AFLX might be the most blatant act of colonisation since Australia was first settled, but football should get its own affairs in order before we point fingers.
Let’s call a spade a spade here – the AFL’s hybrid game is an obvious attempt to take over rectangular pitches and extend their season well into summer.
No one cares about this Mickey Mouse nonsense – least of all AFL fans – but if they set out to inconvenience the A-League, then mission accomplished.
This is an AFL, it’s worth remembering, that sent around a memo less than two weeks ago telling coaches what tactics to employ to ensure higher-scoring games in their women’s league.
So they don’t care about how they look, just as long as it looks good to them.
And they won’t have cared about how the Coopers Stadium surface looked on Saturday night either.
Nor, for that matter, do the South Australian government or Adelaide Venue Management Corporation.
And the total lack of respect shown to football is mirrored by many other state governments around the country.
Still waiting for Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to weigh in with her thoughts on what hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup could do for her state?
Or scouring Minister for Sport Mick de Brenni’s Twitter feed looking for his congratulatory tweets to Brisbane Roar for their successful W-League campaign?
Don’t hold your breath.
Mainstream politicians still view football as a foreign sport played by ethnic invaders, even if those same politicians hail from ethnic backgrounds themselves.
It’s why they always seek to ingratiate themselves with what they think is middle Australia, which to them is represented by a homegrown sport like Aussie rules.
And there’s only one sure-fire way to deal with politicians who have zero interest in listening to their constituents – vote them out.
Which is clearly not a concept Football Federation Australia chairman Steven Lowy is familiar with.
Since being parachuted into power by his father Frank Lowy in November 2015, Lowy junior has accomplished for football… what, exactly?
(Photo by Don Arnold/Getty Images)
On Friday, the FFA released a statement to say there will be two new A-League teams by the start of the 2019-20 campaign.
Great! But didn’t they release the exact same statement 18 months ago?
What, then, have Lowy and David Gallop and Greg O’Rourke been doing in the interim?
Trying to hold on to their jobs is the short answer.
And this most recent announcement is the latest in a series of desperate attempts to hold on to power just long enough for FIFA to lose interest in Australia’s affairs, and placate just enough stakeholders to avert the threat of an independent A-League.
It’s as see-through as a wet t-shirt contest.
But – and this is a big but – football fans calling for the axe to fall should be careful of what they wish for.
Calling for anyone to lose their job is a nasty bit of business, even if it’s behaviour we see around the football world every day of the year.
And calling for the FFA to stand aside and let someone else take charge is fraught with danger as well.
What should we return to? The National Soccer League?
There’s got to be a middle ground – alert the politicians! – and it’s about time the various stakeholders in the game started working together to try and find it.
The product on the field is worth selling – Melbourne City’s 2-0 win over Sydney FC in the W-League grand final is proof, even if Jess Fishlock’s opener should have been disallowed for a foul on Sydney FC goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsloe – but right now the game’s powerbrokers are too busy squabbling instead.
And rivals like the AFL are only too happy to exploit the power vacuum left by football’s absent leaders.
If we want football to take the next step, we need someone to take charge.
FFA are the incumbents. They need to either step up, or stand aside.
apaway
Roar Guru
Write a lot of articles.
Rolly
Guest
@aligee when it's 60% aerial ping ping it's rubbish
Matt H
Roar Guru
Fans and eyeballs on TV, not the fields obviously.
Matt H
Roar Guru
20,000 turned up just this week to see Melbourne wallop Leeds in a pre-season fixture. there is plenty of NRL talk up here in Brisbane I can tell you.
Aligee
Guest
Last time it added up to 105%, this time its 110%, sounds like the game is improving
Aligee
Guest
Every game has deficiencies, even soccer does. The goals are to small, players fall over and the lack of scoring in general is a cure for a insomnia - see 2 can play your game.,
chris
Guest
Maybe a goalkeeper on stilts will stem the points avalanche? He can juggle chainsaws in between the shots at goal. The kiddies will love that
chris
Guest
Mario its only money. Other sports in this country have squandered govt money more (and continue to do so) than football.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
That's pretty close to the truth isn't it?
Redondo
Guest
It’s rubbish and simply amplifies the existing deficiencies of Aussie Rules. For example, the field is too small and the goals too big given the kicking range of most players. Scoring isn’t an achievement, it’s just a given and monotonous. It’s like a 4-note melody played over and over again, often badly - tap/catch/kick/score or kick/catch/kick/score. Tackling is still part of the game so it’s definitely still one of the crash/bash sports. The constant pauses to celebrate someone catching the ball are still there as well, and are even more irritating in a short-form game.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
Aligee I will answer your question with reference to a previous post of mine. It's 60% aussie rules, 15% soccer, 15% ultimate frisbee, 10% basketball and 10% gaelic football.
Leonard
Guest
Can very vaguely recall the argy-bargy about the fate of Fitzroy during mid-1996, but did not follow it in detail. I do remember that one of my Yr 11 students (whose family were Fitzroy diehards from 1897) made the trans-continental trip over to Perth for Fitzroy's adieu (not 'au revoir') game against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval, and was highly impressed with the respect shown by Dockers officials, players and fans after Fitzroy's absolutely 'final' siren. Be interested to know the details of this claim of soccer's 'Lions' being "bullied out". In the mid 1996 (AFL- endorsed / enforced) merger of the BRISBANE 'Bad News' Bears + 'poor old' Fitzroy LIONS the most obvious new name (aka 'branding') was BRISBANE LIONS. Perhaps there were a few sweeteners involved in the negotiations? Anyway, despite the Bears' successful 1995 and 1996 seasons, would that 'Mexican' AFL mob have had much clout in NRL dominated Queensland generally, and in metro-Brisbane in particular? Ditto for a soccer club in a 2 x rugby state.
AR
Guest
Almost all of what Rolly just posted is wrong. Use google mate.
Aligee
Guest
Redondo, answer me one question, if you are capable, is AFLX still bash and crash or very much soccer like in its lack of physicality, and then when you manage to do that answer me another one, is AFLX like Gaelic football very much soccer like in its play with a lack of packs and open play with the need for precision passing up and down the field. Come on Redondo
Redondo
Guest
Offal exhibit 1
Redondo
Guest
You’re ok AD - it’s all the other AFL offal that blights this tab
Aligee
Guest
Fuss, AFLX which Tuckerman refers to is not bash and crash, but far more like soccer, it has very little physicality. Perhaps that's why Tuckerman is a bit paranoid about it. But yer fun day for me, never made so many posts.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Um, alrighty then. I honestly can't tell who precisely you're referring to, but I dislike even the implication that I'm a nut-job and a 'poser'.
Redondo
Guest
‘Stupid’ captures it pretty well. As a cultural phenomenon Aussie Rules rules - but as a sport it’s just silly.
Nemesis
Guest
Unbelievable. The Crash & Bash Nutjobs are still posting. Looking for attention from the football community. Is there a more pathetic group of posers than the AFL mob on this website?