Patchy performance again from Brisbane, but the good patches are starting to outweigh the bad. Some good combination play developing between Holman and Maccarone. A more conservative set up in a flat 4-4-2 with the fullbacks dropping off and sitting in the defensive line more. Perhaps a sign that Aloisi is cutting his cloth according to the resources he has available. Brisbane no longer have the players to play the high-intensity pressing game he set outnto at the start of the season, nor to play the style developed under Ange. So a larger element of pragmatism enters the picture.

Holman looks fully fit at last and his pace and direct running set panic into the Melbourne Victory defence, and once he and Beautheac gain a level of understanding then Brisbane may at last have enough pace and movement up front to trouble other teams. They have been frustratingly static in attack at times this year, the loss of Borello and McLaren has cut deep.

Some signs of solidity at the back, but not there yet. Being able to put out the same back four three times in a row would help that immensely. Hopefully this direction can yield enough to keep us in the six until the end of the regular season.

There’s a little typo, a missing “from” in there, which is about the current season, as tour stats correctly point out. Admittedly, since I left Brisbane before the 14/15 season I have only been to a couple of games since, when I was in town. Prior to that I could probably count on my fingers the home games I missed since the first game against NZ Knights.

Hardly new at all, I was at the very first Roar game against NZ Knights, and saw my first NSL Brisbane Lions Game in the early 1980’s. I was a Roar member for over a decade, before leaving Brisbane. I am well aware of the train wreck that was Gold Coast United and went to every derby game between the two clubs.

Gold Coast United was doomed to failure from the day Ben Buckley stiffed the Galaxy bid that had the backing of the local Football community in favour of Clive Palmer and his supposedly large bank balance. He only wanted a team because he was chasing a mining deal in China and the Chinese executives he wanted to entertain had no interest in rugby league and were unimpressed by the Titans.

As soon as his China deal fell through because he opened his stupid mouth and insulted the people he was trying to do business with, he lost all interest in the GCU and went to war with the supporters (such as they had), the Qld State Government (his landlord at the stadium) and the FFA until he ran the club into the ground.

The fact that the NPL team Gold Coast City drew bigger crowds at the same stadium than GCU for FFA cup games, the vibrant grassroots football scene and the rapid population growth (Gold Coast adds a similar number of people each year as Adelaide), means that there is a significant opportunity for an A League team there if it is done right. Gold Coast already has a bigger population than Wellington (the Gold Coast-Tweed Heads Significant Urban Area has over 650,000 people, anticipated to grow to one million in 20-25 years) also indicates a potential support base.

The Sunshine Coast also is a fast growing city of a similar size to the Central Coast (300,000) and has no direct rivals from ither professional football codes. However I do believe that the first expansion club in Queensland should be a second Brisbane team.

New Zealand based teams bring nothing to the A League except additional costs and the Trans-Tasman experiment should end. Better an Australian side that can bring another 18 or so Australian footballers into the league, eligible for the Socceroos.

I think it would lead to more expansion, especially in areas not catered for directly by an existing team. Even the Brisbane Roar are advocating for a second Brisbane team as they see the benefits of a local rivalry, which they haven’t had since the Gold Coast folded. The home fames against Gold Coadt were some of the biggest crowds they got, sometimes double their usual home average.

Agree about the 14 teams – especially if tge Phoenix are also replaced by Canberra, five fresh clubs and getting rid of the third round. The third round really kills the league as a spectacle, with two rounds each home fixture is unique and more of a spectacle- if you miss a home game you won’t get to see that opponent again until next season (finals excepted).

If Gold Coast City (the renamed Palm Beach Sharks) are involved then it could work. They are the original football club on the Gold Coast and have deep roots in the community, having been around for 50 odd years. FFA ignoring them ladt time around was a critical error.

Roar just completing their facility at Logan too.

Over 300,000 people are going to move into the Macarthur region with the bew urban areas in Leppington, Oran Park, Menangle Park, Wilton & Appin, etc. Campbelltown is going to become a major centre in its own right. Even the northernmost parts of the Macarthur Region are over 20km from Parramatta and the team could draw support from the Southern Highlands also.

Association Football has similarly penetrated the private schools in Brisbane, supplanting rugby as the dominant winter sport. Football is booming in Queensland and the FFA need to capitalise on that. They pulled the plug prematurely on the Qld expansion teams.

Gold Coast has a big football community, however they hated Clive Palmer who nicked the expansion license out from under the community backed bid and then ran it into the ground. Ben Buckley stuffed up by going fir mining magnates who had no real love of the game and lost interest when their main business suffered downturns. With the second largest player base in the country (and a club structure that is predominantly non-ethnically aligned), Queensland should be the model for the FFA.

Analysis paralysis has set in. Time to pick and stick, choose a way forward and back it 100% for long enough for it to bed in. They’re too scared to make a decision and if they cannot, then they need to step aside and let ithers take things forward.

Expansion is needed for football reasons if nothing else with only nine unique opponents in a season players aren’t exposed to enough different teams to develop fully as footballers and can be found wanting outside of the league when they encounter a different type of opponent or a different style of play. Having only nine professional clubs in Australia creates problems of depth for the Socceroos also, as there may only be 3-4 Australia-eligible players in key positions in the league.

The other factor is the number of games and length of season- to reach the highest level of football possible, we need a nine and a half month season, with a 10 week off season, allowing 30-50 games per club + internationals. The long off season and small number of games doesn’t allow the players to maintain elite fitness levels for the year, due to lack of match fitness.

I’m currently living in the StGeorge area and there is no commonality with Sutherland – the areas are very different demographically, and while theteis support for Sydney FC there, I don’t think a team based in one area would draw much support from the other. There’s a rivalry that goes beyond rugby league and is moreto do with socioeconomic factors. St George has a very high number of recent migrants from Asia, China particularly and there’s a disconnect between these people and the older population. Rockdale City Suns is the biggest club in the area these days following the decline of StGeorge, and they draw their support from the Macedonian community, which is only 9,000 strong in the region.

That will improve once the new light rail opens from Central station in a year or so. Moore Park is over 1.6km from Central which makes for a long walk or bus ride in traffic. The light rail will drop spectators about 200m from the stadium. Given the travel time from most if Sydney to the East side if the city (the CBD isn’t central- the geographical centre of Sydney is near Parramatta) the time saving of connection by light rail will make a big difference for people travelling to and from games.

By comparison, Suncorp Stadium is 600m from Milton Station and 900m from Roma St. Travel arrangements are a big drag in Sydney, as most people would need to travel an hour and a half on public transport to attend if they didn’t want to pay through the nose for parking.

It is pretty good but needs a team from the Gold Coast (done right with no Clive) and Sunshine Coast. There’s over 3 million people in South East Queensland and Queensland has the second highest number of registered players in the country (more than Victoria). The two coastal cities are the fastest growing areas in the nation over the last 30 years and they are predicted to be for the next 30 too. Sunshine Coast has no professional football teams in any code for a population over 300,000.

Four SEQ teams gives each team three home derby games to boost revenue and six away games easily accessible for travelling support. The first Brisbane-Gold Coast Derby saw 10,000 Roar fans make the trip and the return game had a crowd of 27,000. That was despite GCU being a complete shambles after Clive went postal. Poor due diligence work by Ben Buckley saw the first Qld expansion fail, but there is huge potential if it’s done properly.

That’s why we need clusters of at least four teams in and around the major population centres NSW (Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong: 6 million people), Melbourne-Geelong (5 million) and SEQ (Sunshine Coast-Brisbane-Gold Coast: 3 million). These areas have over half the population of Australia and the highest levels of population growth. Only the NSW cluster has four teams (but can probably support 6-7), meaning getting extra teams into Metropolitan Victoria and SEQ should be the priority.

The current competition format has become stale and repetitive, with each team playing each other three to five times a season. Thats why 14 teams is the minimum expansion target for football reasons.

Plus the ongoing mismanagement of Brisbane Roar is dragging on attendances (down 5000 over the last 3-4 seasons) and is now dragging on performances too. The competition needs a strong, unified Roar as they can pull 45,000 plus in Home grand finals, so there is latent support that isn’t being tapped.

There are 350-400 Australians playing overseas, with only two or three dozen playing at a high level. A lot of players can be repatriated, with many better than those who stayed home. Away from the big leagues life can be tough for a professional football player and many would gladly come home to a professional league in their home country if there were enough opportunities to do so. The overseas contingent exceeds the numbers of Australians playing in the A League, enough to find sufficient players to fill the rosters of 4-5 teams without putting much of a dent in the overall number of players based overseas.

I’d like to get to 20 teams for a 38 game season giving each team 19 home games against different opponents. This provides enough opportunities for matchday revenue o keep the clubs afloat over the off season (see Roar dor exhibit A) and gives the players enough games to get to fitness levels equivalent to European leagues). It also gives each player 19 unique opponents with different attributes to deal with, making them more adaptable and better equipped to find solutions within their teams system, improving them as footballers. 14 teams is the immediate goal, building over time.

Going to 12 teams doesn’t change the dynamic as it provides insufficient opponents to get rid of the third round, which dulls interest. You need at least a 28(?) game season to meet ACL qualification rules, so a 26 round competition plus finals meets this requirement.

The expansion should focus on different areas, and the major metropolitan areas in Australia are so widely separated that expansion into one won’t affect demand in another (unless you’re into hopping onto planes to watch games every other week). So 10 to 14 in one go won’t result in any new teams treading on each others toes, but will massively increase the interest levels for both new and existing fans. Especially if you only get to see each opponent at a home game once during the regular season.