Why the A-League grand final is the king of fixtures

Funny thing,I can't remember hearing the term "Minor Premiership" used in "Aussie Rules",either, until fairly recently----certainly not in the old WANFL. Maybe it's a VFL term!. Another one which has popped up is when "convert" is used by AFL Commentators when someone has the "footy' & is about to kick it-----------it's a Rugby league term! It seems that commentators can't help either inventing terms,or using ones from other sports!

Nice idea.but India is 2hrs 30mins ahead of WA,adding up to 4hrs 30mins in the Eastern States in normal time, It blows out to 5hrs 30 mins when you go to Daylight Saving.

Grant u euro snob.. But Placing so much emphasis on this concept of a finals series (u call it finals series/grand final- I call it 3 game knockout comp) tends to perpetuate the view that topping the table is a secondary achievement.. U didn't say minor but your view implies it.. In fact is shouts it.. The media emphasis on the importance of this so called king of fixtures will hopefully wane as the FFA cup takes root and begins to thrive amongst real football fans.. Not cross over-boost the TV ratings-"blow ins".. And by the way, Referencing another sport during live commentary far differs from adopting that competitions model and naming it the same thing.. (Although I don't profess to know the afl model because I don't care about it). The fact that we call it the "grand final" is, I believe, in itself bad enough.. I think you get my drift that champions are not made in 3 games.. It's misleading.. A term that should unequivocally be reserved for the table toppers.. It's more than a semantic argument.. These semantics shape views, practices and cultures.. To reiterate, changing the name (aleague cup was a hypothetical suggestion) to ANYTHING other than the finals/grand final is the first step in changing the view that the game between roar v wsw was the king of importance.. I agree that we are faced with a challenge being the non #1 sport in this country and that we have to use tools and guile in order to lift the profile of the game here.. I don't have all of the answers.. But many in this country have this obsession with needing to somehow connect afl with football.. I can't find the link.. Probably because it doesn't really exist.. The poetic justice in all this is that the "champions" win a toilet seat.. This speaks volumes ;)

Dunno if anyone is reading this thread anymore, but if you read the report Steve links to, India did have 1.5m average viewers (Total viewers cumultive minutes viewed divided by the number of minutes in the game). To put it into perspective, Australia had 0.3m average viewers. That means India represents 5 x Australia. It means if there were a second Australia off the edge of Perth, and another one if it fits before you hit Africa, we would have 3 Australias, then 2 more in the South Pacific between Australia and Chile, that is 5 Australias. Each with a Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne. That is India average viewers. But a closer look shows that India had a Total Audience Reach (those that watched for more than 20 consecutive minutes) of 44,894,503. That is huge (Australia 5.5m) and in a similar league to the big Euro markets: France 44.8m, Italy 46.6m, UK 46.8m. Remembering that in Europe is on South African timezone, and for India games are in the middle of the night, it means Indians went to bed without watching the whole game. Also Indians demographics trends very upper class compared with the rest of the world in part because it is provided via payed for cable, and the lower castes don't have it.

So they lost a couple of games against their rivals.... they've still won more than them over the whole season, which is pretty much the point - that they have been more consistent over a long period of time, compared to a couple of matches. Who is the better team, the one that's one 60 odd percent of a large number of matches, or the one that jagged a couple over a couple of weeks? BTW in many leagues when teams are equal on points it's their head to head record that decides it, which would solve your little problem there.

Dear author, I bring in to question your use of the term "first past the post".. You should drop football journalism and enter the world of horse racing.. A lobotomized fool knows that a more apt and accurate term is "topping the table"....and/or "the best and most consistent team of the season".. After all that's what it takes to top the table.. FYI it's not a running race.. Which leads me on to the the remainder of my rant.. A spherical ball is used in tennis.. And golf.. So why don't we start adopting traditions and terminology from those sports.. Why the constant marriage of football and AFL??? They're not connected.. Stop connecting those dots people!!! While I'm at it let's rename AFL "egg-hands" because that's a better description of it.. Champions schmampions.. 1.drop this grand final tripe.. Restructure and rename it "the aleague cup".. Then the victor is the "winner of the aleague cup" not to be confused with somehow being champions of Australia when in fact they're simply the winner of a 3 game elimination comp... 2. There is nothing minor about topping the table after 27 rounds of football.. The term Minor Premier is a brain fart at best.. Anyone using the term should be banned from football journalism and exiled to Siberia to report on minor ox racing.. This *is* the highest accolade whether the FFA, these silly pundits and the media as a whole verbally recognize it or not.. 3. There's nothing wrong with following world protocol of the world game!!! In fact protocol should be followed and thankfully largely is.. This has ZERO to do with being a "euro snob".. We could always disregard the fifa world body and go back to operating outside of their calender.. Heck let's bring Clive Palmer back and invent a new football game while were at it..one that completely panders to AFL tastes and traditions.. F%#} me l!!! "Build it and they will come!".. Not "hey look at the thing they are all going to-and let's kind of copy that". Australian football needs to Grow some balls.. Round ones

Slickas Its funny you mention Lacrosse " The Cattery " among other aliases and use to be serial pest here on the Football Tab and threads he loved it and never stopped talking of it. Just an observation whenever Lacrosse gets mentioned here he springs to mind.

So weekend mornings is not prime time viewing for sport? I guess that is why Australian television has never had wide world of sports style broadcasting on. Imagine this: Aussie-Rules is played in lets say Japan. It is a lower standard than here (i.e. not the best in the world). 10:30am while eating brunch you flick on the TV, and since it is 2pm in Japan it is their Grand Final of Aussie-rules and there is a sold out stadium of 50,000 Japanese passionately turned out wearing their team colours complete with face paint for their big day. The players are twitching with nervous energy. At the bounce there is a huge roar. Yep, you are going to switch channels to Video Hits aren`t you? Now imagine it is a regular home and away game. An Australian marquee has been bought. So Tokyo has Gary Ablett playing and Osaka has Buddy Franklin. You going to switch over? That is the difference with soccer that people seem to miss. Since you already know, understand and appreciate the game then watching a foreign league as a neutral is not like trying to watch and understand a new sport like Lacrosse or European handball or something. And while the A-league is not the best in the world, it is certainly good viewing with its attacking intent, beautiful picture quality, possession based style.

Bill yes acknowledged but I had to promote them for the sake of a scenario as after the season they have experienced it would possibly be difficult to think of them as champions although possible with play offs.

I think it sounds good too,? In the end it is what you are used to or what traditions you grow up with. I vaguely recall a European game being decided on the toss of a coin after the teams drew on aggregate and there were no penalty shoot outs in those days. Sounds horrific to think you could be defeated for calling heads rather than tails but we hear just as many complaints about penalties or away goals counting double in the event of a tie, or goal difference deciding a championship or relegation.......and many years past we used to have goal average! It all makes the game interesting and provides opportunities to argue, debate, whatever. As long as it is a fun discussion and not abusive I love it!

The Grand Final series- An Aussie Icon- for sure. Can it be improved? For sure. Lets look at how it is played out at the minute. A criticism that jumps up right away is how one qualifies, for in a league of 10 franchises,6 of those franchises qualify for the final series. There are many people in the game who will tell you "top six" weakens the image of the series.Figures also suggest that anomaly for in the last 3 GF series 17 games have been played and in those 17, there has been 3 crowds under 10,000,and another 3 just cracking the 10,000.Compare these facts with the 3 final crowds of 50,344, 42,102, and 51,153 and it can be taken that interest does rise as the "tournament" progresses. Now before everyone tells me that CCM are "responsible" for the lower than average crowds let me remind those people 2 of those final crowds have been registered in Brisbane where the Roar usually pull about 15,000 to a normal league match So the Grand Final is a "laid down misere" in our calendar.How to improve? With the FFA Cup coming on stream is it possible to raise the ante among our 10 franchisees and make it a top four qualification?. This could greatly increase the "edge" in end of season games among hopeful qualifiers and it may even allow for more publicity for the GF series.Thoughts????jb

I think we're entering a new era of A-league owners flexing their muscles and a good example is the MCFC buyout of HeartFC. ManC has "invited" some HAL owners to their last game of the season this weekend and prior to that, had the Melbourne journos Davutovic and Lynch over at Manchester giving them the "drill." It's all about getting their messages out and laying a foundation for future "discussions" with FFA on the relationship between owners and the governing body. Interesting times ahead for Australian football. I really think it's onwards and upwards.

p budd - Jut a minor correction for those not of an age to remember. The original European Cup was as you say a true competition for league champions only but it was not "pure" knockout as you suggest, for right up to the final it was conducted on the outcome of a home and away tie being played the aggregate winner progressingto the next round.Todays format retains that requirement but has been expanded to include a lot more teams than the previous comp. Money-making??? no doubt,but from the numbers attending the earlier rounds today it is doubtful if this will not change in the near future.Many students of the game will tell you the expansion had it's origins in a movement that was pushing for a European League involving the top teams from all over Europe. FIFA did not see that as a way forward,so as usual,adopted the softly,softly approach and we have todays qualification "mix". jb.

AZ India and Football have a huge history .. more with the poor than the middle class cricket .. there is no denying Cricket is the number one sport ... most put Football at number 2 ... in fact the EPL in cricket was partly brought in because of the rating of the EPL...

India wouldn't be the easiest market to research considering most people have illegal cable. As exciting as I find this new venture I don't see it revolutionising the league instantly but it most certainly is a step in the right direction. Even if we recruit a couple of talented young Indian kids, I don't see it making much of an impact as I doubt many Indians could name more than 2 current Indian footballers.