But thats because the AFL does revolve around Melbourne and the NRL does revolve around Sydney with a few other teams thrown in. But the biggest strength in terms of marketability the A-League is that it is truly national; the Barassi Line is irrelevant. The biggest strength in marketing the FFA Cup is that it is national. Giving over 40% of the teams to a state that only has about 30% of the population is unwise, as focusing on that one state makes it difficult to draw in a national audience. And given the participation rate is lower in some states, what better way to raise it than to have potential player’s families see their local club do well.
Besides if you made all your decisions based on participation rates, Qld should have more reps than Vic (18.13%cf.18.11%; but Qld’s teams allocated are rounded down and Vic’s rounded up), which would be SA wouldn’t rate an A-League team (5.7%) and ACT wouldn’t rate an A-League team in a million years (2.8%) – and all of these decisions would be wrong. There are more things to consider than participation data, which if you want to consider it, is at http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4177.02011-12?OpenDocument

+1. Lol. And just earlier this week I had to write an article saying it wasn’t worse.

+1

FFA is way to Sydney Centric.
Their headquarters are in Sydney.
The default location for any international is always Sydney.
Journalism RE: the A-League is Sydney Centric, and reports more on Sydney-related things.
A-League All-Stars happens in Sydney.
The FFA Wanderers are located in Sydney, and 4/9 Australian A-League clubs are in NSW.
Sydney/Newcastle is effectively the finals venue for the Asian Cup, even though a semi in Melbourne or Brisbane or Canberra would have made more sense than Newcastle. More crowds were available in Melbourne.
14 out of 32 FFA Cup spots going to NSW in a national comp is ridiculous.
Sure, there are reasons for some of the above, but is obvious that football in Australia is, for now, too Sydney centric

Just looking at Wikipedia, though, the players you mention don’t make your case at all for you. Sure Sydney FC has numerous former youth team players in their squad. But the extent to which the youth team (performing so well in this year’s NYL) has been called up to step up in this year’s A-League is actually quite low, which was my original point. The fact that you have a glut of old former youth team players in your squad many years later actually shows poor youth development, not good youth development, as this means your players are not going on to other opportunities in better footballing locations and developing further; just atrophying in place.

Powell and Gligor have played for the senior team for the last few years. Naumoff, Petkovski and Triantis have been playing for the senior team since 2012
Chianese hasn’t played for the youth side since 2011; Grant since 2008.
Mallia played for CCM Youth, Antonis went straight into the senior side, not the youth.

Of those players you mentioned, that are new to the senior side this season…
Urosevski played for 17 min this season
Calver played for 88
Caton played for 56 minutes
according to transfermarkt.com. Thus The only ones stepping up this season from the NYL have been Urosevski (17 min), Claver (88 min) and Caton (56 min).

This is in sharp contrast to other teams. Pick a top team that is still giving this year’s NYL players a chance, eg. at Brisbane, Yeboah (313 min.), Borello (78 min), Clut (72 min), Ingham (18 min) and who let players not valued at Sydney FC (eg. Petratos) have game time (962 min. so far cf. 51 min last season with SFC).

Or pick a team that is focused on youth development. New players from the youth side with lots of game time at Perth Glory are Davies (1055 min), Woodcock (917 min), Makeche (149 min), Clisby (845 min) etc.

Speaking of myths, just because former youth players stick around the club for many years, this does not mean that they are good at youth development. Conversely, clubs like CCM that get their players taken by teams from around the world would be a good example of youth development, though it hurts their senior squad. Having more former youth league players in their senior team than any other (if true) would actually be a stinging indictment of the clubs INability to develop players and particularly youth, and is possibly one reason why they are struggling so much.

Sorry, mate. I was asking a genuine question because I didn’t know the answer, not saying anything about Sydney FCs youth development strategy. Just noting the contrast with CCM, who is doing really poor in the NYL, and so wouldn’t seem to have players to draw from, but seeing SFC do so amazing in the NYL was thinking that one thing that could work for them was to draw from the NYL side. It’s great to hear that they are. Not being a SFC fan, I wasn’t aware of the injuries, and am really glad to hear about players being given a chance

Certainly not wanting to start any myths here 🙂

+1. I really appreciate the way MM manages the team and has more contingencies in case of injuries and better raising up of BR NYL players than happened under AP. I appreciate also his tactical variation.
To be sure we wouldn’t be doing as amazing as we are without the AP legacy and the players and systems he established, but even more credit to MM to build on that legacy in a way that it seems that Rado Vidosic couldn’t and Kevin Muscat is struggling to.
Apart from the fact that they didn’t manage my membership the best they seem to be doing okay admin as well.

Firstly thanks for your 2 cents
Postecoglou and Arnold are great coaches, to be sure, and I agree with you that MV and CCM would be doing better this season if they had stayed. Personally I was looking forward to see MV finish implementing the AP style and skill set. As a BR supporter, I can really appreciate the genius of AP and what he would have brought to MV this season, and suspect if AP had stayed MV would be giving us more of a run for the title this season.
I think you’re right that some sides would be doing better under other coaching circumstances, namely if they had their coaches from last season. But I think they should be compared against last season, not how they hypothetically would have gone this season. And it also has to be weighed against the positive changes in other clubs. I think that Merrick, Gombau & JVS have taken really poorly performing sides and made them really good. And Mulvey has taken all that I loved about BR under AP, and then done better youth development and injury management. The fact that WSW are playing similarly to last season (which they won) and yet BR are 7 points clear of them suggests an improved comp, as does the fact that the teams in 7th and 10th (WP and MH) should come home strong as drastically improved contenders.
I agree also that Del Piero (and Ono and Heskey for that matter), have not been as good this season and have been ordinary in attack. But Huysegems, Berisha, Taggart, Williams and Troisi have been much better in attack than last season
I guess its swings and roundabouts. Some teams are better, some worse this season. Same with players.
I made the argument in the article above that it’s not worse like many people have been saying, if anything it seems to lean towards being better this season. But by no means am I saying everything is better. It isn’t.
I guess the problem is that all of us see different aspects of games and players so our judgments about quality are always subjective. But I really appreciate the fact that in a few lines, that you’ve stated more solid arguments about declining standards than all those who’ve stated it as an uncontested fact all season. Thanks mate 🙂
I appreciate your thoughts as what is better and worse each season is a key debate we should be having.

It’s an interesting thing writing on this site. At the start of the season, I said that selling off the talent pool and other departures would result in the CCM doing worse this season, and I was loudly decried by all the haters. In spite of the fact that I’m a BR fan, I have a real soft spot for the CCM, as I like their playing & coaching philosophy, and focus on raising up youth, as well as getting the football systems right. I like the way that they have historically focused on creating talent rather than buying the talent others have created; and how they have achieved a lot as underdogs.

But you guys are right. I was probably too generous in my above assessment of CCM; more out of my like of the team than anything else. And similar to wisey_9 above, I do look on them positively because their is such potential for improvement led by players like Roux, Duke and Kim. However, I am a little concerned about CCM’s abysmal performance in the NYL, given their historical strength is raising up youth.

Conversely, why aren’t more youth given a chance for SFC, as they dominated the NYL.

Thanks, mate

Thomas Broich isn’t 39 and isn’t a has been. 😛 Just kidding. I gather you’re meaning ADP, who though a legend of the game, is hardly the comp’s best player.

** Tongue firmly in cheek**

Would have to be Manila or Macau or Madras, so it can be another MCFC?

They should keep the red and white for their change strip or 3rd colours, but have light blue and white stripes on their home jerseys (different to SFC, similar to present design and a link to MCFC)

** Firstly amazing article, and completely agree with you about Broich. There is no-one in the A-league who dominates the midfield and sets up so many classy set-ups and assists as Broich. A while back the Roar under AP had both BB and TB coming out of contract and salary cap and money issues. They had to choose which they would sign longer term and make international marquee and they chose Thomas Broich. They made the right choice. Besart Berisha is a wonderful striker and a joy to behold, except when he gets exceptionally cranky (or passionate depending on how you want to express it) and will serve MV well, though I think possibly not quite as well as at BR (where he had youth and Broich’s service on his side).

1 small question – My understanding is that the FFA covered the salary cap, ie. the rest of the squad, specifically the non-marquee players and that the clubs covered the marquee players. Otherwise, clubs would stick the FFA with the bill for (let’s be ridiculous) Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. It’s the clubs that gain the primary benefit from marquees.

Stefanutto underwhelms me also, as he seems past his best, and with a full team, I probably wouldn’t give him a start. Though to be fair, I actually thought he played well working with Broich down the left in the Phoenix game.
RE: Clut, whilst he was slow and unfit at times (and came off at an appropriate time), he played a really great game from the start, threatening and skillful. Your comparison with McKay is unfair, as they are at different stages of their career, but it only looks up for Clut, and good on him, for a positive debut with a good goal.
RE: Henrique, I completely agree he occasionally can’t hit the side of a barn, and missed a sitter. He went the wrong way in his one-on-one against the keeper also. I also agree his height (or lack thereof) is a serious disadvantage that possibly cost us another goal in the Phoenix game when he couldn’t get the height on a cross from the left that a player to his right could have finished. Henrique is a good backup or substitute striker, but isn’t main striker material. BR need to sign another striker for next season to replace Berisha. Henrique just won’t do.
RE: Petratos, he’s playing real well, but he’s playing I think more of an attacking midfielder (I think) and doing well at it. Not playing a number 10 like Berisha, but producing good setup work for the team.
RE: Broich, spot on the money. Amazing game; set up the win amazingly. Incidentally, though he generally plays better centrally (imho), Mulvey’s move to switch him left worked amazingly, and laid the foundation for many great left-to-centre attacking transitions.
I agree that the team wouldn’t cut a grand final. But great to see it won the match. Amazing test of depth, though, and great to see we passed it, and have great youngsters coming through (trained up well by MM – who’s been great at developing youth)
I disagree the win was lucky. We should have got a penalty for the handball and the disallowed goal could have gone either way. And WP were dead on their feet the last 20 min. Though WP were better in the first half, and it was quite an even match, a BR win was the fair result.

I would be happy with any of the suggestions that isn’t George Bailey, but I think now is the time to try out longer term replacement, so personally I’d lean towards someone like Lynn. I can see, however, strong arguments for most of the above suggestions.

Completely agree. +1

Is Haddin the man of the series ahead of Johnson? Most definitely not. Johnson’s bowling was a man of the series performance alone, and he wasn’t a slouch with the bat either. Haddin’s form, though very good, wasn’t quite as amazing.

I agree. Lots of good points, Dizza. The BBL teams for Melbourne and Sydney have meaningless distinctions between them with arbitrary colours and fan bases. The Heart still struggles due to it’s unclear geographical distinction, but at least the Victory’s head start and meaningful colours allows for a clear distinction, and built the base for a second team.

SFC and MVFC’s initial one team, one city status (and their colours) were a good idea at the time, before the league grew and expanded. Probably the five year exclusivity period was too long, and MH could have been launched earlier. Possibly WSW could have been launched earlier, however much of it’s amazing success is due to the existence of the West Sydney demographic base (there at any time) coupled with lessons learned from the incompetence of the handling of GCU and NQF.

A good suggestion, RE: whether teams come from the league or not. I did think about it, but didn’t want to complicate the article. I think though with most of the leagues mentioned above that they would mostly have their own players in their leagues. Thanks for your thoughts.

+1

You’re right. I erred to use the phrase “great coach”, I should have said what I actually meant. Not great coach, as in “Sir Alex Ferguson is a great coach” or “Ange Postecoglou is a great coach”. What I meant by the phrase is that he is a coach whose standard of coaching is appropriate for the standard of the A-league, and that, except for his decision to recruit his sons and the fallout caused by it, was overall doing a good job, and except for that decision would have achieved better results in recent games. Not sure though if Ferguson would be doing any better with the squad PG has. Though you’re right that Edwards wasn’t doing the best in Victory game.