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A-League Women/Matildas transfers and delistings

rebelliousfeminist974 said:
As the league contracts then younger talented players will need to head overseas or it's more likely that they'll end up playing in Member Federation competitions unfortunately.
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Not really. It’s perfectly possible to have a development/retirement league for the ones who aren’t quite ready or good enough for playing overseas (anymore).

Have a look at the WE League for example. Japan has a shit ton of players overseas but the WE League develops the talents for other clubs to scout. They don’t have many foreign players over there unfortunately (since it’s good to have a few foreigners in each team) but they develop good players which top clubs directly scout. They also have academies that players get scouted from. Tōko Koga barely even spoke English when she signed for Feyenoord then she was really good, got a few Nadeshiko caps and joined Spurs.
 
libelous said:
That’s a bit ominous for the future of the Matildas. 😳
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Sadly the harsh reality is that the current state of the round ball game in Australia is not conducive towards player development as the Dub is still a semi-professional comp and is not going to achieve full-time professionalisation any time soon which ultimately means that the Matildas farm system and senior national team setup are going to fall behind the likes of Japan and North Korea as we stagnate and end up well off the pace.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
Not really. It’s perfectly possible to have a development/retirement league for the ones who aren’t quite ready or good enough for playing overseas (anymore).

Have a look at the WE League for example. Japan has a shit ton of players overseas but the WE League develops the talents for other clubs to scout. They don’t have many foreign players over there unfortunately (since it’s good to have a few foreigners in each team) but they develop good players which top clubs directly scout. They also have academies that players get scouted from. Tōko Koga barely even spoke English when she signed for Feyenoord then she was really good, got a few Nadeshiko caps and joined Spurs.
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The WE League season runs between late August and May though so the offseason in Japan isn't nearly as long as the Dub which gets underway in October, in addition to the fact that Japan has women's domestic cup competitions whereas there is no women's equivalent to the Hahn Australia Cup so apart from heading overseas players like Caitlin Karic and Skye Halmarick have to play in Member Federation comps instead in the absence of a proper development and retirement league.
 
rebelliousfeminist974 said:
The WE League season runs between late August and May though so the offseason in Japan isn't nearly as long as the Dub which gets underway in October, in addition to the fact that Japan has women's domestic cup competitions whereas there is no women's equivalent to the Hahn Australia Cup so apart from heading overseas players like Caitlin Karic and Skye Halmarick have to play in Member Federation comps instead in the absence of a proper development and retirement league.
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Which is what needs to change. The off-season thing especially, and that goes for the men too. We create so many good players and export them only for some to get injured or it not work out because of the schedule outside Australia.
 
In hindsight the establishment of the W League was probably a step too far and I don’t think ALM club owners ever wanted to fund women’s teams . With that in mind I believe we should return back to the state based NPLWs and work on a system to provide for the burgeoning interest in solely the women’s game. I don’t think the men’s game should have to carry the women’s in terms of finances so a complete breakaway is the best option.
 
libelous said:
In hindsight the establishment of the W League was probably a step too far and I don’t think ALM club owners ever wanted to fund women’s teams . With that in mind I believe we should return back to the state based NPLWs and work on a system to provide for the burgeoning interest in solely the women’s game. I don’t think the men’s game should have to carry the women’s in terms of finances so a complete breakaway is the best option.
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NPLW sides funding a top league would be even worse. They’ve got no money.
 
libelous said:
In hindsight the establishment of the W League was probably a step too far and I don’t think ALM club owners ever wanted to fund women’s teams . With that in mind I believe we should return back to the state based NPLWs and work on a system to provide for the burgeoning interest in solely the women’s game. I don’t think the men’s game should have to carry the women’s in terms of finances so a complete breakaway is the best option.
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Returning back to Member Federation comps would be a step backwards for the women's game and a complete breakaway from the men's game should only be carried out as a last resort.
 
rebelliousfeminist974 said:
Returning back to Member Federation comps would be a step backwards for the women's game and a complete breakaway from the men's game should only be carried out as a last resort.
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But we are going backwards. I don’t think a breakaway from the men’s game is a last resort because it’s becoming obvious that the APL. doesn’t really care about the women’s game.
The PFA has long talked about making the ALW professional so maybe it’s time for some action from those in the upper echelons of the game.
It appears that there will be 8 teams from Australia in the league next season which is the same number of teams as when the W League started 18 years ago.
 
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libelous said:
But we are going backwards. I don’t think a breakaway from the men’s game is a last resort because it’s becoming obvious that the APL. doesn’t really care about the women’s game.
The PFA has long talked about making the ALW professional so maybe it’s time for some action from those in the upper echelons of the game.
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But who would invest? I feel like a breakaway league would be far worse in quality and get even lower attendances so it could actually end up killing the sport. A weak Dub means either all our talented youth players go overseas to academies or we deteriorate to a level worse than the Roos and the ALM.
 
libelous said:
But we are going backwards. I don’t think a breakaway from the men’s game is a last resort because it’s becoming obvious that the APL. doesn’t really care about the women’s game.
The PFA has long talked about making the ALW professional so maybe it’s time for some action from those in the upper echelons of the game.
It appears that there will be 8 teams from Australia in the league next season which is the same number of teams as when the W League started 18 years ago.
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If the APL doesn't care about the women's game then there needs to be separation from the men's game and subsequently rebundling of the Dub with Football Australia unless they can find a way for both the A-League Men and Dub to coexist and for there to eventually be sustainable full-time professionalisation.
 
rebelliousfeminist974 said:
If the APL doesn't care about the women's game then there needs to be separation from the men's game and subsequently rebundling of the Dub with Football Australia unless they can find a way for both the A-League Men and Dub to coexist and for there to eventually be sustainable full-time professionalisation.
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This I think would be the best option. Let the FA take control. The APL are super unstable even in the men’s game too.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
But who would invest? I feel like a breakaway league would be far worse in quality and get even lower attendances so it could actually end up killing the sport. A weak Dub means either all our talented youth players go overseas to academies or we deteriorate to a level worse than the Roos and the ALM.
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Why would a breakaway league be worse? With a competition dedicated to and aimed solely at female fans I think it would enjoy far better success than what we currently see.
As to your question of who would invest I believe there is more support than you think. The issue is to find out what is necessary to make it viable.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
But who would invest? I feel like a breakaway league would be far worse in quality and get even lower attendances so it could actually end up killing the sport. A weak Dub means either all our talented youth players go overseas to academies or we deteriorate to a level worse than the Roos and the ALM.
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The APL is already running the sport into the ground with their mismanagement and unfortunately Football Australia is not doing anything about it which means that the Matildas farm system and senior national team setup are both falling behind the rest of the pack as we end up stagnating, and even though we're producing promising youth prospects like Willa Pearson and Shelby McMahon we are still being forced to play catch-up due to the state the women's game finds itself in.
 
libelous said:
Why would a breakaway league be worse? With a competition dedicated to and aimed solely at female fans I think it would enjoy far better success than what we currently see.
As to your question of who would invest I believe there is more support than you think. The issue is to find out what is necessary to make it viable.
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There just isn’t enough time to quickly grow a fanbase like that unless the men’s teams actively promoted them. The attendance would be like 300 to begin with.

It’s just better if our clubs are actually run properly. Soccer in this country is run terribly and it’s a huge barrier to our success. You mentioned us losing potentially two women’s teams (Western gone and Canberra in doubt), but we also lost a men’s team (Western). It’s a problem across the board.

We should give the Dub to FA. The APL are shit at managing and clearly aren’t capable of managing two leagues.
 
rebelliousfeminist974 said:
The APL is already running the sport into the ground with their mismanagement and unfortunately Football Australia is not doing anything about it which means that the Matildas farm system and senior national team setup are both falling behind the rest of the pack as we end up stagnating, and even though we're producing promising youth prospects like Willa Pearson and Shelby McMahon we are still being forced to play catch-up due to the state the women's game finds itself in.
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I think we’re being a bit too negative here. We’re not falling THAT far behind. Should we be better? Absolutely. But we still produce very good players and still have players moving to clubs in the world’s best leagues. This isn’t the case in the men’s game, where even though we have players in great leagues like the Championship, we only have three players currently playing in the Big Five.

What we can’t do is bank on global attitudes not changing, because while the change may be slow, eventually more and more countries will accept women (including queer women) in football. We’ll probably still develop great players, but so will those other countries.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
There just isn’t enough time to quickly grow a fanbase like that unless the men’s teams actively promoted them. The attendance would be like 300 to begin with.

It’s just better if our clubs are actually run properly. Soccer in this country is run terribly and it’s a huge barrier to our success. You mentioned us losing potentially two women’s teams (Western gone and Canberra in doubt), but we also lost a men’s team (Western). It’s a problem across the board.

We should give the Dub to FA. The APL are shit at managing and clearly aren’t capable of managing two leagues.
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I think you underestimate the female fan base, A new league should probably be run by women for women.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
“Female fans” as in women can only be fans or people who watch women’s football?
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I was referring to the fact that the APL management doesn’t seem to care about the ALW so it’s time to hand it over to a female management. There are a number of women’s leagues that operate independently particularly in the USA.
They seem to have a fan base of male, female and, particularly, families.
Some lateral thinking is needed.
 
libelous said:
I was referring to the fact that the APL management doesn’t seem to care about the ALW so it’s time to hand it over to a female management. There are a number of women’s leagues that operate independently particularly in the USA.
They seem to have a fan base of male, female and, particularly, families.
Some lateral thinking is needed.
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The US started like that though and is like that in every sport. We’d have to start from scratch doing it like that which could be bad.
 
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