Exactly, if anything I’d say these days with the internet and pay tv the people who only follow one sport would actually be the extreme minority. Also I don’t agree with these constant claims by people that the GWS are in competition with the A-League, at least for fans anyway. The A-League moved to a summer schedule to align with the international season and get away from the crowded winter sports market that the NSL had struggled in. The A-League now competes with cricket and basketball for fans, the AFL competes with the NRL and Rugby but again it doesn’t have to be a competition, you can enjoy more than one.

I’m pretty sure the pet memberships aren’t included in any official count seeing as the clubs’ member numbers didn’t change abnormally when they were introduced. Part of the problem with the GWS numbers though further to the normal murky member number issue is that a decent chunk of their members may be Canberra based members, obviously it would be difficult for these members to attend games at Spotless Stadium despite being a member of the club.

Bit hard on Cam Wood, just because he made a mistake in a game doesn’t mean he was a waste of a recruit. Got to remember in that Freo game he was a big lanky ruckman trying to do the job that Simpson or Gibbs should have been doing, meanwhile those two were 10 metres away manning empty space. Everybody always says ruckmen bloom later in their careers than every one else which puts Carlton in a (theoreically) good position with Wood as he should just be hitting that mark around now.

True returning from a knee injury means he will probably take some time to get back up to speed, same with Benteke and Kozak with their serious injuries as well, however, the Villa backroom staff do have a good record of getting players back into at least close to top shape if not at their best. Martin Laursen springs to mind immediately, a career blighted with injury yet during his run at the Villa it never had the same effect on his playing ability as at other clubs. Of course a lot of this is down to the player themselves and how much work they put into their rehab etc but it helps having the people around you to get you back in the game.

I’m expecting Villa to win the league and Cup double lol, at least that is what we should be doing according to Football Manager…Seriously though I’m expecting a mid table finish this year, upper mid table at best baring any horrible injury runs like last season. Although I think we have the nucleus of a good team with our crop of youngsters (annoyed Marc Albrighton was allowed to leave though he seemed to have stalled in his development the last two seasons) there are definitely areas for improvement and as with any team that has a large complement of youngsters keeping concentration for a full 90′ will be key, an area we didn’t excel the last two seasons. Mostly looking for some good entertaining football to come back to Villa Park though (and some damned positivity from my fellow Villans, but Brummies aren’t known for a positive outlook) as we had definite trouble linking play moving forward post Christmas

Headline Villa fans want to see: ‘Villa bought by Arab billionaire.’

Err not so much, I’d have rather that take over by the Brummie/American group had gone through. As seen at our rivals the Blues foreign money can have unfortunate consequences when these people buy clubs as a status symbol with no real love of the game. If the new owner genuinely loves football and wants Villa to succeed as a club then it won’t matter where they’re from but I don’t want the club thats been near and dear to my heart my whole life to become just another play thing for some random bilionaire.

Also Randy Lerner has effectively been open to selling the club for a few years after seeing the massive investment he put in to get Villa in to the UCL not come to fruition with 3 consecutive 6th place finishes under O’Neill and his transfer policy has reflected this. You mention that Lambert has spent the £40 million but this spread across quite a few younger players, the older guys coming in on free transfers in this window are being brought in for a very specific reason, to help these good young kids grow as players and provide a stop-gap in the team until these kids are truly ready to become frontliners.

Also i would say the manager pressure is lower than a 9/10 right now, somewhere in the 6-7 range, however, if a new owner can be found then the 9 or even 10 would be correct.

Pedantic note: It’s Jores Okore, not Jonas. (And he should be a big in for us this season to stiffen up our defence a little as he has shown all signs of being a quality young defender…so far)

As he will be on loan at City it will be City that are technically paying his wages, as you say though it really makes no difference in this situation. If Chelsea fans are that hurt about the situation though they should be blaming the manager not the player as it was Mourinho’s decision not to renew his contract and let him walk. I’ve known similar pain as a Villa fan when we let players like Barry, Milner, Mellberg and countless others move on in recent years and I rarely blamed the players as they always indicated they would’ve stayed had the contract been on the table, an exception would be Ashley Young but he fell in the toilet once he moved to Man U so no harm, no foul i guess…

On a pedantic note though it is the new MLS team New York City that Lampard and David Villa are joining not the New York Red Bulls, they are a different team owned by the Red Bull energy drink company.

True enough the two cities are quite different but there is no reason it cannot work in Sydney if done right. The NRL has to consider the issue along with the clubs themselves, dismissing it out of hand just because Melbourne and Sydney have some superficial differences is not the way to run things. Adapt or perish might sound a little too doomsday-ish but its basically the way things have to be, if the best way forward is to leave the old grounds behind then the fans will just have to suck it up and travel those extra 10, 20 or 30 minutes so that their clubs can prosper.

To say that stadium consolidation won’t work in Sydney as it did in Melbourne just because the teams are located in various geographical regions across the city is just silly. Melbourne was just as divided once upon a time but the game was losing money and the stadium consolidation allowed clubs to not only make money but grow beyond their traditional homes, however, that does not mean that those traditional suburban links disappeared though. The old suburban grounds may hold a special place in league fans collective hearts but the NRL would simply not be doing its due diligence if it did not explore the possibility of stadium consolidation. And it doesn’t have to mean all playing out of one stadium, there could be two as in Melbourne or three, whatever allows the clubs to reach the greatest number of possible supporters in order to generate income, the fans would just have to stop being stubborn and accept that it is in their club’s best interest (if indeed that is the direction that is determined to be best).

Rather than push for something like this I think the better strategy would be to support those overseas who already love our game by promoting the international cup. Perhaps the AFL could even fund the travel of national teams as it has been a common recurrence that teams pull out due to not being able to afford the trip. These are just ordinary guys (and girls) who love our game but can’t hope to compete because the money is just not there. Granted the exposure back home for these teams is still not going to be great but that can be improved through time and effort and there is a whole lot greater chance of someone getting involved if there is a clear pathway in the game ie “I could play for my country in the sport I love.” If some guy can wander down to his local club to play and maybe make the national team one day its far more interesting and a greater chance of inciting support than if they had to move to Aus to have any chance of playing.

I understand your desire to see Aussie Rules flourish around the world as I have the same wish, I want people to love our game the way we do, however, the way to go about it is to actually develop the game overseas and reward some of those guys who are already doing the hard yards. A random tournament held with no real international input claiming to be a multi-cultural World Cup would come across more as us patting ourselves on the back for how multi-cultural we are rather than engender any real love for our game.

As someone who has spent the majority of my life here in Aus (born in England) it may sound slightly odd to say I still support England as my No.1 team in any sport because I’ve always felt a greater affinity with England when it comes to sport because I can’t stand the attitude of Australian sport fans and media (some comments on here are a prime example).

The Australian cricket team always annoyed me cause it was full of ******* (imo) and I was happy to see them lose to any one, same goes for any other sport minus football. In football I’ll support the Socceroos unless they come up against England then its The Three Lions for me.

Of course this is all just based off of my personal experience, perhaps if my life had been the other way around and I was born here but grew up there I’d be a diehard Australian supporter.

You could replace “English” with “Australians” and that sentence would go just as well in my experience, in fact it would describe almost any country…

Sadly it could be argued these days that the club game is the pinnacle of soccer and soon to be cricket, even though it shouldn’t be, as that is where the money is. How many times have we seen top soccer clubs keep a player back from an international match saying they are “injured” only for them to line up the next week for the club. Fan support is not the only barometer for judging whether any kind of rep game is the pinnacle, perhaps the most important is the hunger of the players to play it i.e. does a young kid grow up dreaming of playing for the Croweaters/Sandgropers/Big V? In the old pre-AFL days this was probably true, nowadays though you’re right in saying there is a definite club first mentality and for good reason, thats where the money is.

I would also encourage anyone who still wants to bring back Australian Rules origin games to get out and support your State League. We still play a one-off rotating fixture inter league game every year. This year the SANFL take on the Big V which should be a great match (not sure who the others are playing this year), sadly its in Melbourne so I can’t make it, but I would urge others to get out there and support the match if you want to show the AFL that you care about rep footy.

Not to seem like I’m taking anything too seriously but all stars are considered black bodies, that is a body that reflects no light, stars being emitters of light. In contrast to our moon for example which is a white body meaning it only reflects light and gives off none of its own.

In regards the rest of the article though I find the whole idea of needing a slogan rather cringe-worthy, other than marketing merchandise I can’t see any actual use in having one at all.

Good article, the endless hyperbole does become incredibly tiresome after a while. One that always gets me, and not just in sport, is “decimated.” Somehow this term now means to have been badly beaten or to have a team sustain a couple injuries though it originates from a form of Roman capital punishment where a legion would be punished for crimes such as mutiny by having one in every ten men killed, Perhaps Im just getting more pedantic these days but I can’t really see the similarity in these scenarios.

I must say the hostility toward “the other code” is something I never really encountered having spent most of my life growing up in Adelaide, it was only when I started to read media from interstate as I got older and read some of the silly things people wrote on the net that I encountered this hostility toward Aussie Rules you mention. Generally I find in South Australia and everywhere else I’ve been this side of the “Barassi Line” rugby league is really just met with a meh response as opposed to outright hostility.

I really do agree with you though, being a fan of many different sports I find the code war mindset to be the strangest thing. There are sports I am not interested in sure but i wouldn’t begrudge others for liking it, I save those kind of reactions for people who deserve it like those with terrible taste in music lol.

Many teams might not have a recognised tagger such as a Ryan Crowley but they will all employ tagging tactics throughout the game if necessary. When an opposition star is running amok you don’t just leave him be and hope that he goes off the boil, you have to lock him down and as long as the player assigned to that ‘tagging’ or ‘run with’ role stays within the laws of the game then I don’t have a problem whatsoever with this tactic. Defense is just as important in winning matches and ultimately premierships as offense.

Also tagging doesn’t mean we will see a decline in stand out games from the stars of the game due to tagging, look at Gary Ablett, he gets tagged just about every game but is good enough to get away and pull big stat numbers, and if your team’s ball winners aren’t that good then it falls to his team mates to help him out with blocks etc. After all this is a team sport and despite its stand out stars will always require a team effort to win the points.

Exactly the sort of thing I love about going down to watch a Glenelg game in the SANFL, doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, we can sit or stand wherever we want, can have a kick on the ground or listen to the coaches at the breaks, its just a good day/evening out imo. Now if only my team could could play some decent footy to go with it…

No, Adelaide would have been divided along the lines Port, Norwood and “I’ll just stick with my team in the SANFL thank you.” As a Glenelg supporter there’s no way I would follow either of those teams and I don’t know anyone else who follows a different SANFL team who would have.

“I think you will find Man City will not allow themselves to be treated like this….” I honestly don’t think they’d give a toss what some cartoonist for a local rag draws about them.I certainly wouldn’t call it clever but its nothing to be offended about either imo.

Adelaide and Juve would be horrible, wrongly or not it would be seen as a step back toward the rigidly ethnic teams of the old NSL. The reason United works (for most) is the perception of it as not a team for just Italians or just Greeks as in the old Adelaide City and West Adelaide Hellas.

There are transfer fees in the A-League, its just not normal as players are usually only taken at the end of a contract, also they’re usually negligibly small.

Good article, just a couple points though Elsey was not a debutant in that Brisbane match, its was his third game. Also I don’t buy that the squad was ever lacking in belief through the run of poor results, if you listened to the player interviews they were always upbeat about Gombau’s style and always expressed the view that the results would come.

In my opinion what they lacked was flexibility during the earlier period of the season, a determination to always do the same thing allowed the opposition to easily and effectively counter the reds. Now, though still playing basically the same, the team seems more willing to mix it up during a game and try alternate avenues to goal or out of defense which keeps the opposition guessing, and allows an easier task at unlocking their defense.

Victory do not have to pay any compensation to the Roar as he is out of contract with them at the end of the season and has signed a pre-contract to join Victory next season. If he were under contract then the Victory would have had to pay the transfer fee to compensate the Roar

Sadly they would not be eligible even if they took Aus citizenship having both previously played international for other countries

Theres no intent to punish good teams in Australian sports leagues unless they get good buy gaining an unfair advantage through salary cap rorts and so on. The idea of equalisation in Australian sport is to lift the struggling teams up so that they can compete and not be in danger of dying off, take for example Pompey in English football, a former premier league club that won the FA Cup and went to Europe but through poor administration is now in languishing in League 2 only 2 points above the drop zone and could very well find itself a non-league club by the end of the season if results go against them. With a smallish population base and limited corporate money to prop clubs up we can’t afford things like that to happen here as it will hurt the game as a whole therefore the Leagues take steps to avoid this kind of scenario by making sure everyone gets a fair slice of the pie and keeps tabs on how that money is used.

As far as punishing the top teams im not so sure it really does, its not often that the big clubs in any football code in Aus lose their good players and when they do its usually because they had to be sold to get cash for the club ie Central Coast or just because they are moving on to a better quality league.

Allowing a small number of teams to dominate our league through superior financial reserves as happens in Europe would result in the standard of our league fast disappearing as unlike overseas the “second tier” A-League teams wouldn’t have the money to attract talent without the income from the FFA and when theres no decent opposition to play against the better teams will have no incentive to develop new local talent when they can just buy ready-made imports.