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There is a conversation that Australian football will soon need to have, and it strikes at the very heart of this nation’s sporting identity.
Is the A-League finals series ultimately dispensable?
Even though the new finals structure was unveiled months and months ago, it is a hot-button topic again after the revamped format was openly criticised in the press.
It must have just dawned on reporters that any team from the top six could realistically win it this season – not only because the A-League is possibly the most even competition in world football, but because the finals series itself has changed dramatically.
No longer do the top two teams get the double chance. That’s been removed and replaced with an automatic week off and an automatic home preliminary final for both.
That’s still some advantage. But it is a double-edged sword.
One loss could quite conceivably shatter the dreams of Central Coast or Western Sydney, the two sides that are far and away the best performers this season.
Detractors (first-past-the-post loyalists) call the finals series a glorified cup competition. Unfortunately, this new format gives that argument credence.
Now that David Gallop has assured us the FFA Cup is coming, the argument is that this will replace the need for a grand final, with the cup decider thought to satisfy Australia’s fetish for a sporting showpiece.
It is indeed a national obsession that’s deeply ingrained into our psyche – the demand for our heroes to be crowned not by what some would call the ‘traditional’ method of first-past-the-post, but on a grand, elevated stage.
For more than 30 years it was the case in the NSL. It is so in every major competition in Australia.
We love it. The grand final gives a season a sense of closure. Clearly fans know it takes a special team to finish top of the ladder, but the grand final is a further challenge.
It has shaped Australia’s definition of a true winning team – one that is not just consistent throughout the grind of a home-and-away season, but one that also has nerves of steel, a champion’s mentality and can produce on demand.
It is our preferred method for choosing our legends. And it can’t be replaced by the FFA Cup.
A cup final isn’t the same. A cup final is a cup final – a final to decide who gets to take home a particular cup.
A grand final decides who is the best team over a whole season in the most important competition. The stakes could not differ more wildly.
First-past-the-posters who cry foul of the A-League finals series say you cannot dismiss the performances of a team over a whole season when deciding who is the best.
But a proper finals series doesn’t do that.
A proper finals series is a gauntlet that hands every possible advantage to the most consistent teams – then demands they repeat that consistency in front of a whole nation.
The double chance in particular puts the best sides in the box seat for silverware, with the test how those sides deal with the pressure and weight of expectation.
Australian sport has decided over the years that if you’re a good side but can’t manage that, you’re a pretender.
This is what the new A-League finals series doesn’t quite say, and it’s why this correspondent isn’t okay with how this season will finish.
A home final for the top two sides is nice, but a week off is arguably disruptive to a team’s rhythm and while it might make for enthralling football, removing the double chance and turning the finals into a knockout competition from the get-go favours the lesser sides more than it should.
Then the grand final becomes a little more like a cup final – a pithy addendum to the season as opposed to a true culmination of a full campaign, the last hurdle that needs to be cleared by the champion.
It still might be the rightful team that ends up with the toilet seat but the fabric of the finals has been altered slightly. Without seeding, the purpose it serves diminishes.
You can spend hours pointing out problems with the A-League finals – how it’s stupid that more than half the teams can qualify, how the preliminary final became the anti-climactic problem child of the series, how even the AFC now no longer fully acknowledges the winner.
But the grand final tradition is something to be cherished. It is part of Australian sport – and has been part of Australian football for more than 30 years. The thrill of winning one cannot be replaced.
It can, however, be knocked down a peg. That’s what the new A-League finals series format does, and one can only hope it doesn’t lead to a long-term erosion of our love for the big dance.
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