I read somewhere that they are doing renovations to lights/scoreboard r something .... plus usual FA incompetence I guess.... AAMI would have drawn a few thousand more I reackon as it is a much better venue for soccer

27k is a good crowd but this would be awesome at aami 

25k at aaami beats 35-40k at docklands anyday

bah hum bug, you got no idea sorry and I'm not.

You just hate Melbourne matey ........... lol

I always find it hilarious when he has the audacity to criticise players performance when he gave probably the worst ever performance in a critical match by a socceroo that I have ever seen. 

It was so bad that it bordered on suspicious. 

not true lol I hate/loath gayfl and how much its ingrained my fellow football pisano's I know and come to know down there even from here hahaha
A germ that needs erradicating :)

I think the decision to play at Marvel is probably more about the amount of 'cheap' seats at Marvel. If it was played at AAMI there wouldn't have been 27k, as there would have been less cheap GA tickets available. Sure, technically, they could just make the whole venue GA, but they never do. It's always GA behind the goals and premium on the wings at AAMI.

Truer words ever mentioned on these boards. Such an anal game!!!!

Fair comment.

O'Neill really promoted the games.

I just hate the sport.

If you live in southern states, it just dominates sports media. All the wasted resources that go into it, when there is not a national team is beyond belief.

Also, AFL upper echelons have killed grass roots Aussie Rules in Tasmania. Teams and comps are folding because there aren't enough players.

I wouldn't mind AFL if it didn't suck up all the resources and media.  In terms of the Ecuador games, one of my Ex Physios at the gym , who plays competition  football, was watching Brisbane play AFL last Thursday rather than the Socceroos. He talks to me all the time about football too. He is more passionate about a tin pot AFL team who are based over a 1000 kilometres from his home!

Even most NPL club players and coaches are more passionate about AFL teams as supporters than pro football in this state.

Love reading this stuff from NSW residents!

Blokes in my team talk about the NRL before and after the match and only one of them has a passing interest in the A - League. 

It's been that way since I've been a kid.

Was in Melbourne on the weekend at an AFL match. 60 000 at the MCG to watch a game that was over at quarter time.

Didn't matter. They roared at every mark, tackle and goal for the next 3 quarters. They sure as shit love it down there.

D2 glad you approve that post, hate the efffing game and give no attention, yes it erodes into my beloved sport and they have the resource to block it, f em I tell you.
So so glad I'm not a southerner sorry fellas, some of you have had to comform to mix with your mates for decades.
Sorry whats happenning in Tas and not, good its ruined the grass roots in that case.
Fancy watching that rubbish instead of a genuine NT squad friendly or not.

Muz where you live not surprised Nth coast somewhere right, nrl's DNA incl Syd/Bris/Qld and even though I'm in sydney burbs I'm around so many football first fanatics be it mine or my kids mates its football banter first be it about here or OS weekly then they'll stir up who follows who in nrl after our games for a mo, not one discussion on gayfl Thankfully.
Don't know how you put up watching it Muz, a poor converted influenced mate of mine due to a ex pat vic got him into the swans, so he dragged me along once 5/6yrs ago, longest arvo I ever had couldn't wait to GTFO, never again. I watched 1 GF on tv, never again.

Besides going to the Swans matches once or twice when they were the next big thing in the late 80's when Warrick Capper played for them I've avoided AFL like the plague.

BUT flew down there for a mate's 50th for the weekend. Not only did I have to sit through that garbage I had to pay for the privilege. Wore my home Socceroos shirt to the game though. Was the only person in the whole stadium wearing a yellow shirt. Yelled 'KNOCK ON' and 'GET 'EM ONSIDE REF' a few times which got a few chuckles. 

Was hoping for just one bloke to have a crack and I was going to say 'yeah, well where's your world cup then'. Had to wait until 8pm at the pub to give that a run out. 

(Saw the NRL on Friday night. which I didn't mind.)  

He had a shocker but I can't believe it was on purpose. Pretty sure he was very nervous. And that one he dived for that spun and bounced over him. How could you plan that?

He 100% sold us out that game. Amazing we draw that match with the amount of bullshit going against us.

In pre-AFL times in SA, many egg-ballers followed the VFL more closely than their own SANFL competition.

And, of course, soccer players listened to the egg-ball scores on the radio at half time in their match.

If I asked them why they followed a Melbourne team even though they lived in Adelaide, I could never get a satisfactory answer. It was like they were programmed from birth.

Melbourne is the root of all evil.

This is the fairest comparison of all.

The 2006 certainly had some better quality individuals, there's no doubt in my mind about that. However they were not a better team.

Todays team plays with much more fluency, can pass the ball around better controlled a "number" of times and on average are more tactically astute, as is the coaching.

If we had 2 or 3 better quality individuals in the team today, would blow away the 2006 GG.

I was watching the footy last week with my mum and my English  fiance walks in starts comparing it to football sucked all the air out the room.
Then last night on the train some kid was going on about AFL being better then football.


I'm really bored of it it's two sports enjoy both don't enjoy both but to compare them it's very low IQ discussion for me 

Anyone who starts comparing foody to football for no real reason are insecure for their sport.

If foody was that much better, why after many attempts can it not not even remotely start to penetrate the English speaking markets where they have cultural similarities (in most cases) and ready made foody (cricket) grounds ie South Africa, England, New Zealand, India etc.

I penned a long response confirming the 2006 squad had nearly the whole squad that played at a much higher level than any player in 2022/23; had far higher possession with higher passing accuracy in their WC group games, and as such were more in control of their games, and were coached by someone with a far superior record in World football than Arnold, but whatever. 

For the same reasons  our sport can't get traction here.

Well not really admin has fucked up the domestic competition the sport is popular it's all the suits making mistakes.

Afl is just part of the culture in Melbourne the past players are everywhere all over radio and tv which yes people watch. We can't even get players on channel ten Souttar is a premier league player get him on something.

So AFL know what they are doing and APL npl nsl football Australia what ever you wanna call them don't 

I frequently watch replays and docs of the 2006 NT games and then I watch our current Socceroos and I have difficulty with your view points.

Higher possession rate and passing accuracy? Really? They were much fitter for sure and physically better prepared but I bet the number of passes were far less. The 2006 NT didn't look more fluent than the current mob at all.

Arnold has proven to have the ability to play a team that is greater than the sum of all its parts. Could Hiddink have done the same without the availability of 2 or 3 of his most 2006 talented players? He was a great coach, but who knows under this scenario.

Our sport has got traction here, just no where near enough of it. When it does, the competing codes and their henchmen media moguls make all attempts to crush it.

That's why football will never be a number 1 sport here but can be a prominent player in this sporting landscape. I mean, if you can get 16K average attendance as we did in year 3 of the HAL, it shows it can be up there with the best.

There are no such examples where the AFL has gained any traction, any where whatsoever.

Soccer is part of our culture too mate, its just that we dont have the resources/money or the willingness/unity to tell the story.

Pre Aleahue it was because they didnt know how to and post Aleague its because they wanted to cut all ties to the past (good and bad) 

http://melbournesoccer.blogspot.com/

http://neososmos.blogspot.com/

The problem is the media and the egg ball codes are in bed together, football doesn't have the same clout that the AFL and NRL have and therefore struggles to build presence and therefore can't create a large audience from mainstream Australia.
There is also a cultural cringe that if you want to watch the best football its overseas but this league is still entertaining to watch with good value with young players and ex international players and really its no different to the entertainment value of the egg ball codes but unfortunately that cultural cringe still exists especially from eurosnobs who continue to talk down the league.
As we also know football has a high population of participants from playing the sport so there is a gap which know one cant solve but without media presence the game will continue to ask the same questions in the future.

However for me the biggest problem this league has had in recent times is the lack of promotion and marketing, put it this way when we see very little football news on TV and very effort seen in newspapers and radio contrast to fox sports, sbs world game era the game has presence to build and therefore the game was read and talked about and this makes a big difference.

So yes admin need to do much better but they also can do so much when they so little to work with, and right now I dont see where its going to come from through Keep Up and Paramount/Channel 10 as its been quite disappointing. 

JON also had celebrities to work with (such as Kewell & Dukes). 

Kewell was arguably the biggest drawcard in Australian sport when he was at his peak in '06-'10. 

We don't have any stars in the game at the moment. 

The team is greater than the sum of its parts.

We have Souttar who is a epl player and Sam kerr 

See how they go with the women's world cup