Kenny Lowe, in the lead up to Perth’s match against newly crowned premiers Sydney FC, called them possibly the greatest A-League team ever.
What about Ange Postecoglou’s 2010-11 Brisbane Roar team that won the league by eight points, with a goal difference of +32, playing some of the slickest football ever seen from an Australian club?
Well how about this. Sydney, having beaten a fragile Perth on Sunday – missing, mind you, their first choice right back and goalkeeper – now have the opportunity to top the Roar’s 10-11 points total of 65, provided they win their remaining three matches.
Brisbane played in an 11-team league in that title-winning season, while the current competition has ten teams. With their win on Sunday, Sydney broke through the points record for a 27-game season, set by the Wanderers, with plenty of time to spare.
The Roar began their historic winning streak in that season as well, and kept it rolling through until the 2011-12 campaign. Sydney were unable to match the Roar in that regard this season – they didn’t come close, in truth – but the fact that they are the first side to have clinched the premiership leading from pillar to post only adds a layer of steely reinforcement to their case for being the greatest A-League team ever.
Their defensive supremacy is also worth reiterating. Sydney may well finish the regular season having conceded less than 15 goals, which would be the greatest season-long defensive display ever seen in this country. So many things about Sydney’s season have been historic.
And yet, it could have been better. That FFA Cup final, lost in November to Melbourne City before the citizens realised they might not be all that good, will be clawing in the minds of the Sydney players, and in Graham Arnold’s, as they stride toward the finals.
The premiers plate is Sydney’s first piece of silverware in seven years, and yet it could have so easily been their second of the season, if not for that dour defeat in the cup final.
The match was prepared for with such little ambition by Sydney, a tepid approach that backfired. In hindsight, and with Sydney’s soaring chances of winning the grand final in mind, the fact that this can’t become the A-League’s first treble-winning team seems such a waste.
The sky blue side of Sydney will be hoping the regret that pangs over this spurs their team on to tear into the finals, appetite not sated by the premiers plate, still raring to at least match Adelaide’s haul last season of a plate and championship double.
The strange psychology of having a finals series tacked onto a fairly sizeable regular season is a curious feature of the A-League. In any European league, Sydney would be able to put their feet up and savour a job so very well done. That can’t happen, with only a grand final victory shaping up as a fitting crown for this fine season.
Saturday’s win over Perth offered stern hope that Sydney are still completely focused on maintaining their season-long form into the post-season. Perth are such a brittle team, a glass cannon, with the ability to shatter opposing defences just as easily as they are able to dismantle their own defensive bulwark.
Here, a horror debut for newly signed Romanian Lucian Goian, garnished with a booking, an own-goal, and an early substitution, sent a series of fractures through the Perth resolve. They conceded a second goal three minutes after Goian’s own-goal, and crumbled eventually to a 3-0 loss.
Sydney were nonetheless ruthless, overpowering a team that had the prize of a home final still to play for, and dispatched them with ease and without fuss. There is no reason Arnold can’t maintain this intensity, even as the warm feeling of winning the plate settles around his team.
Shorthanded, with Josh Brillante playing out of position, they easily resisted one of the league’s most potent attacks, on their own patch. Alex Brosque spoke after the match about how this win almost acted as a sort of dress rehearsal for the finals:
“Because we had the week off, I think it was good to see.” Brosque, the man of the match, said. “You know, this is going to happen in the finals, we’re going to get a week off and then we’re going to have to back it up after that. So it was good to have a week off, come to Perth, and put in a performance like we did.”
Brandon O’Neill also spoke: “Our ultimate goal is to win the championship.”
It appears as though eyes are narrowing, dialled in on what remains within reach. Milos Ninkovic was interviewed after the game too, and intimated that perhaps he won’t be at Sydney FC next season; as if the Sky Blues need another reason to capitalise on the present.
Melbourne City, whose form over the last eight games reads as follows: Loss, Loss, Draw, Win, Loss, Win, Win, Loss – an exemplar of how not to enter the finals with any kind of consistent form – are Sydney’s next opponents.
Sydney will need little motivation to re-stamp their superiority on the league’s highest-paid team. Then two warm-down games against Wellington and Newcastle, both teams who will have nothing to play for. “Don’t let that fire in the belly fade, boys” Arnold will be urging, “there’s still work to do”.
They may not be the aesthetic pleasure that Roarcelona lot were, but their premiership has been seized and throttled with a sort of callous arrogance, a premiership stalked down rather than just pursued. The chip that Melbourne City knocked off their shoulder in that cup final in November ought to keep them in the mood.
Swanny
Guest
All the jets have to do to increase crowds is but 11 decent players and get a decent coach and make the top 4 Apparently our owner is a billionaire but isn't willing to spend . In our first 3 years where the jets made the top 4 every season they regularly got 18000 crowds . The people are still there but are sick of watching crap football
Waz
Guest
Show me someone who laughs at Victory's commercial model and I'll show you an idiot. Very nice insight in your write-up
Kaks
Roar Guru
Exactly. Let the clubs target their community with; 1) Ads on billboards, TV, Buses, Trains etc. 2) Marketing in schools and local football clubs. Promote their club with free tickets to these schools and junior football clubs 3) Community work promoting the club and the players Let the FFA; 1) Market the league as a whole 2) Market the 'marquee' players 3) Market the Socceroo's and Matilda's. The respective clubs would (or should) know how to market their area more effectively than a blanket ‘promotion’ from the FFA which is social media driven, and quite obviously yielding disproportionate results based on financial output.
Nemesis
Guest
In Melbourne, the Victory Club rolls up its sleeves & engages with local clubs, local communities & local business. People laugh at Melbourne Victory because they have "no name brands" as their shirt sponsor. What people don't understand is Victory has build a huge network amongst SMEs across Victoria. These SMEs are often owned & managed by people who love football. Engineering firms, recruitment firms, poultry wholesalers, fruit & veg wholesalers, builders, etc. etc. No glamorous Blue Chip ASX companies, but a network of businesses that Are Football. To me, this is the marketing. Get your brand out there amongst the people who the football community. Don't waste money on billboards or ads where 90% of the people who see them have zero interest in Football. ALeague clubs have to be smarter. We don't have huge funds to throw at marketing. We do have a massive grassroots community. Figure out how to make one work for the other.
Waz
Guest
Agree. It's all that social media stuff
Waz
Guest
All good questions and I'm sure there's some good people out there that can answer them. What the central marketing gives us is three programs: 1. Season launch (yoshi this year) 2. Summer of football 3. Finals campaign Plus all the social media stuff we see. It's not cheap and $10m will just cover that I recon. Is it working is the question? Memberships are up slightly, crowds up slightly, but $10m's worth? I'd say no. What worked for Roar was localised and targeted marketing for each game. And using a variety of mediums whereas the central fund uses just social media (at least in Brisbane). So Roar ran billboard ads, cinema ads, newspapers, radio, tv, they even stopped running with "you've got to have a team" because it wasn't local enough. That seems to be the key - local, relevant advertising only days out before a game. I'd say the smart clubs would know what to do with say half of that budget and to let each club decide what's right for them.
Square Nostrils
Guest
Dont understand the Angst regarding crowds, for a league of this quality, judging by other Football leagues in the world, they are spot on. In fact in that respect the League probably is punching above its weight. Lets look at the Championship to date average 19792, with Newcastle averaging a whopping 51111 and with the top 9 clubs including Aston Villa, Leeds, Sheff Wed, Wolves averaging over 20,000. Why are the top 9 getting crowds of that magnitude, simple answer,because its taken 100 plus years of organic growth combined with promotion and relegation plus no salary cap for them to find their level of support. Look at League One average 7736, one club Sheff Utd at the top averaging above 20,000, why same reason as in the top 9 of the Championship, organic growth in a P/R no salary cap system. So lets analyse those averages a little, the reason the averages are higher in both the Championship and League One is the presence of organically grown bigger clubs(top 5 average above 10,000). Now look at the A-League, its grown over a period of 12 years under the shackles of a salary cap and no pushing your performance from underneath by the way of P/R. This means no mega clubs have developed, the top is dragged down to the bottom, whereas the opposite should be the case. Sydney FC get the crowds they do because everybody knows that for 12 years they've been at more or less the same mediocre level as the Central Coast, in other words their the best of mediocrity, despite winning ways. Add a touch of non mediocrity like Del Piero and we see crowds rise from 11,000 to 19,000 average , despite the team being overall rubbish. What does that tell you? well for the last few decades football fans in Australia have been watching the Del Pieros of the world strut their stuff in World Cups and the top European competitions. They want to see some quality on the park, a name, glamour. Are Sydney FC any more glamorous, have more pulling power than 12 years ago when Dwight Yorke graced the team, I'd say not. Why? Because they've been shackled for 12 years.
Ian
Guest
head and shoulders maybe not......but 36 undefeated and the double one year and 2nd and champions the next cements that spot.
Ian
Guest
Of course......a points haul is one thing. Changing the way the game was played is another Waz...;-)
Ian
Guest
Add the Premiers list - which is almost identical 2016 - Adelaide 2015 - Melbourne Victory 2014 - Brisbane 2013 - Western Sydney 2012 - Central Coast 2011 - Brisbane So 2 yrs out of 6 were from Sydney or Melbourne and Champions 1 yr out of 6 from Sydney or Melbourne
Nemesis
Guest
I'm not a marketing person. Have no idea what is required, or what changes human behaviour. So, keen to know a) what would be 5 good marketing strategies for clubs & FFA? b) What would each strategy cost? c) How many extra tickets would be sold for the investment in (b)? Sincerely, I'm keen to know what works for others since I do know that I don't need marketing to make to attend a football match..
Kaks
Roar Guru
$10m a year? With the amount of "marketing" I see, I'm surprised if they spend more than $10 a year.
Nemesis
Guest
Nonsense. The central theme of my opening post was: The team that finishes top of the ALeague Table is the best in the ALeague. End of Story.
Waz
Guest
Agreed. Roar were funding marketing out of their own pocket for individual games for the first half of the season and crowds were up dramatically. This included billboards, radio, newspapers and TV advertising. They ran out of budget early in the new year and crowds have dropped. The ffa (reportedly) spends close to $10m a year on HAL Marketing - its time to turn half of that over go the clubs for local marketing.
Square Nostrils
Guest
Sydney FC keep on winning and as David Helfgott said in Shrine "Its a mystery". Watching them play Perth nothing obvious stood out, yet they scored 3 goals. Winning seems effortless for them at the moment, no matter whether they have the most possession or in general the least possession in a match. Always a player in the right position at the right time, like there linked by a Telepathic wave machine controlled by Arnie Master of the Universe. For me their better than Roar as Ange's team were playing a style that other A-League teams weren't prepared for at the time. Then again maybe Arnie has a secret style its just not as obvious.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Bitterly disappointed to see the lack of marketing done by the FFA and the clubs week in, week out. After all of the excitement at the start of the season, the FFA and the clubs let this season go stale with their ridiculously minimal marketing of the league. How do you expect to grow numbers when all they do is sit back, scratch their heads when the average attendance doesnt rise, and only ever seem to market the derbies expecting that to supplement the whole league? I'm beyond over it now. MARKET THE LEAGUE FROM START TO FINISH TO ENSURE GROWTH.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Santa hattrick and a clean sheet would be marvelous :)
Waz
Guest
Fine, but you didn't start the discussion about Sydney being the best side this season you started it out with an attack on the finals system. It's difficult to discuss things if you change mid-discussion !!!
AGO74
Guest
Ok so I'm biased being an FC fan but I find these comments on Sydney's quality or being perceived as boring somewhat confusing. Some of the goals we've scored this year have been top shelf and some of the interplay between ninkovic, brosque, Bobo etc is delightful. I think people look at "Roarcelona" sometimes through rose-tinted glasses. They were a step ahead no doubt and they helped to (by their actions) raise the standard of the comp overall but as to whether they are head and shoulders above any other A-league team I'm not so sure....
Nemesis
Guest
Of course crowds & TV are higher for finals. It's do or die. But that doesn't mean a thing in relation to which team is the best. Sydney FC is the best ALeague team this season. There is such a big gap between Sydney and the next best team, there can be no dispute about: luck of the draw, more home games (in actual fact, Sydney plays fewer home games this season than 5 other teams), etc. etc. Nothing that happens in the finals will make me think any differently. Sydney are the best, the other teams need to catch up next season.