Many still held hopes that the A-League would begin on October 30th, yet the lingering realities of COVID-19 have eventually forced the briefest of delays and Australia’s top flight of men’s professional football will now kick off on the 19th of November.
Just six rounds of matches have been announced and most of the excitement around the fixtures published by Australian Professional Leagues lies in the involvement of Network Ten and Paramount+ and the promising start that the host broadcaster has made in its contribution to Australian football.
Simon Hill and Andy Harper have been superb in the commentary box together and Georgia Yeoman-Dale, Mark Milligan and Alex Brosque have brought immense knowledge and credibility to the matches Network Ten has covered thus far.
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images for Sydney FC)
Quite frankly, it has been a breath of fresh air and a far cry from the disinterest displayed by previous broadcast rights holder Fox Sports in the dying days of its contract with Australian football.
In fact, until recent days it was hard to imagine anything putting a dampener on what loomed as a season of redemption and recovery for the A-League.
However, while it might be tempting to blindly laud the new season and embrace the return of unlimited crowds, those fans desperate to get back to football matches, the lack of fairness and equity within the recently published draw does raise serious questions.
With future interstate travel remaining a tenuous issue and high COVID-19 infection rates in Victoria and New South Wales still the norm, Rounds 1-6 have been created with specific regions and their current or predicted future restrictions in mind.
Thus, the draw is presented to us as a conference-based one, where teams will play others within their state or region depending on the demands of the jurisdictions within which they are based, before the competition eventually opens up to something that resembles the usual to and fro of home-and-away play.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
The messaging from head office will be quite clear in that while there may be a little misfortune or good fortune across the early rounds, the swings and roundabouts of professional sport will see justice well and truly applied by the time the final throes of the season arrive in autumn.
That is what the designers of the draw would have us believe. However, I call BS!
Most double-vaxxed A-League fans may well be too hyped and enthusiastic to even notice the atrocious inequity built into the opening rounds.
No matter how happy fans are to see football back in full swing, nor how hopeful they are of their team’s pending season, supporters of Perth Glory should be furious for the second season in succession.
Richard Garcia’s team will once again suffer the most difficult of starts to an A-League campaign. In 2020-21, the battle was an inability to actually play games thanks to border issues that saw the men in purple destined for far too many games in far too few days later in the season.
Despite a run that had finals play well within their grasp, it all fell to pieces for Glory, with multiple wins each week proving far too much to achieve, despite a majority of their games being played at home.
This time around it appears to begin equally as difficult for Perth. The Glory play every week across the opening six rounds. However, three trips to Melbourne and one each to Brisbane and Adelaide come off the back of their only home fixture in Round 1 against the Reds.
From the other teams outside the southern eastern seaboard conference, Brisbane Roar fare much better with three home matches and Adelaide enjoy the same balanced start to 2021-22.
(Photo by Peter Mundy/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Within the lucky and points-boosting east coast conference, Tony Popovic’s Victory leave Melbourne just once, and champions Melbourne City face trips to Adelaide and Brisbane, with its other four matches also inside Victoria.
Even more fortunate, Central Coast Mariners, Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers, Macarthur FC, Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix will not leave New South Wales until new years, while the Glory battle away on the road and somewhat fan-less.
I am all for keeping sporting competitions going during COVID-19 times and recommencing where possible. However, doing so at the expense of the integrity of the competition concerns me greatly.
The six-week draw was boldly announced due to the fact that the powers at be felt the league was ready to recommence. My simple retort would be that if there is such advantage and disadvantage within the draw itself across the opening rounds, was the competition not quite as ready to recommence as they would have had us believe?
It appears that being able to recommence a league does not necessarily mean such a move ensures a fair and equitable start to the competition.
Tigertown
Guest
A-Leagues Commissioner Greg O’Rourke today announced a change of venue for Western United’s home games in the coming season. “Following last week’s partial fixture release, the two Western United games originally scheduled at Melbourne’s Lakeside Stadium will now be played at AAMI Park," O'Rourke said. 01/10/2021 South Melbourne must be pleased.
TK
Guest
Reckon it was sour grapes by ABC losing games. Sink the slipper into the A league.
TK
Guest
Explain how any team will come to Qld without quarantine? Or SA ? Why pick on WA? I've just spent two weeks on the sunshine coast surfing, fishing, hiking, kayaking, having meals out with my family, generally going wherever I want and doing whatever we want with mask wearing in some places the only requirement. I'm pretty happy the Qld government has kept us relatively Covid free (with some good fortune too). I reckon the residents in WA are pretty pleased too about their freedoms. I bet if NSW was covid free and all the other states were pumping covid cases like NSW are then the residents of NSW and their govt would be singing a different time. If the A league want to play everywhere then it's bubbles or quarantine. If we can't afford that well, tough. I'd rather stay covid free than watch a friggin game of football. We aren't at vaxx levels required yet so A league fans need to suck it up. I'll take good health over a game of football any day.
TK
Guest
FFS...please tell me we aren't going to have to put up with another season of Adelaide against the world on here this season. Tedious.
TK
Guest
Already suggested this in Stuart's last article. And the bonus is....Tassie will be like winter football without the move in the calendar that caused so much grief for some rosters!
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
let's not forget who owns the Broncos
Kevin
Roar Rookie
Just give us the spoon already.
Nick Symonds
Guest
WESTERN UNITED NEWS THE AGE: Essendon’s AFL base an option as Western United look for a home "Western United chief executive Chris Pehlivanis has confirmed that the nomadic A-League club is in talks with AFL powerhouse Essendon over a deal to use Tullamarine as a training base for the upcoming season." NOTE: This means that Western United will now have a new ground at Lakeside, a new site for their own stadium at Leakes Road (formerly to be built at Sayers Road), and a new training ground at Tullamarine, all of which have come as new announcements before the coming season. - More detail on reasons for move to Lakeside: “But we can’t just keep playing everywhere. It doesn’t make sense. We looked at the Showgrounds, we looked at Chirnside Park, we looked at Knights Stadium, Whitten Oval, but with all of them, the restrictions that COVID brings meant they weren’t going to work with reduced capacity." - Chris Pehlivanis - https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/essendon-s-afl-base-an-option-as-western-united-look-for-a-home-20210927-p58v1d.html
Nick Symonds
Guest
No matter how bad that CFG, Putin, Golkar or Adelaide's faceless men are, none of them are as bad as AFL club Port Adelaide and their links with David Koch.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
lots of different routes you can go with education, like you mentioned. a lot of them lead to dead ends if you dont know people within the field though, its about networking and reputation. i had no education to hold the position i do within the game in australia, i only got far initially through my father’s connections throughout europe until i made a name for myself and my opinions started to matter in positions of power. i've spoken to paps many times over the years, he was one of my main go to men when he was in melbourne. Hes always had a good eye for young players with potential Sent him a congratulations text when i knew he was going to be the jets head coach :)
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
straight from the FFA report
NoMates
Roar Rookie
SFC got the best draw again why'll Glory get crud end of the stick. Something suspect is going.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
My brother has just recently completed his C licence. The education that is going into coaching, development, talent identification is extraordinary. Are you aware of the degrees in football business and football management at Sthn Cross University Lismore. I believe there's a tad of parochialism here, but I will say, that all I have heard of Adelaide United's academy is nothing short of exemplary. The Jets are rather fortunate to have one Arthur Papas as the Gaffer. This is a fellow who recently advised the US Football body on how to redevelop their development and talent pathways.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
link to the Golkar Party? That would be the one we, Australia, enjoyed courteous relations, indeed quite close at times, with over many years while they were in charge.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
QLD provides more referees than the rest of the States combined and more Matildas than any other State. What are you talking about?
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
I think they'd be sharing that with us in fact, I'd give it to us first, but this is the wrong forum for such discussions
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
give it time. Recently, I was told that there was an aerial survey done by the NRL to assess the number of League fields available in Tex.....sorry I mean QLD, and apparently the was a shocking result. AFL and Football are consuming League fields!!! Shock horror, who would have thought.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
do not denigrate yourself for being an A-League fan. Shout it from the rooftops. It's each and every single A-League fan who'll be the reason football will eventually assume its rightful place at the top of the Australian sporting tree
Objective
Guest
"... inactivity and indecision has created this situation where beyond the first six weeks is something of a mystery." Mate are you serious ? Are you implying the administrators of the A-League have been sitting on their arses doing nothing ? The first 6 weeks of the season accounts for when the majority of the population will be double vaxxed. So who are the flies in the ointment ? Yep, the good ol' WA Premier (& Qld) who keep rabbiting on about "keeping us safe". Keeping themselves safe, they mean. And stuffing up normal life such as sport in the process. Get real.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
griffins not telling the truth (he's a barrister by trade after all) If i know who the consortium is, griffin 200% does. i've made a couple of posts on here recently about how i expected this report to paint adelaide united. The supposed "investigate journalist" isnt very good at thier jobs. If the report was trying to dig up dirt, i expected them to go with the chairmans link to a chinese government run sporting group - the reporter could've painted adelaide as being in bed with the chinese government (which they're 100% not)