Aside from the pending crowning of Melbourne City as premiers, the current A-League Men season is bordering on comical in its unpredictability and parity.
I am not too sure there has ever been a football league anywhere in the world, where with just three rounds remaining in the regular season, the last placed team still had a chance to win it.
Rather bizarrely, Melbourne Victory could still win the championship and as unlikely as that may sound, will be saying as much internally and wondering, why not?
It is simply the most astonishing of seasons, where bottom of the ladder Victory have seven wins and four draws from 23 matches. Current sixth placed Sydney FC has won just eight times and been held to five draws, whilst second placed Adelaide, impressive all season, has just eleven wins.
It will all make for interesting reflection come season’s end, when teams lament the odd point dropped here or there and a vastly different ladder position had things panned out more favourably.
Late goals, such as the two we saw in the Western Sydney Wanderers 2-2 draw with the Bulls last weekend, have swung fortunes of clubs in an instant.
Macarthur were seconds from moving within goal difference of the top six, before Brandon Borrello pounced late and sent the Bulls tumbling back down the ladder, before settling in eleventh.
Western United lived the same slide, belted by the Mariners at home with seventh on the ladder a real possibility, before ending up in tenth come the end of the weekend and the big winners in Round 23 were Brisbane Roar, jumping from last to eighth.
If Brisbane reproduce that result this Sunday against the Phoenix, they could be inside the six, pending Sydney FC’s result, with the notion of moving from the bottom of the ladder and into the mix for the title in the space of a fortnight a challenging one to consider.
Each week it appears likely that a challenger or two will be killed off from the race, yet, with timely draws and almost no consistency in performance, the game of musical chairs has continued.
It is a positive for fans able to attend their team’s matches late in the season with everything to play for, but a nightmare for tippers, punters and those of us working on matches in real-time that shift dramatically with late goals and send-offs.
It has also been a challenge for the broadcaster, with the zero predictability unfolding this season, aside from a fair expectation that Melbourne City would be a handy team, meaning that blockbuster matches have sometimes fallen in odd timeslots.
Such is the case this weekend, with Central Coast hosting City at 5pm on Saturday, in what would obviously be the match of the round were the draw makers able to see the future. Instead, the Wanderers and Victory will feature in the Saturday night prime-time, also an important game, but not the marquee match-up that we will see in Gosford.
Round 26 will feature two massive top-six clashes, played concurrently on a Friday night. Adelaide will host Central Coast and Melbourne City the Wanderers, with the top four placings potentially decided by the results.
Then, a match that could have zero impact on the finals is slated for the Saturday night prime-time slot when the Victory host the Roar. Should one team need a win to make finals, it could be a belter, yet Sydney and Perth do seem more likely to sneak into the six at this point in time.
Such unfortunate moments in the scheduling have popped up from time to time and are certainly no fault of the APL. How on earth were they to know that three weeks from the finals there would still be so much undecided and to play out?
Of course, a close league is the ideal. Yet is the absurd parity we are seeing this season detrimental to excellence, where quality teams pull away from others simply not at their level?
Could it be argued that, apart from the obvious quality of Melbourne City and their deserved favouritism, there is something bland and homogenous about the others, all battling away in a pool of competence, yet a pool lacking some big fish that really stamp their authority on the league?
I’m not sure.
It has been a hell of a ride and one that appears likely to continue down to the final weekend. Best of all, it has been fun to relish in the unpredictability.
However, I wonder if you can sometimes have too much of a good thing.
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
Nasty and deluded… :laughing:
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
"Cling on to your fantasy of Australia hosting the World Cup though… ????" haha you see, that's my point.. cry me a river Daddyo. :laughing:
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
My point is even further validated - you’re a nasty person. Even more so when you’ve been given an opportunity to apologize and refused. An observation - I only ever have this sort of personal attacks from soccer fans. Discussions with fans of other codes might get spirited, but largely steers clear of personal abuse. Seems the ugly behaviour in the stands at soccer games is mirrored in the online behaviour. Bullies are mostly insecure people… Cling on to your fantasy of Australia hosting the World Cup though… :laughing:
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
No, no, no apology for your :silly: :shocked: interpretation, I know that you will be unhappy if the FIFA men's WC comes to Australia. But I don't care. :laughing: Of course, I would be stoked and you, however, you on the other hand... my champagne point still stands.
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
No, you specifically aimed that comment at me - “I hope you will be unhappy”. My point remains. A decent human being would apologise unreservedly.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
No, not your or anyone's mental health issues, as you are incorrectly described, but put it in another way when the AFL was rejoicing, cracking open a bottle of champagne at their MCG headquarters when the Socceroos were eliminated from the WC by Iran in 1997, that's what you call nasty and insecure.
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
You wish for someone to be unhappy? What a nasty, insecure little individual you are…
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
Quite happy with the recovery after a difficult start --- I hope you will be unhappy when the Men's FIFA World Cup comes to Australia/NZ/Indonesia. :football: :stoked: :stoked: :stoked:
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
If you’re happy with the A League crowd figures then that’s wonderful for you…
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
Last year: read what is in front of you. :silly: The latest figures on crowds are as follows. Last season at game 139 the total no. of fans is given as 721,240 This season at game 139 the total no. of fans is standing at 1,032800. This represents a growth figure of nearly 44 %. Comments?. Cheers jb
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
“ As for Australian football, (the A-League) is growing currently up 40% on last year’s figures, and will be the dominant code of football in Australia; 2030 is the target date. (Danny Townsend).” :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Meanwhile, back in reality… Crowd figures are actually down 15% on the last pre-pandemic season (7.5k average vs 8.6k average).
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
There are a number of large oval grounds in the cricketing nations of the world. New Zealand, Sth Africa and most African nations. England, India, Pakistan, Nth America, Canada, and Argentina, have oval grounds. Even China where David Koch had Pt Adelaide play a number of AFL competition games. I am sure if you look hard enough there would be a few in Europe that would suffice. As for Australian football, (the A-League) is growing currently up 40% on last year’s figures, and will be the dominant code of football in Australia; 2030 is the target date. (Danny Townsend). After 150 years of Aussie Rules, it still stuck mainly in the bottom half of Australia with no international presence; not even the greatest AFL players in the world haven’t been able to make any sort of international impact on the world psyche, or world stage. Whereas the world stood up and applauded the Socceroo’s last effort on the world stage, who performed brilliantly in the FIFA WC in Qatar.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
— COMMENT DELETED —
Christo the Daddyo
Roar Rookie
For a start, it’s only going to work on large oval grounds. Now flip that point around. Why is the most popular football code in the world, with “massive participation” in Australia going so poorly in this country when it comes to its premier club comp? Logically it should be the dominant code shouldn’t it?
Football Fan
Roar Rookie
What about Syd FC's average of over 17K? When was the last time they had that? Or maybe AUFC averaging over 10K? The biggest factor affecting attendances and ratings is that the comp is invisible to the masses simply because the mainstream media are pretty much ignoring the game, Ch10 being the exception. Almost nothing in the daily newspapers, both online and hard copies, radio bulletins ignore the games even on gameday, the list goes on. The game is relying on email lists, social media and/or people like myself that are rusted on fans who go looking for information about the A-League.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
Fan numbers at Roar games have dropped, a number of season attendees who sit around me are not to be seen this season. But I'm confident that their reason is results and on-field performance, not what the APL says or does. Roar fans blame the owners for everything, including player selection, but it all comes back to the coach doesn't it? If, and that's a very big if, Roar get their coach right, they'll get their crowds back, whether the grand final is played in Sydney, Suncorp Stadium or Cairns.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
:stoked: :laughing:
Grem
Roar Rookie
Just threw your possibility out to him on the other post this week about A Leagues needs to make forward progress. It will be interesting to see if he replies.
Grem
Roar Rookie
You may be right! Our writing style gives us away and Nick is a new writer who acts as though he’s been around for ages. Mention air conditioning and we’ll know for sure!
Grem
Roar Rookie
That’s interesting - I’ll reread Nick’s comments.