2025 Australia Cup final rounds thread

[LFC]

RIMB re VAR.
All due respect that is not a great argument to put up.
It’s pretty natural for any player you play to the whistle - the main thing players do is try to call out or act as if a free should be applied by the ref.
Did you know for eg the FA Cup only last season VAR was introduced from the 5th round onwards prior there was nothing till deeper into the tournament.
Let’s enjoy NO VAR more than anything it really sucks anyway.
Same applies for some other Cups - I really don’t see it a issue you just get on with the game.

I also don’t buy the pre season bit to the AL Clubs - Pro is Pro and the ongoing playing youth they are fit as but possibly lack some match fitness but their ability to retain possession comes to for.
The semi pros are tuned in season granted and mostly out smart the young fellas more than anything.

As for the crowds re other comments - generally this is the plight of our game even in the so called capital of sport dominated by a egg ball.
A NPL club in the shadows and a kiwi AL team playing youth.
What casual would bother for starters but for the diehards and mates.

 

[melbcityguy]

A league was competing with the AFL in the early 2010s so it's not crazy what his asking it just shows how backwards we've gone

 

[tsf]

Then have it on a weekend. Gosh so sick of the excuses just want to see people supporting the competition don't care who organizes it

All I have heard is excuses every week it’s something different for why NPL clubs get nobody there.

I go to games, the reality is people outside of the close knit don’t give a fuck.

The age tried running a giant killing story which was good, but let’s face it - who is going to that dark dingy stadium as a neutral or to check it out? Fuck all.

 

[Sutherlandbear]

So the 6k which is practically on par with most of their home games in 2005 and similar ones in 2025 are not the norm but are due to what exactly champ? Covid?

Funny thing is that I actually do and it doesnt mean top tier as you requested above though does it you ginger tosser? Perhaps your pom masters didnt fuck the english language into you as properly as they should've!

I never said they averaged it moron!

Now you can "royally fuck off!"

You need help, so the figures you provided, what were they, a dream ?

You said to compare head to head when your team were in the top tier. I provided for the storm and you replied with your 16k for 1998.

And you can also royally fuck off with your lies. Nothing but a troll.

 

[Sutherlandbear]

Rank Amount When
1. 2,523 12/08/2021 - Melbourne 26 - Canberra 16
2. 2,910 30/08/2020 - Melbourne 30 - Manly 6
3. 3,432 08/08/2020 - Melbourne 41 - Canterbury 10
4. 4,056 13/09/2020 - Melbourne 36 - North Qld 20
5. 4,121 19/09/2020 - Melbourne 50 - Wests Tigers 22
6. 5,328 19/06/2021 - Melbourne 66 - Wests Tigers 16
7. 5,437 17/07/2020 - Melbourne 42 - Gold Coast 6
8. 5,837 02/08/2020 - Melbourne 26 - Newcastle 16
9. 6,063 09/07/2005 - Melbourne 20 - Canberra 0
10. 6,182 23/02/2025 - Melbourne 24 - North Qld 36

Yeah alright champ except you also have the above to explain .... and from the nrl itself... but hey lets do this since your so fond of figures.....

1998 16k
1999 15194
2000 not sure!
2001 8121 i believe
2002 about 4k
2003 7250
2004 11641

Ill leave the cheating and the bullshit to you!

Number 10 was a pre season friendly played at Casey fields, not a league match. Try harder with your persistent lies.

 

[RIMB]

RIMB re VAR.
All due respect that is not a great argument to put up.
It’s pretty natural for any player you play to the whistle - the main thing players do is try to call out or act as if a free should be applied by the ref.
Did you know for eg the FA Cup only last season VAR was introduced from the 5th round onwards prior there was nothing till deeper into the tournament.
Let’s enjoy NO VAR more than anything it really sucks anyway.
Same applies for some other Cups - I really don’t see it a issue you just get on with the game.

I also don’t buy the pre season bit to the AL Clubs - Pro is Pro and the ongoing playing youth they are fit as but possibly lack some match fitness but their ability to retain possession comes to for.
The semi pros are tuned in season granted and mostly out smart the young fellas more than anything.

As for the crowds re other comments - generally this is the plight of our game even in the so called capital of sport dominated by a egg ball.
A NPL club in the shadows and a kiwi AL team playing youth.
What casual would bother for starters but for the diehards and mates.

I am happy without VAR but we are stuck with it and while players do play to the whistle as you say there are a lot of naughty options that VAR overwatch takes out of the equation in the penalty box.

Professionals will have changed their behaviours in the box because of VAR - going in that much more carefully because with VAR a clipped boot is enough to award a penalty - and some penalties are called even when the opponent has not appealed for one. Defenders are more careful with contact and engaging in the box than they are with natural eyes watching. I don't think aleagues coaches would be happy seeing their players being reckless in the Cup games when they are meant to be preparing to play to VAR standards.

As always I could be wrong, but I cannot see how players in training for VAR monitored games would be able to switch of their specific anti-VAR tactics then go back to training the next day with them turned on. It has to change how players engage in the box.

To exaggerate my point to a silly level - if a team had never played with an offside rule and they played a team who did, the side that was used to the playing whichever environment would have an advantage.

For the pre-season not being a valid consideration, I have watched my team play pre-season games after changing several players season after season. The cohesion in the team is never strong from the start because no matter how many training sessions you have, and how many years experience as a player, it is only in the moments of a real game that decisions come based on the time you have spent in those conditions with your team mates. Correct anticipation of movement is critical.

The front half of your team cannot play the game they want if they do not yet know or trust the back half. They will not push on freely and play to their best when they have half an eye on covering their defenders. The coach of an uncertain team will also tend to isolate the forwards in order to bolster the back - playing it safer until they sort out how solid they are. You don't learn that playing in-house games or pre-season friendlies with local lower clubs.

There are too many factors involved in every moment of football as you know to be able to 'know' when your teammate will run or stop, go wide or cut in, need a high ball or a ground pass, and so on. Sure there is a general understanding and 'rules' that they know but that is not the same as proper familiarity with each other.

Pre-season to me is not about learning to play the game or getting fit - it is about working on the combinations that you need to break down skilful and organised opposition. Who needs help against speed or guile and who can be trusted.

That is where several games into pre-season is still a factor to me - far more than the fitness or individual ball skills side.

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

A league was competing with the AFL in the early 2010s so it's not crazy what his asking it just shows how backwards we've gone

Good figures for a limited time granted, but lets be honest, to say it even came close to AFL is beyond a streeeetch of the imagination!

In reality we continue to be stuck in this bullshit vicious cycle of needless comparisons and it gets more and more tiresome and frustrating the longer it goes on and does nothing for the game other than continue to divide and hurt it! We should long have focused more on product rather than attendences but alas we always do the opposite from the top down, and when its called for, suddenly all those without the interest of the game pop up with the usual rhetoric of hatred!

We have those new dawners (they/we know who they are) that continue to belittle the teams that have been excluded for 20yrs in nothing comps and pointing fingers at crowd numbers (when ti suits them and excusing them as needed) like they have the 'Papal seal' to spew their venom and vice versa reacting and trying to prove the elephant isnt a duck! Both sides do it bc the initial divide and conqour applied to our football still pegs the underpinnings of those light minded and the deep down racists alike (as PC as they try to appear) on the one end and the 'bitter' (like myself) on the other. Thats the ongoing reality!

Difference is, i have not hidden my feelings about the aleague and they are well documented, and this is the byproduct of the game in Oz's own doing as we almost all agree, doesnt make it right but the reasoning is warranted, given the history and the way it unfolded, again not right but goes to the crux of the issues plaguing us! On a normal platform from the start none of this wouldve been a starter is the reality and id probably have attended the aleague or a second tier with my club!

Aleague complains AFL (sport media etc) is the biggest thing hurting the game, yet its continuely proven that its easily the APL and its cronies that is the biggest thing hurting and holding the game back in this country!

 

[RIMB]

For the crowds at different codes - our football is to Wimbledon what NRL is to the Colosseum.

Different things appeal to the watchers of each and more people like/understand the big entertainment combat factor over close watched skill.

Pointless competing against the nature and desire of the masses who just want to be entertained for a bit and see their frustrations physically taken out on their opponents.

Our sport should stop trying to compete and just look to itself for improvement as many have said over the years.

 

[LFC]

RIMB,
I understand your POV and agree alot with what your saying but lets face it, its a simple game really, adjusting your attitude from VAR to NON isn't hard the way I see it, just one is more liberal than the other, some adjust some may not imo it's no big deal and thats football being Cup games.

I get the pre season learning of combo's considering squads/personal changes - learning where a X runner moves and anticipates - also even when match fit through the season X players have OFF games.
Again part of sport/football, one point that still glares up in front of me despite AL pre season, they are trained Pro's, how training seasssions a wekk, how many small sided one touch drills, they do learn alot together and have for how many seasons as they have been in the Club set up for how many years as well.

Mate, you look at it far too complicated - to me, its like riding a bike or throwing a chip on the ground the every seagull knows its first in first served.
Same applies to the APL Clubs in these games especially the early rounds from R32, throw the ball on the pitch whislte blows game on, your head triggers/knows the task at hand (you've trained for years) automatically just like being first to the chip

Though, these counter discussions will carry on forever whilst we have AL playing the wrong side of the season.
Summer football, no fan even a diehard like me, I'm out enjoying the marvellous weather and outings.

 

[Sutherlandbear]

RIMB,
I understand your POV and agree alot with what your saying but lets face it, its a simple game really, adjusting your attitude from VAR to NON isn't hard the way I see it, just one is more liberal than the other, some adjust some may not imo it's no big deal and thats football being Cup games.

I get the pre season learning of combo's considering squads/personal changes - learning where a X runner moves and anticipates - also even when match fit through the season X players have OFF games.
Again part of sport/football, one point that still glares up in front of me despite AL pre season, they are trained Pro's, how training seasssions a wekk, how many small sided one touch drills, they do learn alot together and have for how many seasons as they have been in the Club set up for how many years as well.

Mate, you look at it far too complicated - to me, its like riding a bike or throwing a chip on the ground the every seagull knows its first in first served.
Same applies to the APL Clubs in these games especially the early rounds from R32, throw the ball on the pitch whislte blows game on, your head triggers/knows the task at hand (you've trained for years) automatically just like being first to the chip

Though, these counter discussions will carry on forever whilst we have AL playing the wrong side of the season.
Summer football, no fan even a diehard like me, I'm out enjoying the marvellous weather and outings.

C'mon LFC, summer football never started with the A league. You can't spend 90 minutes in the sun watching football? The funny thing is, is that all of Europe would love to have summer football.

 

[Muz]

Fuck off Auckland and Wellington from our comp. Ridiculous they're allowed in it at all.

 

[Frankly Speaking]

What I'm thinking from the Aus Cup results is that

1. The rustiness argument is unsustainable - or SHOULD be.
2. Either the NPL teams have raised standards or the A League teams have fallen in standard
3. My view is that its the latter. The lack of money is biting - we are now a barebones of a pro league and things are going to get worse with the hard cap.
4. Even with the lack of money, A League teams are professionals and it is absurd that any A League team can take a hammering from part time players.
5. Coaching standards in the A League need to improve considerably. There is absolutely no excuse for an A League team not to be fully prepared for these games. FFS it is such a short season - they should be up and motivated for this competition.

 

[tsf]

What I'm thinking from the Aus Cup results is that

1. The rustiness argument is unsustainable - or SHOULD be.
2. Either the NPL teams have raised standards or the A League teams have fallen in standard
3. My view is that its the latter. The lack of money is biting - we are now a barebones of a pro league and things are going to get worse with the hard cap.

I think NPL teams are just better, and smarter

Watch the early years, and they went out with ten men behind the ball, couldn't string a pass.

Now they go out to play.

The timing of it helps, when it was played later in the year they seemed to get trashed.

But overall, I think it's a case of the NPL stepping up for the comp (mixed with a little of the a-league teams being apprehensive about committing 100%)

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

You need help, so the figures you provided, what were they, a dream ?

You said to compare head to head when your team were in the top tier. I provided for the storm and you replied with your 16k for 1998.

And you can also royally fuck off with your lies. Nothing but a troll.

Hahaha... sure champ sure!

You just make sure if your franchise qualifies next round that you come down (bring your bf too) to the bergers at the village and we will make you feel nice and welcome at one of those 'effnik places' you despise soooo much!

 

[Sutherlandbear]

Hahaha... sure champ sure!

You just make sure if your franchise qualifies next round that you come down (bring your bf too) to the bergers at the village and we will make you feel nice and welcome at one of those 'effnik places' you despise soooo much!

Why do you have to add the homophobia ? Straight away you lose credibility, if you had any in the first place !! I do not despise ethnics, at all, just you.

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

Why do you have to add the homophobia ? Straight away you lose credibility, if you had any in the first place !! I do not despise ethnics, at all, just you.

Its a lifelstyle choice champ no judgement on my part!

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

I do not despise ethnics, at all, just you.

Sure mate whateeeeever helps you sleep at night!

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

C'mon LFC, summer football never started with the A league. You can't spend 90 minutes in the sun watching football? The funny thing is, is that all of Europe would love to have summer football.

No they wouldn't.... not even close.... JULY/AUGUST are unbearable for players and fans for early season. Euro qualifiers as it is...

Maybe in those barbarian northern coutnries it would be ok?

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

It was more the Rugby league, but you conveniently dodged that.

The point is, you and your fellow Greeks of origin like to tell anyone who cares to listen that SMFC, or most teams in Victoria are the biggest football supporters in Australia but can't back it up with supporters who actually attend football matches.

The same thing goes on in Sydney as well with the rugby league mob.

You realise Heidelberg and South Melbourne are two different clubs right?... right?

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Do you actually know how massive the afl is? You understand it is the biggest sport in Australia right? It's like a religion here in Melbourne, don't know why you're comparing an Australia cup game against a team in the second division, and a international foreign team and expecting them to get afl crowd numbers, on a Tuesday, are you mad?

You could have Melbourne Victory vs Sydney fc in the grand final and you still won't even come close to pulling a crowd size the afl pulls on a weekly basis.

Dont bother .... these Sydneysiders have a real chip on their shoulder about anything Melbourne related.... They are the Oakleigh to our Hellas....