Football Media Discussion 2

[Davo]

Some people have been having fun with Bozza's Wikipedia page.

Quote

He is currently waiting for Brenton Speed at the Central Coast Stadium carpark. He is the expert. He should be respected.

 

[Hughesy]

18 hours ago, MartinTyler said:

He has an Aussie Rules/Rugby League background...sounds like he was born to be a 'play by play' commentator rather than an expert pundit. 

I think you’ll find he’s got a background in football, he’s only just recently branched out into NRL and AFL.

When he commentated on that Riley McGree goal he was very emotional in the video where Martin Tyler sent him a shoutout. Speedie said Tyler was one of his hero’s which I doubt would be the case if he wasn’t a football man

[MartinTyler]

24 minutes ago, hughsey said:

I think you’ll find he’s got a background in football, he’s only just recently branched out into NRL and AFL.

When he commentated on that Riley McGree goal he was very emotional in the video where Martin Tyler sent him a shoutout. Speedie said Tyler was one of his hero’s which I doubt would be the case if he wasn’t a football man

Whilst he has called football for Fox longer than the other sports (I hate to use the word 'codes'), he was born in Melbourne where he followed Hawthorn then moved to Sydney where he then followed Parramatta and did 'ghost' calls of NRL games as a teenager. No indication of growing up with football but he's a dedicated sports commentator and sees Martin Tyler as the doyen of commentators. He's been living off the praise for that Riley McGree call for the last couple of years which has given him more bravado. Have you noticed how often he gives an opinion then immediately looks for support from one of his fellow commentators/pundits?  Basically he's mediocre which is a sad reflection of sports commentary in this country. Having said all that, I quite enjoy his commentary of Matildas games !!

[Sithslayer1991]

Considering Speedy competition for commentating the level between Speedy and Peacock is quite overwhelming. But the level between Speedy and Hill is also quite big..... man I miss Simon Hill

[marron]

1 hour ago, MartinTyler said:

Whilst he has called football for Fox longer than the other sports (I hate to use the word 'codes'), he was born in Melbourne where he followed Hawthorn then moved to Sydney where he then followed Parramatta and did 'ghost' calls of NRL games as a teenager. No indication of growing up with football but he's a dedicated sports commentator and sees Martin Tyler as the doyen of commentators. He's been living off the praise for that Riley McGree call for the last couple of years which has given him more bravado. Have you noticed how often he gives an opinion then immediately looks for support from one of his fellow commentators/pundits?  Basically he's mediocre which is a sad reflection of sports commentary in this country. Having said all that, I quite enjoy his commentary of Matildas games !!

I know a bloke who went to school with him (north sydney boys). I think he is that classic omni-sport type of person raised on WWoS kind of thing you know. Don't forget, as much as I love Tyler as well, he was the voice you were most likely to hear down here if you tuned into football for world cups and FA cup finals and that was it kind of thing.

 

 

[mintoff]

On 27/07/2020 at 9:38 AM, Sithslayer1991 said:

In and ACT NSW 'football' can be League, Union and Soccer in the same conversation. AFL is known as AFL or Aussie rules IDK anyone who calls it otherwise.

There is no such soccer it  is FOOTBALL, or league is RUGBY LEAGUE or union is RUGBY UNION, or AFL it got no other name just AFL  or ping pong  

[Davo]

I think we all saw this coming.

 

[alexd]

Now we just need the whole of the AL on Optus 

[MathyouWSW]

On 28/07/2020 at 5:51 PM, StringerBellend said:

 

Yes Brenton, I'm sure your recenctly ex-Colleagues are pleased for you 

 

I was trying to work out with all the letter stands for on the cards but I think I figured it out on

Foxsports one is:
- F*ckwit
- Peckerhead
- Over-rated
- Cockhead
- Massive wanker
- B*tch

[Davo]

 

[WHACKO]

Interesting Article (from the Roar.com.au)

 

I'm not sure how much more of the A-League I can take

One of my favourite memories of Sydney is of a hot and sweaty November show at the city’s legendary home of alternative music, the Annandale Hotel.

It was the first Aussie tour of Californian punk middleweights Ignite and despite it being a Thursday night, the venue was packed and the punters were spilling out into the streets and milling around at Stanmore Maccas as they often did whenever an international band came to town.

Early on in their set Ignite launched into ‘Embrace’ off their 1996 EP Past Our Means, at which point a popular scene kid named Dan Bombings leapt from the front row and with split-second timing, grabbed the mic off singer Zoli Teglas.

“I try and try… to stay positive!” screamed Bombings, as a less-than-impressed Teglas – singing a song about scene unity – attempted to wrestle back control of the microphone.

I look back on the memories of that show – the sticky floor, the surging crowd, the fans lining up to sing songs of protest with a ticket from Resist Records in one hand and a Big Mac in the other – and I can’t help but smile.

But that was 16 years ago. I have no idea if the Sydney punk scene still exists because I left the city more than a decade ago.

Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to the A-League

Along with a ticket to see Ignite, one of the other things I no doubt bought in late 2004 was a season ticket to what was then my local A-League club.

And with the exception of a year or two when I lived in Japan, my household has been home to multiple A-League club memberships ever since. This year we had three.

But this season, more than any other, has tested my resolve. It’s made me question my commitment to a league that plenty of others were happy to wipe their hands of long ago.

It’s not just one thing, it’s lots of things.

It’s Simon Hill leaving Fox Sports. It’s the Central Coast Mariners potentially leaving Gosford.

It’s the Queensland state government rolling out the red carpet and allowing AFL executives to quarantine-as-they-please, while Brisbane Roar players and staff suffer in locked-away 14-day silence.

It’s Fox Sports overpaying for the Big Bash League and exclusive cricket content, panicking after adding almost no new subscribers, then making the A-League the scapegoat for it.

It’s expansion club Macarthur FC charging active supporters $440 for a season ticket.

It’s the VAR. And increasingly it’s the rational discourse, or lack thereof, on social media.

What’s the old proverb? Repeat a lie often enough and people start to believe it’s true?

It’s hard enough to convince anyone else the A-League is decent quality without another “peak A-League” meme every time someone skies the ball into Row Q.

Just like it’s hard to convince some of the fans who revel in this side of internet culture that their determination to pay as little as possible to consume their football content is one reason the A-League is haemorrhaging cash.

But writing as much doesn’t win over any new fans.

Sometimes being the football lover who tries to take a different look at things brings nothing but brickbats and lawsuits. Just ask Bonita Mersiades.

The A-League was once fresh and exciting and new. But that was 16 years ago.

And so a week out from Sydney FC’s latest grand final win, I can’t pretend I’m not relieved the season is finally over.

There’s a tattoo on the back of my calf, which most people think is sports-related, but which is actually the album cover of Swiss punk band The Vanilla Muffins’ 2003 classic The Drug Is Football.

For me, the drug will always be football.

But as the A-League faces an uncertain future, it’s time for me to take some time off.

I hope it will be back – next December or February or whenever. And I hope I will too.

[WHACKO]

 Another article form the roar.com.au     (worth a read)

 

A-League enters death spiral

 

Does the title sound dramatic? Or not dramatic enough?

Let’s cut to the chase. The A-League (and Australian football in general) is in dire straights.

Where does the blame lie? Again, let’s not beat around the bush. The game’s administrators, in the main.

It stems from their lack of appreciation of football and its unique value proposition, their refusal to recognise football’s heritage, their dismantling of our youth system and the bewildering desire to destroy active support – one of the game’s huge draw cards. And of course there is the blatant disrespect for football fans, treating them like dollar signs (clubs here have to take some blame also).

The suits at head office are paying the price of making TV money the centre of their strategy, and making what’s in the best interest of football a secondary consideration. A third team in both Sydney and Melbourne? Doesn’t make sense, does it? A Canberra or Wollongong team does. But not in the world of TV money.

The administrators looked desperately for any positives. What’s that, I hear you say? Streaming numbers are up? Well in the real world that has little to no impact. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Major sponsors have walked, the Charles Perkins Academy for Indigenous footballers has shut its doors, and Foxtel (after seeing a 70 per cent decline in viewers over three seasons) has pulled the plug early. So desperate were the administration for any sort of good news, that Fox’s new revised and reduced TV deal was painted as some sort of victory.

It wasn’t. It was a disaster. The ramifications are being felt now. Players are being asked to accept a 30 per cent pay cut, $20 million worth of talent is already gone and a potential mass exodus is to follow. The game is in such disarray that the transition of leadership at the top has been an ongoing saga.

 At the beginning of the season I wrote the A-League needed to turn its fortunes around now because the window of opportunity was fast closing. If you remember the head honchos at the time couldn’t even agree on a radio promotion campaign. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Then they had three seasons to desperately get it together. Now (with the revised TV deal) they have a single season. The window is almost closed.

And so the A-League has entered its death spiral. I say this as someone with experience in dealing with companies who have entered this death spiral and trying to pull them out of it. It is not impossible. But it is damn difficult.

The A-League will either collapse, a victim of poor administration and subsequent flagging interest, or it will survive as a cut-price B-League, getting by hand to mouth off any scraps that fall off the table in a broader economy already under stress.

The latter is the best-case scenario, surviving the next three to four years while trying to get some fresh roots to sprout and take hold. It’s a big ask. The league is in a tail spin. The momentum is only going one way.

So what can be done? Well, in a crisis, some see opportunity. It is no coincidence that the Canberra bid has re-emerged. They reason that a league desperate for money will now be more amenable to their cause. The cash injection from licences will be desperately needed.

Also, dust off the old cobwebs and re-examine the findings of the old proposed APL by the players’ union. The A-League went with a “build it and they will come” mentality, playing out of large stadiums with exorbitant rents. Play out of smaller, football-specific venues and engage clubs in a long-term plan to build their own stadiums. This process should have started 15 years ago.

Get rid of the metric bozos running the game. Get people who understand football in, and people with the right connections. Also – and this may be difficult because people love power – give CEO James Johnson more power to ram through desperately needed change.

We seem to now have a man who understands football. I wish we had him three seasons ago. Sadly though his powers are curtailed with the new organisational structure that will come into play. He is pivotal to the game’s revival.

The club owners – who for years were screaming for reform in order to invest – have their chance to put their money where their mouth is. And finally, engage the fans, not as dollar signs fulfilling metrics but as human beings, with emotion and passion.

The A-League may not make it through this, but we need to give it every fighting chance to do so.

[StringerBellend]

47 minutes ago, WHACKO said:

 Another article form the roar.com.au     (worth a read)

 

A-League enters death spiral

 

Does the title sound dramatic? Or not dramatic enough?

Let’s cut to the chase. The A-League (and Australian football in general) is in dire straights.

Where does the blame lie? Again, let’s not beat around the bush. The game’s administrators, in the main.

It stems from their lack of appreciation of football and its unique value proposition, their refusal to recognise football’s heritage, their dismantling of our youth system and the bewildering desire to destroy active support – one of the game’s huge draw cards. And of course there is the blatant disrespect for football fans, treating them like dollar signs (clubs here have to take some blame also).

The suits at head office are paying the price of making TV money the centre of their strategy, and making what’s in the best interest of football a secondary consideration. A third team in both Sydney and Melbourne? Doesn’t make sense, does it? A Canberra or Wollongong team does. But not in the world of TV money.

The administrators looked desperately for any positives. What’s that, I hear you say? Streaming numbers are up? Well in the real world that has little to no impact. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Major sponsors have walked, the Charles Perkins Academy for Indigenous footballers has shut its doors, and Foxtel (after seeing a 70 per cent decline in viewers over three seasons) has pulled the plug early. So desperate were the administration for any sort of good news, that Fox’s new revised and reduced TV deal was painted as some sort of victory.

It wasn’t. It was a disaster. The ramifications are being felt now. Players are being asked to accept a 30 per cent pay cut, $20 million worth of talent is already gone and a potential mass exodus is to follow. The game is in such disarray that the transition of leadership at the top has been an ongoing saga.

 At the beginning of the season I wrote the A-League needed to turn its fortunes around now because the window of opportunity was fast closing. If you remember the head honchos at the time couldn’t even agree on a radio promotion campaign. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Then they had three seasons to desperately get it together. Now (with the revised TV deal) they have a single season. The window is almost closed.

And so the A-League has entered its death spiral. I say this as someone with experience in dealing with companies who have entered this death spiral and trying to pull them out of it. It is not impossible. But it is damn difficult.

The A-League will either collapse, a victim of poor administration and subsequent flagging interest, or it will survive as a cut-price B-League, getting by hand to mouth off any scraps that fall off the table in a broader economy already under stress.

The latter is the best-case scenario, surviving the next three to four years while trying to get some fresh roots to sprout and take hold. It’s a big ask. The league is in a tail spin. The momentum is only going one way.

So what can be done? Well, in a crisis, some see opportunity. It is no coincidence that the Canberra bid has re-emerged. They reason that a league desperate for money will now be more amenable to their cause. The cash injection from licences will be desperately needed.

Also, dust off the old cobwebs and re-examine the findings of the old proposed APL by the players’ union. The A-League went with a “build it and they will come” mentality, playing out of large stadiums with exorbitant rents. Play out of smaller, football-specific venues and engage clubs in a long-term plan to build their own stadiums. This process should have started 15 years ago.

Get rid of the metric bozos running the game. Get people who understand football in, and people with the right connections. Also – and this may be difficult because people love power – give CEO James Johnson more power to ram through desperately needed change.

We seem to now have a man who understands football. I wish we had him three seasons ago. Sadly though his powers are curtailed with the new organisational structure that will come into play. He is pivotal to the game’s revival.

The club owners – who for years were screaming for reform in order to invest – have their chance to put their money where their mouth is. And finally, engage the fans, not as dollar signs fulfilling metrics but as human beings, with emotion and passion.

The A-League may not make it through this, but we need to give it every fighting chance to do so.

Spot on

The league is totally rooted

COVID has accelerated the demise of failing business models, while accelerating others, not just football but everything else retail, higher ed and crucially pay tv 

We were on a slow (well medium pace) decline before Covid, along with foxtel who we had hitched are wagon too, now both are going full speed toward a cliff

The league was built to be dependent on foxtel from the start and has been since at the whim of foxtel from expansion clubs to kick off schedules etc. 

Also are weird craving for mainstream acceptance hasn’t helped, it’s killed active support, and prevented us from forming a connection with the past (apart from the patronising once a year foxtel fascination with Cevapi) 

only two of the clubs have built any sort of infrastructure, when the franchises disappear they will go without a trace 

I don’t see the league in its current form lasting. 
 

maybe they should just merge the a league teams that survive with the top few NSL teams and go back to an NSL model 

without banging on like that  south melbourne fan on twitter, What A League franchise are actual clubs that will continue once foxtel stops? Us? Sydney? Victory? Where as much as the FFA tried to kill them Syd Utd, Melb Croatia, etc are all still alive 

[Hughesy]

I couldn’t disagree more with the comments about streaming numbers meaning nothing in the real world. 

“Real world” is simply a reference to Fox Sports who have blatantly refused to even acknowledge streaming for the past decade and only now that it’s too late have had to panic create Kayo. They’ve thrown us under the bus, lowballed the NRL into a long term deal and with the way they’re tracking, I can’t imaging it’ll be long before they turn on AFL and cricket. This rhetoric that Fox Sports are the lifeblood of Australian sport is laughable, no one seems to be awake to the fact that they are gradually pushing blame onto our sporting codes to disguise their own mismanagement and internal shortcomings. 

Streaming is the future and anyone who denies that is kidding themselves. The rest of the world would be pissing themselves laughing reading a comment like that. 

[StringerBellend]

3 hours ago, hughsey said:

I couldn’t disagree more with the comments about streaming numbers meaning nothing in the real world. 

“Real world” is simply a reference to Fox Sports who have blatantly refused to even acknowledge streaming for the past decade and only now that it’s too late have had to panic create Kayo. They’ve thrown us under the bus, lowballed the NRL into a long term deal and with the way they’re tracking, I can’t imaging it’ll be long before they turn on AFL and cricket. This rhetoric that Fox Sports are the lifeblood of Australian sport is laughable, no one seems to be awake to the fact that they are gradually pushing blame onto our sporting codes to disguise their own mismanagement and internal shortcomings. 

Streaming is the future and anyone who denies that is kidding themselves. The rest of the world would be pissing themselves laughing reading a comment like that. 

I must have missed the bit about streaming being meaningless.

the rise of streaming was killing foxtel prior to Covid. Covid has just finished them off and the likely the  A League with it.
Of course it’s salvageable but that means reconnecting with fans, playing games in right size stadiums, connecting the professional league to the grassroots etc all stuff that the league has failed to do while it sucked lazily on the foxtel teet

problem is the FFA has 12 months to do something it’s failed to do in 12 years and now has to do it in middle of a global pandemic and the economic depression that comes with it 

the revolution has come and foxtel is up against the wall 

[mack]

Streaming doesn't matter if the FFA/A-League doesn't have anything that can convert streams into paying customers once Foxtel cut us.

[StringerBellend]

Foxtel is the lifeblood of the A League as our leadership has been too stupid and lazy to have anything resembling a plan B

 

[Sithslayer1991]

not sure if this was the right place but Optus rejected Rugby Union tv rights. I highly doubt they will come in after the foxtel deal as A-league is now far less appealing to the tv market than ever.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/rugby-union/optus-not-interested-in-rugby-australia-broadcast-rights/ar-BB18Zcv1?li=AAHAbBJ&ocid=mailsignout

[Davo]

The one thing in our favour is that Optus already has the rights to a lot of different football leagues so getting the A-League fits in with their current offering. I guess the question is how many more subscribers will they get with the A-League that they don't already have.

[StringerBellend]

11 minutes ago, Davo said:

The one thing in our favour is that Optus already has the rights to a lot of different football leagues so getting the A-League fits in with their current offering. I guess the question is how many more subscribers will they get with the A-League that they don't already have.

A League is good fit for Optus as they are clearly focussing on football, and surely adding domestic football will give them more subscribers than the K League or J League 

It remains to be seen though what they are willing to pay for it and if they can be bothered on the production side. leagues like J and K leagues are easy for them as they just take the feed and show it, they do nothing themselves production wise for these 

The little clips they have done on Australian soccer are a promising sign 

 

[BoyFromTheWest]

It can be amazing how a real crisis can turn things around.  If we are truly scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel, then all bets are off and everything is back on the table in terms of possibility.  It will depend on whether there is the courage to act from any powers that be.  Necessity is the mother of invention!

[GunnerWanderer]

Optus is a logical option but like Rugby they will smell our desperation 

it’s dark days ahead 

[nick]

The benefit the A-league has over Rugby is Saturday nights. 2 A-league games back to back, leading into EPL early game. The EPL can bring viewers to the A-league as it did for fox, especially that marquee game of the round before the early sat night EPL game.

[Burgerman]

On 17/09/2020 at 12:17 PM, nick said:

The benefit the A-league has over Rugby is Saturday nights. 2 A-league games back to back, leading into EPL early game. The EPL can bring viewers to the A-league as it did for fox, especially that marquee game of the round before the early sat night EPL game.

Yep foxtel went down hill after they let that Saturday epl, a league time slot, use to be a good night in or out at pubs but even alot of pubs stopped epl nights when optus stepped in. 

Our league needs to sort out its financial position as union has secured funding same with other codes. Optus deal could be as low as 10mill a year for a couple of seasons. 

[Paul01]

This might be good news

Fox Sports U-turn offers cash boost to independent A-League

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/fox-sports-u-turn-offers-cash-boost-to-independent-a-league

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by mack
fix link

[papersun]

I'm in two minds about this, can't stand anything in any connected to Murdoch.  

I think it's up to be clubs to decide the way forward now but if there is any other viable alternative I would take it.

 

[Paul01]

4 hours ago, papersun said:

I'm in two minds about this, can't stand anything in any connected to Murdoch.  

I think it's up to be clubs to decide the way forward now but if there is any other viable alternative I would take it.

 

I agree with you. 

Unfortunately, players salaries are based on the broadcast deal. 

I have stoutly resisted taking out Fox Sports. But I might take out a Kayo subscription.

I would rather the A-league get a deal with Optus so we get almost all football on one platform. 

[MathyouWSW]

I hate China and their propaganda news: https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/gap-between-a-league-and-asia-too-big-for-aussie-teams-a-league-slammed-by-chinese-media?fbclid=IwAR1NqmRPHjYrvACz4HxJ4lSnhCuzEi_Kt_Q74RT1YZf9L1pzgvCDXZDFimE

China's media has hit out at the A-League claiming Australian clubs are 'not good enough' to match it with Asia's best.

Defeats by Sydney FC and Perth Glory to Chinese opposition during the week at the Asian Champions League fuelled the fiery comments as media in China hit out at Australia's form in the AFC Champions League and pointed out that the poor results of Aussie teams in Asia don’t do much for the international reputation of the A-League.

On Wednesday Perth lost 2-1 to Shanghai Shenhua while 24 hours later, Sydney FC took the lead against Shanghai SIPG with a goal after eight minutes from Trent Buhagiar only for two second-half goals from Li Shenglong to give the Chinese team, that had previously not won in six games, a much-needed victory.

"Although Sydney have dominated the A-League in recent years, the gap between the league and Asia is too big,” leading website Sina declared.

“Sydney have won just once in 17 ACL games and their performances overseas are too weak which seriously reduces the image of the A-League."

While there was satisfaction from Shanghai SIPG, who had looked disinterested and lethargic in the final stages of the league season that finished earlier this month, got the points, there was a warning from Sports Weekly that they will have to improve in the remaining games in the group stage as they prepare to take on the champions of South Korea and Japan.

“SIPG, just after playing the Chinese Super League, faced the weakest opponent in the group and had some problems and they have to regroup before taking on powerful enemies Jeonbuk Hyundai and Yokohama Mariners, they will face a more severe test.”

Despite the poor results from Australia’s best team, the performance against Shanghai SIPG did earn some praise from media commentators such as the respected Titan Sports newspaper.

“In the first half, Sydney FC tore through the SIPG defence on a number of occasions. SIPG has an advantage over its opponents after just finishing the Super League, SIPG players are in at least a period of good physical and competitive conditions. In addition, Sydney FC had a warm-up with the Australian U23 team before going to Qatar, their last competitive match was at the end of August. They rested for more than two months and did not regroup until early November.”

The newspaper notes that while changes in formation, personnel and tactics from Shanghai boss Vitor Pereria made a difference but so did the fact that also that Sydney grew tired.

“...It should also be noted that in the last 20 minutes, the physical strength of Sydney FC players, who had not had a formal game for a long time dropped seriously, which also gave SIPG more opportunity.”

Noted commentator Ma Dexing also accused SIPG of not doing their homework on Sydney though was happier with the win of Shenhua over Perth. “Defeating an Australian team, especially a ‘rookie’ is nothing special usually but it is for Shenhua who have not won in Asia for over 10 years.”

He hailed the two wins, especially Shenhua’s victory over Perth, were hailed as a potential turning point for China as they were achieved through the efforts of local players.

This bodes well for the future and should give some self-belief.

“The reason is a certain degree of confidence’” said Sina, “rather than "absolute confidence"-because after all, the overall level of these two Australian teams is still lagging behind that of Japanese and Korean teams, and local players need to compete with Japanese and Korean clubs in the future.”

Melbourne Victory have a chance to restore some A-League pride against Beijing Guoan on Tuesday

[pseudonym]

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/12908354

[Paul01]

Foxsports have retired their Android App!