Sports Banter

The A League is still two months away. Can you believe it? It feels like an eternity. However you wouldn’t know about it. As the European season gets ready to kick off in earnest in the next two weeks it is hard to believe that we will be waiting until 8^th October before we see top level football in Australia.

It will be 209 days from the last game of last season to the first of this year or 6 months, 25 days excluding the end date since the unbelievable scenes at Suncorp Stadium of the A League Grand Final on 13^th March. Agonisingly long for supporters of the game and long enough to slip from the consciousness of sports fans that follow soccer in the summer months.

The AFL’s gap is 173 days and the NRL’s gap is smaller again at 159 days. Both of course have high profile pre-season fixtures that make those gaps seem smaller still. We recognise a later start to the season avoiding a clash with the AFL and NRL’s finals could be a positive. We also acknowledge the benefits of giving our players matches for longer into the northern hemisphere’s season, enhancing the potential for players to represent the Socceroos in key matches however this is still a very long break.

Of course with the pre-season cup competition ending a couple of seasons ago the break feels even more extended.

Where is the hype of the season ahead? The recent friendlies against Celtic that three teams played seem a distant memory already. The momentum for the season is lost.

Is the A League waiting for Harry Kewell to sign and launch the season for them? It would be sad if it was. They should be promoting now, why not put a countdown clock in Martin Place, The Valley or Federation Square “Only 60 days to go until kick off”.

Whilst I understand the shift in the season launch to avoid a clash with AFL and NRL finals, the question must be; how will any publicity during September for the A League season launch get space ahead of St George and Collingwood’s attempts to go back-to-back?

Then there is the spine tingling thought for the FFA, what if there is a draw in the AFL grand final again? Id this occurred the season’s launch at Etihad Stadium between the league’s two most successful clubs would be better off applying to be the curtain raiser at the MCG. With only 3 drawn grand finals in 115 years hopefully this does not happen.

The V8’s are not for everyone but Bathurst tends to consume a large amount of forest each year and with the race around Mount Panorama that weekend, it’s just another big ticket item to compete with.

As a country with as many diverse sporting options to attend as we do, on any given weekend, the A League will always have competition in Australia.

Looking ahead to the fixture we can be thankful that we wait until week 9 before we see a midweek clash with Sydney hosting Perth in a yet to be confirmed regional venue. Whilst I liked the midweek fixtures it seems the public didn’t and restricting these to holiday times can only be good for school children. The FFA must earn a tick to this element of the fixture, but in from season to season, ultimately it’s a long wait between drinks.

The introduction of a national cup competition seems a while off, so there won’t be a season extension through fixtures there. As mentioned there are always going to be clashes with other sports and events, so let’s not be scared of these. The FFA should have the courage of its convictions to know that enough people love the game to come to a longer season. Play each team home and away twice rather than the unfair 3 times we have now. Start the season in line with Europe and may football grow from strength to strength. 

Lenny

In this world of new born clubs there is something slightly more ominous about the Greater Western Sydney Giants than their older sibling Gold Coast Suns and for that we can thank Kevin Sheedy being at the helm. The AFL’s appointment of Sheedy as inaugural coach of the Giants is a masterstroke. That he has already riled enough people internally and externally of the Australian Football League to regularly make front page news (in Sydney) is to consider the appointment already a success.

The contempt building for the Giants from fans of clubs whose players are targets and from fans of rugby league for daring to pinch players and suggest they can make a statement in the heartland has built an identity for a club that had none.

Having a culture is what is important for a football club and if the rest of the country is ganging up on Western Sydney – both the club and the location – as Eddie McGuire alluded to on his radio program this week, then this might help the locals of that region get behind their team and area by supporting the club.

Which uncontracted players move to Sydney will be interesting, but the feeling is that the buying power in terms of dollars is more than what the Gold Coast offered and the targeted players are of no less pedigree than Gary Ablett was before he took the money and the challenge of moving north.

Melbourne’s second year player and former number one draft pick Tom Scully will most likely stay at his club, but uncertainty looms over the targeted big three at Collingwood. Dane Swan, Scott Pendlebury and Dale Thomas have all been identified targets by Sheedy and it wouldn’t be surprising to see one of them depart at the end of this year.

Collingwood is in a slightly different position to that of Melbourne. The players have played in a premiership and may win another this year, so that box is ticked. The money will no doubt be attractive and despite the media’s dismissal last year of Ablett identifying the challenge as an attraction, there is merit in a gun player wanting the challenge to be involved in a start-up club.

Despite this though, the telling possibility for one of these players to sign with the Giants is at the end of this year Mick Malthouse will no longer be coaching the Magpies. The three mentioned targets all played with their future coach Nathan Buckley and their relationships with him might determine if they stay or not. It is an unusual one.

The players love Malthouse, know his game plan and will in many ways start again under Buckley. If players are to re-adjust to a new coach and new game plan why not do it with double the money and the captaincy of a new club in your back pocket as well. Beware for the swooping Magpie Giant in the early weeks of October.