A few months ago, David Gallop made the bold statement that football was Australia’s number one summer sport, overtaking cricket and marking a significant cultural change in the country.
As much as I want football to be number one in the summer, this statement could not be further from the truth.
Australian cricket has been reinvigorated with the dominant performances of the Test team, and this has inevitably generated renewed interest in the Big Bash League.
One only needs to look at the TV ratings, both on Foxtel and free-to-air, to identify that cricket is the number one sport in Australia this summer.
While Mr Gallop now seems foolish for making such statements, Mr James Sutherland and the Cricket Australia board could not be happier with how the summer of 2013/4 has gone.
This brings us to another issue; the current state of the A-League.
12 months ago, Australian Football, domestically speaking, had never been in a better place. Increased crowds, marquee signings and great fan driven atmosphere.
While crowds and TV ratings are up on last year, and football made great inroads by finally being shown on free-to-air tv, one cannot help but feel that some of the momentum has been lost, particularly when it comes to playing standard.
In fact, the playing standard has dropped since last season.
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly why; but ageing players and marquees, loss of good coaches (Graham Arnold and Ange Postecoglou) and some questionable recruitment are some contributing factors.
It is important to note the ingredients are there for the A-League to be really successful. And not all is doom and gloom, there are many good things for the league.
However what needs to be addressed is the playing standard.
There is enough interest in football in this country to drive the A-League ratings up there with the Big Bash, and to drive crowds to a very respectable position within the Australian sporting landscape; accounting for both winter and summer codes.
However, it is difficult for many fans to become enthusiastic about the A-League with many matches characterised by sloppy play and school boy errors.
A-League enthusiasts need to be realistic and think with a rational mind; instead of attacking any person who is not interested in the A-League.
If the A-League improves its playing standard, I am confident many of these so called ‘Eurosnobs’ will be more willing to become active consumers of the A-League.
With brilliant fan atmosphere, great time slots and TV coverage, the playing standard is the biggest thing holding the league back.
While we shouldn’t expect playing quality to the level of the English Premier League or Bundesliga, fluent play and flowing football is is what is desired, and really seems to be lacking this season.
That is the biggest challenge for Mr Gallop and all the executives of each of the A-League clubs. But how can this be done?
Part of the answer lies in Japan.
Over 20 years ago, Japan’s domestic professional league was non-existent, nor was interest in the game. Japan was baseball, and Japanese football was poor on the domestic and international level.
Fast forward 20 years and Japan is the best football nation in Asia, with the most technical and skillful domestic league.
Japan has become a production line for world class footballers who ply their trade in Europe’s best leagues.
Japan, over two decades, has transformed itself into a football powerhouse.
Although they have the benefit of a greater population and have hosted a World Cup, Australia must follow Japan’s model.
But how did they do it?
When growing the game, Japan placed great emphasis and waves of resources into youth acadamies and coaching.
Clubs were established with strong youth academies, and recruitment began across schools around the country.
Children would be exposed to professional style training and coaching from a young age, and by the time they reached a first team, had a specific playing style embedded into them.
As the years went on, the standard increased dramatically and Japan fell in love with the J-League.
Also, we must not forget imports such as Zico were brought in to grow the game.
While Australia should continue to lure strong import players, such as Alessandro Del Piero to the league, it’s the youth acadamies and coaching that FFA HQ really needs to focus on.
Ideally, every club should have a youth academy. While the Foxtel Youth League acts as a great reserves leagues, it is not sufficient.
A youth academy stretching to under 12s for example, with a technical director at each club overseeing the implementation of a common playing style across the board, will make for better, more technical A-League in the years to come.
Imagine a player who has been at a club since an early teenager. By the time they crack the first team, they truly understand the club, culture and playing style.
Fans can take pride in following the progression of players, and each of the A-League sides will feel even more like football clubs.
Further, this focus on home grown youth should be coupled with the import players cap being reduced from five to three.
This not only forces clubs to make use of their academy youth players, it also ensures that the quality of our imports are better; with less spots, clubs have to be more selective about players and this will ensure funds are not wasted on average journeymen who add nothing to the league.
However, it is ignorant if we fail to recognise the impact imports have had, and will continue to have in developing the technical and commercial side of the domestic league.
While resources are inevitably an issue, this is the way forward.
Messrs Lowy and Gallop need to focus on youth academies and coaching. The ingredients are there, and Mr Gallop was not wrong when he suggested that the sleeping giant of Australian sport had awoken.
However, for the A-League to be Austraia’s number one in the summer, the playing standard must improve.
As I said, most of us aren’t silly enough to expect the league will be to the level of the EPL. People just want fluent play and this has been lacking.
If such changes are made, in 20 years’ time the world will be talking about the rise of Australian football, just as they are talking about the rise of the Blue Samurai right now.
bryan
Guest
Sports are not just "team sports" like Football,Aussie Rules,Rugby Union,Rugby League ,& Cricket,etc.. There are a large number of sports widely played throughout the world,such as the Olympic Sports,Tennis,& a number of others. Australia has consistently done well in most of these.---rather better,in fact than.other countries with similar populations,such as Greece & The Netherlands,& even much more populous countries. The Australians who make it into Olympic competition,for instance,are still amongst the elite in that sport,even if they are unsuccessful. Coming second,or even sixth in such a competition,does not support the assertion that we "Are pretty lousy in sports,except AFL,NRL,Cricket,etc", Football "true believers" constantly present this assertion as a fact,& wonder why other members of the public think they are "Anti-Australian" supporters of a "foreign" game.
Mateo Corbo
Guest
and hence ape were the FFA about the Newcastle Jets Emerging jets program. It's obvious most HAL clubs have pursued a youth policy. The next step is for FFA to actively do away with all these ad hoc privately run football skill schools that have come and gone over the past two decades and get all clubs to set up what the Jets have done.
nordster
Guest
The CCM centre was largely govt funded so far...irrelevant to salary caps...
nordster
Guest
All countries have diverse sporting cultures....another myth about our supposed sporting supremacy is that we're somehow unique or special on this front...
nordster
Guest
Of course but in the meantime being no 1 in Asia is an achievement in itself. I agree they have bigger goals and any shift in the axis of world football will feed into that.
nordster
Guest
Well see Japan is a country that has rules for the sake of having rules... The key with rules is the intent behind them. The J-league has emerged...even with their regs...with a league showcasing a wide mix of club sizes. It doesnt appear to me that they have intended to restrain their top teams all that much. Even with their slavish devotion to the idea of rules, Japan hasnt shackled the top clubs so much in relation to the bottom clubs.
Punter
Guest
You have missed his point, RF was not complaining about our diverse sporting culture. He was highlighting how Australia was obsessed with sports where we are kings of the world but the world in those sports are rather small. Then again Australia is not unique in this situation, I think most countries enjoy sport where they are successful. So it's not like eating McDonads everyday, it's more like eating our local cuisine & thinking ours is the best & talking it up while the rest of the world thinks otherwise.
Hmmmm
Guest
Don't follow MLS, Australia doesn't have that kind of money, market, population, infrastructure etc etc
Mark Watts
Roar Rookie
Don't agree with the argument that a salary cap holds big clubs back. The CC Mariners are the smallest club and yet they've built/are building a huge centre of excellence at Tuggerah, while my beloved Sydney FC, which is now onto its second billionaire owner, has...a training pitch at a university oval. (clap clap) The salary cap is purely for what the first team squad are paid. It doesn't affect transfer fees, marquee deals, youth/academy contracts, the building of facilities, hiring coaches/support staff and furthering their training/licences. The cap helps to put an onus on club boards to invest outside of the playing roster to get longer-term results. That's what is being done at the Victory, Brisbane, Newcastle (new academy + stadium upgrades), and if they can survive in the short term, the Mariners.
brisvegas
Guest
I love watching football. I like to see good games, and those good games come with all levels of football standards. I've seen some terrific under 12s games, some fantastic NPL games, excellent A-league games. I enjoy the competition between the two teams on show. I don't sit at the local park watching the local over 35s and criticise them for not playing like Barcelona, Real, Bayern or ManC, I enjoy it for what it is. The EPL is vastly overrated anyway. There are about 8 decent teams and the rest are very mediocre. I've seen many EPL games that are as boring as batshit. The standard of football in the EPL is not necessarily always something to aspire to. Far better to aspire to good competitive games. As for skill level, some doofus said something about A-league is League 2 standard - give me a break! Have you seen League 2 matches? In the main all you need to have is a good hoof, a big jump and be able to scamper around like a headless chook for 90 minutes. A-league standards are well beyond that.
roosters14
Guest
"While crowds and TV ratings are up on last year, and football made great inroads by finally being shown on free-to-air tv, one cannot help but feel that some of the momentum has been lost, particularly when it comes to playing standard." Ratings on fox sports are in fact down. The overall figure is of course greater than last year given the friday night game is simulcast I have observed ratings of 40 and 41k in the past few rounds which is pathetic for a supposed national sporting competition. But its no wonder given the poor quality the most games dish up, to the point where i no longer watch it regularly.
Australian Rules
Guest
I believe the opposite. Having a diverse sporting culture is one of the best things about Australia. If Australia had only one type of football (association football), it's still highly unlikely we'd be beating Brazil, Arg, Spain, Italy, Germany etc at the World Cups. Instead, we'd be focused exclusively on where we sit on the FIFA rankings at any given point in the year. ...talk about eating McDonalds everyday.
realfootball
Guest
Which of course is to a large extent why Australia is so enamoured of sports no one else gives a toss about - AFL - or sports hardly anyone else gives a toss about - cricket (yeah, yeah India billions blah blah - but its just one country), rugby league and rugby union. As a nation we pump ourselves up by being big fish in tiny ponds, sporting wise. You read what is written sometimes about our "sporting prowess" and all you can do is cringe with embarrassment. Cricket writers are the worst offenders by far. Talk about a perspective deficit.
Towser
Guest
Cant see this up anywhere ,but its a very interesting article from John Duerden from ESPN(very insightful writer IMO) about how Asia(including us) can learn a few tricks from the MLS( in terms of developing a League at least) rather than Europe. Reasoning is that all Asian Football leagues are new & the MLS has been through one or two meat mills & come out with a sausage on the other side. http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/11779?cc=3436 What is to be considered in Australia is not so much learning from this quote "In terms of marketing, fan engagement, community relations and administration, there is a huge amount for Asia to learn. And what is often overlooked is that the Americans have recent experience of failure. The NASL burned brightly for a while before fizzling out, but sometimes knowing what not to do is as important as knowing the right way" but rather how you apply it to a market where the whole of the countries population from Cairns to Perth is less than the state of California. Even adding the Kiwis its less. Its not just the diversity of sports competing in Australia or distance then(same as China etc) as in the USA that is our challenge ,also there's the issue of small population as well. My thoughts are given this drawback that the amount of A-league clubs will always be limited due to our lack of people concentrated in large centres. Lets face it unless a people equivalent of "loves & Fishes" Messiah turns up sometime in the near future theres zilch we can do about that. This is the greatest challenge in my book developing a league with enough competitive teams to make it viable in a country where population centres are concentrated around 5 large cities.
Angus
Guest
To be honest, I don't really care about the style of football in the A-League- I care about the lack of basic football skills. Failure to pass a ball 10 yards, and to many heavy touches plague the games. Futsual produced Rogić- and if we implement it into the national curriculum, we can advance technically. Can't play the defence-splitting first touch passing moves, if it bounces of your players. Using Rogić again, his lack of experience with football on a pitch, compared to other professionals of his age shows in his poor choice of a final ball much to often. I actually think the Spain/Holland model of football doesn't suit us- we aren't yet developed enough to play tika-taka against the better teams, especially Japan, Korea, and WC standard teams in Europe and South America. Instead, the German system of gegenpressing and counter-attacks, as used by the German nation team, Dortmund, Bayern under Heyneckes, Tottenham under Redknapp etc. We have to be able to play off the backfoot, against superior opponents. Munich and Brazil proved against Barça and Spain, that tika-taka can be foiled, and isn't really the future. We should utilise our symbolic stamina and heart to keep up a high tempo pressing and counter attacking play. As well, we are also generally physically larger than a lot of Asian teams, and Javi Martinez and Schweinsteiger utilised this attribute of size, against the tiny Xavi, Iniesta, and stick thin Busquets. This ideology, size and strength aside, is what Japan are adopting, and as much as Craig foster gets wet over tika-taka, I'm not convinced it's the best way forward for a country of our level at the present
Jorji Costava
Guest
"I wonder if any Australian sport has a 100 year plan for growth and development." - AFL actually has very long term plans for NSW and QLD. So, to answer your question maybe AFL. Soccer cannot afford to be that patient because of the lack of resources. For my 2 cents worth and from where the sport was when I was growing up to now is like day and night. Soccer has made mighty strides, in particular since the 1990s near collapse after the Iran "ice berg" game.
langou
Roar Guru
With four days of 40+ heat in the lead up to the game, its not too big a surprise that the neutrals and casual Heart fans didn't rock up. Really happy with the Glory crowd. The combination of Gallas being back, a good win the week before and a hatred of Brisbane got a few extra people through the gate.
Passionate_Aussie
Roar Rookie
Not looking good, but the positive is it has plenty of time to get back up - three more seasons.
Roarsome
Guest
"J League 100-year Plan Eatablishing conditions under which people of all ages, including the handicapped, can enjoy sports, may take a very long time, maybe 50 or even 100 years. With this in mind, we are determined to pursue our activities from the long-term perspective, in the hope that football clubs with a strong community identity will be created across Japan. Our determination is expressed in the "100-year Plan," that aims to create a lively sports culture." From Cerezo Osaka's website I wonder if any Australian sport has a 100 year plan for growth and development.
Australian Rules
Guest
"That must be a season-low for MH, not a good look for FTA coverage." It's MH's lowest crowd by some distance. They drew 6,002 against AU in Rd 8. But this week should see attendances almost double.