Where have all The Roar's old readers gone?

I'll let that one pass through to the keeper...

Agree some of it is daft NPL is a step in the right direction Have to allow them to get transfer fees to help trickle down cashflow and to encourage them to develop talent but also perhaps more importantly infrastructure NPL's and FFA Cup can be useful for lead-in expansion teams, to get a community and fanbase behind them and for them to "prove" themselves etc Over time we can make a light A-2 League but it will take quite a bit of time

Personally I'm not surprised at the pattern, trends in many things have a tendency to over-correct Eg previously the clubs had too much power and it was a basket-case, now the FFA have had too much power and their is the rather unpleasant smell of nepotism Eg pendulum has swung too far the other way and we are seeing issues of a similar magnitude but expressed differently Eg in the old NSL days it was a case of the sport having community people who were passionate but no big Corporate acumen, more recently we have had Business people and Sports professionals but no football acumen and they have made errors I reckon 9-5-1 deal was fairly reasonable Looking back, it is quite clear the FFA should have started replacing their stranglehold after the first 5 years of the A-League, eg the start-up phase was over but they held on and restricted the HAL teams too much. They jumped the gun with the WC bid and should have implemented the FFA Cup then which would have continued the good momentum of the first five years of the HAL, but it seems politics against old guard was against it but at least we have it now There's a balancing act, but if the HAL chairman along with running their own intellectual property and getting more merchandise revenue so as to encourage Marketing efforts, they should be able to elect HAL chief themselves and decide on the timeframe of the HAL type decisions, they are going to this properly to maximise their benefit HAL should be autonomous but never independent, I have seen what happened in England with independent EPL and it is problematic

I'm still ticking along, been a bit focused on other things so no time for Football articles The MV forum going down is a bit of a body blow, not for the faint-hearted but some good discussion there over the years and some good banter and memories Doesen't help that this has occurred on a lot of Terrace fans simply having enough Made the attempt to work through things, but we have seen the FFA for what they are in recent weeks and they are impossible to work with if one is a stakeholder in football whether they be fans or club owners, so a lot of people simply can't be bothered putting the energy in and will just happily casually watch the matches The 9-5-1 deal was about fair, A-League needs to be represented, and within the over-arching structure, not as a distinct entity I have been enjoying the FFA Cup, eg no opportunity to see MV now, but I have enjoyed watching Heidelberg defeat Perth and enjoyed my first trip to Lakeside/Bob Jane Stadium for a few years to watch them win. Intending to head down to Bentleigh next Tuesday as well I do think refurbished Lakeside is a nice little stadium, definitely useful to hold a niche A-League team as a 3rd Melbourne side, and if their rent deal is very small it means South can be cost-neutral or profitable with the TV money covering the Salary cap and even a small membership base should be enough to cover admin costs if they keep it lean

You nailed Nemesis. I hope Mike listens to you on this and does something about it with such good advice.

Sorry double post it was placed incorrectly. @Ben – Perhaps Mike can learn a bit of innovative journalistic prowess from these 2 young men. Sorry Mike, but you are getting a bit lazy writing articles like this one. Get out and chat to Aloisi, if you can’t afford to travel outside of Queensland and see what they are doing in their youth academies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2R4SsfGFiE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InzTIvCZfqY

Mike, it just occurred to me. When you ask "where have old readers gone" did you actually mean "where have old posters gone"? What I'm asking: are your articles still getting the same average number of "reads" as previously; but fewer comments? Or, is the number of reads also down on previous years? If the "Article Reads" are the same as previous, there should be no concern. There are many articles on this website that I read, but don't have a need to comment. One other question: Do you have FFA Media Accreditation? If I had FFA Media Accreditation, here at 30 articles I would be churning out every off-season - interview (either by phone, or face-to-face/Skype) - that would guarantee be read by the majority of ALeague fans: 1) Owner/Chairman of each ALeague club - review of the previous season - good/bad; on field/off field; future direction on field/off field; academies, own stadium/stadium rights, marquee players, etc etc = 10 articles 2) Coach of each ALeague club - review of previous season: what went right/wrong - challenges & opportunities for next season - player gaps to be filled = 10 articles 3) Captain of each ALeague club (or, the club's most high-profile player) - insights about the standard of the football that season - insights about fixturing, stadiums, atmosphere, etc. = 10 articles Plus there are so many other articles fans would be keen to read: a) insights from each owners about new operating model for the Aleague = 10 articles b) insights for various interest groups about the model for the new FFA Congress = PFA, NPL clubs, State Feds, ALeague owners, Women's football/WL, coaches, special needs, refs = at least 10 articles. c) TV deal - FFA, FoxSports, TEN - what are the plans; how was the value reached. Talk to competitors in the broadcast industry - why didn't they bid for ALeague, what gaps need to be filled & benchmarks hit before they're interested? = probably 1/2 dozen articles d) Sponsors = major sponsors from each club; what attracts them to HAL, what more they'd like done; = another 10 articles at least There is so much content for FFA Accredited journos to follow up on. Yet, too many journos are content to just read Media Releases & then write an opinion piece on the Media Release.

Ben - Perhaps Mike can learn a bit of innovative journalistic prowess from these 2 young men. Sorry Mike, but you are getting a bit lazy writing articles like this one. Get out and chat to Aloisi, if you can't afford to travel outside of Queensland and see what they are doing in their youth academies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2R4SsfGFiE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InzTIvCZfqY

@Caltex - SBS journalists have a budget that allows them to fly to places, stay in hotels and interview key individuals like Ange. The Roar doesn't as it is an opinion site. Hence if Mike does an interview piece it will be for a different agency that will pay for such.

@Arto – The late Les Murray (who will be greatly missed by me) never wrote this sort of D... and went out and interviewed people in the know. That’s why he was called Mr Football. Mike, has a lot to learn. Thank goodness we still have Craig Foster we can listen to on SBS.

@Arto - The late Les Murray (who will be greatly missed by me) never wrote this sort of drivel and went out and interviewed people in the know. That's why he was called Mr Football. Mike, has a lot to learn. Thank goodness we still have Craig Foster we can listen to on SBS.

Mike - no national coach writes their own pieces or column that's why we have football journalists we hope can get in depth interviews from them. They're simply too busy or they feel it leaves them open to unfair criticism----and that's fair enough from their perspective. If you want to be a good journalist perhaps you should search for a good story to write. Take a leaf out of Martyn Tyler's book.

Mike Good article - it generated a huge amount of discussion. To answer your question - I don't mind much which topics authors choose to cover. It's always interesting to see what others are interested in and find out new stuff. But one interesting aspect of your article was the wide-ranging set of comments it generated. That happens a lot on this site. The comments often veer well wide of the article topic. I think that's because there is nowhere else to chat so the first article that draws a few core commenters becomes the thread for the day. That suggests the site might need one or two other types of content, in addition to the articles currently hosted. Firstly, it needs something like breaking news or announcements. This stuff currently turns up in the comments under whichever article is currently most active e.g. Socceroos squad announcement, Gallop resigning etc etc. Often these generate a lot of discussion and shouldn't need a formal article to get the group involved and discussing. I would pre-subscribe to this type of content so that I don't have to go to the site to check for new stuff. Secondly, you could use something shorter and less finessed than an article but a bit more formal than a comment. There are lots of good ideas, useful information, and, topical thoughts buried in the comments under articles. Often these comments have nothing to do with the article itself. If you're not an anal reader like myself you just won't know how much interesting stuff is being discussed. I'd love to see a separate area where people like (just for example) Nemesis, Midfielder, Arto, Grobbelaar, Pacman etc could post a very brief article to kickstart conversation on a topic. That would make it easier for casual readers to find stuff they are interested in and hopefully comment, ask questions etc. I'm not sure if adding those 2 types of content would add much to the admin overhead for the editors - hopefully not. It would certainly make it easier to keep putting out a steady stream of content. I sense that regular authors like yourself feel pressure to keep producing articles to keep the site turning over. Also, the editors probably have to compromise on quality sometimes for the same reason. Definitely don't lose the longer articles though - just make it easier for more people to contribute.

@ Mike Tuckermann¨: And therein lies a common misunderstanding... A lot of people have written in this thread words to the effect that they come here to read news. This isn't helped by the way the website is set up - it's not the clearest of distinctions between the two types of articles (the difference in text colour). The other part to that is the popularity of other social media avenues that do the same (eg: Twitter) - ie: post news as well as opinions (technically it's not Twitter who are posting news, but I think people here can understand the point that I'm trying to make). @ Caltex: Now you have heard what Mike's aim is, so I guess you don't need to read his columns if that's not you're after. It's possible that Mike could write an opinion piece on what Ange says during these press conferences, but I'm not sure if that's what you're after either... As for Your original post bemoaning the choice of subject, it does seem a bit strange that no-one has written an opinon piece on it, but maybe there's one in the works coming up. I think the timing of this piece from Mike is possibly coincidental in relation to Kerr, Mooy & Rogic's efforts recently so I'm not going to criticise him for that... After all, we all have the Power to simply not 'click' on the article heading in the main menu... ;-)

Me too always appreciated Towser & Iangou's inputs.

@ Midfielder: Good spot in finding this article... It makes me think a little of the impact WSW had actually - only with the extra Money. And that's really the big difference between MLS & A-League: a LOT MORE money in the US. We can only dream of boutiuqe stadiums for our clubs, whereas over there it's a requirement for getting a licence almost (?). Think about how good the atmospheres would be if SFC & BR got their own 20K stadium for most home games and played big blockbusters at their current venues? Even Nix getting a 10K rectangular stadium would be a great lift for them - not that I'm so keen on their continued involvement (as they don't really add much to the League).

TWG may have made the wrong call here. Ray Gatt Can confirm from 3 sources that suggestions a deal has been done with state Feds, AL clubs & PFA is way off mark. No meeting sched for Sept 5 4:59 PM - 24 Aug 2017

I agree Mid. There is no disputing the Lowy family's business acumen, and they are definitely hard nosed with an aggressive approach. Steve Lowy and his brother Peter are joint recipients of the highest corporate income package in Australia, so family involvement in football is definitely a sideline. One can liken Lowy's efforts with FFA to a heavy vehicle driver struggling to maintain control whilst travelling downhill with suspect brakes. Miss a critical downshift, and things quickly become calamitous. He is facing pressure from various groups, all of whom are seeking more money, and the power that goes with it. Let's face it, we are inundated on an almost daily basis with irresponsible calls for expansion of the A-league, a national second tier, promotion and relegation. And when do we want it? NOW! Where is the money going to come from? WHO KNOWS or CARES! These are admirable objectives, but definitely all long term. No short or medium term about it. Some of these objectives may even prove to be out of our reach, but being realistic is not a popular approach.

Mike - earlier in your piece I had advised you to interview Ange Postecoglou. Obviously my advice fell on death ears.