While citing restraint of trade and holding back potential excellence remain the cornerstones used by the critics of salary-capped sporting competitions, A-League fans should be celebrating the equalising measure.
The 2022-23 season has entered its back half and after yet another weekend of often impossible-to-predict results, each and every club will still believe they are destined to play finals football.
Just two wins separate last-placed Melbourne Victory and sixth-placed Sydney FC, with ten points spanning every club outside of runaway leaders Melbourne City.
Central Coast’s loss to Sydney FC on Saturday allowed City to skip clear, yet they are the numerical outlier, as the remaining teams now prepare to scrap and fight across the final 11 rounds of the competition.
No league in the world with which I am familiar is able to claim such parity and competitiveness at a comparative stage of the season.
Most brilliant is the fact that every fan still has strong motivation to be attending games, remaining hopeful of finals qualification.
In both 2020-21 and 2021-22, the magic number required to advance to the knock-out phase of the competition proved to be 39. Hypothetically, that leaves Melbourne Victory 25 points short at this stage of the season and potentially requiring seven or eight wins to navigate a path to the finals.
Tony Popovic (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
That might sound like a tricky road to hoe, consider two things. Firstly, the team in last position at this stage of the season in any major European league would be littered with players eyeing their contractual exit clauses, about to be triggered by inevitable relegation. Secondly, it is likely that less than 39 points will be required to qualify for the final month of A-League play.
Without teams battling in the cellar and being lapped by the quality above, the pinching of points and unpredictability of results is likely to lower the threshold for top-six qualification, with 35 or 36 points a probable marker.
That would leave teams like Western United, Brisbane Roar, Macarthur FC and Newcastle Jets just a possible six wins and the odd draw or two away from a finals appearance. In fact, things are so tight in the mid-table that Macarthur, Newcastle and Perth now exist on a week-to-week basis, knowing that three points potentially moves them into the qualification zone with a loss placing them on the outside looking in.
Essentially, two or three wins will likely move every club in the bottom six into the top six, or at worst, right on the cusp of it.
Above them, Sydney FC, Wellington, Adelaide, Central Coast and Western Sydney, inside the qualification zone yet precariously so, know that a similar run of wins will consolidate them immediately and potentially kill off the runs of the teams below.
With 33 points still on offer and the pattern of the season suggesting that no result is certain, it is perhaps time for the salary-cap mechanism to rise and take a bow.
While true financial fair play and equalisation is something of a farcical concept throughout most global leagues and far from black and white in the A-League, the initial intention to consolidate the competition by attempting to increase the likelihood of survival for its clubs was necessary.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
The cap is also the tool that allows the current complexity and unpredictability in the ladder to exist.
While many people are keen to see promotion and relegation introduced in Australia, those people who often cite a competitive nothingness existing for teams struggling at the foot of the table, one could actually mount a counter-argument.
Perhaps the flux in clubs’ fortunes over time and the lack of perennial cellar-dwellers actually creates a unique situation, where interest for a majority of teams’ fans is potentially held for far longer than in most international leagues.
We want to see the A-Leagues grow and expand to a point beyond the salary-cap era. However, we are far from that point right now, and perhaps a celebration of the ultra-competitive men’s league should take place in recognition of the current season and ladder situation.
After all, you don’t really know what ya got ’til it’s gone!
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
My last reply wasn’t directed at you, but no matter, I’ll just take my size 20’s and be on my way
WMM
Guest
@ Brett Allen, it’s you who doesn’t seem to get it….the state federations are cash rich and also currently receive government funding, what I am suggesting is that the government funding that the state federation currently receive…ie Football Queensland etc, that that money along with money from the state federations, goes towards building high performance centres. Now jog on buddy, I have no interest in conversing with people who wear big red noses and size 20 shoes on a daily basis.
Bendtner52
Roar Pro
Great article, just shows that the competition is balanced. Victory took a hit after the fans antics in the Derby but if they pull themselves together they have a winning run in them
Saffi
Roar Rookie
What a tremendous story jb. Loved reading it.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
You seem optimistic today :laughing:
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Who says that’s the qualification ?
Grem
Roar Rookie
To be a “superstar” you need to be more than very good in a little game so the world does enter the discussion. He’s written about in NSW and Queensland. And lately, not for football, but resisting arrest and a night in the cells after a drunken fight. He would be pretty well unknown outside the 2 states that play rugby league. Hardly superstar status. Matt Leckie’s sporting achievements are superior - 6 years in the Bundesliga, 3 World Cups and scoring a brilliant goal against Denmark. He has achieved on the world stage in the biggest and most popular game on earth. But he doesn’t get the credit due because we don’t report on football, we are saturated with league, which gives us a false view of reality. Anyway, you don’t give a $hit about the A League so why don’t you pop on over to the NRL site. You won’t see me there!
Stevo
Roar Rookie
The conference model is not being put forward as the proposed model: http://www.australianfootballclubs.org.au/uploads/9/8/8/1/9881717/aafc_nsd_final_report__22.02.22_.pdf The proposed model developed by the Assoc of Australian Football Clubs (NPL clubs) is based on a single 12-16 team second division. That's it.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
But we’re not talking about the rest of the world, we’re talking about Australia. Latrell is written about because of what he does on the footy field. Not the other way round.
Grem
Roar Rookie
— COMMENT DELETED —
Grem
Roar Rookie
25 years in the NRL and no Victorians in the Storm. I don’t rate their development program, but I do rate their talent spotting program. I thought critical development in athletes occurred between the ages of 8 and 12. The Melbourne Storm Academy – address : Sunshine Coast Queensland!
Grem
Roar Rookie
Australia is bigger than NSW and Queensland. And I already answered that question. Many people in NSW and Queensland would think Latrelle is a superstar. I know that, but it’s not because he is. It’s because that’s what we read, hear and see on television, radio, newspapers, etc. He is undoubtedly a great athlete, but superstar? If he was achieving in what he does against the world, like perhaps Patty Mills or others then perhaps he would be a superstar - which is a ridiculous title anyway.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
at least our lads are not glassing the missus
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
i think people are underestimating how many adelaide teams want to take part in the NSD everyone assumes it will be adelaide city and west adelaide that will part of it - both these sides are really struggling off the field currently. campbelltown will likely be in the NSD and i would not be surprised to see metrostars and birkalla there as well (both those clubs are working really hard behind the scenes, to make sure they meet the submission criteria)
Grem
Roar Rookie
I’ll be there and it will be an absolute cracker if a game.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
And soccer doesn’t ? Oh no that’s right, flares and pitch invasions are your go
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
Development doesn’t end at age 18, development continues throughout a players career. They identify the best 14-15 year olds, they place them with their feeder club, the Sunshine Coast Falcons and they progress to their NRL team.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
In Australia ? Latrell
matth
Roar Guru
As has other sports and society in general, but in this case I was calling out a poster who alleged that in the NRL the team that best manages their players’ drug addictions wins the title. That was inaccurate inflammatory and displayed more about the nasty nature of the poster than anything else.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Mate, it's not false dawns, it Euro-snobbery. The false belief that EPL is the only football and everything else pales in comparison. We need to establish, build, and promote A-League culture. Why are we not linking the A-League in the sparse advertising we have to the Socceroos. Why are we not linking the Matildas to the ALW. Additionally, we need to educate Australian football supporters about resilience and following your team regardless, and not bailing out in the tough times.