Nine seasons of the A-League have come and gone, and few would doubt that like a bottle of Nick Di Girolamo’s finest, it’s gotten better with age. But how good is it really?
Next month in Brazil, we’ll get some sort of an idea.
There is already a distinct new flavour to the entire Socceroos set-up after seven months of Ange Postecoglou rule. His 30-man preliminary squad for the FIFA World Cup has satisfied the masses who have been demanding an overhaul that previous coaches did their best to avoid.
Whether it be by necessity or merit, the A-League system now dominates the national team. It is where 10 members of the squad currently play. All bar eight players have been through it. So have Postecoglou and both of his assistants, Ante Milicic and Aurelio Vidmar. They believe in it.
Fans will now get to see players they have watched develop at close quarters – the likes of Ivan Franjic and Mark Milligan – chance their arm at international level. Postecoglou’s famed methods will be also be tested by some of the best minds in football.
The A-League remains a work in progress. Despite the dramatic thrill of Brisbane Roar’s grand final win and the glorious afterglow that followed, there’s no denying last season was a little underwhelming and on the whole, the competition is a long way from perfect.
Too many teams are mediocre, and as a result, too many matches are sloppy and staid. Players don’t train as often or as intensely as they do abroad. Technically, there is no comparison.
By rights, the World Cup should very crudely demonstrate the size of the gap between A-League-standard players and those at the top of the tree.
For Pim Verbeek, that gap was too big. Like Holger Osieck, he preferred to select ageing stars from middling competitions on the inference that playing in Australia is not enough to prime a footballer for the rigours of the international game.
“If you train for three weeks with Nurnberg or with Karlsruhe, I have to be very honest, I still think that’s better than playing A-League games,” Verbeek famously said in January 2008.
Whatever truth that statement might have held back then, it doesn’t stand up today.
Postecoglou is his polar opposite. As his track record at Brisbane and Melbourne Victory confirms, this sort of situation – where there is a status quo that needs to be ripped up – is his wheelhouse. For him, if you can cut it at home, you’re more than worth a look.
And why not? In a no-lose situation like this, measuring up against the best is the logical only way to approach this World Cup and beyond.
The players that have battled their way into the preliminary Socceroos squad from the A-League deserve to be there.
For example, James Troisi and Matthew Spiranovic both came home, trained hard, played well and did it consistently. If you’re fit and in form and can bring it to the first day of camp, it shouldn’t matter where you play.
For those who have gone the opposite way, from home to abroad, the A-League has proved to be a suitable springboard. Arguably the four most electrifying members of the squad are Mat Ryan, Tommy Oar, Mathew Leckie and Ben Halloran, who all got their starts at home and are now forging solid careers in Europe.
While their progression to this point is an endorsement of the A-League, how these players cope with the eyes of the world trained on them will tell us more about just how well Australia’s broader football factory is working.
The beauty of the ‘Group of Death’ for Postecoglou is that any disasters against Spain, the Netherlands or Chile will be explained away as the result of a young squad, a new direction and the worst draw possible.
Australian sports fans love a fairytale, but they’re not deluded.
Postecoglou has made some brave decisions since coming to the helm and shown incredible faith in the A-League. His players will want to repay it and with no expectations to burden them, they just might, somehow. The impossible seems absurdly achievable when he’s involved.
Will the Socceroos be good enough to cause a boilover in Cuiaba, Porto Alegre or Curitiba? Realistically, they aren’t a hope in hell. They’ll be flat out scoring a goal, most likely.
But if they can take something out of the experience and return with Australia’s reputation in tact, it will be a win all the same.
For the World Cup Draw, World Cup squads and opinion, check out our World Cup page.
ripEnke
Guest
Many players have said it, pretty sure Kruse and Leckie did off the top of my head. Though your point has merrit and in the spirit of it I agree. What realy gets my goat is the way we train players in Australia and I do see it in ALeague video's. That there is way too much fitness training without the ball, the likes of 'Jed Davies' has many of training examples of fitness drills where a ball is allways used. This is more apparent when Ajax plans for each player 500 touches a day in training, an accademy renown for producing tallent.
Kareem
Guest
Against who? Milligan has proven to be quite useful against other Asian teams...and I would like to think we have 30-40 players capable of that...but against world cup opposition...I don't think he (or a lot of others) are up to scratch They could prove me wrong in Brazil...but I doubt it My point is that they haven't actually proved anything yet...
Chris
Guest
At least we won't be beaten for pace like we would if Holger was still having his way.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
No mate, I am not lying. A very famous and well-known Herald columnist (when it was just The Sun), Keith Dunstan, started the Anti-Football League and it actually used to get a fair bit of coverage in the Sun (namely, by him). All the Melburnians of a certain vintage will remember it, I'm sure even Fusssball will remember. Here's what looks like the home page: http://antifootballleague.org/ Founded in 1967, there's even a picture of the founder there, Keith Dunstan.
Reginald Bomber
Roar Guru
Yes and I'll bet the AFL mad media did everything to help publicise it - I think NOT. I know you are lying and full of BS when you say a Sun Herald journalist didn't like AFL. Mate, that's the first thing they ask you at the job interview and if you answer no, you've got no chance to get the job there as a journalist. Those sheilas, wogs and poofters are at it again eh maaaaaate. If they don't like AFL they can p!ss off back to where they came from maaaaaate!
Bondy
Guest
Interesting read Fuss, I'm glad this country is not running off a White Australia 1950's policy through sports that would be terrible wouldn't it . This piece has gone into the Football Folder. Why does the sport still get refereed to to this day as them and they by some commercial media outlets in relation to the National Team and A League ,where with Cricket team is termed by some media outlets as we and our boys.
Evan Askew
Guest
Yoou forgot Oar and Bozanic
Midfielder
Guest
Fuss Good read and have locked it away on my site...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@asanchez Yes, you’re right. There’s still a long way to go. Mainstream print media, TV & radio have entrenched prejudice against Football going back for over a century. Every football fan should read & retain this research paper that was published in 2001, which exposes the way mainstream media - particularly in ARules states - have tried to always politicise & ethnicise every controversial incident relating to Football in Australia. The Wogs are at it Again’: The Media Reportage of Australian Soccer ‘Riots’ by John Hughson, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England http://www.library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/FootballStudies/2001/FS0401e.pdf
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Reginald your friends would probably be aware of the very first AFL formed in the 1960s - the Anti-Football League - led by Herald columnist, Keith Dunstan, who had a great dislike for Australian Football. He formed this not-for-profit organisation to bring together like-minded people so that they could share their grievances about the Australian game. It grew from strength to strength, and at one point in the mid-1970s its membership must have peaked at around 37.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Patrick Smith is not the first AFL journalist to write glowingly about soccer's future in Australia. I can distinctly recall that soon after our first WC appearance in 1974 a famous VFL journo wrote an article in the then Herald stating uncategorically that soccer would soon become more important than Australian Football. It was quite a controversial article at the time, but he showed great vision in making a prediction which would come to fruition many decades later (many, many decades). Three years after his prediction, the first national sporting competition in Australia was established, that being the National Soccer League, and the game has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Midfielder
Guest
RB Tis an interesting relationship in the southern states between the AFL / media / culture ... credit and arguably envy at how the AFL has achieved this... However what is not seen is what a problem it could be as well... But I feel for your friends ... tis very annoying when you have no interest in anything and it is constantly around you...
asanchez
Roar Guru
People like Smith have been bagging out the game for years. While I'm happy that it's a positive piece towards our game, and it's good to see, forgive me for not popping any champagne corks just yet! As I've said many times, slowly but surely, our game is getting too big to be ignored! This will keep happening more and more as our game keeps growing in Australia. People like Smith, simply have no choice but to get on the bandwagon. It's just like the situation with today's newspapers, who are going bankrupt because they've let themselves become irrelevant, beause of both the new digital age we now live in, and the amount of free online content which is a direct competition to the newspapers. But also, by them not engaging with the people, writing too many puff pieces, and not listening to the people to find out what they wanna read. Football people like me have boycotted newspapers for years if not decades, as they don't have the content to satisfy us, and only write negative pieces and beat up on what's wrong with the sport. It's vested interests at its best. So football people go to websites where they can get the content they're after.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Cpaaa it's time to open up your mind to all possibilities. There's a big, wide world out there.
Reginald Bomber
Roar Guru
I must say football is getting a great run in the media these days. However, its the minority unfortunately, the vast majority of journalists and "media personalities" from the southern states are hopelessly AFL biased. I have friends and family in Melbourne and Perth and they are absolutely disgusted by the AFL saturation and bias on the TV, Radio and Newspapers. Some of them don't follow any sport and they still get upset about it.. With another WC coming and most of the world following it, you must get some band wagoners and the Footy Show boys will be putting in for another free trip to the WC finals in Brazil. Just wait till we cop a pasting in one of the games, to hear what they really think of us. I got a new heater too . . . and a new coffee table - I smashed my fist through it after THAT GAME, seeing THAT PENALTY and Italy progressing at our expense, to then go on and win it.
Midfielder
Guest
Fuss A good read indeed and the evolution continues ... a side mostly of A-League those not from the A-League are mostly the older players... My next hope is the media will understand what the WC is ...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
@Cpaaa You're spot on. And, when I see that photo of a bloke, wearing hot pants & kicking his leg up in the air with arms outstretched .. Well, it seems to me this Mister Football has some significant gender-confusion issues? Let's hope he resolves these issue better than poor Jame Gumb (aka Buffalo Bill).
Cpaaa
Guest
The only thing that is confusing is someone talking football that is called Mister Football taking a punt underneath the Football tab....and is a guru. Thats like undressing a beautiful women and discovering a pen/s.....you have to admit, that is very confusing.
Bondy
Guest
I dont read a lot of Melbourne press but I think their print journo's write well " possibly with more meaning " than Sydney's press corp. Cheers Midfielder.