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After a pulsating end to the A-League season in which most positions on the ladder were still undecided going into the last round of the home-and-away season – including the premiership, “wooden spoon”, and finals positions – the competition moved into finals mode with great momentum.
It’s always an exciting time for the league, but there is a sharper edge to this season’s new streamlined finals system which is set to produce the most exciting (and heart breaking) finals series yet.
There’s no time for second chances (literally, with the reduction from a four-week series down to three), every finals match will be a sudden death playoff for the first time in the A-League’s history.
Not everyone is excited about the prospect of finals football.
The purists believe the champions of the A-League should be the best team over the course of the year – finals only serve to allow teams who have not been the best or most consistent all season to become champions by needing only to string a handful of wins together at the right time of year.
I don’t think many would disagree with their feelings, in the isolation of purely football reasons – but there is a lot more to a sporting competition than merely to do what is “fairest”.
Australia has a relatively unique football landscape compared to the rest of the world.
Most football leagues around the world have multiple divisions, with a promotion and relegation system in place, which keeps the season alive for many of the teams whose championship chances had disappeared early in the season (or in many cases never had them to begin with).
Had the championship been decided by league finish this season, up to 6 of the 10 teams in the league would have had absolutely nothing to play for in the entire second half of the season, apart from their pride.
With the end of the A-League season now overlapping with the other football codes, the last thing the game needs is a flood of “dead rubbers” to finish the season.
Should a team streak clear and win the title early in a future season, how many A-League supporters will switch off to follow their teams in other sports who are just getting started?
This season – with finals football in place – every team still had something to play for right until the final matches were played. Every team tried, on most occasions, to play their strongest sides, and we had a lot of games that truly mattered – at both ends of the table.
Ironically, the Premiers Plate this season was effectively decided by one match – when the Western Sydney Wanderers traveled to Gosford to take on the Central Coast Mariners.
The Mariners dominated the game and had several chances to win the match before the Wanderers caught them on the break with one of their few attacks of the game, scoring the match winner, which turned out to be the championship winner (I suspect a statue of Labinot Haliti is in the works, shirt in hand).
Had it been a knockout finals match, it would have been the stuff of nightmares for the purists.
Really, that’s just football – and luck tends to even out over the course of a season if you are good enough – but it does make you think about the merits of a grand final decider.
That one key match that matters most happening as the final game of the season. The event, the atmosphere, and the build up. All eyes on it.
Rather than that match happening sometime during the season, often with no one realising that it will end up being the deciding match.
Some have also questioned what they perceive as a lack of advantage for higher placed teams in finals, particularly with the removal of the second chance for the top two teams.
In reality, the new finals system gives the Premiers Plate winners the best chances of winning the Championship that they have ever had in the A-League’s history.
Here’s why.
History shows that hosting the grand final goes a long way towards winning the championship – the only two teams to ever win a grand final away have been Sydney in 2009/10 against Melbourne Victory (after penalties), and Newcastle Jets in 2007/08 against the Mariners – who were forced to play at a neutral venue, not at their home ground.
Both occasions were also the only times a team has successfully used the second chance to win the Championship, suggesting the double chance is more about appearances than a real second chance. It puts a football team on life support, delaying the inevitable.
This season, there are less obstacles in the way for the league winners to host the final. Under last season’s finals format, Western Sydney Wanderers would have needed to defeat the second placed Mariners over a two leg home and away playoff.
What if the Wanderers were offered to play against the fourth best team (at best) instead? This season they will actually face fifth placed Brisbane Roar (who beat fourth placed Adelaide in their Elimination final to earn that right) rather than the Mariners.
What if the Wanderers were also offered to not have to play the Brisbane home leg of the tie at all and just play their own home game to decide it? Seems like a sweet deal. That’s what the Premiers gain this season.
Last season, I dare say the Mariners would have preferred to face Wellington at home in a one off game to host the grand final, rather than playing an excellent Roar side over a very fair and balanced home and away tie.
The new finals format certainly gives the second placed team less chance of stealing a home grand final, as Brisbane did from the Mariners last season.
The chances for the Premiers to win the Championship increase under the new finals format, but with no second chance safety net, the risk of missing out on a grand final appearance altogether also increases.
It ups the ante, but also deals the Premiers a good hand – it’s up to them to utilise it.
The A-League is not just about fairness of competition but also entertainment – the game needs to find the right balance of both – and finals football is like regular football on steroids (or some form of legal peptides at least).
The new finals system only adds to the excitement, hitting us with a bang with five massive sudden death ‘cup-ties’, and finishing the season with the must see game of the year, for A-League fans and non A-League fans alike.
It is something all Australians can relate to – a grand final.
Whether you think it’s legitimate or not, the finals’ fuelled finale to this season promises to be the most exciting and dramatic yet. When considering all of the factors at play – finals football for the A-League is fair enough.
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