By Monoethnic Social Club - 2 Aug 2021 10:14 AM
+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+xOnce again, if there was a proper system of P&R, you would not need to worry about cherry picking dots on a map to plonk a franchise. I am all for a regional based P&R system in our national comp. Get the right number of teams from each region in first to make it a true national comp then open it up to "the best from each region" to replace the worst team(s) in the league that season. May not be a true P&R system given Victoria could have the next 3 best teams in the country (hypothetically) but as long as the Vic teams do not end up in the problem group we won't see any of those 3 teams in the aleague. I wouldn't really give a rats about the league if Queensland did not have a team in it - tough enough call without a Brisbane based one. Would not accept it as a national comp without all states/territories being included (NT not counted at this stage for whatever reason (temp/humidity/monsoon/crocs) they are already excluded.) This is interesting mate, so as long as their is a team from Brisbane in the Aleague you will follow them? Am I understanding this right? Doesn't matter if its The Lions or Strikers or Gladiators or fuzzy wombats, as long as it is in Brisbane........ not meaning to be judgy but f@ck me this is such a foreign idea to me.... Hell no! What I am saying is that no Qld team and I have no interest in it being called a national comp. Any other Brisbane team and I would be fighting to be interested in results but would still consider it a national comp. I am not saying I would simply switch to being <BrisbaneTeam>InMeBlood. To be national the comp has to include teams from all 'relevant' regions - so a pure P&R would not work for me. Edit: I was a Wombat in the ACTAFL 2nd Division. Don't you mock wombats! Oh ok, I get you... what if, like in 90% of the countries in the world, there was a mechanism in place where a club form every single town, region, state in Australia could compete fairly to be promoted to the Aleague? At the moment, the FFA cup semi finals has never had a NT, ACT or TAS club compete ( as far as I know, might be wrong on this) but they do have the chance to make it that far so I would still consider it a nationwide comp?... No disrespect to wombats by the way, I hit one of them fat f#ckers in an old HJ Prem I had 20 years ago and spun off the road... He put a dint in my steel bumper the size of a plate and I could still hear that bastard grunting around in the bushes...... For me it is not the chance to be in the league - it is having representation in the league. Not everyone has to be competitive top 4 to make the comp worth watching. If you go all the way P&R and find that only teams from NSW, Victoria, and maybe one in South Australia, make up the league, it is not national enough for my tastes. Sure, it is a reflection of who deserves to be in the top x number of teams - but that is not a competition I want to follow. Give us the perennial underdog regions - with rotating teams based on regional P&R - and every season those fans will dream of success. To me that is the essence of sport that I like to follow. The FFA cup model serves its purpose brilliantly, but that is not how I would like to see the national league formulated. Edit: I am rather proud of the late night, foggy mountain road when I avoided the charge of a wombat in my hatchback (yeah, yeah - wombats drive hatchbacks). That would not have ended well for my car otherwise. Fair enough mate, I disagree but each to their own. I personally don't think it would be fair (or beneficial to the ambitious drive of the soccer pyramid) to limit which clubs compete in the highest tier in the land based exclusively on their geographical location. Would you be happy, for example, if Roar where relegated one year, Brisbane Strikers (for example) took their place in the Aleague, and then spent the next 20 years finishing 9th or 10th, permanently keeping Roar out of the competition despite them finishing top of the table every year in the NPL? I know its what we have now to a degree (and what the shit old NSL had, yes, yes I know "effniks bad" an all that) but stifling ambition and drive is what is leading to a stagnant football ecosystem at the moment... After 100+ years, we deserve better. I do see your point, and I can easily imagine the excitement of getting regional representation back into the top flight competition after years in the wilderness if a true P&R pyramid was in place. But for my own selfish reasons I want to have that representation in the aleague because that is about the only sport I now watch regularly and passionately and it would hurt me personally not to have that ownership and direct interest. Each to his own indeed.
That said, I am clearly what is holding football back in this country :) #SackMe #RIMBoutJust as an academic aside - if we had a large enough league (20+ teams) where each Region/Group of regions (ACT/Tassie/WA/NT playoff) had 3 or 4 places, and each season the lowest placed team in each region was relegated in favour of the best of that region/group's NPL, would that provide the pathway you need? Maybe the top 6 or 12 would be safe from relegation so if all Victorian teams finished in the top 6/12/whatever then South Melbourne would still miss out - but still a fair chance of one of the top tier teams slipping one year or the next. Still not the pure pyramid that so many want to see, but I don't think football is supported strongly enough here for a national comp not to include representation from all the nation. Chicken and egg perhaps - support for both clubs and the code would no doubt grow if fans thought their team had a chance at winning promotion to the top flight... Hahahah not even close mate, the only people holding football back in this country, are the same people who have been doing so for 120 odd years, the ones trying to make a buck out of it. At the moment it's Pierce and the APL Mafia, together with the remnants of the Westfield dynasty... not to mention the clowns at every single state federation. Despite your insistence on trying to convert me to support a club that has an animal noise instead of a name I find your opinions pretty constructive. Maybe if your club is ever locked out for the better part of 2 decades without any way of winning promotion, regardless of whether the reason is racism or geography, I believe you would feel the same as I do...... Anyway, back to the original topic, a team based out of Tasmania makes as much sense as one proporting to represent a future housing estate halfway between the future mega-city of Werribee (did anyone catch the latest channel 10 news piece about high rise office towers and museums and art gallerys in the regional hub city of the future?) and cosmopolitan Melton.... Your Greek club had every and all opportunities to initially bid to be part of the ALeague but decided it would not. Stop blaming others.
When did Panathinaikos EVER indicate they would be applying to buy a license into the Aleague? WTF are you on about Paulie?
|