I thought I would just reach out and touch base with you all, knowing that a few weeks have passed since your respective grand finals and that the dust has now settled on your 2021 seasons.
Mighty victories they were for the Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Demons; cracking climaxes, despite being very different storylines in terms of the closeness of the matches.
Many of us over here in football world keep a close eye on your rough and tumble activities, some of us even have ardent loyalty towards the local teams we grew up supporting, own memberships and the odd few like me, even write about the game each week.
There are, of course, a small percentage of round ball fanatics who make fun of the consistent off-field indiscretions that tarnish your codes and mock the rather macho and sometimes misogynistic undertones that cast them in a poor light.
However, I can assure you that they are no more in number than the yobbos and boofheads who constantly question the toughness of what they refer to as ‘soccer players’. You know who I mean, those critics who cite diving and the faking of injuries as evidence of weakness, despite having less than a fundamental understanding of the game. I guess you get idiots on either side of the fence, hey?
It is with that spirit of understanding and collegiality that I ask whether you will be jumping on board the new A-League Men season that begins on the 19th of November. Frankly, we are all very excited about it and curious as to whether you are feeling the same way.
We have waited a heck of a long time for the season to arrive and there may yet still be a few pandemic/travel/vaccination hurdles to jump over, however, all is in readiness for last season’s champions Melbourne City to begin their title defence when they tackle the Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park next Friday.
(Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Football Australia is keen to see you out there and at the other matches across the country. Be you in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or Newcastle, there is a match for you to attend.
Perhaps you have felt reluctant in the past, no doubt convinced by negative talk suggesting that the A-League Men is not of the quality required to earn your eyeballs. However, always keep in mind that the majority of those people circulating such views are judging the league against an impossible bar.
Those folk are usually childhood fans of historically successful English clubs like Liverpool or Manchester United and their view is that the Australian standard pales in comparison. In reality, they are right, yet as does all bar three or four football leagues in the world and those of us who embrace our domestic competition actually receive a heap of satisfaction from it.
We even have a phrase for people like that, Eurosnobs. Definition: those deriding any competition outside of the major European leagues as sub-standard and pointless. Thankfully, most of you are no doubt more open-minded than that.
As you throw yourself into our new 26-round competition, be sure to remember that Saturday nights will now feature a live, free-to-air blockbuster each and every week on Network Ten. As football fans, it is something we are extremely excited about and I am sure the hairs on the back of your neck were standing up when you first caught a glimpse of the new advertisements that have begun popping up on the network.
This week’s instalment is a Sydney Derby between Sydney FC and Western Sydney and for those of you in the Harbour City planning to attend, it will provide you will another counterpoint to some of the misinformation that may have kept you away in the past.
Despite the history of mainstream news salivating for and pouncing on a single unsavoury A-League moment and sensationalising it according to the demands of their audience, I feel certain you will enjoy the atmosphere at the match, love the banter, singing, passion and the entire event.
I guarantee you no one will be shot, your family will make it out alive and the crowd will be almost exclusively made up of people attending the game for the exact same reason as you. It is something we are very proud of in Australian football.
A similar opportunity presents itself for people in the other cities hosting matches this weekend and it would be great to see all the Eagles and Dockers fans get out to HBF Park for former Liverpool and England star Daniel Sturridge’s debut for Perth Glory, when they take on Adelaide United.
I am sure you have been keeping abreast of the build-up and hype, hopefully you’ve already purchased a team cap or scarf and I, for one, am so looking forward to chatting with you in the stands and seeing your passion for domestic football grow.
Our A-League Women’s competition is not too far away either and while our players may not charge at each other like angry rhinoceros, or suffer frightful head injuries that pose serious concerns to players’ long-term health, the dextrous skill that you see on show will no doubt impress.
It will be great to have you on board.
After all, one can only watch so much cricket!
josh
Guest
Broadly supported by who? Almost all of their members support other teams who only purchased a membership for early access to grand final tickets. That's why their attendances are dismal. You can put them up against the Western Sydney Wanderers any day of the week and it's easy to see how the Wanderers have been accepted and the Giants haven't. They get apathy or antipathy, they certainly don't have a fanbase.
The Other George
Guest
Played football in my youth and followed English football for many years so I'm not a hater. Football in Australia is always going to be playing catch-up to other ball codes like the NRL and particularly the AFL until it is considered 'Aussie'. Football's big foray onto the Australian sports calendar was the NSL, a mess of ethnic aligned sides that had no relation or resonance to Australia at all. It's demise was inevitable. Football's second big foray onto the calendar is now the A-League. Thankfully the comp is less ethnically charged but there is still a looong way to go before the game will be taken seriously in this country by most AFL and NRL supporters. The A-League is only ever going to be mainly players that aren't good enough for international clubs or are players in their twilight from international clubs. The number of current A-League players in our National squad says it all. Those that are rusted onto football will accept A-League standard but I find it difficult to watch knowing this. With the AFL particularly, you are getting only the best in the world at that sport playing 26 weeks of the year. Football does not offer this to Aussies. Die-hard football fans and administration will find this fact difficult to digest, yet it's the first mouthful they will need to swallow if they are going to get beyond the numbers that follow the sport now in Australia. Nuff said
Ac
Guest
Sorry No I won’t be attending any A league matches. I hope the move to TEN works out. TEN Needs something to get their Saturday ratings up. They average 6 pc share usually. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.
matth
Roar Guru
Understood, but for the A-League to survive and thrive it needs revenue. Eyeballs watching the EPL don’t help a lot there. A uniquely associate football issue in this country. the other football codes are the pinnacle of their respective sports, or close to it.
Randy
Roar Rookie
I would definitely say AFL has sucked a lot of potential great athletes but more importantly resources away from other sports in the southern states. You just have to look at the recent Olympic games - over half of our gold medals came from QLD, the rest were probably shared between NSW and Ariane Titmus.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
"But for you to say we could’ve won the WC if all the other 3 codes didn’t exist is plain & simple wrong & shows you don’t understand the game. Now if you said that if the other 3 codes didn’t exist football in this country would be in a better position, financially, both corporate & Government funding, plus a greater range of talented athletes to choose from, I would 100% agree with you." ------- Its all the same to me. Not everything is spelled in such a medium as this. ------- And don't get me wrong, I did like playing Football, too old now. And the fanaticism in Australian Football is born of the fact that Melbourne, Hobart, Ballarat, Bendigo, Adelaide had Australian Football from the very early days; Perth a little later. Rugby League and Football came much later and was not part of the genesis of those cities.
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Can you not see my profile picture?
Punter
Roar Rookie
I have never said AFL is easy to play, I have not degraded AFL one little bit in our discussion. But for you to say we could've won the WC if all the other 3 codes didn't exist is plain & simple wrong & shows you don't understand the game. Now if you said that if the other 3 codes didn't exist football in this country would be in a better position, financially, both corporate & Government funding, plus a greater range of talented athletes to choose from, I would 100% agree with you. But you could say that about the other 3 sports. If Rugby League, Rugby Union & football didn't exist, there would be more money & more Athletes for AFL. Likewise for league & union.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I think we may be discussing different things here! :laughing: :laughing:
.kraM
Roar Rookie
Really contributing to the discussion there champ.
.kraM
Roar Rookie
:laughing:
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
And what of the Football Geese on here? Why don't you say it up front? Gutless!
Jordan Sports Fan
Roar Rookie
National 2nd div matches could also be played as curtain raisers too. You won't have enough ALW or ALY matches to supplement every ALM as their seasons are shorter. Also could stage NPL matches in those comps where ALM field teams. Although that pesky summer weather gets in the way of kicking off at 1pm... 2 games minimum each game day please.
Jordan Sports Fan
Roar Rookie
500th comment! Nothing like a sprinkling of code war to unite the masses.
Otsuble
Roar Rookie
Great ambassador for Australia he was. As a league man I always admired him.
Otsuble
Roar Rookie
Afl fans on this forum are deluded. Elsewhere they are generally okay. Here they are a bunch of toss ers to be honest.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Love ya work Punter. Those who say Johnno didnt play for Aust, think they know football. If it wasn't for Johnno the boots they wear today i.e. Predators would not exist. He invented them. But hey he didn't align himself with Australian football.
Otsuble
Roar Rookie
Better than being an afl clown.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
The Notsosubtle Ostuble. You make a good point not well.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Darwin & Hobart have strong Australian Football comps. Football has presence but could be 3 or 4x as strong if it wasn't for the other 3 codes.