One Giant Step Too Far

There is no doubt that things are coming to head in terms of Perth teams being taken seriously as a part of national competitions, especially football.

Last night it was announced, as we predicted (Time to Show we are Part of the Family) following Adelaide United’s victory over the Central Coast Mariners in the second FFA Cup semi final that the inaugural Cup Final will be played in Adelaide and not Perth. The FFA once more kicking Perth football where it hurts.

It was incredible to read the reaction on social media, close to 400 comments in under two hours of the game finishing and the announcement being made, and virtually all of them lambasting the FFA for their decision.

Head of the Hyundai A-League Damien de Bohun has said that the decision to award the Cup Final to Coopers Stadium was based on stronger home crowds. “The selection of the Westfield FFA Cup final venue was based on the objective of maximising the attendance and the TV audience. It’s a cup final and we want as many Australians engaged as possible” he said.“In relation to crowds, Adelaide United set a new A-League city record of 33,000 in round 2 and filled Coopers Stadium with 16,000 last weekend”

First of all the crowd of 33,000 for the game played at Adelaide Oval against Melbourne Victory, a game that has become a major rivalry in the Hyundai A-League not because it was manufactured, but because of a Grand final thumping in 2007. Another defeat in the Grand Final in 2009 added to the rivalry as did the fact that in both of these season’s the race for the minor premiership had been between these two teams. Throw in the incident between Kevin Muscat and John Kosmina and a bitter rivalry was born. That is why Adelaide were able to fill Adelaide Oval, a game against any other opposition would be unlikely to attract anywhere near the same crowd.

Sadly Perth Glory have not yet established a bitter rival with another A-League side as they had in the old NSL. Trying to manufacture such a thing, as we have witnessed with the laughably embarrassing “Desert Derby,” will never work. Fans and events on the pitch create such rivalries.

Having never held a major game in Western Australia the FFA have no idea of the crowd that could be attracted by having a final in Perth; all they look at is the bottom line in terms of cost.

In a press release from Perth Glory Mr de Bohun continued to dig himself, and the FFA a hole, as he confirmed that the decision was also based on meeting commitments to the Fox Sports broadcast.

He is quoted as saying “The time zone was also a factor is this decision, as were the requirements of our broadcast partner Fox Sports, and the overall desire to make this a great event. We had pencil bookings at all four venues going into the semi-finals, but Adelaide is the right choice on all the objective measures.”

What he has confirmed there is that no matter how long Perth Glory or any other team from the Western side of the country play in this competition, 99 times out of 100 they will not host the final.

To try and appease the furious fans in the West he is quoted as saying “Naturally, fans in Perth are disappointed and we respect their views as passionate supporters. Of course, every fan would want to have the FFA Cup final on home turf, so we understand the reaction. It’s another sign that in its first year the FFA Cup has become an instant classic on the football calendar.” What a load of political spin Mr de Bohun. So far we have seen little or no evidence of you or the FFA ever listening to, or respecting the views of fans from this side of the country, so please keep your platitudes to yourself!

Perth Glory has had countless problems over the years, but in 2014 the team is playing good football, winning games and currently top of the league. Off the pitch they appear to be finally moving in the right direction as well. The club deserved to host this game, the people of Western Australia deserved a major football match, having been starved of any major international game in any form. Once again you have let them and the game as a whole down.

There are some who have said that the Western Australian Government should have offered the FFA money as an incentive to have the game played in Perth. One has to argue that public funds should not be used to support a privately run club. Neither should the club receive any funds from the Government in light of the State Government just last year having to write off almost $250,000 because owner Tony Sage’s club refused to pay a bill for taxpayer-funded public transport for home games at NIB Stadium worth nearly $400,000.

There are many who have said that to avoid such a situation in the future the final should be played over two legs; that has merit and makes sense, and may meet Mr de Bohun’s criteria of “maximising the attendance and the TV audience.” Others have also made a very valid point that if this is a competition that is to be taken seriously the final should be played at the end of the season, like all of the other major Cup tournaments around the world, and also contested on a weekend rather than midweek.

We all know that the FFA Cup was rushed through to meet a promise made to the Asian Football Confederation when Australia was accepted into the fold. Yet despite what Mr de Bohun may think, it is far from being “an instant classic on the football calendar.” The fixturing rather than a genuine draw has not been accepted by fans, the manipulating of the draw to ensure a semi-professional side makes the semi finals, and the FFA forcing some of those semi-professional clubs to play away from their home grounds against A-league opposition, and ultimately cost the clubs money, has not gone down well.

This latest decision leaves a very sour taste in the mouth. Many loyal Perth Glory fans will take time off work and head to Adelaide and they deserve to be applauded. Some will not be able to get time of work or afford it, and they will have to boost that TV audience that Mr de Bohun is so concerned about.

Football is, or was, all about the fans who paid to come through the turnstiles to watch their team. That is obviously not the case in Australia. The fact that Perth are unlikely to ever host the FFA Cup final for the reasons given by Mr de Bohun calls for some form of stand by the people of Western Australia. The best outcome would be for Perth Glory to win the Inaugural cup in Adelaide, and then along with the NPL teams in the state, announce that on the grounds that they can never host a final, they have decided to no longer participate in the competition.

It needs a strong statement to be made. Delayed telecasts of games that have already been completed are one thing, but prejudice on hosting games due to our geographic location and time zone are a step too far.

Everyone’s Doing It

Over the past few weeks many have been casting an eye at Perth Glory and many are trying to work out if the club has reached its nadir and is on the rise again, or if there is more bad news to come for their loyal fans.

The structure of the club and the turnover of staff has been one of the issues blamed for a lack of consistency at the club, but when one looks outside of Western Australia it would appear the club is no different from some of the game’s key administrators over East.

For a start although Perth Glory was the richest club in terms of history when the A-League started, Sydney FC was the richest in terms of high profile investors, players and coaches, with Chairman of the FFA Frank Lowy having a share in the club, actor Anthony LaPaglia being involved, a world cup winner n Pierre Littbarski as coach and the high profile player Dwight Yorke as its star signing. They lifted the inaugural A-League title, but later it was revealed that they had not surprisingly breached the salary cap, then there were more than dubious issues with the contract of one of their returning Australian players; yet has this harmed the reputations of those involved?

Interestingly Sydney FC are in a similar position to Perth Glory when it comes to coaches. They too have had seven people in the chair since the A-League started: Littbarski, Terry Butcher, Branko Culina, John Kosmina, Vitezslav Lavicka, Ian Crook and Frank Farina. Some would say that this should not come as any surprise as recent statistics from the UK state that the average life of a top flight coach there is one year and four months. Even so it may be some comfort to Glory fans to note this fact.

In fact if we look at the game’s governing body the FFA, they too have had a similar turnover. When the FFA took over running the game Frank Farina was in charge of the Socceroos. He was sacked following the Confederations Cup in 2005 and Guus Hiddink was appointed in his place. Following Hiddink, Graham Arnold took over for the Asia Cup, then Pim Verbeek took charge, when he left it was German Holger Osciek. Following his sacking Aurelio Vidmar was interim coach before the reins were given to Ange Postecoglou. Seven coaches, the same as Sydney FC and Perth Glory, but is that any comfort?

If we then look at the administrative side of these three organisations again there are some similarities. Founded in 2006 the FFA have had four people at the helm in eight years. John O’Neill was the first CEO, when he left Matt Carroll stepped into the breach until it was announced that Ben Buckley was taking over and when he left, David Gallop took charge. A position that has a little more longevity than the national coach’s position.

At Sydney FC the same cannot be said. Sydney Fc have had seven CEO’s in the club’s 9 years of existence. They have been: Andy Harper, Tim Parker, George Perry, Stefan Kamaz, Edwin Lught, Dirk Melton, and Tony Pignata. Perth Glory by comparison has only had six men at the helm.

When one considers that it is suggested that the ideal lifetime for a CEO is seven years is it any surprise that these clubs have been unable to find any consistency? The coach is the CEO of the playing side and he too needs to be given time to deliver success.

Having investigated these facts it is a definite concern to all who love the game. It explains why the game appears to be treading water and in some cases drowning. Hopefully the future holds more consistency and vision than the past nine years, no longer can we use excuses such as ‘the league is young,’ ‘we are a new league.’ No longer can A-League clubs afford to give key positions to “mates.” If they wish to be a successful business and a thriving club they need to employ the best person for the job and pay what such a specialist role warrants. Football has been plagued with personal agendas, egos and fans wanting to be a part of the game, and work for a club without the relevant knowledge or expertise. Running a football club is not a game, and the cheap option will cost the club dearly in the long run. If anything, the last nine years have proved that clubs need stability and they need no more of the Australian “mateship” in the boardroom if the game is to progress and reach the heights that people keep saying it can achieve.

Underpinning The Top Level

The new year is well under way and football fans have a great deal to look forward to with a World Cup in Brazil. Closer to home they have the new National Premier Leagues to look forward to. A competition that is going to link the top semi-professional leagues around the country.

It is important to remember why this league has come about, it has been forced upon the game in Australia because those running the game at the time Australia was bidding to be accepted into the Asian Football Confederation promised a second tier competition to the A-League by 2013. Hence the unwillingness to listen to the concerns of clubs around the country and the “we’ll adapt as we go approach.” Building something on shifting sands is never a wise decision.

It is interesting to note that the NPL should come into being in 2014, the same year that the Australian Rugby Union will be launching the National Rugby Championship. Although created for very differing reasons, both sports realise that the second tier competition is lacking and that without it the elite teams suffer.

Let us go back to the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Australia was on top of the world in sport, maybe not in football just yet but that was just around the corner. Sports science was the buzz word and anyone that worked in the field in Australia was much in demand as the rest of the world clamoured to match a nation that punched well above its weight.

Australia looked to keep one step ahead of the rest of the world as key personnel headed overseas and started running international programs for other nations. One of the innovations was to hive off talented youngsters and keep them in a controlled environment, control their training, eating habits and game time, the idea being that at the end a supremely fine tuned athlete would emerge. Very similar to some Eastern Bloc regimes just without the steroids. Many of these selected athletes were not to perform with the clubs from which they had been plucked, as the fear was if they played amongst lesser talented individuals their standard would drop back to theirs.

The major downside of these controlled environments, apart from some young players getting ahead of themselves, is that you are unable to gauge how the finely tuned athlete will perform when the chips are down, or in a an overly physical environment. Do they have the inner strength the physical toughness, not just the muscle, to get the team across the line.

It was baseball coach Yogi Berra who coined the phrase ‘Baseball is 90% mental the other half is physical.’ With time the word ‘baseball’ was replaced by the word ‘sport.’ The funny thing is that 90% of coaches along with their athletes spend 100 percent of their time working on the physical and tactical sides  of their sport. The reason being that mental edge cannot be taught. Some people have it, some people don’t and it has nothing to do with lifestyles.

In the era mentioned, when Australia was at the top in rugby union and cricket, players played for their clubs, if they were lucky they were picked for their state side. They were not guaranteed a long term place in the side, they had to perform on a regular basis in order to earn that right. If they couldn’t cut it they were back playing with their clubs. What is more important in both of these sports when there were no test matches international players would be playing at their clubs, that in turn helped aspiring players learn what was required to make it to the next level. Nowadays in cricket they hardly ever play for their states teams let alone their clubs. 

The problem with the academy system is you have as a club committed to a player, you may be able to create this magnificent specimen of an athlete, -as this is how all sports people are classed now – but how do you know that athlete can perform? The only way is to throw them in the mix, but then many coaches are loathe to do that at the highest level because their job could be on the line if the athlete fails and the team loses.

Australian rugby has realised this predicament, and that is why they have created the National Rugby Championship. This will give those fringe players, as well as the academy players a chance to show what they can do in a real game situation, without harming the integrity of the Super 15 sides.

Australia were superb in this Summer’s Ashes but that victory covered over a great number of cracks in the game and the talent pool. One of the things that the rest of the world admired about Australian cricket of yesteryear was how they seemed able to pluck players at random from the Sheffield Shield competition and these players were able to perform at Test level. That is no longer the case.

Football has to accept that with the dawn of the professional era in Australia, the gulf between the A-League and the new NPL players is widening. It is already bigger than it has ever been. Ex Socceroo and A-League coach John Kosmina spoke out about this in 2011, and stated that the FFA needed to invest money at this level. The NPL will see negligible investment from the FFA. The points system is also going to be detrimental to the development of quality players capable of making that step up to the next level; the players points system penalises players as they get older, as they are worth more points and teams can only field a side with a set number of points.

The points system is a protectionist move to ensure that the young players who they have had in their development programs – and in some cases whose parents have spent thousands of dollars in the hope that their son will make it to the big time – get to play senior football. The State League competition, or NPL as it is now, is not and never should be a development league! If you turn this competition into a development league you will end up starving the A-League of genuine talent. That is unless you want the A-League to be a development league for overseas clubs?

As rugby has realised the second tier needs to be highly competitive and in that environment the cream will rise to the surface. One problem Football faces, being governed by FIFA rules, is getting around how fringe A-League players on full professional contracts can compete in a separate competition, run by a different body without terminating those contracts. FIFA have advised Not The Footy Show previously that there is no such thing as dual registration, so that is not an option.

There is no doubt that Football needs an improved second tier competition and to have it linked nationally is definitely a great move, however as touched on before, geography and costs should not play such a big part in the play-off series to decide who Australia’s champions will be. By bowing to these influences you are tampering with the integrity of the competition as well as hampering the natural evolution of teams and players. Essentially by giving in to such constraints the FFA opens itself up for accusations of skewing the competition in order to get what they want out of it.

Respected Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger several years ago threw down a challenge to any coach who could identify a 13 year old and guarantee that they would play at the highest level when they reached adulthood. There are too many variables to be able to guarantee such things, yet the FFA and its development pathway seem hellbent on proving the likes of Wenger wrong.

Skill and preparation will get a player so far, as rugby has discovered. However the reality is that sport is 100% mental, a player’s thoughts influence his actions, and then those actions influence their thoughts. Ultimately it is in most cases the mental side that separates successful athletes from those who do not reach their full potential. The cold reality is unless you place an athlete in a real competitive environment you will never find out how good he is and whether he can cut the mustard.

Two sports taking very different approaches to underpinning their top competition, it will be interesting to compare rugby and football’s development over the next few years and how the Super 15 franchises and the A-League Franchises compare in terms of onfield performance and standards. As for Cricket, let us see which path they chose to go down in the future for Australia will no doubt have to re-visit the way it is doing things away from the Big Bash League.

 

Funding The Key to the Future

As is so often the case, the situation in one sport is similar to that in another, or the problems faced and successes mirror those in another country. That is why it is always wise to look around and learn from the mistakes of others, and also from their victories.

This morning having been made aware of Falkirk boss Steven Pressley’s open letter in the Daily Record it was interesting to read the problems he believes face Scottish football. It was however more interesting to read his comments and look at how they fit in Australia, especially those about development.

He started out by stating “There must be a direct correlation between the philosophy adopted at grassroots and academy level and the style of play at the top end of our game.” Something the Dutch coaches employed by the FFA stressed. Has it been implemented effectively? It is probably still to early to tell, but has definitely reaped rewards for some players.

He followed up by saying that first-team football needs to ‘evolve into a style with a greater emphasis on tactics and technique,’ and then warned that ‘the supporters, must embrace and truly start to understand the need for a change in our style of play.’ For this to truly work, the media must educate and explain what is happening on the pitch, a failure to do so will result in fans being dis-engaged and those not tactically astute – which can be more than people want to admit – lost.

Pressley accepts that academies play a crucial part in players’ development but states that the clubs need to make a bigger investment in this area. This is true in Australia.

Currently the A League clubs invest little into the future Australian players, except for having to commit to a National Youth League team, something many do begrudgingly. The development is left to the state league clubs around the country, along with independent academies. An area of the game the FFA has said that they wish to have more control over, yet they will find this gets increasingly harder as each year goes by.

The National Competition Review saw the FFA put an even bigger onus on the State League clubs by making it a non-negotiable requirement that they employ a technical director, yet as the Head of High Performance John Boultbee said on “Not The Footy Show” no funding will be coming from the FFA to support this.

Without funding from those running the game or the right to charge A League clubs a far sized transfer fee as compensation for developing a player, the game in Australia is going to struggle to keep up globally. The current development fee when it is received by the clubs is an insult to the time and money some clubs have invested in young players. So often the state league clubs do what is best for the young player, not standing in his way when a professional club in Australia comes knocking, and on occasion some have received no financial compensation. This is a situation that will ultimately hamper the game as a whole. The effects will not be seen now but in five years time.

As Pressley spoke about the game in Scotland his words are equally true in Australia, ‘They – (The SFA) – must work harder to help clubs and support them financially to employ good ex-pros at grassroots and academy level. This is vital and will take the correct degree of investment. This is the most important part of a player’s development and equally the development of our game in this country.’

So far only Adelaide United coach John Kosmina has voiced such an opinion, having witnessed first hand when he went back to coach in the state league the gulf that currently exists and is getting wider.

The State bodies are charged with improving the game, so why are the CEO’s not putting more pressure on the FFA to filter funding down to this level and below?

There is talk that the end-goal is that the State Leagues around the country become purely development leagues from which the A League clubs can cherry pick, and that is why certain policies are being pushed. This is an extremely dangerous pathway to take. Young players need to play alongside experienced older players, that is how they learn. One part of that learning is the physicality of the game, and playing alongside men once they have developed the desired skills and technique is the best way to learn.

As one A League coach, who requested to remain nameless stated “If they go ahead and make the state leagues development leagues, A League clubs will have to sign kids on 3-4 year contracts, as that is how long it will take to get many of them up to that level. As it is it takes most 2 years, only the very good ones establish themselves in an A league team in their first season.”

The next few years will undoubtedly shape Australian football; By that time the A League will be ten years old. It is crucial that those running the game make the right decisions now, and equally important that those with concerns raise them, as once we set sail in one direction it will be very hard to change back or adopt a new one.

The future needs investment and if the future is to be delivered, as it would currently appear, by the State League clubs then it is time they received financial support for their efforts.

 

 

 

 

The Future Starts Now

As Alessandro del Piero arrives in Australia, there are many who are asking is this the last roll of the dice for football in Australia? This may seem a little negative even possibly unfair to put so much weight on one man’s shoulders but many who have been around the game in Australia are beginning to tire of the fact that the same mistakes keep being made by those charged with taking the game forward.

The Socceroos loss to Jordan this week has certainly not helped and many are beginning to realise that Australia do not have a God-given right to qualify for every World Cup now that they are playing in Asia. It is also dawning on many that the ball was dropped ten years or so ago when Australian football was on the crest of a wave with so many players plying their trade in the top leagues in Europe. That was when our development of young players had to be at its best, it wasn’t and the lack of top players around the world is now coming home to roost.

The future would look brighter if we were starting to dominate at World Youth level, but that has not been evident yet, and the failure of the Olyroos to score a single goal in their qualifying games was a truly worrying development; although quite why proven goalscorers were not selected will be a question that will be asked for many a year to come.

The big plus is that there are development pathways in place around the country, and these are in the main being run by excellent coaches, however these should not be the be-all-and-end-all when it comes to development. Players should not be pressured into joining these pathways, and told that the door will be slammed on their chances of selection for A-League or national youth teams if they opt not to join. One promising young cricketer has opted not to join the ECB’s academy and stay with the coaches that have taken him so far already, yet he is still tipped to be an England player in the next five years. Players should do what is best for them in the environment that is best for them. If a player opts out of the national development program, that is a plus, as it will give another player an opportunity. The doors should never be closed, and coaches selecting development, or national and state representative teams should show vision and select some players from outside of these structured environments. The players that excite on the world stage and in leagues around the world are the players who can do something different, who back themselves, not the automatons who simply go out and do everything by the book; although you do need such players in a team.

In between all of this are the State leagues which as John Kosmina stated on “Not The Footy Show” are in desperate need of CPR and investment, these have fallen a long way in the last five or six years as the standard in the A League has improved. It is a very sad state of affairs when the costs of running a semi-professional club continue to rise, that the rewards for a successful team have in some cases gone backwards or have stayed in the same place. It is indeed a sad state of affairs when the club hosting the recent Cup Final in Western Australia earned more from the gate alone than the team that won the cup. Surely the governing body should be manning the gate and the proceeds split between the two who have drawn the crowd in? The governing body could of course deduct the cost of promoting the game and employing someone on the gate.

The A League this year needs to market itself properly, and have a strong media presence in every state newspaper, even if it means buying the editorial space. IF that is what it takes to get coverage and match AFL and NRL coverage then so be it. It needs to stop trying to promote itself as a competition similar to the English Premier League, and find it’s own unique identity and promote that. Last season so much of the marketing and promotion was based around returning Socceroos Brett Emerton and Harry Kewell, but fans no longer relate to players on the wane, that is why if too much stall is put in del Piero, unless he has an outstanding season it could all backfire terribly, and at $2million a year he better perform.

The future of the A league lies with the young players coming through, the future of Australian football lies in the same place. As much as we need names which will excite and bring fans through the gate, they have to still have what it was that made them exciting in the first place. How many big name bands that you missed as a teenager disappoint when you see them in your 30’s or older? The same is true of footballers, they are after all human.

The next twelve months are going to be crucial for Australian football, and could well determine the next ten years.

Second Tier Second Rate?

Perth Glory CEO Paul Kelly this week announced that he plans to now move forward with the recommendations put forward by the Hatt Review into the Perth Glory earlier this year, by focusing the club’s future on local youth.

This would tend to indicate that this season was about one last attempt to buy experience and success, rather than building for the future.

One thing that seems strange about this decision – which we applaud – is the way that this year’s Youth League side has seen the young talent identified by coach Gareth Naven sitting out games when as many as eight first team squad players have been selected ahead of them, as first team coach Ian Ferguson wants his players to have game time.

Many believe that this is how the youth league should work, a vehicle to give first team players game time, whereas we believe if that is the case calling it the Youth league is a misnomer. As advocated previously we feel an apprentice system would be a greater benefit to all concerned.

One thing that does concern us with this recruitment move, which as we have stated we agree with, is how long the club is going to invest in the players identified as being the future of Perth Glory. How long will they be given to come up to A League standards and will the coach’s priority be to bring through that talent rather than necessarily results?

As Adelaide United coach John Kosmina, a coach who when he left the A League opted to go back and coach in the state league, so strong is his passion for the game, stated on the show last week, “The one thing I really think we’ve got to work on is developing local talent and unfortunately the gap I see between the A League and the local comps in whatever state is widening. The level of professionalism and the level of investment in the A league is increasing all the time, and you go back a notch to what is the second best competition in the state, and that’s how you have to look at it, don’t call it the state league, it’s the next best competition in the state, and without being disrespectful to anybody, it’s almost still chook raffle stuff.”

“We have to get this at least to semi professional where the players can make a substantial living out of it. There’s not enough supporter base in this country in any sport to be able to support a second tier competition financially or just turning up and paying your ten bucks to get in on a weekend.”

Kosmina is right, so in the meantime we must show patience with those who are identified as having what it takes to make the step up to the A league and time must be invested in making them better players. The FFA also have to look at the second tier and make sure that it does not fall too far behind too quickly, as without this tier the game will be in even deeper trouble.

Who Would be a Coach?

Amazing to hear on one Perth radio station that listeners were texting the station to say that Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell should be sacked.

How quickly people forget that the club was sitting rock bottom when he took over and he now has them sitting in the top four. Perth Glory needs stability; you cannot keep changing the coaches and hope that it will bring success.

The two most consistent clubs in the Hyundai A League are Melbourne Victory and Central Coast Mariners, the only two clubs to still have the same coaches from season one, is that a coincidence?

There are certain people who feel that Perth Glory should have a Western Australian coach, sadly I fear that day is still a long way off. Firstly because there is still way too much politics in the game in Western Australia and a Western Australian coach is likely to factionalise the game, something an outsider will not do. However there are a few candidates locally who are above this and would make very good coaches. Which leads me into the second reason why a Western Australian coach is not the answer, and that is experience. Do we have any one with adequate coaching experience to deal with agents, have contacts overseas, and deal with the media? These are all now very much part of a coach’s job description, and again if you analyse Dave Mitchell’s performance he has done well on all fronts.

He has brought in good players from overseas and Socceroos, he has also admitted when the team have been lucky in recent weeks and criticised last week’s performance. Teams that win championships do so by picking up points when they play badly, no team can ever play superbly every week, sometimes you have to scrap for points, finally the Perth Glory are doing this.

Take a glance across the Nullabor, Sydney FC, currently sitting top of the league, not playing particularly well, but getting results. Sydney will be in the mix come season’s end. Once again they have gone for an outsider as a coach; remember season one when they won the league Pierre Littbarski? Vitezslav Lavicka has no history, no agendas, and he can do the job based on his beliefs and feelings. It is not an easy job when behind the scenes there are people within the club, manoeuvring to take over your job, but so far he is doing well. This was one of the contributing factors to Terry Butcher’s demise and John Kosmina after him. They too have factions wanting a local man in the role, but sometimes it is better to avoid that option.

Sadly many Australian A League clubs have vipers in the nest, trying to poison the coach and manipulate their ‘man’ into the top jobs. As owners with little football knowledge in some cases they need to be very careful, if their clubs and the A league are to survive as these people will ultimately destroy clubs, just as one bad apple can destroy the fruit bowl.

Despite the precarious nature of the job, being a coach in Australia has to be better than being one in England. In the late 1990’s the 72 Nationwide League clubs fired 135 managers in three seasons. Of those sacked only 50% found another job in football Management!