Go West

I've been on hiatus, but there's a rumbling out West that's awoken me from my slumber.

There's been quite a bit of talk recently of Ipswich, and surrounds (known as the Western Corridor) getting an A-League license. Don't be fooled, this isn't West Brisbane. This is a completely different entity altogether.

Being born and bred in the area, I know all too well the inferiority complex that us Ipswich folk have been put under by those fancy big city Brisbanites.

There is a fair chance that this rivalry dates back at least as far as the mid 1800's, considering Brisbane stole the mantle of capital of Queensland away from Ipswich in 1859, but that's a story for another time.

It's this rivalry that could see quite a heated derby in the South East Queensland region, rivaling the likes of the derbies in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Speaking of Sydney, it's interesting that the recent Western Sydney Wanderers team talked up it's credentials as being the first football team in Australia, also being from Australia's "traditional" football heartland. Interesting because, in much of their promotion, they talked up being the first team to play in Australia, in 1880. Problem is, a game played in Goodna featuring Brisbane Football Club v Woogaroo Asylum happened in 1875, five years earlier than the Wanderers. According to football historian Ian Syson, there are records of earlier games being played in other parts of Australia, but it is a point that could certainly serve as the basis for another rivalry for a proposed Ipswich Team.  Ian is currently working on a story on his blog about the prospect of an A-League team in Ipswich too.  I implore you to head over to Neos Osmos and check it out.

So what is it about Ipswich that makes it a potential target for an A-League license? Well, as alluded to previously, there is a rich football tradition in the region, dating back to the late 1800's. Things really kicked off in the 1890's when Ipswich teams were admitted into the Queensland British Football Association (QBFA). This saw a dominance of Brisbane Football competitions by Ipswich teams through to around 1960.

Much of the interest in football and strength of players can be attributed to the British miners who were working in the various colliery's around the area during the mining boom of the late 1800's. It is this interest in football that, interestingly, seemed to keep other types of football from becoming popular in Ipswich in this era. Take a minute to think about that. It wasn't until 1909 that the first recorded game of RL took place in Ipswich.

Ipswich would field a team from 1910 in the Queensland Amateur Rugby Football League competition, but were not in the competition for long. In fact, there was a gap of around 70 years before Ipswich would see a team again in the top state competition, with the Ipswich Jets joining the Brisbane Rugby League in 1986.

During this time, there would be many Ipswich football teams in the top flight Brisbane competitions. Teams such as Dinmore Bushrats, Blackstone Rovers, Bundamba Rangers, St Helens & Coalstars all made appearances, with these names being amongst the most successful teams in the competitions. In fact, Dinmore, with 10 premierships are only bested by Queensland Lions who have 11.

With such a strong history of teams to draw from, it did strike me as odd that the NPL team decided to go for the team name of Western Pride. It is understandable that they wanted to create an entirely new entity that the whole area could get behind, and that they wanted to be inclusive of teams from the whole area, hence the use if Western instead of just Ipswich, but it would certainly be interesting to see how an A-League team under the name of, say, Ipswich Rovers, or to take a different path, Ipswich United (a name used by Ebbw Vale's St Helens for a period of time) would go down.

As much as it would be great to see something like Coalstars, with it's name being a reference to those British miners who helped forge the roots of Ipswich Football, it may not be the right fit for the area. For a start, Coalstars would seem odd in anything but a light blue kit. Any team from this region would be predominantly green, white & yellow, so that may be a step too far. Also, some, such as supporters of Western Spirit and Ipswich City Bulls, may see it as being linked too heavily to Ipswich Knights, the team born from the merger of Coalstars and St Helens.

No-one disputes the fact that the community in this region takes great pride in themselves and where they are from, but as a sporting team name, it's as horrible as both Fury and Roar, some of the most ridiculous names for sporting teams ever, let's be honest.

Quite a few people have remarked that Ipswich is nothing but a Rugby League stronghold and "those rednecks will never understand or care for soccer." (I kid you not, I've read many comments like this in the last few days.) Perhaps some of these people need to brush up on their history.

That said, Rugby League is the biggest game in town currently. It's also a game that is toying with expansion to Ipswich. It was announced in 2012 that NRL would be looking to expand at the end of the 2014 season.

The bid's website (which is still under construction) states that the bid is Bringing Our Game Home. Talk on expansion has become quite silent in the later half of this year though, and there are some supporters of the bid who are concerned about the area's ability to support a team, given the apparent small turnouts that the QRL team, Ipswich Jets, are experiencing.

If there are concerns that the community wouldn't back "their team playing their game" in the national competition then what hope is there for an A-League team? Could an A-League team in Ipswich work? Potentially. Is a second team in SEQ sustainable in the A-League? If done correctly, perhaps, but as we've seen with the failed Gold Coast United (GCU), and the North Queensland Fury (NQF) experiments, it's definitely got the potential to also be a major disaster.

In the interests of both expansion bids, and the community as a whole, the best outcome is a combined effort, working towards building support, building the stadium, and showing the respective national competitions that the area not only deserves to be included, but also that they can't afford to be without teams from the area.

It is the Western Pride's duty as the area's ambassador in the NPL to make the necessary inroads to show the A-League that they mean business, but is all this talk a little premature? The NPL is only one season in, and already teams are getting ahead of themselves.

It would be fantastic to see a national sporting team from my hometown of Ipswich but not at the expense of seeing a well supported Brisbane Roar, which is struggling to consistently get home crowds of 15K (last season's average was 13K). The best thing to come from the NPL will be, in say 5-10 years time, when teams have shown they can be fully sustainable, getting regular crowds of at least 5k or more, with good finances, a stadium that can hold no less than 15K (or access to one) and a professionally run set up, that only then should they be considered to be earmarked for "promotion" into the A-League.

I base this thought process on recent additions to North America's Major League Soccer (MLS). Take Portland, for example. The Portland Timbers were a team that originated in the old North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1975. There have been various incarnations of the team since, leading up to their debut in Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2011. It was 2001 when the third incarnation of the Portland Timbers debuted in the A-League. (Coincidentally, Seattle, Vancouver & Montreal's A-League teams have also been "promoted" to the MLS.)

In their first few seasons they were averaging 5K fans, which grew to almost 10K by 2009. It was in 2009 that the MLS announced that both Portland & Vancouver would be joining the MLS in 2011 as expansion teams. As for results on the pitch, they were fairly consistent, usually finishing the league in the top 4, only twice in their 10 seasons did they finish lower than tenth. They were also regular playoff participants, again, only missing out in 3 seasons.

Now, for these teams, and any other prospective expansion teams, the MLS have a set of criteria that must be met, which are;

(1) Owners that are committed to MLS and have the financial wherewithal to invest in a team.

(2) A stadium or approved plans for a stadium (preferably a soccer-specific stadium) that allows the team to control revenue streams such as parking and concessions.

(3) The size of the market of the metropolitan area.

(4) An established local fan base.

I have attempted contact with the A-League to clarify if there is such a list of criteria but as yet have not receive a clear response. A similar list of requirements should be paramount to any future expansion prospects here in Australia, and as much as they may not be about to make their list public knowledge, you would have to think they would be along the same lines as those proposed by the MLS.

Putting the Ipswich (Western Corridor) bid to these tests, would it stack up?

(1) AFAIK This criteria isn't something that would currently be met RE funding required to run an A-League team. As for being committed to the A-League, I'd say that part isn't going to be a problem. If you look at the approach taken by the Western Pride's set up in the NPL, they are taking it very seriously, and one can only imagine that this would be amplified if ever there was a chance of being accepted as an A-League team.

(2) A stadium would need to be built. Current plans being thrown around, which appear to have some backing from the Mayor & Federal member, including building a stadium at North Ipswich Reserve in the region of 15 - 20K. Without this, however, there is no other suitable option in Ipswich/Western Corridor that would meet A-League standards.

(3) This one's a tricky one. The biggest concern isn't necessarily the population of the area, as this region is certainly experiencing a boom which is estimated to see a population of 360K by 2031, but what impact it will have on crowds for the nearby Brisbane Roar. This alone needs to be taken into account, as we have seen the detrimental effect that GCU had on the Brisbane market. It's one that needs to be done right, and it's almost for this reason alone that I would say the bid won't get off the ground, not until Brisbane can comfortably draw 15-20K crowds consistently. Creating a derby would be the only thing going for putting this bid up against Brisbane, but not if it dilutes Brisbane's sustainability. The flip side to this though is that the creation of a new A-League Derby in SEQ could generate the kind of interest needed to grow football exponentially in the area, which can only be a positive outcome for all parties.

(4) Being that this would be the first (and only) team from the area competing in a professional, national competition, I think there could be potential for this. Is it there right now? No. The current average crowd for their games this first NPL season is in the region of 400, so there's clearly a long way to go before they get anywhere near 5K. Is 5K a realistic quota? In Queensland's NPL, perhaps not. The only team I can think of in the NPL consistently reaching over 1K is Northern Fury, a team that was born from the demise of A-League expansion team NQF.

Along with Northern Fury, the other NPL team harbouring A-League ambitions is Sunshine Coast Fire. There is, an has been for some time, quite a strong footballing community in the Sunshine Coast. If crowd figures were to be rounded down to a more manageable 2/3K, you would still think it will be Fury ahead of the pack, at least at this early stage.

Using these MLS points as a guide, Ipswich/Western Corridor's bid still has a way to go. If the Ipswich Jets are successful with their NRL bid, this may very well strengthen the case for an A-League team, especially if it means the stadium at North Ipswich Reserve is constructed.

It is still more important at this stage for the A-League's current teams to consistently be getting good, sustainable crowds before any further talk of expansion, but it could be possible that we'll see some form of expansion within the next 10 years.

Whether that includes a team from Ipswich, or Queensland for that matter, remains to be seen. If an Ipswich team does emerge from the pack, I certainly have a tough decision to make.

Australia By A Nose

Hey guys, it's been a while between posts, sorry for that. The last few days have been s bit rough, what with the loss, the red card, the backlash against Pim, a rumour of Ossie becoming Aussie, there's been a lot to take in.

One of the good things that has kept me going has been Cup Fever (@cupfever on Twitter) which has been airing on SBS at 2030, repeats at 2300 on SBS2 and also streamed online. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, it is worth it. It's a bit patchy at times, but the champagne comedy makes up for sketches like Sam's Kim Jong Il impression. It features Santo "Snato Garo" Cilauro, Ed Kavalee and Sam Pang, and granted it's no Baddiel & Skinner, it does have some great stuff, including Mark Bresciano's World Cup Diary, where he details his day, usually telling us about his dinner selection, it's usually the chicken. Tim usually has the lamb. They've had some good guests on like John Aloisi and Archie Thompson, but it could do with an extra half hour.

You may be wondering what the title of this thread is? Well, I went to the Ipswich Cup today, and I picked the winner, which won by photo finish. My picks during the World Cup haven't been so good, so I really hope my luck from today rubs off on my pick for Australia to get the win over Ghana tonight. Even if they only scrape through, I'd take them winnng by a nose, say 1-0, than to see them face another drubbing, and I really couldn't stand the stress of a draw. Here's hoping Pim's had a chance to reflect on his decisions from the last game and perhaps start Kennedy up front. Cahill's out for this game, and pretty sure Holman will be starting for him, and looks like Valeri may be starting in place of the injured Grella. I think Kewell may get a run, but don't think he's certain to start.

I'm looking forward to this game, and really hope, for the good of football in this country, that we get the result we need tonight. I've got my, wee bit too small, Solo lucky undies in my pocket, they don't quite fit,but let's hope they BEng more luck than they did against Germany, who did a good impression of joking against Serbia last night.

Gutted By Germans

Yeah, it was terrible. Granted, we were facing European powerhouse Germany, and we weren't the same strong side that we had in 2010, but 4-0? Absolutely gutted by that result. Fair play to Germany though, and it could have been much worse for Australia at the end of the day.

Frances Awaratefe @francisawaratefe said on Twitter that blaming selection and tactics isn't going to help, and that realistically it was always going to be the results against Ghana & Serbia that had more weight behind them to get us out of the group stage, and I think he's right, but I can't help but be left wondering why Kennedy wasn't on the pitch for the game, and why Cahill was starting as a striker with Garcia up front with him, a formation I'm pretty sure Pim didn't use in any of the warm up games.

Where to from here then? The obvious answer would be to win the next two games, but who do we put in to replace Cahill, who I honestly feel was hard done by with that red card, yellow for sure, but not red. Here's hoping he's back for the Serbia game, but in the meantime, can Holman fill that position and perhaps in the process get that LOLman monkey off his back? Is Bresciano fit, and if so, could we hope for a full 90 from him in that central role? Whoever ends up in that position, let's just hope that they, and the rest of the team surrounding them, can put it together to at least get a draw, because obviously, anything less will see the squad back on the plane home, making the last game a dead rubber, and having to rebuild for the Asian Cup.

On the topic of the Asian Cup, I've heard it being said that the FFA has already selected the manager they want to take Australia forward but are awaiting the World Cup to be over before announcing who it will be. I've also heard it mentioned that the FFA is still chasing the right man for the job, and is looking at shelling out a salary somewhere in the region of $6 million, more than double what Pim s getting now. I don't really have a preference for who they get in the job, and honestly, I don't think it's going to be as important as getting our team right. The major difference between this team and 2006 is that we had guys in their prime who were plying their trade in some of Europe's biggest leagues, plus we had a couple of younger guys along for the experience. This time around it appears that the guys that were in their prime who are still in the team are now that little bit past it, and some of the younger guys that are in the squad haven't had enough experience yet to be considered near their prime. Will there be enough quality there after this group of players to not only have a successful Asian Cup campaign, but also see us through to Brasil in 2014? Currently I fear not, but time will tell.

Here's to Saturday night and a good showing against Ghana, it's not impossible, even after all this doom and gloom.

Lastly, if you have time between sleeping, eating and football, head over to @thefootballack or follow them on Twitter. They are doing a podcast which you can find on their website http://www.thefootballsack.com which is quite good, and also on iTunes, so take the time to check them out, and tell them I sent ya.

Those Bloody Septic Tanks

It might have been the wake up call Australia needed before the tournament proper kicked off, but a 1-3 loss, especially to the USA, wasn't pretty to watch. Don't get me wrong, I applaud the US for their deserved win, and they were unlucky not to have won it with 4 goals, but it didn't make it feel any better, especially watching what's supposed to be our defence, crumble like it was made of honeycomb.

It's up the other end of the pitch that concerns me about this squad too, with Kennedy missing two good opportunitties on goal, and Pim changing to what shockingly looked to be a 442 formation. But Pim, you sent Scotty Mac home because you weren't playing a formation that could accomdate him, why then use 442 in this match? Was it for the knickers, so that when they complained about you not using it, you could point to this game and say, oh, but see, I did use it and it didn't work, so, there you are. I seriously can't work out some of Pim's decisions, but then again, I'm not looking after the team.

You may think I'm being ungrateful here, I mean, yes, Pim got us to both the World Cup and Asian Cup, and leaked very few goals doing so, so at the end of the day, he's been a success. I do enjoy beautiful football, but I'll take the way we qualified, heck, I'd be ecstatc if we get through the group stage playing the same kind of football that got us there in the first place, that being said though, is it good enough to get through Serbia and Ghana, let alone the powerhouse that is Germany?

Other factors that are going to be a worry include our injury tally, with the latest to join those ranks being Timmy Cahill picking up a neck injury in the US game on Saturday. Apparently Kewell and Emerton look set to line up against Germany, but it's looking ever more likely that we may be without Cahill for the opener, something. Just can't think about right now.

after all this self indulgent whinging, I wanted to make mention of Brad Jones, who found out before the US game that his son Luca had contracted Leukemia. Obviously there are some things more important than football, and missing out on the World Cup would pale in comparisson to your child being ill, let alone finding out they have something like Leukemia. My thoughts go out to Brad, Luca and their family at this time and hope it all works out ok for you.

Not So Friendly

Coming up on Monday night is a friendly game against two teams that used to be in the same confederation, scrapping against each other for qualification to the World Cup. There's also the "Trans Tasman" rivalry that has been going on between the two countries for as long as I can remember. Yes, it's Australia vs New Zealand, but it's going to be more than a meaningless friendly.

Battle lines have already been drawn, with NZ striker, Rory Fallon, saying that, "When it comes to playing Australia, all bets are off. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few injuries. I don't think anyone is going to hold back against them. I'm certainly not going to hold back."

Comments like this are probably to be expected any time Australia play New Zealand, especially when the two countries major sports include two forms of Rugby, so it's not really surprising to hear these sort of comments, almost like playing to a majority Rugby audience to sell them on the game being played "hard" with a level of "intensity" they would come to expect from games between the two countries in the Rugby codes.

The comments, as unsurprising to me as they are, are a little dissapointing considering both teams are heading to the World Cup. Not that you expect any favours, and you also want the game to be played as it normally would, but for an injury to occur to either side in this game would really put a dent in the lead up to the cup.

One Australian who was less than impressed with Fallon's comments was Vincenzo Grella, a stand out player for mine at the last World Cup. Vince replied to Fallon's comments with the following, "I am disappointed, it's a man's game and it should be played in a man's way, but I would never wish it upon any of the New Zealand players to get injured. That would be something shocking. For him even to be thinking about things like that is very unprofessional. Maybe he is trying to ruffle the wrong feathers."

Grella followed these comments up with a similiar response to them that I had, "There are things that some players get caught up into maybe not having a lot of experience with the media or with this type of football. I know there's a rivalry there and both teams want to win and play well before going off to the World Cup, but the last thing I would want is for players to be getting injured. Maybe what he said was twisted around. I hope he didn't mean it that way."

The interesting thing about all this is that it's got other people talking about the game, people that probably wouldn't have been too worried about "some pointless soccer game" are putting their two cents in, and not just because of the comments from the two players, but just the dimple fact that it's Australia vs New Zealand, it does get people interested. Sure, there's the World Cup bandwagon element, but I think a regular game between the countries would be healthy got football in this region, something that could be built upon in years to come.

At the end of the day, no matter how impressed I was watching the All Whites qualify for the cup, here's hoping we crush those Jandal wearing, LnP from the chilly bin drinking, Perky Nana eating, sheep shagging Kiwis!

My Football History

Considering most people who will be reading this have no idea who I am, I thought I'd give you a bit of an idea about how I came to follow the beautiful game that is football. I was born and raised in the lovely city of Ipswich, which is in the state of Queensland in Australia. Ipswich has a rich football tradition, but for me it revolved around two specific teams, St Helens and Coalstars.

My Godmother's son played football for St Helens, and I had friends at school who played for Coalstars, and in grade one I was really trying to get my mum to take me to a sign on day. It never happened, and I've never played football, outside of a park kick about. At the time I thought it was to do with the coaches swearing, as I'd overheard a conversation with my mother and one of her friends. It wasn't until years later that i found out it was the amount of travel that was involved with playing football in Queensland in the early 80's that ruled it out for us, and instead I had many years playing hockey (field hockey, for those of you more familiar to the ice variety) as my dad played, and was able to take me to games, which never really travelled further than an outer suburb of Ipswich.

Another teams I remember from those days was the Dinmore Bushrats, mostly because of the comical rendition of a Bushrat kicking a football that appeared on a t-shirt that many kids at my school wore, so I've got fond memories of that team as well, even though I never saw them play.

Living in Queensland, I was also quite interested in the sport of Rugby League, and followed the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the then NSWRL (the mostly national competition) and Ipswich Jets in the QRL (the Queensland competition). Over the years, and with the removal of South Sydney from the national Rugby League competition, my interest in the sport waned, and I focused more of my attention on to following football. I had decided at this stage that Arsenal would be my team in the English Premier League. I don't really have an answer as to why this would be the case, I remember seeing the logo on a jumper in primary school, and thought it looked cool, I remember playing Sensible Soccer and playing with a team featuring Denis Bergkamp who wore red shirts with white sleeves (which was probably Ajax) but then found him playing for Arsenal in the EPL, so for whatever reason, the red and white team from North London became my team.

My first World Cup exprience was staying up late to watch the games in 1994 at the US. For some reason I'd taken an interest in the Republic of Ireland, so was following them during the cup, and hoped good things were to come for them. They were eventually knocked out by the Nederlands, a team who I have also had a fascination with for many years, and one that I associate football with deeply, thanks to my uncle being of Dutch origin.

I'd taken an interest in the domestic game here through the Brisbane Strikers, but only attended one game, which was the NSL Grand Final for the 1996/1997 season against Sydney United which Brisbane duly won 2-0. I remember this was the first time I'd been to a proper football game and it didn't take me long to suss out where the fun was to be had. There was a caged area that housed the very vocal Brisbane supporters who were standing, dancing and chanting for the whole game, and I quickly made my way on the then terraced section of Lang Park towards this crazy mob. What ensued was my first real taste of active support, and I followed this up at the Australian friendly later that year when Sweden came out to play. Again, the small but vocal Australian mob were situated behind the Sweden fans, and a lot of singing and banter was had, which turned into a great night out. I can't remember the result, but I do remember being excited by seeing "Spider" Kalac on the field, i think I thought he was pretty good at the time, I also think I had some kind of ambition as a Goalkeeper, or maybe I've just got a soft spot for the position.

I tried to keep up with the NSL on the various television channels that it appeared on after that season, but it became increasingly difficult, and not knowing anyone going to games I eventually lost touch with the domestic game and focussed back on the EPL which was easily accesible on SBS at the time. I'd been following the domestic game whenever I could through any form of media, and in 2003, after the Crawford Report had ended Soccer Australia and the National Soccer League, from the ashes rose Football Federation Australia (FFA) and in 2005, the brand new Hyundai A-League kicked off, and I've been following the ridiculously named Brisbane (previously Queensland) Roar ever since.

I haven't missed an Australian national team (aka Socceroos) match in Brisbane since this time either, and ran a brief radio show on community radio.

This was a really long post, but hopefully it gives you a bit of an idea as to where I'm coming from, and why I'm doing this blog.

Thanks for reading, and you can follow me on Twitter @leaveforthecup