lol at the time wasting

I remember a Newcastle player taking ages to tie his boots before taking a Free Kick

Not to mention the injury time between head clashes and Karate kicks was actually quite justified in the end

Well done to Muscat

Has won the Championship with a team that lost Milligan in midfield/defence and was well short of the 2015 side

Normally I wouldn’t have considered us as Championship material at the start but this is a good example of how Muscat has managed to get his teams (our team lol) to punch above their weight when it matters

The first past the post debate aside, in a Playoffs/Grand Final system it is good to time the team to peak into form at the end of the season, and Melbourne did this

And to be fair if looked over the entire Finals series, while the GF might have been “ugly” it is an excellent story of perseverance and psychological perseverance

Eg we came from behind in the AUFC and SFC games, managed to pick ourselves up after the Antonis OG, managed to get through the GF without two assistants and with Theoharis injured on top of Rhys Williams so having to really delve into the squad with no options on the bench

So while it may not be a testament to Jogo bonito ala Anges Brisbane sides, this Championship win is a testament to the virtues of running a Professional outfit from the top-down but also the virtues of man management side of coaching

Very much a template of how to win a Championship from 4th

A bit similar to how WSW managed to win the ACL too and punch above their weight with A-League Premierships with a cobbled together side, eg in the ACL a matter of keeping it tight and compact, and nick the required result through 1-0 wins

As for that “antagonistic” expansion article, I can actually see the clubs side of it, FFA only got 1 expansion team right (WSW) and that was only when they really had to go the community route and do it properly when forced to after Clive Palmer and GCUtd

Outside of that there is a chance that as part of a power grab they want to bring in a few Club Yes Men with which to undermine existing club owners

FFA have really alienated every stakeholder with their silly power politics

I would say 6 is right, in my own case I do remember getting a ticket for a casual sports fan I would occasionally go to some games with, so 1 member plus one friend as a marketing gimmick to encourage others to become engaged as Members

Eg in your case if you could bring your partner and your kids could bring a friend each

In this case while we are going into Bots etc, this seems to be the same issue as the AAMI Park GF, basically where you have teams with a largish membership base they aren’t bots and they are going to snap up a fair few of the tickets which is what I think happened

Of course what’s lost in this is the Linesman didn’t see it either

Aaaand this is why I don’t like the VAR anywhere, it’s a bit like the “interfering with play” debate when they changed the offside rule, where people clearly in the zone of play who are a visual distraction who have the ball go through their legs are deemed to not be interfering if not actively moving towards the ball

In this case whereas people would just get irritated at the “incompetence” of the ref and let it go (eventually lol) there will be questions as to where the lines are drawn, eg if there is an obscure foul up the park two minutes before a goal that was “missed” by the referee will that be brought into it as a “clear and obvious error”?

Case in point is the recent UCL Semi between Liverpool and Roma,, if Liverpool get a man sent off early in second half for having his arm prevent a goal on the line (Intentional or not) and Roma score from the penalty spot it is game on as they can really go for the two more goals needed in 30 mins with a one man advantage

If VAR does not then this expands from criticising the referee to a broader criticism of Roma complaining about a systemic conspiracy against Italian teams and goes on for longer and becomes very divisive

In this case the whole thing is being used to create a large cloud over the trophy which doesen’t help in terms of the cloud over the game more generally.

Imagine the type of cloud that can cover a World Cup, eg if VAR failed to rule out Maradona’s “hand of god” somehow, the controversy would be so much bigger

Yeah sure, MV were on the beneficial side this time, as were Liverpool, but there will be times when we won’t be

As for the game overall MV did perfectly well on the night tactically and executed the game plan to take the heat out of the Jets and nearly get a second (hitting the post etc) to seal off the victory, in a sense the real GF was last week in Sydney just as the real FA Cup final happens at the Semi stage often etc and after coming from behind in previous two finals clashes and managed to pick themselves up mentally/emotionally and winning 3 games in a row its hard to begrudge MV of the trophy achievement…but many will

lol, would Tuckerman have been saying that in 2013 when the shoe was on the other foot?

It’s a debate that would go on forever, International Football fans who follow the Victory as well will always look at the Premiership as the benchmark, but cross-code Australian sports fans will typically look at the Grand Final winners as opposed to “minor Premiers” as is the case with AFL/NFL where first past the post is just favourable for Finals placings

All teams hold both types of fans so we’ll never get a decisive consensus, at the very least start striking medals and do proper presentation for Premiers (still better than it used to be)

Premiership plate might get better recognition when we have the other side of the coin that is Promotion/Relegation to an A2 League, for that though we need to close the gap between NPL and HAL which requires overhauling transfer fees system, eg if State and NPL clubs can get proper fees for developing talent they’ll be able to fund a self-reinforcing cycle which will help close the gap

Yeah a good healthy sign that they had to move the public sale forward and everything got snapped up quite quickly

Seems to have caught the imagination and an open contest

Have to say that even as a fan of first past the post, with the FFA Cup still getting on its feet this is where having the FInals series (and a sudden-death format in place of the old “second chance” system) makes sense for Australia

The drama was good and the publicity as well, plus having a roving Grand Final unlike AFL or NRL where a large regional centre like Newcastle can have the opportunity to host the big event and engage the local community is a good feature as well

There are a lot of questions about attendance and viewership figures, and relationship with fans and of course ticket pricing, but at least we are ending strongly

lol, had a good laugh, especially at the guy putting the corner flag in the area

This is one of those areas where the EPL as a globalised league with teams competing as Brands for international support clashes with the perspective of the EPL as an English League of English clubs rooted in English community

Toon fans were irate at Ashley trying to rename St James Park as Sports Direct Stadium and rightly so, at least he didn’t tear the place down

Read a good article though, a lot of West Ham fans stopped living in the East End area of Upton Park decades ago and it was no longer exactly a Cockney area anymore due to demographic changes

People chanting at the Director in the stadium and not running at the pitch are at full liberty to do so, at least there’s people who care and not mere idle spectators there to sit and have advertising projected at them

This is what the FFA have always failed to grasp, you have to allow organic communities to be nurtured around otherwise artificial teams, people turn up to socialise as much as “purchase an entertainment product” but instead they condascend and infringe on civil liberties and the league is only just starting to get into its second generation (children of early fans who are younger than the league) and it’s not exactly several generations deep which can support multiple tiers

Agree,

Though wouldnrt say it’s just a case of “these days”, it’s pretty much always been the case

Big test is if they listen when things are “going well” instead of getting full of hubris and carry on about zero tolerance and family friendly to a few people getting over-excited

Regardless of media coverage they never really clicked that the real measure was whether the attendance was increasing and attendance rate of members was high, that’s how you tell if the family/passive segments of the crowd were bothered/impacted by active fans behaviour

Nice article,

This should have been practically discussed yonks ago, eg one way to prevent people using flares stupidly is to say, “OK here’s a designated time and space to use them but not outside of that”. Any clown then being daft is going against the fans wanting to use them artistically as part of choreo displays as much as the authority of FFA/ Stadium etc

But no, still remember crap over and over again about “this is not Europe”.

Well, this is Asia and Asian teams have used them

Not to mention that Pyrotechnics are used in a controlled manner in the form of Fireworks when there is WC qualification and of course Brisbane were using flame towers at HAL games, so the notion of Pyrotechnics in the stadium itself isn’t a stretch, it’s just the notion of fans using it

The fact the stadiums are built for NRL mean there’s a Try area where flare wielding fans standing on Sand and/orin front of Sand boxes can be distinct from the rest of the crowd in the actual stand and smoke isn’t right in peoples faces, but from a front angle the flares can look good in conjunction with a banner/Striscione display

Funny, when crowds were great because of the vibe and edge, a few people get a bit over emotional and throw a few bottles, FFA panders to the hysteria and agenda of the media by harping on about “zero tolerance” and “family friendly” and fulfilling the media’s agenda of “cracking down”

Never stopped to actually think, if bottle throwing is such a put-off why were crowds continuing to grow and be healthy along with attendance rate of committed members?

What’s the result now you have your near perfect “family friendly” environment but apathy has set in

Oh no falling Fox Sports viewership means it’s much harder to negotiate broadcast rights which is where most $ comes in and is the most important factor of all, hits the bottom line much more than a few fans being OTT and controversial media coverage ever would

To be fair the issues over the FFA structure and power struggle is a factor and does have a trickle-down effect and affects the climate of the entire football fraternity, including the Socceroos

Ultimately this is just talk though, it is too far-fetched to ever go forward with in Australia, and there’s a lot of water to flow on he Bridge, MV fans still remember FFA scuppering a deal between MV fans and the club over an arrangement put in place for the 2008 ACL and then appointing Hatamoto so there’s a lot of water to pass over mistrust that goes back what can be measured in decades now

Personally not fully sure if this is a case of the governance climate having a knock-on effect, and this goes back to previous campaign under Holger as well.

I still recall we were on shaky ground and the FFA who have a habit of treating fans like trash just as they do with every stakeholder and wondering why the atmosphere and support is sub-standard in the stands. We managed to get over the line against Jordan in Melbourne etc but the signs have all been there for a while

This is all a big contrast to the high level of enthusiasm around 2009/2010 when the Socceroos were drawing large enthusiastic crowds by members of football fraternity and jow public sports event-goer alike

But for Ange though I will always be happy for him having coached at a WC and especially having won us the Asian Cup

But there is a bit of an issue with applying “Plan B is to do PLan A better” which doesen’t suit cut-throat Cup football

Secondly, especially given he was youth coach for a while – we haven’t quite brought the burgeoning talent through, there is raw talent but it is rather unrefined and Kruse, Mooy and Rogic aren’t quite the polished Professionals the 2001 and 2005/6 players were and it has taken an ageing World Class player to get us over the line

True this does somewhat relate to their clubs and the advent of the A-League meaning it isn’t quite “do or die” in terms of making it at top level in Europe, but there were times we lacked imagination and variation, and we weren’t able to utilise dominant possession etc to take the next step and clinically put Syria to the sword

Yeah he has copped a bit of criticism, but rightfully so

Asia isn’t as easy as many think, in particular the away games in Mid East and SE Asia

As an England fan as well I understand it is often a case of pulling players together mid club-season and getting them to gel quickly and getting a result in awkward places even if it isn’t flashy

Same with Asia, Verbeek copped a lot of stick but he managed the pathway excellently, perhaps too excellently and a lot of Jounros and Craig Foster especially don’t get that technical and tactical and efficiency of performance is only half the equation, half of management lies in motivation and managing the psychology of the players, eg to persevere to hold onto a result or to dig deep and turn things around and get a result when things look shaky

That said one thing that has always rather bugged me about Ange is this “Plan B is do Plan A better” which may be fine for club football where you can drill it into the players and over the season little quirky results or goals against you tend to correct themselves but in Cup and Playoff football it is a different story, in this case the story about Guus Hiddink having various pieces of paper outlining his plans about what he would do at 30, 60 mins etc if the score or situation was a certain way comes to mind

A lot of this probably lies with the FFA/Clubs climate and knock-on effect, probably no longer likes the working environment but he is regrettably adding fuel to the flames

This isn’t good timing at all

As we can end up with a scenario whereby FIFA has to put a normalising committee in charge over the Sport in general amidst the antics surrounding the FFA’s obsession with maintaining a stranglehold on power, the cloud over the Coaches position can and likely will impact the players focus ahead of Playoffs vs Honduras which can make a difference and we can end up not qualifying

A potential triple whammy lies in the fact the A-League may be sub-par because Victory NT active fans have virtually packed it in – putting aside there does seem to be an effort in GA areas once again – and RBB aren’t flavour of the month anymore and they’ve been neutered by Spotless Stadium, so whereas in the past the energised A-League would have meant missing the 2014 World Cup wouldn’t have been the end of the world, it isn’t the backstop it would have been

Very surprised the MV vs SFC crowd was only 24k, a real sign of subdued enthusiasm

All in all still think we will get to World Cup though, hopefully a new FFA with a proper sense of balance between clubs and central organisational body will be found (Lowy FFA was an over-correction of the Soccer Australia era) and we can do better in the long term

Agree some of it is daft

NPL is a step in the right direction

Have to allow them to get transfer fees to help trickle down cashflow and to encourage them to develop talent but also perhaps more importantly infrastructure

NPL’s and FFA Cup can be useful for lead-in expansion teams, to get a community and fanbase behind them and for them to “prove” themselves etc

Over time we can make a light A-2 League but it will take quite a bit of time

Personally I’m not surprised at the pattern, trends in many things have a tendency to over-correct

Eg previously the clubs had too much power and it was a basket-case, now the FFA have had too much power and their is the rather unpleasant smell of nepotism

Eg pendulum has swung too far the other way and we are seeing issues of a similar magnitude but expressed differently

Eg in the old NSL days it was a case of the sport having community people who were passionate but no big Corporate acumen, more recently we have had Business people and Sports professionals but no football acumen and they have made errors

I reckon 9-5-1 deal was fairly reasonable

Looking back, it is quite clear the FFA should have started replacing their stranglehold after the first 5 years of the A-League, eg the start-up phase was over but they held on and restricted the HAL teams too much. They jumped the gun with the WC bid and should have implemented the FFA Cup then which would have continued the good momentum of the first five years of the HAL, but it seems politics against old guard was against it but at least we have it now

There’s a balancing act, but if the HAL chairman along with running their own intellectual property and getting more merchandise revenue so as to encourage Marketing efforts, they should be able to elect HAL chief themselves and decide on the timeframe of the HAL type decisions, they are going to this properly to maximise their benefit

HAL should be autonomous but never independent, I have seen what happened in England with independent EPL and it is problematic

I’m still ticking along, been a bit focused on other things so no time for Football articles

The MV forum going down is a bit of a body blow, not for the faint-hearted but some good discussion there over the years and some good banter and memories

Doesen’t help that this has occurred on a lot of Terrace fans simply having enough

Made the attempt to work through things, but we have seen the FFA for what they are in recent weeks and they are impossible to work with if one is a stakeholder in football whether they be fans or club owners, so a lot of people simply can’t be bothered putting the energy in and will just happily casually watch the matches

The 9-5-1 deal was about fair, A-League needs to be represented, and within the over-arching structure, not as a distinct entity

I have been enjoying the FFA Cup, eg no opportunity to see MV now, but I have enjoyed watching Heidelberg defeat Perth and enjoyed my first trip to Lakeside/Bob Jane Stadium for a few years to watch them win. Intending to head down to Bentleigh next Tuesday as well

I do think refurbished Lakeside is a nice little stadium, definitely useful to hold a niche A-League team as a 3rd Melbourne side, and if their rent deal is very small it means South can be cost-neutral or profitable with the TV money covering the Salary cap and even a small membership base should be enough to cover admin costs if they keep it lean

Very dissapointed, on the face of it the 9-5-1 was actually a reasonable balance, perhaps even over-balanced to the States as perhaps the tiny Territories should only have 0.5 spot each for 8-5-1

The A-League teams do deserve stronger representation, eg the power of a Melbourne Victory, Western Sydney and Sydney FC and the fan communities and commercial cut-through they facilitate, while different in nature and on a different level, is arguably comparable in power to some of the State Federations (especially the smaller ones)

All in all though I’m not surprised, eg the NSL had too much power to the clubs, an independent A-League would be similar in terms of the larger HAL teams. An autonomous A-League is what needed

That said they also need a reasonable amount of power given it is the owners actually putting their money in to invest, and there have been far too many restrictions in place as a hangover from the start-up phase

No we have seen the pendulum swing too far the other way, eg the FFA has too much power and the game is held to ransom for their power-game nonsense, eg the World Cup bid and wining and dining with high-flying FIFA execs instead of putting in place the FFA Cup which is what most people wanted and the natural next step to consolidating the break-through of the A-League

The FFA’s treatment of the stakeholders from owners via intellectual property restrictions, to the State Federations and “Old Soccer” by delaying the implementation of the FFA Cup out of spite to fans via their bullying overbearing security approach has been disgusting

And while “things aren’t as bad as the old days” the FFA have still mis-managed things to the extent where football has not been able to be as potentially healthy a situation as it could have been

Salary cap is a good thing

Otherwise the increases in TV revenue would just be used to inflate player wages and there wouldn’t be any sizeable benefit to the talent

With salary cap it allows surplus cash to allow for investing in infrastructure which in long term can help keep costs down (eg stadium leasing) but also allows for investing in Academies and youth development etc

Yeah this is a fair point, I’ve been looking at watching some nearbyish NPL clubs

Plus some FFA Cup games

Well I’d imagine it is similar to CCM which also considers itself a pseudo representative of Northern Sydney

So a Wollongong based team having some matches say in Southern Sydney isn’t too bad an idea and it could be inclusive as a “Southern Coast United” etc

Generally not the end of the world as most of the European transfer fees are as absurd and as much a waste of money as is Chinese Super League hyper-wages

So while transfer fees to o/s clubs is good, intra A-League transfer fees is not something I am personally big on

That said the $7000 compensation rule needs to be looked at to help trickle down flow of money

Maybe and big maybe intra A-League transfer fees would be OK if we lighten the salary cap, so bigger wage MV, SFC and MC would given money to the CCM’s etc, which they can then spend on higher wages etc

Hopefully this goes well

May then lead to a push for a Melbourne derby at the MCG if this breaks the MV vs SFC regular season game record (and Grand Finals too actually) and of course it creates headlines

Hopefully the atmosphere holds up, Reckon the Parramatta Stadium derbies have been the best so far given everyone is packed in and the Stadium is compact

But but but it’s all better than the old NSL etc etc

I recall being conncerned by the example of Nepotism at the time

To be fair the other side is that the AFC have some people who are rather immature, petulent etc given Absolute Monarchies who are probably bitter about Australia winning the Asian Cup, plus qualifying for two world cups at the expense of what presumably would have been a Mid East team and we have pushed what was a West-East AFC qualifying 2-2 equalibrium into a 3-1 favour of the East,

This can sound odd but think of the whimsical way in which the AFC Champs League spots were adjusted for one year a few seasons back – probably a way that Perth who missed out being nudged aside for someone else to take their place. This is continental football politics

And FIFA, well, perhaps something to do with fallout from the World Cup bidding and the whingeing of Lowy

The FFA does need to be taken to task though, people seem to think it’s fine now, but basically have a concentration of power and cronyism develops in such a way that Football in Australia’s potential – or rather its governance competency, despite being better than the NSL, would still be prevented from reaching its potential and so mired in medocrity which ultimately filters through to the performance of the teams etc

To be fair it’s as much about the Fetch TV Box as anything else