On Saturday night, Phil Gould sent a fairly innocuous tweet into the Twittersphere. It came at a time when we were all coming to terms with what had just unfolded in the first half of the Sydney FC versus Melbourne Victory match at Allianz Stadium.
Granted, it was a daft tweet: “Would soccer be better without an offside rule? Discuss.”
Would soccer be better without an offside rule? Discuss.
— Phil Gould (@gusgould91) November 9, 2013
To the credit of the football community, Gus wasn’t hit with the standard reply: “It’s football, not sockah”.
But there was the kind of response I’ve come to expect. Satirical remarks, jibes if you will, aimed at those who aren’t explicitly ‘in the know’ (whatever that is), but have decided to comment on football.
A number of Tweeters brought Gus down to earth by insisting it would be the same as removing the forward pass rule from rugby league, but more volatile responses ensued.
Take this example as a very fine metaphor. It will be quickly passed by, as are most things on Twitter, but it’s symptomatic of a greater attitude that is somewhat curtailing the progress of Australian football.
The haters (yo) – protagonists may be more apt – are those at the fore of the great divide that still exists. They readily pounce on new or converted supporters for their lack of football knowledge and deploy something along the lines of ‘go back to where you came from’.
The antagonists are often referred to as bandwagoners. They could resist no longer and have recently tuned into the A-League.
Their reason? Who cares? All that matters is that they’re now a football fan.
They needn’t sit an exam to verify they are worthy of watching the A-League. The simple fact – Gus Gould was sitting at home on a Saturday night watching the A-League. Bravo, football has done something right.
A friend of mine said this week he wants to go to a Wanderers match. It’ll be his first A-League game and, admittedly, it’s the hype of the crowd a tad more than the football which has given him the urge.
That’s ok. The kind of snobbery that would force one to question why my mate has not been to Parra Stadium before now should be replaced by a warm embrace.
We’ve worked so hard to break out from the ‘sheilas, wogs and poofters’ image, it seems counterproductive to create a pigeon hole for football supporters.
We’ve all wanted to have a chug after reading a Rebecca Wilson article – that’s fine, too. Criticism without knowledge warrants opposition, but it’s not a crime for journalists or curious onlookers from outside the football realm to have a quick peek into what has all of us buzzing and hang around if they like what they see.
Like every other sport in Australia, nee the world, football is not immune to its fair share of problems. Again, this requires some acceptance.
Footballers and supporters make mistakes, but we’ve now reached a point where the ‘mainstream’ is no longer just reporting on the negative – they’re just as obsessed with the positive.
We all want to say we liked Chris Hemsworth when he played that dude in Home and Away, but I, for one, did not. Now he’s Thor. That’s cool and it’s just as cool to take notice of him today without having to prove you’ve seen the two star comedy he ‘starred’ in while trying to get his break.
My mindless rambling has a point. Australian football is heading somewhere and it will be an even more enjoyable trip if the army grows along the way.
j binnie
Guest
apaway - Your "advice " brought back some amusing memories. You are right of course but when asked about the cost of altering the size of every set of goalposts all across the world the silence was deafening and it was then the "no goalkeeper" suggestion emerged. A William Webb Ellis problem solver ????? jb
Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party
Guest
It's possibly his objective but thankfully any influence Phil Gould has on rule changes in football is infinitely less than zero!
Tony J
Guest
the latter
Tony J
Guest
The USA has unfunded liabilities as well as what it owes to the rest of the World of more than 800 Trillion dollars! Some say it is as high as 1 Quadrillion Dollars...........ie one thousand trillion dollars! They owe more money than the entire rest of the World combined! They are definitely NOT a FIRST WORLD economy anymore and neither is the UK as BOTH of them are economic basketcases!
Tony J
Guest
A beautifully articulated offering
Tony J
Guest
"See, this is what I’m talking about… there’s this kind of implied nonsense about soccer being some how , and it’s just not." said Dan Actually, Danny............it just IS - "a game for the literate or more discerning and worldly citizen" The sheer overwhelming weight of data collected around the world proves it.
Tony J
Guest
Exactly what happens in Aussie Rules
Tony J
Guest
Brick wrote: "Fair chance it would turn people who love the sport off it" I think that's his objective.
Tony J
Guest
"Instead of skilfully moving the ball through midfield and beating the offside trap with a sliderule pass you would just bomb it forward to a man waiting near the goals" Isn't that what they do in Aussie Rules?
Tony J
Guest
Actually, it would be better descibed as "testing out your enemies strength". My guess is that he is very concerned for the future of Rugby league and he wanted to gauge the 'depth and strength' of Football's supporters reaction to a totally ridiculous suggestion which if it was ever adopted would be certain to change the games tactics beyond recognition and destroy the games appeal overnight for it's constituents and fans. He KNOWS and appreciates full well what Football's greatest attributes are - it's unmatchable levels of skill, finesse, non stop action, intelligent team movement creating absorbing and ever evolving/changing tactics, sublime athletic ability - change the offside rule and you destroy ALL of those attributes and the MAIN beneficiary of such a change would be HIS 'undersiege' sport.
Australian Rules
Guest
Huh? You say Caroline Wilson "all-too-frequently writes racist, idiotic articles on why football isn’t a worthy alternative to her own sport of choice?" Have you ever read Caroline Wilson?
Australian Rules
Guest
This is the baseless speculation: "If only SFC had a decent team to follow you would see a large increase in attendances." This is the fact: The last time SFC was Premiers AND Champions (2009/10) the clubd averaged less than 14k to its home games.
The Auteur
Guest
Oh, look at the time. No one cares.
j binnie
Guest
fadida- Please explain your comment to me.How will expanding the "middle third",a term used in coaching & game planning for,to the best of my knowledge,at least 50 years, alter the way the game is played.Already coaches from AP down to Willie Brown in the lowest league talk about & have in their mind, a "middle third" where, by simply looking at an aerial photo of a pitch at season's end,you will see where most of the action has taken place.Yet we have no "middle third" marked on the field & yet if there were ,& the offside rule only applied in the back thirds of both teams,all that would have been done is made coaches re-think the "push up","offside trap","high pressing" strategies of today which in themselves are negative approaches in stultifying the main aim of the game scoring goals. Sorry mate I cannot follow your logic on this matter. A question.,Do you think if FIFA instructed a line be drawn across the Nou Canp it would alter the way Barca play the game. You know it wouldn;t but it could make lesser coaches look at their strategies, not on how to "stop" them,but how to "beat" them. No??Your pal jb
fadida
Guest
By "low scoring" I really meant scores that aren't 22-15 etc. The difficulty in scoring leads to the suspense and gripping nature of the game. I'm not for a second suggesting I prefer a 0-0 every week to seeing goals jb :)
Casper
Guest
I have to confess to being a non-zealot 'football' follower but sport lover whose two sons played from u6 to u12 & then did what they wanted to. I watched the victory game where archie thompson would have scored 10 goals if he'd been a yard further back & found it frustrating but what's the alternative, open slather. if there was some way of ruling offside from the big over the top long balls to stop a forward camping near the box permanently, I'd wear it. more goals means more converts, so just increase the size of the goals - most keepers are now huge. A-League has found its niche as a summer sport where it doesn't compete with AFL/NRL/Super whatever & it's lucky that cricket has been a disaster lately. Non believers like me will watch if there's nothing else to do or the atmosphere looks good, just stop saying it will be the dominant code in 10 years (heard that 35 years ago when my kids started to play) & be satisfied with how things are. Reckon Gus was just watching & musing on how deflating it is for supporters when a great pass & break gets pulled up for offside by 10cm.
j binnie
Guest
The offside debate is widely varied & in this column already we have had comments,many well put but most dealing with 2 different scenarios. The previous 3 commenters have put their views based on an experiment that was tried in a youth tournament under FIFA supervision where one states there was a line drawn about 35metres out from the goal,the other "thinks" the "offside rule" was dispensed with.Ok,who is right? The 35 metre line commenter then goes on to say 2 strikers would simply place themselves on the edge of the penalty area causing a monumental shift in coaching plans,but surely his 2 penalty box "campers" would actually be offside being on the edge of the penalty box (18metres) when the "new" offside line was 35 metres out from goal. No???. Then we have the comment football is meant to be played on the ground & the offside law somehow contributes to this type of play. No explanation just a statement of doubtful fact. Back to the debate.It was originally stated in terms that encouraged discussion in what could happen if the law was changed.It has been noticeable that not one commenter has mentioned the root cause of bad offside decisions,the poor linesman,who is expected to have panoramic vision to enable him to see when a ball is actually played & where the target may be up to 25metres in front of the ball player. He is also expected to have the pace to keep up with the speeding ball & the speeding player,who is probably being paid 10 times the money to use that speed to break a defensive line.Would change help him/her in their jobs & thus reduce the number of "bad calls". jb
j binnie
Guest
Fadida You are presuming every one of the 400,000 who have attended HAL games think as one - you. "Football is low scoring & WE like it that way",Surely you mean" I " like it that way. Personally I can take "defensive","high line" "catenaccio", "deep press" football,call it what you like,if it is organised & played well, but if you can convince me that I enloy ii better than to have watched 2 teams go at it tooth & nail in a European Final resulting in a 7-3 victory for the winner,I , & 127,000 others will humbly admit we were wrong & you are right????????.I take it you are joking!!!. jb
Matth
Guest
When I was in grade 7, our teacher let the kids out for lunch in the order of what sport they played. Aussie rules, then rugby, then tennis, then soccer, to make sure we never got to the sports fields first. That is why some soccer fans have a complex.
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
Can't help gloating: http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/football-participation-continues-to-rise-with-19-million-involved-in-australia/story-e6frf423-1226758453266 That’s nearly 1 in 10 Australians who participate in football regularly. Don't be fooled, Phil Gould is a very smart man, but you are left perplexed as to whether he is using his intelligence for good or for evil. He was the one behind Panthers trying to buy the Wanderers. But was that for the good of the game or to bring down the wanderers?