Grand Finals call a hammer blow in a time of unexpected opportunity for football

The A-League Grand Final: the final Sunday of every season where I could watch in almost completely delusional joy over what our league really is.

Whether it was my own team, Melbourne Victory, filling either Docklands Stadium or AAMI Park, or watching as a neutral on TV, the show was wonderful. Watching teams like Adelaide or Perth, who would usually frequent 5-10,000 attendances, pull in 50-60,000 for a celebration of football was spectacular.

There always is the bittersweet feeling having supported the league since 2006 that makes you wonder why it can’t be more like this every week during the season. But regardless, one would sit down and revel in what are rare days of glory for a league still struggling to latch itself into the mainstream vernacular.

Let’s reminisce on the scenes from Newcastle when they hosted the big game a few years ago, which coincidentally might be last time a football governing body made a correct decision in this country. That is, when Newcastle Jets successfully argued their right to host the game in their own stadium rather than the much larger Sydney stadiums which the league no doubt preferred.

A town of less than 350,000 people in complete unity over the wonderful season of a young Jets side that showed they could match it with the best. A cauldron-like atmosphere in and around the stadium showed exactly the reason that the A-League had one victory over the other major sports in Australia. That the highest-ranked Grand FInal team deserved to host the decider.

It also offered a flow-on effect for most host teams to tap into a new horde of casual fans to become regulars should they put on a great show. Look at 50,000 fans in Adelaide after Isais’ free-kick at Adelaide Oval and the imaginations it captured.

Look at the 50,000 watching the great Roar side’s almighty comeback a decade ago, at Victory in the early years of the league and the membership base that followed. Western United? Not so much, but that is mostly down to the shambolic nature of how that franchise was rolled out. But that’s for another piece…

(Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)

The league simply doesn’t have the influence and size to justify a decision like this. It’s not like the AFL that can fill the 100,000-seat MCG grand final with mostly corporate tickets. Nor is it the NRL that can irrespectively fill Homebush with a similar 80,000. But nor should it have to pretend that it has to either.

By allowing the best team to host the grand final each year, is one of the most credible arguments to being the country’s most truly national competition. Do we really have to wait for a Western United Grand Final against Perth Glory in front of 10,000 people to confirm this, or can the powers that be acknowledge what a shameless cash grab decision this is and reverse it?

And the elephant in the room: money.

The Socceroos just gave the game one of the most miraculous and unfathomable windfalls probably ever. After COVID ravaged what was already a plateauing league with vulnerable new franchises, the Socceroos deliver not only an injection of around $15 million in prize money for reaching the round of 16, but also an injection of interest that no amount of A-League marketing could ever generate.

So, instead of pushing what may well be a final dagger into an embattled league, why are the head honchos not capitalising on an almost unbelievable time of opportunity?

Newsflash for the APL bosses: grassroots pathways are still the root of the problems hindering our prospects moving forward. Registration fees are still pricing out fantastic young talents from being able to advance through the system and be seen.

Do we need the next Awer Mabil or Garang Kuol, players from humble beginnings who thankfully still made it, to be kicking around a Sherrin before we realise the magnitude of this problem? How can we go from celebrating their stories during the World Cup to completely neglecting the reasons the stories are actually so remarkable shortly after?

Danny Townsend, the league missed its chance to capitalise on unprecedented interest the last time when Alessandro Del Piero came to the A-League. Instead of investment in grassroots to match it with the likes of Japan, the league was only concerned with short-term fleeting interest and marquee player funds.

Ten years later, the league is in an even worse position in terms of the talent pool and mainstream interest. So, are we going to learn from the past or be doomed to an even worse future?