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General A Leagues thread (Men and Women) 2025/26 season

Rhys Youlley has started to play like I expected him to, given his stellar Aus u 23 and u 20 form.

In one action against Perth G, he accelerated quickly after receiving the ball and left his marker in his wake. As a single defensive midfield screener and deep lying playmaker in a 4-3-3 attacking midfield triangle, he covered the ground well and was tidy on the ball.

I've first identified a lot of these players in the Aus underage teams and they have continued to impress playing senior football.

Some G and G posters worry about the dual nationals, but from what I've seen coming through, and the superior skill sets, and quality of quality, there are a lot of young Aussies with immense talent, who really want to play for the Socceroos.

However, from what erudite sports scientist, Adam Fields, discloses in the recent G and G podcast, Aussies playing overseas struggle with the bigger workload of playing more games, because of the lower level of plyometrics, weight training and strength work in Aus.
 
Decentric said:
If Geria and Duke are looking for short term loans, I'd rather see them play for one of the young teams, who desperately need their experience - Jets, CCM, although a currently young City have heaps of experienced players recovering from injury.
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Duke is off to Macarthur.
 
patjennings said:
Duke is off to Macarthur.
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Ta.

Just what they don't want. Sterj's first eleven tends to be an old one already.

I'm disappointed how little opportunity Sterj gives his young players. He had heaps of them on the park in China when they beat Beijing 2-1, luckily.

I was impressed with quite a few of the young Mac players.
 
erogenouszone said:
Another eggball lapdog to completely fuck over football again. As if Buckley and Gallop weren't enough.
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I think the sporting landscape in Australia has realised that old "football" (Soccer) people couldn't run a bath and need help at every turn.

Rosich is a good appointment.
 
I know a few Jets fans off forum.

Nice Jets away win against Nix ( sorry No Mates and Reb Fem). When Aus AL teams play Kiwi teams in NZ it feels like internationals, because the Kiwi match callers are so biased towards their own Kiwi home teams. They know relatively little about Aussie teams and players.

Lachlan Brook was a decent player for the Aus u 23s and WSW. Was surprised his career went nowhere in Trumptopia. He is doing well for Auckland. LB runs with the ball well at high speed and keeps his head up, simultaneously being able to scan the field of play. Ditto Jake Hollman. Note many of the senior Socceroos, like Matt Leckie ball carrying whilst looking down at the ball in comparison.

Plus Brook has a cannon shooting with both feet outside the box.

Jets young brigade scoring 3 goals in 10 minutes shut the biased Kiwi Nix pundits up for a few mins!

Clayton Taylor, still a very young player, has been a big bonus as he recovers from injury for the Jets. If he can remain uninjured, a big season beckons.

Dobson looks about 15 yo, but I think he is 17. He is doing well.

Burgess going off injured , really reduced Jets' experience.

Nix need to be more judicious with the intensive Squeezing whilst Full Pressing in their attacking half. They left gaps to be exploited in between the defensive and mdfield lines.

Some of Delianov's saves against Nix looked to be in the Patrick Beach class.

In the SFC /PG game, can't get over how much power Ali Toure shoots from range with so little backlift - like Irankunda.
 
APL media (what remains of it) going on holidays for a few weeks soon. I remember how unprofessional this has been in years past.

We have one of the longest off-seasons on the planet, and they want a holiday during the season? Do the players have a holiday too? Are they cancelling the Boxing Day test coverage? The NBL shows?

Peak period for the league and they're shutting up shop. I don't recall anyone else filling in previously, hopefully this time is different.
 
HappyGuus said:
APL media (what remains of it) going on holidays for a few weeks soon. I remember how unprofessional this has been in years past.

We have one of the longest off-seasons on the planet, and they want a holiday during the season? Do the players have a holiday too? Are they cancelling the Boxing Day test coverage? The NBL shows?

Peak period for the league and they're shutting up shop. I don't recall anyone else filling in previously, hopefully this time is different.
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How do you know?
 
HappyGuus said:
APL media (what remains of it) going on holidays for a few weeks soon. I remember how unprofessional this has been in years past.

We have one of the longest off-seasons on the planet, and they want a holiday during the season? Do the players have a holiday too? Are they cancelling the Boxing Day test coverage? The NBL shows?

Peak period for the league and they're shutting up shop. I don't recall anyone else filling in previously, hopefully this time is different.
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Thats a genuine disgrace because the clubs don't. They all still have to activate the mens and womens games throughout that period.
 
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My own table comparing the crowd averages for the oldest 10 A-League clubs (excluding finals and neutral venues).

Just this weekend gone, we passed below the all-time lowest average (excluding COVID), the previous lowest being the COVID recovery year. A new CEO taking over just after the all-time low, the only way is up hey fellas??😅

The first four seasons when starting in mid to late August were a success.

2013-14 was the peak, and unsurprisingly it was the season with the best marquees: Del Piero, Heskey, Kewell, Ono, Berisha, Thompson, no doubt appeasing the "event goers".

2013-14 was also the first season on SBS. A "Match of the Week" on Friday night seemed to be a winner. I don't think we have enough quality teams to put on display on FTA for two matches per week.

City's first three seasons after taking over Heart were their highest averages, so they might have killed Heart but more people actually jumped onboard.

The rot seemed to set in by 2017-18. The EPL had departed Foxtel for Optus 12 months earlier, and channel 10 had taken over A-League FTA from SBS. Cahill went out the door and there were no more marquees... well, Honda, but he was always injured.

By 2019-20 we have two poor expansions announced, no marquees, the FTA component is on ABC, and COVID arrived for the final third of the season. Gallop had taken the league to its peak and then scorched the Earth on his way out.

How many years were they giving away free tickets in the past? I'd like to know which years they inflated the numbers.

But as far as my table goes, the A-League hit their all-time low last week and I think it deserved a mention 😕. I can't see it turning around this season.

FFA and APL have basically pissed away the last decade. Seriously, I think the only thing they can hang their hat on is the Auckland expansion, I can't think of anything else positive in that time. Rosich will need to work miracles from here.
 
I don't know that you can take a partial season and say that it is an all-time low. A lot of teams perform better from Christmas onwards. A disturbing trend - yes. An all time low - maybe at the end of the season.
 
patjennings said:
I don't know that you can take a partial season and say that it is an all-time low. A lot of teams perform better from Christmas onwards. A disturbing trend - yes. An all time low - maybe at the end of the season.
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Good point. Yes we'll take another look at the end of the season. We're really counting on some big derbies but they haven't done much to date.
 
CCM usually averages 1500-2500 more in the second half of the season. so it really depends on the fans of each club and their viewing patterns.

CCM is a holiday destination so January can be a bit better and then the families get dragged along as junior football training begins in February. In the early years (August starts) the players would visit in their pre-season every clubs training - every club would get at least one visit. Now the season is over come October and connection is made in February - and not all clubs are covered. The schools still get visits before the season but that is not as successful as targeting young footballers and their families
 
We won't be at Melbourne city games the next few weeks so their attendance will go down lol
 
https://footballaustralia.com.au/news/football-australia-match-fixing-sanctions

Football Australia has issued sanctions to four A-League Men players engaging in match fixing, with Clayton Lewis and Kearyn Baccus banned for five years, reduced to four upon completion of community service, retrospective to May 17th, 2024. Riku Danzaki has been banned for seven years, retrospective to June 1st this year and cannot play in Australia through June 1st, 2032.
 
HappyGuus said:
APL media (what remains of it) going on holidays for a few weeks soon. I remember how unprofessional this has been in years past.

We have one of the longest off-seasons on the planet, and they want a holiday during the season? Do the players have a holiday too? Are they cancelling the Boxing Day test coverage? The NBL shows?

Peak period for the league and they're shutting up shop. I don't recall anyone else filling in previously, hopefully this time is different.
Click to expand...

They've been working very hard during that 6 month off season doing, um, well, I'm not sure but they've working bloody hard mate and the end of year results have been bearing fruit for all to see.

aleagues.com.au

Incoming APL CEO Steve Rosich outlines his vision for the A-Leagues

New APL CEO Steve Rosich outlined his vision for football and the A-Leagues in an interview with Michael Zappone.
aleagues.com.au aleagues.com.au

A 1.5 minute interview before a game, looks like he's going on holiday as well.
 
erogenouszone said:
They've been working very hard during that 6 month off season doing, um, well, I'm not sure but they've working bloody hard mate and the end of year results have been bearing fruit for all to see.

aleagues.com.au

Incoming APL CEO Steve Rosich outlines his vision for the A-Leagues

New APL CEO Steve Rosich outlined his vision for football and the A-Leagues in an interview with Michael Zappone.
aleagues.com.au aleagues.com.au

A 1.5 minute interview before a game, looks like he's going on holiday as well.
Click to expand...
"OK guys first point of business, how much do increase our Christmas bonuses? We need to get this sorted before the holidays, obviously, I think we can fast track this immediately." 😂

To be fair though, Rosich doesn't actually commence until January. Good on him for turning up to the match.
 
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