{"id":11765,"date":"2013-10-10T19:22:32","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T09:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=11765"},"modified":"2015-10-07T07:02:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T21:02:36","slug":"a-league-season-nine-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=11765","title":{"rendered":"A-League Season Nine Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?attachment_id=5928\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5928\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5928\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagfootball.jpg\" alt=\"tagfootball\" width=\"600\" height=\"75\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagfootball.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagfootball-300x37.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?attachment_id=11766\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11766\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11766\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aleague9.jpg\" alt=\"aleague9\" width=\"630\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aleague9.jpg 630w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aleague9-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>A-League Season Nine<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3vyaeNqHaVA\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It&#8217;s finally here!!!!\u00a0 Ermagerd, the A-League has the longest off season &#8211; a miserable 172 days &#8211; and tomorrow, the wait is finally over.\u00a0 The 2013\/14 season will kick off with Newcastle Jets travelling to Sydney FC in an early preview of who will finish in the middle of the table.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">After a shitty 2011\/12 season which saw teams disbanded and club owners threatening to pull financial support, there was a marked turnaround in the 2012\/13 season and now optimism in Australia for the domestic competition is at an all-time high.\u00a0 A hugely successful season saw the debutant Western Sydney Wanderers have a fairytale run where they won the league and made the Grand Final.\u00a0 The big three marquee players &#8211; Del Piero, Ono and Heskey &#8211; were all huge hits at their clubs and are back for another season.\u00a0 Attendance and TV viewership went up 18%.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So what to expect for this season?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">For the first time, the league is going to have live matches on free-to-air television which should continue to increase the league&#8217;s exposure.\u00a0 Arguably the talent is about the same as last season.\u00a0 As mentioned, there haven&#8217;t really been any new major marquee signings and although some high profile A-League players have returned (Matt McKay, Matt Simon), there has also been the departure of some of last year&#8217;s best players including Tommy Rogic, Matt Ryan and Marcos Rojas.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Who will rise to the occasion this season is anyone&#8217;s guess and that&#8217;s part of the fun with the A-League.\u00a0 In Round One, every fan should feel optimistic about their team&#8217;s chances of making the finals.\u00a0 Well, unless you support Melbourne Heart.<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Brisbane Roar Season Predictions<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?attachment_id=11767\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11767\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11767 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/brisbaneroar201314.jpg\" alt=\"brisbaneroar201314\" width=\"630\" height=\"344\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/brisbaneroar201314.jpg 630w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/brisbaneroar201314-300x163.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>In<\/b><br \/>\n<em>Matt McKay (from Changchun Yatai)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Liam Miller (from Perth Glory)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Diogo Ferreira (from Melbourne Victory)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Dimitri Petratos (from Kelantan, Malaysia)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Corey Brown (elevated from youth side)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>George Lambadardis (elevated from youth side)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>Out<\/b><br \/>\n<em>Massimo Murdocca (to Melbourne Heart)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Matt Jurman (to Sydney FC)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Mitch Nichols (to Melbourne Victory)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Ben Halloran (to Fortuna Dusselldorf, Germany)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Stefan Nijland (to PEC, Zwolle, Netherlands)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Steven Lustica (to Hadjuk Split, Croatia \u2013 loan expired)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>James Meyer (released)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Last year the club got off to a spectacularly awful start in their defence of a back-to-back premiereship.\u00a0 The club struggled under new coach Rado Vidosic and despite a welcome 5-0 thrashing of Melbourne Victory in Round Two who were coached by former Roar manager Ange Postecoglou, the team struggled to find goals and were at the bottom of the table in December.\u00a0 Rado Vidosic was unceremoniously dumped into a &#8216;technical director&#8217; role and former Gold Coast United manager Mike Mulvey was brought in.\u00a0 Despite a frosty reception, Mulvey gradually won over fans and righted the course for Brisbane as they ended up scraping into fifth spot thanks to a win over Sydney FC in the final round.\u00a0 They were eventually knocked out in the semi finals against Western Sydney Wanderers who beat them four times out of four in the season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The off-season has seen the release of seven players, none of whom are critical to the success of the team.\u00a0 Mostly, I was sad to see foundation player Massimo Murdocca go.\u00a0 I was thrilled with the release of Matt Jurman, our notoriously awful central defender who seemed to gift the opposition at least one goal per game.\u00a0 Given our fragile attack, I&#8217;m mystified at the decision to release James Meyer.\u00a0 He seemed pretty handy for about 5-6 goals per season coming off the bench.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Of the new signings, the most exciting would have to be the return of former captain and Socceroo defender Matt McKay.\u00a0 His link up in midfield with Thomas Broich and Liam Miller (formerly of Manchester United and Celtic FC) is an enticing prospect.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We have a reasonable looking squad on paper with a much improved defensive line up but the inability to sign a new striker in the off season means we are hugely reliant on Besart Berisha to deliver the goods.\u00a0 He scored a record 22 goals in his first season and has been in good nick during pre-season but a downturn in form or a single injury would cruelly expose the lack of depth in the squad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Whatever happens, I&#8217;ll be there to see every minute.\u00a0 After letting my season membership lapse last year, I&#8217;m back on board again this year with Jen and two other mates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Prediction:\u00a0 <\/strong><em>3rd, regular season.\u00a0 Overall semi final finish.<\/em><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>General Predictions<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?attachment_id=11768\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11768\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/lineup.jpg\" alt=\"lineup\" width=\"630\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/lineup.jpg 630w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/lineup-300x119.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last year, my predictions were hilariously bad.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s what I tipped with the worst predictions in bold:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Shane Smeltz (Perth Glory) will be the league\u2019s top scorer<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Melbourne Victory will finish in the top six and qualify for finals football<\/li>\n<li><strong>West Sydney will be absolute rubbish in their first season<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Melbourne Heart will struggle this season and end up wooden spooners<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wellington Phoenix will continue to perform well under the radar<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>ADP will score six goals<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Emile Heskey will outscore Del Piero<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Brisbane Roar won\u2019t make the Grand Final<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Undaunted, I have a fresh set of predictions for 2013\/14:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Western Sydney Wanderers<\/strong> will win the regular season<\/li>\n<li><strong>Melbourne Victory<\/strong> will win the Grand Final<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mark Bridge<\/strong> will be the league&#8217;s top scorer<\/li>\n<li>The teams that will qualify for the finals:\u00a0 Central Coast Mariners, Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne Victory, Brisbane Roar, Perth Glory and Sydney FC<\/li>\n<li><strong>Melbourne Heart<\/strong> will finish with the wooden spoon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Season Nine is finally here.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s do this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A-League Season Nine It&#8217;s finally here!!!!\u00a0 Ermagerd, the A-League has the longest off season &#8211; a miserable 172 days &#8211; and tomorrow, the wait is finally over.\u00a0 The 2013\/14 season will kick off with Newcastle Jets travelling to Sydney FC in an early preview of who will finish in the middle of the table. After &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2307],"class_list":["post-11765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-preview-and-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11765"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18209,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765\/revisions\/18209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}