Socceroos vs Mexico/Switzerland - Pre-World Cup Friendlies 2026 🇦🇺🇲🇽🇨🇭

[Pub League Champion]

Try writing about football in Scotland...

Death threats are par for the

I must have misunderstood, I thought you were talking about Australia. I get it could happen in Scotland.

 

[Mr Cleansheets]

I must have misunderstood, I thought you were talking about Australia. I get it could happen in Scotland.

It wasn't me talking (initially) about death threats so I've no idea whether the original context meant Oz.

Happens all the time in Scotland. If you're not getting death threats then you're not doing your job.

 

[NicCarBel]

How I'd love VAR to card Rivaldo for that. Probably yellow for both then?

Honestly, the way VAR seems to be doing things, and my understanding of the rules - it’s most likely it stays as it is.

 

[grazorblade]

Article 'Australia vs Switzerland: Judging Popa Ball on Its Own Terms'

Another game follows a familiar pattern. We concede an enormous amount of possession and territory in the first half, have a bright second half, and play in an ultra-conservative style that has fans questioning why they follow this sport. I get it, and we have vented our frustrations on the pod...

• grazorblade
• Yesterday at 11:40 PM
• 10 min read
• Reaction score: 3
• Comments: 6
• Category: Socceroos

Wrote an analysis for those interested

 

[JS96]

I think the long Burgess pass was originally targeting Behich who started a run. Very well done to get the Swiss moving deep. Should be done more often. Metcalfe spotted it and ran along too.

 

[Cunningstunt]

List when Daniel Garb, David Weiner, Jake Rosengarten, Marco M, Joey Lynch, etc, use these terms in formulating questions to Socceroo, Matilda or AL coaches, if they hold press conferences?

I’ve never heard them.

If one hears Simon Kuper, Ralph Honigsten, Michael Cox, they do.

The group think by our former players in broadcasting is insufferable. Everything was good with a few areas to improve on. It's all about the studio vibes. Check out Rudi Völler going nuts after an Iceland game 25 years ago.

That's exactly my point.

It's a bit like what Trump is trying to do to the media in the US... intimidate it into compliance.

Once you're no longer asking the right questions you've surrendered to false consciousness. That's the Oz football media right now.

The size of football media is insufficient to do any of these things because there is barely interest from the public in football, let alone the nuance. It is a zero sum game for these guys. You ask questions about specific tactics, this means you get the coverage about the tactics (which no one cares about outside of football nerds), not coverage of the match. You want a fight about why obscure potential dual international A wasn't selected behind some other guy no one has heard of, no match coverage. These things are of interest to the few of us here, not the major audience. There isn't time, space and bandwidth the do more than the basics.

Garb splits his time across two orgs and is still sent to cover AFL. Marco is the only football journo at News and writes about rugby and aerial ping pong. Rugari, only football journo at fairfax, was sent to cover an AFL match over the Aleague grand final. Lynch is crowd funded / contracted as required. Rosengarten and Weiner had to found their own org to get a job. The rest who show up are just sport reporters getting a holiday for the WC.

The focus is maximising engagement. This is not coverage of any of the things being listed here. If there was more interest in the game, there would be more people to provide coverage and it could cover more angles. As it is, there isn't, so you get this type of coverage.

 

[Mr Cleansheets]

The size of football media is insufficient to do any of these things because there is barely interest from the public in football, let alone the nuance.

I absolutely disagree with this.

The problem with the media is that they are all-in on the sports they endorse and massively fund. They give little or no oxygen to the sports they don't fund. Only #10 has any skin in the football game and for some idiotic reason they have no interest in trying to foment interest. They aren't affiliated with a newspaper, are they?

There would be significantly more interest in the A League if it was covered properly and made visible.

 

[Cunningstunt]

I absolutely disagree with this.

The problem with the media is that they are all-in on the sports they endorse and massively fund. They give little or no oxygen to the sports they don't fund. Only #10 has any skin in the football game and for some idiotic reason they have no interest in trying to foment interest. They aren't affiliated with a newspaper, are they?

There would be significantly more interest in the A League if it was covered properly and made visible.

You are correct. This is another very important layer to it. But it doesn't negate what I said.
Ten does cross promote, but does not have the reach of the other networks.
Rugari has talked about this on twitter a while back. He says there is obvious promotion of the codes they have rights to. But they do not cut off football. If the interest is there it gets coverage. They have all the metrics, so you can tell what the interest is in by the articles on smh. Matildas, socceroos, EPL. ALeague on occasions.
Setting that aside, if we want nuance, people under pressure, held to account etc, it needs football to get much closer to the level the NRL/AFL occupy. That is what facilitates this type of work. Otherwise, we're lucky if there is a match report.