Saturday night’s Sydney derby will be the strangest meeting ever between the two sides, with the rest of the season a test of which teams can handle playing behind closed doors.
These are unprecedented times. There are legitimate questions around whether professional sport should even be taking place, with the A-League set to continue with no fans for the foreseeable future.
Some clubs, most notably Wellington Phoenix, will be far more affected than others.
There have been suggestions that the remainder of the league season beyond this round may be played out in Sydney and Melbourne only.
That won’t come as a surprise to fans of clubs outside those two cities, because for years A-League officials have been obsessed with marketing the league in Sydney and Melbourne to the exclusion of everyone else.
But this is the hand we’ve been dealt, and an A-League played in empty grounds in selected cities is arguably preferable to no A-League being played at all.
So tonight’s two fixtures between the Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne City in Gosford, and Brisbane Roar and the Newcastle Jets on the Gold Coast, mark the start of a new and hopefully short-lived era.
There have been plenty of jokes about the A-League always being played behind closed doors, to which it’s worth responding that the first Sydney derby of the season at Bankwest Stadium drew a crowd of more than 28,500 – and that wasn’t even the largest attendance of the season.
(Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
But as we saw with both the AFL and NRL starting life behind closed doors on Thursday night, conjuring a response from players when there’s no atmosphere in the stands is clearly easier said than done.
But that’s exactly what needs to happen tonight when the Mariners and Roar host games in empty venues in Gosford and Robina respectively.
And the biggest challenge for what’s left of the A-League season is not for teams to find a way to beat Sydney FC, but to deal with the completely new experience of playing in front of zero fans.
It makes tonight’s two matches somewhat of a litmus test for the league as a whole, as the competition prepares to end the season with an almost Big Bash League condensed format.
It also brings into sharp relief the decision to continue playing football at all, with rumours abounding that it was made to avoid giving Fox Sports just cause to terminate a broadcast contract that still has three seasons left to run.
The online clamour for streaming service Optus Sport to pick up the A-League broadcast rights grows louder by the day, yet the reality is that for all their slick production values, they haven’t actually expressed a desire to do so.
They’re also highly unlikely to pay as much for the broadcast rights as Fox Sports did given the lack of other credible suitors.
(Albert Perez/Getty Images)
That Foxtel is haemorrhaging money at a rate of knots was rammed home in midweek when at least 25 long-serving journalists were made redundant in the midst of this global pandemic.
The names included dedicated football reporter Carly Adno and popular on-air identity Daniel Garb, who spent years covering both the English Premier League and the Socceroos.
It’s not football fans’ fault that the network vastly overpaid for some of its content – in particular cricket, which has produced virtually no commercial return – but it’s invariably football fans who’ll pay the price.
Because if Fox Sports can’t afford to keep some of their hardest workers like Garb and Adno around, then what hope is there for the rest of the coverage?
No wonder they were keen for some content tonight.
Get ready for the weirdest round of A-League action we’ve ever witnessed.
The jury is out on whether the players should even be playing, but perhaps it beats the alternative of being unemployed.
Nick Symonds
Guest
MASSIVE NEWS: PM Morrison declares that all non-essential travel to be ceased within Australia. State borders to be closed and even travel between cities to also cease. Unclear if these will measures be immediate.
Beach
Roar Rookie
Sport in this country has been overvalued for so long. We have fostered a smug, narrow second rate culture in this country by virtue of our relative isolation, and I suspect that will never be the same again. My hope is that that out of this crisis a broader national vision will emerge. Right now I don't care one jot whether the A League survives. My firm hunch is that it won't. It isn't just this pandemic. We are facing an existential environmental crisis and perhaps stripping away the opiates of the masses, to borrow Marx's phrase, will finally lead to some kind of clarity.
TK
Guest
All I can see the banks doing is providing a window of deferral on debt repayments to save themselves having to call in all the bad debt that are out there. We are making a greater effort to focus on buying from our local shops and trying as best we can to support all the little businesses in our suburb run by local families to keep the money turning over at that level. Means a bit more driving around to the bakery, the butcher, the local cafe and pizza shop and pub but in my view better than pumping money into Woolies/Coles/Aldi who will be doing just fine. Had a couple of very pleasant pizzas and a few beers at the pizza shop last night - cost probably $50 more than dominoes, but the appreciation of the owner for coming out and whose teenage son served us was palpable.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
NRL games have been fine, a bit of dropsy as is characteristic of early season matches. Either they can actually be heard more clearly, or the low ambient noise causes you to fixate, but the sound of the collisions can be a little disconcerting at times.
Micko
Roar Rookie
If you think the A League playing to empty crowds is weird, consider the AFL opening game between Richmond & Carlton was going to be played in front of a crowd of around 90,000! :shocked:
Nick Symonds
Guest
"I think we are acting far too slowly" - People just don't get exponential curves on graphs. We'll soon have 1000 cases, if it's doubling every 3 days we could have 16,000 cases within two weeks, with one in five of those needing hospitalisation. That's 3,200 beds that you need to find. It might creep up slowly, but then it suddenly hits like a freight train when it arrives. If you just let it run amok and do nothing to prioritise the economy as some say, it'll end up killing more people than have died in all of Australia's wars combined.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Agree with you about Garbie. He's one of the best sports presenters around. Also rate Simon Hill, far better than any of the other callers on TV, any sport, and hope we don't lose him too. FFA needs to take control of the production side, and then they'll have a product to sell to the likes of OPTUS.
coolncold
Roar Rookie
Whoever wins the 2020 A-League champion will be the best at playing behind closed doors.
SweatyProp
Roar Rookie
Daniel Garb is especially a great loss. I feel for Daniel and all his colleague, but we should remember this is just the latest in 12 months of staff shedding from Foxtel and Fox Sports. They appear to be dying on the vine, or should I say dying online. Foxtel have mis-judged the sporting marketplace(s) they should be expert in, and I suspect also mis-judged the impacts of technology changes. Which is fine (companies do sometimes fail) except for the fact that they are permanently damaging a range of sports as they go out backwards. Foxtel via Fox Sports have taken Rugby to the brink (and beyond) and will do the same to the A-League - nothing surer. How many of the current Fox Sports broadcast team for the A-League will survive the first week after the competition (see SportsBet for the odds). Fox Sports do not care about any sport other than AFL, NRL and Cricket (in the short form). And cricket should be looking over their shoulder as their Test number are not great. This is not totally accurate they do care about College basketball from Louisiana. A-League Clubs and the FFA need to take greater control of how the game is made available via TV and Streaming. Get off your butts and table a plan ASAP.
AGO74
Guest
Like everyone I've been all over the shop over the last week or so as the gravity of what is confronting us has hit me. Specific to sport, at the start of the week I didn't care and if anything I was annoyed at the NRL getting in early with its Chairmans comments requesting govt help. That said, I tuned in last night to an ordinary game of NRL between two ordinary NRL teams - and I enjoyed it. Not because of the quality (far from it) but because I deliberately left my phone in the other room and just enjoyed watching something that felt relatively normal. You can joke etc about the absence of crowd being no difference to an ordinary game but I honestly didn't really notice it. Sports cancellation here in Australia is imminent but as I said, it was just nice to watch something that felt semi-normal.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Well my comment wasn’t totally serious but they play FIFA as far as I’m aware!
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
hammer - head - you know it's the nail next, hit. And if my team is playing I'm going to support them, under whatever circumstances.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
FIFA is no replacement for the A League, let's be serious. But there is an E League and that could well have been promoted or brought forward (I don't know the season). The audience is more gamers than football fans, but still a good promo for the A League. Current players could feature in aside interviews.
Nemesis
Guest
"in particular cricket, which has produced virtually no commercial return." It was refreshing to read this sentence. Hopefully, this means the writer has finally understood that commercial return for Foxtel is not focused on average OzTAM viewers. Viewing numbers are critical for Free To Air Tv because viewing numbers drive revenue. For Pay TV, viewing numbers might give an impression that content is popular. But unless that content drives new revenue it means nothing. BBL cricket matches on Foxtel, pull virtually the same number of average viewers as AFL matches. But, the Foxtel's CEO has admitted BBL cricket has not provided adequate return on investment.
Franko
Guest
What frustrates me the most is; who owns Fox? The Murdochs greed is taking people away from their families and putting them in harms way. Might take a Fussy stance and stop watching!
Franko
Guest
We could call it off now and call Sydney FC champions, you'd be bitter to argue. I suspect players, fans etc would be ok with this, Fox wouldn't....
Fadida
Roar Rookie
It’s over as far as I’m concerned Buddy. Irrelevant. Waz makes some great points as to why sport, and work need to be balanced with “flattening the curve”. The economic effects are horrendous and heart breaking. From a health care professional POV there are too may other things to focus on; weighing up whether to pull the kids from school, whether I need to segregate myself from family to continue to work, tracking patients and staff we’ve been in contact with. Seeing what I am seeing, in Italy especially, I think we are acting far too slowly. Non – essential contact needs to stop. A-league is non essential
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Your comments about distraction are pretty well spot on Waz. You want to look away and not take in any more but you just can’t as it hits you from too many angles. The A League should be played out online with a representative from each club playing FIFA. The skill level would increase no end, there’s no VAR and the crowds are amazing even when the teams are struggling.....seems like a perfect answer to me as it fulfils all the social distancing requirements as well!
Waz
Roar Rookie
I don’t watch AFL/NRL so haven’t experienced the pleasure yet, although I did watch a European game years ago that was behind closed doors and it was awful. So low expectations. I’m not sure anything can truly distract from the current crisis. It looks like a 12 week crunch and a world of hurt for millions of people The people bailed out the Banks after the GFC, the Banks bloody well better bail out the people this time!
Buddy
Roar Rookie
Is anyone really the slightest bit concerned about A League or sport in general right now? Distraction from what is in front of us 24/7 may be a legitimate argument but the very fact that games are being played in empty stadiums only serves as a reminder of how things are, and so distraction does not work. I watched about 2 minutes of the Rugby League game last night before turning to some televised fiction as a distraction from the bombardment of information and reminders of how appallingly behaved some people are. I’m not sure I understand the definitions of social distancing when I see sports people in closer contact than I ever would engage in the workplace. Unlike in leagues where there are promotion and relegation issues to be fought out or argued, the A League could stop right now and declare “as is” with little in the way of controversy and contentious argument. Right now it seems an insignificant part of life,although I still like to think, talk and debate various topics but it does seem a trifle frivolous.