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Better salaries, younger stars: The PFA is excited about the A-League Men

25th September, 2022
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25th September, 2022
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The A-League Men competition is providing more opportunities to young players than ever before, according to the Professional Footballers Australia association’s annual report.

So much for a retirement league.

The PFA’s annual report into the A-League Men was published this morning and it contains some interesting insights into the 2021-22 campaign.

We know the Omicron variant wreaked havoc with the league – with 50 per cent of all fixtures played last season forced to be rescheduled – but one of the positive side effects, at least according to the PFA, is that the average age of A-League Men players has dropped markedly.

“Since the pandemic has impacted Australian football, the average age of players in the A-League has dropped significantly,” the report says.

“Players aged 23-or-under represented 45 per cent of all contracted players during the 2021-22 season. Consequently, the average age (of players in the league) is 25.”

That’s an interesting stat, not least because Western United ended up winning the competition with the second-oldest squad in the league.

But as the PFA’s report points out, the emergence of genuine talents like Jordan Bos, Bernardo Oliveira, Nestory Irankunda and Kye Rowles – the latter of whom could yet play a key role for the Socceroos at the World Cup in Qatar – is a reminder that pathways are starting to open up for young players.

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Nestory Irankunda

Nestory Irankunda (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

The key is to get those talents playing regularly – and keep them playing. As the report points out, of the 332 total players in last season’s competition, just under 70 per cent of them are contracted to go around again this season.

That’s the sort of figure that makes the number-crunchers at the PFA happy, but it’s good for fans too. Less churn means better storylines on stars that stick around long enough for fans to form an attachment.

In years gone by, a marketable talent like Central Coast Mariners striker Jason Cummings might have arrived in the A-League Men on a short-term loan deal, played half a season in Gosford and quickly ended up back in Scotland at somewhere like Livingstone.

Now it’s our league sending players the other way, with Phillip Cancar, the aforementioned Kye Rowles, Lewis Millar, Keanu Baccus – who looked lively off the bench for the Socceroos on Sunday – Mark Birighitti and Nathaniel Atkinson all signing eye-catching deals in Scotland on the back of long-term good form in the A-League Men.

And with the likes of Connor Metcalfe at St. Pauli, Mohamed Toure and Yaya Dukuly at Reims, Stefan Mauk at Fagiano Okayama and Joel King at Odense BK all stepping up to demonstrably higher levels of the game, no one can argue the A-League Men doesn’t produce its fair share of quality players.

They’re getting paid a decent clip to do so – with the average A-League Men salary now worth just over $150,000 per annum – and the PFA will be the first to tell you the five-year Collective Bargaining Agreement they helped negotiate last season has reduced the number of players on one-year deals down from 51 per cent of all players in the league to 39 per cent.

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Why does any of this matter? Well, if you’re the PFA, it’s because they’re in the business of looking after the best interests of the players.

But for fans – who shouldn’t necessarily be expected to care about these sort of admin issues – the simple reality is that less player churn, decent transfer fees, proper developmental pathways and more attractive salaries all add up to a more exciting competition.

And that’s something we desperately need this time around.

The PFA will be the first to admit that last season’s campaign devolved into a war of attrition at times.

But having survived the worst of the pandemic, and with the domestic game now actually on a reasonably solid financial footing, this has to be the season things turn around.

The PFA is excited about the new campaign. And to tell you the truth, so am I.

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