Somewhere out in the open plains of Australia’s footballing landscape, there’s a wide gaping chasm. It separates most from a privileged few, and swallows almost all who dare to attempt to cross it.
If there’s one thing the FFA Cup euphoria has made apparent, it’s the well-defined dichotomy between semi-professional and professional football in this country.
In recent weeks, we’ve been treated to a delightful smorgasbord of quaint suburban spectacles.
For one night, students, bakers and humble bricklayers have been able to shed their part-time player tags and dream of something more.
In a financial sense, it’s a world apart from the macchiato-sipping marquees and homegrown Socceroo heroes of the A-League.
But in terms of ability and potential, how big, really, is this chasm, this gap? The latest evidence, while somewhat polarising, suggests that it’s still considerable.
On Tuesday night, Perth’s Sterling Lions were easily accounted for, albeit by a Brisbane Roar side who have grown accustomed to dismantling A-League opposition in a similar fashion.
On Wednesday, South Coast Wolves were eliminated by a single goal at the hands of the Mariners, while Bayswater City tumbled out following a 2-0 defeat to the Victory.
However last week we saw Adelaide City humble a Wanderers line-up that, while certainly understrength, wouldn’t have completely confounded pundits had it been fielded in an A-League fixture.
Granted, perhaps the FFA Cup isn’t the greatest barometer for such an assessment, considering it’s essentially (at this stage at least) a pre-season competition for the A-League clubs. Yet it does provide some interesting ammunition for debating the quality of Australian football from a holistic perspective.
Since the A-League’s inception, we’ve seen several cases of players rising out from the confines of the state leagues and flourishing in the top flight and beyond.
2010 Asian Footballer of the Year Sasa Ognenovski is a pertinent example; the ‘Og Monster’ toiled in the Victorian Premier League until Miron Bleiberg gave him his chance at Brisbane.
And let’s not forget current Socceroos skipper Mile Jedinak, who won the 2006 NSW Premier League title with Sydney United 58 before the Mariners threw him a bone.
Naturally, for every Ognenvoski or Jedinak, there’s a litany of not-quites. Jedinak’s ex-teammate and Sydney United 58 all-time leading goal scorer Luka Glavas is one such. The soon-to-be retired striker has long been considered one of the top marksmen in NSW circles. But when given his shot with stints at Perth Glory and Sydney FC, a string of less-than-impressive performances saw him begrudgingly forced to return across the chasm to Edensor Park.
Still, Glavas is one of the lucky ones. As it stands, Australia as a footballing nation is the promised land of limited opportunity; a bottlenecked field where the phrase ‘catching a break’ carries more weight than it should.
And it’s largely a numbers issue: there’s a serious imbalance when you consider that we have only 10 teams in the A-League, but 92 teams in the National Premier Leagues – which represent the top tiers in each state-based federation.
It’s why so many of our European-passport-carrying prospects flee overseas, and why even more slip between the cracks at home, their progress stunted, their potential never fully unraveled.
Look at Massimo Luongo: at the age of 18, he was plodding away with APIA Leichhardt. Overlooked by the A-League, Luongo went abroad in search of appreciation and found it – at Tottenham, no less.
Three years later, the 21-year-old is now the fulcrum of Swindon Town’s midfield (even being handed the armband on one occasion). Oh, and he went to Brazil for the World Cup. That’s pretty cool too I guess.
Players are products of their environments. Yes, quality-infused perseverance will often surpass all barriers in the end, but it takes the right milieu, the right people, and the right opportunity, to unlock potential in the right way.
With expansion firmly on the horizon, our state leagues will invariably play a part in helping the game grow and it’s important that they’re given proper attention and forethought.
When the FFA recently reformed the national football pyramid, David Gallop mentioned that bridging professionalism gaps was high on the agenda.
The FFA Cup has already done a great deal in bridging said gaps. It represents the sort of all-encompassing, bottom-to-top approach that champions consolidation, and encourages things to develop organically.
Regardless of what disparities we think might exist within our structures, it’s an exciting time to be a football fan in Australia.
There’s a sense of forever being on the precipice of change and an anticipation for the future that’s unmatched by any other code.
Bring on the next 10 years.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Well said my thoughts exactly. I have repeated the same thing verbatim on here, but, unfortunately the all stars isnt tailored to what I want.
Mantis
Roar Guru
I agree and I know it 'has its place' (unfortunately), but the idea of putting a random group of players together with minimal training and preperation, and expecting them to perform at a good standard baffles me.It is hard enough for professionals let alone amateurs. As a supporter I find it hard to get behind an 'all star side' as well, not because of certain players picked or anything like that, I just dont feel like they are my club, or any club. I find myself supporting individual players more than I do the team, which shouldnt happen in a team sport.
MelbCro
Guest
broke what rules? How about this sites rules against racist remarks?
White Card
Guest
Next year I think that the inclusion of an NT team and a second SA team will mean that NSW will likely lose two spots. Apparently SA has a larger number of players then counted, because administratively some didn’t qualify due to affiliations. Hopefully this will be resolved next year.
j binnie
Guest
Domiic.An intersting and arguable article that should attract some attention.There is a factor that should also be mentioned and has been obvious to 'thinkers" since day one and that is the differential of "local" league teams,peaking at the end of their seasons ,running up against HAL teams some 7 weeks away from their start of season.This was seen as being of some advantage to the lower division teams and in the case of WSW they also had to consider they were involved in an Asian Cup match one week later. These factors could be seen as "levellers". Probably the best lower team so far,Bayswater, showed this up the other night when by full time they were actually running harder than Victory although their individual play was of a lower standard. With all this in mind the measuring of the "gap in standard" is an extremely difficult thing to do and the Cup,being a one off game,usually manages an upset or 2 based on where and when the game is played. As the comp. progresses,the HAL teams should improve in fitness and understanding making it more difficult for an "upstart" to progress through to the final stages.Cheers jb
j binnie
Guest
RBB - I knew it,you can produce well written,well debated ,opinionative comments without lowering the tone of he article.This one impressed me so much that I decided to do a small test and see how right you were in your observations.The findings might surprise you just a little. Firstly I looked at the two HAL teams that played in the Cup this week,Roar and Victory.To be accurate I used the starting elevens of both teams though it has been argued both were a bit under full strength. Victory - Of the eleven Coe,Milligan,Finkler,Barbaroussas Berisha,Thompson Valeri &Leijer had all played locally in their early days (except for the obvious imports) but had also gained some quite extensive experience before returning to Victory. Only 3 of those had played NSL,Milligan,Barbaroussas&Thompson.Broxham and Galloway appear to have come through Victory levels.Geria coming to Victory from Brisbane Roar. Roar - Of their starting eleven 8 had got extensive overseas experience before signing withRoar,Theo,Smith,Steffanuto,North,Lustica,Henrique,&of course Broich. Theo North Lustica, Petratos have all played at NSL clubs or other HAL franchises before joining Roar.Bowles,their latest signing is at his third HAL identity,while Brown and Donnachie could be said to be products of local football tiers.Hope you find this of some interest in your favouritesubject. jb
Carcass
Guest
Good concept, it creates a lot of interest. The gap isn't that great. There is no Barcelona or Manchester Uniteds playing club soccer in Oz I'm afraid to point out. End of the day, you can always park the bus to level it up. That is the beauty of soccer.
Carcass
Guest
They broke the rules that everyone else has gone along with, typical Croatian arrogance. One year ban and exclusion from next year's competition as punishment.
Socrates
Guest
Maybe we should have an NPL All stars match and play them against current A-league champions as part of the pre season. This would be perfect for the old NSL mafia, Marconi, Olympic, South Melbourne Hellas and Adelaide City.
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
Wolves v mariners = gulf
Baines on Toast
Guest
I think the next step is to have a 2nd division, maybe an NPL Australia division.
Garcia
Guest
Don't worry by the next round the FFA Cup will be free of NSW teams
bryan
Guest
If you were really lucky, I reckon you would end up with a bunch of parents being forced to become members and turn up to games with their kids.
bryan
Guest
Where would you get the money to pay them, the people to watch them, and enough quality pitches to play at? In the end, I believe the NPL teams will and should become feeder teams for the local A-League team. Everyone is railing at expansion, but the recent expansion cases in the AFL and NRL have shown that sometimes there is a limit to the player pool. Titians... GWS, even Rebels/force, although Force did have a great year this season. Yes it is a hard step from semi professional to professional, and yes there are not many opportunities available. But we are not Barca fund to have 200-400 U15 kids training every day just to get the 5-10 good ones. If I was running a A-League team, Every year I'd run a 2 week long school holiday camp for players from U12 to U15, and get all the local clubs to provide their best. Tell em that they can only name 5-10 for each age group. Get some dorms set up, bring in the A-league players, coaches, everything from the club. Get guys that they see on TV showing them drills. Teach the kids as much as you can in the 2 weeks. In the end, you will pick up the names of the best of the best, and hopefully, you end up with 100-200 kids with a renewed passion for the game. Maybe some of the become coaches in 5-10 years, and use the drills they learnt to teach the next bunch of youngsters. Hell, it could almost be cost neutral, as I'm sure a lot of parents would fund they kids to go. Add some scholarships for the poorer clubs, and build up some good will.
KenAgain
Guest
Good idea SVB - take everything out that involves NSW...they can play....NZ!
DFG
Guest
OK, Realfootball, let's forget what Club he plays for. Luongo isn't picked up by an A-League team as a youngster and a few years later is at the World Cup, ahead of every A-League based midfielder of his age group. And today he is named in another Socceroos squad. If you seriously think that A-League teams are patting themselves on the back for not signing Luongo, then fair enough, we will have to agree to disagree. The reality is that, as Domenic says, the A-League can only take so many new players per year. Who those players are depends, arguably, on a lot more than simply skill.
TheMagnificent11
Roar Guru
The NPL clubs have to adhere to certain criteria set out by the FFA. The criteria includes youth development, governance, financing etc. Some of the youth development criteria includes having FFA/AFC certified coaches, following the curriculum, playing 4-3-3 in junior age groups etc. If an A-League club wants to put teams in all the NPL ages groups then I would imagine they would have to meet all the NPL criteria as well as the A-League criteria.
SVB
Guest
They could remove all the NSW teams and I'm sure that people will still find something about it all that is too NSW centric.
BES
Guest
Yes it wasn't the greatest display by Brisbane - but 2 huge factors in that 1: the pitch was a cow paddock and Brisbane clearly struggled with it and secondly, the team we put out had exactly 4 starting 11 players in their normal positions (Theo, Steffanuto, Smith and Petratos). So it was in no way representative of Brisbanes' starting 11. Interesting to note we keep trying Broich in the middle of the park and fantastic player that he is, it keeps not working every year when we try it. I wonder whether Mulvey attributes that to shortcomings in Broiches play in that position of others lack of ability to make full use of/from him when he is playing there? As soon as we switched him back to the left at the beginning of the 2nd half, we scored 3 goals in quick succession with the first 2 of them both being set up by Broich.
Garcia
Guest
Next year the FFA should drop the number of spots allocated to the two NSW FAs for the round of 32 (especially Northern NSW Football). Out of the 13 spots allocated to them only 4 teams qualified for the round of 16(none from Northern NSW Football). Compare this to VIC where 4 out of 6 qualified, QLD where 4 out of 5 qualified and SA where 2 out of 2 qualified.