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.

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,.

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.

And transfer fees. 

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 :)

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.
 

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.

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

Bang on buddy, well put! 

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.

@ 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

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.

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

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

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.

No question the light rail will make a difference. 

Well said.

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.

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.

Good post.

Looks like South are heading to the semis.

Well, this is fucking dull 😡

Wanderers look like they've run out of legs ...

Ha, now it's entertaining. Wanderers are absolutely knackered.

Fuck yeah Blacktown!

Cmon Blacktown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpkecYVRt_E

GAME ON

Wait, how does the rigged draw work if there's 2 NPL sides that make the semis???

I think it is random for the semis 

Hmm. Hoping Blacktown hang on here for a shootout. That would be a bit rich if the rigged draws resulted in an NPL side making the final. Should also be the death knell for it as well. Clearly the NPL clubs can compete.

...except Gold Coast