Western United's championship is the perfect end to the A-League Men season

Another well thought out article Mike. WU deserved the win, Aloisi got them pumping at just the right time. The 22k crowd was much higher than I expected and the WU Green fans actually contributed greatly to the atmosphere. However, this was an aberration to bulk of WUs season. An A League team without a home ground located in their constituency and playing to tiny crowds during the home/away season can’t continue. Western United is a solid football squad but had better meet the commitments it made when it got the license. Unlike the AFL, who have truckloads of money and supporters to put up with GWS and Gold Coast jokes, we Aussie football followers can’t keep up badly established, transient, unsupported teams. Please use the win to build a complete club.

Great link. But more than just viewing number, a discussion about strategies to boost viewership: "As for how Network 10 and Paramount+ can kick on and get more eyeballs on next season’s competition, the media buyers weigh in. Initiative’s Reid says: “I’m not necessarily sure this can be solved purely by the broadcasters. I think the issue comes down to the quality of the league and players. International players are a draw card for audiences both at ground and broadcast viewership and retaining local talent is near impossible with the lure of overseas salaries. “It’s almost chicken and the egg. The league needs the broadcasters for financial backing, yet without audiences’ broadcasters are not willing to pay the huge sums paid for on other codes. Having said that, Ten only broadcasts one live match a week (on a Saturday), so with no prime time matches, TV viewership will always be low. They could consider airing more live games on linear to grow the sport, however this will come at a cost of total network audience and I’m not sure they are willing to do that just yet, but it might be a way to sell in more sponsorships.”" And this "She adds: “My son loves playing soccer each weekend but comes home and watches NRL – and NRL players are his sporting heroes. The creation of soccer heroes that the younger grass root players can identify with and look up to would help build up soccer as a must watch sport.”"

At least they have the occasional Vince Rugari story.

174,000 viewing for the GF https://mumbrella.com.au/media-buyers-dissect-a-league-and-share-how-paramount-anz-can-increase-viewership-739395/amp

Mick what do you think the crowd would have been if say Sydney FC were up against the Wanderers? Or if Roar were playing at Suncorp? Or Victory playing Adelaide at Marvel stadium. WUN are 3 years old. Give them a break.

And lets be clear here, nobody wears a suit as well as Giovanni Aloisi.

Love to see a manager and players dressed in a suit. It adds a certain panache to the squad and the club they play for.

Aloisi ' s previous teams played a nice attacking brand of football . Is Aloisi evolving as a coach or devolving , looking for cheap effective tactics. Anastiadis has been at the club from the start, I would suspect the defensive style is from Hayden Foxe who has been under Popovic.

They must be miles ahead on the absence of local players board, with just one Victorian in their starting 11, and he went elsewhere early for development. Just ahead of their opponents on Sunday, who had four local lads in the starting team.

Well, were APL/Paramount to look at bundling P+ in with a mobile provider (which is a good idea and one I’ve mentioned on here previously), it would be Mate Mobile as they are a current sponsor.

15 a month to just watch the EPL? Some of the whiners on here you think they were asked to buy the crown jewels whining about having to pay for Paramount costing 90 a year, now I have a whole queue of people wanting to watch Paramount shows. Thats massive news the EPL mob will be mortified, Paramount plus 90 a year plus all these shows will have them to the A-league now, sounds like you need to cut off your EPL addiction as well. The only subscription I have now apart from Paramount is SMH delivered every day which I payed for up front for 5 years on a deal. The cost of delivery has skyrocketed so they are losing money on that deal.

i never said kisnorbo was a charlatan of a coach lol, i have always had concerns if he will be the next australian coach to break in overseas (he probably still will be, because CFG coaches always move on to better jobs) i think the jury is still out on him though, until he moves to a club with less resources - where he will have to rely on his coaching ability its far easier to manage a club with money and has the right people in administrative positions, then a club that is working with a super strict budget. there a victorian journalist (his names at the top of my tongue but im forgetting it lol) who has continually quizzed him on how big a club city is in terms of ownership, money, resources and infrastructure - only for kisnorbo to be very prickly when answering his questions - by deflecting onto other clubs. heres 2 questions though: would he have the plate with this western united side if he was in charge of them? and how many of the other 11 a league club, would hire kisnorbo if he was available?

john was always going to coach again, but as an australian coach - when you lose a job, it takes a long time to find another one hes been interviewed by the mariners, the wanderers and adelaide since he left brisbane - he could've been coach at all 3 of these clubs - he lost them all the interview phase, in particular with the mariners and adelaide when it came to the 'youth questions' hayden foxe deserves a lot of credit when it comes to their defensive structure this season as does john anastasiatis (who if im being frank, should be an a league head coach - has a wonderful mind for the sport) – but aloisi is still evolving as a coach when i spent a week in melbourne earlier this year, doing presentations and showing software - WU were the only a league club in victoria who reached out to me directly, wanting more information and to attend training (and that’s purely because of my relationship with both johns on their coaching staff, who i was going to catch up with anyway while I was there) i've known the aloisi family since my late teens (my dad was very good friends with their dad rocky - who came to my father’s funeral 18 months ago) although i am much closer with ross due to working with him during his time at united, i still text john every now and again. i can’t say too much about what i saw at WU training (i've already mentioned above, how influential other coaches are) but what i will say about john, is that he is a great 'man manager' - its an undervalued skill that every successful coach has.

I don't disagree with you on this cost in that it is small in isolation- but you'd be surprised how temperamental some of these kids can be! Or perhaps the adults who are paying for their kids mobile plans.....

Was at the game and can confirm crowd was pretty impressive for both teams that have a low supporter base. I will say that we have pretty much answered the question as to who is the better coach. PK came up with the same game plan which has been wanting all season against WU. Playing an undersize striker against a monster CB and instructing crosses or long-balls into him or over the top does'nt work. Repeatedly saying do the same plan better does not result in a change in the score. A coach who cannot learn, cannot innovate, and refuses to change up on the pitch when losing, is a coach who will have a short shelf life.

Can’t believe people are being nice to Mike …. Yeah it’s article #1,000 but what about the other 999???

$1.63/week to watch the EPL if you’re on an Optus plan. $3.83/week if you’re not on an Optus plan. Outrageous. Won’t someone think of the children :shocked:

didnt see it, as i had to watch paint dry lol But i did attend the AU NPL match - which included musa toure (the middle boy of the 5 in the toure family) as well as the debut of vongai maizda (who is the brother of tkay, the female hip hop artist who does the a league song) the match also included 2 sons of a league legends and 1 son of an NSL legend alo checked out a girls match, which had over a 1000 fans in attendance - seemed like everyone was there to view a player, that is already attracting european interest but has not been capped by australia at any age level yet or been invited to any training camps. heres an interesting sidebar on prijovic though (ive mentioned it before) he was shopped around to AU before the season started, as everyone at that stage was under the impression that yengi was about to go to poland (fee was agreed at that point) and the club were frantically trying to sign a centre forward as a replacement (berisha was also discussed, but quickly veto'd by upper management) - the deal fell apart though