i am not saying they are to engage in anything vaguely related to business management mate, that would be nuts unless their Kaz Patafta, I just think that if we are trying to build football culture, would it not be a pertinent knowledge gathering step to talk to former players about their experiences overseas, the club cultures they encountered, what the matchday experience was like etc?

The optics suggest DT works for DT and nobody else.

in my opinion, there might have been some rather large pay packets, but hey I am scarred by the NSL, I am probably completely wrong

Gee Ch 7 had nothing to do with the collapse of the NSL, with a refusal to air games, which meant no sponsorship and advertising and weren’t there a few blokes driving around in Jags and with big homes who’d siphoned off money from the league for their own personal gain. I might be wrong though

mate you just nailed. Kudos

yeah, but A-League players are not cool, and have no association with network investment. Cross-Country Volleyball and the World’s Highest Paying Probation Scheme, it’s their players that make good television because there’s guaranteed controversy. How pathetic is this world becoming!!!

mate the optics suggest that an element of the old status quo i.e. NSL standard, jobs for your mates is in play.

We need Johnson in that role for as long as possible mate, he has the knowledge, the experience, the understanding of a former player, that I mention in my post, and therefore he “gets it”. We just need the rest of his cohort and the APL to “get it”.

Good article Stu. The first question I have to ask, is why is the APL manned the way it is? Would it not be an intelligent move to bring in unbiased, independent subject matter experts to man the APL, and who collaborate with club representatives/CEOs? Risk mitigation is not exactly low when the League is being run by club representatives. If you’ve ever read anything about Russian history, basically they said “communism will see an equal life for everyone, and we’ll appoint some guys to run it.” Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, the guys running it got rich and the end result was an autocratic lunatic, who is so far off with the pixies he’s dancing with Tinker Bell. Now that nutball has taken propaganda and verbal fertiliser to a level science hasn’t discovered yet. Seeing any parallels? Second question is how do we get out of the hole we’re in? Well, I think Luke Wilkshire nailed it on Saturday night. He proposed that the VAR referee must be accompanied by a former or current senior play, someone who knows the game and has played the game at the highest level. This will enable hands on knowledge of what is a penalty and what is not a penalty. The same goes for the governance of our game. We need a mix of independent, experienced, knowledge laden football administration professionals, former professional players, business acumen and even supporter level knowledge, let’s call the role a football specific marketing and consumer SME. At this point there is no connection with the supporters, and to me that is the first major issue. We are not the English FA where they’ve had an established supporter base for a century, we’re trying to build what they have. Call me a lone thinker but that means we have to engage the people, enlighten them as to what we want to build, and most importantly to get them signed up for that journey. Tangible interest in what they think, they want and they envisage is paramount to them signing up to be a part of football. The terms football family, and community have bee used so much, but it’s so far from reality it’s ridiculous. We need to reverse that, we need a football family or football community to be the status quo. Take J-League clubs for example, they have established communal gardens for their supporters. My understanding is that if you are member of the club, no charge applies to use the garden, take some produce etc and the members take great pride in the fact that the produce they provide to the club feeds their players. There is so much more the APL could be doing to facilitate a community. Communication, engagement, progress, membership levels, the dream, forecasts of which International teams might be coming next year. It’s not freakin’ rocket science it’s relationship building and without a relationship, there is no customer base, and ultimately no business.

Morning All, what a weekend of football. Friday night was interesting, I don’t believe i am going to say this, but I cannot believe our lads won. Young Bayliss for the Jets was nothing short of impressive and every lad gave his complete and utter all to that team. I can only hope that the Jets lads now come out and in the words of Ryan Scott “give the Mariners a kickin”. And wasn’t Scott impressive. The fact that he said to Rufer ‘ I hope you score this” before the penalty, was sportsmanship and a distaste for the Mariners all in one. And forgive me for saying this, but if the display of refereeing on Saturday night at the Bull Ring was not an embarrassment, degrading to the game, and completely and utterly amateurish nothing was. When Alex Brosque is heaping it on the Ref in bucket loads, and Sydney is playing, struth it has to be bad. That was the most appalling effort I have seen since the retirement of Kurt Ams. Even the Sydney players were protesting the decision making If the APL wants greater fan engagement, then the first thing they have to do is to start engaging the Referees body and issuing a WTF to them. Explain that s#@te on Saturday night. If I were on the Referees Assessing Team, Elder would be overseeing the local under 7s this Saturday. He made this country and it’s professional football league into a laughing stock. I am beginning to think he has two options A) To stay as a sports adjudicator he should seriously think about Lawn Bowls, or B) Consider taking a job as a Lollypop man. Saturday night’s game also demonstrated that even with 9 men Sydney couldn’t get the job done. Against the likes of a full strength Bulls, Victory, an ever improving City, Nix and Coasties, they’ve got Buckley’s and none With reference to Brisbane, I feel for those lads. If they don’t give Zadkovic the job for next season, they’re nuts. He has put confidence back into that squad, they’ve punched above their weight and with some sensible purchases in the off-season, then they’ll be pushing for the finals next season. As for Wanderers, is it just me or am I seeing a common thread of occurrences at clubs managed by Rudan. He comes in, instils discipline, but it seems he doesn’t know when to take the foot off the accelerator and then he loses the dressing room. He won’t be there next season. Then there was the goalfest that was Perth v WU. That game served two purposes, that if you can put football into context for what it is, that as an entertaining game, and there definitely is some valuable young talent starting to surface in this country. The next few weeks are going to be interesting. Support Australian football lads!!!

my sources say the police were well out of line, but they sorted it, they turned up at the derby and good on em’

come on you Reds then, or better still, watch me and the Jets faithful go absolutely bonkers if our lads managed to upset Mariners. Now that would be sweet finish to the year

Rofl

Love the closing sentence. That group should be collectively known as NASA, because they’re all rocket scientists right

Good Call on Wanderers too, we want Wanderers in the finals because it’s better for the league as a whole right.

Grem thanks for backing the Jets mate, but I cannot stand the thought of the Mariners taking the plate, come on you Nix

Good lad, we want Nix to take the Plate right!! Come on you Nix

Morning Lads, hope you are all well and looking forward to a cracking weekend of football. Newy v Nix is as real tough one for me. I want our lads to continue their winning streak, but at the same time, I want Nix to rack up 3 or 4 so that their goal average is better than the Mariners. I know, it’s sad, but I would rather Nix take the plate than see the Mariners get it. How does that Yellow Fever song end…. Zawada!!!
Wanderers v City, wow, this will be a cracker, both teams are coming into form and playing for their finals spot, City too good 2-0. Nothing is assured in football, and assumption is the mother of all errors, but Victory too good for Brisbane, especially at home. Victory 3-1. Bulls v Sydney, wow this could go either way. if Bulls are having a good day, it’s going to be one heck of an arm wrestle Draw 1-1. Coasties v Adelaide is now postponed due to the new inland sea that is Dubai, but when this does go down, Coasties too good 3-1. This is going to be a close one, but I am really impressed with the way some of John Aloisi’s young lads are starting to develop. Yeah they are missing some senior players but I am going for an upset here, WUN 2-1. Lads i will be at Jets Stadium tonight and I have 3 lads lined up to come with me that have never been to an A-League game. The first thing I am going to ask them prior to kick off is, I want you to tell me at the end of this game who you think the kid with the most talent is? Getting thinking, challenge them to pay attention to the game. The one that is the most non-aligned with the other three buys the first beverages after the game. Get your mates, your kids, your families to the game lads. And Come on you Jets Girls, see you in Maitland on Sunday for a win. Cheers FIL

Good Man FF, a soldier cannot win a war alone, it’s a privilege to be in the trenches with you mate. Grem, Chris1, Waz, Lionheart, we’ve been fighting for all it’s worth for years now.

And no I don’t hate the EPL, what I am saying is that for me, a genuine football supporter understands the diversity and the complexity and the cultural idiosyncrasies of football. It’s fascinating stuff. it’s a bit like going to Taste Australia, don’t just go there for the oysters, go and taste as much as you can. Life is to short to focus solely on the EPL, soak it up, sing with the Japanese, stand silent with the Finnish, holler with Amercians and sledge the referee and the opposition in Australia. Football, in my opinion, is a gift from the Almighty. Enjoy it, support it, and don’t be a Eurosnob

It’s hard to forget several hundred years of terrorism, murder, war, and just outright s#$te behaviour

This is a sterling idea. The first question I have is, would the Poms see Australian football as inferior, turn their noses up and just not attend? As I have argued over the last few days, for a lot of “football supporters” that moniker means that they watch EPL. For others, the aforementioned moniker means being able to look at football and see emerging youth, national idiosyncrasies, structures, weaknesses, coaching traits, football philosophies etc. The latter follow and support their team regardless of weather, ladder position etc. (Kudos to WU Supporters for turning up to Tarneit on a Tuesday night) Ideally we would hope that there would be genuine interest in a round of A-League being played there. But the second question is can we use football as a bridge. We would need to get personnel from Academies, from football associations there, I mean how many Poms would know that there are over 80,000 grasssroots footballers in Northern NSW Federation alone. To do that we’d need corporate, business and even government involvement. During the Asian Cup here football was used for Diplomacy, Trade and cultural ties, so why not do it again. i am sure the Poms would really appreciate Australian Winemakers who have contributed to sponsoring the venture to rock up and promote their produce. This could be a valuable venture, but we need the right people to plan, promote, and seek government, corporate and business interest as much as we need to put our youth in the shop window. Additionally, would not limit the venture to England. I have a fiver that Scots would be all over it. An opportunity to buy young Australian talent before the Poms get to them.

and it wasn’t a bad game either

mate pro-rel will come. next year we have the first iteration of the 2nd Div, and at the end of their season, there will be pro-rel with NPL, we like other leagues around the world have done, have to take our time and build our league. And it cannot be just under 23’s we need those seniors and internationals for the 23s to learn from

yep, and that striker, if you ask him some questions that go below the surface and cosmetics of football and i bet he’d struggle.