If we discount the morning and afternoon shows, the Socceroos move up the list a bit.

In that evening time slot, the ratings for AFL and NRL Thursday night shows (2nd and 4th respectively) are for me the telling ones. People are tuning into channel 7 and channel 9 news and mostly sticking round for the footie. Triple the number tuning into football.
And the Socceroos weare still behind the ABC and 10 regular Thursday evening shows.

Does Paramount Plus get included?
If the figure is just 10Bold, then 552,000 would not be the full number.

Hi SS
You make a good point about Taggart and I think it applies to Australian strikers in general.
I like Taggart and wish he was back at Brisbane Roar. I love Bruno too. Not so much Mclaren.
We seriously need a talk about how we develop strikers in Australia because there’s a glass ceiling if ever there was one.
It’s one thing to be a top striker in the A League. Another in a major league and on the international scene. Duke is probably the best of the bunch.
Fingers crossed that Waddingham is the once in a quarter century exception. Liking the look of Yengi too.
What Arnie has assembled seems to me to be up with the best we can get from a country where in terms of football infrastucture, national competitions, and youth development structures we are a country mile behind the more popular codes.
Re the Scottish brigade. I am not following you.
Boyle is out injured but is a regular at Hibs in SPL.
Burgess is a regular at the top/second/third team in the Championship. Ipswich’s position depends on which day of the week or even time of day at the moment.
Souttar. Tragically not playing at Leicester. I get why the Leicester coach wants Ben Nelson to get a go, but don’t get what he sees in Coady, Faes or Vestergaard over Souttar especially given Leicester’s tendency to capitulate late in games without Souttar. (As a Leicester City fan I think Souttar will play EPL next season, but not betting on Leicester City doing the same)
John Iredale plays in Germany. Sydney born. Played for Sydney FC. It’s Jack Iredale at Bolton that comes from Scotland
I think you are a bit harsh on Metcalfe and Baccus s well.
One thing I am expecting is that assuming Australia makes the World Cup in 2026, a few of the boys from the U23 play list will be in the mix.

The Guardian Headline says it all.
“World game the winner as Lebanon fans celebrate despite defeat to Socceroos”.
What’s Not to like about a game like that?
Especially Australia in the first half.
From a group of fellas that for the most part don’t play together week in week out and play in so many different leagues, the understanding between players and some of the one touch and both short and long range passing was excellent.
Congratulations to Arnie on getting the side up for it and the improvisations due to injury.
Perhaps the overall result flatters to deceive as Waz puts it. That’s a fair call.
We need to play for 90 minutes.
We dodged a bullet or two late on and I thought Palestine at least deserved the one that hit the post.
I would have been disappointed with a draw, but could not in all honesty have complained.
I would have loved to have heard what the Lebanon coach said to Arnie at the end.
Quite possibly. The next game starts at nil nil and we will be coming for you!
Not often referees get the plaudits, but I appreciated the referee letting a lot go which kept the game flowing. He stopped when there were possible head or serious injuries but otherwise used his whistle judiciously for the most part.
Given this is the second round of qualification only, and assuming we get out of it, the next round will be tougher. No disrespect to a very good Lebanon side.
I can’t wait for Tuesday.

Thanks Lionheart
Typo in my post. $11M over 10 years at Perry Park btw

According to the Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory, the tax payers are spending $40M on a 12,000 seater rectangular stadium for the Ipswich Jets (Rugby League)
Federal Government : $20M
State Government : $10M
Ipswich Council $10M

Meanwhile, the Brisbane Lord mayor has this to say about a Perry Park development:
“We certainly support Brisbane having another boutique rectangular stadium in the long term, however, right now we are focused on other matters such as keeping costs down,
building better transport and incentivizing the delivery of more housing”.
He went on to write that BCC hold a lease on the Perry Park site with the YMCA; $11M has been spent on various upgrades and facilities over 1 years; BCC will continue to work with Brisbane Strikers and YMCA yada yada; oh and wait and see what the Quirk review comes up with.

The Quirk review said that developing Perry Park was amongst a number of proposals submitted that were found to have had merit and legacy outcomes for Queensland but it was not part of his recommendations. Strangely, Mr Quirk did not see fit to meet with Football Australia, though he met with Football Queensland according to the report. Last time I looked, the Matildas and Men’s U23 football team were under FA and not FQ.

I could find no information on FQ’s website about what they proposed to Quirk, or the Olympics or generally so I am none the wiser about FQ’s position. I’m alright Jack perhaps?.

Meanwhile, submissions on the proposed increase in number of concerts at Suncorp have closed. We now await the rubber stamp in favour or the extra concerts and the consequential hunt for new venues for the next A League season.

If anyone north of the Brisbane Line has more information on any of the above, let us know.

Meanwhile, in my project management days we used to talk about the challenges of herding cats.
The football community is very divided and each cat is doing it’s own thing.
Until we resolve that, I think we have Buckley’s chance of moving the game forwards up here.

I just listened to Arnie being interviewed before tomorrow’s world cup qualifier, and when asked about the state of the game in Australia, his frustration was palpable.
To be fair, Arnie said he had not expected the questioning he got. He was doing his polite best to answer.
Yet another NRL club is getting tax payer finance for facilities, and Arnie is asking why not football?
He spoke about reliance on the generosity of an NRL club allowing the Socceroos to train on their fields. NRL gets the new pants and football gets the hand-me-downs.
He spoke about the issues in the A League that people have commented on here, and the importance of a vibrant A League competition as a dependency for national teams.
It really is depressing.
Tears in your eyes bang your head against a brick wall frustrating.
What will it take for Australia to wake up and take football seriously?
Our politicians seem to throw the buckets of money around every which way until it comes to football. Then it is all short arms and long pockets.
Quite frankly, until this gets fixed, I am beginning to think the Socceroos should play all their games outside of Australia. It would certainly save the boys a heap of air miles and the facilities are decent pretty much everywhere but at home.
Up here north of the Brisbane line, our state has already turned its back on hosting the national men’s teams; so for me it would make no difference.
I guess a few fans in the other capital cities would be a bit sore. But something has to give.

I agree Waz.
Though ex Mayor Quirk seems breathtakingly short on reality in his recent review when it comes to football.
Mr Quirk talked a lot about legacy infrastructure, but seemed blindingly oblivious to the needs of football.
Rectangular stadiums, training facilities, and somewhere in the mix, a venue to host the Tillies and other major footballing nations.
Whilst at the time back when the Brisbane Olympic bid was put forwards, it might have been understandable to not have foreseen the gargantuan leap forwards in the popularity of women’s football in Australia, you would have to live under a rock on the bed of the Brisbane River for it to have escaped you by now. But somehow, it has eluded the ex Mayor.
Even in the sporting backwaters of the ABC Offsiders program last weekend there was speculation about the Matildas’ popularity enabling them to fill the MCG.
At Aunty, world sport must forever be measured according to a cricket/AFL yardstick. How quaint!
And all that was for a friendly game against a middle ranked nation!
We are nothing up here in Queensland if not parochial. We pride ourselves on our stoic resistance to reality in the face of the overwhelming factual evidence. It is who we are.
The fair weather supporters from the hallowed halls of governments, in their tax payer funded seats, have long since mothballed their Tillies shirts and scarves for a rainy day or their next photo opportunity.
Yet the Instagram footage which they so brazenly craved lives on in cyber space to reminds us that funding for football was promised.
Mr Quirk in fairness was not one of the Canberra and George street blow ins I refer to.
But not to have used the reset to give the worlds’ largest sport, and Australia’s largest participation sport, a central prominence in his report, makes all his talk of legacy infrastructure seem …. . (Well you can choose your own adjective for it).
I have run out of words to describe unforgivable
It is not a quirk of nature that aspiring juniors, especially girls, have nowhere to play; to say nothing about answering a call of nature.
It is a failure on all sides to recognize where Australia has landed post the tsunami of the women’s world cup.
In the future, we might well not need one new rectangular stadium in Brisbane, but several.
And included in the mix we need to pose the question.
Where exactly do they plan to house an order of one hundred thousand female football supporters?
Perhaps the Brisbane Olympic football games will be telecast from the MCG!
So far that seems the most sensible option out there.
I fear the legacy of the Olympics will be one of embarrassment and ridicule.
Certainly, all hopes of an A League venue being a windfall beneficiary remain dashed.
Maybe the women’s Asian Cup in 2026 will see reality rammed home yet again.
Don’t hold your breath. We are out of dead horses on George Street.

Arguably the question about Wellington Phoenix is what took them so long?
In what passes for a salary capped league (which is a topic in its own right and one for another day), they remain one of only two A League mean’s teams to have won neither a premiership nor championship to date. And no chickens actually hatched this season either.
Wellington Phoenix (along with having the most insufferable TV broadcast team) have enjoyed a distinct home advantage (not the only ones in the league I have to say) plus a nucleus of international footballers over the years.
So what has taken them so long indeed?
Quite clearly they have a good coach and their previous one was no slouch either.
Their success has actually been a slow burn over five or six seasons now.
The recruitment has been good, and it sounds like the work off the park is reaping dividends.
With the home advantage they enjoy, and the great defensive work on the road, they have a as much chance of winning silverware as say the Mariners do.
If they do win silverware, then our congratulations will be well earned. Good luck to them.
As for playing style.
Rueben Zadkovic bemoaned Brisbane Roar’s lack of quality in both penalty areas last weekend whilst praising his team for the football played for vast chunks of the 90 plus minutes against Macarthur.
By contrast, Phoenix are efficient in both boxes. And their fans are loving it.
Why wouldn’t they?
Here in Brisbane a plethora of recent coaches have extolled the virtue of attacking football.
The last one that prioritized fixing the leaky defence incidentally was unceremoniously shown the door. His time at the club coincided with Roar’s most recent finals appearance.
There is not a lot of joy in picking the ball out of your own net more times than any other club in a season, and I suspect there would be a few more walking through the Brisbane turnstyles if Brisbane had a similar set of results to Wellington.
As they say. Football is a results based business.

Whilst on this topic of Paramount and Channel 10.
Does Channel 10 do much to cross- promote football?
I confess I do not watch Channel 10 ever, but would start to do so if they had a football show, or interviewed footballers on shows like The Project once a week.
I tell you what. Some of those recent A League goals make for easy on the eye advertising.
Do the APL advertise the product in social media at all?

Agreed
I watch the Roar live whenever I can. Or on Paramount when they are away. I often watch the mini match after that at some stage.
These past two seasons I have often found myself tuning into Paramount to watch the Mariners when I can. That’s about it.
As a total left field thing, when I leave the Roar games, I listen to the end of the Paramount post match analysis and interviews on my phone as I walk along. I really miss the post match reactions we used to get on local radio back in the UK which was part and parcel of the match day experience. And Paramount don’t show the full show on the match replays. It works for me.
But the thought of watching all those other games. Heavens no!
Far better for me to catch Roar in the NPL on live stream.

Hi Stevo
I totally agree.
The men in suits have taken the football parlance box-to-box to mean rolling along from corporate box to corporate box sampling the hospitality. Not for the likes of them to speak to the great unwashed or watch a game from the active support area or personally meet with fans.
When all this policing stuff surfaced again, I did wonder about those Fans Representative Groups too. What happened to them?
Meanwhile we in Brisbane have a very industrious and approachable Supporters Federation.
[That is an unofficial spruik from me by the way].
I assume other clubs have similar.
I encourage people to contact them, become members, go to meetings and support these groups. They have a voice which will be louder with more members.

Hi Stuart
When it comes to the A League report card, I was wondering on what criteria the A League brand could be described as strong?
Sure the Matildas brand is running hot at the moment, though watching the U20 Matildas totally out classed yesterday by Japan, I worry about the future of the Tillies.
The Japanese players were technically several classes above.
In the body of your article you go on to highlight a number of failures which sadly I can only agree with.
I wonder how long the A League can survive continually going two steps backwards for every one or even two forwards.
The true yardstick comes when we compete outside of Australia.
Arguably it is the only yardstick that matters, unless we condemn football to becoming the epitome of parochialism, like the AFL, and be of little consequence outside of Australia.
GA has just spoken again in the last 24 hours about the vast amounts of money being invested by ambitious Asian countries into their respective games.
GA also spoke again about the danger of relative decline of Australian football as other countries emerge.
Other countries are actually taking more steps forwards than backwards.
Other countries are not accepting treading water or glacier like progress.
Other countries are progressing rapidly in increments of major tournaments. i.e Four year cycles.
GA is calling for a restructure of the game in Australia. And has been for a considerable time.
Let’s not be looking at the A League and saying “It’s not so bad really. If only it were not for those pesky missteps!”.
Let us instead join GA and demand change.
I am in agreement with Waz. Supporters are the key stakeholders and we need to become much more vocal in demanding a whole lot better from the suits at Football Australia and the APL.

Great assessment Waz
It was tough to see Courtney-Perkins wearing sky blue. MOTM for sure.
And with the talk about Kai Trewin, its galling to see Roar players enticed away to clubs with more spending power.
With the talk of a clean out, I think it is essential that Roar make an announcement on RZ’s status.
I am assuming RZ will continue irrespective of whether Roar make finals but the longer it goes on, the greater the uncertainty. With players playing for contracts, it does not help.
Didn’t Marco say to expect an announcement a few weeks back?
Roar will lose Rojas, and Jelacic is a loanee. Trewin appears to be going. It will be hard to keep Waddingham. They are under amongst Roar’s better performers.
Neville is contracted beyond this season, but under a serious injury cloud.
Zac need to get contract extensions locked in for Burke-Gilroy and Henry Hore, and Macklin Freke at the very least. And bust a gut to keep Waddingham and Trewin.
It’s essential for Roar to keep the core of the team as a base.

Nisbet is a stand out player in a stand out club.
Kudos to him and Mariners.

I think RZ has a formation that he wants to implement and has inherited a squad of players with more options in some positions than others. The fact that HH is showing such versatility does not hurt his reputation one iota. The fact that he gets selected ahead of Caletti and Gomuka to play in that deeper role is a testimony to how much RZ values him.
HH is one of those players who in a more successful team would be getting more plaudits than he does outside of Brisbane. If he continues to develop and stays at the club I see him as a future captain.

Hi Waz
Thinking back to the O’Shea send of in January, and the Sydney send off on Sunday, it is at least consistent there. If anything, O’Shea’s was more innocuous. Neither appeared a clear and obvious error by the ref.
I am thinking the judiciary see both as a single week’s suspension rather than two or three.
I have heard talk of refs being miked up at some stage. It’s expensive to implement and something tells me the debates about interpretation and consistency will persist regardless.
The Davila one on Sunday appeared far worse.
I am expecting more controversy at the Roar v MacArthur game at the weekend.
It is a rematch of the Davila grabbing his opponent by the throat game.
Davila is a good player and gets a lot of heavy attention from opposition. Unfortunately, he seems to see the red mist. I understand why he does what he does, but retaliation should be more strictly policed. In my book, he is a lucky boy flying under the radar.
My recollection of Macarthur in Brisbane in January is the frequency with which Davila’s team mates gathered round the ref in an intimidating manner seemingly to pressurize the ref when Roar committed fouls. Maybe the coach has instilled a bit of a siege mentality. It is something we do not want to see. Macarthur are playing well and there is no need for the theatrics.
The foul count was very even on the day. I don’t think Macarthur were hard done by. It is not as if Roar don’t have a talented player of their own who cops a lot of fouls.
I am hoping for a game played in better spirit next time. And hopefully Davila keeps his cool and we see his talents, not his peccadillos.

Hi Grem
It is not all doom and gloom for sure.
I guess my take is that our national teams appear to be doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
At home we have too few opportunities for the youngsters to play and too short a season.
A number of clubs are also doing amazing stuff. Adelaide, Mariners, Brisbane to name only three.
The problem becomes a question of then what? for the Kuols, Iranakundas etc.
I think we need to have more teams in the A League; a longer season; a second tier and a national youth league providing far more opportunities and a wider competitive environment to provide young talent with opportunity to train and compete professionally.
For those that aspire to try overseas, I would also like to see a mentorship system involving experienced coaches and players assisting young players with decision making (eg. when to go overseas and where to go) and also to provide support during the highs and lows of professional sport overseas.
Going overseas is a challenge that the AFL does not have. (Sorry. I couldn’t resist that!). Though AFL does have the draft system which is an interesting concept.

Hi Mike
Short answer is No. Enough is not being done.
But I think the problems do not lie with national team selections, nor with the VAR, and go much deeper. And bouquets not brickbats to the likes of Vidmar and Arnold are in order.
Graham Arnold famously said that the A League is not a development league.
He and Nick Garcia might like to have a chat over a coffee some time.
In defence of our national coaches, I remind you that, Arnold drafted Gerang Kuol into his World Cup squad, despite lack of A League game time. And GA has arguably done more than anyone to give opportunities to players at home and abroad.
From where I sit, Graham Arnold, like Ange before him has tried to drag football in this country forwards. Kicking and screaming.
Our national coaches have limited places in their squads and continually have to leave players out. Players are often selected for reasons of tactics and formations.
Incidentally, the irony for Kuol is that Socceroo selection may have hindered his longterm development. Bench warming in colder climates is not good for his soul, nor his development.
So kudos (not criticism) to Vidmar for thinking of him, despite lack of game time.
Maybe that clinched Iranakunda being left out.
I note Vidmar has just called up Waddingham too. Again, kudos to Tony Vidmar.
You do wonder about Newcastle United’s commitment too. The enticement away of our upcoming stars by big European clubs who seem uncommitted to help them achieve their potential may be a cautionary tale. Iranakunda may yet suffer a similar fate in Germany.
Tilio has had to come back from Celtic. Arzani likewise. Jamie Mclaren struggled in Germany. Whilst quite a number of players are trying to break through overseas, we seem no closer to the next Golden Generation.
The solution is to improve the standard and status of the game in Australia in general, and take Australian football to a whole new level here.
Graham Arnold has been critical of the lack of games in the A League and the short season is not helping. There is no national youth league, no second division, and the overall standing of the game in Australia is low. The game faces a plethora or problems. Stadiums. Training facilities. The list goes on. Brisbane Roar cannot find a spare stadium with adequate lighting for goodness sake.
How to take football to the next level, is the old chestnut that Australian Soccer has struggled with for decades, and which neither the Australian public, nor Football Australia, nor the APL seems to have an appetite for.

Hi Kitwally
After yet more revelations about racism at the AFL, which are all over the mainstream media, I had a look at the AFL section of this site, and so far, have been unable to find any comments.
Could it be that those interested in AFL regard this as nothing to see here? It will all blow over? Nothing needs to change?
Compare that to the introspection amongst the football fraternity around the Sam Kerr incident, and the behaviour of A League fans and associated policing.
Their silence is deafening on the topic.
If anyone does find anything, please let me know. I genuinely would like to read it.

My understanding of events that went down with the RBB last weekend, is that WSW have had systems, protocols, and marshaling in place for some time. Unfortunately based on what Daniel McBreen reported, when the stadium changed their security provider, communication broke down. At the weekend there was a lock out of the nominated and identifiable people marshaling the TIFO at the stadium, leading to escalation, police engagement and arrests.
So it may not be foolproof, especially if stadium security and police continue to have an attitude problem.
I applaud Kaz and Brisbane Roar for the rapid and sensible response, and hope that it will be successful.
It is possibly not everything we were hoping for.
Having seen the Brisbane footage, I have been shocked, and feel less safe knowing that there may be armed and aggressive police officers out there in the broader community free to behave as they please. And that is me speaking as a senior citizen.
I hope that what has been announced is just the start of the relationship rebuilding.
It cannot be the be all and end all, and must not be matter of set and forget.
I would like to see a process to monitor progress. Ideally a formal complaints process where members and supporters can forward issues to the club.
Meanwhile, it sounds like Brisbane Roar are stepping up to the plate.
Hopefully Suncorp Security and QPS step up also.

Short answer to the question of Matildas and Socceroos
Matildas are riding a wave and have nailed the branding 10/10
Socceroos are popular but not cracking mainstream attention in the same way 5/10
On the subject of branding, A League men are in serious negative territory.
Events over last weekend highlight that A League men is on life support.
With the branding unable to cut through and largely dependent on active support which is getting hammered right now, the A League men is situation critical.
It’s really only the national teams that are keeping the code alive.

Thanks Grem
Awesome and well considered response.
If the justice system is left to do its job, I would hope that the lawyers get to make similar arguments.

On Sam
Sam is entitled to the presumption of innocence. We don’t know the facts.
We know there was an incident and charges have been laid. Sam has pleaded innocent. The Matildas and Chelsea have closed ranks. The lawyers will do their stuff.
Quite frankly I am more alarmed about other stuff going on in the UK courts than this.
On the Captaincy
Steph is the captain. She will captain the Matlidas at the Olympics. Let’s not disrespect Steph with all this captaincy talk and the hypothetical.
On the Matildas
I love the Matildas. I think they quality of football is great and I love what they do.
I remember that video from the WWC where they superimposed the faces of the French male players onto the faces of the female players. I see no point in comparing male and female sport.
80,000 attendance at a friendly game coming up. Nuff said!
I love Ash Barty for what she achieved in Tennis. What a champion!
Is there any point in comparing male and female tennis players?
My best ever sporting memory is Cathy Freeman in 2000. Still get the goose bumps!
Is there any point in comparing male and female runners?

I normally come down Given Terrace and into the ground, but am intending to walk down Caxton St when the Den walk down. Camera ready.
I am hoping that a number of Brisbane Roar club reps do the same.
It would be good actually if the club appointed its own stewards to interface to police and security. And agreed some protocols.
Hopefully Zac is looking into such measures as we speak.

Hi Lionheart
One thing we know is that the powers that be want to expand the number of concerts.
If those concerts are in the summer, then that further reduces the windows available for football.
It would also increase the frequency and the expense of having to set up for concerts and subsequently re-turf or whatever it is they they do. I doubt it is cheap.
With low attendance for the Roar, and with various facilities and outlets being closed at Roar games, my guess (it’s only a guess) is that the people running Suncorp are thinking why not ditch football? and save a lot of hassle and expense. Money talks.
Perhaps I draw a very long bow to think that QPS are being used to “encourage” Brisbane Roar to move along. It’s just that I cannot find another rational explanation for what has been going on.
I am happy for someone to help me out here.