Good post.

" How is Australian football?A: Australian football is very pure, very physical and in the process of growth. The professional league only takes 15-16 years. Since I arrived, I have noticed a lot of improvement year after year, both technically and tactically." - Isaias

Most posters on here hold the view that the league gets better every year.

Many people seem to be of the belief that as soon as the cap is gone, the bigger clubs are going to start spending ridiculous amounts of money on squads. Why would they do that? It is a highly unlikely scenario unless a bunch of other things change as well. There is simply not enough incentive for clubs to spend the big bucks at the moment. No prize money for winning the league. No risk of relegation. ACL spots would become a little more valuable because without the cap, Aussie clubs have the potential to become genuine contenders in the comp. Hardly incentive to spend ridiculously big though. The league will still be restricted by squads required to be mostly Australian and I can't see Aussie players (especially the better more expensive players) opting to play for a HAL club over an EPL/Championship club even if a HAL club can match the price. A player like Mooy for example is not going to return to Australia just because the wage is the same. The value within the pool of Aussie players is simply not that high in the grander scheme of things to facilitate massive spends. If transfer fees were also introduced, we would still have a similar issue. The only incentive to pay a substantial transfer fee for a player from a rival HAL club would be if they feel they can then sell the player for a decent profit overseas. Clubs aren't going to spend millions on transfer fees in the hope of winning the title. With the exception of MV, all other clubs run at a loss. Spending big just increases those loses with very little in return.  
Even if you don't agree that scrapping the cap is the way forward, I think most people would agree that the cap (in it's current form) is not working as intended and is causing more problems than it solves. The 'richer' clubs are consistently top 5. MV and SFC combined account for 46% of premierships. MV and SFC combined account for 54% of Championships. Hardly an even competition. 

Great post.

Agree with someguyjc.

Without the cap, spending will still be very modest but then teams will more likely stay together and clubs can determine their own expenditure.

The cap is currently broken and the easiest fix is to get rid of it. You can try tweaking but the underlying issue will still remain - clubs don’t have full control of their costs.

this

Some clubs will only truly spend up big if they can see a return on their investment.

The model will have to change to allow:

1/ significantly increased prize money for winning the Premiership and Championship, rewarding success
2/ Increased ability to increase revenue streams
3/ continued increases in ACL prizemoney by the AFC, further driving clubs to increase spending to better compete in Asia

Overall, at present clubs are not really rewarded by spending up big, even if that brings success on the park in the HAL. Melbourne City have stated they won’t increase spending until the model changes, but who knows how other clubs will undertake the process if the cap is lifted.

Who would say the league is getting better? 

Since around season 7 the league has stagnated if not gone backwards 

the biggest thing to improve the league was the introduction of the coaching licence rules other then that nothing has been done to improve the HAL. I'd argue the lose of two of its more gifted coaches Ange and Arnold (and Popa for a while) has hurt the league. 

The cap is relatively the same, the marquees are still very much hit or miss and the  other international players are better then when the league started but are also very much hit or miss there is no real reason for the league to improve? 

There is no bases for improvement perhaps with an additional team next season might be better but overall you argument is the league is getting miraculously getting better ever year makes no sense... This is probably one of the worst seasons of HAL in a few years 

Double post

From what I have heard $7.5M is less than anyone is spending.

Most posters on here as well as Isaias who the quote is attributed to.

3+1 foreign rule

All foreigners outside the cap

Some team is always going to win the league. Some player is always going to kick a bag and stand out. Look across every league from the junior leagues right to the top and you see similar accomplishments and stats

What determines a quality league is the grade. The grade of the league can't be determined internally, it is something that can only be measured comparatively. We have gone backwards in the ACL and the Socceroos have gone backwards. The youth teams have also gone backwards. We can't even play in the Olympics anymore. We see more and more of our best and stand out players go overseas and accomplish very little. Look at the sheer number of players who return a mere 1 or 2 seasons abroad

The only thing I have seen is more teams give up 2 more 3 goal leads. And we also have this average of 3 goals a game. If you have a limited amount to spend then obviously that will favour strikers because thats the only way to win matches. So we see attack heavy games, goals a dozen - and yet strangely nobody who can play up front for the Socceroos because the overall grade is poor

People are going to look at a league that has a lot of goals, and is the highest in the country, and say "Wow. That must be a great league. It just gets better and better each season!" It is the BBL of football

No one thinks this is the best season of HAL they have seen and if they do they dont watch the HAL very often 

Dont let bias cloud your judgement, Bluebird hit the nail on the head all signs point to Australian football going backwards to say we are improving when we clearly are not is half the problem with football in this country we simply cant admit we are making mistakes and we dont react well to constructive feedback.

Our FFA are the biggest idiots because they know most of the problems in Aus football are due to there mismanagement but they cant fill there pockets up if they actually fix whats wrong with the game; 
It was clearly a mistake to follow a dutch system and since the AIS has lost a load of funding our development has died. People dont realise this but the AIS produced more then half of our top players back in the day and without it doing what it used to do we have dropped off a lot. The reliance on the HAL to produce players isnt bring though the same quality and we need to admit that and ask why? because there is more money in the game then there ever was during the NSL but the players being produced are of half the quality. We need to re-evaluate what we are doing wrong? because what we are doing now clearly isnt working.

It is hilarious to read a post about the improvement of Australian Football year after year and then compare Australia's ranking to Jordan and Cyprus.

I do not see it but there are many things that could be done to improve the game, such as. Introduction of more teams, a second tier comp with promotion and relegation. Also the abolition of the salary cap could see better players into the competition and a higher standard.

I agree that the salary cap has little to do with protecting club's viability.

Yeh it makes no sense alright. Your post is spot on.

The only thing most of us are noticing is that the standard of play is getting worse. The league is indeed at a point of stagnation and boring us to tears and we are seeing it in the decline in spectator numbers over the last 3 years. Talent is drying up and some teams are there to just make up the numbers.

I think the days where we can blindly say we are getting better are long gone. Reality is setting in.

Spot on post. Our standard is very low, and the football market is very immature. The media are also not helping the situation.

I remember the days when our Youth Teams were dominating. We had great players coming through. Our NT was stronger.

Now we can't take a trick and we barely can compete with the likes of Jordan, Syria and Oman. These are truly footballing minnows.

Our players are getting chewed up overseas and spat out too.

I use the term PEAK FOOTBALL. That is my way of saying we are going backwards and regressing. The HAL is NOT getting better each year, It is regressing and the level of player is getting poorer and poorer. Part of the problem is in fact the delusion tyhat we are getting better. This needs to end.

So what are the solutions? Well, I am not sure if the salary cap will improve things. it could. But right now there is a massive disconnect between grass roots and the HAL. We need more teams and a second ier, plus promotion and relegation. A closed shop is bringing us closer to disaster each year.

Last night, Australia was very lucky.

exactly the FFA did a good job bring in the licencing rules that are the same as Europe because because before any idiot could be a manager and have a few lucky wins and look like  a star the truth was we needed a formal educational process like they have in Europe. Because good coaching is the key to good development 

I think the A-licence rules were put in place around season 4? that is when we saw about 2-3 years of MASSIVE improvement in the HAL - If you watch HAL seasons 1-2 and compare it to seasons 6-7 the league is ALOT better 

BUT the FFA have done NOTHING to improve the HAL since. The NYL was a decent idea but i dont know why clubs still dont have junior football academies? 

You cant just expect the league is going to get better because the league is older. If anything we are now being raided by asian leagues more then ever and poor quality European leagues (like the SPL) for talent because the players are cheap which is probably why the league has gone backwards since around season 7 

I dont know what you are seeing to make you think the league is getting better and as i said before we have actually lost some good coaches which is the only real way a budget conscious league will improve (good coaching is key). 

All sign point to declining standards - perhaps when coaches like Kewell get more experience and decide to coach in here in Australia you might see the league pick up but otherwise the league has had no reason to improve and if you ask me it has declined 

NOTE: Give credit to the FFA they are trying to add a few new teams so perhaps that will help the league grow but at this moment the league is declining

What apilly said. Plus get rid of the salary floor. Stupidest thing ever

That's relative. If the A-League is getting better but at a slower rate than another league it's still getting better.

But, the salary cap is so porous that it should be gotten rid of. There will have to be something like the fair play system that the UK has, or a soft cap with luxury tax like the US.

When it comes to league quality, it needs to be put into perspective. Every league in the world will see quality fluctuations, it's only natural. But the comparison that should be looked at is quality vs spend. Considering clubs are spending roughly $3-5M on a squad, how high can the expectation of quality really be? Then there is the spend on coaches which would also be quite low.  I don't think this season has been the highest quality we have seen, but it's not that bad either. Personally I believe the quality is fairly representative of the current spending. This is where things need to change. Quality can only really improve if spending increases. That means being able to keep players here for longer rather than letting them go to lower quality leagues just for bigger wages. Keeping higher quality players here increases competition not only between clubs but within squads as well. The last few years it's been fairly steady. This is a symptom of the combination of a salary cap, lack of incentives for doing well and no risks for doing poorly. Obviously I'm only looking at the HAL as that is the topic of the thread, but issues relating to youth development are also a large contributing factor. Playing in the Aussie Summer does us no favours either, especially when it comes to keeping up pace for 90 mins. Shifting the comp to Winter would have an instant impact on the pace of the game and the perceived quality. The lack of dedicated football infrastructure is the limiting factor there though.

It serves no purpose. The only place where a salary cap works is where all of the best players in the world play in the one league, i.e. AFL. For football, it doesn't work. If you look at the A-League table, it does not reflect a salary capped competition. Every season, Fox should give their handouts, then it's up to the club to spend more on players if they choose. Coupled with this should be transfer fees. Give clubs incentives to develop players, otherwise we'll forever be forced to try and get excited about 'mutual terminal windows'. 

On top of this, the argument from some is that some clubs will be too strong. At the end of the day, each club is limited to 5 visa players. Majority of the time 2 of the 5 are marquees anyway, paid outside the cap. That leaves a lot of room to spend on 3 other visa players. The rest of your squad are Australian. No club would be stupid enough to pay $500k a season for Matt Simon.

Why not wait to see which problems present?

"Don't let bias cloud your judgement"

I literally quoted a captain of an A-League club while you are claiming the league is going backwards but have absolutely no evidence to back up that claim, nor do you have any quotes from a player, coach or pundit to back up your view.

I'm always going to agree with a player who actually plays in the league and has done so for a long time now over two random guys on the internet who have no evidence to back up their opinions.

Here's another quote from Isaias.

Q: In the comparison in Spain-Australia football, where would the A-League fit?A: It is a difficult question to answer. But I always said when I arrived that I would put it between 2a and 2b. Although perhaps now it would place it closer to 2a. (2a I'm pretty sure is the segunda division while 2b is the segunda division b)

You quoted a delusional A League player who is trying to up talk the standard from reality to up-talk their own value.

The reality of course is that the HAL isn't anywhere near those leagues mentioned.

Here are some of the market values of the teams in 2a and 2b

https://www.transfermarkt.com/rayo-vallecano/startseite/verein/367

https://www.transfermarkt.com/sd-huesca/startseite/verein/5358

"A delusional A-League player"

There's one delusional person here and it ain't Isaias.

You got to look at the reasons why an A League player might want to say false things like this.

Firstly, 2 teams alone in the 2a are worth as much as all the HAL teams combined.

You can look at the deluded opinions of whoever you like, but I look at the facts.

Here are some of the market values of the teams in 2a and 2b

https://www.transfermarkt.com/rayo-vallecano/startseite/verein/367

https://www.transfermarkt.com/sd-huesca/startseite/verein/5358
         

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Those teams are in La Liga

No they are not.

The are in the segunda.

https://int.soccerway.com/national/spain/segunda-division/20172018/regular-season/r42973/