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Opinion
Any hope that huge crowds would turn out to watch the A-Leagues on the back of the Socceroos’ thrilling World Cup run were dashed by the usual slap of reality over the weekend.
It’s hard to imagine many A-Leagues executives have ever had to battle Friday-night traffic in Brisbane to make the hour-long drive up to Redcliffe to watch a game. They’d probably think a little harder about scheduling if they did.
And Brisbane Roar’s struggles to draw a crowd to their boutique stadium isn’t the fault of the Australian Professional Leagues – or at least not entirely. But it is symptomatic of what’s been happening ever since the APL took charge last season.
Which is to say – nothing.
If there’s a plan to help Brisbane Roar reconnect with their fan base, or Perth Glory deal with the move to Macedonia Park, or Macarthur FC do more than just squat on a licence in Campbelltown, we’d love to hear it.
It’s great that Luis Suarez seems open to a move to Australia – and we shouldn’t forget the APL helped Brisbane Roar land English marquee man Charlie Austin – but it’s hard to escape the feeling that the A-League Men is just meandering along with no real strategy in place.
Which is why a less-than-helpful post-World Cup fixture list came as no great surprise.
We all understand that scheduling is difficult, but a smarter fixture list wouldn’t have seen Brisbane Roar play their fifth home game out of six on a Friday night, Perth Glory confined to Saturday night’s graveyard slot for their first game at Macedonia Park, and the F3 Derby kick-off at an open-air stadium under the blazing hot sun in the middle of a summer’s day.
Yet a fixture list that felt like it was built around the assumption the Socceroos would be knocked out in the group stage in Qatar is par for the course for a league that still seems to struggle to understand why fans turn up at A-League Men games in the first place.
If there’s one thing marketing departments have gotten wrong in Australian football from day one, it’s this slavish obsession with catering to families at the exclusion of everyone else.
(Photo by Steve Christo/Corbis via Getty Images)
It’s hard to understand what fuels it. But it’s the sort of thinking that leads to hardcore Sydney FC fans being asked to applaud Melbourne City players for featuring at a World Cup.
If all of this sounds like an endless list of complaints, it’s not intended as such. Linking our returning Socceroos to the A-League Men competition is actually a sensible piece of marketing and all the players received rousing receptions by supporters of every club.
And Sydney FC’s gritty come-from-behind 2-1 win over Melbourne City was the match of the round on a weekend that won’t be fondly remembered for the quality of the football.
Adam Kersey got it spot on when he awarded Melbourne City an early penalty for Luke Brattan’s handball, only for the Sky Blues – who for whatever reason were wearing black – to respond immediately through Joe Lolley from the kick-off.
And it was another Englishman in Adam Le Fondre who came off the bench to win it for the home side when his twice-headed effort from Lolley’s stinging drive beat Tom Glover at the second attempt.
It was City’s first defeat of the season and how they respond to the departure of coach Paddy Kisnorbo, who is now at French Ligue 1 side Troyes, could be the story of the season.
Perth Glory’s battling 2-1 win over Western United on Saturday was just their second win of the campaign and it came in front of a decent crowd at their new home away from home, Macedonia Park.
But that’s about as good as it gets. Some of the football was diabolical, with Wellington Phoenix’s 1-1 draw with Western Sydney Wanderers on a cow paddock in Wollongong a particular lowlight.
The APL has got to get smarter with scheduling. There’s no point advertising our returning Socceroos if the games are on at times when no one can attend.