Round 21 has seen some stellar football on the park, once again, so what has there been to talk about on and off the park in the A-League Talking Points.
Was Friday night really a good advertisement for a second division?
Let’s be honest, at this stage, what do the likes of Central Coast and Wellington really have to play for?
This writer has been critical of the top six finals format from the moment teams folded and you no longer had to be in the top half of the competition to play finals.
Essentially, you don’t actually have to be successful to receive a finals spot. Remember, finals are actually a reward, not simply a broadcasting requirement.
So you can argue that the Mariners and Phoenix are still playing for a finals spot. But for Wellington, it’s more mathematical, and for neither team would you right now say it is entirely realistic.
So the argument goes, what if Central Coast and Wellington had the spectre of relegation hovering over them, would Friday night’s match have been any better?
I’m still not sure.
For all the talk about promotion/relegation and expansion, the A-League as it currently stands is struggling.
The beleaguered Friday night time slot, what should be the prime time game of the week, drew less than 5,000 to the stadium.
Would any more be showing up to watch a relegation battle?
And if an A-League side is struggling to get a crowd over 5,000 on a Friday night, then what hope does a second division team have on a national stage to get any audience, let alone be successful.
For all the talk of promotion and relegation being a saviour of Australian football, remember the three other footy codes (AFL, NRL, and Super Rugby) don’t have promotion/relegation, and they still have a viable comp, where every team right up until the end of the home and away season still has an element of interest in every game they play.
I am not yet entirely sure that had Central Coast and Wellington been playing for their A-League lives, that Friday would have been much more pleasant. There’s a chance that the game might have been even worse.
(Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)
Newcastle, clear your schedule, you’ll be playing finals
It has been seven long seasons for the long-suffering Jets fans, as they have watched on with envy as every other team has played finals in that time, and Newcastle have not.
Well, the wait is officially over.
By beating Brisbane, who were in seventh spot going into their match, the Jets are now 19 points clear of the Roar, meaning even if the Jets lose every game remaining, and Brisbane win every game, Newcastle cannot finish below Brisbane or any of the teams below them.
And my word how the Jets have broken that drought. Newcastle extended their scoring streak to 21 games this round, and are playing a brand of football that is exciting, attacking, and just plain fun to watch.
Make no mistake, the match against Brisbane was no fait accompli, as the ageing warriors from Queensland took it to the second-placed Newcastle team. While Jamie Young was man of the match, Jack Duncan did his part to keep a vital clean sheet for the away side.
The clinical finish of Joey Champness, from the pinpoint accurate through-ball of Steve Ugarkovic, gave the Novocastrians the win and the stamp on the finals visa in their A-League passport.
And what a day to do it, with a win in front of a strong travelling away fan contingent, on the 10-year anniversary, to the day, of their maiden and only grand final A-League victory.
Ernie Merrick is surely the front-runner for coach of the year, which takes absolutely nothing away from Graham Arnold. But to do what Merrick has done in Newcastle, from where they were last season, is nothing short of masterful.
And it is only fair and proper that his team will be on show come finals time in April.
Williams did more damage to the game than Cavusevic’s actions
Football in Australia has a huge image problem, that is not exactly an earth-shattering statement.
Whether it’s the perceived terrorist sect that apparently supports the game, or the “fact” that nobody plays it (despite it being the highest participation sport in the land), or the failing crowds and empty stadiums during A-League and Asian Champions League matches, football in Australia really does not need any extra excuse for people in glass houses to throw stones.
And yet, of all the criticisms that the game cops in this country, there is the one indefensible action that leaves any lover of football speechless when trying to sell the game. Diving.
In a sporting culture that is built on the likes of Norm Provan and Arthur Summons, true sporting gladiators, or Leigh Matthews and Gary Ablett in AFL, where toughness and brutality are near-deified, there is simply nothing you can say in the face of footballers who play-act to get another player sent off.
Dzengis Cavusevic never should have touched Rhys Williams’ face. Regardless of the push he himself received, and granted Cavusevic’s actions may be arguably a reflex action, but ultimately, he slapped another player.
That is a red card.
But it was a red cardable offence, regardless of Rhys Williams going down like a gunman on a grassy knoll had shot him.
The near full second delay between the slap as Williams’ dive was blatant, and just utterly distasteful.
Instead of calling it diving, or the even more vulgar term, “simulation,” call it what it is: cheating.
Cheating and play-acting are such a bane on the existence of football in this country, that the issuing of a red card to Williams might have been equally fair for the damage he did to the image of the game, as much as the slap he received did.
Stay on your feet Williams, particularly when the slap you received was always going to be punished.
If you’d stayed on your feet, at least your reputation would still be intact.
And the reputation of football wouldn’t have been damaged further in the process.
(Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)
Kilkenny scores, and celebrates accordingly
When Raul joined Schalke, having played 550 games Real Madrid and scored 228 goals in the process, he found himself playing the Spanish club the next season in the Champions League.
He inevitably scored against Madrid, and as a show of respect to his old team, did not celebrate.
Fair enough.
However it has become something of a tradition now that if a player spent time on the bench for one team’s seconds, if they ever come up against that team in the future, they don’t celebrate a goal.
Now, I’m all for showing respect to your former club.
But that’s the point: your former club is now no longer your club. You are with a new club.
When the likes of Raul, an iconic legend in his own right, decides to respect a club that they grew up with, bled for, and spent the majority of his life with, you can at least understand why he might not feel right celebrating against them.
It was refreshing to see Neil Kilkenny celebrate his equalizer against Melbourne City for his new club Perth.
For a player that was told he was excess to requirements mid season, and found himself in Perth, you would think he pencilled fixture penciled in as a must starter.
To win, and score, I imagine would have been exceptionally gratifying for the veteran warrior.
And to see him celebrate the goal? He deserved it.
You are allowed to show joy and happiness for your new club. It is an opportunity to show your new supporters that you are one of them.
Also, just because you are celebrating with your new fans, does not have to mean that you are being disrespectful to the old.
Sydney vs Western Sydney: Farewell SFS
If the AFL has the grand final, rugby league has state of origin, then domestically, the Australian footballing crown jewel is the Sydney Derby.
Conditions were utterly atrocious for the round 21 match up, but the atmosphere did not appear to suffer, and the play still delivered the tension, passion, and class that has come to be expected from this fixture.
As is usual in this day and age, the FFA butchered yet another marquee event, as the players ran around on a field with barely visible line markings, in a less than favourable time slot (why wasn’t the kick off earlier?).
But the Derby continues to deliver.
The passion, the flare (no pun intended), the goals, and that prized atmosphere, still creates a product that no other game does in the A-League.
Which is not to denigrate other match ups or derbies in the A-League. It is simply the case that the Sydney Derby has delivered from day one.
The singularly greatest thing the A-League has done in recent times is tap into that Sydney vs Western Sydney pathos.
The A-League, after all, is about the fans, and in this fixture the A-League has managed to give rival communities an opportunity to get one up on their crosstown rivals.
So as the derby bids farewell to the Sydney Football Stadium for now, it brings to mind the memories of the match up, and the quality football and drama that has always delivered.
Sure, the latest installment may not have been a classic, although Adrian Mierzejewski delivered a free kick to rival that of Leroy George’s effort the night before.
It’s a shame that the last one at the SFS was played under such poor conditions, but if the FFA is going to improve anything (and on past evidence, it’s likely they won’t), they will ensure that these three matches are catered for every season to ensure that only the best that the A-League has to deliver, is very much on show.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Three games on a Saturday should be mandatory
How good was ‘Super Saturday’?
I’ve never understood why the A-League goes with the 1-2-2 formation in respect of its game schedule over the weekend.
Saturday never really feels like 2 games is enough, and the late night second game on Sunday always feels like that guy at a party who is trying to dance when everyone else has gone to sleep.
But the three games on Saturday was where it was at.
When Brisbane and Newcastle kicked things off with end-to end attacking excitement, and the Melbourne and Adelaide match followed up with more goals, just when you thought things were done, you realized you had a whole other game left, and the added excitement of a top-2 chasing Melbourne against a top-6 chasing Perth.
Seven-plus hours of football later, I was spent, but what a way to spend your energy.
Again, the A-League cannot afford to dilute its product. The two games on Saturday and Sunday just doesn’t ever feel like it gains any momentum, but with three on a Saturday, and then the marquee Sydney Derby on the Sunday night?
Yes please.
Take note FFA – you had a great round of football there, and the Super Saturday component was crucial to that.
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