Football fans get the emotion and drama of a grand final on an almost weekly basis in the English Premier League.
After the NRL grand final I settled in to watch Manchester United versus Everton, and Chelsea versus Arsenal. While the games won’t be in the top five of the year, there were still plenty of talking points – like who would win in a fight between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho?
When it was all finished I looked at the time and thought, “I wish I could get this weekly excitement at a more civilised hour.”
Cue the A-League. Season 10 gets underway on Friday and I looked at the fixtures to see what to expect in the first few weeks – the F3 derby, Old Bling FC versus New Bling FC, the Sydney derby and the Melbourne derby.
And that’s before we think of the FFA Cup or the arrival of David Villa.
That’s a lot to look forward to, and with increasing crowds and ratings could we get to a point in Australia where there is more excitement for the A-League than the EPL?
For example, you might be celebrating your team winning a spot in the A-League finals and you don’t care you missed a 4-4 thriller in the Merseyside, North London or Manchester derbies. When someone asks “Who do you follow?” you say an A-League team first (mine is Sydney FC).
As a panel member of the EPLextra podcast on The Roar, I have been thinking about the how the tastes of the football community in Australia have been changing over time and wondered how long it would be before the local game was the main game among fans.
Having wrestled with the question for three hours I thought I should probably go to bed, even if football is a game which never sleeps.
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