Joel Porter scores 4

Well what does Shane Smeltz have to do to be man-of-the-match?

Scores 4 and Porter gets the award!!

And was it a goal for every thousand fans!

The Fury got 8,900 on debut, Gold Coast with Jason Culina and all the hype for 7,000 on home debut.

Oh dear oh dear. Canberra would beat both crowds on debut no problem but how is it possible for the Gold Coast to get such a poor crowd.

Imagine if Robbie Fowler hadn't attracted 3,000 and Jason Culina the other 4,000.
Still the football was great and that's what counts long-term.

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Nearpost Podcast: A-League, Socceroos, Young Matildas

Aaron Walker, Eamonn (me) and Paddy Bordier discuss A-League crowds, the Gold Coast, Pim's Socceroos squad, and our differing views on our Young Matildas and keep you up-to-date with the key football news in Australia.

Haven't got Fox? Where better to get your Aussie football news on the radio.



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Locally Peter Funnell has all the issues and the big local interviews. Don't miss an episode. And this is the best and only guaranteed place to get the local podcast as Capital Football rarely put them up. Why? I've no idea!


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Melbourne Victory v Melbourne Storm

From the Daily Telegraph

Monday Night Football sales for Melbourne-Warriors have been a tad slow. The Telstra Dome game is shifting the same number of tickets as the average Olympic Park home match but Docklands staff remain hopeful of hitting their 18,000 target.

It's the opening round of the Rugby League and crowds are expected to be very healthy everywhere in the centenary year. Except in Melbourne where Champions the Storm hope to hit 18,000.

Melbourne Victory have already pre-sold 20,000 for their mid-week Asian Champions League game against Chunnam Dragons (Korea) this wednesday.

With Melbourne expecting sales to significantly surge in the next few days the club is expecting 35,000 through the gates at the Dome.

Football has raced past Rugby League in Melbourne. More good signs for the roundball.

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So you thought Australians hated Sydney FC in season 3

Where ever Sydney FC play record crowds follow. Presumably because no-one likes Sydney FC

Well next year with John Aloisi leaving the Mariners and in talks with Sydney FC, Perth Glory star man Simon Colosimo already in the Harbour city, and Mark Bridge Newcastle Jets Grand Final goal scoring hero expected to sign for Sydney ASAP, expect crowds to rise even further when Sydney FC and their swag of mercenaries march into your town in Season 4.

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Lies, dam lies and statistics.....Football crowds across Australia

Collingwood AFL had a 54,000 crowd average. AFL held 16 of the top 20 crowd averages.

Only the Brisbane Broncos from Rugby League came in the top ten, number ten to be exact.

Western Force topped the Union entry with 27,000 and Melbourne Victory was best for the A-League in 19th place with over 26,000 turning out each week.

THREE A-League sides beat Twelve of the NRL crowd averages, this after just three years.

In Canberra the Brumbies walloped the Raiders. And surely a football team could average more than the Raiders 11,000 after a few years. Surely!

Interesting to compare the Rugby APC tournament to the A-League averages. Further proof that football is way ahead of Union in terms of supporter base across the country. The Super 14 is most similar to the Asian Champions League, an international competition.

And in New Zealand the World's top Rugby club side, well in the Southern Hemisphere brings in 16,000 each home game. Food for thought. They'd be kicked out of the AFL I guess.

Stats below.



Team Code Games Crowd Average



1. Collingwood Magpies AFL 11 603,881 Average 54,898

2. Essendon Bombers AFL 11 575,232 Average 52,294

3. Adelaide Crows AFL 11 461,910 Average 41,992

4. Carlton Blues AFL 11 457,418 Average 41,583

5. West Coast Eagles AFL 11 448,703 Average 40,791

6. Richmond Tigers AFL 11 421,207 Average 38,292

7. St Kilda Saints AFL 11 417,135 Average 37,921

8. Fremantle Dockers AFL 11 412,213 Average 37,474

9. Sydney Swans AFL 11 391,953 Average 35,632

10.Brisbane Broncos NRL 13 442,101 Average 34,008

11.Hawthorn Hawks AFL 11 369,052 Average 33,550

12.Geelong Cats AFL 11 347,016 Average 31,547

13. Melbourne Demons AFL 11 324,903 Average 29,537

14. Brisbane Lions AFL 11 317,325 Average 28,848

15. Western Bulldogs AFL 11 316,551 Average 28,777

16. Kangaroos AFL 11 311,210 Average 28,292

17. Port Adelaide Power AFL 11 306,572 Average 27,870

18. Western Force S14 5 137,775 Average 27,555

19. Melbourne Victory A-L 10 260,682 Average 26,068

20. Gold Coast Titans NRL 9 204,971 Average 22,775



21. NSW Waratahs S14 6 136,450 Average22,742

22. North Qld Cowboys NRL 11 217,212 Average19,747

23. Queensland Reds S14 6 108,608 Average18,101

24. Brumbies S14 6 106,883 Average17,814

25. Wests Tigers NRL 10 170,978 Average17,098

26. Queensland Roar A-L 11 186,622 Average16,966

27. Canterbury Bulldogs NRL 12 197,852 Average16,488

28. Sydney FC A-L 11 180,127 Average16,375

29. Newcastle Knights NRL 12 190,563 Average15,880

30.South Syd Rabbitohs NRL 12 188,448 Average15,704

31. Sydney FC Asia A-L 3 45,871 Average15,290

32. Manly Sea Eagles NRL 10 145,265 Average14,527

33. Parramatta Eels NRL 11 152,594 Average13,872

34. Newcastle Jets A-L 11 145,298 Average13,209

35. CC Mariners A-L 10 127,383 Average12,738

36. Adelaide United A-L 10 126,966 Average12,697

37. N Z Warriors NRL 12 149,314 Average12,443

38. St George Dragons NRL 12 145,908 Average12,159

39. Sydney Roosters NRL 11 132,157 Average12,014

40. Penrith Panthers NRL 11 129,946 Average11,813



41. Melbourne Storm NRL 11 128,757 Average11,705

42. Wellington nix A-L 10 116,831 Average11,683

43. Canberra Raiders NRL 11 126,704 Average11,519

44. Cronulla Sharks NRL 12 137,657 Average11,471

45. Perth Glory A-L 11 83,577 Average7,598

46. Perth Spirit ARC 4 15,583 Average3,896

47. Canberra Vikings ARC 4 14,768 Average3,692

48. Melbourne Rebels ARC 3 9,914 Average3,305

49. Sydney Fleet ARC 4 10,630 Average2,658

Ballymore Tornadoes ARC 2 4,867 Average2,434

Central Coast Rays ARC 4 9,293 Average2,323

Western Syd Rams ARC 4 7,368 Average1,842

East Coast Aces ARC 3 4,284 Average1,428



Summary Games Total Average

AFL 176 6,482,281 36,831 Awesome, totally

S14 23 489,716 21,292 Interesting, but very wealthy patrons!

NRL 170 2,689,449 15,820 Worryingly miles away from AFL

A-L 84 1,227,486 14,613 Amazing. Expect to top League after the Finals in the Third year.

ARC 28 76,707 2,740 Shows the depth of support for Rugby in Australia. A boutique sport.

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Record crowd for football in South Australia

Last season Melbourne Victory and Newcastle Jets produced record crowds.

Last night Adelaide hit 25,000 and earlier this season the Central Coast 17500 and Wellington over 14,000.

Regional centres getting record crowds.

And they will be back. Maybe not every week, but slowly but surely they will come.

Australia 2007 has been another very very promising year for football.

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Best Mariners in Australia....to get another huge crowd

"It’s an exciting time of the year and you can really sense the buzz around town ahead of what will be another massive event at the Gosford Waterfront next Monday," said Mariners Executive Chairman Lyall Gorman.

"The message we’d like to send to patrons is very clear – you simply cannot arrive at Bluetongue Stadium after 4pm and expect to purchase your ticket without delay, such will be the volume of people in and around Gosford City."

It is going to be a great game. You can feel it. Mariners need the win, have a few injuries, but of course The Victory still have the firepower to upset any team. Honest, they do!

The Mariners have become the new Perth Glory of the old NSL, slowly slowly building a model all clubs outside the big three cities should/could follow.

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Central Coasts Lawrie McKinna, Alex Tobin and all things Mariners

This article first appeared at www.netfa.com

I caught up with Central Coast Mariners Lawrie McKinna and Alex Tobin at Gloria Jeans, Belconnen Mall recently and here's what they had to say about the Mariners for next season.

Central Coast Manager Lawrie McKinna and Ex-Socceroo and Mariners Development Coach Alex Tobin talk Mariners, A-League and their plans for season three.

When you ask McKinna and Tobin about the Mariners grand final loss to Sydney FC in A-League season one, they both still groan. Even though it’s more than fifteen months ago the bodies still seem to twitch a little.

“How did we lose that game, the chances we had, we just couldn’t finish on the day. We had six great goal-scoring opportunities chances,” says McKinna.

His Mariners team had gone to Aussie Stadium home of Sydney FC in front of a sell-out grand-final crowd. Everyone knew Sydney FC would win the first A-League title. After all they had Dwight Yorke. The Mariners fans and their team stormed the bastion. Chance after chance came and went. Each one easier than the last. Surely they would score. And then it’s 1-0 to Sydney, game over.

Mckinna knows the goal problem continued all through season two. “We played well enough, we let in three goals more than season one, but scored 12 less. We got key injuries, but we couldn’t score. We lost Dean Heffernan (to Nurnberg) who scored seven goals, Noel Spencer scored six in season one, I don’t think he scored in season 2. If only we could have kept Damian Mori for the whole season.”

“The biggest problem we’ve had, in the first two years, is knowing which players you are going to put on the park. Sometimes last season we had nine players injured, so there isn’t too much you can do at training with a squad of twenty. We’ve never whinged about the size of the A-League squad as that’s the rules, but continuity is very difficult from week to week. However, it becomes very easy to pick a team, whoever is fit gets to play, and the less fit go on the bench!”

So is the winner of the A-League merely the last team standing?

“Well, if you look at Melbourne in season two they had the least injuries of any team. That’s not to say it’s purely down to that, that they won the competition, but it certainly helps,” says Ex-Socceroo and Mariners Development Coach Alex Tobin

The focus is forward.

“We’re going to be very strong in Season 3. We need to score more goals. With the guys we’ve got for next season we can score from all over the park. Sasho Petrovski has signed. He’s had his ups and downs at Sydney but he was top scorer the last two seasons. Nicky Mrdja is a new player, he’s fit (He’s missed most of the first two season due to injury) Adam Kwasnik is the best finisher in the club. I know he missed a lot of chances and the supporters gave him a bit of stick, but he’s one of the best natural finishers in the game. He’ll benefit this year with the other proven goal scorers around him. Greg Owens has signed from Adelaide, he’s a proven goal scorer. John Hutchison and Tom Pondeljak all get goals. And we’re still hopeful we’ll get Heff (Dean Heffernan) back from Nurnberg as technically he’s still our player, but it depends on what offers he gets. He could be good enough for the Socceroos, if he gets playing. The Socceroos need a left-sided player and a good-looking one, and he fits both criteria. He’d be a hit with the female fans!”

“We’re always looking at players. We won’t fill the twenty-three-man roster, I don’t think any club will. They’ll be using the money to buy a little bit more in terms of quality, or they may not spend the salary cap. It depends on the finances of each club. We’re okay at the Mariners, we’re well set-up.”

“We’ve got ten days of pre-season training then we’re off to the Hong Kong Sevens again, on 26th May. Then we’ve a game in Canberra against Belconnen United and then the pre-season cup starts.”

“We’re taking a young side to Hong Kong next week to play Celtic, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, and Urawa Reds, including a couple of boys from the local club, Central Coast Lightning. We played Celtic two years ago and beat them 2-0. Fergie (Assistant Mariners Coach and ex-Rangers player Ian Ferguson) wasn’t happy I wouldn’t let him play against Celtic!”

McKinna had a desire to be involved in football from an early age. He played part-time for Kilmarnock in Scotland, before coming to Australia twenty-one years ago said, “As a kid, I always wanted to earn 100 pound a week and play for Rangers. I was going to give my mum 95 pounds and buy a Hillman Avenger with the rest. How I was going to buy the car, I don’t now know, but that was the dream.”

“I managed to stay involved in the game for a long time, even through the dark, dark days of Northern Spirit in the National Soccer League when guys weren’t getting paid. It was pretty depressing.”

“But now people stop you in the street to talk football and in Melbourne, when the Mariners were there, we had TV crews chasing us down the street. The game has changed. The fans singing, jumping in the stadiums bring a great atmosphere in Sydney with The Cove and Melbourne. Which other codes, Union, League or AFL have that. We’ve got a great family atmosphere at The Mariners. It’s a great time to be involved in football.

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Olyroos v Iran

Olyroos play a crucial qualifying game against Iran tonight in Adelaide. Crowds have been poor and future games may be taken away from Adelaide.

These are the best young footballers in Australia. Five overseas players are back, lets hope a decent crowd gets out to watch this game.

Should the Olyroos game be switched to Canberra or some other city? Yes, I reckon, if you don't support the game with your feet, then your city doesn't deserve to keep it.

Sorry Adelaide, but you just aren't passionate enough for my liking.

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