Something to consider
The level of the A league in general has dropped as declining revenue from TV has been replaced with a model that tries to promote young talent to sell into Europe. The result is we get to see lots of promising young players but the reality is the NPL is full of older better players. NPL budgets are not inconsequential.
So in the Australia Cup we are seeing promising kids v experienced footballers. Will those kids in time become better players...no doubt in some cases but by then they won't be plying their trade in the A league.
It's not fluke that the top 2 team in the Victoria NPL are still in the Australia cup. In the round of 32 we saw Apia beat Melbourne city.
The A league has changed and is becoming a kids development league and Nix are at the forefront of this move. This is just an economic reality of what they need to do to survive. Nix need to find a home ground that actually produces some income rather than fund the stadiums opex.
If this trend continues the question is will this still be called the A league ? We are on the way to a B grade.
The level of the A league in general has dropped as declining revenue from TV has been replaced with a model that tries to promote young talent to sell into Europe. The result is we get to see lots of promising young players but the reality is the NPL is full of older better players. NPL budgets are not inconsequential.
So in the Australia Cup we are seeing promising kids v experienced footballers. Will those kids in time become better players...no doubt in some cases but by then they won't be plying their trade in the A league.
It's not fluke that the top 2 team in the Victoria NPL are still in the Australia cup. In the round of 32 we saw Apia beat Melbourne city.
The A league has changed and is becoming a kids development league and Nix are at the forefront of this move. This is just an economic reality of what they need to do to survive. Nix need to find a home ground that actually produces some income rather than fund the stadiums opex.
If this trend continues the question is will this still be called the A league ? We are on the way to a B grade.
Agree with your comment about the quality of some NPL sides - not making excuses for how bad we were, but let’s not overlook the fact that Heidelberg were good. Sure, they were lucky with some of their antics to have a forgiving ref, but they didn’t win just because we let them - they lived up to all those words like “structured”, “organised” and “disciplined” we’d heard in the lead-up, and Dau’s goal in particular was class.
Yes we should’ve done better, much much better, but we should give the Bergers the credit they deserve and not fall into the sort of hubris we saw from the Euro press at the CWC before ACFC reminded Boca not to underestimate amateur players.