Key posts
I need to take a breather
The teams are about to walk out onto Netstrata Jubilee Stadium for tonight’s match – I almost forgot there was a match – so I’m going to pause with the questions for now. I’ll come back to a few at half-time. But it’s been fun so far. Thanks for sending them in, folks. Hope you’ve gotten something out of my rambling answers.
Second division? Anything?
A couple of similar questions to this one from George Mpliokas:
Will the National Second Division start next year?
Haven’t heard a thing since my last article/update on this, which said it was not happening.
It’s almost October. Look, it’s just not happening.
It’s too late for a home and away competition to launch next season. Can’t see it getting off the ground in 2025, but I remain a fan of the compromise ‘Champions League’ format, if it means we can just get something started, which we can build on over time. It’s better than nothing. I’ve heard a few people use the phrase “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” when it comes to the second division – it applies here, too. If there isn’t the money or capacity to go full-blast from day one, then take baby steps, I reckon.
Anti-Kiwi areas here
Philip Tolot, you’re not going to make friends across the ditch with this:
Do we really need New Zealand teams in an Australian competition. What good are these teams for australian players development. Would more Australian clubs and no New Zealand ones be better for the players development.
No, we don’t need them. But I’ve always been of the view that we have either zero teams, or multiple teams. Let’s see how Auckland FC goes. Sure, they’re not really helping the development of our players, but if the involvement of New Zealand clubs can broaden the A-League’s market or general catchment area – more eyeballs, more money, all of that – then I guess that does help in a more abstract way? But the whole point is that the Kiwis need to contribute, and not be a net negative. And I think they’re doing OK in that respect. Like I said, let’s see how the new team goes first.
A-League health check
Oh, Adam:
How do you rate the health of the ALM at the moment? From the outside it seems like things are very modestly trending ever so slightly up, but are there things happening behind the scenes that make its situation more dire than it appears?
On the field, it’s pretty good. Intriguing. Entertaining. But the football’s never been the problem. I certainly don’t recall a time when I’ve been covering the game that the A-League has been so irrelevant to your typical mainstream Australian sports fan. It just feels out of sight, out of mind. There’s a lot of work to do, but hey – the pandemic didn’t kill the competition, and the reduction in central distributions to $530,000 hasn’t killed the competition, so I don’t think it’s going to die anytime soon, as much as that may disappoint some people.
My diagnosis: it’s alive, but it could do with some vitamins.
Liverpool
Jason Corbett wants to know:
How do you think Liverpool will fair in the EPL this year?
Yeah, look, don’t know. I don’t do tipping competitions for a reason: it’s a mug’s game. But they’ll be there or thereabouts. It looks like Arne Slot has – excuse me, here, but – slotted right into the way they do things at Anfield. They’ve got the talent. The only question was whether it was going to be a rocky handover from Jürgen Klopp to him. It’s probably too early to call it on that, but the signs so far are good, I guess.
Tom is cooking with this question
Tom, my son, this is one for the pub:
A hypothetical question-Do you believe any of the current socceroos squad would have made our 2006 or 2010 World Cup Squads?
Yes, I do. I think Maty Ryan gets into both ahead of Ante Covic (2006) and Eugene Galekovic (2010). I’d have Craig Goodwin over Archie Thompson (2006), mostly for squad balance. Nestory Irankunda gets into both, somehow. No disrespect to them, but Dario Vidosic and Nikita Rukavytsya were in the 2010 squad, and were hardly seasoned Socceroos, so there’s probably room for a Riley McGree as well? It’s tough, though, and I take your point, or the one I presume you were making here. The top-end talent in the current Socceroos squad certainly isn’t what it was back then, but I feel like this current pool of players is deep and has quite a bit of upside. If you’re comparing to 2014 onwards … we’re not too far off par and in some respects, we’re in better shape now.
Why are football people so unkind?
Loads of questions coming through. Some of them are very funny, and I can’t answer that, but I just want to make it known that I see them.
Brian Senstius asked a second question but due to the volume I need to get through, I’m going to make a rule: one question per person tonight. So this is from Bernino:
Why is there so much disrespect for Umpires that we can not get umpires at junior competitions? No other sport has the same disrespect shown by professional players and this is mimicked down to suburban grounds and parent actions. these ‘professional’ players are killing the game that supports them. No umpires, no game.
Great question. Don’t know. Not sure if you can say it doesn’t happen in other sports – it definitely does, but I agree, football globally has a bit of an issue here. The answer is people acting like adults and treating others how they’d like to be treated… but good luck with that, I guess. Maybe FIFA needs to lead a new global ‘respect’ campaign, but don’t they have one already? And do we trust FIFA to do that well?
The other thing I’d say is that I have been hearing for literally as long as I’ve been alive that there’s an umpire/referee shortage… but we always seem to have enough to play the games we need to.
How do we fix the A-League(s)?
Another big one here from Brian Senstius:
How can the A-Leagues turn the football playing public into A-League supporters. How can the A-Leagues turn the Matilda fans into A-Leagues supporters – Women’s and Men’s Leagues.
People have been asking this in Australia for decades. Again, there’s too much in this for a mere live blog. I wish I knew. I hope the answer is in developing young players and selling them to Europe – that may sound counter-productive but if we can find a way to make the A-League seem more relevant in the wider scheme of global football, and it garners a reputation for one of the world’s best sources of talented kids, then that will help convince some of the people who think the Australian game isn’t worth their time that it actually is.
Why are we so bad? Well, that’s debatable
Thanks for this question, Keen Soccer Mum:
Why do we remain so poor as a national side despite such high levels of participation in football at the grassroots level? What needs to change?
Look… the answer to your question could be a book. I don’t have time to go through it all, but let me say this. The Socceroos and Matildas just had their best-ever World Cup campaigns. Yes, there are huge problems with the national teams, and Football Australia has some big questions to confront when it comes to how we go about our football as a nation. But I’ve come to learn that, particularly in our game, things are never as good as they seem, or as bad as they seem.
We do OK. Can we do better? Absolutely. What needs to change? Heaps!
Luke Combs vs Brisbane Roar
This is from Dave Steuart:
What’s your take on Suncorp Stadium booking concerts (Luke Combs) on the day before and day of Brisbane Roars home game vs Adelaide (25 Jan). Should Roar seek compensation for likely move of venue? Or is it more likely A-league stuffed up with an assumptions they could book the date before checking?
One thing about me is I’ll probably give my take on Twitter/X before anyone formally asks for it. And yeah, that happened today. Check my timeline:
