On 22nd April 2012, Brisbane Roar won back to back championships defeating Perth Glory 2-1, bringing the A-League season 7 to a close!
Having to wait another 166 days until the commencement of A-League season 8 was long enough, but the wait was worth it.
With an A-League attendance overall record and round 1 record on the brink of being broken and mass hype surrounding the big three signings of Alessandro Del Piero, Heskey and Ono, the A-League was starting to attract the attention it needs.
Not to just get a rise in attendance, participation and a viewing audience but for the sport to be spoken about once again and through word of mouth be spread to a larger audience and make the game more attractive to viewers.
Round 1 kicked off with the Melbourne Derby, with Heart taking the spoils 2-1. So much expectation was on the Victory considering the poor season last year. Ange made his point clear; he wasn’t happy.
As for the Heart and Aloisi, congratulations! There’s still another 26 rounds to go though so both to sets of fans: don’t be disheartened and don’t get too cocky.
The greatest positive to come out of this match was the 42,000 strong crowd. Who would have thought? The A-League, a game nobody likes and could only be bothered to watch an EPL, La Liga or Serie A game showed their is strength within Football for Australia.
Our next match was Wellington Phoenix vs Sydney FC. Or the ADP show. Time will tell what sort of an influence he will have on the A-League, but considering an extra 4000 fans showed up for a game (Wellington would generally average 8600) is positive, let’s also not forget the horrible conditions.
These conditions didn’t finish there either. With the third game being played in Parramatta, the A-League’s new boys Western Sydney Wanderers would face minor premiers Central Coast Mariners.
Although dominated in passing and possession, as you would expect from a team who has been up there for the past two seasons with the Roar, WSW looked most threatening. Although the final result was a 0-0 draw I am sure the 10,000 that attended will be more than happy to go and watch another game.
Game 4, What can Emile do? That was probably the question on the most lips of A-League fans. As for the Jets, the 14,500 strong in attendance would have gone home disappointed after a 0-2 loss to Adelaide United. Dario Vidosic, son of Rado, could potentially push harder for selection for Australia; not only is he a great player but he will be important to Adelaide’s season.
Game 5, Grand Final Rematch. From the get go I had a feeling Perth would win this one. Brisbane Roar, although with the same squad, didn’t play their usual game. This was a very entertaining game, but I believe the Roar may need to look to play their usual style. The ball in this game was end to end but the Roar at times were forced to play the ball in the air.
Perth played this game well and with another 14,000 on hand the A-League was off to a flying start. A new record of 93,000 and the first three A-League matches pulling an average of 100,000 viewers on Foxports would clearly suggest the sport is growing.
It is only round 1 but teams will start to find their groove, that or the strong will rise above the weak. I believe this season could be one of the closest since the finish of the 2008 season in which the top 4 teams (Newcastle Jets, CCM, Roar and Sydney FC) were seperated by 4 points and CCM AND the Jets finished equal on competition points but not goal difference.
I would be very surprised if the Roar can go Back-to-Back-to-Back, Perth will feel last year’s loss hard and if they are there at season’s end I believe they will be my pick. The pressure could be too much to handle and unless Smeltz fires then they won’t rise to the occasion.
CCM I believe will be there once again with a few upsets to come from WSW. I can not pick a last or a definitive first. We will see within the next four to five weeks.
A wrap of next weeks A-League matches for Round 2 to follow! Fingers crossed.
Cameron
Roar Guru
@jbinnie, fellow roarers AUFC vs WSWFC - 8,950 SFC vs NUJFC - 35,419 BRFC vs MVFC - 17,364 MHFC vs WPFC - 10,907 CCMFC vs PGFC - 9,192 Round 2 total 81832(only 168 off my predicted total of 82,000), attendance average. 16,366
jbinnie
Guest
Glad to report after 3 games in round 2 the last year's figure of approx 55,000 has already been surpassed ,(61,500) and still 2 attendances to be added. Great stuff,hope it continues Kellet. jb
jbinnie
Guest
kellet 1992- Re. my offering above,omens are very very good, for last year's figure for second round matches, (55,0000), has already been surpassed (61,500 to 3 games)and still 2 Sunday match attendances to be added. Great stuff,hope it continues. jb
Nathan of Perth
Roar Rookie
Yes, yes it would.
Cameron
Roar Guru
8950 in attendance for AUFC 1 vs WSWFC 0 35419 in attendance for SFC 2 vs NUJFC 3 17364 in attendance for BRFC 5 vs MVFC 0 total attendance for round so far - 61733 CCMFC vs PGFC my prediction for attendance 11000 MHFC vs WPFC my prediction for attendance 12000. Would be a great way to the start of season
Cameron
Roar Guru
8950 in attendance for AUFC vs WSWFC.
Minister for Information for the Democratic People's Republic of Football
Guest
I've looked at this post several times and amazingly I just noticed I wrote "Night"..FFS!!! The brain works in funny ways sometimes.
jbinnie
Guest
Some interesting analyses on figures generated for the first round fixtures but actually an increase should have been expected ,not necessarily caused by promotion or "hype' but by the very fact that 3 of the teams playing at home actually played at home for the first round matches last season. Victory, (less Kewell and their opponent's Emerton) had an increase of approx 1700,Jets ,( with Heskey a "new" attraction) had an increase of 2400, Perth , (no doubt with "revenge in mind) did have a huge increase of 4600,while WSW (replacing the ousted GCU) did even better,with an expected increase of 6300 over last season's figure.Four games compared with last season and an increase of approx.15000 but nearly 11000 of that increase not totally unexpected ie (WSW & Perth). The fifth game is a bit harder to call for Wellington did not play a first week home game but when compared to their "first" home game on the second week of last season they too had a healthy increase of 4400 but one would also have to assume the Del Piero presence would have contributed to that figure. This is not meant as a "negative" viewpoint simply an indicator that it is statistically dangerous to get too hyped up about the opening figures generated in week 1 of any season.Last season's week 1 drew nearly 80,000 fans but week 2 dropped to 55000. We must hope this does not repeat itself but only time will tell when analysing figures. jb
Cameron
Roar Guru
Sorry, Phone used auto correct and changed NUJFC to BUNDY???
Cameron
Roar Guru
It has just been repeatedly tweeted, that only 5,900 tickets remain for SFC vs BUNDY remain (hopefully true) and if Brisbane achieve an attendance of 20,000 and all other teams have above average crowds, we could be in for another record breaker. Fingers crossed!
Cameron
Roar Guru
@ Midfielder - To see a crowd ratings reach your hopefully predicted total of 91,000, would be amazing to see considering it would be roughly around the current record just set in round 1 last week. In my opinion, althoguh attendances are on the rise, I personally believe attendance figures will roughly reach 75,000 - 82,000. If bad weather stays away and the promotion of BRFC vs MVFC reaches a vast array of public I believe your prediction of 21,000 could be reached. BRFC highest attendance during the regular season last year was 19,339 against Perth Glory on a Saturday night, and great weather was around for the fans to attend. With a focus on increasing membership numbers on a child perspective BRFC will be hoping to better their 4200-4500 membership base from last season. Overall an average of 13,387 was achieved for BRFC and with an increase of lets hope 2000 members and winning the championship last season Brisbane can hope to achieve the high attendance rates of 2007-2008 season with 16,951 average attendance. My assumptions on Crowd ratings AUFC vs WSW ------- 12,000 (early in season, estimated numbers of 2000 - 3000 members) SFC vs NUJFC ------- 28,000 (SFC are predicting 30,000, fingers crossed) BRFC vs MVFC ------ 18,000 (though could be less as the weather here is currently bad) MHFC vs WPHFC ----- 12,000 (averaged 9,000 last season, an improvement on the 8,300 the year prior) CCMFC vs PGFC ----- 11,000 (aim - 5000 memb. atm 3000, had roughly 2500membs. last yr, averaged 9,600) Lets hope after Round 2, there will be more positives to report on!
Andrew
Guest
Solid First Article Cameron , Hopefully more to come
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Rusty0256 it's been a while since an MVFC performance has driven me to emotional, or physical, ecstasy that could produce the reaction you've described - reminiscent of that famous Meg Ryan scene from "When Harry Met Sally"! :-)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Punter You are spot on. It's so odd to read positive news about Football in the mainstream media - this has never happened in my 40yrs in Australia. I browsed the Herald Sun webiste - they have an extensive range of stories on every HAL club, plus the National Team, plus overseas leagues! Simply extraordinary. Perhaps, it's just coincidence that this is happening at at time when David Gallop has been appointed CEO of the FFA. From what I've heard, Rupert Murdoch is a HUGE admirer of David Gallop. And, we only have to go back 20 years, to review how Rupert Murdoch changed the face of Football in Europe & made the English Premier League the most watched & most lucrative football league on the planet and made EPL clubs household brand names in every part of the globe. The sports landscape in AUS has changed dramatically and, by 2020, will look quite different to what we see today.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
*sighs at Fussball and Punter* Look, go watch some Garrincha. Its a short clip, but gee it's pretty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YceBkLcF4E8
Punter
Guest
Fuss, I was just saying that to a mate on the phone, no more than 5 mins ago. I sense a massive change in the media lately, TV, radio, newspaper towards football in this country. Now before the likes of Ian & his AFL cheerleaders come on, I have no doubt as Midfileder said a few days ago, we are still well behind the NRL & especially the AFL, but we are now one of the big players now & have a good base to build on.
Rusty0256
Roar Rookie
Fussy you need to get one of those discreet ear-plugs wi-fied to your mobile and listen to the game on the ABC Grandstand. The only downside might be just as the priest asks "if any person here present knows of any lawful impediment to this marriage then he or she should declare it now" Fussy jumps to his feet (in response to a goal for Victory) and yells....YES, YES, YESSSS!!!
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@ Ian Brain or heart ... since Socrates was a boy, philosophers - far better intellectually equipped than you (or I) - have been arguing about which organ should take precedence in decision-making. All I know is NewsLtd has had a MASSIVE culture change in the past week and has decided to eliminate SOCKAH from its dialect and replace it with the global word, "FOOTBALL". And, News Ltd - including the AFL-centric Herald Sun in Melbourne, will be using the term "FOOTBALL" for the World Game in Summer, Spring, Winter & Autumn (or Fall, if you prefer). Change is in the air ... surely, you can feel it? WE ARE FOOTBALL ... get involved or get out of our way.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Middy, sounds good to me. If I recall correctly, my forecasts for last week were a bit over for NIX, WSW & NUJ and a bit under for MBV & PER. I can't believe I'll miss Ange's return to Lang Park on Saturday night - a mate of mine has decided to get married (again!!) ... I really need to start culling non-HAL fans from my social circle ;-)
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Fuss, use your brain, not your prejudices. News Corporation, via Fox Sports, the Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos, have interests in *all* the sorts of football in this country. Despite this, their tabloid newspapers still bag the minority-support footballs in their various markets. The desire for more media coverage for the A-League was one of the major reasons for moving away from the winter footy season and into the relatively clear air of late spring and summer, when there is only cricket to contend with. Again, think with your brain, not your prejudices.