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Opinion
When Ramy Najjarine thumped home from the penalty spot in Western Sydney’s 4-0 win over Macarthur, he put the finishing touches on a much-needed reminder to fans.
The Wanderers ripped their Sydney neighbours to shreds under the blazing summer sun on Sunday afternoon, scoring two goals either side of the break in what was a dominant display.
Less than three days after Socceroos midfielder Riley McGree volleyed home a superb winner in Middlesbrough’s 2-1 win away at Blackburn Rovers, former Socceroos midfielder Oli Bozanic scored an equally stunning goal in Parramatta.
Already a goal to the good thanks to Yeni Ngbakoto’s deflected free-kick, the Wanderers went 2-0 up when Bozanic deftly chipped Kusini Yengi’s pass up to himself and side-footed it home with one of the most precisely-taken volleys you’ll see all year.
It was one of the goals of the season from one of the competition’s most technical players and had it been scored in Europe instead of the A-League, it would have been seen by plenty more fans.
But the more than 10,000 fans in attendance on a hot New Year’s Day deserve credit for the atmosphere they created – not least because those on the eastern side of the stadium were expected to squint at proceedings through the unrelenting glare of the harsh summer sun.
It was the same story in Newcastle, where fans in the Western Grandstand at McDonald Jones Stadium enjoyed plenty of shade in the Jets’ 2-0 defeat to Sydney FC, while broadcast viewers were treated to row upon row of empty seats on the eastern side.
(Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
Why do A-League games continue to kick off at such inhospitable hours in the middle of summer?
The Sunday free-to-air kick-off is a remnant from last season when an A-League Women’s fixture was broadcast in the same slot, which presumably dictated why Western Sydney’s clash with Macarthur was scheduled to kick-off immediately after the game in Newcastle.
But viewers wandering around the dial on Sunday afternoon endured quite the contrast when flicking from a Tasmania JackJumpers game in the NBL played in front of a packed crowd with an array of corporate sponsors displayed prominently on court, before switching over to a McDonald Jones Stadium that was predictably two-thirds empty.
The decision to ignore Tasmania for A-League expansion will go down on the long list of dodgy administrative decisions.
And if you were looking to settle in for some Sunday night A-League action ahead of a public holiday on Monday, you were out of luck.
Scheduling remains one of the most baffling elements of a competition that continues to do things purely because that’s the way they’ve always been done.
Fortunately the football over the weekend was enough to take our minds off the administrative side of things, with Central Coast Mariners’ 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory on New Year’s Eve richly deserved.
Jason Cummings was unlucky not to finish with a hat-trick in a see-sawing contest in Gosford – not for the first time this season – and the Mariners sent the Newcastle United-bound Garang Kuol off a winner in their entertaining win over a Victory side for whom Tony Popovic seems to have run out of ideas.
More than 10,000 fans turned up in Gosford for the Mariners’ traditional New Year’s fixture, proving once again that A-League fans are more than capable of creating their own traditions when provided the right conditions.
The Australian Professional Leagues has been privately telling anyone who’ll listen they were forced into doing a Grand Final deal with Destination NSW to cover a COVID-created financial black hole, but their handling of the announcement has been an absolute shambles.
It’s a good thing the likes of Najjarine, Cummings, Adam Le Fondre and Robbie Mak reminded us the A-League still has plenty of positive focal points – if only we ignore the administration.
Here’s hoping today’s two fixtures provide plenty more high points, and that 2023 proves a happier year for Australian and New Zealand football.