I am not so sure about Perth, despite wild claims about winning the league from Jacob Burns and Tony Sage. Clive Palmer anyone?

Once you cut through the hoo-hah about Fowler it is a little theadbare.

Andy Todd is missing for the opening game, at least. Chris Coyne is on loan in China for most of the season.

Those two were very good last season. Now Glory start with a new pairing at centre back. Josh Mitchell looked ponderous on Wednesday night and Jamie Coyne is a right back. Sekulovski may well struggle again after being berated into better performances (and frequently bailed out) last season by Todd and Coyne.

In central midfield McGarry is an honest toiler but he and Jacob Burns don't offer much creatively.

An awful lot rests on Fowler as the playmaker, presumably partnered with Baird. Unless we are contemplating the slowest forward pairng in NSL history.

Not much in reserve either if anything goes wrong injury wise. Still, we have about 15 on the coaching staff.

We play what could be the worst team in A-League history first up, but will get a clearer picture after that as to where we really sit.

1. Melbourne Heart
2. Gold Coast Utd
3. Sydney
4. Melbourne Victory
5. Wellington Pheonix
6. Perth Glory
7. Central Coast Mariners
8. Newcastle Jets
9. Adelaide Utd
10. North Queensland Fury
11. Brisbane Roar

Ok, balls on the line time. These not taking finals into account:

1. Sydney
2. Wellington
3. Heart
4. Perth
5. Miron and Clive's White-shoe brigade
6. Newcastle
7. Victory
8. Adelaide
9. Mariners
10. Roar
11. Fury

Nothing too earthshaking here. Same top 6 as finished last year, but with a different Melbourne club. Heart will do OK but it's hard starting from scratch.

The bottom 3 could be in any order (Fury with the shit squad and the others with the shit coaches - what will win out?) I have no idea on how to rate Adelaide with their new coach.

Wellington so high up as they have pretty much retained or strengthened and have the formidable home record.

Victory are better than 7th to be hampered by the fact that so much football will have been played by the time they get Archie back. I think a thundering late season run for the 6 from them will be interesting.

GC could easily do worse if it all goes tits up and their averages move under 3K.

Predicted season crowd average: 9,250.

Vuvuzela Fitzgerald wrote:
Predicted season crowd average: 9,250.

Continuing the downward trend.

I imagine everybody at FFA HQ will be nervously watching the stands in the half hour leading up to kick off tonight. Will anybody turn up?

Membership sales are well below expectation and advance ticket sales must be disastrous if Heart are acknowledging that a 5k crowd is possible.

For the sake of the competition and football in this city, I really hope they can get around the 12-15k mark. Anything under 10k and the soccer bashers will be ecstatic.

Patrick Smith, in "The Australian" the other day, was pointing out how Melbourne is now the home of 14 professional football teams (if you include Geelong!) That's a lot of clubs competing for spectators... I'm not really sure of this, but I doubt if London has many more than that, and London is a much larger city...

I've heard that Heart's membership hasn't even reached 3k- but that doesn't mean much: Adelaide's isn't much more than that, and the Heart will certainly get a lot of walk-ups curious to see the new team. Whether they will keep coming is the big question- particularly if they don't get high up the league table early on.

1 sydney
2 victory
3 gold c*nts
4 wellington
5 perth
6 adelaide
7 marinators
8 newcastle
9 heart
10 fury
11 brisbane

trimster wrote:
Melbourne is now the home of 14 professional football teams (if you include Geelong!)

50% of Geelong fans live in Melbourne so it's not unreasonable to include them.

You could almost mount a case for throwing the Sydney Swans in there as well since they've got more members in Melbourne than either Storm or Heart and it's amazing how many young kids support them - the older South Melbourne fans seem to be successfully passing it on down the generations.

Of course, these 14 clubs are not all viable. Melbourne Strom lose about $6m a year and are propped up by News Ltd and North Melbourne, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs survive on AFL handouts.

Melbourne Heart have lost their first ever A League game 1-0 to Central Coast.

We were led to believe that Heart would play a sophisticated (Dutch not Scottish) style of play with slick passing and quick movement (in contrast to Victory's lump it forward to the big man) and with an emphasis on getting the ball wide (Uncle Ernie, of course, doesn't like wingers).

Well, all that's bollocks based on tonight. Unless, that is, sophisticated football is dominating possession but passing it sideways and backwards all night with the odd ball launched to the 6'6" striker.

As for width, if Heart are going to rely on Rutger Worm they are in trouble. He was shocking and it was only after he was replaced by former Melbourne Victory dud, Aziz Behich, that Heart looked moderately dangerous.

The crowd was 11,050 - pretty respectable for a Thursday night during the AFL season. In fact, they've already beaten the attendance records of last season's 2 new teams.

On television, the stadium looks great - a proper football ground with stands right up to the touchlines. There wasn't much of an atmosphere but I suppose that's to be expected at a club's first game when you're going to get curiosity rather than passion.

From the short bit I saw (last 20 mins), I think you're bang on the money about Heart's football and the occasion, MA. I'm looking forward to seeing the stadium in use for a big game, like a derby. I assume Victory vs Sydney matches will all be at Docklands? That's a shame.

Victory are contracted to play 5 games at Docklands – all the “blockbusters” against Sydney, Adelaide and Heart and, hilariously, a game against Gold Coast because there aren’t 5 blockbusters this season. It’s a ludicrous situation after $300m has been spent on what appears to be an outstanding new stadium and, over the last 2 years, Victory’s crowds against Sydney and Adelaide haven’t exceeded 31,000 anyway. The good news is that 2 of the 3 Melbourne derbies are at AAMI Park because Heart are hosting them. They will surely be capacity crowds.

Next Saturday’s first home game against Perth should be pretty exciting. Apparently, the reserved seating behind both goals is completely sold out for the season so, if they can get over 20k, you would think the atmosphere should be the best in the A League – at the moment, I would say that’s an honour jointly held by Adelaide and Perth.

Yeah, a disapointing performance from Heart, but I didn't really expect them to get a good result in their first match. Plenty of possession, but precious few shots at goal. Skoko had a hard time of it in midfield, and Sibon doesn't look very sharp or lively for an "overseas marquee". And I picked Worm for a dud as soon as I set eyes on him...

Typical Mariners performance... and their defence looked pretty solid. Matt Simon must be the apple of Graham Arnold's eye... Simon is a lot like he was as a player- except Arnold was slightly better and scored more goals!

Lots of thinking to do for Van't Schip now that he has seen what the A League is like....

Not a very inspiring start to Adelaide United's A League campaign: 0-0 at home to Newcastle Jets on a freezing cold night before a poor crowd.

It looks like we've got the same old problems as last year- creative attacking play consisting of crosses and high balls to an isolated centre forward, who is invariable marked by five defenders.

Who knows what new coach Coolen thought of it; but our one creative playmaker, Marcos Flores, was mysteriously missing with a last minute training injury, shortly after Ross Aloisi had suggested on Foxsports FC that he might be dropped because of lack of workrate!

New young player signed from Sydney, Ramsay, showed some pace on the left flank, but not much more. Newcastle looked slightly the better of two poor sides, but their finishing was bad, Michael Bridges having their best chances.

Dodd, Barbiero and Flores are still to come back into this side, so surely it has to improve.. and even the notorious Lloyd Owusu is still waiting in the wings!

Entertaining match at Perth last night in front of an encouragingly large crowd. Hopefully, people won't be too put off by Glory's shaky defending and will go back and watch again. I thought Fowler showed some decent touches, including a couple of quality defence-splitting passes, but generally looked off the pace.

NQF took their chances well. Williams' volley was particularly impressive and the Glory struggled to contain Payne (although his goal was a bit jammy). As for the injury-time equaliser, the panic caused by the goalkeeper going upfield for the corner reminded me of the time a dog got into our playground in junior school.

Looking forward to Sydney v Melb Victory tonight. Football and beer are back! But mostly beer!

This is a tad late, but I wrote a bit of a preview of the A-League season the other day. It's a bit long, completely biased, devoid of original insight and Melbourne Arab will HATE it, but I thought I'd share it with you lot anyway:

HAL 2010 (“What are you watching, Dave?)

The vuvuzelas have barely droned their last parp and the bruises on Andres Iniesta’s shins are still pansy purple, yet here we are on the verge of another football season. Football widows rejoice – it’s back already.

However, fans of Hyundai A-League clubs have had a longer wait than most to see their clubs in action again. Over four months have passed since Sydney FC won the championship with a penalty shoot-out win against bitter rivals Melbourne Victory in the Grand Final. It still seems a bit soon though. Not enough time has elapsed between the end of the World Cup and the start of the new season to build up the requisite levels of anticipation. Most A-League teams were already playing friendlies while England were still in the competition.

This is a big year for the A-League. Last season, average attendances dropped to their lowest since the competition began in 2005. A disappointing performance by the Socceroos at the World Cup will have done little to win over casual fans, and the season starts at a time when the inexplicably more popular football codes of Aussie rules and rugby league are still in full flow. The FFA will be banking on A-League newcomers Melbourne Heart to provide added interest and bolster flailing crowd figures.

Heart and Central Coast Mariners kick off season six tonight. The newest franchise have assembled an impressive squad, including the spine of Sydney’s championship-winning team (goalkeeper Clint Bolton, defender Simon Colosimo and creaking national treasure John Aloisi) as well as Socceroo Michael Beauchamp and the highly-rated Josip Skoko. Coach John v’ant Schip has declared that Heart will play a 4-3-3 formation in the ‘Dutch style’, presumably without the chest-cavity-crushing martial arts moves. Heart will be vying for local fans with Melbourne Victory, already established in the city and with a fine A-League record.

For the first half of the season Victory will be without their main source of goals – Archie Thompson. Still recovering from a serious knee injury sustained in the Grand Final, Thompson last week reported that his rehabilitation has included time in the swimming pool made famous by Eric the Eel at the 2000 Olympics: ‘It’s no use”, he complained, “black people can’t swim”. We look forward to hearing more of his views on racial conundrums as he recuperates (white men can’t jump, Asians can’t drive, Mexicans can’t play snooker etc). In his absence, Victory will look to the promising Robbie Kruse and 2010 player of the year Carlos Hernandez to fill the void. Hernandez is a throwback to the era of salad sceptic mavericks – as capable as whipping a free kick into the top corner as blacking out while watching someone fill out a gym membership form.

Victory also have problems at the back. Talented goalkeeper, Mitch Langerak has departed for Borussia Dortmund and pantomime toe rag Kevin Muscat looks increasingly vulnerable when faced with opponents boasting the full compliment of legs. He will, however, be motivated to stamp his authority all over of the first fixture (probably while the referee isn’t looking), as it comes against his arch nemesis: Sydney FC.

Despite the departure of several influential players (and John Aloisi), Sydney fans are optimistic for a repeat of last season’s achievements. Much of this expectation rests on the shoulders of creative midfielder Nick Carle, who has returned to the A-League after three years in Europe. Judging by his alarming tangerine hue, Carle appears to have spent much of this time in the tanning studios of South London, but his pre-season performances have been encouraging.

Vítezslav Lavika’s team is well-organised and effective but not always riveting. At one fixture last season I watched a middle-aged woman studiously completing a colouring-in book as Byun Sung Hwan and Stephan Keller rolled the ball back and forth to one another for what felt like a significant period of time. Hopefully, Kofi Danning, an enthusiastic but raw winger, will provide some excitement and hold the attention of Sydney’s felt tip pen-wielding fans.

Before completing the signing of Carle, Sydney briefly made bedroom eyes towards Robbie Fowler, who found himself on the shelf when North Queensland Fury ran into financial grief and terminated the contracts of six players, including Fowler’s (he’s now suing the club and the FFA). Mercifully, before the millionaire property tycoon was forced to sell his children for spam, Perth Glory stepped in and signed him.

Much is expected of Perth Glory this season, as it is every season – they are the closest thing the A-League has to a sleeping giant. Whether an ageing Fowler is the right person to bring glory back to, um, Glory is questionable, but one thing is certain: the sale of Liverpool replica jerseys will provide a massive boost to the economy of Western Australia. Who needs the mining industry when you’ve got a legion of muppets willing to spend $100+ on lurid polyester garments?

Finances were also an issue for Gold Coast United during the off-season, with the publication of the 2010/11 fixture list being put on hold whilst the FFA sought assurances from controversial owner, Clive Palmer, that he would continue to bankroll the franchise. Last season the team coped admirably with the distraction of Palmer’s rich Texan routine, and remained in the title race until the final few weeks. United’s challenge was largely down to the passing and vision of Jason Culina and the goals of Shane Smeltz – the league’s top scorer. His prolific season, coupled with his energetic performances for New Zealand at the World Cup, earned him a transfer to Chinese club Shandong Luneng. However, just five days into his new contract, he had an attack of the ‘Joey Beauchamps’ and returned to Australia, claiming his family were unable to settle. Just how bad can Shandong be? Smeltz has now re-signed for United, but would be well advised not to take any holidays to Shandong in the near future (not that he would, obv). Assuming Clive Palmer doesn’t announce he’s turning their stadium into a monster truck water park, Gold Coast will again be a threat.

Before he realised how hard it was to get a Bondi Burger in China, Smeltz spent much of the summer with the coach and players of Wellington Pheonix in the form of New Zealand’s World Cup set-up. Ricky Herbert’s Pheonix are more attack-minded than Ricky Herbert’s New Zealand and less reliant on long punts to a pointy-elbowed centre forward. Pheonix play an intense pressing game and are a formidable prospect at home. In Paul Ifil they also have one of the league’s most exciting players. Yes, Paul Ifil. He’s all drag-backs and nutmegs and thirty yard screamers these days.

Central Coast Mariners’ failure to qualify for the 2010 finals series resulted in a coaching re-shuffle. Lawrie McKinna was ‘moved upstairs’ and former national coach Graham Arnold was hired. He’s since signed a group of largely unfamiliar players, including Patricio Perez from Defensa y Justicia in Argentina, which sounds like the kind of place you used to get sent to for criticising el presidente. Further up the motorway, Newcastle Jets will aim to build on last season’s Finals finish under Branko Culina. Newcastle haven’t escaped the drain of talent to Melbourne Heart, losing their captain Matt Thompson. However, their prospects are bolstered by the return of striker Michael Bridges – a man whose injury record makes Samuel L Jackson’s brittle-boned character in ‘Unbreakable’ seem like Joe Jordan.

Brisbane Roar endured a torrid end to last season, plummeting down the table amid managerial controversy (Frank Farina was sacked for drink driving offences) and player revolt (old hands Charlie Miller and Craig Moore flouncing out of the club after falling out with replacement coach Ange Postecoglou). Since then, they have lost their three brightest youth prospects (including ‘The New Harry Kewell’, Tommy Oar) to FC Utrecht, and their top scorer, Sergio van Dijk to last season’s bottom club, Adelaide United.

2009/10 was Adelaide’s worst season in the A-League so far, but it ended positively with consecutive wins and a creditable display in the Asian Cup. Following their own financial meltdown in 2009, the club are currently run by the FFA who, in keeping with their fascination with all things Netherlands, hired Dutchman Rini Coolen as a replacement to coach Aurelio Vidmar, who took up a role as assistant manager for the national team. Adelaide should improve on last season’s insipid showing, but their fiscal situation remains a concern.

With no clear favourite, plenty of fresh players, a host of mysterious foreign coaches and a brand new club playing in a proper rectangular football stadium, it promises to be an intersting season. Now let’s just hope that some buggers turn up to watch it. Paaaarp!

Nice season preview, BDG.... I like the description of Kevin Muscat.

As to whether the crowds will turn up, or not...that's always been the problem with Australian club football, and nobody ever knows what crowds to expect. Adelaide City averaged crowds of 2,750 in the last season of the NSL; only two or three years later Adelaide United were averaging nearly 12,000 in the A League. To me, that is some sort of progress, particularly for a newly created plastic franchise, formed out of nothing. And to think that when I first got involved with the game here, two men and a dog standing on the touchline was considered a good crowd for club football!

This weekend must be about the first time since the start of the A League that Perth has had a bigger crowd than Adelaide... amazing what a difference one player can make...!

Cheers Trimster.

Bonkers game at the SFS tonight. Sydney in complete command before a defensive prolapse left them relying on a late Cole free kick to salvage a point. I can't remember the last time I saw a team so in control fucking it up so spectacularly (bearing in mind that much of my football-supporting life has been spent watching Swindon, who rarely get in the position to throw away a lead).

I thought Sydney really missed the pace and organisational skills of Simon Colisimo, but I'd be interesting in reading the analysis of someone who isn't as pissed as I am (when will I get over the novelty of being able to drink beer while watching football?).

The main positive for Sydney would obviously be Nick Carle. He seemed to be playing at a different pace to the rest of the players - not in the same way that Hayden Foxe was. On numerous occasions it seemed like he'd painted himself into a corner, only to deftly touch the ball into space and dart away, leaving a trail of opponents twitching on the turf behind him. Maybe it's the SFS cheeseburger talking, but I'm glad I forked out for a membership just to see Carle play. If he keeps performing like that, I may even forgive him for playing for Bristol City.

When Brosque missed the chance to put Sydney 3-0 up, I had a chat with former-OTFer Dustguard about how ragged Melbourne looked and the struggle they had ahead of them this season, but fair do's - they took their chances well and kept going.

Some absolutely bollocks defending from both sides though. The first four goals all came about through errors. Sydney relying on Carle to do something ace may and cover for their lack of pace at the back probably won't be enough to retian the title. I'd be interested in hearing the opinion of someone who isn't as drunk as I am though.

On a negative note, I did see something tonight I hoped I'd never see at a football match in Australia - an Oxford United scarf. An absolutely sickening sight and one I hope not to see again.

Big Daves Gussett wrote:
On a negative note, I did see something tonight I hoped I'd never see at a football match in Australia - an Oxford United scarf. An absolutely sickening sight and one I hope not to see again.

Time for my first boring, predicatble cheap shot at Sydney FC's crowds for the season.

Judging by the pitiful crowd last night, BDG, you should be grateful for anybody turning up wearing anything.

I honestly can't believe that crowd - 12,106.

Sydney Rovers are the most important football club in Australia.

Big Daves Gussett wrote:
It's a bit long, completely biased, devoid of original insight and Melbourne Arab will HATE it

I'm not sure why you thought I'd hate it, BDG. The only bit I could possibly object to is that it's "inexplicable" that Aussie Rules is more popular.

You summed up Victory fairly well including obligatory anti-Kevin comment and conceded that Sydney FC are as boring as fuck.

Pretty good summary I would say.

The crowd last night was not good at all..... excuses? The Swans were playing next door at the SCG earlier in a 'must win' game? The ARL is still on and Souths were playing last night?

Still sh*thouse for a first round repeat of the GF match at home having just won the league.

As for the result, I was talking to my mate not long after half-time (Sydney 2 Melb 0) and he was saying we were cruising.... I reminded him of a game at home against Central Coast a couple of seasons ago where Sydney were cruising 3-0 and ended up drawing 3-3 and were lucky to get the draw (or did we lose 4-3?)..... lo and behold, we needed a free kick (that the Melbourne keeper should have saved IMHO) to salvage a draw last night.

Still, I thought we played well and it was one of the more exciting SFC games I've seen (I lived through the T. Butcher era.....)

And Kevie didn't let us down.... f*cking up for the first SFC goal, quick free kick for the first MV goal (how many have they scored from his quick FKs?) and when MV were 3-2 up, following the ref around moaning, distracting him and wasting time. I don't know why they don't yellow card the b*stard when he starts and hopefully he'll shut the f*ck up.

Where has what little support Gold Coast had gone? 6,394 watched the local derby (and their biggest crowd last season) and 4,000 of them were Brisbane fans.

I can't see Clive Palmer staying around if they don't pull their socks up. On the playing side, they were dominated by the world's shortest team for much of the game.

Melbourne Arab wrote:
Melbourne Heart have lost their first ever A League game 1-0 to Central Coast.

We were led to believe that Heart would play a sophisticated (Dutch not Scottish) style of play with slick passing and quick movement (in contrast to Victory's lump it forward to the big man) and with an emphasis on getting the ball wide (Uncle Ernie, of course, doesn't like wingers).

Well, all that's bollocks based on tonight. Unless, that is, sophisticated football is dominating possession but passing it sideways and backwards all night with the odd ball launched to the 6'6" striker.

As for width, if Heart are going to rely on Rutger Worm they are in trouble. He was shocking and it was only after he was replaced by former Melbourne Victory dud, Aziz Behich, that Heart looked moderately dangerous.

The crowd was 11,050 - pretty respectable for a Thursday night during the AFL season. In fact, they've already beaten the attendance records of last season's 2 new teams.

On television, the stadium looks great - a proper football ground with stands right up to the touchlines. There wasn't much of an atmosphere but I suppose that's to be expected at a club's first game when you're going to get curiosity rather than passion.

Spot on. I was there for this one and for all their dominating of possession, Heart were toothless. Those predicting Heart in the top 3 or even champions were giving them way too much credit I think and I expect them to finish in the bottom 4 as their error prone defence gets shown up - CCM were almost handed other goals on plates by comedy capers defending.