{"id":17520,"date":"2015-05-17T21:21:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T11:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17520"},"modified":"2015-05-17T21:31:54","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T11:31:54","slug":"a-league-201516-the-blue-blue-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=17520","title":{"rendered":"A-League 2015\/16 &#8211; Season Wrap Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagfootball.jpg\"><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\/wp-content\/uploads\/rainedout.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17449\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/rainedout.jpg\" alt=\"rainedout\" width=\"620\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/rainedout.jpg 620w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/rainedout-300x160.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1415final.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17521\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1415final.jpg\" alt=\"1415final\" width=\"315\" height=\"395\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1415final.jpg 315w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1415final-239x300.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>PRELIMINARY FINALS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Adelaide United 2 Brisbane Roar 1<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Wellington Phoenix 0 Melbourne City 2<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>SEMI FINALS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Melbourne Victory 3 Melbourne City 0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Sydney FC 4 Adelaide United 1<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>GRAND FINAL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Melbourne Victory 3 Sydney FC 0<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Pre-Season Predictions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=16485\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">At the start of the season<\/span><\/a> I wrote a blog detailing some predictions for the season ahead. \u00a0Let&#8217;s see how I did!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>How I said the table would finish<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>1 Sydney FC \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>2 Western Sydney Wanderers \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>3 Brisbane Roar \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>4 Melbourne Victory \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>5 Adelaide United \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>6 Melbourne City \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>7 Central Coast Mariners <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">\u00a0<strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>8 Wellington Phoenix \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>9 Perth Glory \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>WRONG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>10 Newcastle Jets \u00a0<span style=\"color: #339966;\"><strong>CORRECT!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Other Predictions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Besart Berisha<\/strong> will be the top scorer in the competition. \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">WRONG<\/span> &#8211; Marc Janko<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Kenny Lowe<\/strong> will be the first coach to lose his job. \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">WRONG\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8211; <strong>Mike Mulvey [Brisbane Roar] was the first coach to lose his job. \u00a0Kenny Lowe was not sacked.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li>The final will be between <strong>Western Sydney Wanderers<\/strong> and <strong>Sydney FC<\/strong> in a huge NSW derby. \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">WRONG\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8211; I was half right! \u00a0Sydney FC played Melbourne Victory<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Melbourne Victory<\/strong> will win the inaugural FFA Cup \u00a0<strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">WRONG\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8211;\u00a0<strong>Adelaide United won the inaugural FFA Cup<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li>The eventual winners of the competition will be <strong>Sydney FC \u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">WRONG<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> &#8211; Melbourne Victory won the championship<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Summary:<\/strong> \u00a0I am terrible at football predictions.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Grand Final Recap<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/vine.co\/v\/eAauhmdAxUt\/embed\/simple?audio=1\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Melbourne Victory won one of the least interesting Grand Finals in competition history when they mercilessly defeated Sydney FC 3-0. \u00a0Sydney managed just two shots on goal all game and Melbourne dominated handily. \u00a0It was not a great game for the neutral to watch. \u00a0If anything, the Grand Final was indicative of a lacklustre finals series in general in which Adelaide United vs Brisbane Roar was the only competitive match that I can recall watching. \u00a0Every other game had one team dominating the other.<\/p>\n<p>It was definitely a finals series to forget.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Post-Season Wrap Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aleague2015.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17526\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aleague2015.jpg\" alt=\"aleague2015\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aleague2015.jpg 650w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aleague2015-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The A-League 2014\/15 season was the tenth anniversary of the competition and although there will be jubilation for fans at Melbourne Victory this weekend, overall this was a troubled season for most clubs. \u00a0Not only was there a dark chapter written in the league&#8217;s history with Perth Glory, league leaders for most of the competition, being kicked out the finals for breaching the salary cap, several clubs including Brisbane Roar, Central Coast Mariners, Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix had questions asked about their financial viability to stay in the competition. \u00a0That&#8217;s nearly half the teams in the league!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Season 10 of the A-League was definitely a year that presented growing pains for a competition still in its infancy. \u00a0After a promising few years that saw continuous growth in tv viewership figures, crowd attendances and on-field quality, Season 10 saw that development plateau or in some cases, go backwards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">With that said, here are a five points to ponder between now and the 2015\/16 season.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Foreign Players<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/janko.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17532\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/janko.jpg\" alt=\"janko\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/janko.jpg 650w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/janko-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Consider this: \u00a0Only two players in the top ten goal scorers this season were Australian. \u00a0Overseas players scored more than half the goals in the entire season. \u00a0It seems crazy to think that the FFA are considering cutting down the number of visa players from five to four when they contribute so much to the quality on the field as well positive fan and media attention off it. \u00a0Foreign players like Besart Berisha, Mark Janko and Andy Keogh all lifted the profile of their respective clubs and judging by the Socceroo&#8217;s claiming their first ever international football trophy in January when they won the Asian Cup, it hasn&#8217;t come at the detriment of local talent. \u00a0If anything, it has helped their development.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Hopefully in the off-season we will hear the FFA recant on their decision to shrink the number of visa players.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Salary Cap<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/kennylowe.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17533\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/kennylowe.jpg\" alt=\"kennylowe\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/kennylowe.jpg 650w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/kennylowe-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Perth Glory made headlines for all the wrong reasons this season when they were docked competition points and kicked out of the A-League finals for breaching the salary cap (they finished 2nd, then were moved to 7th). \u00a0An inquiry into the clubs affairs found that they had been cheating the salary cap for three seasons, including the year they made the Grand Finals and lost to Brisbane Roar. \u00a0What&#8217;s disconcerting is that the club&#8217;s management was described by Herald Sun reporter David Davutovic as &#8216;run like a fish and chip shop&#8217; and yet it wasn&#8217;t an A-League audit that uncovered these misdemeanours, it was a tip-off from an ex-Perth Glory staff member (likely Alistair Edwards).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">When the news broke of the salary cap breach, rumours flew around online that &#8216;at least two other clubs&#8217; were guilty of the same. \u00a0Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick called for every club to be audited to ensure the integrity of the game. \u00a0The FFA chose not to investigate any other clubs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If Perth Glory, run as poorly as they were, could cheat the cap for such a long time, you have to wonder how many other clubs could be doing the same thing if they had even a modicum of competency.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">As for whether the cap itself should be raised, I think the answer should be a resounding &#8216;no&#8217; &#8211; for now. \u00a0Ultimately, a higher salary cap could help retain players within their original A-League clubs (Besart Berisha staying at Brisbane for example) or stop them for going abroad to lowly leagues that pay well, but with half the clubs in the competition appearing to be in financial strife, you&#8217;d think that currently the only beneficiaries would be Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Clubs in Jeopardy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aclcrowd.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17534\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aclcrowd.jpg\" alt=\"aclcrowd\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aclcrowd.jpg 650w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/aclcrowd-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The A-League is only ten years old but there are already three clubs in its short history that have been disbanded or removed from the competition &#8211; New Zealand Knights, North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United. \u00a0Worryingly this season, a number of clubs showed signs of financial hardship including Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets. \u00a0Both clubs operate in communities that have a healthy numbers of football supporters but have come undone due to a lack of suitable infrastructure and\u00a0owners getting shaky feet with their investment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There isn&#8217;t a one size fits all answer for how to get these clubs to be more financially viable. \u00a0Ideally, the Jets wouldn&#8217;t be owned by a mining tycoon who is losing money hand over fist. \u00a0The Roar have around 15,000 fans and shouldn&#8217;t be playing in a stadium equal in size to Arsenal or Manchester City&#8217;s home ground which is expensive and hurts the atmosphere at games. \u00a0Who knows what it takes for Wellington Phoenix to crack the local rugby-loving market and get more fans along to games (apparently this season&#8217;s attractive brand of attacking football wasn&#8217;t the answer). \u00a0And I feel sorry for Central Coast Mariners who seem to be lumped with an owner that doesn&#8217;t seem to want to run a football club in Central Coast.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The FFA definitely need to be cautious about how they approach any planned future growth for the competition. \u00a0There&#8217;s talk that we&#8217;re only a season or two away from a South Sydney side entering the competition and possibly another Queensland team. \u00a0While I welcome more depth to the competition (ten teams is too few), there&#8217;s a very real risk that hasty expansion could come at the expense of another club&#8217;s future. \u00a0And no one wants that.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The FFA Cup<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ffacup.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17535\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ffacup.jpg\" alt=\"ffacup\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ffacup.jpg 650w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ffacup-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In September, I went to a local park to watch Olympic FC play Melbourne Knights in the inaugural FFA Cup. \u00a0Olympic FC are a Helenic club with a proud heritage and about 3,000 diehard fans. \u00a0The smell of souvlaki was in the air and the Greek beer was flowing freely that night. \u00a0It was one of the most fun experiences I had all season. \u00a0The FFA are definitely onto a good thing with the FFA Cup and the first season delivered plenty of drama with minnows Bentleigh Greens reaching the semi-final of the competition after beating Adelaide United 2-1.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The magic of knock out cup football is one of the pleasures of any domestic football league worth its salt and I&#8217;m glad to see it finally come to Australia. \u00a0The first year of the FFA Cup was a resounding success.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Australia &#8211; A Popular Holiday Destination<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/liverpoolvictory.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17536\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/liverpoolvictory.jpg\" alt=\"liverpoolvictory\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/liverpoolvictory.jpg 650w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/liverpoolvictory-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">For reasons I&#8217;m not entirely clear on, Australia has suddenly become a very attractive destination for European football clubs to visit. \u00a0Perhaps some of these clubs realized the untapped market potential that exists over here when Liverpool played Melbourne Victory in front of a crowd of over 95,000 people at the MCG. \u00a0I believe it still holds the record for the largest crowd Liverpool FC has played in front of.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So during the pre-season this year, Wellington Phoenix enjoyed visits from West Ham United and Newcastle United. \u00a0In the post-season, we can look forward to Brisbane Roar vs Liverpool FC, Brisbane Roar vs Villareal as well as a tournament in Melbourne involving Real Madrid, Roma and Manchester City. \u00a0Oh, plus Tottenham and Chelsea are playing friendlies with Sydney FC.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">These games are always guaranteed to draw monster crowds and are a great advertisement for the game. \u00a0Like the Asian Cup before it though, the FFA&#8217;s challenge is to work out how to get these casual football fans to come along to watch the domestic competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Melbourne Victory swept aside a hapless Sydney FC to claim their third A-League championship.  But it was a season to forget for Brisbane Roar and most of the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[218,342],"class_list":["post-17520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-a-league","tag-brisbane-roar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17520","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=17520"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17537,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17520\/revisions\/17537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}