Roar Rookie
Joined June 2009
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Whilst we continually debate the quality of our coaching and our next crop of Socceroos, it's interesting to analyse which State the current crop…
year real good year for handball. Average crowds down in Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia.
Musings on the state of Australian football
Nice work Joe. The sense of ownership is the key ingredient missing in the community for these clubs. Visiting many stadiums over the past four years and enjoying the atmosphere during the game I found the next day there was nothing to suggest a game was even played. Very little TV, radio, newspaper content. My point being is if you dont get the chance to get to the game again for a while you quickly lose touch completely with the club as it is not in your face to remind you. You have to go and find it. The A League will only grow with the investment in mainstream media which give community interest and therefore banter over the water cooler at work or at a bbq. You have to pay for this it doesnt come for free as the other sports are trying to keep you out.
Give the fans a voice and crowds will increase
The interesting statistic is that the Crowd averages are up in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Wellington by and down in Melbourne, Central Coast and Newcastle for the A League.
The simple fact is that if you take out the 2 new teams the average is actually 13,400 which is 1,200 over the 2008 average. This the simple apples to apples situation. Melbourne victory being down 6000 on average doesnt help and if they were to be where they were last year we would see the average over 14,000. Not bad is it.
It always depends on how you want to skin it, or who wants to skin it to get their agenda spread.
Art,
I attended the game against the Roar on Saturday for the first time in a while and the frustration in regards to the coaching tactics and player selection from the crowd was at its best. Henandez was brilliant and was worth the entry price just for his display. Without him they will be doomed. The total Melbourne media has been pathetic on the coaching point from Michael Lynch to SEN and only a 2nd team will maybe change this landscape. Really what can they do, if they criticise the only team in town they will have not much to write about when the Victory wont talk to them. I think another team will get a big supporter group in a short amount of time if the recruit the right coach and Lothar Matthäus is a great candidate. We can say goodbye to Scottish imports and hello to continental Europe.
Let's have more action, less talk about crowds
Considering his involvement in a pre season game on Tuesday playing at left back he may have a future at Sheffield U. I think Australia needs a player of this type at a World cup. Consistent and also has the ability to do something special like the goal against Nigeria.
Will David Carney make the World Cup squad?
Midfielder,
One thing from your survey of the players which would have completed the picture is how many of them have Fox Sports on at home. I have found that people without Fox have a negative image about the game simply cause they are not engaged by seeing the game regularly. It is always so easy to be negative about things that people dont know much about. In regards to SBS they have been the lifeblood of this game and without them it would have faded away completely. Sure if Fozzie came out and said he thinks that the A League is over achieving and that it is becoming super technical some of those negs would change position and become more conscious of it and maybe check it out more often.
SBS always talks about style over substance and I am not in a position to compare the NSL to the A League but it does seem from a coaching perspective the NSL was far more inclined to be non British/Australian coaches than the A League is today.
Is this a fair comment to consider that the reason the SBS team is more critcal of the A League than the NSL is due to the style of the NSL being more to their European taste.
In defence of SBS's football coverage
Luc, Whilst I feel your pain, the real reason that Foxtel has exclusive rights to the games is that they actually made the A League possible and gave football its new profile. Without the financial support that was provided by Foxtel the sport would be in the same situation as it was in the past. If you were running the FFA wouldnt you take the deal with Foxtel if no other free to air station was willing to show it and the game was at it is lowest point in history? The last post is right the deal is up in 2011 and you can guarantee that the free to air staions will want some of it this time around. With the Government pouring money into the World Cup bid I would also think that they will support the free to air showing of the Socceroos games in the future with anti siphoning stance. It was reported by Harold Mitchell who is a big media buyer in Melbourne that the 2011 TV deal could overtake the next AFL deal considering the amount of games being played both domestic and International
It hasnt been good for supporter like you who dont have Foxtel but im betting that in the long run you will enjoy more football than you have ever seen in the past.
Kurt, You seem to know plenty about football. Sure your not rely a convert in denial. Even keeping up on Fossies hair!! Wow you are really into it. What were your thoughts on the game last night? Big Crowd wasnt it?
An open letter to the FFA
Thanks for the comments guys
Here are the players that were involved in all 6 games with their state they grew up in and the appearances. Ethnicity doesnt really play a part in NSW´s dominance if anything it is an English heritage.
Player State Starts Sub
Mark Schwarzer NSW 6 0
Lucas Neill NSW 6 0
Luke Wilkshire NSW 5 0
Scott Chipperfield NSW 5 0
Carl Valeri ACT 5 0
Mark Bresciano VIC 5 0
Jason Čulina NSW 5 0
Harry Kewell NSW 4 0
Tim Cahill NSW 4 0
Joshua Kennedy VIC 3 2
Chris Coyne WA 3 0
Brett Holman NSW 2 4
David Carney NSW 2 2
Craig Moore QLD 2 0
Scott McDonald VIC 2 0
Vince Grella VIC 2 0
Brett Emerton NSW 2 0
Richard Garcia WA 1 2
Jacob Burns NSW 1 1
Michael Beauchamp NSW 1 0
Mile Sterjovski NSW 0 3
Jade North QLD 0 2
Bruce Djite NSW 0 1
Mile Jedinak NSW 0 1
And I also looked at the population vs the Socceroos and you can see that apart from NSW and ACT (which is only Valeri) is below their population percentage. Qld is the biggest concern but SA is no existent.
In regard to the Under 23´s Qld still only had one player in Neil Kilkenny who played in their last game.
Population Socceroo
NSW 33% 65%
VIC 25% 18%
QLD 20% 3%
WA 10% 6%
SA 8% 0%
TAS 2% 0%
ACT 2% 8%
I would love to see the A league statistics to see if this trend is only at the pointy end of our game but I dont have the time to get this done.
Maybe the inclusion of 3 A League teams in Qld has a bigger reason.
Why do most Socceroos come from one State?
Pip, I dont think a bit of hot air from the AFL has derailed the bid. Calling Lowy incompetent is probably the most ridiculous comment I have ever read.
Fear and loathing is ruling Australian sports