Some game @Fitzy
Is that aaron hughes of Norn Iron fame? Whenâd he join?
Some finish. Victory will be kicking themselves.
Did Berisha just say âAucklandâŚshit pitchâ?
Haha just checked that twice.
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Fucking brilliant game it was.
Football A-League: Challenging days ahead for Stephen Lowy and David Gallop as football faces fresh battleDecember 26, 2015 12:00am
REBECCA WILSONThe Daily Telegraph
THE A-Leagueâs conversion to a summer sport was, without doubt, a masterstroke. Faced with a future of eternal comparisons with the big kahunas of league and AFL, soccer had finally found a niche in the wider Australian sporting fraternity.
It worked for a few years too. If you didnât love it in winter, you liked it enough in summer. It filled a void in the long empty months of October and November and, even when the Test cricket came along, 90 minutes of soccer was a nice addition to those balmy months.
Fringe soccer fans started watching and going to games. The acclaim was widespread and the World Game looked like it had a competition which would draw fans whoâd spent their lives waking up 3am to watch their game in the northern hemisphere.
The exodus of the best Australian players to Europe was replaced by marquee players with genuine claims to champion status and a competition that drew big crowds with much improved television ratings.
In 2015, however, most of the problems which led to the creation of the A-league have returned. Crowds are barely holding their own, the marquee players have all but gone and the television ratings are so dismal that even the codeâs free-to-air broadcaster has shoved the competition to its second channel.
Ratings comparisons with the Womenâs Big Bash League published this week reveal a huge boost for womenâs sport but a diabolical state of affairs for soccer.
The new WBBL is outrating the A-league with such compelling numbers that new chairman Stephen Lowy and CEO David Gallop are now faced with a crisis that is far more threatening than walkouts at grounds and badly behaved fans.
In short, the code cannot continue to exist unless a free- to- air broadcaster saves it. The âpassionâ for soccer which comes to the fore in loud and often ugly ways whenever someone on the outside dares place it under scrutiny is sadly lacking when it comes to sitting down and finding SBS2 to watch a match.
Pay TV figures are not much better and pale when compared with the juggernauts of AFL, the NRL and now the monster that is the menâs Big Bash League. Fox Sports tries its guts out to attract viewers with panel shows, pre- and post-match shows, but soccer does not drive subscriptions like the other three codes.
Western Sydney Wanderers fans support their team during the 2-0 win over Newcastle Jets at Pirtek Stadium.
Even rugby union is on an upward trajectory compared with the A-League, with a new TV rights deal that will ensure it keeps its head above water for at least another five years.
So what happened?
Basically, a perfect storm formed over several seasons that has led to the current crisis. Marquee players became too expensive for most teams. Like it or not, your 50/50 viewer is not going to turn on to watch a bunch of youthful, enthusiastic players or ageing Socceroos. There is something compelling about Sydney FC withAlessandro Del Pierowhich disappears when he does.
The Western Sydney Wanderers saved the A-Leagueâs bacon until their stocks fell and they started to struggle. Crowds are down on the dizzy heights of 2013. Their fortunes parallel that of the entire competition with ratings failing to go near six figures on SBS2.
That brings us to TV. When the broadcaster which has prided itself on its embrace of soccer in Australia decides to drop it to a channel few people can find on their remotes, you know there is trouble afoot.
Throw in Channel 10âs Big Bash League, breaking all records in both the men and the womenâs form of the game and the A-League is facing almost insurmountable issues.
There is no football code in this most competitive of sporting markets that can sustain second-rate coverage on a minor free to air channel and survive. Pay TV is there to consolidate your affection, to give you the frills, to appeal to the diehard with blanket coverage. The bread and butter of any footy is the three or four matches free to air each weekend. Seven and Nine promote the backside off their footy coverage and the ratings reflect that.
Lowy and Gallop have three years to wait for the next World Cup so they cannot rely on the international brand to save the domestic competition. These are challenging days minus the charisma ofFrank Lowyand any sign of a white knight broadcaster.
If you love your game, watch it. Only the fans can save the A-League from extinction by picking up the remote and finding Channel 142.
I see resident sicko/weirdo Roy o Donovan split his eye open hitting some lad a âheadbuttâ. Youâre fucked now Fitzy. Would that tinker be your best player?
What amount was the last football deal worth mate ?
@Tim_Riggins you have lost any credibility you ever had posting an article by that pretend journo. I am disappointed in you.
It was Manny Muscat who had just elbowed Roy. Fuck that though.
WE WON A FUCKING GAME!!!
Itâs a reasonable article.
The Mariners have been busy in the transfer window. Weâve offloaded our best player, Anthony Caceres to Manchester City (as reported on RTE Sport at the weekend I noticed). Of course heâs immediately been loaned out to Melbourne City, sparking all sorts of talk that we need to have a debate on this sort of thing. Will be interesting to see how he plays alongside Mooy, I would think theyâll just get in each others way.
But the big news (itâs epic apparently) is that the Mariners have signed ex Liverpool and Barcelona LEGEND, Luis Garcia (come on, think, think, you remember him, of course you do. No not him, Luis GARCIA. Yeah, him.)
A 37 year old player, who hasnât played professionally in over a year, whose last club was in the Indian League (India has a football league now, it does, really. Del Pieroâs a coach there). If he scores a few goals and sells more tickets, the great. But christ, is this what weâre reduced to? Our finances are, to put it delicately, precarious. TBH, I canât see the Mariners in existence in two years time, unless someone buys out that twat Charlesworth and invests money in the club. Bottom of the table in the league, fooked off the field.
Still, we have WSW visiting this weekend, should be a great crowd and a good night.
Meanwhile, Sydney FC pulled off a great win over WSW on Saturday.
Victoryâs comeback to draw 3-3 with us in Geelong (after we were 3-0 up at half time) will become the turning point of the season. Victory followed it up with the 4-0 destruction of Brisbane, their strikeforce looking every bit as menacing as ever. Fprget Mooy, I reckon Kosta Barbarouses is the best player in the league now. I canât see anyone stopping their march to a consecutive title.
You ungrateful fucker.
What am I supposed to be grateful for?
Hitherto, your marquee signing was resident sicko/weirdo/headbutter, Roy OâDonovan, and now you have a Champions League winner and youâre cribbing about something or other. Semi-retired and 37, or not, heâs still an upgrade on whatever other sickoâs youâre harbouring up there.
Iâd say youâll be running around sucking your thumb at 5-a-side this week, in the highly unlikely event of you finding the back of the net.
Mariners rejoice, your saviour has landed.
I am the leading scorer for our team this season, Iâll have you know, with approximately 25 goals, including hat tricks in about 6 games. Iâm not quite sure what that has to do with the signing of Luis Garcia though.
Our saviour, if there is one, is Josh Bingham, a fantastic young footballer who has come through the academy system and will be a star.
Garciaâs move is not too dissimilar to that of Keith Foy when he moved to Monaghan United in 2004. Here was a (former) U-21 international, a (former) European champion, and a (former) star at (former) English heavyweights, Notts Forest. It didnât matter that he was considered to be past his best; the fans replied in their twenties as attendance figures reached triple figures for the 04/05 season. He would go on to be our player of the year that season, driven on by passionate fans, who on occasions had 2 bottles of Buckfast drank on the Clones Rd before the game. Keith went on to achieve his dream move to Sligo, on the back of all that.
What Iâm saying Fitzy is that itâs up to you, the fans, to believe, to embrace the superstar in your midst, and to get behind him and cheer the Mariners to success.
Any idea on what sort of coin heâs on? Canât be much?