There are few more positive, hopeful and less cynical of the game of football in Australia than me. At times, it can be a flaw.
Sure, criticism is due when deserved, yet from this set of eyeballs, growth remains incremental and destined to see football become something rather special in the long term.
At times that growth stalls, or even regresses, yet as we have seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, where there were grave fears for many sporting organisations, codes, businesses and industries, the fans will return to a product they love and the A-Leagues have been examples of that fact.
The A-League Women is riding a wave of support that has played out in season 2023-24 in the form of a 62 per cent increase in attendance.
The men’s competition has also done well in terms of bums on seats, with Western United and Macarthur slowly beginning to build followings and crowds holding steady despite worrying seasons for Perth Glory and Newcastle Jets, and a Wanderers supporter base that has chosen to stay away in protest in large numbers.
If not for the dire straits in the Hunter and a more consistent presence of the Western Sydney fan-base, the attendance figures would read pleasingly and in conjunction with the football we have seen on the pitch, could potentially have made for one of the best A-League seasons on record.
Wanderers fans before the Sydney Derby incident that led to more protests (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Instead, we came into the current season off the back of the APL’s attempt to sell of the grand final for an extended period to make up what we now realise is a serious financial shortfall existing in the foundations of the A-Leagues.
In addition, a rather poorly executed website that promised everything and provided little was demolished after millions had been spent in attempting to make it cutting edge and at the pointy end of sports content.
In the process of both, the APL, supposedly the saviour of Australian football after the ‘unbundling’ of the game and the independence it established away from Football Australia, sprouted nonsense and spin to the fans.
The grand final was supposedly to become part of a rather ridiculous ‘Festival of Football’, where people would apparently drop everything the moment their team qualified for the decider and book expensive flights and accommodation in Sydney.
Cut the crap. It was a $12 million deal with New South Wales tourism that motivated the deal and the fans were the most significant of afterthoughts.
The website was a farce from day one and something I never could manage to get a handle on. It was clunky, disorganised and a far cry from the previous A-League site that fans of the domestic game once navigated with ease on a weekly basis.
Rather ironically, the new site, www.aleagues.com.au, is a blast from the past. If only the game could get back the reported $40 million that was pumped into the digital arm.
Once again, the APL failed to front up to the public honestly, amidst the website’s closure and near half the staff at APL losing their positions early in 2024.
Instead, it was bullshit at three paces again from the APL, as they sprouted that the layoffs were “necessary to capitalise on significant opportunities to create efficiencies through consolidation.”
Give me a break. Do not treat me like an idiot.
It was difficult to fathom when just a few short months back the actual A-League match broadcasts came under threat with the entry into administration of Global Advance. The APL suffered yet another embarrassment that they simply shirked off with assurances that everything would be fine and a load of codswallop that would have even impressed Donald Trump.
A-League fans were nearly prevented from watching on TV until NEP stepped in. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Next came the decision to can the Dolan-Warren Awards this week, with a quick acknowledgement of the game’s best male and female players in the domestic competitions set to occur at half-time during the respective grand finals.
Once again, more garbage spewed from the APL spin doctors: “This year we wanted to bring the awards closer to fans and give them a platform to be celebrated during the biggest games of the year.”
Spare me days, where do I collect the vomit bucket?
As much as I believe in the A-Leagues and the wonderful football we see on the pitch, it is high time those in charge of the game stopped treating us all like fools and actually gave us the explanations we deserve without the spin and nonsense that, quite frankly, insults our intelligence.
The solution? Go to the APL website. Make a list of the board members names and seek them out. Bombard them on X, Facebook and by mail.
Call them out and demand they show a little more respect to the people that support the game without lying through their teeth each week.
I’m doing it and so should you.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I disagree. The big factor is the travel playing more matches = more time wasted travelling and less time for training. So big country definetly should look in the 25-30 match range and not more. The MLS has it wrong should cut the matches down to 30. Small country can play more matches.
Marcel
Roar Rookie
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Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Where is the article on the awards themselves when they happened last year. Here is the massive issue search for dolan warren on youtube and there is only one independent news service that did a report on it Abbie who was then 12 years old who covers womens sport and has her own platform HerWay. Search for DallyM and Brownlow and you will find every major news outlet there in this country. The irony is then the major news outlets then report on the cancellation. Then we find despite it being freely available to be watched on Keepup no one watched it. I just wish they cancel VAR for the cost savings, but at the same time if the do cancel VAR I expect endless reports on how this is a negative including for the top level whingers here.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
I guess it doesn't have to be spectacular. It just has to be respectful to football, its traditions and the players, past and present.
Grem
Roar Rookie
CommBank?
Garry
Roar Rookie
Iraq Venue for AFC Final problematic ..Iraq on travel warning atm apparently.. venue now TBD
Waz
Roar Rookie
Foxtel used to broadcast it snd I watched a couple, Roar were always good for the Fair Play Award (and that’s about it lol). It wasn’t spectacular viewing to be fair.
Grem
Roar Rookie
It is quite unbelievable. Could win this Asian Cup and over 2 million dollars. Miguel De Pizo with 2 goals. Definitely worth some acknowledgment.
NoMates
Roar Rookie
Let CCM have the AFC Cup and give the Nix prem
Grem
Roar Rookie
You are correct – Simon Hill’s outburst backs you up completely. Stevo’s link below is worth a read.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Wellington are close NoMates!
Stevo
Roar Rookie
https://www.frontpagefootball.net/post/apl-s-award-night-spin-a-savage-cultural-blow?postId=95ffa4c7-77b6-44df-ae60-8508849879c6&utm_campaign=137749b7-9d90-4f7a-8f91-bded69378598&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=221d491e-8e2f-4ed2-acd6-aeb3de9de5af&cid=d0c73fe5-cec7-494e-bb7e-a5c8c610c603
Waz
Roar Rookie
You need the games for development. Australians don’t play enough football as it is. It doesn’t mean you need more teams though - 10 teams playing each other 4 times gives a 36 game season. This is still light compared to the 50+ games most European players are playing each season. Even the MLS is playing a 34 round league season considered by many experts to be the minimum number of competitive games for development to occur. Australia needs to decide whether it’s part of the world game or just a pimple on its backside … the success of our Matilda’s and Socceroos would suggest we want to be a part of it, as does the spectacular viewing figures for both - the Australian public want to be a part of that … and the A Leagues was the foundation of those teams. Can we afford a national competition is a good question - it doesn’t look like we can.
Marcel
Roar Rookie
What an amazing achievement by the Mariners !!!!..... Notably zero interest from the MSM or this site's eds..
Grem
Roar Rookie
A bit left field, but only football could do this…. A combined Australian/NZ team from the A Leagues v a combined team from Turkey! A possibility?
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
You could say the sensible thing would be for the A-league to be sustainable there would need to be less teams, less matches. Everyone wants their team they dont want a reduced competition, and now Canberra and Auckland want their team. The same people that say doom to the A-league will be livid if Brisbane and Wellington are cut from the competition. That may well need to happen at some point.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Alright I found out the awards night last year was live streamed on Keepup. Now the trillion dollar question who watched it here. Surely in this gang of awards ceremony admirers there is at least one fan who watched it and could tell how many players were there and where the 150 fans were seated. Did anyone at the Roar journos go or were maybe someone was amongst the 150 fans can fill us in how big was the room , how many players,journos and officials and what percentage of the room was taken up by the fans. I can understand the girl reporter Abbie from HerWay magazine complaining she was there, running the red carpet as a reporter and interviewing the A-league womens stars and produced a video on youtube about it, and she is an extremely hard working reporter and attending school at the same time and able to cover ever womens sport in the country .
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
i think A-League, or similar national league with a new name, will persist. Might not be as big as many of us hope for a while yet, but it will be there imo.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Which three players did you lose and for which games?
Grem
Roar Rookie
Hey Waz - I read that Waddingham is being pursued by Premier League clubs, including Tottenham. Is this correct? While I’d love for Brisbane to keep him, what an opportunity if correct.