.
Standing in front of the keepers, Zwaanswijk for my money was the best and most consistent defender of the year.
Bojic and Sigmund also had consistent seasons but weren’t match winners or match savers – Sigmund being the Wellington Player of the Year winner would suggest he was more consistent than any other Phoenix player.
You could throw a blanket over half a dozen or more other defenders who had reasonable seasons but none shone.
That brings us back to the goalkeepers. They have the benefit of usually being consistently on the park throughout the season so they have the maximum number of games in which to pick up points.
Combine that with a few shots stopped, a goal saved here or there, and they remain in memory even if they have done little else for eighty eight of the ninety minutes.
Maybe it says something of those appointed to score the awards that they remember a great save but fail to recall a series of unselfish runs.
Perhaps we rate an instinctive micro-second reaction to palm a ball wide of the goals more highly than a mazy dribble past three defenders that finishes with a shot going over the bar.
Probably the awards reflect the reality that last season the outfield players lack the overall consistency of their goal keeping counterparts.
But here’s the rub, I’ve never met anybody who went to a match to watch a goal keeper play and I don’t think it is a great advertisement for the game to tell an uninitiated or casual viewer that five of the eight A-League club’s ‘Player of the Year’ were the guys standing in the goals.
Whatever the reason for last season’s anomaly, it’s clear that we need more class from our outfielders and we need them to shine more often in games.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
True for 90% of the time, but it does happen! Perhaps a goalkeeper needs to be truly exceptional to garner the support of the average punter, whereas a striker needs only to be ok.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Ben, I'm sure you are right and no doubt there are great goal keepers around, but would I pay to specifically to go and see Ivan Necevski or Ben Kennedy - to tell a friend 'you must go and see these guys" - I don't think so. Even as a hard core Victory supporter I can say I turn up to games with Ante Covic on my list of 'cant wait to see' players.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Apaway, I'm glad you had one loyal supporter :)
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
In 2002 the most recognised footballer in Japan was Nakata, the second most Oliver Khan. His face was everywhere, buses, billboards you name it. People would watch Bayern Münich to applaud the goalkeeper. It was quite something.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Not necessarily. When a team has a poor year the GK sees more action and keeps the team in the game more often. It's when your team is killing everyone and the GK doesn't get to touch the ball that you don't notice them. It is part of the reason that many people know who Aston Villa's goalkeeper is yet fewer know Barcelona's keeper, despite the latter teams far superior international standing.
apaway
Guest
"But here’s the rub, I’ve never met anybody who went to a match to watch a goal keeper play..." You never met my mum, Phillip (though she did blanch at her son's liberal use of strong loud language when organising the defence) Really, I think you're getting in a lather over the long-overdue recognition of the player between the sticks. Your comment about a mazy run which ends with a shot over the bar is significant. I'd call that a "mistake" but strikers and midfielders can get away with them all the time. One mistake from a keeper is usually punished cruelly and not soon forgotten.
Mike SheehaIn
Guest
I agree with your assessment of Boton. He had a stellar year when Sydney won the double but his distribution was/is terrible. Necevskis was far superior to him and Reddy and thankfully was finally rewarded.
Dinoweb
Guest
philip, I agree with most of your general sentiment. I can not think of too many outfield players, apart from Berisha, that dominated the competition this season. I would like to point out though that I did pay to go and see Mark Bosnich play for CCM against the Roar in 2008. I still feel he was the best shot stopper Australia's produced, certainly in my time, and it was my only chance to ever watch him play live.
Bondy
Guest
It's an abnormally high figure one would assume Goal Keepers player of the season, in a position where they are most likely to be forgotten about in general, seen and not heard . I'll throw this one in the mix if Macos Flores wins the John Warren or club medal does that mean the league that season was full of attacking play .
ItsCalled AussieRules
Roar Rookie
Phil, That would be true if the average goals per game were down, but in fact average goals per game has risen to 2.7 per game which is higher than most leagues in the world. Shots on target were also up as were the number of saves. More action all round.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Since it's a quiet morning at work, I thought I'd go through each HAL team and identify potential outfield players (AUS only), who should be consistently dominating games. CCM: Ibini-Isei, Rogic BRI: Nichols, Brattan, Fitzgerald PER: ..??? SFC: Carle, Emerton, Chianese, Antonis, Petratos, Bridge MHT: Marrone, Behich, Good, Dugandzic, Williams, Babalj NUJ: Topor-Stanley, Kantarovski, Zadkovich, Pepper, Brockie, Griffiths MBV: Cernak, Davis, Kewell, Celeski, Jeggo, Thompson ADU: Caravella, Djite, Vidošić GCU: Thwaite, Cooper, Brillante, Halloran, Brown, Mehbrahtu, Harold From the above list, it seems only Caravella consistently produced this season.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
While several comments here have lauded the quality of the goal keepers Aust produces, it i worth pointing out that four of the five winners were in teams that did not have particularly good years. Sydney won 10, lost 9, goal difference -5. Heart won 9, lost 8, goal diff +1, Jets won 10, lost 12, goal difference -3, Victory won 6, lost 10, goal difference -8. These stats don't suggest goal keepers having stellar years. If the GK's were the players of the year it doesn't say much for the rest of the squad and just imagine how bad each team's record would have been without them..
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Ben, I agree. My original title was " Where are the "players"? " The mods changed it to "why were GK's voted the best ..."
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Good call on Fred and Dugandzic - when they were both missing at one point, the fortunes of Heart nose dived, and when they were flying, it was Fred and Dugandzic that were at the heart of it (so to speak). Of course, they both did end up missing 4 or 5 weeks, and keepers generally end up playing more games than most outfielders (with the exception of SFC!)
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Maybe the question shouldn't be "why do we produce good goalkeepers who are then recognised", but "why do we fail to produce controlling midfielders?" The approach sounds like we are bemoaning the fact we produce quality goalkeepers.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Fuss, you are ever the optimist and what you say has some truth to it. On the other side of the coin, I would suggest that GK's winning MOTM could also point to a lack of finishing skills among our forwards and I would back this up pointing to the recent Olyroos campaign where we failed to score a goal and some of the recent Roar matches in the ACL where they dominated games, or were equal to the opposition, but simply couldn't score. I'd rather midfielders or forwards winning MOTM. That would also indicate attacking play, plus, it would mean we are getting goals scored.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
I find that rather sad to be honest. What about Behich, Germano, Fred or Duganzic the players that make things happen? Or best of all Ali Babalj - I'd pay to see him, but I'd never pay to see Bolton. Bolton is probably the worst distributor of the ball in the A-League.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Gk, you are correct that I am not a goal keeper. In my playing days I was a right back. But you are wrong that I would point the blame at GK's. The fact is that the vast majority of goals come about by defensive or midfield errors. Often I can see a goal happening two or three passes before the goal is scored. However, let's not forget that GK's also make their fair share of mistakes during a game. How many passes out of defense miss a target team mate, how many go out of bounds on the full? There are very few GK's in the A-League who's ability to distribute the ball consistently is worthy of praise.
ItsCalled AussieRules
Roar Rookie
Good summation fussball and that's reflected in the increased entertainment value and standard of the A-League in recent seasons. Australia is a great country for outdoor sports and lots of kids sports with eye hand contact. We are also a bit cooler under pressure than tempermental latinos and europeans so Australia has always produced good goalkeepers and will continue to do so.
Matt F
Roar Guru
It certainly does say a lot about the rest of the squad.....