What are they in contention for? are we talking top 2, top 4, top 6?

dont be fooled by pre season form so far, its always dangerous to predict how a team will go based on pre season results.

there are still several glaring defencies with that side, but as shown by adelaide and the mariners – even without money there are ways of competing in the a league

i’ve already spoken about how brisbane will play this year and kids will be given a chance – this is a completely different ross to last time around, im glad some of the fanbase is starting to realise this

at adelaide he worked incredibly close with the kids and the defensive side of the team and from what im aware (given my relationship with ross) that has not deviated since he left adelaide.

brisbane will be super competitive this upcoming season and you’ll finally see players that actually want to put a shift in

the fixture list has been very kind after last year, if they can navigate the opening 4 games and the month of december with a decent points return – id expect them to to be one of the sides that qualifies for the 6 (either position 5 or 6)

i do have worries with how inexperienced some people are in the executive side of things at the club – eg just because you were a half decent ex player, doesn’t mean you’ll be a good administrator within the sport.

football administration is very different to other administration roles in different occupations (they’ll need to learn on the job quickly and mistakes will be made)

the number 1 priority that they need to address is mending and building bridges within football in the community in qld

will be interesting to see what sort of crowds they get, suncorp is brutal to rent – after the past couple years of saving money at dolphin, they’d want to hope to get 10-15k per match (not sure they will though

politics.

i dont think he faces the same sort of challenges i do with my postings (the site regularily gets complaints from clubs and players about certain things i write)

even when i dont submit controversial stuff, my posts tend to not be on the main page – you have to scroll down half a page (like the Montenegrin 1, which is the only one ive submitted since ive been in europe)

i dont follow any form of womens sport including football, im just not a fan of any of it – but no doubt i’ll be labelled by some clown on social media a mysoginist because im a male and wont/dont/cant support womens sport. (even though ive shown nothing to even be labelled as that)

you’ll find a lot of die hard male supporters of football, dont even care about the womens version of it – like i said above, im in montenegro currently and have barely heard the womens world cup mentioned.

thats partially because of how low womens football is viewed in the balkans, even though there were players in this tournament from the balkans (eg swedens goalkeeper and switzerlands stiker)

as a side note, i was actually introduced to the head of womens football here in montenegro over the weekend. – had an interesting chat about how montenegro has the best womens football set up in the balkans (you’d think it would be serbia and croatia, but its not)

the leagues been going on here for over a decade, but has nowhere near the funding (seems to be a similar story around the world including australia)

it’s ok as a man to say you dont like womens sports – absolutely nothing wrong with it.

and im sure in england the premier league is getting way more coverage then the womens team being in the semis

in saying all that i hope australia wins the world cup (which is what i said pre tournament)

greetings from montenegro, where my sleeping patterns are all over the place

the wwc has barely been mentioned over here, but i have been getting news from friends back in australia

maybe this will finally open up eyes and get the sport the funding it rightly deserves in australia (rather than going on sports that no one else plays in the worl

although i dont follow womens football, i hope the girls win on penalties – as we all know, england are chokers when it comes to big competition football

danny townsend 😂

havent seen the figures (i dont watch womens football so im the wrong person to ask).

but it doesnt surprise me that the figures would be low, especially if its not a massive team playing.

i am aware that haiti played in adelaide, im sorry but haiti will not attract any form of a crowd what so ever lol

football has always been best served played at football specific stadiums – not carnivorous 40k+ afl/cricket stadiums with no heart or soul in this country.

it shouldnt matter than the best specific stadium for the sport can only hold 22,000 (at a push), but to the powers that be (who only look at how much $$$ they can extract) thats too small

im not just talking about the australian FA im also talking about fifa who wont even entertain the idea of smaller stadium

given that its a knock out match, i would’ve done something a bit more calculated (and im not talking about not letting canada train on the pitch, heavily watering the goal keepers box or Australian fans setting off fireworks at 3am where the canada team is staying etc)
i would’ve moved this fixture to a stadium that is purpose built for football (so that means fans are barely 2 meters away from the pitch) there’s only 1 stadium in this country that fits the bill (where the fans are incredibly parochial) and its in a state that has produced plenty of australian players (well not so much women footballers lol) –
they could’ve easily moved one of the other girls group matches out of adelaide in its place, but instead they play in a venue which isnt good for noise and a state that doesnt really care about football

“poor tactics all round, late & poor substitutes, and at 1-3 down our only answer was hitting high balls in to the box. Really??”

isnt that the australian national team way across all age groups in the male and female version of the sport though lol?

i dont follow womens football, but from your comment alone it tells me more than enough (sounds like arnold mark II)

heres the thing though, the womens team is much better than the mens and they should rightly have higher expectations placed on them (especially since the cup is in australia)

theres an incredibly high chance of not qualifying now (based on what ive read about injuries and looking at the group table) – embarrassing performance which should see heads roll from the coach to his staff as well as players after the tournament.

had a chat with ante at the start of july and knew this was coming, there was some disagreements in terms of what his role would entail moving forwards and he was not happy – this may become public knowledge soon.

its also the first executive role in the a league that has been unsuccesful in some way for him (after his plaudits at adelaide (inparticular), western united & perth)

again dont want to say too much, but adelaide need a new football director – kovacevic still speaks to people associated regularily associated to his trophy winning time at the club.

you need to start reading between the lines when it comes to what club executives say (goes for all clubs and not just brissy) to fans.

there’s a lot of stuff going on there currently and if the club receives a suitable offer, it will be sold (same as adelaide and mariners) – none of these sides will openly come out and say that, but they are all in the same boat.

its very interesting how certain players are training under ross in pre season (especially discoveries of mine like majok and kur) who never got a look in at the tail end of last season.

i speak with ross 2 or 3 times a week and have a good understanding of what he’s trying to accomplish – especially when it comes to transfers (hes still looking at players from the adelaide youth team)

brissy are going to be really competitive this upcoming season (depending on if they get a favourable schedule)

ended his international career (which he fought so hard to be a part of), all for a mountain of rupee

theres bigger things going on than the WWC currently in australia (Eg perth glory now being ownerless)

thats almost half the league now, either ownerless (glory and jets) or willing to sell if the price is right (mariners, adelaide, brisbane)

its funny because i wrote an article on victory’s youth and not being given a chance under poppa a couple months back – every player i wrote about started last night lol.

its one thing starting them in a meaningless cup round, its anothere in the actual regular season.

not a single player that victory played last night, would i expect to start in round 1

im not saying my view is right (if anything i’ve openly admitted its the complete opposite to the norm on this subject
football is the only sport i have ever followed, nothing else has ever interested me in a sport
for arguments sake if there was a mens beach football world cup in australia, i still wouldnt attend – beach football falls in the same boat as womens football for me lol

exactly, its as simple as that.

yet i’ll be instantly labelled as a mysoginist as im a male and due to the fact i dont support womens sport (yes even football – yet none of my comments have any remote inkling of mysogny in them lol

its a simple as some people like ford, some liking holden and then some liking nissan – each to thier own

i’m not going to give the ins and outs of pappas’s time there in newcastle (mainly because of a 10 year+ working relationship i have with him)

but he made it clear from day 1 that the academy was not up to the standard he expected and that ruffled feathers instantly with daniel mcbreen – pappas was also not speaking to van egmond during the end of his tenure whilst he was dealing with the academy.

the clubs propping up the jets currently, cant keep doing it for much longer – they are bleeding money footing that bill

i dont think the jets are in danger of folding, but they need new owners ASAP

i never said my views are traditional when it comes to women’s football or women’s sport in general.

the underlying issue is she is known for her views, rather than what she does for a living

without what she does for a living, those view would not take cente stage – this is the point im making

lets do some rough calculations on the very basic numbers from the other night

if the number is accurate west ham cost 4 millions pounds to bring down, lets halve it because they’re playing 2 matches so 2 million pounds in aussie dollars is 3.8 million aussie

cheapest tickets were $50.00, times that by 25,000 = $1.25 million but lets double it to $100 a ticket for a fairer comparison – so thats $2.5 million aussie

I know NPD have got the security contract for optus (but not sure on $ figure) lets be generous again and say $200K for the night

even if we go a high figure on food/beverage of $300k – they still havent met there initial outlaw.

i’d say once flights and hotel accommodation are factored in from interstate and supporters from england (and the things associate with traveling, shopping/eating/drinking) – thats where the real money into the WA economy comes from

dont think they’ll be matching the 80 million from last year though

we’re going to segway into a slightly different subject (im jumping around a few of them today)

Perth atm are sitting on a lot of extremely talented teenage footballers that could really change the landscape there in WA over the next 5 years – which is one of my predictions (lets hope it happens, because WA has always had a strong football following, but its very doormant atm)

purely from players in my database, i rank WA in second place (behind SA currently) when it comes to teenagers with potential – remarkable numbers for both states given there populations compared to the east coast of australia.

the issue is what is tony sage going to do? – the apl want him to sell, but no one has come close to his valuation of the club yet – really tough spot for professional football in WA currently.

theres light at the end of the tunnel though with how many talented kids, that could make it professionally with the right coaching

newcastle are screwed in the short term, there academy set up is an absolute mess (worst in the a league) – they cant bring kids through to solve the problem, because they just arent good enough

stanton is a dead man walking, easily favourite to be first coach sacked

im well aware that makes me a hypocrite on this subject, given my involvement with the mens version of the sport in this country (and im happy to be labelled as one)

i’ve never watched a single minute of AFL, cricket or NRL (nor do i intend to) they’re not my sports – why would i waste time on something i know nothing about and have zero interest in?

when the olympics were here in 2000, i attended the lions share of means football matches – even though its a once in a life event, sports like swimming, gymnastics, etc dont interest me

football is the only sport i have ever followed, but heres the thing – womens football doesn’t interest me to the point where i’d actually go to a match (i’d still say my knowledge would be greater than ‘tournament bandwagoners’ that are just going for the experience though)

like i said, i hope australia hoist the cup and inspire the next generation of footballers – but me not attending, will not change anything when it comes to the running of the sport in the country and the medias view point

im still waiting on the media to run a story of the next golden girl of australian football (mary fowler) big break in adelaide

she should be plastered everywhere atm, especially given that she is bi racial much like sam kerr – but i have a feeling all the media attention will be on the likes of alisha lehmann and alex morgan (in regards to their looks, rather than what they can do with a ball)

yup Australia cup is 10 play exclusive, kick off 6:30 AEST tonight

at the end of the day its a friendly, i wouldnt read too much into it – its a glorified training session lol

optus holds 60k, it wasnt even half full and the figure they announced looked dubious – considering what they showed on tv

tourism WA made $80 million off the premier league clubs last year, id be interested in what they will make this year (with just the spurs/west ham match to come) – especially if the figures they paid to spurs (5 million pounds) and west ham (4 million pounds) is accurate.

the media landscape wont change after we’re both in the ground

theres more coverage of a sport thats only played in 1 country in the world, then there is of the biggest womens specific tournament to ever come to australia

the coverage would be exactly the same if the mens world come came to australia – thats the saddest thing of all

davilla has had to deal with a tragic family issue plus recovery from an ACL, its well known if you consistently foul davilla – his influence is minimal (adelaide targeted him with 2 or 3 really strong fouls in a match early last season and he was taken off, reinjured himself from memory)

an ACL is a tough injury to overcome, especially playing as an attacking mid – which is easily one of the most fouled positions in the pitch.

germain i have already picked to be the biggest VISA bust this upcoming season, this is not the same germain from his time at monaco almost a decade ago

i cant see him hitting double figures, he hasnt even hit double figured combined in league goals over the past 4 season (granted at a much high level)