Jimmy, not too sure the football supporters outside of Sydney or Melbourne will call this a ‘National’ level. Pretty certain it won’t even register on the football scale outside of Sydney or Melbourne. That is the shame of it all, but necessary, if clubs can’t afford it, they shouldn’t be in it.

Now we will see if all the people out there telling us how important it was to have these sides in the top tier for the game to be successful have done their due diligence or not.

I want to believe that the ‘Gong’ will show all of the others how important it is to be associated with a geographical area rather than being associated with just a limited ethnic group.

A good read, hopefully, the supporters will come out and back him up. I found myself feeling optimistic for them. Only time will tell.

Now we need to do the same for both Perth and Newcastle.

I never thought I would be looking forward to a Kiwi derby, but I am, wow talk about ‘the times they are a changing’.

As an AUFC supporter, we ‘hate’ Victory with a passion that can’t be believed by some football fans. The “We Hate You Cause You’re Victorian” is still sung at both City and WU fans, but mainly by the Red Army. BUT when Victory comes to town, the whole stadium sings it.

Having said that I cannot ever remember taking it out on a Victory player wearing the Green and Gold. Mind you I would have to google the last time the Socceroo’s or Matildas ever played in Adelaide. Per head of population, Adelaide and Brisbane both show their support of our national teams ahead of Sydney & Melbourne.

It is like a marriage, you are only great if your other half has your back.

Like most everyone, I thought he was ready to be moved on when things went pearshape during the last qualifying period. I am also glad to have been proven wrong.

His football brain is what we need to run our A-League. He would be wasted there, of course, his experience is best suited to managing football programs and finding solutions to ongoing problems at the grassroots of our code.

No matter what, he must not be lost to the game.

Thank you, Arnie, for all that you’ve done.

Depends on what level you are referring to.

Are you telling us that in your opinion Ross A has no senior coaching experience?

I have a slightly different opinion on this setup. Many of you won’t agree with me. And that’s OK.

First of all, I have always believed in clubs being able to sustain themselves at this level. So, if clubs in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and other regional centres i.e. Canberra believe that they cannot afford to participate in the NST then all credit to them. Clubs should know the difference between Ambitions and Capabilities.

This is my sole reason for not wanting to impose PnR on the A-League clubs. If I had a say in how this issue should be approached I would suggest this. In 3 years, or after the first three years of the NST, the FA introduce a PnR set up into the NST via a play-off system. Each championship-winning team from each state, enter a play-off, for an ‘opportunity’ if they can afford it, to play off against the bottom-placed NST club. So you get in effect, a national state champion playing off against the bottom-placed club in the NST. We do this to see how great the gap is between the state leagues and the NST.

I understand many will be saying at this point if it is good enough for the NST to have a ‘kind of’ PnR why can’t the A-League have the same? The answer is simple but also unpalatable. The system is a trial-and-error system, let’s see how this works first before imposing it onto the A-League.

I suggest doing it this way rather than a straight PnR system, is thus, the outcome for a local community club going broke is far more damaging than if a ‘club’ backed by businessmen goes broke.

The ultimate position for our code would be that we have a two-division ‘National’ competition, complete with PnR that is both viable and entertaining.

Sorry, but you weren’t that obvious. Any senior coaching gig ties a person to that club. Ross will be a real asset for you guys up there and he has senior coaching experience.

I have always believed that we don’t appreciate how good we have got it. The quality of football is good, Hindmarsh Stadium even when full, you can get a drink, food or take a trip to the loo without too much drama. Getting into and out of the ground is straightforward and parking is so easy. We are blessed.

But tell that to a fan who has never been to an A-League game but lives and breathes EPL and I get laughed at. I get told I don’t know what I’m talking about and that the games in the EPL are so much better, the teams stronger, the grounds better, so many historical rivalries, etc etc etc.

I don’t know what the answer is to convince those types, but I appreciate how good we have it.

Like what exactly? Saying one word to a Ref after being persistently fouled. Or do you mean grabbing Chapman by the shirt when he was confronted by him AFTER being sent off? He was almost off the pitch by the time Chapman assaulted him.

You must remember he [Nestory] received his yellow card for dissent, towards the referee’s non-decision-making, the assault by Chapman, was only punishable with a yellow card.

The young lad was visibly upset at being sent off. Like most 17 yo he wanted to fight the whole world. I am disappointed with some of his older more experienced teammates, I hold the opinion that if the more experienced players got involved when he was being bullied, then maybe Ikonomidis might have had second thoughts about his persistent fouling of him.

The ploy MV used I am certain others will follow. Lets see how AUFC and Carl handle the situation.

100% right which is why, IMO Alirezeh Faghani stands out against our local refs.

I like your idea about bringing referees out here from other Asian comps, or England/Europe.

Some of our guys might not be as bad as we all might think. Jarad Gillet is regarded as one of the EPL’s top Refs. Yet when he was out here I didn’t rate him as highly as others did, 5 GFs and 5 refs of the Year, tells me I know FA about being a good judge of a Ref.

As an ardent Adelaide fan I can tell you the real reason you don’t hear us, we do our ‘booing’ face-to-face, as they leave on their bus. We make certain the individual gets the message.

But we here in Adelaide tend to be a better quality of fan. [cough, cough, splutter]

You don’t consider Ross as being from another club? He coached the Lady Reds, as well as being an assistant with the men’s squad.

I will accept that the tribalism between CCM and Newcastle could match the original rivalry. But do they really hate each other?
Nothing anyone can say will convince me there is a genuine rivalry between SFC and Victory, yes they are good games and always fiercely competitive, but it isn’t real tribalism. Not too sure. The same could be said about the City / Victory games.
In the old days when the WSW active supporters were feral, YES, then you could see the hatred in their eyes. Today I’m not so sure. A healthy dislike is more like it.
But you made good points.

This fixture always brings out the best/worst in players, coaches and officials. I am certain that young Nestory will get more benefit from what happened to him than any of the Victory boys.

I agree that other coaches and players would have taken plenty of notes on how to play Nestory. If I were Carl, I would be saying to the older players it is time that we started to dish it out to any side who thinks they need to ‘toughen up’ any of our kids. And to let other coaching teams know, that if you dish it out, you had better be prepared to take it in return, 10 fold.

I, like many on here, used to Referee at an amateur level, and those games could get ‘hard’ at times. But never in my twenty years of being a Ref would I say publicly or even privately to a player that I was putting the Laws of the Game to one side so the player could be toughened up. I may have wanted to, but that is not the role of a Referee or their assistants.

The fact we all have varying opinions on what happened or how it should have been dealt with, none of us actually knows what it is like to be in his [The Refs] situation at that precise moment. None of us know what instructions the assistants were given pre-game, all we can do is offer our opinions after the fact. It is one of the privileges of being a ‘keyboard warrior’.

The only people breathing a sigh of relief about Nestory’s Red Card will be the defenders at SFC.

Fair call Punter, but I get around from time to time. I can’t help but wear my heart on my sleeve.

I also understand that if you are neither a fan of these two sides nor love a decent game of football, why you would cast doubt on what I LOVE and don’t love about these fixtures?

Having watched a few games from the WSL and EPL overnight, I had a more emotional attachment to this match than any of the games from the old dart.

This is the only real tribal rivalry I believe we have in the ALM. South Australians don’t like Victorians at all, [We hate you cause you’re Victorian] and the Vics couldn’t give a flying f**k about South Australians. The action on the park has always been hot, and nasty at times, and bragging rights mean everything to their respective fans. I LOVE these games.

City 2 vs Sydney FC 0 – I think Viddie will get the best out of City and make them feared by all, home and away.

Wellington 3 vs Brisbane 1 – Roar will do well this season, and so will the Nix, but at home, I’m playing safe and staying with the Kiwi’s.

Macarthur 1 vs Westerns 0 – Going with the Rams or the Bulls or whatever they are called.

Melbourne V 2 vs Adelaide 4 – This is going to be something or a complete fizzer. My head says Adelaide in a canter, but this is Victory and despite what some say, they hate us as much as we hate them. My heart wants a repeat of last week please 0-6 that would make the weekend perfect.

Perth 2 vs Mariners 0 – Glory, Glory, halleluiah. Alen to smile at the end of the game.

Newcastle 0 vs Wanderers 1 – WSW to win away, but just. I don’t think the Jets are all bad and will cause some upsets during the year but not this weekend.

mateeeee, I’m not sure why you are fixated on crowd numbers, who really cares if 5000 people turn up or 50 thousand? I will give in to you though and say we would all rather it was closer to the 50k than the 5k.

I believe it comes down to simple demographics.

ALM appeals to a younger male demographic while the ALW appeals to younger female supporters. Neither of them wants to commit to going to a game on a regular basis. [IMO]

The Matilda’s on the other hand, and the Socceroo’s to a lesser extent, and I saw this during the World Cup, appeal to young families, the numbers I saw during the World Cup games in Adelaide, mainly with young girls blew me away.

Maybe the APL should know this and start to market the game towards them.

Garry, Adelaide City won’t even be applying to get in. I think they have looked at the NST and had second thoughts, due to the costs involved. Logic tells me that if they can’t afford to run a team in the NST then getting into the A League will also be beyond them.

maybe SS has an opinion on this?

Waz, some people want it to be or need it to be so. Let them think it is, older wiser heads know differently.

Not being silly, but who is Nathan Cleary? My wife tells me he’s Mary Fowler’s other half, is that his claim to fame?

Thank GOD you turned up mate. I was waiting for something negative. I mean all this positive stuff had me thinking I was living in an alternative reality.

[I apologise, my wife just informed me that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit]