Thursday, September 04, 2008

A week in the A-League

FFA investigations

Spitting in rugby league is worth 3 weeks. In football, a minimum of 12 months unless the FFA decides to downgrade to a lessor charge.Lucky Dino Djulbic. Perth could not afford to end the career of one of its outstanding performers from last year.

At the same time, the FFA decided not to charge Mark Bosnich for his un-carded professional foul on Massimo Murdocca. Central Coast need the publicity a strange character like Bosnich brings. Sadly for him he appears like a boxer who has fought one too many fights.

Danny Tiatto is a marked man. And as we saw in the last round last season against Adelaide and last week against CCM, he is going to be targeted by the A-League's bully boys - itching to provoke him into retaliation and get him sent off. The surprise was from 22 year old Matt Simon - taking pieces out of Tiatto and Liam Reddy. This may seem like a good idea now - when officials assume that a young socceroo is on the angelic side - even winning a free kick from a foul on Tiatto, but later in his career it may come home to roost.

Go West Roar

Perth and the Roar will throw everything at their next match. Neither can afford the impact of a loss, and even a draw will be negative outcome for both teams as they slip further down the ladder. The season four blues could pressure on both clubs.

New Clubs

It made me smile when I saw Paul Okon's plea for the FFA to allow Gold Coast United to approach other clubs' players coming off contract in June 2009 in November 2008. If the clubs allow the FFA to do this they have rocks in their heads. Okon misses the point, new clubs are supposed to be easy beats, that is why the financial hurdles are so high. Gold Coast and North Queensland need to be able to survive coming last for a few seasons to give fans of other clubs respite.

No comments: