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Joined September 2018
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To say that is not encouraging would be a world class understatement.
I'm on the Western United bandwagon - and you should be too
I’m expecting them to make the finals first attempt.
I just wish that I felt more confident about them (a) having any supporters and (b) ever building that stadium.
I'm on the Western United bandwagon - and you should be too
I can completely understand this.
The English Premier League is slowly killing the beautiful game
Thanks Nick – look forward to reading.
Yes, the extent of our problems is approaching an existential crisis, and rapidly.
The English Premier League is slowly killing the beautiful game
In broad agreement with both Sheek and Onside.
Globalisation, of which football is part, is a vast ponzi scheme based on the logical impossibility of infinite growth. Once upon a time in a land far away my major was political philosophy, and my speciality was Karl Marx. I then of course have since spent my working life in private enterprise, but I’ve increasingly come to believe that Marx was essentially correct in his analysis, if somewhat wayward in his projected solutions – any system based on infinite expansion occurring within a context of finite resources must logically collapse, particularly when that system is based on rank exploitation and dispossession of the most numerous part of the global population. The only question is how effectively that collapse can be managed to minimise damage, and the speed with which it will occur. Marx foresaw change as a sudden, cathartic and violent event, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Football now is a commercial nonsense. Interestingly, there is a convincing argument that the vast NRL and AFL tv deals (and then cricket too) were fuelled by ego driven competition between the owners/CEOs of the networks, and in football we are seeing something similar but driven by geo political ambitions.
The Bale case has been illustrative. A Chinese club being willing to pay him a million a week is nothing to do with football and all to do with China’s desire to make a statement on the global stage. It is one more manifestation of China’s geopolitical ambitions and strategy. Bale sits alongside those notorious islands in the South China Sea.
The English Premier League is slowly killing the beautiful game
I was offering a much more nuanced view than that, Randy M, one that takes into account immigration patterns relating to the gold rush period in Victoria.
I certainly do not view Sydney as a paradise. I go there when I have to and leave as soon as I can.
But it does have surf, warm summer water and fabulous beaches and a much more user friendly outdoor climate, so yes on that count. It does have an effect.
Newcastle hinterland and beaches are better still.
It's time Wanderers fans proved they're the best in Australia
Agree on all counts. If Kamau is a starting 11 player for WSW based on his form over the last 3 years, then Wanderers are in trouble.
Interesting that Babel tried him as a wingback. He doesn’t have the defensive steel for that role.
It's time Wanderers fans proved they're the best in Australia
Thanks Fad. I played all my junior football in a club founded and run by working class English expats from the north of England. The supporters in that fabulous doc series were very familiar to me!
My original football education as a defender was “hit em hard and get rid of it” but fortunately my team was taken over by a former ball playing Scottish midfielder who took a very different view of how to play.
It's time Wanderers fans proved they're the best in Australia
Kamau started his career brightly, but has faded badly.
Absolutely agree that a key point is that WSW still managed to average a shade under 9000. Remarkable!
It's time Wanderers fans proved they're the best in Australia
We simply don’t have the cultural attachment to football clubs that exists in Europe or parts of South American. I would argue that is a good thing, because the working class football cultures in Europe have grown out of populations with severely limited economic, educational and cultural options. If you want to see that paradigm in action, watch the excellent Sunderland Til I Die.
It is exactly those kinds of economic and social stratifications that people come to this country to leave behind. We have space, a better climatic for outdoor pursuits, and a topography that combines with those other factors to give people here a lot more on offer in terms of options. The relative levels of stratification according to socio economic class is another discussion but I have lived and worked in the UK, albeit briefly, and I think it’s fair to say that socio economic stratification is less rigid here.
What these factors in combination mean is that football isn’t a way of life here – it’s entertainment. Nothing more.
The closest we have to European and South American football cultures is AFL in Melbourne, and to discuss that would take a whole article, but there are strong historical synergies between working class life in Melbourne and in those overseas cultures. Climate and topography certainly contribute to the differences between the following of NRL in Sydney versus AFL in Melbourne.
It's time Wanderers fans proved they're the best in Australia
So much will depend on how the team performs, Fad. They have another poor season, and the average will be below 10k. If the team is winning, playing well and top 4, 18k average would be acceptable and nothing less.
But really, Wanderers should be matching Victory with averages around 20k+, and they can do that with the right brand of football and a winning team.
If the Eels are managing 22k, then that should be the benchmark minimum for WSW in the medium term.
It's time Wanderers fans proved they're the best in Australia
The effect of Wanderers poor on field performances over the period of their exile is being underplayed by many. Obviously the decision to play out of Spotless/ANZ was ill judged and had a significant effect, but it was amplified considerably by poor teams playing as even less than the sum of their mediocre parts.
Wanderers urgently need Babel to produce a strongly performing team this coming season.
It's time Wanderers fans proved they're the best in Australia
The question that logically arises if one accepts this as possibility is whether any Australian club could compete with a club backed by the financial and population resources of KL or Jakarta, if those cities were fully committed to the enterprise.
Logically, the answer is no. And that, more than any other factor, will prevent anything like this idea ever being seriously discussed.
How A-League clubs should spend Tony Sage’s predicted $80m windfall
Very pertinent notes on the geopolitical aspect of the relationship to China and Japan. As with Islam, people too often think of East Asia as a kind of de facto cultural bloc, when this could not be further from the truth.
Also agree on the need to finally perform and the AFC. The salary cap has to go before this can possibly happen.
How A-League clubs should spend Tony Sage’s predicted $80m windfall
Well, that is exactly what Sage is talking about – he proposes accessing Asia’s vast audiences.
I agree that it is never going to happen.
How A-League clubs should spend Tony Sage’s predicted $80m windfall
I think that Sage’s comments do not deserve the derisory treatment they are receiving on this forum. He’s addressing the very pertinent issue of what we can do to develop the A League as a commercial entity when we have such a small population and therefore small domestic market. He is also doing so in the context of every increasing globalisation, and who is to say what FIFA will or won’t allow in coming years.
The major obstacle isn’t FIFA or what Australian “fans” will or will not accept, but rather that there is no reason for Asian teams to join our league. They have their own, with more supporters and a great deal more money.
How A-League clubs should spend Tony Sage’s predicted $80m windfall
In developmental terms, Fad, that is a questionable statement. It only stands as a generalisation. I say this with some feeling, because I only started playing at 10 and at 12 was a very ordinary player indeed and a physical late developer , but by 17 was a regular starter in a state league team.
My point being that with kids, all of whom have different rates of physical development, it is not wise to make hard and fast rules.
How A-League clubs should spend Tony Sage’s predicted $80m windfall
Yep, and I wonder if that didn’t play some part in this decision. We may hear more on that count.
Confirmed: David Gallop stepping down as FFA CEO
He’s made a great many mistakes, MF. If he was in industry, he would have been replaced long ago based on the performance metrics of the business under his watch.
The extent to which this would have happened anyway is impossible to guess, but certainly the disengagement with active supporter groups and failure to manage expansion effectively are signature Gallop black marks, and both have resulted in significant medium to long term damage to the A League.
It is fair to say that he has been a reactive rather than proactive CEO, and that he was not a natural leader at time when FFA needed leadership. This was of course exactly the criticism levelled at him during his time with the NRL. Obviously it is a question of style, but leadership is exactly about style.
Confirmed: David Gallop stepping down as FFA CEO
In answer to your question, no. You’ve accepted the norms of a narrow and highly parochial social paradigm. That is not being open minded. If you were open minded you would respect the football forums by using the globally accepted term for the game – football.
But then again, using the term “soccer” consistently, as you do, is, I suggest, intended to achieve a certain irritative effect, and you obviously enjoy winding up the locals, so to speak.
Will Melbourne Victory suffer from a 6-1 finals hangover this season?
The COE has been trumpeted for time immemorial but CCM continue to prop up the A League table and recruitment this year suggests that they will do it again.
FFA reaches in-principle agreement for independent A-League
Mid, what I hope to see is for the first time some professional marketing and PR. Also, the bigger clubs may now be emboldened to sign significant marquees. Together those two factors would potentially produce a significant lift in metrics.
But I have doubts that marketing and PR can do a great deal without the marquee factor. The real effect will be seen not this season but the next when clubs can build squads from stronger ownership position and, hopefully, with out the salary cap.
FFA reaches in-principle agreement for independent A-League
Answer is no. The squad is too old, lacks pace and quality across the park. The opposition has improved in the last five years, and the A League has gone backwards.
I don’t except Perth to escape the group stage.
Can Poppa lead Perth to Asian success?
Rbb, I think, by definition, the bid can’t have been the fourth or fifth best. Why would FFA select a bid of that status? They were chosen as one of the two expansion clubs. There is absolutely no reason for FFA to sabotage the process.
They obviously had the money, and a plan, as evidenced by their strong in augural squad. It does appear, however, that the deal was based on the stadium, and I would have thought a far more prudent course of action would have been to admit them starting in 3 years when they would have (allegedly) a stadium.
Like you, I think the homeless status is a recipe for disaster.
Frankly, though I wish them all the success in the world, I have zero belief that the stadium will ever be built and little confidence that the club will still exist in 3 years time.
I suspect that a very likely scenario is that the stadium plans will be abandoned and, if the club is to survive at all, it will be rebadged as Geelong. My suspicion is that this scenario is behind the omission of the word “Melbourne” from the name.
I'm on the Western United bandwagon - and you should be too