- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
An ex-rugby league boss leading football, an ex-football boss leading a rugby league club, and an ex-FFA lawyer in charge of a Northern Sydney football association at the same time as being a director at the Central Coast Mariners.
You might be forgiven for wondering what on earth is going on in the world of the A-League, but in the past few weeks there have been a few clues dropped along the vertical cardinal points of the compass.
I’m specifically referring to the north and south of Sydney.
It’s been a fascinating few weeks in the A-League. After the now traditional early hustle and bustle built on rivalries and blockbusters, we’ve already seen the league’s apparent marquee David Villa leave early, and last year’s premiership winning manager Mike Mulvey sacked in a club power play a few days before taking out Queensland sport’s top prize for managers.
Couple that with the highs and lows at the Western Sydney Wanderers, and the ongoing struggles at places like Newcastle, the Mariners and Melbourne City and it’s as turbulent as ever at the top end of our game.
Contrast that with the quality being produced from the likes of Josep Gombau’s Adelaide, Ernie Merrick’s Wellington, Kevin Muscat’s Melbourne Victory and Kenny Lowe’s Perth and the most stable start Sydney FC has had in what seems an eternity.
It’s a league of two halves at the moment, one where the conflicting dynamics of drama and pressure against growth and quality are never too far apart.
The metrics certainly tell us that crowds, memberships and television figures remain on the rise, even if generally in the early part of the season, and this is certainly encouraging the FFA to explore the notion of expanding beyond the current 10 teams.
The messages from Frank Lowy over the past six to 12 months are that he is keen to go to the next TV deal with at least a 12-team A-League.
Yet the FFA appear to be in a bit of a pickle about exactly where this expansion should take place.
David Gallop has often used the expression about fishing where the fish swim.
Little doubt the governing body appears hesitant at the moment about regional areas. After the retreat out of North Queensland and the Gold Coast, and some of the problems on the Central Coast and in Newcastle, it appears the mood is to the high population capitals.
Places like Canberra, Wollongong and Geelong have all been spoken about as potentials, but there have been little signs of commitment from head office.
Instead the feeling is the FFA are trying to tap into the greater population bases in the north and south of Sydney. We’ve seen the evidence of this over the past couple of weeks.
Last week the focus was on the north, with the Mariners playing the Melbourne Victory at North Sydney Oval on Friday night.
While a lot of the focus in recent times has been on Mariners chairman Mike Charlesworth and his apparent desire to service the “significant” number of Mariners members in northern Sydney, it seems there may be a bigger game at stake.
The well-to-do northern suburbs have traditionally been a rugby stronghold, but as football makes a greater impact year after year at junior level, in schools and in the minds of the soccer mums, there appears to be feeling that football can exploit these potential riches.
While strategically this might make sense for financial reasons, the FFA must be careful that the goodwill built in the working class Central Coast over the past decade isn’t eroded.
As far as a public relations exercise goes, last week’s sojourn back to North Sydney was a complete failure.
Not only did it send the game back technically by playing on an inferior surface, but the facilities were clearly not up to broadcast quality, with constant disruptions in the first half, not a great look for the one free-to-air game of the week.
As well, there was talk that much of the crowd was made of freebies to local young footballers, and certainly the school carnival like noise and movement on the hill gave the impression of a lack of genuine interest.
Clearly the local football association, the Northern Suburbs, for which former FFA legal counsel Duncan Tweed is the CEO, were intent on making this a showpiece for the area.
Yet the big question is whether his connection to the Mariners, and he remains listed on the club website as a director, paints a perception of conflict around the Mariners’ move into the northern suburbs.
In recent times the Mariners have signed a deal with the Northern Suburbs FA’s biggest club, Northbridge FC, to set up a football academy, earning the ire of Sydney FC’s Scott Barlow amid questions around encroachment.
Herein lies one of the dilemmas for the FFA.
Clearly it wants to fish where the fish are, but by encroaching into the north of Sydney, do the Mariners dilute the existing support for Sydney FC?
Certainly the message from not only fans of the Mariners, but seemingly the broader football family, was that they want the Mariners to remain on the Central Coast.
The talk of losing their team certainly appears to have galvanised the Central Coast, and if that leads to a stronger connection between the club and the community long term, then there may be some light out of this saga.
Having been a regular visitor to the Central Coast over the 10 years of the A-League, I’ve seen the amount of kids now playing the game and looking up to their Mariners.
Given the response so far from Central Coast fans, whether Charlesworth, Tweed and the FFA continue to pursue their northern exposure will be one to watch.
No sooner had the anti-North Sydney mood simmered from a boiling point, then the attention shifted to the south of Sydney, with talk this week from new Cronulla Sharks head and former Western Sydney Wanderers chair Lyall Gorman about the potential for an A-League franchise out of Shark Park.
With the talk coming so soon after entering his new role, it almost makes you wonder whether he was strategically placed at Cronulla with expansion in mind after his work for the FFA in setting up the Wanderers.
In recent times there has been a bit of talk about potential expansion into Wollongong, but there remain questions about the FFA’s commitment to regional only clubs.
It appears to be favouring the capitals.
As is happening in the north, the idea of a team that can co-exist in both south Sydney and Wollongong, as the St George Dragons have done in the NRL, is one option.
There’s even been talk of this team out of Shark Park tapping into the nearby St George Football Association, an area considered to be Sydney FC territory.
It was a point picked up by Adam Santarrossa in his article on The Roar on Wednesday, where he argued that even those in “the shire” were generally Sydney FC fans.
Yet the big question is whether going from two to four teams representing Sydney’s geographical compass would strengthen or dilute the current two team Sydney derby?
Indeed, with the holy grail of sustainability proving elusive still for a large number of clubs, the FFA would do well to tread carefully and ensure it builds from a strong base and not by alienating any existing stakeholders.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.