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Joined December 2016
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Football tragic. A-League and South American football in particular.
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I recently wrote an article that proposed a 24-team fully professional three-division structure for the A League, with promotion and relegation and an influx…
With 11 of the current 12 A-League clubs having licences until 2034 (and Wellington likely to have theirs extended to match), it seems unlikely…
With all the talk about expansion of the A-League, I thought I'd have a crack at designing a model system for our league. I’ve…
Jamie Young is a top quality keeper, and I rate him and Redmayne as the two best keepers in the A League.
As for Victory…. It really is ALL Brebners fault.
He was a terrific player, and is a terrific club man, but he is not up to this job.
He chose the players, he had the benefit of the ACL hub and yet he has been out coached in every game.
There is no cohesiveness, connection or chemistry between the players. They do not know where the next player is going to be positioned to receive the pass. That is down to coaching, not the individual performance of players.
I’m sorry, but he has to go and we need to get a proven coach to rebuild for next season.
How bad are Melbourne Victory? How good is Jamie Young?
Stuart, I don’t think you could be more wrong.
The BLM movement is a political movement and football should not be political.
Football already says no to racism and says so across the world, and in solidarity with all peoples.
Football must not align itself with a political movement.
I would be happy to see a stronger “Say No to Racism” campaign, but I would be aghast at FFA or the A League supporting a political organisation like BLM.
The A-League must show support for Black Lives Matter this season
It makes sense for this division to replicate the A League system.
ie. unbalanced draw, playing some teams more than others, top 6 finals series, with grand final winner promoted to the A League.
AAFC releases plans for second division by 2022
Conferences are worth looking at.
Maybe we should look at that for the A League. I mean it’s a reason to justify finals, which we currently have, but with no justification other than the AFL sand NRL do it.
AAFC releases plans for second division by 2022
Asked a mate of mine who’s a Leeds fan who he reckons the 3 teams are that can win the league.
He said, “Leeds, Leeds, Leeds”. Cheeky Git.
The three sides that can win the EPL title
The scary thing is that the A League is the only hope for Australian football.
We have seen that at the level below, the NPL clubs are virtually all self-interested and almost anti-football in their continued desire to stifle the game in this country. Most of the NPL clubs are mono ethnic social clubs whose main reason for being is as social clubs for a particular ethnic community, and where football is a secondary ‘afterthought’. Why just recently, Melbourne Knights, one of the ‘biggest’ NPL clubs, came out and publicly admitted they would not seek to become a professional football club, but would continue to be run as a ‘semi-professional’ club.
Imagine that? A club, who aims to be in the top division in the nation, unwilling to pay its footballers at least the Australian minimum wage.
If the A league fails, then it is these semi-professional types of clubs that will be the pre-eminent clubs in the land, and this will be the true death of football in this country.
Of course, this could easily be rectified if the NPL clubs made a commitment to football as their priority and decided to become fully professional. Full professionalism is the ONLY thing we need in the football ecosystem to make the game flourish in this country.
If we had all the NPL clubs become fully professional, then it wouldn’t even matter if we had a national league or not. We could even revert to State based leagues and still produce a football ecosystem where players would be paid to play full-time and thus develop and improve, with easy travel to away games interest would rise and potentially revenue would rise.
A-League enters death spiral
Thanks for a good article mid.
I’m interested to know your views on exactly how we can bring about that unity and also make a local connection with the playing base and professional level happen.
Can football be saved from itself?
VAR once again has either failed miserably, or has been a great success in allowing for corruption to be openly pursued.
VAR is supposed to be for ‘clear and obvious’ mistakes.
If Redmayne does not make the case to the referee that his vision of the shot was obscured, then it is NOT a clear and obvious error.
The VAR and on-field referee do not have the ability to guess that Redmaynes vision may have been obstructed. Wales merely standing in the position he stood is not enough for the VAR and on field referee to make the decision to disallow the goal if they are applying the rules as they stand.
As such, the rules have been misapplied, either deliberately (corruption) or by mistake (incompetence).
Gripping grand final proves there's still life in the A-League yet
Let’s be realistic, finals are rubbish in a domestic league and we shouldn’t have them.
The best system is a balanced home and away league where every team plays every other team twice, with the team finishing top of the table crowned champions.
That system works well in all of the best domestic leagues in the world and there’s no reason why we should be different and have an AFL/NRL type finals system.
Could you imagine how ridiculous football people in leagues like the Premier League would find it if once the season finished the top 12 then played off in ‘finals’ to declare who was champion?
Would the A-League be better off if Sydney FC weren't crowned champions?
As long as every club is fully professional and every player on every list is paid at least the Australian minimum wage, then I’m satisfied and will be glad to watch the league.
Can a cut-price A-League offer more chances to local youngsters?
I’m happy for the FFA to use some of my money to support the A league and allow young Australian players to earn a living as full time professional footballers and I’m happy for my money to be used to pay for broadcasting of amateur clubs where people are playing purely for enjoyment, but there’s no way I would support any of MY money being spent on semi professional NPL clubs continual exploitation of young Australian players.
If they want to set up a streaming service and need more content, they should expand the A League with more fully professional clubs or start a fully professional second division. I’d be happy to see MY money used to support those initiatives.
The case for FFA TV
It’s not my job to suggest mergers, but it is simple. As an example, St Albans and Melbourne Knights are within a couple of km’s.
Oakleigh, Bentleigh and Kingston are all within a few km’s of each other.
etc. etc
The A-League's fan-base could use an attitude adjustment
@Roberto, of course, if they are genuine football clubs whose main purpose is football, then they would have no problem in at least investigating at such a merger.
If on the other hand, they are mono-ethnic social clubs who are more interested in politics and making money for, or increasing the reputation of board members and other ‘important’ people in one particular ethnic community, then they wouldn’t be interested.
The A-League's fan-base could use an attitude adjustment
A boring franchise like Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid, River Plate, Sao Paulo, Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, Benfica, Yokohama F Marinos?
All clubs formed through other clubs merging. I’m sure there are many others.
I don’t know which Australian NPL clubs should merge, but it’s a normal part of football for this to happen.
The A-League's fan-base could use an attitude adjustment
The solution is actually simple.
There are billions of dollars in the Australian football economy.
There are simply too many ‘semi-professional’ clubs which means the money is spread thinly across the system, and this is bad for football. Just like what has happened all over the world, the solution is for NPL level clubs to merge and form fully professional clubs and spend their money on football.
The A-League's fan-base could use an attitude adjustment
If VAR was in place, Wellington would have had another penalty, and their legitimate goal would not have been ruled out for offside.
Phoenix coach wants VAR back in the A-League
Of course if the A league has finals any league below that promotes up to the A League must also have finals and decide the promoted team(s) through the finals system.
It would be ridiculous to have finals for the top tier and not the tier below.
The winner of the Grand Final goes up, or if 2 teams are to be promoted, both teams that make the Grand Final are promoted.
How I would overhaul Australia's football system
Sigmund was a good player and an underrated player. I had him in my fantasy A league team every season. I just knew he would be consistent and do his job well.
Ben Sigmund on defending in the A-League
All of the best teams use it.
All of the best players in history use this skill. Maradona was a master at it.
We are coaching this skill out of our kids.
There needs to be a section in the national curriculum on just holding the ball whilst under pressure.
At the moment it’s too focussed on ball movement.
La pausa and its use in the A-League
Thanks for an interesting article Mid.
We’re a bit different down here in Victoria. We don’t have district or local associations, everything is run through FFV.
Having said that, I agree with your central premise and argument. We must engage the grassroots level to the professional A League level.
Why the A-League must remember the associations
Interesting article.
I’d be keen to see the stats you’ve mentioned in the further analysis paragraph.
I think the xG would be quite low as I think the quality of crosses is not great.
I’m also interested in the “accurate crosses” stat. Does that mean the cross was actually met by a teammate, or it was able to be met but might not have been eg keeper grabbed it just before he would have headed it.
Crossing in the A-League: Where has it gone?
Thanks for a good article Stuart.
I would prefer to see the A league season play an opening and closing style season with two championships. A couple of 16 week blocks with a mid season break of 6-8 weeks between them and a break of 10-14 weeks between one season and the next.
Avoid both the worst of winter and summer weatherwise, I note those times usually line up with the traditional World Cup and Asian Cup dates as well.
A-League’s winter move fraught with danger
I would pay $15 a month for an app to watch the A League. I’d also pay an extra $5 a month for a fully professional second division.
How much would you pay to watch the A-League on an app?
@Waz. I don’t rate Thomas anymore. I think he’s in the mid to bottom half of keepers in the league. His distribution is poor, and he is struggling in decision making. I rate Redmayne, Young, Kurto, Lopar all above Thomas.
When I saw your comment, I wondered if I was being too harsh, so I checked the stats on the A League website. I took the time to put in the keepers I thought were playing better than him, and the stats seem to back up my observations. Have a look at the saves, clearances, catches, punches.
Could Melbourne Victory bounce back next season?
I have never been to South America, but I want to. I’m actually planning to live there for a while when I am able to.
I was introduced to football through television, specifically Les Murray and The World Game.
For about 30 years now, I religiously watch matches of some South American teams that I liked the names/colours/cities they come from.
I don’t think I’m plastic.
The battle for authenticity - real or plastic?