For Australian football, the times they are a changin’

Grem , that first goal showed a couple of things, that young Australian lads A) play the game at a cracking pace B) that they’re fearless in the way they took on United and C) old mate Harry Maguire and Lindelof are too slow for the young guys. Look at that game last night, it definitely makes you wonder if Ikonomides and Folami made the WC squad, what would they do to opponents in the Qatari heat

Great idea – Darling Harbour in Sydney, You decide for Newcastle, Federation Square in Melbourne. This game needs to put itself out there better than it does. At the Man U in Melbourne game tonight (drove for 9 hours to see our A League v Man U), had my mates for the Leeds v Roar game last night. How good were the Roar. A great effort again by our A League again.

for those that could not have the good fortune of attending these games I would suggest that maybe a fan site in Sydney with big screens, Australian and A-League merch on sale, maybe a few barbies firing etc. Make it accessible to all fans. Geez if that did that in on the harbour foreshore here in Newy, it would be freakin' awesome, and they would get a decent roll up too. Trouble is the city council just about cook, clean and iron for the World's Highest Paid Probation Scheme.

If they play like they did last season, watch out.

Just enjoyed the Brisbane Roar v Leeds game. Brisbane have some good young players and with their classy and experienced players, they could have a very good year. That was a great watch.

I thought that Chapman's singing and return to fitness probably sealed Steinman's fate.

“ Football in Australia from the age of 15 years loses many potentially great players to other sports codes” It actually doesn’t. Football retains its participation dominance at all ages. Although you are correct that the drop off starts at the mid teen age (normally at 16, then again at 18) - this is not caused by “cost” in my experience although there’s no doubt that’s a factor, the main reason is school - particularly where parents start to focus their kids on Y11 - and U18’s is historically where kids transition from junior to senior section within clubs. This transition means going from clubs being able to put out 5 or 6 U16 teams to playing in competitions where they’re lucky if they can enter more than two U18 teams so 80+ players can’t fit in to U18’s, worse still 18’s is a two year eligibility so maybe half stay on a second year. The churn here is huge. We track where our players go when they leave - the biggest loss is players giving up sport altogether, the next biggest loss is to other football clubs. Those that stay in sport, looking at our data over five years, we lose them (a handful) to Athletics, Volleyball and swimming. Over that period we have lost zero players to AFL, NRL and Union (for similar reasons to football you have to be half decent to play senior sports). It’s interesting that cost is always thrown up - at community level cost is comparable between codes (football is often not the most expensive) it’s at development level where costs jump from $300 to thousands that the issues arise.

Hope your right Stuart

I will agree with you about watching games where I have no vested interest in either club, but just because they need the points to stay up. The last 6 rounds of the EPL where you watch what happened to Leeds, Newcastle, Everton etc, was really good TV. And seeing the elation of the Everton fans after securing their status, tells us everything we need to know. I guess P/R does bring with it exciting football, both in the NSD as teams vie for that promotion spot and the teams fighting tooth and nail not to be relegated. The whim I was referring to was with some fans, I have every confidence in the current administration is doing everything right, and due diligence is expected of them.

Stu, we need a convenient "Australian Football Show" to watch on FTA (Channel 10 Sunday midday). I'm so done with internet football sites.

Yes FA would favour pro/rel as it will add value to their NSD. If this new competition is coming in 2023, news about where this competition is to be televised must be months away only. It is a bit of a golden age for lower level sports broadcasting in Australia. Stan Sport show QLD and NSW club rugby. Kayo show all manner of things like basketball, netball, ice hockey and rugby league. A NSD would bring everything together broadcasting wise between it, AL and Australia Cup on Paramount +.

I don't think implementing a club licencing framework and then an overhaul of the transfer fee system and then introducing a new national competition is acting on a whim. I think it is quite a systematic approach. No timeline has been put on the introduction of pro/rel but I would hope that it is 10 years away so the proper dilegence is taken. The important thing is identifying this at some point as a strategic priority. It'll very much go one of two ways after five-seven years of NSD in my opinion. Either the NSD is not sustainable and any hope of pro/rel will be put to bed (possibly along with the NSD itself). Or it is sustainable and the case for pro/rel will be near irresistable. Clubs will have proven that can compete on a national stage. Costs associated with travel will have been addressed and the difference between operating in an NSD and the AL will be much smaller than they are now between AL and NPL. The other factor will be a TV deal. Does pro/rel add to or take away from the AL TV deal? Well, you'd get 3-5 playoff matches to promote each year but more importantly all those late season games involving Perth, Roar, Jets and WSW would have so much more riding on them (to take last season as an example). I watched my fair share of matches involving these teams because I'm a rusted on fan, but there were some that I skipped that I'd have definetly watched if relegation was a threat. I'll be honest; I refrained from heading out to Redcliffe for the last 3-4 games last year and instead watched on TV. Too far to drive with nothing ride on it. Pro/rel and I was there for all of them. I'd argue that Paramount would get more value for their $40 million a season when there is something riding on every game.

Well put Jordan, You may well be right about reading the 'tea leafs' I had forgotten that it is still the FA in charge of the expansion, having given it more thought, you are most likely right, P/R will be the FA's preferred option. It would be great to be able to look forward 5; 10 or 15 years to see where we will be. With promotion and relegation, there are so many more variables that have to be considered. It isn't straight as forward as we all think or would like it to be. Even more of a conundrum is if they decide [the FA] that after a settling-in period the NSD becomes open to P/R then that does present a whole new can of worms.

Jordan, I'm glad you asked. Let's start with just the basic Admin staff shall we, not volunteers but actual paid employees, Receptionists, I use the plural because you will need two, [they will end up organising your ticketing in-between answer the phones] a GM and his/her assistant, PR come spin merchant and social media guru and website nerd, sponsorship director and at least two other assistants, these people will have to go out and secure the big and the little dollars. You will also need office space and an actual office to work out of. Plus if you plan to keep your fans involved then I suggest you will need a fans coordinator. At a quick count that is 8 full-time staff and I will say that is a bare minimum unless they aren't serious about being in a fully professional league. Then you want to look at your coaching staff, assuming their first-team coach is already full-time and on 100+k you then have his assistant, his goalkeeper coach, his assistant, the medical staff, [massuse, physio, etc] all full time now, these guys or girls won't come cheap. That's just your first team in the ALM, we haven't touched on the staff required for any teams underneath them, or their ALW, assuming that they will be required to field one. {But maybe not, I'm sure no one has given that too much thought just yet, as a whole we tend to neglect our women.} You can see where I'm going here. Yes, I understand that a club promoted from the NSD will have most if not all of these people in place, but I am sure that just as the players will be expecting a pay rise, so will their staff. After all, it is a whole team effort. As Towser says in his reply, we need ambitious clubs to push those above them, just as the NSD will need clubs in each states NPL to push those clubs in the NSD, [unless they expect their NSD to be a closed shop too] But IMO a simple P/R needs far more thought than just us fans wanting it to be so. I believe that all of the NSD should have to prove their financial commitment to gaining promotion well before it is introduced. I am not saying, never I am saying, we will only get one chance to get it right, so lets do it right, not just on a whim.

Adelaide United to be a genuine challenger needs a quality number 10; like Flores a number of years ago. Last season their play lacked subtlety and the resulting creativity to regularly unlock defences.

The decisions regarding the ALW are welcome, though, a team from Tasmania should have been included in the expansion. A major strategic oversight. The ALM developments are a contradiction. A second designated player outside the salary cap may only result in fewer opportunities for Australian players: noting the exciting influx of young talent in the two preceding ALM seasons. The $600k could have been more wisely spent on promoting the ALs and/ or reducing the cost of club membership and/ or more intensive development of juniors, for example by expanding the NYL for males and introducing one for females. In spite of the hype around marquees the fortunes of the professional game in Australia are most tightly tied to developing our juniors; both women and men. Also why is the ALM season so short? To improve standards; to make the more of marquees presence and give squad players more playing opportunities the home and away season should be extended to 33 games. Football supporters appreciate long seasons so why is APL persistently 'flying in the face' of this need? Additionally the ALs seasons need to run from March through November when the weather is most conducive to higher speed, more intense football and aligns with the NPLs and hopefully a men's NSD in 2023. In the competition for eyeballs of all football supporters in Australia the only real 'clean air' is the three month period starting from mid to late May when the European leagues are in summer hiatus. Finally a word or two about the Matilda's. As the team's "progress" (more accurately ongoing regression) now stands they will be fortunate to survive the group stage at WWC23. Gustavsson is an inept coach and should have already been replaced. His incompetence, though, is only part of the problem. With only two genuine quality players (Carpenter and Kerr) and possibly a third one if Foord is played as a defensive midfielder the cupboard is largely bare in terms of talent including the overrated Fowler. The one, possible, exception at the moment is Vine. Gustavsson is the reincarnation of the disastrous period for the Socceroos in the early 1980s under Rudi Gutendorf. Why is the FA so determined to ignore the lessons of that period by sticking with Gustavsson?

So what's the solution to the costs? Football has such a huge base that it simply cannot rely on the tip of the pyramid to subsidise costs. If league had the same numbers playing at grass roots do you think they'd be as heavily subsidised as they currently are?

We'll soon know. The Australia Cup and pre season are closing in.

Yes we usually do well, as in Townsend and previous managers. Now we've got the amateur Corica and rookie Santo in charge so who knows. Even with the recruitment while Corica has been in charge, how much of that was Danny, I'd say a large chunk.

And way more attractive to watch on TV than Macurthur and WU, both from a style perspective and their home grounds (or lack there of).