There’s been more entertainment in the 20 A-League games since the restart than the preceding six months, but it all counts for nothing unless football somehow finds a way to unite.
How about a hand for Alessandro Diamanti?
If he’d scored his two goals on Friday night in Europe – say for a gritty club from Madrid’s industrial suburbs like Getafe – we’d be smashing the rewind button on YouTube and waxing lyrical about him in the comments section of a Sid Lowe column for The Guardian.
But because this is the A-League, and the majority of those who call themselves ‘football fans’ in Australia refuse to watch the sport when it’s played in their own backyard, Diamanti’s masterclass in Western United’s 5-3 win over Western Sydney passed by largely unremarked.
Sure, it was nice to see the usual crew applaud his dink-led demolition on Twitter, and Lucas Gillard’s live blog for The Roar must have been fun to write.
Western United’s Alessandro Diamanti (left). (Photo: Western United FC/Twitter)
But there’s no thread dedicated to the Italian maestro on the front page of A-League reddit, and the moribund FourFourTwo forums are seemingly dead in the water.
Perhaps that’s for the best. Since the default setting in Oz football now seems to be to complain solely about the game’s administration rather than discuss any action on the pitch, maybe Diamanti’s skills are best left appreciated by the hardy few still actually tuning in.
But it’s hard not to wonder what David Gallop made of Diamanti’s contribution in Kogarah on Friday night.
Call it a hunch, but I reckon right about the time the Italian was lobbing Tristan Prendergast for the first time, the former Football Federation Australia chief executive was probably sat in front of a big-screen TV sipping a nice glass of red and applauding as Rabbitohs halfback Adam Reynolds dived to ground a grubber kick in Homebush.
That’s been one of the A-League’s biggest problems for years. The running of the game has been outsourced to people who don’t really care about football.
That’s probably why we’re seeing Diamanti three years after he was first wanted by an A-League club – and the fact we’re seeing him at all in the midst of this pandemic is testament to his character.
Diamanti could have joined the likes of Ola Toivonen or Western United teammate Panagiotis Kone in grabbing the first flight back to Europe, but instead the excitable Italian has stuck around to add to his one-man highlight reel.
And if Western United squeak into the finals – and contrary to the narrative that wants to portray every single element of the nascent club as an abject failure – they should be lauded for adding some much-needed colour to a competition that had turned stale.
Those of us who tune in regularly don’t need reminding of how repetitive the league had become, because we’ve watched the same fixtures week in and week out for years.
That’s one reason this jam-packed run to the finals has proved so exciting: not only have near-nightly games played in cool winter temperatures kept us on the hook, but the mixture of flashy veterans like Diamanti mixing it with a host of unproven youngsters means it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.
But that still won’t be enough for the army of critics who wrote off the A-League long ago, and much more needs to be done to get professional football back on track in this country.
We need a viable pathway for a second division and a plan to bring fans who’ve been alienated back into the fold.
And the game needs to stop eating its own.
It’s bad enough when football gets attacked by the mainstream, but it’s even more ridiculous to see things like a couple of Football Queensland board members sue Bonita Mersiades for writing an editorial.
There’s too much to like about the A-League to focus only on the negatives. Just ask Diamanti.
c
Roar Rookie
exactly mainstream media has no idea about this game
Midfielder
Roar Guru
RB Thats real Football hhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm thats real Football I am stuck with this term real Football.... Other definitions I have read is if you don't hoof the ball down field and play out from the back... that's real Football... Others is you have to press in defense ... zone marking as opposed to man making is real Football... I think what you mean to say is European Football is based around 130 odd years of development and they have P & R ... as does many other nations... You note I said I want P & R.... My problem with your post and many many many nay most would agree with you..... my problem is you think [yes think] there is some kinda mega massive Football market in Australia that has been held back by the A-League before that I guess the NSL... and if only we copied Europe and had """"real Football""" all problems would be solved .... I think we can have P & R and two divisions and 32 teams... but the teams will be owned by wealthy people or wealthy groups .... BTW just on that ''''Real Football"""' hhhhmmmmmmm are any teams in say the top 64 European sides owned by wealthy people or wealthy groups... or lets consider Japan are any of the top sides owned by wealthy people or wealthy groups or in the Middle East or China ... are any sides owned by wealthy people or wealthy groups... Because if so that J-League is on some trouble then .... the EPL is gone for all money no hope there ...
pete4
Guest
14 club A-League is the perfect size IMO allows for full home & away season. In terms of a second division can't see FFA moving until at least the World Cup 2023 is complete once profits are distributed only after then will it become clearer
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
"I want each of the 32 teams to connect to local park teams and or regional associations …" If there is direct P&R, that effectively means a club is getting promoted from a lower tier. Is that enough of a "connection"? The following season, another team from that lower tier is going to be gunning for their spot. And another club below that is gunning for their spot, etc. That's real football.
pete4
Guest
Yes you get the feeling Western Utd will definitely be in the top 6 now. Really leaves the finals wide open!
Midfielder
Roar Guru
HHMMMmmmmmmmmmm How .... To me it seems no matter what happens ... perfection to the power of perfection needs to be delivered overnight and only the perfection that each group see as perfection... So unless with full guarantees of perfection can be delivered as the starting point then the leadership has failed... We as a collective have created slogans and these are easy to say but much much much harder to deliver otherwise it would have already been done... Assumptions and estimates, are often said as if there is no argument, and what is being said is not only true, but to even question it slightly,is a sign of siding with another group... To be fair its only right people lay there cards on the table... I want 2 divisions, with 16 teams a division. I want P & R within a reasonable time frame between the two divisions. I want the competition to run for between 38 & 40 weeks, 30 rounds 3 weeks final, 5 weeks international breaks and one week for the FFA Cup final as a stand alone week. To achieve the above given the Australian sporting environment will be a challenge. If I set this as my goal, and I analysis Australian Football history and the Australian sporting environment how do I achieve the above. For me and given the past say 70 year history of Australian Football, rich people or rich groups will fund this... meaning 32 teams will be privately owned by individuals or a small group of individuals ... OR franchise teams be they WSW or Olympic or New... I want each of the 32 teams to connect to local park teams and or regional associations ...
Waz
Roar Rookie
It’s a simple fix Mid: Leadership.
Waz
Roar Rookie
+1
chris
Guest
Spot on. Those clowns you described grew up on FA Cups as being the biggest football game of the year. They still think that.
At work
Roar Rookie
My feel is that the MSM have paid about the same amount of attention now that they would in December, which is only a little bit. Let’s ignore MSM for our own sanity please.
Kanggas2
Guest
Absolutely fantastic goals .
Grem
Roar Rookie
Great article Mike Love to read positive football stories and Diamante is such a great player to watch. He is talented and charismatic - after his football career finishes we need to keep him involved in Aussie football in some capacity. It's such a shame that we lose talented people to Aussie football when their career finishes. Imagine having our academies lead by Diamante, Ninkovic, Castro, etc. and our Aussies such as Emerton, Aloisi, Wilkinson, Valeri, etc. The A League has had a period where we were making mainstream media and many stories were good. I still remember the story in the Telegraph about cricket being the sport in danger of being overtaken by football. We also had a Wanderer's time on radio - can't remember which station. It can happen again - and players like Diamante and our young and talented (Tourre brothers, Kamsoba brothers, etc.) can be the reason. Last weekend I went to a league game during the Indigenous round. Perhaps I'm wrong but apart from jersies to sell, was there any real outcome for indigenous people? Surely football ( and perhaps they do) could make a real difference - can we get someone like Craig Foster and of course former players like Jade North and David Williams to really push football in remote areas? It would be good to develop a real pathway for indigenous players to reach the A League.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
You have to give people a competition that they want to engage and connect with, not just throw out a half-arsed effort in front of them and expect them to blindly follow it out of loyalty to the game. People are rightfully frustrated with the competition and the time it takes to actually address issues within the game. Nothing reflects that better than the recent expansion process where fans were driven insane constantly calling for the need to freshen up a stale competition and then left completely underwhelmed by both the process and the result. Hopefully this is the decade that we see some serious reform in the A-League and a serious effort to reconnect with the Football community, otherwise people will just turn back to other alternative leagues that are available. Like Simon Hill says, Fans want an authentic competition without the gimmicks that is familiar as "Football" to them, not a cheap imitation of the AFL/NRL with a round ball.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
Gallop might be gone but his destructive legacy is going to torture the game for a long time. It was clear as day that the FFA is full of non-football clowns who wouldn't have a clue at what goes on in football outside of the Premier League top 6, let alone outside of the anglosphere. There is no way the likes of Diamante or Pandev would have been blocked if they had played most of their careers in England instead of Serie A. The irony now is that the A-League can't get enough of Diamante's social media antics despite all of Gallops concerns about he wouldn't live up to those precious metrics.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Mike NAIL HEAD You posted... """"it all counts for nothing unless football somehow finds a way to unite.""" So few understand this.... many don't accept this.... many see there way is the only way... How... Who ... this can happen I have no idea anymore .... United we stand, divided we fall .... is a centuries old truism ... Football in Australia today is so polarised into different camps its difficult to see unity anytime soon... a large part of the problem is no one sees they are part of the problem and their concerns are correct so its OK if they tear into structures and systems as they have wisdom.... Its been this way for close to 70 years... briefly at the start of the NSL & start of the A-League we had unity and Football grew and expanded... but both had only a short time of broad based unity ... The player base cannot be connected with as long as we have such polarised divisions.... connecting to the player base is the answer to most of our problems... But each group sees they and they alone had the wisdom...
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
You do realise that social media has become mainstream right? It did so long ago. I think it is you who needs to get out of the '80s. "Mainstream media have a duty to write about the things that their readers are interested in – which is AFL, NRL and Cricket mainly." Then why spend the time writing negative stories about football & the A-League? Surely you're not suggesting AFL/NRL/cricket folk are interested in these stories?... None of what you say makes sense.
At work
Roar Rookie
It’s a real shame and indictment on the previous FFA administration which stopped MVFC from acquiring Diamanti 3-4 years ago because he wasn’t deemed enough of a marquee to satisfy the Cahill rule. I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of him, but was open to getting someone who was still relatively young and playing regularly in a top 4 league. Because what we’ve seen is when we get foreigners who are still youngish and want to come and play, they likely do more then a flash in the pan 1-2 season import. Berisha, Ninkovic, Broich, Castro just to name a few...
chris
Guest
Waz you may be interested...but Die Hard 2 was in the top 10 rating shows on Sunday fta. I mean who doesnt want to be associated with that! You can just see all the millenials and gen y's glued to their TV's watching gems like that.
Waz
Roar Rookie
It’s got nothing to with being positive or negative. Mainstream media have a duty to write about the things that their readers are interested in - which is AFL, NRL and Cricket mainly. It’s highly unlikely their readers/viewers will see something about a game of football and suddenly decide to follow the code, even briefly. And it’s not about “hardcore” supporters it’s about looking where the majority of the football community is - and it’s not on mainstream media it’s on social media: football has to produce content for TicTok not ‘The Age’, and replicate that a dozen times, and do it every day. Your comments sum up perfectly what is wrong with professional football in this country. First you want a media strategy that is suited to the 1980’s and not the 2020’s ... and secondly, you attack and insult anyone who is critical of the state of the competition despite the fact the A-League has few fans, few viewers, no sponsors, and no future beyond next year. Ditto the W-League which may just go the way of the FFA Cup - into extinction. People like you just refuse to wake up and see what’s wrong. Stop shooting messengers!!
chris
Guest
Agreed Waz. The mainstream media is littered with ex-league, ex-cricket personalities where football just doesn't compute with them. That wont change as the demographics of msm is over 55 and they aren't engaging anyone under 35.