One ray of hope

Pay Mario Karlovic for a full game. Leave Cernak out.

Bring Miller back for 30 minutes per game. Please give us something to watch.

Not entertaining

'Brisbane boss Ange Postecoglou was frustrated to leave with a point after watching his team control large portions of the match. “We certainly had enough of the ball and we moved it quite well”'

Mate, the fans were just bored with the training ground - obvious and predictable passing, that gave Newcastle no trouble. At least Brisbane had the excuse of injuries. Why are Newcastle so dull?

Melbourne - even Wellington - would have thrashed these teams.

Brisbane 1 v Newcastle 1: It's a place without a postcard, and I'm never going there...

At 86:35 minutes Orangecrush leaned over to me and said 'Do you think the players realise that this is the most important 3 minutes of the club's history and they have to score?' I agreed with his sentiment and said 'And they aren't going to score.'

The low crowd didn't help. This was a dull game. And yet Charlie Miller for 30 minutes could have won this game for the Roar. Ange must take responsibility for that. And it shows that he is making 'football' decisions at the expense crowd interest.

In other words they are doing what the club is desperate to say they are not doing - writing off the season.

And next week the FFA is sending Tommy Oar - with Franjic - the only bright spot off on tour. Hey guys if you want the Roar to survive you need to do something now.

And what was it that gave Craig Moore man-of-the-match? Did anyone notice that the goal was his fault?

Playing Cernak as a start and then giving all the corners and free kicks back fired. He was poor. Tommy oar may have made something of them.

Have a look at this promo from the Roar. 'Ange Postecoglou is expecting a showcase of open, attacking football tomorrow night when Brisbane Roar take on the Newcastle Jets at Suncorp Stadium.' Neither side had anything in the final third. Most of the game was boring. Tope-Stanley simply pushed Mitch Nichols out of the way all night.

The Roar's defence has looked brittle all season. Newcastle had one chance - one striker beat 3 defenders (including Moore) and the goalkeeper.

Van Dijk just was not that tonight. Why should he get marquee play. He should have been on Toper-Stanley and Mitch should have been running in....

The lower ticket prices back-fired, few would have thought they got value tonight.

Brisbane v Newcastle - 7:30pm tonight

It is make or break. Probably for both teams. Certainly for Brisbane. If they lose Ange probably gets to keep coaching. But what of the crowd?

It is entertainment values v 'coming to play football'.

The promotion for this game, one of the few in prime fan viewing time this year, has been modest. Reflecting the finances of the club. The size of the crowd will tell us a lot. It has gone well beyond ticket costs.

Soccernomics

Arrived today. Great read. Not sure it is a great predictor of the future...

'A century from now, Aussie Rules might exist only at subsidized folklore festivals.' page 304

Mmmmm. Assuming trend continued.

And I thought it was the Gold Coast not just another Northern Spirit

Big money, big players, total flop.

Sydney 2 v Brisbane 1

Where is the refing consistency? Fox, who have now clearly turned to supporting the Roar after ditching them after game 3, clearly need to write to the FFA that the Refs need to be re-briefed. Well maybe not. But apart from Miller's punch, how was the Roar's treatment of Kruse worse than Sydney's treatment of Oar? Surely it isn't just that Tommy is a far better prospect than Kruse?

On Miller, I think the mood at the Roar is that his punch was close to a final straw. Now unless he shows real magic at training, he isn't going to play.

For this game it was fairly even with Brisbane missing chances in the first half. Then Sydney dominated the first 25 minutes of the second half. The after Sydney were two up it was all Tommy Oar and the Roar.

Too bad that they are now equal last as they can't blame Frank for that. The club must take the rap. And it is hard to see a turnaround in the crowd for Newcastle.

As for Sydney, it was sad to see them targeting Oar and then in the last 10 minutes adopting the hated 'go down and stay down tactics' to break Brisbane's time on the ball.

You can see why Sydney can the A-League's best yellow card record, their transgressions get ignored. While almost anything Brisbane does gets book. If the FFA wants the crowd to pick up they will have to change the refereeing approach. People want to see what Tommy Oar can do not continually pulled down and tripped.

The Roar now have to add Reinaldo to the injured list. Mario Karlovic needs to lift he should be emulating Oar.

Good riddence to Bob Malcolm. Give us our 5th foreign spot back.

Poor performance from Foxtel get your cables fixed. About 30 minutes got to air.

Wellington 6 v Gold Coast 0: Smashified

Oh and Gold Coast played so well too.

Foxtel has been having outages (Sydney and Brisbane and other parts of Australia) all week so I saw little of this game and less of the Sydney v Brisbane game. However, something happened.

It was amazing to see former Roar 2nd keeper Scott Higgins letting them go through his legs and all sorts.

There was some back story about public statements by Miron having a go at Herbert in the press about the New Zealand team and its world cup preparation. And why the camera work was abysmal, you could see them arguing through the game.

I think Culina and the players have had enough of a club that is not interested in fans. It looked like poaking fun at first. Now they know they are the joke. I believe Miron has lost the 'dressing room' for the second time. The team is tied of his, the owner's and the CEO's behaviour. Will there be a Gold Coast next year if this keeps up?

One other story. The NZ commentary team hit new lows called Zenon Caravella a 'little dog'. That needs to be looked into.

Fury 2 v Perth 1

Perth have a good team that don't play that well. Fury went 1 down again. But a great quickly taken free kick from Fowler just outside the box and a spectacular turn and shoot from Daal won the game. They deserved too. Not because they play great football but because Perth's game was really lacking.

It was the Fury's first win at home. And they have a couple of thousand more fans than the snobs at Gold Coast.

After Newcastle and Fury's wins, if Wellington win, Roar could be last by the end of the weekend.

Melbourne3 v Adelaide 1

My guess is Melbourne or Sydney now. Melbourne have been able to bar far too many good players. How do they get them all within the cap. Well of course they don't. Special deals to allow Muscat to be paid outside the cap because he is really a or the coach - or neither. $1m transfer deals. And wow 2 great Asian players. Plus 19 year old - 2 goals tonight - Mate Dugandzic. Why do they even need the injured Kruse (shows how foolish the Roar were for targeting him (and ending their season).

Jets 2 v CCM 1

Check out the A-League site naming Mark Bridges (Sydney) as Michael Bridges (Newcastle).

This result showed how badly the Roar played last week - made the Mariners look good.

Millerfied

Not enough that Charlie Miller, last year's fan favourite, has disgraced himself, now he is back on the injured list. So is Danny Tiatto. Should have let them go.

Moore is out too - sorry he shouldn't be our marquee (I understand he is paid what so clubs pay players inside the cap).

Now we will probably play the A-League's worst player - Bob Malcolm.

Did Ange know what he was getting into?

The drums are beating that FFA is about to takeover the Roar. But they may wait until the downward spiral stops.

Packer is back in, McKay back in, Reinaldo back in. But not looking their best.

Dodd is back.

Zullo still out - are we allowed to sign someone else?

Reddy out for 6 plus games. Murdocca running but not playing. Henrique seen on training park.

Mundy signed last year - is he proving himself? How long for Smits? (Compare Smits to Grossman doing OK with Fury).

Can't expect a team to be winning with 6 top players out injured (out of 23 man squad).

Anti and Syphoning: Pay TV option is good bargaining chip but you don't want it to be our only coverage

John: Watching the roar wasn't much fun Saturday

Informed Source: I'll bet. They seem to be in a big low.

John: Bob Malcolm caused 2 goals and looked like he wasn't even playing, so did Moore in the 1st 20 mins.

Informed Source: Malcolm may well know that he's unlikely to be part of the main mix from here on in.

John: One thing people aren't saying is that Brisbane was the 2nd biggest crowd. Gold Coast - top of the league and best team - winner v Perth was going top - crowd = 4,500

Informed Source: Yes. Good point. While the focus is on Brisbane, there are deeper issues there. I believe there is a clear correlation between the success of a code and its prominence on free-to-air tv. For example, in 2003 union was pushing to overtake NRL as the major form of rugby in the country. But lost momentum when they signed the deal with Fox. From 2005, soccer was on a high following the world cup qualification, that reached fever pitch in 2006 with making the qtr finals. All codes were genuinely scared - including the all-conquering AFL. But already signed up to a Fox arrangement and what happened....

Another example, NBL went from being on free-to-air tv in the late 80s and through the 90s to a deal with Fox and ended up dying altogether for a year and a half....

Compared to AFL and NRL which are clearly the dominant football codes in the country, only rivaled by cricket for national interest.... all 3 of these sports have strong free-to-air coverage.

My hypothesis: if channel 9 didn't sign up rugby league but signed up rugby union instead, and Fox Sports had have taken over rugby league, the exodus of players from league to union would have continued and union would be pushing for status as the dominant of the 2 codes.

John: So how do you read the latest free-to-air v pay debate happening in parliament now? I heard Wayne Goss on the radio the other day talking about anti syphoning list changes.

Informed Source: Complex: in some part it's short-term greed on behalf of the codes going to the govt looking for relaxation. On the other side, I understand that they sometimes need the bargaining chip of pay tv to get a better free-to-air outcome. It is also a matter of different codes being at different points in their product life-cycle.

Three questions: comment welcome

1. can Brisbane be competitive this year (competitive = top 4)?

2. if they aren't, how big will the crowd be by year's end?

(note that Brisbane had the 2nd biggest crowd last week and Gold Coast with Culina and Smeltz only had 4,500).

3. Where will they play next year?



and if you answer those, here's another:

4. who will own the franchise next year?

Brisbane 0 v Central Coast 3

Bob Malcolm and Craig Moore will not play next week. Certainly in the case of Malcolm that is a very good thing. He may be the worse import the A-League has had. Robbie Slater described his work as the worst defending he had seen in the A-League. He caused the first 2 goals. The first bounced off him to the Mariners (2nd time in two weeks) and the 2nd he decided not to tackle.

Danny Tiatto was well behaved despite some nasty challenges on him by Simon in particular. He also will be lucky to play next week. Lucky Ange has new players to replace the ones he doesn't like.

Craig got his 5th yellow and he will be suspended. He has played too many games in too short a time. A critical times tonight he looked worn out.

Malcolm took a bad hit in jumping for a header and got a big cut under his eye and a broken nose. DeVere came on and was much better.

60% possession. 20 plus shots on goal and you lose 0-3. Big trouble.

By the way, if Brisbane are a dirty team what about the Mariners? The ref looked like he didn't want to give CCM players a second card.

Incredibly, the Roar were favourites in the betting before the match. Did anyone really think they would win? Or was something funny going on. Fox kept going on about how the Roar will be in the mix at the end of the season. No fan I asked tonight believes that for a minute. Bottom 3 is the guess.

Brisbane need a new owner. And fast. Then spend mega dollars on a guest player. Or less people will show up.

Fox Sports, after weeks of talking the Roar down are now trying to talk them up. Good luck guys.

The crowd was supposed to be 7,400. I could only see around 6,000. And a lot of people got in free. Including some who were given free tickets when they were walking up to buy some. Will people who got in for free to see this this time will pay next time?

Free tickets and ticket discounting hurts your number one fans, your season ticket holders. And hollow promises of 20% off next season's tickets just don't wash. Today under 15s were all free with adults. But I paid mine months ago. Plus season ticket holders are already given a discount for giving their money upfront. It is not clear if we will get a discount on a discount. I doubt it.

This is a real commercial stuff up. It is very hard to see Brisbane playing at Suncorp next year. I think it is fair to ask who the owners will be.

Rudan thinks we need more characters..

"I wish it hadn't (lost some edge) because it was always good for the game," Rudan said. ....
"It's really been timid and a little bit boring (since), there's not enough characters in the game. "I've been away (overseas) for a couple of years and this season there haven't been any outrageous comments or anything like that to give you a good laugh." Quoted at Fox Sports.

And why? Because unless your Clive Palmer and the FFA is powerless to control you, FFA will fine coaches and players unless they say what it wants.

Almost over ...

After the Roar Board, via the Courier Mail, complained that Frank had too much influence, Ange is now laying down the law. Rado to the young team, Ange doesn't need any help.

Physios Tony Ganter and Cameron Schembri have resigned.

I hope they win this afternoon, go Rado. I like coaches with sons in the Socceroos.

Adelaide 2 v Sydney 1 Brilliant

While Barbs send off on the 8th minute was fair, Adelaide got the raw end of the poor refing show - and still won.

The main feature was the central defending display by Colosimo and Rudan. The best in the league by far.

Why do commentators think it fair to have a go at Scott Jamieson? I wish he played for us - he is fantastic and more brutalised than Robbie Kruse - better player too.

More Moore

Here is what the Courier Mail said today:

'Farina's departure will spell the end for a handful of Roar players, sooner rather than later. Tiatto, 36, has already declared he will retire at season's end, while the Roar careers of Miller and Bob Malcolm – both off contract at the end of Brisbane's current campaign – seem clouded.'

So how many fans does the Board think will be happy with Miller leaving?

Elsewhere (Sydney Morning Herald) the speculation is that Moore wants out. And why won't he? He brought Miller and Malcolm to the club and Tiatto is his close friend. And Moore started the attack on Kruse in the press.

And what does the Courier Mail say about Moore:

'With Farina gone, Moore's opinion will be more often sought by the Roar board, who are keen for their 33-year-old captain to remain part of the club well beyond his playing days.'

According to the Courier Mail, the Board were complaining that Frank was controlling everthing. What if Moore was ready controlling it all already. And now they want to give him more influence.

Interesting given that they now want his friends Miller, Malcolm and Tiatto to leave the club.

To me this is Miron re-visited. Get rid of the coach. Get new players in. Re-launch the club. Crowds will go up.

We will see.

This is the best argument for a member based club - that votes for the Board and, possibly even the coach, that you will find.

Poor crowds are not the Coach's fault

The Board and the FFA made the decisions that impacted the Roar's crowds. The ill disciple against Melbourne had nothing to do with it! How could it? The poor crowds had already happened.

Why did the crowds fall:

1. Gold Coast - split the Roar crowd and have no fans of their own (FFA have admitted this with typical club fisted approach ).

2. Raising ticket prices (look what happened at the Celtic game)

The Board must accept responsibility for not accepting financial help.

And then he said:

Ange has said:

“If we lose tomorrow night I think people will legitimately turn around and say well it’s been a tough week, you don’t blame them,”

He is wrong. If we lose fans will say: "The Board and FFA has stuffed our team 2 weeks in a row."

Ange is about to find this is a tough game. No one pays to see their team play with their hands tied the way FFA and the Board have tied Brisbane.

Moore may be next

This from football's best journalist Mike Cockerill:

'There are some suggestions that Moore could be looking for a way out following the coaching change - possibly considering a return to Europe sooner rather than later.

Moore, 33, is one of only two A-League players in the Socceroos squad, and has been told by coach Pim Verbeek he needs to keep playing until May to remain in his World Cup plans. Moore had been talking about an overseas loan deal or a short-term stint with Adelaide United or Melbourne Victory, who are both participating in next year's Asian Champions League. Depending on talks with Postecoglou, this week's events at the club might hasten his departure.'

Brisbane 0 v Gold Coast 1

I watched the replay. The ref waved play on 5 times when Brisbane players were brought down in the box. At least 2 were no argument penalties. Even the Fox commentators who were going on and on about how bad Brisbane were admitted this.

There were Gold Coast and Brisbane fans on my bus on the way home and the only conversation was how bad the ref was. Whether the ref was right or wrong does not matter, for fans the minimum is that they felt they got a reasonable deal. The FFA knew the fans were sick of the ref as he had to be escorted off the field at half and full time (the latter by police).

Even Fox, told by the FFA to back their refs in all circumstances, said that they were surprised Steve Pantelidis didn't get a card. 4 Brisbane players did for minor offenses. The FFA, and the Courier Mail, may see a badly behaved team, most Brisbane fans saw bias.

Roar switch from Dutch to Greek

It is Ange Postecoglou a football insider, contrasting to Frank Farina sitting outside the football paradise club.

I would be very surprised if many people in Brisbane know who he is. He has 4 Socceroo caps and won 2 NSL titles as a player and 2 as a coach.

Club Chairman Chris Bombolas more or less conceded in a heated interview with ABC Radio host Kelly Higgins-Divine that it was the 4 owners who voted as a block of the 7 board members to determine Frank Farina's fate. It is possible that the FFA where applying pressure for something to happen to attract a decent crowd (what it is not clear).

Let's hope the owners are now prepared to back-up their decision with the mega dollars that will be needed to buy a guest player and, next year, a new marque. The current squad does not have the depth and some will leave next year.

From Saturday we will see how up-hill Ange's job will be - crowd? win?

You must win to get the crowd - Chris Bombolas was saying 'ask the previous coach' about the results - But the Roar don't have enough fit players to win the championship. It has nothing to do with the coach.

By the way Reddy is out for 6 weeks.

Brisbane Roar Update

An interesting article in the Courier Mail on Monday. The story was that some Roar directors regretted not accepting FFA help at the beginning of the season. The reason given for the regret was that the FFA would have been able to control Frank Farina via a director of football - and stopped poor player behaviour.

I think it would be worth knowing a bit more about why the Roar owners didn't accept FFA at that time - not why they regret that decision.

Frank Farina has been at the club a while and I believe they were happy with him when the FFA offered help.

I think that the cause of the player 'on-field' behaviour, and perhaps Frank's off-field, is likely to be related to stress caused by a club that has run out of money. And why? Because the directors decided not to accept FFA help. (I believe that this type of impact has happened before in different way - Perth in season one, Sydney, NZ Knights, Adelaide... ). I agree that the director could not have foreseen this.

And I don't think Brisbane people have stopped going to the Roar because of Frank or the player behaviour. It was caused by:

- setting up a new club on their door-stop who somehow managed to accumulate the best team in the league (both Gold Coast based and victory hungry Brisbane based - Roar fans have moved over).

- Gold Coast also took 5 Roar managers, their short's sponsor, one of their crowd pleasers

- Miron boycotting publicity

- very poor scheduling including in the middle of a Bronco and Brisbane Lions end of season winning run

- Zullo's long term injury, Kruse's behaviour and Minniecon leaving for Gold Coast

- afternoon games that suited Fox Sports but not walk-up fans

- and the big one - few families have Foxtel, few children know who the players are

- there was a feeling across Brisbane that last year was their big chance and they missed it

So why didn't the directors get FFA help?

Well, at the time the Courier Mail gave some clues - apparently some directors didn't want FFA bringing a big owner coming in and diluting their influence (they wanted a number of small investors).

Well Melbourne, Sydney, Perth & Gold Coast have shown us you do need a mega rich person/company to spend the necessary money to grow your team.

Here is how Fox Sports covered a Perth player who king hit an Adelaide player...

"Andy is a model professional and has been outstanding for Perth since arriving in Western Australia this year. We're looking forward to him returning in time for our next home game on November 1."

Both clubs have also been cited by the match review panel for misconduct during the match and have until Wednesday to challenge the charges. '

Todd punched Jamieson (one of Australia's best young defenders) on the way off the pitch.

Hey Miller, how would you have liked this treatment?

Any views on this:

"If I was Frank I would be going to see Alcoholics Anonymous and facing up to the problem,'' Palmer told reporters on Monday.

"The most telling thing was that he didn't realise he was over the limit.''

Does anyone else think this is wrong?

Brisbane 0 v GC Wonderers 1 - suspect

Ben Williams gave GC 24 free kicks to Brisbane's 12. Yet it was GC's defenders that seemed to be flying in.

To have 2 50-50 penalties turned down is disappointing. To have 4 is suspect or disappointing. This keeps happening to the Roar and you can see why fans stop coming.

In last years grand final an elbow to the head was a red, here Thwaite only got yellow. It pays to smile at the ref. 4 Roar yellow cards to 1 GC (for throwing the ball away) was just plain wrong.

So Ben Williams and the FFA wait for a Brisbane match to protect goalkeepers (goal disallowed - foul called on Nichols).

I thought the Roar did not miss most of the senior players who where away. Pity Malcolm wasn't away. Why did we waste a foreign spot on this slow coach?

By the way, quite a few people dressed in GC colours caught buses home. The ones on mine got off in the suburbs. Seems to confirm that quite a few GC fans are former Roar fans.

What are the FFA going to do about their stuff-up in Queensland? 8,800 to a derby when last year's average to any game was 15,000 = ? Clearly Brisbane is the market they should harvest. GC don't seem interested.

What next?

Rain?

How about a storm perhaps?

Perth 1 V Adelaide 0

Match review committee to investigate Scott Jamison being king hit while walking off at half time. Image this happening at the A-League?

Still Perth learned how to close out the game.

Who has the most expensive tickets in the A-League... Gold Coast

That is according to today's 'Gold Coast Weekend Bulletin' where the 'glamor' club is back page news. But not promoting tomorrow's game. It is Jason Culina complaining about his club's poor job at attracting crowds.

Funny that, some of Brisbane's leading journalists praised Miron's non-attendance and refusal to promote the opening game of the season as an act of marketing genius - by attracting interest to the game(?). Now, it looks more like an act of some strange form of vengeance.

However, again from reporter David Lewis in the Gold Coast Weekend Bulletin:

FFA's A-League manager Archie Fraser said "The people of the Gold Coast have sent a pretty clear message by their absence from games. There are things that can be done, that should be done and are clearly not being done by United in terms of building a supporter base. We (the FFA) have offered advice from day one but they have not acted upon it. We have offered strategies that actually work."

However, like normal Gold Coast didn't take nicely to this (Gold Coast Bulletin):

Gold Coast CEO Clive Mensink:

"The FFA took our first home game away from us, and Newcastle and other teams have had problems attracting crowds," he said. "Maybe Archie and I need to have chat about things. "I'm disappointed he's having a crack at us."

Ha. These guys just don't get it. And Jason Culina is getting cheezed off and thinking he made the wrong decision. I think he did. Image if an established team like Brisbane had been able to afford Jason. That would have been a great outcome for the A-League.

Mind you I am not so convinced that FFA strategies 'actually work'. I remember their pricing strategy for the Celtic game and nearly all the top seats being vacant.

Melbourne 0 v Sydney 3

It was all done in about 4 minutes. 3 Great goals.

Melbourne had their big game last week. And in front of over 30,000 they just were not there. Kruse lasted 30 minutes and didn't do much. Towards the end Melbourne gave them a barrage, particularly Thompson. But Simon Colossimo showed he has earned Craig Moore's Socceroos spot. If he had it this would have been a different match (3-3?).

And that other centre back? Perhaps Brisbane should have picked on Muscat? They would have got hurt but he probably would have lost it. He did tonight and was lucky to stay on the field. Will the match review panel play fair and review the 'afters' (kicks to the legs while Bridge was on the ground) Muscat gave out of the sight of the ref? Probably not. He is protected. But Bridge showed how to play him.

Melbourne v Sydney

Sydney are playing great.

Do they have any heart? Anything to interest fans?

Tahj Minniecon Update

Well done Tahj!

Get sent off within minutes getting onto the pitch in the U20 World Cup - deliberately for kicking an innocent opponent. And now he is saying he is glad he doesn't play for a dirty team like the Roar!

Well done Tahj. Great promotion work there.

Actually sounds like he would fit right in.

Silence can be more disturbing than noise

I took that from a desk calendar. It is attributed to PK Shaw. Does it remind us of Miron?

Facebook type entry

I am nearly over hearing that Brisbane decided to loose Tiatto for a week and Miller for 2 in retaliation for Kruse sending some text messages to them.

Gee how weak the Roar's state must be if someone like Kruse can put them off their game so easily?

Bit of a shame really.

A man in his mid/late 30s punching a 20 year old because they said things that they don't like isn't the way to get parents to take their kids to an expensive soccer match. Do they know that now?

Adults losing their temper in public doesn't help either.

Melb 2 v Brisbane 1

Adrian Leijer has put Henrique out for up to 8 weeks. That is the headline. And he was sitting on a yellow and he went on to score the winner.

But the byline is again the poor refing. The choice seems to be between refs that blow the whistle for everything. And Strebre Delovski who again looked to lost control of a match.

Next week Brisbane will be without:

Moore (international duty)
Tiatto (likely suspension)
Henrique (Leijified for 8 weeks)
Dodd (suspension for accumulated yellows)
Franjic (end of injury cover contract)

The Roar seemed to take the Kruse thing a bit far. I think it really hurt their game. Will the officials review Miller's hit on Kruse near the end? If so Miller could also be out for 2 weeks.

What were they thinking?

Perth 1 v Nth Qld 1: Instant Karma

Ha. Who would have thought it would come so quickly? And by former Roar player Chris Grossman! Perth player Chris Coyne showed it is OK to hit the keeper with the ball. So North Queensland got their goal.

And Jacob Burns got his 5th yellow suspension. Pity Talay got a 2 yellow red for diving.

Interesting juniors that swear get a red. Adults not even a caution - even if at the ref or his assistants.

Ramshackle Rovers

Ray Gatt and his team at the Weekend Australian have done some great work and uncovered that FFA registered Sydney Rovers FC name, colours and trademark some weeks before saying that this Sydney bid had the 12th license. Ooops. Of course the other bidders are cheesed off. The Sydney Rovers bid seems to have been given the inside track and has a real paradise club feel.

My issue is that a head guy who was an advertising executive should have spotted the obvious problem. People who live in Sydney's west don't see themselves as living in Sydney! They are anti-Sydney in more ways than one.

Sure Sydney FC has failed to win the so-called grass routes, but just by using the name Sydney you are going head-to-head for fans. This does not create a derby. It will be negative and end up like Gold Coast's impact on the Roar - Gold Coast's fans appear to be disaffected Roar supporters and has had no impact on growing the game.

Has the FFA read about Australian sporting history? It is the Fibros v Silvertails which is 'Sydney's' greatest sporting rivalry. The names of these rugby league teams were 'Western Suburb's Magpies' and 'Manly Sea Eagles' - it came to head in the 1978 final. This was rugby league at its peak and perhaps one of the world's great derbies. David v Goliath. Rich v Poor. In a code where people from lower socio-economic conditions had a fighting chance against the rich.

Set up Sydney v Sydney. Rich v expensive and technically excellent (which would be which? I don't know). And you get yawn, rugby union, no I mean no fan interest and buy in.

No the western Sydney team can not be called Sydney. Do you want the AFL to walk over us, laughing? It has got to be Fibros, or legs eleven, or even - why not - just Rovers or Western Rovers.

'Some of the associated video footage is simply startling - all in brawls, cheap shots, head-high tackles. Toss in claims of corruption, and amongst it all there is some great tries and footy action too.

The Fibros and the Silvertails follows Wests and Manly through the 1978 season, culminating in the semi-finals - a series that is also infamous for the "7 tackels try" by Manly against Parramatta and the controversy surrounding the refereeing of Greg Hartley.

When Wests and Manly face off in the 1978 preliminary final at the SCG, the tension between the two teams again boils over. The "hit" by Manly's Terry Randall on Wests prop John Donnelly is simply breath-taking.

The Fibros and the Silvertails opens a doorway into arguably one of the most dramatic and interesting periods in Australian sport and society, not just Sydney rugby league.' from 'News, Reviews & Opinion' - by Sean Fagan - RL1908.com

The NRL has been trying to re-establish this derby ever since.

GC Monaco 0 V Wellington Paris 0

Miron says they are Monaco. Monaco? Monaco?

Why do we need this in the A-League? Only 4,000 fans now - friends and family of the players. What is Jason Culina thinking playing for this rabble? What if they had opened the A-League season?

And Wellington dominated the game. Should have won if Leo Bertos could shoot as well as he can run with the ball.

Culina was playing in this game, not that you would have noticed.

Pim was watching. I wonder what he was thinking? 'I told you so Jason?'

I hope Brisbane rubbish them next week. There is no point to Gold Coast. Their entry has turned fans off.

Monaco? Miron meant great team, no fans. Should gone to the FFA with that, could have saved us all the trouble.