Has someone hacked Rusty's account? This has morphed into genuine parody now. Parody or satire I can't really tell.

It's ridiculous if that's what he means, because trans-Tasman P/R could never work because the NZ National League is amateur by decree (unless you count brown paper bags and bogus "coaching" jobs). And it's that way precisely because the Football Kingz were only allowed to join the NSL in 1998 because "NZ doesn't have a professional league", and that piece of hypocrisy still stands, despite ACFC's rorting of pokie charitable trust monies.

The other issue is whether NZ could ever join AFC, or whether OFC/AFC could merge, and trust me, Nix fans have been debating that for a decade and neither is going to happen.

All that said, a Nix vs. Auckland derby would seriously do good box office, considering that the rest of the country would be backing the Nix.

No parody. FFA/APL are slowing coming to the realisation that the key to growing the game isn't population demographics, radio pomotion etc, its unlocking tribalism through derbies and fostering genuine rivalries. Notice how all the great clubs in the world have great derbies; Manchester, Liverpool, Milan, Madrid, often drawn along geographic, economic, sometimes political lines which become expression of a clubs character and identity. You can't tell me that a superclassico between Wellington and Auckland isn't going to draw 30k+ and captivate the Australasian football population just like the Sydney derby does.

No way is it a derby. It's a bloody 8 hour drive between the two cities. It's no more of a derby than wellington vs any of the east coast teams. There will only be one set of supporters there for each of their home games.

Sorry having a stressful day at work i could possibly be reacting to this out of emotional frustration.

I remember Gyfox/Flytox being so excited about Macarthur coming in as well.

Understandable, but the Nix active support come up to Auckland twice a year anyway for "home games" at Eden Park. There are such things as aeroplanes. They'll come in their droves to cheer an actual derby. No idea whether Auckland would have any decent active support, of course (I believe the old Kingz had a decent crew but that was long before my time)

It's probably more akin to the MV vs AU games. Driving time between Melbourne and Adelaide is a little over 8hrs (depending on how heavy your foot is). Both teams getting good away attendance for those games, but it's not like a MV/MC or SFC/WSW same city derby. So it then comes down to how much natural rivalry is there between Wellington and Auckland. Question for any Kiwi's here, is there any form of hatred between the two cities like there is between Mel and Syd for example?

It's very like the Sydney v Melbourne thing (if Melbourne were much smaller but also the national capital). Although it's probably fairer to say that Wellingtonians hate Aucklanders (as do people from Christchurch, or the rest of the country for that matter), while Aucklanders never think about the rest of the country outside of Auckland if they can help it. You should see the seething on the Nix forums every time a "home game" has to go north.

Its NOT a derby its a "SuperClassico" hahahahahahaha

The match between the Phoenix reserves and Team Wellington in the old franchise-based NZ Football Championship was called the WelClasico, lol

Hahahahah love it...... 

I want a new First division called the A+ League and the current A league becomes the 2nd division  
with p&r between these two divs only 

The last paragraph is bang on. I’d say this is the priority reason for swift expansion decisions. During a World Cup cycle too. Seems obvious!

As for Auckland, we need the league to have further reach. It grows patronage and participation. A strong NZ is good for Australian football.

Auckland vs Wellington may get a fair crowd, but every game in the season isn't a derby. How will Auckland vs Western United rate? Not very well I would say.

Well, the same goes for any game featuring WU.

Actually, not strictly true. The Nix have something of a hatred for the "Snakes" after Rudan left us for them and took Durante and Kurto with him. But does anyone else in the league even care about them?

How do you think GWS v GCS rate in the AFL? It doesn't you think the AFL care? How about Bournemouth v Brentford, don't think that is must watch TV.
Ever thought about staying up all night Aris V Gianna no even the Greeks don't.

Correct. You can't rely on derbies alone to deliver success, but they can be harnessed semi frequently to provide a significant shot in the arm for clubs wishing to re-captivate a sleepy fanbase, attract new fans and mainstream interest, and build a culture around fan engagement and passion that only derbies can generate.

Let's say hypothetically you had 16 teams, with five genuine derbies; Sydney, Melbourne, NZ, Brisbane and Adelaide. If you had a 30 round competition, and each team plays each other home and away, that's 10 derby games per regular season. 1 in 3 rounds would be a derby round. Throw in the F1 derby, Big Blue etc, you have a pretty intriguing season. Some may argue that is too many, but I think given the geographic diversity its totally workable. If you had all the derbies concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne no one would really buy into the concept (as we have seen with Bulls and WU) and it would be boring.

They also unlocked a whole bunch of matches nobody gives a crap about. Anyone that isn't Wellington versus Auckland.

Luckily we don't need to think this deeply about it as a strategy, because it's simple. They want licensed fees to pay out the rest of the clubs their illusion of a dividend. They think Canberra and Auckland have that money. It's not a Ponzi when we are all watching a ball being kicked.

Nah, they're based a bit more north here

Unless the team is successful straight out of the blocks... probably right that we may only average that in the latter half of the season.

But, bear in mind that Canberra had the highest average attendance of non-Australian games at the 2015 Asian Cup and also, the last time a game was held in Canberra (which was between Adelaide and Mariners towards the end of a dire season in the middle of summer, which was held as a curtain-raiser to a losing Canberra United W-League semi final (and got a higher attendance than the A-League game).

Im not sure I understand your point. Nobody will give a crap about any game that isn't a derby? If that's the case then why do we even bother with non derby games? Just make Sydney V WSW play each other for 26 rounds plus the finals.

Now 100% convinced this is a pisstake.

Update: Took issue with Vince Rugari on Twitter regards a few things, in a polite tone, about his article and he's blocked me.

Obviously didn't like having holes poked in his article, assertions and assumptions.


Vince Rugari

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Logged out and my stuff is still there.



The offending tweet.

Yeah, grumpy when he's accused of being an AL stooge.

So Charlesworth is gonna want $25m off Piel once their agreement matures in 2 seasons time ?

No wonder the Adelaide deal got stuck.

Are the mystery chinamen after $25m ?

And no surprise Newcastle still on the market.

And also no surprise WU are still paying the bills.  Looking for a serious down payment for the Stadium from their $8.33m

$25m explains why Sage has stopped whinging and paying minimum chips to tick along

Figure is already agreed and in writing... peil could buy and sell .... get all his money back....