Football Federation Australia has cut the fat off the A-League schedule, for the betterment of the 2012/13 season draw.
Gone are the unpopular Wednesday night midweek fixtures; the cumbersome finals series; community round matches between teams with no connection to the host community; and ‘Super Wednesday’, where five matches were played back-to-back on a non-public holiday Wednesday.
In is a more streamlined draw where the first month contains most of the important match-ups to start the season strongly; a number of fixtures spread across the country on the important summer public holidays; and, most significantly, the new-look finals series.
Rather than the top two from the home and away season earning a double chance and playing over two legs for the right to progress directly into and host the grand final, they will instead have the first week of the finals off and enter at the semi-final stage against the winners of the third to sixth placed elimination finals.
The old two-tier format overly favoured the top two, while also setting up the stale prospect of the same two clubs playing each other in three out of the four finals weeks, as has happened on occasions over the last several seasons.
Now there will be a greater cutthroat element to the finals series, rather than an elongated drawn out process where the grand final hosts only faced one do-or-die match in the decider.
As FFA CEO Ben Buckley says, it avoids “the repetitive nature of the previous system” while intensifying the semi finals “that will provide the platform for a highly energised and uncompromising cup style finals format”.
The home and away season starts with the Melbourne derby, with the Sydney derby held-off until Round 3. Rather than take my idea of starting with the bang of the two derbies to open the season, the FFA has instead spaced out key fixtures in the first month of the season.
With the Melbourne derby, Sydney derby, grand final replay (Perth Glory versus Brisbane Roar), Adelaide United versus Melbourne Victory, Wellington versus Sydney FC (Wellington’s biggest crowd earner) and Newcastle versus Central Coast in the first three rounds, there are major fixtures in each of the five markets and more.
There is also a better spread of timeslots for clubs. Adelaide United, for example, has more Saturday and Sunday afternoon slots rather than a plethora of Friday night matches, to the benefit of those who can’t make Friday nights and young families. But in saying that, Newcastle Jets has four of the last five Friday night matches of the season…
Fans voted against midweek fixtures by not turning up in big numbers, so their reduction to just significant dates in summer is a sign that the governing body isn’t trying to cram unpopular yet convenient timeslots down fans’ throats, rather working on a better solution.
While ‘Super Wednesday’ proved popular for Fox Sports subscribers, any matches held during a non-public holiday day robs fans of seeing their club in action. The two fixtures on New Year’s Eve and three on New Year’s Day are far more fan-friendly and less television-biased.
Elsewhere, a fixture in Newcastle on Good Friday and one in Melbourne on the Monday night before the Melbourne Cup is worth experimenting with, while the double derby fixture on Australia Day could be the start of a worthwhile tradition.
The maximisation of summer and its holidays, a time of the year when cricket and four weeks of tennis provide the only sporting competition, is impressive in the draw and is vital for the league’s growth.
Popular with most, there were some criticisms of the draw, however.
The absence of Friday night matches in Round 15, 23 and 26 takes some of the consistency away from timeslots – something the league should deliver each round so there are regular Friday to Sunday matches on weekends.
Community matches have been reduced to Launceston, Dunedin and Campbelltown and possible regional home matches for Adelaide United and Perth Glory.
While they were hit and miss last season, the community matches could have been more successful had more thought gone into the motivations of taking certain clubs to certain communities (why did Newcastle Jets host Adelaide United in Bathurst, of all places?). They have a place to further broaden the game’s horizons, but need to make sense for the home team with a clear link between the community and host club.
Also, the Good Friday fixture could have been better utilised in Melbourne, where the AFL’s hesitancy to stage matches on the religious holiday leaves a void in the major market that the A-League could exploit.
But nevertheless the draw is a winner; eradicating many of the negatives of the previous draws and playing to the strengths of the league – better utilising the growing rival and derby fixtures at key points of the season and the opportunities afforded by summer dates.
Unburdened by Gold Coast United home games, which averaged a paltry 3546 last season, the solid A-League draw should also help improve on the 2011/12 home and away crowd average of 10,490, depending of course on how well the new Western Sydney club can build a fanbase from its wide and varied catchment area.
Now with the draw out it’s time for the FFA to fill in the TBAs (to be announced) and bring the Western Sydney club to life, finally.
PeterK
Guest
Bondy, this sounds to me like an argument against having Daylight Saving.
oly09
Guest
Leichhardt is a great old ground, but the tram is a long walk away. The buses go pretty close.
Titus
Guest
Not too fussed really, the competition is so close that it becomes a real tussel to get that final 5th or 6th spot, adds a bit of excitement to the tail end of the season and means more teams and their fans are still active. Then when you get to the finals there are 2 ACL spots (one already awarded) to fight for as well as making and winning the final.
Simmo
Guest
This is the first time in 3 years where I've not felt massive frustration at major mistakes in fixturing. Congratulations FFA, maybe you're learning.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
It seems obvious to me that the FFA is giving fans what they want, which is slowly transitioning the "finals" away from the HAL fixture towards being part of the national Cup Competition. In my opinion, before long, the whole finals series will be part of the FFA Cup & the HAL season will extend to 36 matches - each team playing all 9 other teams twice at home. But, we need to be patient.
Kasey
Guest
Thanks for the clarification.
Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party
Guest
Oh yeah its a good little stadium as far as being on top of the action,atmosphere and the pitch is fantastic 99.9% of the time its just not weather friendly.
Kasey
Guest
Definitely too far East for WSFC, at one stage wasn't SFC investigating teaming up with Wests Tigersto re-develop the ground and play more home games there? The tram from Central Station passes nearby doesn't it? WS are almost unbackable now to be based at Parramatta stadium(22k capacity) including the first few home derbies. It seems someone was listening when it was suggested that building exclusivity and atmosphere was the way to go before even thinking of taking the big payday at ANZ.
wisey_9
Roar Guru
yeah that was more of a personal hope - have games played within a short stroll from my place... and please nobody suggest the SFS. any team that has terry mcflynn in it, i will never be a fan of...
oly09
Guest
Leichhardt is a great ground for watching football, but nowhere near being considered western Sydney.
oly09
Guest
The problem with a four team finals is it means a couple of teams could be out of finals contention by the midway point of the season and have nothing to play for. With no relegation like other leagues we need to have something to maintain interest for the whole season.
Dillan
Guest
A top five for me seems more logical with a 10 team comp... I just hope they have got it right as I believe the finals series should continue be the same format to build credibility... Would seem silly to me if it was to change every year...
nordster
Guest
If they go ahead with an FFA cup or league cup that could extend the season depending on when its scheduled ...especially if it had a group stage at the start, four teams per group drawn from any area that wants to enter (state or regions and a-league, 32 teams?). So theres six games there plus a knockout stage after. Though i would prefer a straight knockout national cup, this could be an interim thing till the league season is longer. To have the cup during the league season with cup weekends would be ideal one day i guess. I dont mind theyve cut a week of finals as i think the season may still be a similar window as the midweek games are cut, so the league technically is a week longer (???)
Bondy
Guest
Hey mds , what would sally pearson get from those Acer ads, "anything$$$".
Bondy
Guest
The Glory vs The Mariners at NIB 40 degrees Arnie kicked up a stink, we just came back from our asian champs lge game in china ,I think it was early march.
Bondy
Guest
mds1970. It's six and one half dozen of the other, I remember a game with the Jets they played the Pheonix in Newc 8,00 pm kick off australian eastern it would've started somwhere near 10 pm in Wellington and the game finishes at 10 pm eastern time,why are we detaining people for such a long time to watch a sporting event where in which we get in summer three extra hours of light and what do we do play our games at dark or at night, that frustrates me to know that it's purely designed for fox. I know that it's tricky trying to play games in natural daylight or there abouts in summer in Aus (heatfactor) but wouldnt it be great to take the kids to a sporting event where in which your leaving the premises just on dark,not starting to arrive.
mds1970
Roar Guru
There was one occasion last year when it was still well over 40 degrees when the game kicked off - it was late in the season, late February or early March from memory. I've never been to that ground, but from what I've seen on telly there's nothing under cover on the eastern side; so you'd just bake in those sort of temperatures. They seem to have learned from that this time round. During the hottest time of the year, most WA games are Saturday evenings starting at 6:45 WA time (9:45 Sydney time).
wisey_9
Roar Guru
i was in Perth in February and got out to a dusk/night game... NIB is a fantastic venue to watch football at! http://imgur.com/e2ATn but yeah, i agree - sitting there in 35 degree heat would have been awful. here's hoping the new western sydney team base themselves at a smaller venue like NIB (personally i would love it to be leichardt, but parramatta seems the most likely/logical choice).
Bondy
Guest
Well we cant change the rules to the game in this country, so if we can try to get a stable finals series that doesnt feel somewhat drawn out especially when in the short histroy of the HAL that the top two teams have ultimately meet in the grand final I think five out of seven times. We must be forever vigilant that we are playing internationally a sport that consists professionally for ten months of the year and in Australia were playing for just over six months,somehow someway we have to make up about three months of non activity for national team players and potential national team players. But the governance of the sport is trying to listen to its supporters and participants which cant be a negative.
pete4
Guest
With 10 clubs I was hoping for a Top 5 finals series. I can only assume it's Top 6 as the FFA wishes the HAL could have 12 clubs sooner rather than later