Remaining A-League Fixtures Discussion

Australian Football
141

Nice hit from Meredith. 3-1 Perth. Western Sydney losing makes life good again.

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142

If Adelaide beat Sydney it officially ends WSW season. The slightest silver lining should Sydney fail on Thursday.

143

Completely missed that it’s a 6pm kick off tonight.

Nux vs Roar should be entertaining.

144

At some point, this hub thing will grind all the interstate teams down. Being in camp away from family and home comforts for week upon week will surely have some fairly significant effects on their performance as we move towards finals time for the teams which make it that far.

145

Really good strike from McDonald. He’s made that goal out of absolutely nothing

146

I will be very surprised if Cacace is still playing in the A-League next year. The kid is an absolute gun.

147

Hes been linked to a few clubs in Europe. Think Muscat’s Belgium side were the front runners

148

Yeah I’m going to miss seeing him but it’s like when Gersbach broke through for us. So clear he’s better than this level.

149

Will probably affect the Melbourne Teams more. What will be helping is the very hectic schedule keeping them busy. It’s only a few more weeks left for some of the teams at least. Definitely like to see the players being given access to any psychologists/counseling in the meantime though

150

Some very silky footwork I noticed.

151

It’s comparable to the amount of time you’d spend in camp for a major international tournament. I don’t think it will be a problem; if anything we might be at a slight disadvantage because the out-of-state teams will have the extra focus on their objective while we’re ticking along BAU.

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152

I had already considered that, and there is a fairly significant difference, in that for a major tournament there is a huge amount of positive anticipation - it is an event which you have looked forward to and dreamed of all your life. You’re in the finest of facilities and with the best support staff, with a clear focus that you’ve been directly geared uip for since qualifying over 6 months previously. And even then most teams’ commitment is 4-5 weeks all up. Only the handful of top teams in the world are in it for the long haul, with half being eliminated after two weeks, with the remaining numbers halved every 4 or so days. At then end you go on holidays.

In this case, imagine being MV, put up in pretty basic surroundings with nothing to play for since day 1. Your family back home are also locked down, and I don’t think there are a huge number of support staff. There is also the way the situation was entered into in the first place, with the sudden “drop everything and move to NSW” events which happened a couple of times - the uncertainty to begin with meant you go into the situation already in a bad way. People are also doing this on a reduced salary, where in a WC you’re on bonus income. And at the end, you return to family, but in a lock down situation.

Comparing durations, not 100% sure when Australia went into camp for the 2006 WC, but pretty sure it wasn’t too long before the May 26 farewell vs Greece. They then went off to Europe, with Australia out of the cup on June 27. So maybe 5 weeks camp across 3? different countries. For this A-League situation, the Vic teams landed in Sydney around July 10, though were trying to get out from a few days earlier, so it’s a month ago already. MV finish up early on the 12th, City on the 19th but will obviously be having finals matches and likely from 2nd place, so will finish up on the 26th or 30th. So that makes it around 5 weeks for the shortest camp, 7 and a half for the longest.

So this is basically a slightly longer, much shitter experience compared to a World Cup camp. From a footballing perspective, if we can’t conquer all this as the only NSW side likely to make the finals, it’ll be a bad look. From a non-footballing perspective, I hope the non NSW-based players all get through it OK, even if we on here all like to have a laugh at MV’s misfortunes.

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153

Also, everyone was really drunk in 2006 so that makes it easier.

154

A win or a draw for WU tonight officially ends the season for Western Suburbs Wanderers.

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155

Wanderers are a goal down, the world is a a little less dark and foreboding.

156

It doesn’t get much more amusing than Risdon scoring with a free header!

157

Sucks to be a wanderers supporter. 3-0 to WU

158

But but but but ACL 5 years ago.

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159

Classy finish from Diamanti, keeper should have got a stronger hand to it though

160

That was … not very good keeping from Prendegast.