Looks like South are heading to the semis.

Good post.

This year's FFA Cup and NPL Cup have changed my attitude towards a HAL2 team based in Tasmania. Before this season's cup games I wasn't interested in any local team being in any national league apart from HAL1.

The quality of football  APIA and Brisbane Strikers  played in Hobart in 2017 has been very watchable. Now I'd be quite happy watching HAL2 on a regular basis if a team were based here.

Bloody hell, welcome to A-League. Wow.
Just saw the Muscat sly c**t head kick and the LaRocca leg break then fake a head shot cry roll special.

City's season falling apart before it's even started by the looks of it.

Well said.

No question the light rail will make a difference. 

its officially a sellout at Lily Homes Stadium for next week's Westfield FFA Cup quarter final Western Sydney derby showdown between Blacktown City & Western Sydney Wanderers.

source - Blacktown City fb page.

City in truth were pretty awful and thus will reserve judgement for now. 

It was only City though,
We'll have to wait and see until they come up against semi-ok club.

Good post Waz but guys not the thread really to keep this important discussion going.
All I'll say it starts from the Fish's Head right.

Regards to Leichardt - its that great saying you can't please them all.
SFS/Allianz is bitch to others etcetc - look we got what we got.
I'm a lazy bugga so I drive to which ever ground and sometimes I get close parking sometimes not - I was at Leichardt Sunday for the PL GF, had to park 3blocks away for I arrive half an hour before koff - nice brisk walk I see it as who cares.

@ RBB Wanderer/Barca4Life

I don't disagree with anything you've said and fully support the development of a proper football pyramid with movement up/down between all levels. And agree that comparisons with other codes are unhelpful as it is like comparing apples and oranges, this latter one is made worse as we keep hiring CEOs from other codes who are rather one dimensional in their thinking.

However, pro/rel is only part of the answer it is not the answer in itself. The development of pro/rel in European leagues took decades to achieve and in England more than 100 years of professionalism before it occurred between all levels.

What we are missing in this country is a proper plan to develop the code from top to bottom. While we continue with this AFL/NRL type thinking we wont get that because they view the HAL as "the" league and everyone else as potential "viewers".

Our most important next move is to hire football people, most likely from overseas, at the top of our game with the mandate to build all levels of the game - until we get that we are stuck in Groundhog Day and pro/rel will make things first not better without a proper plan

Not to mention the new tram system and likely upgrade. Sydney isn't an easy place to get around but I suspect the SFS with the development going on will see immense improvements on both travel and match day experience.

Bang on buddy, well put! 

there were 4k people in the farken souvlaki line before i got there

There were plenty of people on the near camera side including myself, there were lots of people at the trophy room and a few on the mounds as well. But  if it wasn't such a shit night i would have expected maybe 300 or 400 more.

I didn't know what to expect re the SFC City game - pre season for them, new recruits etc but everything was to play for.
Couldn't believe how tuned SFC looked in the 1st half.
City hardly had the ball.
What a free kick by Buijs, set the tone I guess.
City didn't have a shot on goal till what 60min +.
As has been mentioned the first real game this Mierzejewski in the middle was dominating and more to come haha.
Pleasure to watch - some of his vision, positioning, ball distribution was all class and he's yet to hit peak fitness lol.
Bobo's strength is great to see.
Mierzejewski ball to Brosky was bang on and his set up and finish was all class.
What a middle SFC have.
Arnie has recruited very well.
Malik is so ordinary with all their money why would you bother.
Carrusca is class.
 

so sfc looked pretty fkn sharp last night.  without some serious injury issues this team is going to dominate australian football for some time.  unless of course arnie takes the NT job.  that's a win win for me :)

And transfer fees. 

Yes I agree with you when it comes to a transport black hole. And edensor park is easier to drive to traffic wise compared to inner west.

I'll put this in perspective.

Right now we have 10 clubs, 9 discounting Wellington... that's only 9 clubs where players are given an opprtunity. That's only 9 clubs that are willing to develop and have a reason to develop.

What incentive do the npl clubs have to develop youth ? Get paid out a measily 5k per player ?

Dangle a carrot of promotion and relegation.. suddenly you have every club in the country, from every region and suburb wanting to develop their youth, invest in their development in the hopes of building a team that can take them up the system and up the divisions into the a-league...

What does that mean for football in this country ? It means more potential soceroos, a higher potential of unearthing world class talent. It means club investing in the future of football which will only benefit our national team...

We are too occupied with afl and nrl metric, we forget these leagues are simply big fish in a small pond.. a backwater sport in a global environment..,. When we should be establishing proven methods as football is a world sport.. we are not competing locally, we are competing globally. Local metrics are irrelevant compared to developing world class players and world class clubs from the ground up in a natural way.. but as usual... one thing becomes our downfall. Greed. And a corporate monopoly,.

Liechhardt is the same situation, only it has some trams nearby. I just wanted to make the point that for me and many Sydney fans that live nowhere near Edensor Park find that ground, even in its massive transport hole, easier to get to than Liechhardt.

And edensor park has transport links where exactly ? Nearest train stations are 10 minutes drives away, easily an hour walk...

Edensor park is perfect for Sydney United. They would pull 4-5k with their eyes closed in the a-league. And for a suburban club that is good. They would also pull that figure for a second division with promo relegation.

Heidelberg getting almost 4K
Sydney getting 4K

So npl teams matching a-league teams crowd wise in the fa cup....

Can you imagine these clubs were able to fight for promotion.... crowds would increase, investment would increase. Investment in youth and facilities would increase... investment into the football landscape would increase... but FFA have "metrics"..., when real metrics are right there infront of them... football has potential. But only with an open system. In a closed system all we are doing is stalling development, stalling clubs, holding back football in this country.

It really is a shame.

I don't hate Leichhardt Oval for one or two matches but if we had a season or two of games there I'd stop being a member and going to matches. Today I left work early so I could catch the train an hour home to drive an hour and a half back in to Leichhardt. The other option was to walk, seems to take just as long as catching a train from Town Hall then jumping on a tram at Central, to and from the CBD and catch the train home. I'd like the walk but that would get me home well after 12:30.
I'd rather Edensor Park.

If sydney had a had a league home game there we would pull 10k+ easy

There was probably a quarter to a third of the opposite side on the near camera side. 4K? No way.

Heidelberg entire ground is always open, saw a quick snapshot of it during the game and the near side didn't look that much, but it is a huge ground so can be deceptive.

Yeah I'm hoping someone here was at the game and can report. I watched the stream but never got a shot of the other side of the ground. No idea if it was open or not. Can't see why it would be though... there's a 10m wide stand and nothing else. If the near side was closed and they make that crowd out to be roughly the same as the Sydney FC crowd then I would call bullshit.

Heidelberg must have had 2,000 on the near camera side for the crowd to have been almost 4K? If legit that's solid on a brutally cold day/night in Melbourne.

Sydney FC	Melbourne City	Leichardt Oval	4102	QF
Heidelberg	Adelaide United	Olympic Park Village	3967	QF

Has 4 NRL games there per season averaging 10-13k so apparently you can get there

Tonight's FFA crowd was 4102. Surprised by that as it seemed like more. I guess the majority of the capacity is that hill area that looked closed off.