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WELL HELLO THERE It's about 20 days or something til the first day of the Hyundai A-League 2014-15 season, and by jingo gently caress me we haven't got a thread yet or organised and all the rellies are starting to get antsy about where to send the RSVPs to. What's this noise I hear about football and Australia? Well I'm glad you asked. The Hyundai A-league is the top-flight football league in Australia and New Zealand, at the top of a pyramid of lower semi-professional state leagues and the amateurs under that. Promotion and relegation only occurs below the A-league, and expansion is extremely conservative after a wonderful series of unmitigated disasters (cough North Queensland cough Gold Coast cough New Zealand Knights/Auckland Knights/Football Kingz cough cough gently caress me) nearly crippled the league. The present 10 teams represent most of the major population centres in Australia and New Zealand and fluctuate at varying levels of basketcase and powerhouse. The current teams are Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne City/Heart, MELBOURNE VICTORY MAFUCKERS Newcastle Jets, Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix, and Western Sydney Wanderers. Football/soccer has had a difficult and complicated existence in Australia. The A-league was founded (for the 2nd and for realsies this time) in 2005 from the ashes of the old National Soccer League. The NSL was powered largely by various migrant and ethnic enclaves in larger cities throughout the continent, usually some variation of Country Name City Name (Melbourne Croatia, South Melbourne Hellas, Footscray Jugoslav United Football Team etc.), and the league tended to suffer from a lack of marketability In the late 90s to early 2000s, the then national body began pushing towards an Anglicization of Australian football teams, or at very least the de-ethnicization. South Melbourne Hellas became South Melbourne Lakers (uuughhh), Sydney Croatia and Melbourne Croatia became Sydney United and Melbourne Knights - which apparently is a backronym for Klub Nogometa i Gdje Hrvati Takmice Srcem (football club and where Croatians battle with their heart) - but that's probably Knights in Satan's Service level bullshit. The re-branding and de-ethnicization largely failed to attract new supporters, and alienated considerable portions of the original fanbases. The final games of the old NSL attracted thousands of diehards and more casual fans for bigger games, but ultimately it was unsustainable. The big former national league teams have by-and-large survived the switch to semi-professionalism in the various state leagues. Now where the gently caress was I Oh right, the A-league. The A-league has been growing at a steady rate, with average crowds and memberships increasing each year. Since last year the A-league has become available on Free-to-air TV in Australia, with one game per week broadcast live on Friday nights on SBS. The other games are available on Fox Sports Australia, or whatever your international equivalent is. Of course for us proles without subscription TV, the regular assorted streaming services have got you covered. So why would anyone want to watch this?! But the skills I hear you say! The speed! Arrgh it's not the same as my [insert league here]! Correct. It isn't the same, and it's not meant to be. The Australian Premier League is a national lawn bowls competition. Yeah. You know how anytime on SA when anyone talks about their favourite type of alcohol and goons fall over themselves to denigrate every loving thing and talk about how what a fucken scrub you have to be if you're not drinking this boutique fancy pants magicians arsecheek liqour and can't believe how anyone would denigrate themselves by having anything less than perfection at all times? Yeah, gently caress that noise, no one likes those guys. I honestly believe the same thing about supporting a local league. Honestly, I can't speak for anyone but myself but I loving love the A-league. I was bought up in a small town and born into a family that worshiped football in a state famous for it's passion for Australian rules, and spent a lot of time being told that soccer was for Sheilas, wogs, and poofters. I had no local club to follow beyond that amateur level, and moved to Melbourne around the time the league was launched. For me, it felt like the natural extension to what I've been doing for my whole life. For others, I have no idea why you would want to get involved. I think the games are exciting, I love the passion of the players, fans, and coaches, and I enjoy that football is entering the mainstream in Australia. If you remember the Socceroos at the World Cup, getting trounced but just loving loving it the whole time, that is a good description of how much fun the A-league can be. For most of the leagues short existence, each city had one representative team and that team took on the traditional colours and rivalries associated with that region. Newcastle hates the Mariners, the Sydneys hate each other, and every one loving hates Melbourne Victory for a multitude of reasons that go back to colonial days. For reference, an entirely new city and capital territory was needed because Melbourne and Sydney couldn't not be arseholes to each other. The season also takes place in the Southern summer, so that means that most of the games are in loving glorious sunshine. Anyway, I'll let whoever wants to chime in about the various teams, the Asian Champions League, the FFA Cup, and the various magnificent spasticness that happens each and every goddamn day. Let's do this THE TEAMS Melbourne Victory -Bogan Krkic Bogan Krkic posted:Hello I'm here to teach you about my best teams Brisbane Roar - Byolante Byolante posted:Choo Choo real fan coming through oval office Wellington Phoenix - flyingkiwi flyingkiwi posted:The Wellington Phoenix are garbage and I don't like them, also nothing good has ever come out of the North Island. And I still can't believe our only professional club's captain is an Australian and we naturalized him for the All Whites, what is wrong with us? Adelaide United - MMG MysticalMachineGun posted:None of you east coast bastards are talking about Adelaide. I'm here to fix that. Western Sydney Wanderers - efcso efcso posted:Evening cunts. Central Coast Mariners - MiniSune MiniSune posted:
gently caress OFF SYDNEY dj_pain posted:I was going to write some words about sydney fc but this picture says it all. Newcastle Jets - Fingolfin quote:Fingolfin posted: Stilled to be added: Perth Glory, Melbourne Heart/City Where can I satiate my lust for misguided opinion and lofty analysis?? There are a number of good blogs around that avoid being too far up the arse of any one team or the FFA in general. One of the better ones is the theworldgame.sbs.com.au, although they do have a vested interest in promoting a good image of the game given that, you know, they're paying for it. Despite the possibility of a conflict of interest, the majority of the contributors are sane and at least appear restrained in their evangelism. You can often find the scribblings of This is my current alarm on my phone, and remains the only song I have ever paid money to iTunes for. Taught my girlfriend so many superstars now she can namedrop like a motherfucker in any setting, provided that setting requires the occasional "oh yeah I've sort of heard of that guy". Leopold Method has been strongly recommended for those who like in-depth analysis of tactics and formations, similarly with FourFourTwo Australia (although 442au also collates a fair amount of regular news as well). My personal favourites are The Roar, for when I want to read the opinions of 1000 gibbering trolls and code warriors, but I ultimately would like to recommend the living poo poo out of footballtoday.com.au - Football Today collects articles and blogs from wide variety of sources. The various official club feeds can be viewed there, if you want to hear what Trent from marketing has to say on twitter, or you can have a look at the various fan forums around. A-League specific resources are also available - Ultimate A League for a fan-driven and occasionally stats obsessed approach, including a podcast. The Football Sack is similar, but without the stats obsession and aside from one author who appears determined to document his local junior womens league, updates fairly sporadically. The others around will also know many, many more - so feel free to ask. Where can I watch this poo poo? That's the fuckin spirit! First of all, oh my stars more like how could you not. Options for watching the A-league are plenty, and (as far as I can tell) aren't geoblocked or any such poo poo on the net. In order of legality from papal bull to Christopher Skase , here are your options: 1. Fox Sports. In Australia, Fox Sports subscribers will have every game live and the good pundit team that also includes Mark Bosnich [img]http://imgur.com/GGR30z0.jpg[img] file photo If you are not in Australia, or are one of the proles who like me doesn't have subscription TV, you can see the full match replays here: http://www.foxsports.com.au/video 2. Soccer Bloody Soccer, the EssBeeEss. Each Friday night SBS will broadcast one game live, with absolutely boring as poo poo SBS pundits but with Fox Sports commentary. SBS will also broadcast the grand final with a one hour delay (boo!). 3. The Streams! Oh god the streams. My personal favourite is pirlotv.tv/coolsport-tv.php; but others have found joy in wiziwig.tv and host of others. Again, just ask. We're a friendly bunch of cunts. Still to come, the FFA cup write up, and the ACL write-up Tongues fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Oct 11, 2014 |
# ¿ Sep 20, 2014 14:31 |
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:20 |
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We are all Kaka. I bought my membership on the first bloody day they shot out of Kevin muscats womb and I haven't got my box of goodies yet. This is my first year as a paid up member, if you renewed from last year they sent you a deck of playing cards with all the suits except for heart.
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# ¿ Sep 21, 2014 01:34 |
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Gigi Galli posted:This is a good book, FYI This is truth, the game in Australia lost an amazing part when Johnny died. He had always hoped that the game would find mainstream appeal and acceptance in Australia, and respect as a competitor on the world stage. I'm phone posting, but if you Google image search "i told you so" + Johnny Warren you can find pictures of people wearing t shirts saying words to that effect when Australia finally qualified for the World Cup in 2005 for the first time in decades. Johnny Warren had passed away the previous year.
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# ¿ Sep 21, 2014 01:40 |
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Giovanni_Sinclair posted:It finally that time of the year where I post in this thread and be the only american supporter of this league, anyway am from Chicago which is located about right of the middle of the good ol USA. I also don't sleep much so am up late at night which for you guys the middle of the day so I started watching the A-League I want to say 3-4 years back and been hook ever since. You're a good man/woman/person/porpoise Giovanni. Keep doing what you're doing I'm going to add a couple things to the OP down the track when I get a bit more time (I'm playing in the local league semi-final today! Arrgh we gonna get hosed). For all you FORRIN' TYPES the national body here likes to put full match replays on their website at https://www.footballaustralia.com.au. Otherwise, hope you like Melbourne Victory because pretty much half the games being broadcast on free to air will be them playing some scrubs from one of the loser cities up north. And funny you should mention the popularity of the league in conjunction with the successes of the national team, here it has been largely the opposite! The national side has been less than convincing for some time now, while the league has been steadily increasing. Part of this is probably due to a comparative lack of competition from the other codes in the summer months, but whatever! To help illustrate the difficulties of the national team in recent decade, check out this clip that Byolante referred to earlier where Australian comedian John Safran is forced to drastic measures to help turn the fortunes around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_RPfOiKINE That said, as much as I deride the national team there have been signs of consolidation and fresher ideas under the new coach Ange Postecogleu who continued in the fine tradition of Brisbane Roar helping uncover a talent and Melbourne Victory shamelessly stole him away in a smash and grab. Fortunately for the greater schadenfreud of everyone else, Ange was almost immediately promoted far away from our clutches. Bastards.
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# ¿ Sep 21, 2014 03:33 |
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The OP has been updated with the team write-ups, although theres still plenty of room for any Glory, Newcastle, or City fan (heh) to produce a hopefully extraordinarily aggressive and abusive write-up. The FFA and ACL cup write ups are also there is anyone wants to do them, I might do it later if I get a chance. And in other news, my team won the semi final and is now playing in the grand final next week! In other news, gently caress artificial turf burns forever.
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# ¿ Sep 22, 2014 13:05 |
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You are good people dsrigg! Cheers. Also, the broadcast game will be the Sydney derby between Sydney Not on free to air though, wiziwig.tv appears to have the game available however
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# ¿ Sep 23, 2014 07:56 |
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Best fucken game
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# ¿ Sep 23, 2014 11:20 |
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MiniSune posted:This kid could be something. Goddamit. I've got people over and I'm ignoring the gently caress out of them to watch the Twitter feed instead, so I need an upset
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# ¿ Sep 23, 2014 12:21 |
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I'm a big fan of shoehorning in everything into the Carlos Hernandez song. Terry mcfly-nn da da dadada, terry mcfly-nn, da da dadada and so forth
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# ¿ Sep 30, 2014 11:20 |
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You going down you Seouls!
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:29 |
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I enjoy that the ref is wearing his finest dress shirt
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:31 |
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YYYYYEEEWWWWW
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:33 |
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http://livesport4u.com/stream1.html
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:36 |
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I'd watch it in ASCII if I had too, I'm all hosed up on continental football
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:39 |
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Alex_R posted:the referee has school shorts on Its the little touches that make a match great
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:44 |
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Ahahaha that was awesome, I love the linesman waving ineffectually
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:46 |
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Go home ninjasteve, you missed the peoples elbow
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:49 |
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I don't know, it kind of sounds like Simon Hill pretending to be Korean every now and then
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:51 |
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BAW GAWD HES CUT HIM IN HAAAYF
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 10:55 |
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Only room for one on my stream, mateys
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:01 |
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Dammit you guys get involved, Wanderers just had a goal line clearance
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:03 |
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What is ATT?
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:03 |
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Santalab got on a break from an intercepted pass, held up the ball well to wait for support, and as soon as that support arrived immediately decided to take on the defense alone
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:06 |
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Bogan Krkic posted:acrossthetasman.com, its got torrents for all a-league/australian football games Ah nice, thats my weekend hosed then
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:07 |
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I got to meet allsopp once, it was part of some FFV initiative where he came and gave a presentation to the club clearly designed at juniors because he had all this material about staying away from alcohol and drugs if you wanna play because none of the senior sides will put up with that. Luckily he stopped that rubbish and just started telling stories about how much of a loveable oval office Muscat was/is
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:12 |
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And it clearly didn't work because I've been spastic each and every weekend since that point and won't stop any time soon
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:14 |
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I'm more partial to that story about the rugby player who went one an incredible drunken rampage that involved grand theft auto of a golf cart
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:20 |
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Craig Gower is my spirit animal: From wiki In December 2005, Gower was fired as Panthers captain[17] after incidents at a charity golf event where he argued with several guests, groped the teenage daughter of former league player Wayne Pearce, chased Mitchell Pearce with a bottle before vomiting on him, streaked nude around the resort, stole and crashed a golf cart, held a butter knife[18] to the throat of a Sydney radio personality before throwing it at resort guests, and engaged in a brawl with resort security before being ejected from the official function and detained by police.[19] Gower was handed a "final warning" by the National Rugby League and fined A$100,000, with A$90,000 to be paid to an NRL programme encouraging the responsible use of alcohol by league players and $10,000 to replace the destroyed golf cart.[20] Gower was "deeply unhappy" that the Penrith Panthers club did not defend his reputation, and at one stage threatened to "walk" from the club.[21]
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:23 |
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YEEEEEEEEAeeeeaaaaahhh maaafuckers
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:52 |
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que sera sera whatever will be will be we're going to the Asian Football Confederation Champions LEague Semi Finals que sera sera
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:52 |
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who even knows, I never did do that write up like I said I would
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 11:55 |
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The Most Dangerous Scoreline in Football™
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 12:03 |
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May they rectify Victory's hilarious clusterfuck of a campaign
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 12:04 |
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Here comes Saba, I can't actually remember if he is any good from the FFA cup
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 12:11 |
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He does. Looks like every barista I've ever seen
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 12:14 |
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I hope it cushioned that massive smack he just got - he ate poo poo hard
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 12:17 |
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spoooooooooooooooooogggg
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 12:22 |
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Part of me wishes that it was just the solitary final game as a decider to increase the chance of an upset. I demand hilarious giant slayings
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 12:36 |
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Rapner posted:Any chance I can get an ATT invite from anyone? Let me know and we'll take it to PMs. The Across the Tasman thing? I would but I only learnt about it yesterday. If I can sort it out I'll get in touch
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# ¿ Oct 2, 2014 09:34 |
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 12:20 |
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Bogan Krkic posted:Any of the other Victory fans itt going to buy some of the shares that are up for sale? I've put my expression of interest in with Deloitte today for 200 shares ftw Thinking about it - I heard they were fairly pricey though. Got my membership card today, gonna be behind the south end goal against the wanderers and poo poo is gonna own bones
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# ¿ Oct 6, 2014 08:02 |