Does the A-League have a plan to win back alienated supporters?

At the same time a crowd of 131,124 flocked to Albert Park to watch the Australian Grand Prix, only 4,088 fans turned up a few kilometres away to witness Melbourne City go around.

Network Ten poured plenty of resources into its screening of one of Australia’s most popular sporting events, with regular A-League host Tara Rushton and sideline reporter Scott Mackinnon helping to helm the broadcast.

And the slick race-day coverage and high-profile addition of former world champion Damon Hill to the broadcast team made perfect sense given the Grand Prix is one of Network Ten’s highest-rating programs.

But quite why Melbourne City were tasked with going head-to-head with one of Australia’s most popular sporting events at the box office is a question for the Australian Professional Leagues.

They’d be quick to point out that home games to Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory gave them limited Sunday afternoon timeslots with which to broadcast their free-to-air fixture.

But too often this season Sunday’s free-to-air clash has looked more like a ‘junk game’ than one of the highlight fixtures of the round, with matches played out against a backdrop of empty seats and marred by a procession of controversial refereeing decisions.

A team from Sydney or Melbourne has played in all 13 of the Sunday afternoon fixtures to have taken place in 2023, with Melbourne City featuring on five of those occasions.

That’s understandable given the fact that half the league now comes from those two cities, but makes less sense when you consider a team like the Central Coast Mariners, with plenty of stars and compelling storylines around the likes of Danny Vukovic, Brian Kaltak and Jason Cummings, are usually nowhere to be seen.

And at some point we have to wonder whether anything at all in the A-League is working?

The broadcasts get a pass mark from me, because Paramount and Network Ten do much with limited resources – even if we still don’t have the pause or rewind functions we were promised.

The quality of football is consistent with previous campaigns.

It’s not as good as it could be, because games continue to kick off in high temperatures on multi-sport surfaces that make the slick passing football we see in Europe virtually impossible, while coaches employ conservative tactics and fight tooth and nail to protect one of just 12 professional head coaching roles.

Of the 35 marquee players APL boss Danny Townsend said were targeted before the season kicked off, only two were signed – with Nani making 10 appearances for Melbourne Victory before being ruled out for the season with an ACL injury, while Charlie Austin lasted less than six months at Brisbane Roar before decamping back to the English fourth tier.

Nani of Melbourne Victory dribbles the ball. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

But there are other stars. Robert Mak scored the opener for Slovakia in their Euro 2024 qualifier with Bosnia last Sunday, flew halfway around the world, then scored twice for Sydney FC – including a stunning last-minute equaliser – in their 3-3 draw with Western United on Saturday.

It’s the sort of story that would be splashed all over the sports pages anywhere else in the world. But such is the apathy that now surrounds the A-League, his exploits will pass by barely acknowledged.

Those who work inside the A-League are compelled by an insidious pressure to refrain from criticism, because the reality is there are so few jobs in football, that to speak out is to imperil one’s own livelihood.

But at some point someone needs to address the competition’s alarming decline, before yet another campaign meanders along to a barely noticed conclusion.

Where is the marketing? Where are the stars? Where is the acknowledgement that fans-in-seats play a key role in the spectacle?

The elephant in the room, of course, is the APL’s catastrophic decision to sell grand final hosting rights to Sydney for three seasons.

They’ve essentially chosen to cash a cheque at the expense of the last few remaining rusted-on fans.

And so we await the final 69 minutes of Wednesday night’s aborted Melbourne Derby with bated breath and one lingering, nagging question.

What’s the plan?