Agree that the current head of FQ is politically an issue (with Labour) but to be fair – left or right in power and football doesn’t get funded in this State..

Things looking up for the Socceroos then …

Squad depth is probably the biggest lesson to come out of this for me – not a surprise to anyone I guess and an expanded ALW may help, as will more players going overseas and playing full time

For those not familiar with the development here’s a link:

https://reds.rugby/news/ballymore-buzz-sets-worldclass-standard-for-bigger-plans-2023823

It is a great campaign but the fall in the ranking is not what we should be focussing on post tournament

That’s what I thought. But remember the France game counts as a draw.

Penalties determine who advances in a competition, not the match result. So for ranking purposes it’s a draw.

It’s disappointing we dropped out of the top 10 but it’s a clearly defined and published “points exchange” system in each game and we didn’t do enough to pick up enough points. Unlike Japan of course

Who were the teams ranked 5 and 6?

All this is just further examples of the club being run poorly.

Stepping away from that though, there is no government support for football in this State, not sure why, but it is the reality.

And yes, there aren’t many options but the Bakries have had a decade to sort this out but keep blundering from one shambles to the next.

The best option for Roar may actually be QSAC, unfortunately it’s also the last or only alternative.

QSAC has excellent transport capability (parking for thousands of cars, and it’s on the busway system connecting to central station)

It also has two stadiums – the white elephant 53,000 cavern and the little stadium next door which could also be used/upgraded.

I’m not pretending there’s a range of options but if they’ve got Ballymore wrong, more to the point Chris Fong hasn’t done his homework, then Roar are in big trouble and on a hot or wet summers day will be pulling western United level crowds.

That is true, but football is not tennis.

In football you gain or lose ranking points in every game you play.

Put simply if the Matilda’s had only lost one game and won the other 6 they would have gone up the world rankings.

But they didn’t.

They won 3, lost 3, and drew one (for the purpose of ranking points) so getting to 4th place is nice, but didn’t garner ranking points.

How many ranking points to tennis players get after they lose a match in a tournament?

Nil. They’re out – so the tennis analogy doesn’t really translate.

I agree.

And as I’ve said before, that will be the death of them.

I am not aware that they have solved the transport problem that saw the QLD Government deem Ballymore unsuitable for “major events” and basically crowds over 5k.

A reminder that playing out of Ballymore was Chris Fong’s idea – a cost cutting initiative most likely poorly researched, poorly thought through, and poorly planned.

It’s a cost saving exercise.

If BRFC think very vocal and active local residents are going to put up with 25+ events in one of the sleepiest corners of Brisbane, they’d better get their thinking caps on.

(A reminder – I’ve been in there when they’ve had “substantial” crowds (7-9k) and it’s a nightmare to get away from the stadium let alone get home from there when you do get out of the immediate area.

I live about 15 minutes drive and the last time it took me two hours to get home … that’s a round trip journey to Dolphin)

In relation to the article I challenged the notion that women/girls attending the WWC were anything other than football people.

In terms of attending A League games following the WWC, why would they? That’s the question.

There is no connection between ALW and grassroots – an investment in a grassroots players’ (potential) pro playing future would have equal return by purchasing an Optus pass and watching the WSL on there … basically a successful game in England is as likely to give them a professional future as attending an A League game.

The APL (and FFA before them) exhibit an entitlement attitude – somehow grassroots players must follow the A Leagues.

Why?

Because they’re typically not.

So APL (and others) would go well to ask why not?

In all the years we’ve been posting I don’t think I’ve ever seen you being rude lol .. I may have missed a post somewhere, maybe.

My comment wasn’t Roar specific, rather HAL/APL specific .. over the years Roar have done much right/much wrong in the local football community

Roars goal though should be to complete their academy pathways – probably from U18 to U23’s in both men and women’s … it’s a bit ridiculous to argue Queensland women should support ALW when Roar – by choice – do nothing for women’s pathways in the State.

That’s an easy fix – next season enter a women’s NPL/23’s team.

Now, you keep going on about the new management. I’m not immune to what they’ve been saying/doing and yes it looks very promising (as it has before though).

The question has always been is it poor management or poor ownership that’s caused Roars decline – if it’s the latter then the new boys in town are on a short cut to failure.

As you know – like many Roar fans – there’s strong friendships with fellow supporters and that’s the main reason I’ll be going again this year but it’s fair to say, too many others have left the game over the Redcliffe move, Bakries, Grand Final decisions etc and they show no sign of returning.

That’s on the APL and Bakries to change – like you, I can see the Bakries trying but I can’t say the same for the APL and that’s worrying – the next broadcast deal negotiations start after Christmas and if they’re still at war with a large section of their fans it may not be pretty.

Speaking for Suncorp games … similar scenes with mainly women/girls making up crowds (but plenty of men/boys).

The women/girls were largely football people – players, coaches, managers, volunteers from clubs in and around Brisbane (and no doubt elsewhere).

You could see this on the train, walking in to the stadiums, and inside the stadiums – often players recognised teammates and even opponents, they are unified by football … their football!

Where does the A Leagues fit in to this?

It doesn’t – especially the ALM which doesn’t even recognise the clubs these girls play for week in/week out and locks them out of the APL football eco-system, doesn’t pay transfers, and generally see themselves as entitled in comparison.

There’s more of a link – or chance of a link – to ALW but even there the promotion is poor, the kick off times poor, double headers prioritise men over women (do you think girls are going to identify with a competition that sets out to remind girls that boys get the tub of the green??), and venue choice is both variable and often sub-standard.

After internationals, the next best time to engage these girls is at Grand Final time but hey, if you don’t live in Sydney the APL doesn’t care about you so we lose that chance …

So yeah, good luck engaging with the hundreds of thousands of girls who are in to football, but don’t connect with the APL’s abomination of a competition 👎

I can’t support the A League Men or Women competitions over the Grand Final decision, that’s just killed it for me so I cancelled P+ way back when and haven’t watched a tv game since.

I have kept Optus following the WWC and am (for the first time ever) watching a foreign league: the EPL and Ange hold some interest but it’s not the same as a domestic product – have to say Optus Sport have a great platform though and I remain bemused why P+ couldn’t even get close to this.

I have watched both Roar Cup games and – while it’s too early to get carried away – it’s great to see they’re trying to play good football, I just hope they’ve learned the lessons from the last two years and get that Striker. The number of times in both games Roar enter the oppositions box but fail to convert is crazy eg they created 5 good chances yesterday before they scored the first.

I don’t think Waddingham is the answer but I was impressed with his physicality and great to see him score yesterday (should have had three though) but should be a good bench player this year.

Membership wise, mine auto renewed last month (I must get around to changing that) so I will be at most suncorp games but won’t bother with the ‘nightmare in Herston’ Ballymore game.

See you next month lol 😁

It’s almost like people don’t understand how rankings work.

Is there anything left to whinge about now??

“ It seems to me that Soccer in Australia isn’t very good at doing that”

Understatement of the year. Spot on.

The fact the majority of the early posts are spent complaining about the physical tactics of our opponents and the referees reinforces that we do need to “grow up”.

Australia is too used to having its own way in international sport – welcome to the Football world where Nigeria or Haiti or 180+ other countries can turn up and rattle your cage by not rolling over and letting you have it your own way – including by being overly physical.

And the other 20+ countries that you have heard of might choose to do the same.

It’s coming to the end of the grassroots season but go watch an U13 Girls game this weekend and you will find girls pulling opponents shirts, pushing, shoving, testing the line of what’s fair and what’s not … the NPL club sides are the best at it.

We have already learned it’s not enough to be technical good, you have to be competitive as well.

The laws of football allow for a physical contest for the ball – stop whinging and “grow up” and ask the Matilda’s to either play around contact (as Spain did routinely) or match physical opponents (as Haiti/Nigeria/Denmark etc did).

Having a week long sook about England being too rough suggests a few might need to go back to watching miniroos

You need to hang a sign “Gone Fishing” at the end of a comment like that 😂

We shouldn’t be too down, it was a decent campaign.

However, we are hiding behind excuses:

football is a physical game and the Matilda’s have shown in three games this tournament (Nigeria, England , Sweden) that they cant match sides physically.

There’s work to do.

But what a great tournament

The cause of this was the APL and (a) it’s poor decision in the first place (b) it’s crass timing (c) it’s lies when they announced the decision & reason and (d) the confusion over who voted for it (apparently they all did but Fong said he didn’t and the broke dude in Perth said it was the first he’d heard of it … or that he voted against it .. or that he was walking the dog that night)

The APL had no comms plan for this.

That falls on incompetent leaders.

The decision was a poor one, it’s unfair, and it inspired boycotts and walk outs that continue today. The violence didn’t help but was not the reason for a failure to ride the men’s World Cup … just go ask City how many of their young fans missed out on seeing their team in a grand final cos mum & dad couldn’t afford to go to Sydney

Ask Football VIC how many of their young members got to walk out as mascots, act as ball boys or bear flags on GF Day .. zip, zero, and none!

You might also ask CFG how many times CCM have won at AAMI Park in the last decade. I think it’s zip … Judas club gets the gold but not the toilet seat 😂

I’ve had my rant (see earlier post), so in the spirit of a well-written article, what can the APL do to ride the momentum?

1/ Market the heck out of the W League now, sell independent memberships, let kids in for free – all of which I think they’re doing a good job of.

2/ Stack the first round with marquee fixtures:

WSW v Sydney
CCM v Jets
City v Victory
Nix at home
Roar at Suncorp

Market the heck out of this round, the “wave” won’t last long (it never has in other countries) but smash some records early doors.

3/ Move the Grand Final to a two legged affair – 1st leg goes to the highest placed team, 2nd leg in Sydney. This will take the sting out of the APLs poor management plus give some balance to finals

4/ Avoid stupid o’clock kick offs in the heat of summer.

5/ Pay them more. This is a huge issue for women, see it as an investment not a cost: build it and they will come. Divert money from marketing if you have to to pay them more, divert it from the men’s game if you have to but pay them more.

6/ Lobby State/Federal governments for facilities infrastructure. Training and match day … the same principle applies for women as men’s version: play in a boutique stadium with appropriate size/move marquee or double header games to big stadiums eg see what AFL Lions are doing in Springfield … why wouldn’t Roar women do similar??

Of course they should.

The APL should not escape sanction for failing to provide adequate security on that match day either, that seems to have gone largely unsanctioned.

But you’re deflecting – before the inexcusable violence occurred supporters’ backlash was massive – we saw online condemnation, cancellation of P+ accounts, protests and then walkouts at other A League games, and discussions were underway between supporters groups for a coordinated boycott similar to 2015. All of this happened BEFORE the Victory pitch invasion – the damage was done.

The reason we didn’t get to see if the Socceroos performance would provide a significant uplift was because of the APLs decision to sell fans out …. not because of what a handful of hooligans did.

“The actions of a few selfish Melbourne Victory anti-fans in December last year after the Socceroo’s success ….. means that we will never know if the A-League Men would have received a boost from those fantastic Socceroos performances”

Nice try regurgitating the APL line, but No!

Nationwide fans were already staging protests and walkouts over the unbelievable decision to sell the Grand Finals to Sydney.

Protests included cancelling P+ subscriptions (I was one of them, still won’t renew) but after the lies from APL and the action of the few you mentioned killed any prospect of compromise or discussion many have simply walked away, tired of being let down by football administrators with the APL proving themselves worse than Gallop & Co.

That decision now remains an open wound. The APL of course hope a Sydney side will make the final a sell out this year – ideally both teams will make the final and sell out an 81k stadium so we can all forget how good we had it once. Watch for the draw this year – see how fair it is on non-NSWs sides?

P+ and 10’s viewing numbers have been woeful. Will they renew the broadcast contract in 2 years – the strong rumour is they won’t. Where then?

The lesson for the APL from this WC should be anything is possible IF you bring the fans along with you. The GF decision means fans aren’t coming along for the ride — so good luck with the new season Danny!

Exactly.

It can only be considered “shared” if they have done level of control. The QRU could boot them out tomorrow (and probably will if they don’t pay rent again lol).

Agreed. Sydney has got their stadium strategies right – Melbourne hasn’t and neither has Brisbane (although QLD has two perfect boutique stadiums that means, along with Suncorp, the State could host an entire Men’s WC group)