Rugby league in Australia had a little bit of just about everything last week. Everything that is, except a slim, bespectacled, silver-haired man sternly addressing a press conference.
Yes, David Gallop has joined the round ball code and the NRL is all the poorer for it. Papa Frank has picked a winner, and would be keen to for Gallop to stabilise the relatively young A-League competition.
However, you can’t expect a doer like David to just sit on his hands umming and ahhing can you?
No, word on the street is that dangerous Dave has got some big ideas for football in this country, some real paradigm breakers. And, perhaps not surprisingly, many of these ideas have been lifted directly from his former footy flame.
So here they are, David Gallops five NRL ideas for FFA.
5. Less draws
One of Gallop’s lasting legacies at the NRL was his unwavering support for extra time ‘golden point’ matches. The man’s a former lawyer you see, can’t stand a draw.
Considering that football has more drawing going on than after little lunch at a kindergarten, it’s only natural Gallop would be keen to ditch the ties so at least one set of fans can go home angry.
How he plans to do this remains to be seen. Golden goal is the obvious choice, but fans really seem to like those penalty shoot-out thingies… don’t they?
4. More Refs
Have you ever watched a game of football and seen the lonely bloke with the whistle wandering around in circles and occasionally writing in a little notebook? Couldn’t he use some company out there?
It’s about time football moved into the 21st century and adopted a two referee system. The NRL did this years ago and fans have more or less completely stopped complaining about the quality and parentage of refs.
While they’re at it, the game needs to figure out a way to get the video ref involved a bit more too, otherwise the code’s going to continue to struggle for real drama.
3. More cool playing strips
Recently the new A-League side Western Sydney Wanderers debuted their jerseys to the press. Red and black hoops… that’s it.
Sadly this is not just a one off either, with a number of A-League sides choosing to go with designs equally uninspiring.
Are we living in the 40’s here?
Surely in this age of watermark logos, patented wicking technology and integrated thermo shark skin compression, fans should expect something more eye-catching.
Also things like lightning bolts, camouflage print and collector item shirts plugging romantic comedy DVD releases never go out of fashion.
2. Bigger rivalries
Sure the A-League has developed some pretty decent spats between sides, but what about in the press?
Save for when some bozo lights a couple of bungers at the bus stop outside Hindmarsh stadium, and the mainstream press rolls out Youtube footage of Millwall psychopaths from 1978 to get their hackles up, football scribes are generally quite an agreeable lot.
Gallop has witnessed first-hand what great publicity sport can be milked from childish vendettas held by journos, and igniting a bit of niggle would definitely be good for the old media monitors.
Craig Foster can’t do this all by himself y’know
1. Higher international standard
When David Gallop was at the helm of the NRL, the Australian Kangaroos held the number one world ranking.
Imagine his shock then, when he was told that the Socceroos are languishing in 24th place behind a bunch of countries who are searching behind the lounge cushions for money just to put petrol in the car.
Time to sort this mess out. Gallop’s thinking academies, private benefactors, celebrity coaches.
Or alternatively, just playing New Zealand a bunch of times and not letting any countries come here to tour until our ranking goes up a bit.
Follow Chris on Twitter: @Vic_Arious
Dingo
Guest
Great idea Vince, what I would like to see is the extra 2 balls added, these look identical to the other except only one of them has a tiny silicon chip implanted and this is the "real" ball, but the players and the viewers are unaware which one is which until the end of the game. So you have this situation where players are scoring goals with 3 balls but only one ball is registering. The fans would love it.
mahony
Guest
CLearly the thing is a joke - but it only works, like all jokes, becasue their is a grain of truth to the fact that many Aussies think this way. As a football fan I get the joke, but as an Austrailan I shudder at the fact that its funny.....
Kasey
Guest
I still have a spew shirt! It’s my ‘default’ shirt for Socceroos games! An added benefit is that it means I don’t get sucked into buying each new monstrosity put out by Nike! I love it, at the pre-match pub, it usually good for starting a conversation or two;)
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Ah, who can ever forget that great Socceroo contribution to world fashion - the spew shirt
Kasey
Guest
Cheers Peter This stage(Quarter Finals) is a 2-leg tie. We play at home on Sept 19th and away in Tashkent on October 2nd. Should we win the tie, it has already been decided by the AFC that the winner of QF1: AU v Bunyodkor(UzB) will host the winner of QF2: Al-Ittihad (KSA) v Guangzhou Evergrande (CHN) in the Final(One game, not H&A anymore), Meaning the pressure is well and truly on my Reds. Knock out comps are very exciting, but we are out of season and even in this age of mass communications, I know very little about Bunyodkor as a team, save for David Carney can’t get a run in the firsts ;) so the element of the unknown just ratchets up the tension even more. I’m super keen for this, already got my tickets(myself, dad and brother) not sure how ticket sales are going, but I’d be very surprised if we didn’t go close to 85% capacity. The ACL doesn’t yet have the same sheen and cut through with the general public as its more illustrious European counterpart.
thinker
Guest
no NSW v VIC SoO makes me sad panda
PeterK
Guest
The "edit" doesn't seem to be working well for me at the moment, but I'd like to add to the above that when we're having a bit of fun like this is often when we come up with one or two really good ideas. Selecting from the posts above what those ideas might be is not something I'm going to attempt though.
PeterK
Guest
Thanks everybody for a wonderful read.
PeterK
Guest
Midfielder and Tommygun both, what fun you've helped create here. Thank you both, and thanks to Chris for initiating the whole thing. I can't remember when I've had a smile on my face for so long while reading these "Roars"!
PeterK
Guest
Good luck to the Reds in the next ACL game, Kasey. I'd forgotten about that till you mentioned it. When is it? You realise that you are pretty well representing Oz at that now don't you! I'll be following as best I can from NQ.
PeterK
Guest
On the few occasions I might fly in to Sydney -- many many years ago, when St George were having great years -- I think it was the St George ground I could see just before we landed was it not? It was great to see (from the air) players playing our wonderful game!
PeterK
Guest
I do so look forward to next week's article. Mind you, I'm quite happy to read the more serious "essays" too -- and did not find that they were necessarily "in rebuttal".
PeterK
Guest
Thanks, Chris, I've smilingly enjoyed reading not only the article, but also all the responses so far. And this post is great, too!
PeterK
Guest
Love it, Kasey!
Chris Chard
Expert
If it happens I just hope the A-league's new 'Harry' hangs around for a bit longer than the last one...
Mick H
Roar Rookie
I hope they stick to one jersey for the A League teams. The NRL has about four to five different strips with even the home team wearing their away jerseys and it's a massive pet peeve of mine !!! The AFL have got it right, KISS, keep it simple stupid, one home jersey for home matches and one away jersey when your home jersey clashes with your opponents home jersey !!!!!!
amazonfan
Roar Guru
"You’re here…nothing interesting going on in the world of ARF? " Not to speak for AR, however quite a few Roarers are interested in more than one football code.
Australian Rules
Guest
I think there should be multiple balls on the field at once. And they should be coloured. Resembling a snooker table. Teams must net a red ball first...then a colour. The scoreboard will be a large wooden horizontal frame with sliding pegs under the numbers.
Australian Rules
Guest
Bondy It just wouldn't feel Australian if it wasn't sponsored by Japan or China... or Korea in the case of the A-League!
Evan Askew
Guest
Lol. Might be on the cards considering the hassles Woolongong Wolves aka South Coast Wolves are having with grounds. http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/ffa-boss-in-plea-over-wolves-plight-20120820-24im7.html St George stadium home of the once great Hungarian backed team needs a bit of a touch up though.