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I imagined that they would be part of the existing pool of officials and allocated games by the FA as per usualWouldn`t the APL then appoint the marquee refs to the marquee games?
Marquee games being any game that involves SFC, MV, MC, AU, WSW...
the FA, in our case, stands for f**king Arseholes
So applying your unerring logic Recky, does that mean FFA stood for Fully F**king Arseholes?
spot onSo applying your unerring logic Recky, does that mean FFA stood for Fully F**king Arseholes?
Just returned from 10 days in the wilds with no tv or computer and am only now scrolling through what I have been missing.yeah...BUT if everyone felt like that...
FP RANT WARNING:
The refereeing we have suffered was beyond a disgrace and really I can't see how it can fail to turn any Mariners supporter off. When you have so much else against you, very hard for stuff like this not to feel like the last straw. I keep going "despite it". But I'm not f**king happy. And I know too many people who it's crushed. I still think there's value in turning up. But it's a different point.
For a long time my larger fear has been around what's driving our league. What is the "why"? It's certainly not Johnny Warren's why. And it has led to first the inevitable staleness of our product, and then even worse, the overtly plastic nature of the very poorly handled expansion.
If you think you can manufacture attendance and build a league around the constant hype of pretend big clubs in what is still, and always will be, a very small footballing culture, you're sewing in the seeds of your own demise. Hype might work for the opening weekend of a lack lustre block buster. But it won't work for a season long football product or the inevitable ups and downs of any football clubs fortunes.
The "big clubs" have one or two bad season and their crowds are decimated. Why? Because a significant portion of their fans are only loosely associated dabblers looking to enhance their social calendars. They don't come for the love of football. They come because they love feeling like a winner and dominating others.
I'm still a realist. I know all the chimps still love meeting and beating another tribe. But there's a line. If you enjoy watching the Mariners beat the Umina under 13's... There's something wrong with you. And for me this is the peril of prioritising an overtly capitalist goal and the obvious failure in the product that fox had long been driving and creating. The clear market driven bias towards the better funded clubs - because you want better ratings, better sponsors or just greater self importance, makes sense sure... But it sucks balls for everyone who isn't winning. And every year, guess what... we have one winner, a couple of teams who are happy to have done well.. and the rest are all losers. Why should the losers keep coming back? Especially if the referees rip them off. The pundits bash them. Agents exploit them. League owners screw them on scheduling or hosting rights... But these f**king morons have always though it's about the winners. And they gear all their bullshit around it. Even though every year the majority of their core market will be losers.
Football for all of those who really understand it, has always been at it's core an intimate and tribal contest. And if it's a FAIR, and great contest. We can still love it, even when we lose. But if you allow it to be corrupted and geared towards the aforementioned, it should be no surprise when most of your plastic supporters piss off after one or two tough seasons. Because despite what your latest market campaign may have flogged, you were never really "a tribe" you were only a crowd. Just a loose assembly of chimps getting jacked on the wins.
So I understand why the appeal of the NPL is rising, and personally it feels like the Australia cup is a better product right now in terms of it's appeal.
And yet honestly, despite all the bullshit and covid impacted schedules... long term, there really is no insurmountable reason I can see why the refereeing and the teething issues of sub standard broadcasters can't be fixed. So what I value most of all, is survival. And so I turn up. Because I think long term, if we can just hang in there long enough, there's no reason we can trim-tap enough until we have a really decent league.
But yes, I understand why people are f**king furious or boycotting, I understand why people continue supporting, and I think we desperately need to get the soul of the competition right. We need our true "Why". The pundits, the referees, the APL etc... cannot be focused on serving the $$ and therefore by proxy the "bigger clubs". They have to think TRUE big picture. They have to be focused on serving football.
Do that well enough, and you'll take care of everyone, fans, players, clubs etc etc... and attendance and ratings over time will naturally rise again. You can't turn it around with a few words or a hip new commercial.
We need to move with the times. So it's time for transparency, to own all the mistakes (like Evans fiasco), stop the manufacturing and hype, value and respect ourselves enough that we stop serving corporate interests, and invest in grass roots under dogs over cashed up favourites until we make it a truly Australian product at last.
When I see Tassie, Canberra, the Gong and the return of NQF etc... along with a proper Pro rel, then I'll know we're truly on the right track. Till then, when it's Sydney team 3 vs Melbourne team 3 and a bunch of hype and commentator drivel... I'm just going into survival mode hoping we don't get f**ked too hard while I try and have a few laughs with my dad at the game.
Yeah only 22 too - tragic
Yep, very sad week for the club
I dont love the gambling stuff but at least it's transparent what it is when you see it. The crypto & particularly NFT stuff can look professional and draw people in with no clue about the nature of it. NFTs are a scam and that money is as dirty if not worse than gambling money because it takes advantage of people who dont know better.
Actually some good money could be made by the club if it knows what to do or gets associated with these types
.Gambling advertising is a blight and should be banned like ciggies.
To be fair, they arent a gambling company - the promo is an "everyone gets a prize" gimmick.
That expensive monkey picture is my property. Dont you dare right click and save it.
Even still they have an expiry on them. So I could just wait 3 years and sell it from under you
Yeah I was responding to the first part.
