It doesn’t get much more on brand for the A-League than Melbourne City finally turning into a devastatingly destructive derby rival right when everyone has basically stopped watching.
You have to wonder how Melbourne Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro slept on Saturday night.
Grant Brebner was relieved of his duties in the wake of Victory’s astonishing 7-0 derby defeat, but it was Di Pietro who elevated him to the head coach’s role in the first place.
Just like it was Di Pietro who brought Drew Sherman to Melbourne as Victory’s technical director, and presumably signed off on recruiting a bunch of players who look like they’d struggle to dominate a game of park football.
The writing was on the wall for Brebner the second Adama Traore received a straight red in the 30th-minute at AAMI Park, although it’s worth pointing out it was still only 2-0 more than an hour in.
Not for the first time this season, Victory simply gave up for the final half-hour.
But we shouldn’t discount how well City played, with Jamie Maclaren going full beast mode in scoring five and taking his tally to 19 goals for the season from 16 games played.
(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
City have to be favourites to win the whole thing, even if this remains the most unpredictable of A-League campaigns. And the home fans certainly enjoyed themselves on Saturday night, even if the attendance figure was never announced.
City’s derby win may have been the highlight, but has there been another A-League round this season boasting so many high-quality goals?
It started with an out-of-this-world pass from Joey Champness to Riku Danzaki on Friday and ended with Ben Waine, Joel Chianese and Jaush Sotirio all trading absolute rippers in Perth on Sunday night.
Wellington’s 3-1 win in the west was a reminder that you can’t write off the Wollongong-based Kiwis, especially with the ethereal Ulises Davila pulling the strings.
Coupled with Adelaide’s fightback from two goals down to force a 2-2 draw with Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval and there’s little doubt we just witnessed one of the most compelling rounds of the season.
But does anyone care?
Just a week after the Parramatta Eels attracted more than 24,000 to their NRL clash with the St George Illawarra Dragons, around a third of that number filed through the gates at Bankwest Stadium to watch Western Sydney go down 2-1 to Brisbane Roar on Friday night.
And as much as this has been a well-worn theme in this column over the years, it’s worth mentioning again for a specific reason.
It goes something like this. Many of those who rattle away on keyboards across the internet to proclaim themselves diehard football fans do literally nothing else to support the game.
They don’t attend A-League matches. They don’t buy newspapers. They’ve cut the Foxtel cord.
Often they’re the same people who leave comments bemoaning the sort of media coverage the A-League attracts, complain endlessly about Foxtel’s commentary team and wonder why the Melbourne derby attendance figure is listed as TBA.
So where does this road of apathy take us? Where does football end up when the path of least resistance for so many has simply been to give up?
Well, with The World Game website shutting down, I reckon.
We can argue all we like about when it jumped the shark, but SBS merging its dedicated football website into a general sports page is another hammer blow for the beautiful game.
But does anyone care?
Any time I write a column like this – one that tries to shine a light on our own behaviour – I often see people in certain corners of the internet telling me to shut up.
But turning a blind eye solves nothing.
Losing a website as iconic as The World Game is what happens when not enough people care to convince those in charge it’s worth saving.
And given the current economic climate, it’s hard not to wonder what’s next.
chris
Guest
Whats your point Raj? Maybe this and maybe that. She plays football on the world stage and is a household name.
Punter
Roar Rookie
No doubt, she would have been the best AFLW player in the world on $40K a year. Thankfully there was no AFLW, because she is now on nearly $2Million a year, played in a World cup watched by Billions, played in the Olympics watched by billions & is now one of the most famous sportsperson in the the world. Even her brother said he would give up his premiership in AFL to have played in the Olympics.
raj
Guest
I think it's pretty well accepted that if AFLW was at the stage it is now 10 years ago then Sam Kerr would have played AFLW Aussie rules was her first love and she moved to football when she could AT THAT TIME no longer play Aussie rules
raj
Guest
Grow up and grow a thicker skin Rugby league people have been slagging rugby union since forever And vice versa Same for NRL and AFL slagging each other It's all schoolyard stuff and is very ignorable And should be ignored Except of course by paid up members of the victim class
sam
Guest
Chris, you don't get it - you just fight it!!!! We get you hate AFL - move on, it will be cathartic for you :happy:
Anthony Ferguson
Guest
Yes. This x 1000 is why some of us detest the AFL.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Yes we are competitive, but as I mentioned above; 1. The whole world is playing & hence very hard to win, as examples I have given you of full on Football dominant cultures like Spain & England has only won it once each. 2. Countries of Australia's Population don't also win World cups, Uruguay did but that was 60-70 years ago, though Holland has gone close. 3. We would have to be fully invested 100% , like all the other countries truly football has to be by far the most dominant sport in Australia. 4. Look at where the best footballers in the world are coming from 3rd world nations, these kids play football from sun up to sun down. Aussie kids have to go to school, play with their play stations, mobiles etc. Look at athletics, we had our golden era of Elliot, Clarke, Landy, Cuthbert, Boyle, Matthews, but as the sport becomes more professional, we are a fair way behind. Look at tennis the golden eras Laver, Rosewall, Hoad, Newcombe, we were winning majors once twice, sometimes even the grand slam year after year. Now we get one winner every decade or so.
Micko
Roar Rookie
You're pretty naive then. If you look across the spectrum of sports, you can see how well we do. For goodness sake, we were runners up in our second Asian Cup and won the third one we competed in.
Micko
Roar Rookie
But the poms are the worst at overhyping themselves. I think they're a bit more modest these days. Winning isn't easy, sure agreed.
Evan Askew
Guest
Nail head.
PR Mann
Guest
I was a long term European, EPL and A-league fan when it came about. I'd watch TWG with Les Murray religiously, wake at 4 am to watch Champions League etc. I'd call work and be sick if games were overtime. But I find myself watching zero of it now. Literally. I don't even watch the news. Why? The drenching of politics and social messaging on the sport pushed me away. About 4 years ago it started I think. It has only got worse, to the unbearable stage. All the social messaging made me sick. I wanted to watch sport to escape, not to be lectured on attitude and told I must accept that women's football is unreal. Also the passing of an era had some effect as well, including the lack of energy and consistency TWG had post Les Murray. The FOX team was ok, then it went to Optus and it just didn't gel, no consistency. I tried, but it was just, blah. I particularly enjoyed the one hour highlights show produced by the EPL, that would air on TV on a Monday night. And it disappeared too. In fact if it came back, I'd possibly get into it again. The Champions League became very boring during the round stage, too many teams, and then a quick knockout stage when the big teams finally and inevitably meet in the final rounds. Boring, low quality round games and predictable. For this reason I think the news of a Super League concept is one I support. I think it will turn the ECL back into what it used to be more than a departure. It might become watchable again. I don't know, it all just faded away, as TWG did too. And I don't miss it at all. Regards, Reformed Football Addict.
Simoc
Guest
It reminds me all the so called cricket experts criticising T20 and loving test cricket. The crowds and the money are with T20. The critics are on the sofa.
chris
Guest
top 10 ten at the Olympics... Look at the total medals won by nations overall. We are 8th on 497. Just ahead of Sweden on 494 and Hungary on 491. On another list of average medals won, we aren't even in the top 10. Ukraine takes that spot. The top 10 nations all have a large wealthy middle class. Either that or they are countries with heavy govt involvement in promoting athletes. (China and Russia). I'd love to say we are a great sporting nation with Melbourne the capital of the sporting world. But I don't live in lala land.
Punter
Roar Rookie
England with 3 times our population, England invented the game, Has the biggest & most popular football competition in the world. Football is the no 1 sport in England similar to maybe AFL is in Melbourne. Yet England has only won 1 World cup on home soil, only a couple of times time they made semis. Spain also has only won it once despite having the most skillful league & also the greatest and most famous team in the world So winning is not easy. Look at the Matildas, last couple of WCs & Olympics, we in the top 8 in the world, not last few years lots of money spent on European women's game, they have since suffered serious losses in the last 2 years to Germany & Holland. As more & more money come into it, more & more countries will be competitive & watch Australia fluctuates in the ranking.
Micko
Roar Rookie
I mean we would be winning world cups, or at least making finals, semi-finals, quarter finals etc regularly. Australia thrives on competition. We're usually top ten at the olympics, finished #4 at one olympics, were Asian cup runners up at our second attempt, won it at our third attempt. After 32 years out, we made the knockout round at our second FIFA world cup when most pundits were saying we'd be lucky to draw any games in our pool.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Depends on how you call global powerhouse, but definitely if football was culturally dominant in Australia, we'd be in a lot better position. Financially we wouldn't be able to compete with European leagues, so all our best players would be playing in Europe. Playing wise, you will notice the best players in the world come from poorer backgrounds, like from Sth America, Africa, Eastern Europe. We have mainly aligned to more Anglo style of play & skillfully a little behind. Despite England inventing the game, having the Premier football league in the world, their players both current & in history, not quite the top echelons of players. Also a lot of competition, players from all over the world.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Well, that's the global appeal of soccer isn't it. What that shows me is that if soccer was culturally dominant in Australia, then we would be a global powerhouse.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Despite their cultural dominance, they haven't been able to get one other country to play that sport to any significant degree. Even here it's just an oddity. And this is a country that has basketball and baseball: sports that have significant popularity outside the US.
matth
Roar Guru
Yeah, as I said we don't see it up here in QLD, so you'd know better than me how they operate.
chris
Guest
I don't resent AFL for having whatever following they have. What I resent is the hostile attitude they take to other sports. Doing everything they can at every level of govt, media etc to protect their precious game. I don't see any other sport doing that including league.