As football fans across the country spent their Monday recovering from a dramatic final-day in the English Premier League, the powers that be at the A-leagues should be sharpening their pencils and taking notes.
You’d be hard press to find an office water-cooler that isn’t the scene to some kind of English Premier League chat this week, even non-football folk and media are struggling to resist the hype with reports all across the mainstream outlets.
First, a disclaimer.
I’m a Leeds supporter, right now a very happy and relieved Leeds supporter. But… heaven forbid we actually witnessed a different outcome last night, I still wouldn’t have the system any other way. To loosely steal a line from some football marketing boffin. It was football exactly as we know it.
Heading into the final weekend it’s fair to say my nerves were shot, blood pressure through the roof and I’ll reluctantly admit, I thought Leeds were done.
Leeds sat in eighteenth place, equal on points with Burnley but an impossible minus 20 behind on goal difference, anything less than a win was putting the future of this grand old club in the hands of the football gods. Fellow strugglers Everton had done just enough in recent matches to get up and away and Burnley just seemed to have more momentum.
Thankfully, the good guys got the job done and will live to fight another day in England’s top flight.
At the top end if the table, the title race would also be decided on the final day with Manchester City clinching the Premiership by the barest of margins over a rampaging Liverpool side who’ll still look to claim multiple major trophies in 2022.
Everywhere you looked there was action. Would Leeds be relegated? Could Burnley save themselves from the drop? Can Aston Villa hold their lead against Manchester City and gift Liverpool the title?
But it didn’t stop there, north London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham would be fighting out for a spot in Europe as would West Ham and Manchester United. Incredibly, seven out of ten fixtures would have some kind of outcome for clubs going into the next English football season.
But, let’s bring ourselves back to the A-league for what was a difficult year to create excitement and gather any sort of momentum. Difficult but not impossible.
We limped towards the conclusion of the A-league and like the final day of the Premier League some clubs had plenty to play for, others not so much. Re-scheduled fixtures played havoc and clubs raced to get their league fixtures completed in time for the post-season A-league finals.
As we approached the final ‘weekend’ the fixtures looked like this:
Saturday: Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle – Traditional F3 Derby – Central Coast looking to take momentum into finals
Saturday: Sydney FC hosted Melbourne Victory – The Big Blue – Melbourne Victory still with a chance of claiming the Premiership, no doubt that historical arch-rivals Sydney FC would have to have loved nothing more than to deny them the honour.
Sunday: Macarthur FC hosted Western Sydney – With just pride to play for in Sydney’s west, Macarthur looked to farewell coach Ante Milicic with a win.
Sunday: Adelaide United v Western United – Adelaide needed to win to guarantee their finals spot and Western United still with a mathematic shot of going straight into the 2-legged semi-final.
Monday: Melbourne City v Wellington – City looked to wrap up the Premiership and automatic ACL Qualification, Wellington hoped to cap off a difficult year by qualifying for finals.
*Perth completed their season the week prior.
As you can see, there are narratives across just about all fixtures, some with bigger outcomes than others but they are narratives nonetheless, and just like the premier league it’s these narratives that create hope and hype, agony and despair. Imagine, Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory kicking off their matches at exactly the same time.
Admitted, we currently do not have promotion and relegation system in the A-league, with that of course the stakes become higher but like any great narrative, the twists and turns of every football league is so much better when it comes to a grand, dramatic crescendo.
Simultaneous kick-off’s in the final round of the football league season is another of football’s points of difference, a huge selling point and another reason people flock to football grounds, bars or their nearest telly come kick-off time….and dare I say, straight to the office water-cooler the next day to tell someone all about it.
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