Football has become the cool kid in the playground

It’s the middle of the A-League off-season and the AFL and NRL are in the midst of their regular seasons, the latter featuring the much-hyped State of Origin, yet increasingly, it’s the world’s game that’s capturing much of the nation’s attention.

After the Socceroos garnered much of the focus on the road to Brazil throughout June, the second half of July gifted Australia a remarkable two weeks featuring visits from two of the game’s most recognised and loved identities, back to back.

While much of the motive for Manchester United and Liverpool FC coming to Australia was about them building on their own “brands” in what they’d consider as fairly virgin territory (Liverpool were visiting for the first time), for Australian football, it served the purpose of spreading the gospel of the game.

What the visits to Sydney and Melbourne did is ultimately keep the round ball game in the media at a time when it traditionally gets very little air-time.

More than that, it actually exposed at least a part of our local competition, the A-League, to a commercial TV market that would have seen very little of it previously.

While the performance of the All-Stars against a very happy and motivated United was extremely underwhelming, a youthful Melbourne Victory made up for it in part with an outstanding display against Liverpool four days later.

What that performance by Ange Postecoglou’s club side showed was the best face of Australian football, a young team of locally produced footballers keeping the ball and playing football the proper way.

For all the Liverpool love that emanated from the stands of the MCG, and the rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” something very special to be a part of and witness, it was very satisfying that Brendan Rodgers’ men weren’t walking around the MCG alone after the first and final whistles blew.

Certainly the Liverpool manager was effusive in his praise of Postecoglou, and while he made some public comments about the performance of the manager and his players, privately, he was even more glowing in his endorsement.

Rodgers, for one, will certainly take home a very strong impression of our local competition, and he won’t be the only one.

Indeed, what the fortnight showcased was just how thirsty Australian football fans are, and how quickly the game continues to rise down under.

Apart from selling both games out in a matter of minutes and attracting 83,000 and 95,000 respectively, there was much hype and a touch of showbiz about the whole experience.

Indeed, with the likes of Robin van Persie, Ryan Giggs, Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez all showing up, and much international attention on whether the Uruguayan would be leaving Anfield, it seemed all eyes where here and that Australia was part of something much bigger.

Certainly the love Suarez received from Liverpool fans throughout his four-day stay in Melbourne may have given him a bit to ponder, and if he eventually stays, Australia may have played some part in that decision.

Certainly Rodgers and Gerrard, after leaving Melbourne, appeared to make that point strongly, reminding Suarez that he is part of something big, as evidenced by the adoration in Australia.

It also showed Australia that they can be part of something big too, and many were stunned to see about 50,000 fans attend three open training sessions at Kogarah, the Sydney Football Stadium and the MCG in the build up to the friendlies.

As well, there were ticketed events and appearances around the games by some of the clubs’ greats such as Dwight Yorke, Bryan Robson, Denis Irwin, Craig Johnson, Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler, adding to the wow-factor.

In Melbourne, the hotels were packed, cafes and pubs full, merchandise flying off the racks and a general buzz about a town normally consumed with the AFL at this time of year.

The reality was that despite some of the ticket prices pushing the $200 mark, both the Olympic Stadium and MCG may have sold at least two times over, such was the interest.

The organisers of both games certainly deserve credit for making the entry level prices affordable and opening up the tickets to members of the football family first.

It meant that long time supporters of the game weren’t priced out of the events and had an opportunity to secure a ticket.

What it showed the rest of the nation is that sporting boundaries are continually shifting as the internet and globalisation increasingly takes us to the world and brings it here.

One of the more satisfying observations for this long time observer of the game remains the number of youngsters here circling around football, whether with a ball at feet, their team’s colours (increasingly A-League colours) on or a mobile device or camera at hand.

The fact that so many got to see two of the great clubs up close should only add to their growing lust for the game.

Imagine for a moment we were able to watch a Barcelona featuring Lionel Messi, Neymar and Andres Iniesta or a Real Madrid featuring Ronaldo and Mesut Ozil in the next year or two?

The diversity of opportunities remain endless, and as governments, TV executives and big business get more and more on board, others opportunities will open up.

With the next A-League season now only a couple of months away and extending into May, the domestic off-season continues to reduce in space.

With the Asian Cup only 17 months away, the talk of an FFA Cup on the horizon and the Socceroos featuring in Brazil next June, soon enough much of the calendar will be filled with Australian football, just as it is year-round globally.

It was a point made by The Roar’s resident futurist Midfielder in this article last week.

Driving all of this is Australia’s thirst to learn about the game and be a part of it at every level.

It was a point picked up by international technical instructor Raymond Verheijen after a recent trip to Canberra to conduct a four-day pro-license course for almost 100 of our coaches.

“Really enjoyed my 10 days in Australia. Football is clearly developing quickly here,” Verheijen tweeted as he was leaving.

In enough time we might even export one or more of these coaches, or the players they’ve produced, to a decent European club or two.

The game is not without its problems, as my Roar colleague Joe Gorman pointed out earlier, but you’d expect a few problems given the rapid rate of structural reform being undertaken.

Clearly there remains much work to do, whether in educating players and coaches, building out the competition and development frameworks, growing the A-League and ensuring we are competitive at international level across all ages and genders, but that process is well under-way, and snowballing.

Much of this has been spurred on by honest analysis and holding our administrators to account.

Local codes may be grappling with issues around the use of performance enhancing and recreational drugs, racism, tanking, a dwindling base of players in the case of league, and constant rule changes to try and soften the brutality, while football concerns itself with sustainable growth.

Even as I got around parts of Melbourne while I was there, I could see some growth of football infrastructure, particular in some private schools along St Kilda Road.

At one school, there were countless more kids on the football field than there were on the AFL pitch, kicking the Sherrin around.

Meanwhile, back in what is often dubbed the game’s heartland, western Sydney, the arrival of the Wanderers is redefining the status quo.

Approaching 15,000 members for next season, the challenge is to find room at the Parramatta Stadium to fit them all in.

Only 10 weeks out from the season, there is talk of expanding the ground’s capacity by four or five thousand to cater for the clamour.

Ambitious perhaps, but a sign of the times.

“The cool kid at school”, is how David Gallop dubbed the game. How things change.