Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years and if the wretched year that is 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that I’ll never take for granted attending a football game ever again.
It’s not looking good for the A-League’s new-look summer schedule.
An anticipated start date of December 27 is looking more and more tenuous by the hour, with Sydney’s latest COVID-19 outbreak rattling the local populace and leaving the city’s sports schedule hanging by a knife edge.
It prompted a statement late yesterday from Greg O’Rourke – now Football Australia’s ‘Head of Leagues,’ whatever that is – in which he used plenty of words to say what was painfully obvious in just a few: that 2020-21 A-League games will be postponed if necessary.
Will we see fans at A-League games throughout this season? (Photo by James Elsby/Getty Images)
How could they not be? There are more important things in life than a game of football – not least the health and well-being of every single person involved in putting on a fixture in the first place.
The players who sacrificed so much to ensure last season came to a satisfactory conclusion deserve plenty of praise, but then so too do all the support start, stadium operators, security personnel, journalists and anyone else who risked their own safety to ensure that we still had some football to talk about.
And hopefully, with a little bit of luck and a lot more common sense, this latest outbreak of community transmission can be managed and contained and dealt with by authorities.
But it’s not looking good for the A-League in the short term.
Which is a shame, because the 2020-21 season was shaping up as one of the most oddly exciting in years.
For all the talk of losing key players during the off-season, it’s not like those losses haven’t been offset by a hugely intriguing raft of replacements.
And the best part of welcoming a host of new faces is the fact that so many of them are spread across different clubs.
Newcomers Macarthur FC might have topped the lot, signing much-travelled Englishman Matt Derbyshire, experienced French midfielder Loïc Puyo and one-time Melbourne City winger Markel Susaeta – not to mention former Socceroo Mark Milligan as their inaugural skipper.
But it’s the capture of metronomic Basque midfielder Beñat Etxebarria that should really excite, with the former Athletic Bilbao star likely to be one of the classiest imports in the league.
Melbourne Victory have gone the English route, augmenting a trio of English signings with towering target man Rudy Gestede, who has spent much of his career powering home headers in England’s top two tiers and the national team of Benin.
The Central Coast Mariners have got in on the act by signing Polish winger Michał Janota and Serbian midfielder Stefan Janković, there’s a couple more Spaniards in the form of Javi López and Víctor Sánchez, while classy Scottish midfielder Graham Dorrans has joined Western Sydney Wanderers.
But it’s the signing of several high-quality Japanese imports that has really got keyboards rattling, with Brisbane Roar nabbing tough-as-teak front man Masato Kudo and promising youngster Riku Danzaki, while Melbourne City have signed the genuinely exciting Naoki Tsubaki on loan.
But you can take it from me that Perth Glory have got the pick of the bunch in Kosuke Ota.
I’ve watched Ota play many times for Shimizu S-Pulse and the left back was seriously unlucky to feature only seven times for Japan, generally finding his way blocked by the legendary Yuto Nagatomo.
How refreshing is it to finally see some genuine Japanese stars in the A-League? It’s just a pity we might not be seeing them play any time soon.
The Western Sydney derby between the Wanderers and Macarthur FC on December 27 is surely in grave danger.
But the A-League has dealt with this awful pandemic once before.
Now, as the 12 constituent clubs inch glacially towards full independence, we’ll see if they can handle it once again.
c
Roar Rookie
jb a crack appearing :thumbup: The Grandstand Football Podcast https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/the-grandstand-football-podcast/ultimate-season-preview/13004830
Mick Jeffrey
Roar Rookie
Looks like a plan B is there.....B for Bunnings. Sponsorship deal signed on Wednesday related to the ladder, although the reactions are more to do with the jibes rather than positives for the league. Examples include "Lowest crowds are just the beginning" and "if you find a league with lower attendances, we'll beat it by 10%". Not to mention the sauce bottles at Gosford seemingly now having a practical use (onions below the snag of course). Victory also will have a 50% crowd limit to their home games, some apparently having issues booking family seats for their first home game which is a ticketek issue. Suspect the same will apply for City and Western Nomads who'll have more home venues than Malcolm Douglas this season.
jbinnie
Guest
Mike - To back your observations re. main stream journalism I have to agree, In my 50 year involvement with the game in Brisbane I have watched cadet journalists being given the task of promoting football in the state and to be honest it must have been an horrendous workplace in which to work, with any opportunity to get out being grabbed by both hands. The names of these young men escape me now but they no doubt tried hard in an almost unconquerable environment. How to change the status quo? It has been tried by many individuals, one, Andrew Dettre even publishing his own newspaper country wide. SBS fluttered for a while but even that organisation could not usurp Murdoch policy. Will it ever change? Cracks are starting to appear but in our lifetime? I think not. Cheers jb.
Punter
Roar Rookie
I hope you are joking here. Australia closed the borders, even borders within Australia, they went into lock down, both these costing the economy lots of money. Hence why while other countries with far worse COVID transmission continue with sport, here they have cancelled the Sydney to Hobart, re-scheduled the A-League, considering moving the Sydney Test & the football codes (AFL &NRL) were played with players in a bubble. They have treated this pandemic seriously, unlike some other countries.
Grem
Roar Rookie
I absolutely agree with Covid teaching me not to take games for granted. I was very concerned last year with the game being stopped and Foxtel ripping up their contract. I could see the end of football as I had come to enjoy. However, the leadership of James Johnson and FA, combined with the goodwill of players and the continued investment of club owners meant the season finished and a bright new one was coming. Now Covid strikes again and may continue to do so. I'm less concerned these days as I am more hopeful our leaders and club owners will continue to adapt. If football can get through this season then really good times may be ahead. There's obviously a lot of future planning and future proofing our game being carried out by people mentioned before combined with Graham Arnold, Greg O' Rourke, etc. In the meantime I will be at Bankwest this weekend and tuning in to every other game on Kayo. And each weekend after I will physically be at every game I can get to and watch all other games I can. Like Mike said - an interesting season coming up with many new players to see. Don't miss any of it. We need to support what we have.
Ad-O
Guest
Why? What did Australia do that other countries didn't. The fact of the matter is Australia got lucky. Real lucky. And you still haven't addressed the fact that even in worse hit countries there hasn't been a COVID transmission at a game. People need to go by facts and measurements. Not some misplaced sense of national pride.
jbinnie
Guest
Mike - In replying to your article I was not trying to break down the content, simply pointing out that the comments being attracted were more concerned with covid rather that football. However I should add that I too have no objection to the importation of players from overseas ,in fact, during my career in running clubs I did much more than my fair share of importing, and settling ,players into life in Australia. What I do object to is the apparent time it is taking in bringing our young grassroots players through to an acceptable standard that would see them the equal of Broich, Berisha, Ono or the others you no doubt have in mind. It is now 45 years since "curriculum style " coaching was introduced to Australian football and it could be argued that it was that initial introduction, especially to the AIS, that saw the emergence of the so called "Golden Generation" into our game. If we have an apparent problem with that time lag then so be it ,but to me football did not start in this country in 2005, with the A-League using a 2009 copy of a coaching manual based on what had been around for 30 years. What that proved to me was that the original knowledge on small sided games on small pitches had not got wide spread acceptance around the country. It is all very well for young coaches to get a piece of paper certifying their knowledge, but does it guarantee their teaching methods. My argument is that after 45 years our young players should be able to re-produce the form shown by Thomas, Berisha, and Yoko, who in anyone's language, could best be described as European or Japanese "tradesmen". if they were any better than that they could not be lured to play in our top competition. Thanks once again for the reply. Cheers jb.
Nick Symonds
Guest
And all the girlies say, he's pretty fly for a white guy.
At work
Roar Rookie
I think the revised schedule can work, there’s no reason the comp can’t split into a NSW and non-NSW conferences for the time being.
Chopper
Guest
I agree at work, under a hundred cases in NSW out of a population in exce4ss of 7 million and politically adept premiers close the borders. We have to learn to live with a virus of a 99.59% survival rate.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
I'm far from with you there, but this is not the place for it. The A League has announced their revised fixtures for the first month. NSW will play with themselves while the other clubs travel.
At work
Roar Rookie
It doesn’t have to be one or the other though, the states need to realise you can do both, i.e. manage any new cases while letting people have a mostly normal community experience.
At work
Roar Rookie
Well NSW has been managing for most of the year with a very small number of community transmissions and the state has been open (for business) just as much as the ‘closed’ states have been. We’re supposed to be one country but this year has really surprised me, that each state is only interested in their own well being. Just manage cases with effective contact tracing and we should be fine.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
screw the season? or protect people's health? the choice is pretty obvious I would think.
Sydneysider
Guest
You have nothing to worry about Mike. The BBL is going to continue it's decline. The novelty is over.
At work
Roar Rookie
With the out of control Premiers likely not allowing people from NSW to enter their states without a 14 day quarantine, until we’ve gone 28 days without community transmission, I have serious concerns for the early part of the season. I can’t believe the WA premier ONLY just opened up his border to SA, he has no strategy to ‘manage’ the virus. He and other Premiers of limited capacity are going to screw this season.
c
Roar Rookie
Thank you for confirming my thoughts on the Australian media over the last two decades Mike no surprise here have a safe and healthy Christmas and a prosperous 2021 and keep up the good work on this forum :football:
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
Agreed. I don't think we can fault the responses of authorities in Australia and New Zealand.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
I think the clubs - and fans - are going to have to be flexible one way or another.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
There is zero appetite from mainstream media to run A-League content, and to prove that point I wrote Friday's column specifically for mainstream media and offered it to several outlets. Some said they didn't have the budget, others said they wanted to protect their own journos, while others prevaricated and said they'd get back to me and never did. I think as A-League watchers we need to move on from this idea that it's the fault of football journalists for not getting stories into the mainstream media, because media outlets of every shape and size simply won't run them. There is absolutely zero interest in football stories.