{"id":8224,"date":"2012-10-01T21:10:26","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T11:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=8224"},"modified":"2015-10-07T07:03:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T21:03:08","slug":"a-league-season-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=8224","title":{"rendered":"A-League Season Eight Preview"},"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\" title=\"tagfootball\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagfootball.jpg\" alt=\"\" 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><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zN_qJkPvLWk\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><strong>A-League Season Eight<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/marqueesignings.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8225\" title=\"marqueesignings\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/marqueesignings.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/marqueesignings.jpg 630w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/marqueesignings-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Five months is a long time in Australian football.\u00a0 The 2011\/12 season of the Hyundai A-League probably won&#8217;t be remembered as one of the better seasons for the game.\u00a0 Although I&#8217;m happy my team Brisbane Roar successfully defended their title, the season was beset by administrative problems.\u00a0 Gold Coast United became the second team in successive seasons to collapse and exit the league.\u00a0 Ben Buckley, the head of the FFA, did not seem to have the vision to promote football in Australia and as a result, team owners from Gold Coast, Perth and Newcastle all publicly criticized his handling of the league.\u00a0 The promos for the seventh season of the A-League heavily centered around new signings Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton, practically at the expense of all other teams.\u00a0 Yet once the season started, their respective clubs Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC had miserable form.\u00a0 As much as it pleases me personally to see these two teams do badly, the health of the league needs them to be competitive and drawing in the crowds.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the season, Ben Buckley stood down as CEO and Harry Kewell left Melbourne Victory.\u00a0 The FFA hastily promised to cobble together a new team from Western Sydney so there could be ten teams in the competition for Season Eight.\u00a0 And lastly, David Gallop, formerly the head of the NRL, came in to replace Buckley.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the fortunes and stock of the A-League have risen and risen.\u00a0 Take for example, the league&#8217;s perennial problem of holding onto talented, marketable players.\u00a0 The league needs a healthy balance of big name overseas players in the twilight of their careers (see:\u00a0 Dwight Yorke, Robbie Fowler) for drawing crowds as well as lesser known foreign talent who could light up the park with their silky skills.\u00a0 Last season the A-League failed on both counts and were unsuccessful in retaining the services of Harry Kewell or Marcos Flores.<\/p>\n<p>In the last five months, the league has brought back Flores from China, secured the services of Thomas Broich until 2017 and in the biggest signing in the history of the league, Sydney FC managed to fend off a late bid from Liverpool FC to secure the services of Alessandro Del Piero for two seasons.\u00a0 On the back of that signing, Newcastle Jets have signed Emile Heskey and new club West Sydney Wanderers have signed Japanese international Shinji Ono.\u00a0 Without doubt this is the greatest pool of talent that the league has started a season with.<\/p>\n<p>The importance of the Del Piero signing cannot be understated.\u00a0 Last season, Harry Kewell mere presence at a game lifted attendance averages by 5,000 fans.\u00a0 In Season Seven, when Sydney FC visited Brisbane Roar, they attracted a crowd of 15,000 at Suncorp Stadium.\u00a0 For Season Eight, the projected number of fans expected to turn out for Del Piero is 30,000 <em>at a minimum<\/em>.\u00a0 30,000 fans for a midseason fixture for the Brisbane Roar is more than the league could have dreamed of a mere twelve months ago.\u00a0 And yet here we are.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Brisbane Roar Season Predictions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/back2back.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8235\" title=\"back2back\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/back2back.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/back2back.jpg 630w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/back2back-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Amongst all the media hype surrounding the new names joining the A-League, Brisbane Roar quietly resigned six key members of their championship winning squad to long term contracts &#8211; Henrique, Michael Theo, Shane Stefanutto, Thomas Broich, Ivan Franjic and captain Matt Smith.\u00a0 This consolidation of so many key players should go a long way towards bolstering their success this season.\u00a0 They have lost two of their foreign imports from last year &#8211; the unsettled Nakajima Farran and the Bahrainian defender Mohammed &#8216;Big Mo&#8217; Adnan who returned home for family reasons.\u00a0 Although Big Mo was a key player last season they have filled his spot with Japanese defender Yuji Takahashi and they have also recruited Ben Halloran from Gold Coast United and Korean midfielder Do Dong-Hyun.\u00a0 I haven&#8217;t had a chance to witness these players during the preseason and its generally hard to use that as a gauge for the regular season anyway.\u00a0 During the preseason friendlies, the Roar put five past Sydney FC but also lost 6-2 to Adelaide United who are one of the worst teams in the league.<\/p>\n<p>As for my hopes for the team this year, after two seasons of winning championships, I feel the pressure is off.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t really mind if we don&#8217;t win the title this season.\u00a0 I just want us to do well and continue playing the free-flowing style of football that former coach Ange Postecoglou established at the club.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t know whether Ange has had enough time to rebuild Melbourne Victory to the level that they can seriously challenge for the title yet (although signing Marcos Flores helps) but I believe Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners will likely pose the biggest threats to the Roar.<\/p>\n<p>If we finish in the top three this season, I&#8217;d be happy.<\/p>\n<p>I absolutely can&#8217;t wait for the season to kick off this weekend.\u00a0 Our opening fixture is a repeat of last season&#8217;s grand final against Perth Glory.\u00a0 I expected a heated encounter from the Purple People Eaters but they should be easy beats.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Season Prediction:\u00a0 Brisbane Roar, 2nd.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>General Predictions For A-League Season Eight<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/predictions1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8236\" title=\"predictions\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/predictions1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"370\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/predictions1.jpg 630w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/predictions1-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a> <\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Shane Smeltz (Perth Glory) will be the league&#8217;s top scorer<\/li>\n<li>Melbourne Victory will finish in the top six and qualify for finals football<\/li>\n<li>West Sydney will be absolute rubbish in their first season<\/li>\n<li>Melbourne Heart will struggle this season and end up wooden spooners<\/li>\n<li>Wellington Phoenix will continue to perform well under the radar<\/li>\n<li>ADP will score six goals<\/li>\n<li>Emile Heskey will outscore Del Piero<\/li>\n<li>Brisbane Roar won&#8217;t make the Grand Final<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We can revisit this post in seven months time and laugh at how wrong I was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A-League Season Eight Five months is a long time in Australian football.\u00a0 The 2011\/12 season of the Hyundai A-League probably won&#8217;t be remembered as one of the better seasons for the game.\u00a0 Although I&#8217;m happy my team Brisbane Roar successfully defended their title, the season was beset by administrative problems.\u00a0 Gold Coast United became the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[218,1370,342,1371,2307,1372],"class_list":["post-8224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-a-league","tag-alessandro-del-piero","tag-brisbane-roar","tag-emile-heskey","tag-preview-and-predictions","tag-shinji-ono"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224","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=8224"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18211,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8224\/revisions\/18211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}