The problem in changing a rule where the last man tackle is not sent-off inside the penalty box is that defenders (especially those not already on a yellow) would have no hesitation in dragging a striker down once inside the box knowing that
a) they are only going to get a yellow card and
b) the keeper at least gets a 50/50 chance of pulling off a penalty save

You might even get a situation where a defender tracking back will actually hold off making the challenge until the attacker is in the box – if that is not cynical I don’t know what is!

And point b) above is amplified if that last defender, cynically pulling down the opposing striker happens to be the goalkeeper (as so often happens). So do we then tweak the rule again so only a goalkeeper can be sent off if the offence occurs in the box?

Not 100% sure re Socceroo player qualification but Brioch has only been here 2 and a half years and needs 4 years to qualify for Citizenship (presuming he wants it). He has played for Germany U-21’s and a couple of senior friendlies so he may not be allowed. Perhaps someone else can expand on this?

Fussy you need to get one of those discreet ear-plugs wi-fied to your mobile and listen to the game on the ABC Grandstand.

The only downside might be just as the priest asks “if any person here present knows of any lawful impediment to this marriage then he or she should declare it now” Fussy jumps to his feet (in response to a goal for Victory) and yells….YES, YES, YESSSS!!!

And then to top off a great week in for our game, the Herald-Sun and presumably the rest of Australia’s NewsCorp papers now officially have the tag ‘Football’ on their website. Geezuz, the AFL folk are going to be choking on there Cornflakes tomorrow!

The only print media holdout, still calling our game ‘soccer’, appears to be the Age in Melbourne (although there may be others in some states that I am not aware of.

Small victory, but a sweet one none the less.

Read a few articles on the Football section of Roar and you will see that it is not particularly gentle, where ‘we’ come from.

Hmm, should have been more specific.

The discussion I was having with this old friend was relating to someone whom I would describe as being contrary for the sake of it or what you might call a naysayer, constantly using half-truths to justify a negative way of looking at things. Reflecting on what I wrote, I was casting a rather wide net in having all contrarians being that way (especially when I can be a bit that way myself actually!)

Yes but it’s about the language you use. As soon as you start capitalising and calling people by abusive terms (Muppets, clowns etc) it just makes any good points you have to say just fly out the window.

If you look above, you will already seen that you have been moderated. That should tell you all you need to know.

The number of contrarians (the glass half-empty brigade) writing articles on the Football tag of The Roar has decreased over the past seven seasons; one might say the decrease is directly proportional to organic improvement of virtually every aspect of the A-League.
And while professional naysayer Jesse Fink may have gone to pastures browner and even old ‘Happy’ Dugald Massey seems to have taken his sulking elsewhere, we now have Villa B, stepping up from the substitutes bench of the Dark Side to be the latest in the long line of ‘Chicken Littles’ to be telling us our A-League sky is falling down.
A wise friend once told me that contrarians, those who perpetually find the bad in anything good, always find small truths to justify a larger lie. In this instance, the smaller truth told to us by Villa B is that the standard of play in two particular matches was not up to standard. If this was a true representation of all teams in all matches on the weekend, then he might have the beginnings of a point to make. But that is not the case.
Furthermore, it would be a greater truth if the overall intention of virtually all A-League coaches was not to play attractive, attacking football, played on the deck. But that is not the case either.
In reality we have new coaches in charge of four of the teams (we won’t count Brisbane because Rado was already part of the fabric of the club). Each of those teams have had significant player and backroom re-structures, not to mention changes in playing philosophies.
Of the six remaining teams, five had a fair degree of continuity from last year – Perth, Brisbane, Wellington, Adelaide and Central Coast. The sixth, Newcastle, had coaching continuity but virtually an entirely different squad. It is almost certainly not a coincidence then that the best performers, in broad terms of the quality of passing, ball retention and the playing of good football were, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Wellington. I agree with Villa that Central Coast were disappointing, but I fully expect by the next round GA will have them back playing with the higher degree of precision that we have come to expect from them over the past twelve to eighteen months.
Of the new club combinations, it was the Victory v Heart game that was the most instructive. Heart, led by newbie coach Aloisi, set his store by playing a specific strategic game to counter Victory’s ‘play it out from the back at all costs’ philosophy. The game was very planned and tactical and the fact that some of the Victory players failed to carry out Ange’s drilled philosophy needs to be weighted against Aloisi’s counter-strategy, to nullify and trap individual Victory players and areas of the field, that JA had clearly identified as being ‘soft’ targets to focus on. Watching the game live was painful from a Victory supporter perspective, because we were hoping for an Ange-led blitzkrieg of our hated red opponents but the reality, in hindsight (especially after watching the game a couple of times on TV replay), we were beaten by the sort of counter-tactics you would see in a good level European match.
The problem with small truths, such as that espoused by our friend Villa, is that they ignore the wider truth that this is only Round One, with the majority of teams still bedding in, in a league where virtually every team is aspiring to be better than they were, and with an underlying philosophy to continue to improve the standards in years to come.
I believe there is a huge upside to football playing in the shadow of those two behemoths, the AFL and the NRL. It makes us hungry and it forces us to be the best we can be, knowing that if we don’t keep improving our A-League, making it more attractive to watch, to play in and to coach, we know we will fall behind again, marginalised again.
Your final paragraph, Villa, is instructive.
“I want the A-League to succeed in Australia, but it is becoming something I gravely expected. It is now full of many players who are average at best that don’t have the skill to sustain fan momentum for 27 rounds. Only time will tell if this is a matter to be concerned about”.
I will be keen to re-visit this thread for a mid-season review of how true Villas words are then ringing.

Oh and just one final by the way, what is it with all the abuse of other posters Villa? It is quite unnecessary and each time you do it, it diminishes whatever argument you put forward tenfold.

You could be on to something there Towser. Perhaps we could get Twitch and Squirmometers installed on our Foxtel controllers and have a scroll-bar across the bottom of the TV screen, a bit like the ‘worm’ for election debates.

Based on round 1, the Squirmometer would definitely have been in the red more often than not but I would rekon by about Round 7 or 8 it will be a nice flat line at the bottom of the screen with just an occasional jump every time Villa B spots a mis-directed pass.

So excuse my ignorance Ian, is that what happens in the AFL?

Do AFL clubs raise money and give it to the government so they can improve their facilities and grounds? That is very generous of them to do that.

I cannot wait to be rid of Etihad; a dank, souless place if ever there was. Unfortunately Victory is stuck there for a handful of games per season for a few more years to come, mores the pity.

It’s quite extraordinary how 28,000 at AAMI can sound so much louder than 42,000 at Docklands; chalk and cheese from a football fan perspective.

Thank you Neville, a well considered article but I would argue that two wrongs (dodgy corner kick, followed by dodgy goal not awarded) do not necessarily make a right.

I understand your argument that, without goal -line technology, an incorrectly awarded corner or free kick might be cancelled out by a referee-adjudged disallowed goal, that had indeed crossed the line. But surely this is just one potential isolated scenario, and I might add, a fairly tenuous one given the myriad of potential permutations of decisions a ref can make over the course of a game that might or might not be deemed unfair (depending on the team you are supporting) that potentially may lead to the goal line incident requiring adjudication.

The World in which we live is not the same as the one in 1966 when Geoff Hurst ‘scored’ the controversial goal that won England the World Cup. Back then we might argue rights and wrongs, but there was no real way of knowing for sure if the ball did or didn’t cross the line. But we have now reached a stage in the game where all major (and many minor) leagues and tournaments are telecast in High-Definition detail. Contentious goal line incidents are routinely slow-mo replayed together with the game commentators pulling it all apart, frame by frame. The pressure on referees and on FIFA is now overwhelming.

For me, as long as technological goal-line decisions are instantaneous, I see very little down side to their use.

So that means a 48,000 attendance then 🙂

Johnno, you really need to slow down your fingers that were clearly out of sync with your brain (how else to explain your total inability to either capitalise or punctuate).

It must be very sad for you that you seem to exist in a life that only ever views the glass as being half full (or in your case a quarter full) and the bile you continuously spew forth perhaps reflects a life that is lacking the sort of joy and pleasure that we football supporters feel for our game; how very sad for you.

To quote a very old expression Johnno, you really do need to have a Bex and a good lie down.

Can hear the Les Murray commentary now… “FussBAAAAALLLLL!!!!”

Now if we could just teach the North End some French (yeah, right) that would make a great chant song…

Excellent article Daniel.

I’ve seen most of the pre-season games in Melbourne and I have also got the impression that Ange is not playing with central strikers; what we seem to be seeing is a constant interchange of 5, sometimes 6 attacking third players. Even when Archie has been there he is not sticking to what we have normally seen of him in the past. One moment he’s setting up an attack from the wing, next he’s deep in almost defensive midfield with 4 or 5 attackers ahead of him. And then on top of that you’ll get a (typically in the past) defensive Leigh Broxham powering into the penalty box, with our key attackers behind him!

Whatever Ange is doing, it looks highly complex and will, I would imagine, require a very high level of aerobic fitness. If it works in the much bigger matches that lie ahead of us (keeping in mind most of the opposition up till now has been pretty ordinary) it’s going to be pretty special to watch.

And just as Ange predicted; it looks nothing like the formations and playing style of the orange-men to the North.

I’ve always thought of you Fuss as more of an old style ‘libero’ using your guile, experience and just a touch of arrogance, to snatch the ball from the feet of young spotty-faced attackers (to this day TC has yet to beat your offside traps), before charging forward to spray passes into the attacking third.

I think the main issue with Victory’s coaches giving you the call Fuss; they just haven’t thought of a way to best harness your skills 🙂

Interesting you should say that Millane, as it has been my observation that most of the arrogant, pompous, hate filled posts that find there way onto Football articles here at the Roar are made by testosterone-laden footie supporters, most of whom seem to suffer from big-fish small-pond syndrome.

So you mean the footy finals are coming up?

And here’s me thinking September is only about A-League pre-season! Sometimes I am quite happy to proclaim myself as being ignorant.

But that’s what makes the A-League the rich tapestry it is. Some teams, such as the Mariners are going to go the development route, whilst other will focus on landing a Del Piero or a Kewell to tip the balance their way. Others still will go for established locals plus lesser-name imports and build a playing philosophy around that.

As we saw last season you can have Melbourne Victory sign up HK but as we have seen, unless all the other elements of the team – coaching, players and admin. are working in unison, the team can (and did) fail whilst the teams that focussed on local development, team structure and / or playing style, without relying on a ‘super-star’ (CC Mariners and Brisbane) took home the silver.

A-League teams are continuing to evolve differently. Apart from the ‘new black’ that all the AL coaches now seem to be preaching, playing it out from the back, we are certainly not going to be looking at Brisbane and nine other Roar clones. Each team is a taking different route to try and build a championship-winning mousetrap; the acquisition of Del Piero is part Sydney’s plan to create a winning team that the fans will love. But unless all the other team elements are working Sydney could still end the season empty-handed.

As a Victory fan and a football-lover, I hope ADP is an excellent acquisition for FC and that he scores and sets up a bag of goals against everyone except us, especially if that failure extends to the 2012/13 Victory v Sydney Grand Final that I am now looking forward to seeing.

I read the first couple of paragraphs and then looked at the bullet points; that was enough to tell me this was a nothing article written by another condescending ‘Expert” from an eggball code.

Chris, you are probably very good at writing League articles (I wouldn’t really know as in my world your code is as boring as bat-s); they no doubt reflect your love and passion of the game.

Unfortunately over here on the Football site you may think you’ve come across all witty and Oscar Wilde, when the reality is the only reason we’re all laughing at you is because your journalistic pants have fallen down.

I have just posted this reply to RW in the Herald Sun – probably won’t publish but it made me feel better for writing it….

Rebecca, you say you have been critical of our code for years. Is that any surprise given your pathological hatred of football?

Gallop’s appointment must surely be your worst possible nightmare; an administrator who you clearly admire crossing to the dark side! And yet there seems to be a subtext of fear in your article, a subliminal admission that here is the man who can take our game to a higher level, root out last remnants of trouble from ‘old soccer’ and convince a sceptical public of the qualities of the ‘new football’ being played in the A-League where, by the way, ethnic divisions and fan-generated trouble are virtually non-existent. Goodness, if that happened you might even have to report good things about our game!

But perhaps not because if you were honest about “identifying those who engage in subterfuge to undermine progress” of our game, you would have to first look in the mirror! The irony is that it is Rebecca Wilson who happily acts as a key agent of subversion, undermining our game at every opportunity, turning molehills into mountains and happily stirring the redneck pot of bile and borderline bigotry that is repeatedly directed toward football.

Unfortunately we are now seeing Wilson’s rubbish contributions in Melbourne via the Herald Sun.

It seems the HWT is now sharing all ‘soccer’ stories across their complete network of on-line editions (I’m not sure how much is getting hard-copy printed as I refuse to spend my hard-earned on their rubbish newspapers). This is obviously only a recent change as I couldn’t understand why I kept seeing stories on Sydney FC and WS Wanderers as lead ‘soccer’ stories in the Melbourne Sun until I realised they are simply pulling content off the Daily Terrorgraph and re-publishing it down here.

Thank you for your support NF. It is heartwarming to know that there are supporters of other codes who are clear headed enough to see through this borderline bigotry that we constantly have to put up with.

Unfortunately there are seemingly many other ‘sports fans’ who are only too keen to encourage and support the likes of Wilson in continuing to file these hate-filled diatribes dressed up badly as professional sports journalism. You only have to read the comment emails on the tail end of articles such as Wison’s most recent contribution to see evidence aplenty of that.