Surely the biggest conundrum facing football in these parts is the fact that of the 59,155 fans who turned up at Optus Stadium, most of them want nothing to do with the domestic leagues.
There was a record crowd for a football game on hand to see the Matildas crush the Philippines 8-0 at Optus Stadium in Olympic qualifying on Sunday, with hometown hero Sam Kerr bagging a hat-trick alongside Caitlin Foord in what was a ferocious display of attacking firepower in Perth.
Full credit to Football Australia for switching to the larger venue. There’s no point locking fans out of these fixtures, even if the sightlines are better at ‘Perth Rectangular Stadium’.
And the FIFA Women’s World Cup has allowed administrators to do the one thing they’ve been obsessing about for years in this country – convince casual fans to buy tickets to football games.
The Matildas being the hottest ticket in town and managing to attract tens of thousands of new fans to the beautiful game is a wonderful thing.
But the record attendance is thrown into sharp relief when you consider Perth Glory’s table-topping women’s team have drawn crowds of 1114 and 1450 – the latter for the first game of a double-header with the men – to their first two games of the season.
Football Australia is having no problem shifting tickets – at least for the Matildas – but the same can’t be said for the Australian Professional Leagues.
A hugely entertaining slate of A-League Men fixtures on Sunday was a case in point, with the 17 goals scored not witnessed by many fans in the stands.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Macarthur got the party started with a deserved 2-1 win over the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford, in a game in which star French striker Valère Germain registered his first A-League goal.
The former Monaco, Marseille, and Montpellier attacker arrived in Australia with an impressive pedigree, and the Mariners found out the hard way what happens when you leave a player of Germain’s quality too much time and space as he rifled home the opener.
Kearyn Baccus then got in on the act with his first goal in 112 A-League appearances, and while defender Brian Kaltak pulled a goal back for the Mariners in stoppage time, the Bulls deserved to head home with all three points.
If that was the entrée, then the main course in Melbourne had to be seen to be believed, as Melbourne Victory came back from an early Mark Natta goal down to see off the Newcastle Jets 5-3 in a rollicking contest at AAMI Park.
It was 36-year-old Bruno Fornaroli who stole the show, bagging a remarkable four first-half goals – including a stupendous rabona in first-half stoppage time to hand Victory a 4-1 lead.
The veteran striker was desperately unlucky not to add to his tally in a game in which both teams defended as though they’d only just met, and even when Nishan Velupillay raced clear to score Victory’s fifth, they still weren’t home and hosed.
It wasn’t the end of the drama for the day either, as Adelaide United hosted Melbourne City in a rescheduled clash at Coopers Stadium to finish the round.
Teenage sensation Nestory Irankunda looked like he’d produced the key moment of the match when he curled a spectacular free-kick straight into the top corner to open the scoring.
But it was outstanding Adelaide custodian Joe Gauci who arguably broke Melbourne City hearts, staring down Jamie Maclaren from the penalty spot and saving a second-half spot-kick with an outstretched leg.
And the Reds went on to make it count – pummelling City with some of the most free-flowing football we’ve ever seen in the Carl Veart era to smash the hapless visitors 6-0 amid astonishing scenes in Adelaide.
There were 28 goals scored across the round in the A-League Men this weekend, yet convincing fans to return to the stadium seems to be the hardest thing.
Maybe it’s a slow burn.
But on a weekend in which the Matildas drew a record crowd, it’s as hard to know as ever whether the glass is half-full or half-empty when it comes to football in Australia.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
I believe it comes down to simple demographics. ALM appeals to a younger male demographic while the ALW appeals to younger female supporters. Neither of them wants to commit to going to a game on a regular basis. [IMO] The Matilda's on the other hand, and the Socceroo's to a lesser extent, and I saw this during the World Cup, appeal to young families, the numbers I saw during the World Cup games in Adelaide, mainly with young girls blew me away. Maybe the APL should know this and start to market the game towards them.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
Or maybe I like and respect them well enough not to condescend and lie to them.
Ad Tastic
Roar Rookie
The quality of top level women's football is worse than under 16 boys, that's a fact born out by results, and I'm not spending any time watching under 16 boys either. The fact that so many people don't recognize this obvious fact is more to do with politics than anything else. ie woke nonsense. Football simply isn't a sport that women can play and the product looks comparable to the men. Maybe unlike tennis. Or maybe it's just in tennis we only watch the handful of top players that can play like men but in football there isn't enough of them to fill a whole team let alone a tournament.
Kitwally
Roar Rookie
That is an awesome article by Ben Horvath. Well worth a read. I’m going to repost here: https://www.frontpagefootball.net/post/it-s-time-for-australian-football-to-unite-and-discard-the-negativity?fbclid=IwAR2FBwDj9ZKiYm-HTZpq0FyGApyTRId6sFEA2Z_AxI7xSFK1_SgvDro1kTw
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Collective leadership everyone needs to be in a sense pulling in the same direction.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
I agree, and there is knowledge sharing and collaborative efforts to understand the mechanics of supporter and grassroots engagement. I just think it's hard to disagree that with the Matildas profile, the Socceroos strong showing at the last world cup, Asian Cup, Olympics, Olyroos, that football's profile is in it's ascension and with parents aware of the potential brain damage bill that comes with some codes, it's not exactly contributing to a significant influx of kiddies keen to have memory loss in their early fifties and tangible evidence of brain damage
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
It's not rocket science. The stadia all keep getting upgraded to provide "better matchday experiences", but the irony is the tickets to these games are then more expensive. Fans don't have unlimited budgets.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
Top tier of english football has always been popular in Australia. I used to buy Shoot magazine long ago, as many others did too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoot_(football_magazine)
Brendan
Roar Rookie
It appears to be plenty, when taken in conjunction with the rest of Aus, NZ, PNG and the Pacific. I can’t see a decline in player quality anytime soon. I don’t think anyone would argue that junior soccer participation significantly outstrips any other football code, but there is no data to suggest that League is going to lose its player pipeline anytime soon. I think the A-League needs to be proactive rather than just hope the other codes become less popular. What that looks like I do not know.
AR
Roar Rookie
I think pet memberships are a good revenue raiser for a sporting club, and a bit of fun...providing they're not counted in the official membership count, which they never were for AFL clubs. When Sydney FC offered pet memberships, were they counted in the official figures?
Grem
Roar Rookie
Having a good lead in show or an overall successful channel would help the A Leagues and Matildas. I’m happy to stay with 10 to create those habits people develop, but it is or close to the lowest eating network. As for the news – it is good to see football stories, so I watch it as much as I can.
chris1
Roar Rookie
Very true Grem. In Sydney we get 1 test match a year, a couple of odi's and half a dozen or so bbl matches. They are basically 'events' as some people on here like to call it. And then Sheffield Shield. So yeah, cricket is huge.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
up 13 percent. That's wonderful, so what's the grand total, about 100,000 in NSW. So, lets say 1 percent of those get all the way to 1st grade state based league, and then less than one percent of those will make it to NRL. By geez, that is a very shallow pool you have there.
The Ball Bobbled
Roar Rookie
They did at one time with regard the A League express that they were disappointed there was no evidence of any flow on from A League viewers to any of Channel 10’s other programmes. This might happen in time i guess if they stick with Football but it’s surely largely up to what they present. The Channel 10 News is well presented imo
matth
Roar Guru
Yeah I have no explanation for how they treated the third place playoff
Grem
Roar Rookie
That would be close to Channel 10’s top rating show ever!
Grem
Roar Rookie
Football still has the largest participation bases by far in the 15-20 year old age groups. Our participation numbers swamp all other codes. It’s a fact that can’t be argued, but he will! Blinkers are always on!
chris1
Roar Rookie
You can't expect the dinosaurs roaming around the halls of Ch 7 to understand how big a WC is.
Grem
Roar Rookie
True of cricket too, Lionheart. The Sheffield Shield is the domestic league, but we consider cricket to be successful.
Grem
Roar Rookie
I’m rusted on so results don’t matter to my attendance, but Sydney’s crowds will go down and that’s not good for the league. That 17000 average will be hard to keep.