Thanks for the kind words guys. The insencere nonsense written by some of these pseudo “I would be a fan of your game if only’s” just gets my blood boiling.

So will they shoot the cannon between the sauce bottles?

How to win friends and influence people…….NOT!

jb, you surely must realise that re point 3) is that the A-League / FFA could never unilaterally change one of the key laws of the game (effectivly re-designing the offside rule and ground marking boundaries) without FIFA approval that we would never get. Even if we did somehow manage to get unique approval the way the game would be played here would be completely out of sync with the rest of the World and make any tactical advantage gained irrelevant when we played at international level.

Or perhaps you are just suggesting that we somehow get FIFA to change the overall law worldwide? Good luck with that one.

“because they are already known for their football SBS = Soccer Before Sex.”

Now THERE is a match made in heaven!

Johnno, there is an annual 5 game contract at Etihad with the rest of the matches at AAMI. Victory makes good money out of the Etihad matches as the arrangements there are very profitable but for the fans it is a bit of a soulless cavern where we are too far from the game compared to the AAMI amphitheatre where we’re right on top of the players.

I think at the very least we should try declaring a code-war truce on Christmas Day.

Redb, Millane, Australian Rules from one side and Fussy, Midfielder and Punter from the other will climb exhausted out of their mud-filled trenches, carefully picking their way across no mans land doing their best to avoid twisted barbs and unexploded insults.

And there they will suspiciously meet, exchanging cursory Christmas greetings and tins of spam.

Just as everyone is starting to relax, Redb turns to Fuss and quietly says, “you know, if you really want the war to end you really need to stop feeling so jealous of the AFL”. To which Fuss replies a little louder, “what are you even doing here, we didn’t invite you here, you come and invade OUR FOOTBALL space and try to tell us what we should or shouldn’t be saying” Millane, trying to stay civil to this point suddenly screams out, “YOU SOCCER LOT ARE SO ARROGANT, YOU THINK YOU OWN THIS PLACE…

Within seconds, all hell breaks loose, the combatants shouting and wrestling (as always) in the mud until somehow managing to scramble back to their respective trenches. Fighting re-commences forthwith and any hope for even a Christmas truce in the future is forever lost.

Code-war is indeed hell.

And this my friends is where football’s future growth lies; our young demographic.

From a fan perspective football has the ideal model for driving waves of young adults into our games and keeping them there until rusted on. The teens and twenty-somethings absolutely love the interactive nature of what active support brings. As the teens grow into adults and have their own kids they move (as I did) into the wings to enjoy the more three dimensional ‘adult’ side of the game, and the kids we bring along look forward to being old enough to get into the active areas; and so the cycle continues.

As long as we keep offering up the quality of game experience on offer the cycle WILL continue. As long as we continue to grow the game, from a coaching and playing perspective, and improve incrementally all aspects of the game-day experience in the stands the possibility of continued blue sky growth is immense.

We Are Football!

Welcome to the A-League Pre-Loved Coaches Shop.

Up there on the top shelf is a Branko Culina; bit dusty but still in pretty good nick. Been brought back here a couple of times but seems popular with NSW customers. Also there is Miron Bleiberg in our novelty section; customers keep showing interest but get put off by the non-stop talking every time you pull the string on his back. The empy spot up there next to the half-empty six pack is where Farina used to be (left the tinnies there as we’re expecting him back anytime soon).

New stock just arrived; Kossie is just being cleaned off out the back (he’s apparently been gardening) ready to go back on his usual spot on the shelf. Hoefully somebody picks him up again soon as he drives everybody nuts banging on about coaching conspiracies and cracking dud Adelaide jokes.

Yes it has; I think Red Block should be re-named Red living under a Rock.

Yes Phil, we will excuse your ignorance 🙂

I am so sorry RC, I hope you didn’t get the impression I was trying to make a meaningful contribution; indeed my needless, derogatory and hyperbolic response to you was entirely driven by my efforts to cover up the real truth that yes, we A-League fans do spend our entire football-supporting life striving to copy our European brothers.

Even this afternoon, I’ve been busy boning up on the latest football chants from Euro matches overnight, getting ready to mimic them at the Victory v Newcastle match tonight.

As you don’t go to A-League matches you probably don’t realise they actually replay EPL matches on the big screen at AAMI and those chants you hear on Foxtel (you know the ones you hear briefly as you are changing the channel from ‘Footies Greatest Hits’ to the replay of a real derby between GWS and the Swans), are actually all of us aping the chants of Manchester City and Manchester United fans on their terraces in back in the UK.

So there you have it; you were right all along.

Good grief; here we go again.

RC, if you don’t actually attend a game, so you can actually add a view that actually means something, your ‘game experience’ opinion is next to worthless. Your wondering if derby sustainability is driven by “this is what they do in Europe’ mentality” is just another extract from the tired old book of ‘Sockah Clichés 101’ quoted from by those whose closest affiliation with the game is occasionally clicking on The Roar Football tab.

If you want to have a meaningful contribution, why not do what Andrew did; go to a game or two, then you might have an opinion that is actually worth something (hell, you might even enjoy yourself as Andrew appears to have).

What I enjoyed most about Andrew’s article was the fact that, rather than load himself up with too many pre-concieved notions, he approached it with an open mind and in doing so was able to contribute positivly to our wider football conversation by pointing out, looking throgh the eyes of an oval-ball officianado, his comments re upper body focus (AFL, NRL) v legs and feet focus (Football).

Ah, Melbourne Heart, the home of bogans, misfits, Derby-only-Euronobs and code-jumpers.

Andrew, you should fit right in. 🙂

PS Great article; welcome to the ‘dark side’.

🙂

I remember watching on SBS years ago the old Adelaide City (Juventus) v West Adelaide (Hellas) derbies which always seemed to be great games.

Here is the 1978 derby where West Adelaide scored the equaliser in the last 5 mins that won them theNSL championship (no GF in those days). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjWu4G3MUgI

Fussy, what about PER v BNR? I think you will find from a Perth perspective their home matchup with Brisbane will, for some time to come, be a heavily anticipated match.

It’s going to be a LONG time before Perth get over the fact that Berisha was fouled and deserved the GF winning penalty last season (pause… waiting for inevitable strident response from Nathan of Perth)

Yes that’s true, but think back to the Ange-led Brisbane Roar; isn’t that exactly what they used to do?

Victory are now pushing like crazy right to the very end and any opposition team that takes it’s foot off the pedal in the last 5 (or especially in extra time) is likely to get the same happening.

And for the first timers present (I had 2 newbies with me last night) a thrilling last gasp winner is a sure fire way to win over new Victory supporters.

Firstly the article itself. A very interesting read Feras, if a touch cerebral and therefore heavy going at times. I was hoping, as I read, that you would bring in real-world football examples and you finally did; unfortunately for me you related entirely to the European game rather than the Australian one. This is fair enough I suppose if that is where your passions lie, but if you are hoping for a rich vein of replies to your article I can tell you the Australian game is where most here are interested in and most closely relate to.

For example I would have been fascinated by your observations of how the creative influences of one Ange Postecoglou has forever changed the way football is played in the A-League. Every coach has had to change, to explore their own motivations, to learn additional skills, to literally try and think (some more than others admittedly), outside of the box. And of course, outside of the box is where creativity lives.

Then of course there is the coaches ability to not only learn and interpret creative planning, systems and strategies but to then have players carry them out. It seemed for a long time in the A-League we had a few individually creative players (Fred, Hernandez, Carle etc.) operating in relatively non-creative teams. Fast forward to Ange’s arrival at Brisbane Roar and the huge creatively-based changes he made to the way they play, we then had a situation where a single team moved so far ahead of the pack that they became, for nearly two seasons, totally invincible. The sheer weight of evidence of such an outcome forced other coaches back to the drawing boards, back into further education (notice the dramatic changes in the way Kosmina coaches Adelaide to the teams he coached 3 or 4 years ago). And of course, the more they delved into the realities of how Ange did what he did, the more apparent it became that the creative process, thinking outside the box, was the intrinsic driver.

Such was the impact of the Roar’s domination, the pace of change of coaching philosophy has far exceeded what would normally happen where improvements happen more organically. All of a sudden we see coaches looking to sign players that fit the structure of the way they want to play (3 dimensional thinking) rather than signing players to just do a particular job (one dimensional thinking).

Look now at the A-League table and straight away you will see the teams that are using most effectively creative process. Adelaide, Mariners, Victory and Wanderers are at the top whilst teams who have still to fully embrace the new ways of thinking, Sydney, Heart and Wellington, are at the bottom. Interestingly the anomaly here is the former leader in creative process, Brisbane Roar, inexplicably mired in that bottom group. The argument here might be that you have a set of creatively inspired players, virtually the same group that dominated under Ange for 2 seasons, failing to fire under a coach who to be honest, seems to still be finding his way, trying not to be Ange but at the same time trying to capture the essence of what that same team can be, but done his way. This is perhaps the best example that there needs to be in the creative process, as it would be applied to a football team, creative synergy between a coach totally committed to playing creatively and a group of players, perfectly tuned to carry out that process. If any single link in the chain is missing, the process is likely to fail.

At any rate, job well done Feras. Hopefully the first of many articles.

That’s nonsense TC and you know it.

There have been two distinct eras of Archie’s goal-scoring for Australia. Many of Archie’s goals were scored against weak Pacific island opposition in the early 90’s, then a very long dry spell leading into his current scoring renaissance.

Archie Thompson is and will always be remembered one of the greatest players and personalities of the early 21st Century (and certainly the greatest Victory player), but in a Socceroo jersey there and a great number ahead of him.

The ongoing similarities with the situation at Melbourne Victory last year continue; a management team unable to lure the coach it really wants (Postecoglou / Arnold), settling for an inexperienced youth team coach (Durakovic / Crook) then lumbering said coach with a very high-profile star player (Kewell / Del Piero) that proceeded to suck in massive volumes of media attention that in turn throws the respective inexperienced coaches into a spotlight that neither feels even remotely comfortable in. Said superstars, despite their individual skills, fail to compensate for coaching and other squad inadequacies and sooner rather than later coaches either resign (SFC) or are shown the door (MV).

Then to try and somehow rescue their poorly designed sinking ships, the respective managements of MV and SFC opt for the ‘short-term fix’ of bringing in an experienced coach on a short-term deal; a carrot and stick deal that offers the possibility of a long term contract if said coach turns their fortunes around and somehow drags the team into the finals (but is also more or less implicit that if he fails, he goes back out the door).

The main divergance of this pattern of behaviours and actions is that Victory’s Magilton was an outsider with no experience or apparent understanding of the unique aspects of the A-League, wheras Farina knows the game here intimately.

But the ultimate question remains for Farina, as it did for Magilton; how mach can be achieved using the ‘cattle’ you have; how to turn losers into winners in a very short timespan and how to compensate for pre-existing damage such as a lack of match fitness which seems to have equally been a problem last year at Victory.

I guess it’s up to Frank Farina to show that he can break this pattern that has thus far mirrored almost exactly the experiences of their dark-blue enemies from the South.

I’m not sure how Mitch Nichols would manage to get a gig; his form has ebbed away this season to the point where he was dropped completely last week.

The problem with your argument Dingo is that, if you are a one eyed (footy / rugby / league / football) fan you tend to only see the toxic algae on the other codes pond. In every code there will always be a significant group of toxic-sprouting supporters, administrators and media looking to damage what they see as ‘the opposition that must be destroyed’.

If you, as an ARF supporter, can’t see the hatred and xenophobia that comes the way of Association Football you are simply choosing not to look.

As for the expectation of the writer of this article that we might all stop arguing, link arms and metaphorically sing kumbuyah, well, can’t see it happening anytime soon.

Well I disagree with you qwerty and I think your absolutely wrong.

And by the way, my football code is definitely bigger than yours 🙂

Absolutely shambolic….. both your thought processes Johnno as well as the Sydney defence.

The reality is that unless Sydney improves dramatically when it does get back it’s missing key players, the heat will be turned, furnace like, onto Ian Crook; the continued presence of ADP will demand it.