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2026 Australia Cup final rounds thread

SMFC1959 said:
APIA is a chance tonight to knock off Victory. Hopefully there is a decent crowd at Leichardt Oval tonight.
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I would guess maybe slightly fewer than the APIA v Sydney united game given there won’t be any away support of note. You’d think they’d be hoping for a couple thousand.

Interesting point made on that box 2 box podcast the other day re the dynamic between clubs and federation, broadcasters etc about how clubs often want the games on weekends to get the bigger crowds but the broadcast numbers tend to be stronger on the week nights which is where a lot of the funding for these sorts of comps actually comes from
 
Like SU we have got heavy legs and injuries the amount of games played in recent weeks.
I’m not confident atm for the young robots may retain a lot of ball and tire us out. We shall see.
Whatever chances we create must finish some of them.
 
Btw a few weeks back now, but the offical crowd reported for Sydney Olympic v Brisbane at Belmore was 1,115 if anyone’s interested. Not incredible by any stretch of the imagination but could have been a lot worse given the clubs current predicament/the general vibe around the place right now imo.
As @olympic said, many of their more loyal supporters didn’t attend by all accounts
 
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Glenardo said:
I would guess maybe slightly fewer than the APIA v Sydney united game given there won’t be any away support of note. You’d think they’d be hoping for a couple thousand.

Interesting point made on that box 2 box podcast the other day re the dynamic between clubs and federation, broadcasters etc about how clubs often want the games on weekends to get the bigger crowds but the broadcast numbers tend to be stronger on the week nights which is where a lot of the funding for these sorts of comps actually comes from
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send a link to that podcast.
 
If APIA beat Melbourne victory tonight and set up a APIA v Sydney fc semi final that would be a good occasion and you’d imagine a good crowd. If they want to play that at Leichhardt you’d think it would be getting very close to the cut off period before it closes for the refurb
 
Glenardo said:
If APIA beat Melbourne victory tonight and set up a APIA v Sydney fc semi final that would be a good occasion and you’d imagine a good crowd. If they want to play that at Leichhardt you’d think it would be getting very close to the cut off period before it closes for the refurb
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Is there an alternative venue it could be played at?
 
SMFC1959 said:
Is there an alternative venue it could be played at?
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I think they should be ok in this instance, they might just sneak in. But if we’re going by past experience I’d say they’d probably go with Kogarah which isn’t ideal as some south fan’s experienced last year. It needs to be full to be semi ok. Plus it’s quite far from APIAs traditional heartland. Incidentally did any Hellas fans on this forum happen to be part of taht group who attended the Sydney Olympic v South Melbourne pre season friendly there a few years back which drew ~4k?

Again, even if APIA get away with it for the aus cup this year, it still begs the question what they’ll do in the interim for the aus championship etc during the refurb which were no closer to getting an answer on. My vote is that they play out of their traditional base in lambert park for the time being. If Avondale’s ground is fine, so is lambert park. It was an nsl venue for years ffs. Certainly wouldn’t be big enough to host an aus cup semi final v Sydney fc though.
 
NicCarBel said:
Hyopthetical question: let's say what is probably the unthinkable happens and APIA Leichardt defeat both Victory, and then Sydney FC to make the final, coupled with Brisbane Lions not making it. Where's the final? Would FA have the balls (and also would the clubs have enough supporters to travel) to do it somewhere neutral? Only place 'neutral' that would make sense for a Melb/Sydney neutral game where both travel is Canberra.
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Nah they won’t do it neutral. It’ll be either Melbourne or Sydney like the aus cup final was. Given the fact leichhardt might be closed for refurb by then my personal vote would go to a melb club hosting
 
SMFC1959 said:
APIA is a chance tonight to knock off Victory. Hopefully there is a decent crowd at Leichardt Oval tonight.
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On this just saw that apparently online pre sales are almost sold out..not sure what that means, how can you sell out of digital tickets..I’d assume they’ll still be selling tickets at the gate. I had a look, the last time APIA played Melbourne victory at Leichhardt in 2018 they had a crowd of ~2,500. Weathers decent up here today, currently 20 degrees and mostly sunny, hopefully that bodes well

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Glenardo said:
Imo one of the noteworthy things about this years edition of the cup is relatively average npl teams, teams from what have traditionally been perceived to be the npls which aren’t as strong, holding their own in general play and being very competitive v a league outfits.

Not to even get into a debate about why, but in the past it was by and large only the better teams from nsw and vic who would even have a chance of trying to nick a goal on the counter v a league teams and then parking the bus. Now you have a team like sd raiders who just came up from npl 2 and who for most of the year were in a relegation battle playing out a competitive entertaining game v Sydney fc in a quarter final. Or a team like lions fc from Queensland knocking out 2 a league clubs back to back and deserving their wins too
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I think NSD have made a difference, it has probably resulted in more investment at NPL level from the seniors to the youth to the point where the depth of talent between the a-league and NPL has gotten smaller.

The a-league not having the financial clout to bring in those expensive foreigners has probably taken a hit in terms of the standard but the plus of that it has resulted in more opportunities to young players which actually is a good thing for oz football.

A decade ago young players would barely get the chance to play in the a-league even if the standard was higher but it meant for a weaker national team, so with that the a-league is better off as a develop and sell league as it doesn't have the money or clout compared to more richer leagues overseas unless it changes with more money involved again and eventually more organic system which involves pro-rel where clubs can decide what they want to do based of their status.
 
Glenardo said:
Interesting point made on that box 2 box podcast the other day re the dynamic between clubs and federation, broadcasters etc about how clubs often want the games on weekends to get the bigger crowds but the broadcast numbers tend to be stronger on the week nights which is where a lot of the funding for these sorts of comps actually comes from
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Yeah I posted about this a year or two ago that weeknight matches rate the highest. I think Sundays were the worst, but I'll have to dig them up again.
 
Barca4life said:
I think NSD have made a difference, it has probably resulted in more investment at NPL level from the seniors to the youth to the point where the depth of talent between the a-league and NPL has gotten smaller.

The a-league not having the financial clout to bring in those expensive foreigners has probably taken a hit in terms of the standard but the plus of that it has resulted in more opportunities to young players which actually is a good thing for oz football.

A decade ago young players would barely get the chance to play in the a-league even if the standard was higher but it meant for a weaker national team, so with that the a-league is better off as a develop and sell league as it doesn't have the money or clout compared to more richer leagues overseas unless it changes with more money involved again and eventually more organic system which involves pro-rel where clubs can decide what they want to do based of their status.
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Yea some truth to the idea imo that the biggest point of difference between a league and the better npl teams in the past apart from professionalism was the higher quality imports. No doubt npl clubs have improved and been more ambitious in recent years aswell, more professional etc etc and a large part of that has been the glimmer of hope the idea of an nsd has provided
 
NoMates said:
APIA 6 - 0 Victory, like City Victory don't take the Aus Cup serious and it will show tonight when another NPL team dicks a ALM club from start to finish. The only reason SFC are still involved is because they paid off the ref. Got a feeling Victory have prob done the same thing.
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I was wondering where your dick tip was.

Glad to see the universe is back in balance.
 
Glenardo said:
Interesting point made on that box 2 box podcast the other day re the dynamic between clubs and federation, broadcasters etc about how clubs often want the games on weekends to get the bigger crowds but the broadcast numbers tend to be stronger on the week nights which is where a lot of the funding for these sorts of comps actually comes from
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Football looks better on TV at night. Gives it an event quality.

I was at the SD v SFC game last night out at Prairiewood and with two packed grandstands and a packed sideline area and the Cove on the hill chanting you could tell this was something that people wanted to be at. Same with tonight I imagine as well. Looking forward to it.
 
SMFC1959 said:
SD Raiders put up a fight and were competitive. Sydney FC was a few levels above them even with a more youthful look. That for me was a penalty, so unlucky for SD Raiders.

More of a question to @Glenardo or @Beretta, how often is Fairfield Showgrounds used for football? Is that SD Raiders' home ground? Looked like a decent set up for NPL football on TV.
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It has SD Raiders and Southern Districts branding all over the ground. Funny that they play at that Ernie Smith shithole.
 
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