Craig Moore for the Socceroos? I think not. Nice idea but they will just have to live without him. He came back to Australian after playing a minimal number of games in a last season for Newcastle. He just is not fit and strong enough for international football. And the Roar are finding that they cannot rely on him being available for most games in the short A-League season. Each game it is touch and go, will he - won't he. With world cup qualification at stake you just can not risk someone at this level of fitness.
So why does this story just keep running?
One last comment on Craig Moore. I don't quite understand the talk of Liam Reddy's mistakes against Central Coast. Anyone there could see that the Roar were out-played, albeit by a long ball game. The Roar were out-muscled in echos of season 1, and the centre forward was outclassed by the opposition defence - hopefully by his wisdom teeth.
The emerging economic conditions will challenge crowds this season. Without the compelling viewing of a new team in the mix, and with unhelpful international breaks - that the non-fox audience will not understand - it will be interesting to see if a momentum is built up by the time of the peak seat sales - December and January. The Socceroo crowd of 15 October at Lang Park will be a lead indicator. A large part of the non-Fox audience may not even know that world cup qualifiers are on - after all the first the broad public knew of the 2006 qualifiers was the final two matches...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Holland 1 v Socceroos 2: Meanwhile in the results that do matter...
The Eurpoean Socceroos looked good in nice cool conditions. They were a goal down early but still in the game. As we know the Dutch are a million miles away from their 1970s total domination, Total Football days, now they play the long balls to the speedy wingers just like the Roar...
The Socceroos were probably lucky to win the penalty, but it highlights how protected Mark Bosnich is given (see last weeks Roar v CCM) their goalie was given a red in a friendly - and Kennedy had already missed the ball. Anyway, Kennedy played a great game up front.
But the matches that really matter for Socceroos were the qualifiers played in the Asian heat ...
Bahrain 2 v Japan 3 (Fox called it a thriller but Japan was up 0-3 by the 85th), and Qatar 3 v Uzbekistan 0.
These results make the Socceroos v Uzbekistan a must win on Wednesday morning. They need a top 2 finish to ensure qualification for Africa 2010 (the 3rd place team from our group plays 3rd place from group B, the winner playing New Zealand for the last Asian spot).
The Socceroos were probably lucky to win the penalty, but it highlights how protected Mark Bosnich is given (see last weeks Roar v CCM) their goalie was given a red in a friendly - and Kennedy had already missed the ball. Anyway, Kennedy played a great game up front.
But the matches that really matter for Socceroos were the qualifiers played in the Asian heat ...
Bahrain 2 v Japan 3 (Fox called it a thriller but Japan was up 0-3 by the 85th), and Qatar 3 v Uzbekistan 0.
These results make the Socceroos v Uzbekistan a must win on Wednesday morning. They need a top 2 finish to ensure qualification for Africa 2010 (the 3rd place team from our group plays 3rd place from group B, the winner playing New Zealand for the last Asian spot).
Saturday, September 06, 2008
10,000 visits
This site has just reached 10,000 visits since its counter was started. It averages 35 visits per day. Thanks for your interest. So far this week 243 people have visited the site.
AFL v A-League: Trade Practices Act anyone?
The AFL is Australia's most successful and commercial sport. It has been steadily grinding other sports into the dust over the last 30 years. The next 20 years will see whether rugby league and rugby union can survive the onslaught.
The battles have been played out in the union and league heartlands of Sydney and Brisbane. And in the school yards where AFL's Aus Kick program has used schools to seed primary school children and direct them away from the traditional soccer, union and, particularly, league interests.
League reacted first, synthesising and combining the Queensland and NSW competitions to produce NRL and cement Brisbane as a one team city. The Broncos have long since been the best supported NRL team, the team with the best winning record in the last decade and therefore able to compete head-to-head with the Brisbane Lions. The later introduction of the Lions, following on from the more checkered establishment of the Sydney Swans, was subsidised financially and with player talent by the Victorian club heartland of AFL. The result was three premierships in a row and around a decade without a Victorian club victory. No other sport would tolerate such a price for traditional clubs, but tight central control and the prize of dominating the Australian sporting dollar helped the Victorian clubs take the pain despite some erosion of local support.
Union also reacted, fighting like league against a number of enemies including commercial invaders, forming the international 'super' competition. This move killed off crowd interest in its local clubs. Recent expansion into Western Australia, following wealthy former private school boys and ex-pat South Africans, then over-stretched the Australian talent pool, which killed off Australian clubs as serious contenders. The reaction to this has been to target the rugby league talent pool with mixed results. The route cause is the drain of school boy interest over to AFL.
While school-boy soccer has long been Australia's largest participation sport alongside hockey, soccer's (now football) lack of attraction as a local entertainment sport had kept it off the AFL's radar. Until now.
Now the A-League and AFL have both marked out the Gold Coast as a strategic headland for their sport. Interestingly, both sports missed the first mover advantage as rugby league established the Gold Coast Titans to some considerable success. This time the traditional Victorian AFL clubs had resisted the call of one last sacrifice, as the Kangaroos knocked back offers of major subsidy to make the move and now face oblivion. The wasted time has allowed rugby league to consolidate and the A-League to attracted massive financial support from local billionaire Clive Palmer (how much and how long for will be interesting to see).
The original A-League proposal, to field a team in the current 2008-9 season, was to be known as the Gold Coast Galaxy FC. It was to have, unspecified, links to David Beckham's American MLS team LA Galaxy. I must say I liked this idea a lot. The machinations behind the veto of this franchise bid for the late proposal from Clive Palmer have not been disclosed.
The targeting of the 300,000 population of the Gold Coast by so many sports has been interesting to watch, especially considering the number of potential and unloved fans in Sydney's west. The area has bling. But the lack of crowd success of Sydney FC highlights the problems converting big ideas into full seats. The big plus for the A-League and rugby league is the optimum size of the stadium at 25,000, much more viable than the 50,000 seat Lang Park.
The delays to the AFL package and the opt-out of the Kangaroos, has allowed, or forced, the AFL to play a tactical rather than a strategic strike on the A-League. It has announced that its club will be called the 'Gold Coast Football Club'. The A-League will have 'Gold Coast United Football Club'. Clearly, the AFL intends to trade off GCUFC's bling factor.
Ironically, it may be A-League clubs' ability to survive on $10m per year, as opposed to AFL clubs' requirements for $30m to $40m that could see football victorious in the longer term.
The battles have been played out in the union and league heartlands of Sydney and Brisbane. And in the school yards where AFL's Aus Kick program has used schools to seed primary school children and direct them away from the traditional soccer, union and, particularly, league interests.
League reacted first, synthesising and combining the Queensland and NSW competitions to produce NRL and cement Brisbane as a one team city. The Broncos have long since been the best supported NRL team, the team with the best winning record in the last decade and therefore able to compete head-to-head with the Brisbane Lions. The later introduction of the Lions, following on from the more checkered establishment of the Sydney Swans, was subsidised financially and with player talent by the Victorian club heartland of AFL. The result was three premierships in a row and around a decade without a Victorian club victory. No other sport would tolerate such a price for traditional clubs, but tight central control and the prize of dominating the Australian sporting dollar helped the Victorian clubs take the pain despite some erosion of local support.
Union also reacted, fighting like league against a number of enemies including commercial invaders, forming the international 'super' competition. This move killed off crowd interest in its local clubs. Recent expansion into Western Australia, following wealthy former private school boys and ex-pat South Africans, then over-stretched the Australian talent pool, which killed off Australian clubs as serious contenders. The reaction to this has been to target the rugby league talent pool with mixed results. The route cause is the drain of school boy interest over to AFL.
While school-boy soccer has long been Australia's largest participation sport alongside hockey, soccer's (now football) lack of attraction as a local entertainment sport had kept it off the AFL's radar. Until now.
Now the A-League and AFL have both marked out the Gold Coast as a strategic headland for their sport. Interestingly, both sports missed the first mover advantage as rugby league established the Gold Coast Titans to some considerable success. This time the traditional Victorian AFL clubs had resisted the call of one last sacrifice, as the Kangaroos knocked back offers of major subsidy to make the move and now face oblivion. The wasted time has allowed rugby league to consolidate and the A-League to attracted massive financial support from local billionaire Clive Palmer (how much and how long for will be interesting to see).
The original A-League proposal, to field a team in the current 2008-9 season, was to be known as the Gold Coast Galaxy FC. It was to have, unspecified, links to David Beckham's American MLS team LA Galaxy. I must say I liked this idea a lot. The machinations behind the veto of this franchise bid for the late proposal from Clive Palmer have not been disclosed.
The targeting of the 300,000 population of the Gold Coast by so many sports has been interesting to watch, especially considering the number of potential and unloved fans in Sydney's west. The area has bling. But the lack of crowd success of Sydney FC highlights the problems converting big ideas into full seats. The big plus for the A-League and rugby league is the optimum size of the stadium at 25,000, much more viable than the 50,000 seat Lang Park.
The delays to the AFL package and the opt-out of the Kangaroos, has allowed, or forced, the AFL to play a tactical rather than a strategic strike on the A-League. It has announced that its club will be called the 'Gold Coast Football Club'. The A-League will have 'Gold Coast United Football Club'. Clearly, the AFL intends to trade off GCUFC's bling factor.
Ironically, it may be A-League clubs' ability to survive on $10m per year, as opposed to AFL clubs' requirements for $30m to $40m that could see football victorious in the longer term.
Friday, September 05, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Where would you rather be?
In 2008, Australian sport has undergone turmoil. Basketball hit the wall with at least 3 teams disappearing. Women's basketball struggled against the rise of trans-tasman netball. CEO John O'Neil declared rugby union financial dead and 'boring'. Rugby league has 'grabbed the table' in its 100th year, with fans and players deserting on mass, and government redirecting money away. Even cricket has started to look doggy as fans desert one day and most test games and freelance Indian companies behind 20-20 buy up to 50% of national squads away from the country v country game (anything other than national cricket lost crowd interest years ago). Even a highly successful Olympic games was criticised for Australia not punching far enough beyond its weight. Only AFL has thrived.
Then we have football. Where would you rather be?
Then we have football. Where would you rather be?
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