My Championship thoughts:
1. I always thought that I'd love the Championship.
2. I was right
3. A gripe. The audio NEEDS to be better. Having background crowd noise is part of the entertainment experience, but it was missing. And the commentary was delayed by a second or two. These are pretty easy fixes going into round two. Calling the match from a studio is part of making it affordable, I can totally accept that.
4. Most of the matches were great quality. Iām pleasantly surprised that there werenāt any blowouts and they were all competitive! The style/skill on the pitch was high. Iāve read some socials saying the quality wasnāt good, I call bullshit on that. Some have complained about the pitches, I thought they were fine or good enough.
5. The commentary was very good; the co-comms could be more energetic. I liked all the sideline crosses and interviews, although again the audio often failed. Easy fix again. The studio set was fine by me and Iām not expecting the world here.
6. The SBS On Demand video stream was too jittery for live sport. Luckily the YouTube stream was wonderful. But I hope SBS fix this as we need them to succeed.
7. Crowds were passable. It will be part of the metrics so we have to look at it. As long as they arenāt catastrophic ghost towns then we should be fine. Iāve seen some comments about Avondaleās attendance but I thought it looked quite solid!? Everyone seemed well behaved. I saw blue and yellow flares and thought they looked great haha, but I know they are frowned upon.
8. Advertising boards around the grounds looked packed, very promising. Hopefully the marketing of the league continues from here, keep-up (pun intended) the momentum.
9. Tasmania is dying for national football. Iāve heard on a few different occasions that South Hobart were a lock for the foundation NST, as was Adelaide City. Tin foil hat time, I think they eventually left those teams out because they knew a 12 team competition was just out of reach, and they didnāt want an extra two teams from those states playing in this format (Adelaide City and South Hobart plus two of those statesā premiers) to keep the budget down.
10. I know we have another season of this, but Iād like to see the format modified closer to the modern champions league model for next year. Keep the 16 teams but make it the one league, and play a selection of six other teams from other federations, then the top 8 to knockouts. I know it would be a little costlier, but Iām not thrilled with the lack of spread amongst the opposition a team plays and doubling up in the group stage, and possibly a third time in the finals. Add in the number of times theyāve played each other during their NPL season (in Victoria and NSW) plus finals and Australia Cup, that adds up to possibly facing the same team SEVEN times in a season. So next year PLEASE scrap double round robin and playing your own federation in the group stage! Making it one league now will also make it easier to expand to full home and away in future. It seems a logical step along the āproof of conceptā path.
11. YouTube ratings (if meaningful?):
South Melbourne vs Sydney Olympic ā 41k, Friday night and on FTA
MetroStars vs Wests APIA ā 3.7k, Saturday afternoon and on FTA
Preston Lions vs NWS Spirit ā 7k, Saturday late afternoon and on FTA
Broadmeadow vs Moreton Cityā 9.7k, Sunday afternoon
South Hobart vs Wollongongā 10k, Sunday afternoon
Heidelberg United vs Marconiā 21k, Sunday afternoon
Avondale vs Canberra Croatia ā 25k, Sunday evening
Sydney United 58 vs Bayswater City ā 13k, Sunday evening
12. Having 16 teams and every federation represented has helped with good coverage, and 8 matches per week is a great number to keep engagement up and display the quality. Not ideal for the 100% pro/rel merit system, but letās build the thing first. The old 8 team NPL knockout was never going to gain any traction.
13. A national second tier is an absolute winner. Weāll assess again at completion, but wow what a start.
14. Connect the pyramid.
www.abc.net.au
