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The Australian Championship 🇦🇺🏆

RIMB said:
We are not in competition and the sooner people figure that out the better off we will be.

I don't give a stuff about actual attendance numbers - I care that the ground had enough to hold an atmosphere. An excellent turnout for a great start.

The football had some moments of fluffery, but for the most part it showed a high level of skill and cohesion. Some very fast individual plays and team plays on show. Cracking goals, and that poster was a clencher - positive it was going to go in. There were some really nice goals from both sides.

The miss by the South player when he had time and space and put it high had the feel of a critical turning point at the time.

I can imagine the
1/ Oh no!
2/ Phew back in it
3/ Yeah we da best
4/ Oh fark
5/ Fuck yeah!!
6/ Tweeeeet - YAHOO!!!!
nature of the South experience.

Haven't we all been through that roller coaster.
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Hahahah mate you basically just summarised the 6 stages of being a South supporter...
 
Great start to the Australian Championship. Some good games and some cracking goals. The Wollongong goal from the halfway line will be tough to beat for goal of the year in the competition.

Decent attendances across the grounds. Some matches were poorly attended, but that is to be expected.

Good thing is that the respective state football competitions, including juniors, is now over so more fans can attend matches. Coupled with good weather, I'm hoping this will boost crowd numbers.
 
Glenardo said:
On that as a side note, I know they’ve got issues atm, but I wonder how knights are feeling right now watching from the sidelines, particularly with their sister club Sydney united about to take the field tomorrow. Not a dig, just would be interesting to be a fly on the wall and know what the sentiment is
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Without any inside knowledge, I would imagine there are quite a few clubs around Australia this week having a bit of a strategy session around wanting to be involved in this comp next year and trying to figure out of that means re-submitting applications OR strengthening squad to qualify next season.. Either way, a little ray of sunshine for our sport finally.... a rising tide DOES lift all boats.
 
ON another note, I don't know what the rules are around this comps sponsorship (I noticed SH for example didn't have a front of jersey sponsor.... AND bloody hell they put the League roundel literally over the nike swoosh) but I quite liked how clean all the kits looked without multiple sponsors - one front of shirt, one lower back of shirt and ....... miracle of miracles, ALL kits had player names on the back.......

1760316478030.png
 
Beretta said:
Sydney is fucked when it comes to policing at football games. They are just anti football and do anything to antagonize trouble

Looks like the police in Melbourne in NPL level are far more laid back.
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It depends

I remember walking against oakleigh at home earlier this season and see riot squad cars parked inside the ground. Was ridiculous.
 
southmelb said:
Saturday low youtube ratings makes sense considering those games are on sbs.

Wollongong and South need big crowds next weekend.
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Do you all expect an extra 5,000 people to suddenly come out the woodwork for this competition in general who have either never attended an NPL game or haven't attended a NSL game since November 2004?
 
My 2 cents:

Overall - positive weekend.

Happy to have more local football on TV. Some people saying standard was poor, but I don't care, football is football.

On field, results wise, the matches were tighter than expected. Thought Avondale would have done a number on Canberra, but if reports are to be true, Avondale is a sinking ship?

I think this weekend demonstrated that apart from Victoria, there isn't much interest in this comp/teams. Sydney United in particular crowd wise was poor. Will be interesting to see what the other NSW teams have in terms of attendance.

I did expect more from Preston and Souths in terms of attendance as this was there chance to shine on the national stage but im okay with the numbers they got. For me anything above 3k is a pass mark.
 
biggiemic said:
I think this weekend demonstrated that apart from Victoria, there isn't much interest in this comp/teams. Sydney United in particular crowd wise was poor. Will be interesting to see what the other NSW teams have in terms of attendance.
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i thought 2k against an NPL team from perth was fine.

what were people expecting 5k, against a bunch of no bodies? and that's no disrespect to Bayswater.

it was an improvement to what we were getting in a regular season.

if you think that was bad, wait for Marconi, APIA & Spirit to play at home...
 
Beretta said:
i thought 2k against an NPL team from perth was fine.

what were people expecting 5k, against a bunch of no bodies? and that's no disrespect to Bayswater.

it was an improvement to what we were getting in a regular season.

if you think that was bad, wait for Marconi, APIA & Spirit to play at home...
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You raise a good point.

There have to be some realistic expectations here. A crowd of 2K against a team like Bayswater is good.

I think any crowd above 2.5K at this level should be considered decent. We have faced 20 years outside the topflight and lost a generation of supporters. It will take time for people to reconnect and get enthusiastic again. But the signs are positive.

It looks like you will have 3-4 clubs that will generate some decent crowds, whilst the others will attract 1-1.5K. But that happens across many leagues around the world.
 
Beretta said:
i thought 2k against an NPL team from perth was fine.

what were people expecting 5k, against a bunch of no bodies? and that's no disrespect to Bayswater.

it was an improvement to what we were getting in a regular season.

if you think that was bad, wait for Marconi, APIA & Spirit to play at home...
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This was the clubs first time back on the national stage after 2 decades. An opportunity to demonstrate the club still has decent support. I wouldn't care if my team was playing FC Barcelona or Bayswater City, i'd still attend. Maybe these clubs just don't have the support they once did.

Sydney United, Marconi and Olympic were the teams Im most keen to see, APIA and Spirit I dont expecnt anything more than 1k.

The Victorians teams did well, I think its just a NSW thing.
 
Beretta said:
i thought 2k against an NPL team from perth was fine.

what were people expecting 5k, against a bunch of no bodies? and that's no disrespect to Bayswater.

it was an improvement to what we were getting in a regular season.

if you think that was bad, wait for Marconi, APIA & Spirit to play at home...
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As awesome as it is that Christie Park is hosting interstate games, it's not exactly built for that. Really, only one of the six NSW teams (Olympic at Jubilee) is playing somewhere that you can get to easily without driving. If the NSW Government is as serious about supporting the Championship as they say they are, then they should be organising special public transport for the NSW home games. I don't expect them to, but a man can dream.
 
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biggiemic said:
This was the clubs first time back on the national stage after 2 decades. An opportunity to demonstrate the club still has decent support. I wouldn't care if my team was playing FC Barcelona or Bayswater City, i'd still attend. Maybe these clubs just don't have the support they once did.

Sydney United, Marconi and Olympic were the teams Im most keen to see, APIA and Spirit I dont expecnt anything more than 1k.

The Victorians teams did well, I think its just a NSW thing.
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call it what you will, since the NSL died we have been in the spotlight on the national stage numerous times with all our cup runs against AL opposition, so a Bayswater isn't really gonna cut it.

Regarding NPL level, we had decent crowds against the following;

Rockdale in 2013 - 4k
Sydney Olympic in 2012 - 3k
Blacktown in 2016 - 6k
APIA in 2019 - 6k
Took 2k to Wollongong away in 2019

issue is a lot of the games are one offs, finals, semi's etc. which is always going to attract more people. its just the way football goes.

would i like more people and consistency, yes. But being in the state leagues for 20 years, I've seen it all. 200 people on a cold Saturday night against Canterbury Bankstown Berries, to a few thousand against a Olympic, Marconi or Rockdale.

So like i said, when i saw over 2k against a Bayswater i saw it as a pass mark.
 
Again, Marconi, Sydney united and Sydney Olympic, Melbourne knights were all getting crowds around 2-3 k for most games in the final season of the nsl..when that was the top tier. South Melbourne had by far the biggest crowds of the traditional clubs. This is now 20 years on and a second tier comp. This is what it is, people have always been trying to make these clubs into something they’re not to fit into what they think it should be. And this is what the best clubs outside the a league look like, as much as people would wish this was like bundesliga 2 or the English championship. Embrace it and support the clubs who are trying to do the best they can or don’t. If they can get a couple of thousand people good, if they can get more good. Again, this comp isn’t about manufacturing something, it’s about giving a platform to existing clubs who want to do more than what they can now. At the very least it can’t be worse and it’ll be an improvement on what we’ve had for the past 2 decades
 
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I would be very surprised if more than 2 k turn up to watch Marconi v south Hobart at 1pm on a Saturday personally. Especially since a big part of the match day experience also revolves around making it an evening outing to the Marconi club itself. The club know that and that’s why they’ve scheduled fixtures on Saturday nights and Sunday evenings where possible
 
Glenardo said:
Especially since a big part of the match day experience also revolves around making it an evening outing to the Marconi club itself.
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Yep. I have to work in buying pizza and ice cream in the trattoria for the family or they wouldn't bother attending with me.
 
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