Alen Stajic speech on Australian football

[melbcityguy]

I don't have anything to add to this anymore. I hear the guys saying we need p and r and it's a franchise league. But I also note the a league was needed to be a professional league I don't know if these nsl clubs were/are the answer but a league has its fault who knows??

 

[Sharkman84]

What the matter guvna, did you go watch the wee lasses play football last night and couldn't get the leg over because they all saw through your pretend wokeness? Keep calm and have a Bovril.

Serious question are you Lupi in disguise?

You're either a troll or a deadset malaka.

Who's pretending to be woke? I despise the Left.

 

[Robbos]

IS it a state of origin NSW v QLD thing?... Im seriously confused why you would think one club in suburban Melbourne would have a border dispute with another suburban club in Melbourne... There is no such thing as exclusive economic borders min football, thats a bullshit franchise thing were the marketing company tells you what team to support in your league....

More rhetoric. You say so much but say nothing at all.

 

[Sharkman84]

Finished 11th and half the country is still jerking off over it.... not THAT much progress. .

How many World Cups made in the NSL era?

It was none, nada, zippo.

Heck we couldn't even beat New Zealand and Israel in the 80's ffs.

 

[Sharkman84]

There is no bin fire... Sharky and Wally are just young try hards wanting to have a go at being edgy.

You, of all people, should acknowledge its better to rip the bandaid off and criticise inadequacies rather than just saying "yay everything is awesome"...

I'm 41 clown.

Been following the game since the early 90's so you can stick your head up your arse which you seem to do anyway.

 

[Sharkman84]

You say one key difference was the comp was open for teams to enter, and take risks, sure, and how did that turn out???.....Carlton, Collingwood Warriors, Northern Spirit, Eastern Pride, Gippsland Falcons, Football Kingz, Adelaide Force and the list goes on all in a 7 year time fram. Clubs in and out like Yo-Yo's, what sort of league is that? Unprofessional, and complete amatueur hour. Were you happy having clubs come in and out each year?

I didn't mind having some sort of barriers to entry initially (such as proving financial capacity etc), but obviously Western United made a mockery of the whole thing.

Thomas Broich and Diego Castro, in my opinion, are the best foreign players we have had play in this country.

In Australia, its slightly different compared to say the majority of footballing nations. We are not the number 1 sport, and we continously are treated like shit, and thats going back 50 years. I support Glory, but I also want football to be the number 1 sport in this country, having a strong top tier will help this. Having an open pyramid from top to bottom will also help this, but we don't have finance so it seems at this stage.

I haven't seen one supporter of an Aleague club say they want the championship to fail.

As much as the bloke make a complete utter dick of himself and totally trashed his legacy, Milos Ninkovic in his Sydney years was twice the player Castro was and had the winners medals to back it up.

 

[biggiemic]

As much as the bloke make a complete utter dick of himself and totally trashed his legacy, Milos Ninkovic in his Sydney years was twice the player Castro was and had the winners medals to back it up.

Haha nah, you can't disrespect Castro like that!

Castro was extremely underappreciated due to the fact he was based in lonely Perth, and remember, the majorty of his time here, the team/players around him were terrible. Whereas Ninkovic's Sydney FC teams were always contending for championships.

Loved Ninkovic, but Castro was the better player.

Better yet, if you get a chance to speak to players who played with or against both of them, they will tell you Castro was some thing else.

Below is reminder of the little masters wizardry!

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

You say one key difference was the comp was open for teams to enter, and take risks, sure, and how did that turn out???.....Carlton, Collingwood Warriors, Northern Spirit, Eastern Pride, Gippsland Falcons, Football Kingz, Adelaide Force and the list goes on all in a 7 year time fram. Clubs in and out like Yo-Yo's, what sort of league is that? Unprofessional, and complete amatueur hour. Were you happy having clubs come in and out each year?

2 conveniently skimmed over points, all of them franchises much like yours, and most were part of that system at war with our clubs (you know the one at SA that had all those bright ideas against traditional expression etc) in the very name of promoting the mainstream concept that has since done wonders for the game, hence why in both leagues the model keeps failing for one reason or another, No?
ifference is in your model there were assurances it wasnt going to happen, you know bc mistakes of the past wouldnt be repeated bc the big bad effniks wouldnt be there!

And No i was not happy with the NSL, when did i say i was? And why would i be? The problem for us was larger than the NSL model, we were at war with a bigoted system that was doing everything in its power to kill us off one way or another, killing the NSL was all part of that war so it was never going to be fixed when its own governing body had it as priority to kill it! Couldnt strangle the clubs themswlves despite the attenpts so killed the next best thing the league! Unless you think the clubs made the decisions? Conveniently forget that also?

I didn't mind having some sort of barriers to entry initially (such as proving financial capacity etc), but obviously Western United made a mockery of the whole thing.

ANd not only WU but they are the most recent, for now!

Thomas Broich and Diego Castro, in my opinion, are the best foreign players we have had play in this country.

What a statement to make when we witnessed players like Oscar Crino and Milan Ivanovic.....who left the game with bigger legacies?

In Australia, its slightly different compared to say the majority of footballing nations. We are not the number 1 sport, and we continously are treated like shit, and thats going back 50 years.

Hold on, AL went mainstream and it fixed the problem didnt it? The other codes fought against 'wogball' so when it was ousted and your superior product replaced it, why didnt you become competitive to the other codes? Atleast the NSL was the 4th code in the country (behind rugby afl and int cricket) now you fall behind bihlg bash and basketball ... and you claim progress? Let me guess it was the fault of Covid (which was invented to keep the AL down! Hahaha

I support Glory, but I also want football to be the number 1 sport in this country, having a strong top tier will help this.

Having an exluded majority wont though!
Fyi No one has said not to have a premier league in this country mind you. We just dont agree on the model.

Having an open pyramid from top to bottom will also help this, but we don't have finance so it seems at this stage.

So basketball can do it, baseball can do it, hell ice hokey and gridiron in aus ffs (go figure) can do it but we dont have the finances? Perhaps the issue is infact something totally different, No?

I haven't seen one supporter of an Aleague club say they want the championship to fail.

now you re simply taking the piss!

 

[LFC]

I agree the A-League has problems with connection, but as crowds shows, it's the best we have & much better than what we previously had which really struggled for connection.

No doubt - you’d hope after 20yrs crowd wise has improved since the dark ages. Times have changed no.

I love Sam Kerr, like I loved Shane Warne for what they did on the field not their off-field indiscretions.

I don’t luv Kerr whatsoever but respect she’s a top W global player. Warne was our typical laconic Aussie sportsman you couldn’t not luv that type of persona backed by brilliance on the pitch.

Of course we all want more, the only difference is I believe Aussies have never played 'jogo Bonita' you think the GG did, I didn't see it.

I’ve never said the GG played as such - i enjoyed them having a go as raw as they were - I think the road getting there as they did and their WC campaign after so long is closer to many hearts than modern days that’s what’s warm about the GG and their club careers.

Much love LFC.

Awwwww

 

[Robbos]

No doubt - you’d hope after 20yrs crowd wise has improved since the dark ages. Times have changed no.

I don’t luv Kerr whatsoever but respect she’s a top W global player. Warne was our typical laconic Aussie sportsman you couldn’t not luv that type of persona backed by brilliance on the pitch.

I’ve never said the GG played as such - i enjoyed them having a go as raw as they were - I think the road getting there as they did and their WC campaign after so long is closer to many hearts than modern days that’s what’s warm about the GG and their club careers.

Awwwww

The Socceroos was having a go in 2024, they beat both Tunsia & Denmark & then took the future world champion till the last minute, they did this by 'having a go' punching above their weight, our DNA, but we didn't do it playing 'Jogo Bonita'.
Until we go deep into the World cup, nothing will compete with 2006 campaign.

As for the dark ages, time has changed, but why would you want to go back to the dark ages.

 

[LFC]

The Socceroos was having a go in 2024, they beat both Tunsia & Denmark & then took the future world champion till the last minute, they did this by 'having a go' punching above their weight, our DNA, but we didn't do it playing 'Jogo Bonita'.
Until we go deep into the World cup, nothing will compete with 2006 campaign.

As for the dark ages, time has changed, but why would you want to go back to the dark ages.

Re read
I said times have changed no
That doesn’t imply going back to me nor can it be hence times change it’s always moving forward - capish by now.
Joga bonito never applies to Aussie play never has, did and fight that’s it

 

[grazorblade]

in academic history, dark ages refers to lack of sources rather than things being bad

so by that standard, the Pim Verbeek era is the dark age because most of the games are unavailable!

 

[biggiemic]

2 conveniently skimmed over points, all of them franchises much like yours, and most were part of that system at war with our clubs (you know the one at SA that had all those bright ideas against traditional expression etc) in the very name of promoting the mainstream concept that has since done wonders for the game, hence why in both leagues the model keeps failing for one reason or another, No?
ifference is in your model there were assurances it wasnt going to happen, you know bc mistakes of the past wouldnt be repeated bc the big bad effniks wouldnt be there!

And No i was not happy with the NSL, when did i say i was? And why would i be? The problem for us was larger than the NSL model, we were at war with a bigoted system that was doing everything in its power to kill us off one way or another, killing the NSL was all part of that war so it was never going to be fixed when its own governing body had it as priority to kill it! Couldnt strangle the clubs themswlves despite the attenpts so killed the next best thing the league! Unless you think the clubs made the decisions? Conveniently forget that also?

ANd not only WU but they are the most recent, for now!

What a statement to make when we witnessed players like Oscar Crino and Milan Ivanovic.....who left the game with bigger legacies?

Hold on, AL went mainstream and it fixed the problem didnt it? The other codes fought against 'wogball' so when it was ousted and your superior product replaced it, why didnt you become competitive to the other codes? Atleast the NSL was the 4th code in the country (behind rugby afl and int cricket) now you fall behind bihlg bash and basketball ... and you claim progress? Let me guess it was the fault of Covid (which was invented to keep the AL down! Hahaha

Having an exluded majority wont though!
Fyi No one has said not to have a premier league in this country mind you. We just dont agree on the model.

So basketball can do it, baseball can do it, hell ice hokey and gridiron in aus ffs (go figure) can do it but we dont have the finances? Perhaps the issue is infact something totally different, No?

now you re simply taking the piss!

Who does agree on the current model excluding the suits and club owners?

No reason why the clubs couldn’t have got together and started there own rogue league when admin was trying to “kill” the league

 

[RIMB]

I'm 41 clown.

Been following the game since the early 90's so you can stick your head up your arse which you seem to do anyway.

So you are just a young fella then

 

[RIMB]

Im not a racist i hate everyone equally... except Hellas!

<cough> That may be as good a statement of total racism as you could get

When I lived in cockroach country we used to say there was a thing called Queensland humour - like one Queenslander would ask another "Why do dogs in the rest of the world have flat noses?"..."From chasing parked cars".

I was always a Queenslander of course and can dish it out to myself as much as to anyone else - but your comment reminded me of that.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Minutes for youth was improving before Covid but Covid exacerbated that. Adelaide in particular had a number of young players playing regularly at the time.

Having a professional league that has expanded from 8 to 13 (obvs 12 temporary) is obviously a good thing.

Instead of a national AIS, every AL club has their own academy. Obviously it was going to take a while for clubs to set up these academies and then for them to develop players but we have been see the fruits of this for the last few years. Melbourne City and Sydney in particular have great academy set ups.

The standard of foreign players is definitely better than what we had in the early years of the league

In comparison to our regional rivals, none of those countries give minutes to what we do, only Japan and South Korea have qualified for every World Cup since 2006 and we are currently the third highest ranked Asian side.

Im not sure what minutes per youth played is so important for you all but ok, thats great I suppose.

FIFA ranks us 4th in Asia behind Iran, Japan and South Korea, but again, at least to me, a reflection of the poor nations we usually compete against and not really an accurate reflection of where we sit compared to Europe, Africa and South America which we very rarely compete against.

I keep hearing about these new batch of wonder players the academies are producing..... I hope you are right, I still havent seen anyone do anything of note on the world stage yet?

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

More rhetoric. You say so much but say nothing at all.

Sure it is mate, You are definitely NOT implying that people supporting an NSL club don't belong in this country because of "border disputes"... you are just misquoted eh?

You say so little but the undertone is evident.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

I'm 41 clown.

Been following the game since the early 90's so you can stick your head up your arse which you seem to do anyway.

Serious question are you Lupi in disguise?

You're either a troll or a deadset malaka.

Who's pretending to be woke? I despise the Left.

41 and having trouble regulating your emotions??? I hope your life gets back on track soon.

 

[RIMB]

We have a national super league competition, and the national governing body killed off its precursor to establish it.

It was the same process as other sports where the national body bought in and if you wanted to represent your country you had to accept it. Rugby League's super league failed because the national body stayed with the original so if you wanted to represent your country you had to reject the super league.

The problem with a super league model is you have to buy in (franchise) and you cannot have relegation due to the owners buying that specific product with guarantees.

You can't simply buy back licenses to move on - the owners have expended so many lost dollars over the years that they would have a good case for huge financial compensation based on 'lost investment'. What a bitch fight that would end up since owners have huge financial resources to fight with (if they haven't lost it all owning a football club).

From comments posted here the licences run till 2034 or something - so I can only see a way forward for Australian football holistically that includes Promotion and inclusion over expansion by invitation alone until then. I do not want the money that is being poured into football by owners to go elsewhere - so I want to keep the current teams and guarantees until the licences expire. There is plenty of scope for a larger aleague competition and the Australian Championship and Australia Cup show there might be a willingness for teams to come in on merit (NPL) or selection (foundation clubs) - especially if the foreign nationality prohibition disappeared. We have 2 kiwi teams in so how can we reject Aussie clubs with foreign ties/communities/identities? It is hypocrisy under casual observation at least.

The aleague is more likely to stick with regional/geographic expansion - like Canberra, Hobart, another Qld side, perhaps another Adelaide side - than to look for a merit based expansion. But it is not beyond the pale to consider that after the regional/geographic clubs the rest of the expansion can be on merit.

That is where the idea of The Plan for P/R fits perfectly. In potentially 9 years time we could have a full P/R system in place and the infighting on current grounds has to reduce if there is an established plan that gets us past the blockages that are killing our game's genuine growth. Guaranteed we would find other things to base our infighting on but it would give the game a chance.

Whatever plan we get, if it bases itself on inclusion rather than exclusion and gives the timeline that many of us are crying for it can be nothing but a positive step.

Staj is totally right. He is not giving solutions he is voicing our problems and concerns. The sport has to step up with good intent before we can get past "all knowing what the problems are" and find a path forwards.

Yet another series of options for solution from me...

From "them":
- Reduce the cost of licences considerably since the 'licence lifetime' guarantee would reduce to nothing over the coming years.
- Bring in the regions that the current administration want to include by invitation or regional merit.
- Plan further expansion based on a merit system and announced as soon as it is decided so teams can build towards it over years if they so desire.
- Remove or increase the salary cap significantly so owners can choose to spend big and pay to stay.
- Make the competition big enough that clubs who spend (intelligently) are not at serious risk of relegation to encourage buy ins.
- Include a code of conduct for clubs and supporters that allows the loss of licence if any clubs fail to observe 'decent' expected behaviour or fail to attempt to identify and reject offenders.

From "us":
- Once there is a plan that has inclusion and merit built in we get behind it and fight each other on behalf of our clubs without bringing the game itself down.

 

[Robbos]

Sure it is mate, You are definitely NOT implying that people supporting an NSL club don't belong in this country because of "border disputes"... you are just misquoted eh?

You say so little but the undertone is evident.

The victim card yet again.

No undertones just my opinion, you don't like to follow any club that has no history over 20 years, that is your opinion.

I'll repeat what I said, this is my opinion, not forcing it on to anyone else;

I don't really want to follow clubs who still chant another country's name during the games and others that like to show which side of WW11 that they grandparents.
And clubs who's biggest rivals are other ethnic clubs who are rivals because of border disputes in Europe.