Roar Rookie
Joined July 2019
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At the moment City and Mariners look a lock for the six. If Adelaide can win their next two then they will make the third lock for the six.
The remaining 3 spots are a toss up. Only WEL, NUJ and MVC can really be counted out. Still possible but they would have to have a dream run and hope too many other teams falter.
Is the A-League's final top six already set?
City would have to be favourites. But what happens after the Arnold 34 man squad is picked and Nabbout and Maclaren leave. Their good form started when these two and Griffiths all made the pitch. If those two go do they have the depth or do they go back to when they got 6 points from the first 6 rounds?
Is the A-League's final top six already set?
I think you actually need to re-consider what you think is the crowd cap. When they talk about a 50% cap – that is the maximium. The venue has to submit a safe Covid plan which in many cases is considerably less than 50%.
Is the A-League about to become what we've always wanted it to be?
Hate them both as commentators.
I have met Bosnich once with another great Australian keeper, Terry Greedy (very intelligent guy – could be worth someone looking at him as an analyst). I had just seen Danny Vukovic miskick a ball into a young girl’s face. Bozza was with her in a minute looking after her. A side of him I don’t see enough of.
Bosnich offers a lot as an analyst – preferably in the studio before or after the game or at half-time. He does though have some strange views even on keeping. i.e. He advocates staying directly on the line for free-kicks to give yourself the longest time to react. Most keepers prefer to stand at least six inches in front so that if they have to turn the ball around the post – they can – rather than into the post and in, either directly, or off your own head or body.
When Fox loses the rights I hope that is the last I hear of Speed. I’d still be happy to listen to Bosnich from a studio though – just not calling the game.
Mark Bosnich: Expert or ego?
Yes Mike
I do remember Patricio Perez and the way he was hounded out of Australia. Liam Reddy tried to trip him once, which Perez avoided but changed his centre of gravity. Reddy then tripped him with his other hand.
That sounds like “Tripping or attempting to trip an opponent” – in fact he did it twice. If Perez hadn’t have been tripped he had a tap-in so you can also add denying a goal-scoring opportunity.
The fact that Reddy’s sanction was overturned and Perez outed was a disgrace. What is more a disgrace is that no-one since Perez has been sanctioned since that first weekend.
In the meantime Del Piero, Broich and Berisha and many others should have been sanctioned many times for simulation.
Gripping grand final proves there's still life in the A-League yet
I think you may be writing off CCM prematurely. They have had no incentive to invest in thee HAL under the old system. How can an area of 340,000 justify spending money on a marquee when they get $4 from a $119 shirt. You may increase crowds but that is just taken by ‘extras charges’ on top of the rental charged by the Council and the increase in security and police costs.
I think you will find the Mariners will be a lot stronger this season and build on that the following season.
WU on the other hand I have grave fears for. The place is already taken as a Victory stronghold for anyone that follows football. They wax lyrical in Geelong and the surrounding areas about their growing participation numbers but it is still around half of what the Central Coast had in 2004 when the Mariners were formed and about a quarter of the Central Coast’s current numbers.
An independent A-League: Who will the casualties be?
I think Mid has probably identified what a lot of people what to see in the long term. The problem is how to get there.
I’ve often seen that we have to connect to the large participation base, or we have to play in ‘clear air’ or we have to connect to the community better. These are all considerations and important in their own right (though I don’t think there is ‘clear air’ in the Australian sport market) but they are not the answer in and of themselves. I think the way forward is dependent on the media deal.
People say we do not have the ratings to justify a better media deal. That is probably true in terms of the Australian audience. But we are a global game. We need to identify not broadcaster/s but media partner/s. Which media partner’s can recognise our vision and help us get there while seeing value to it for themselves.
To me that means the local FTA are not an option except as onsell targets. they are simply too small. Stan/Nine or Optus/10 may be the way to go locally. But what about globally? Optus and DAZN may be more value there.
Then the consideration is whether the APLs align with the national team media deals. A ‘whole of football’ package would be worth more than the sum of the parts. Do football create the content and provide it to the media partners? Do football buy-back WC qualifiers from the AFC like Saudi Arabia has so that that can be included in a ‘twin-deal – whole of football’ package. What about lower NPL leagues – what are the plans there.
Potentially, football can get a media deal that can rival the AFL and NRL – but only a small component of that will come from rights in Australia. The other side of the equation is that we don’t engage global players and have to cut our cloth to suit a smaller deal.
The deal will also determine when we play. A large international deal may mean a winter comp, may be more likely (stadium considerations aside) as it will provide content when other leagues are dormant. It would also almost certainly bring forward expansion and a NSD in search of more content. A smaller local deal will mean that we will probably revert to summer in some form and mean a much slower, incremental fulfilment of where we want to be.
The next few weeks are crucial to what trajectory we take. There is a real opportunity there now. Football has had more clear cut opportunities before and shot themselves in the foot. This one is much more difficult to achieve but potentially is the biggest opportunity to date.
Is what's perfect getting in the way of what's good for football?