Hey, we're Brad and Sogg, two mates that love talking about Australian football. We upload weekly videos chatting about the A-League on and off the field, as well as talking about the W-League, NPL and even local football like the Western Premier League. We're both Socceroos fans and love everything to do with Aussie Football.
Brad is a Western Sydney Wanderers fan who converted from being an NRL fan to truly love the round ball. Sogg is a Sydney FC fan and grew up as a football loving kid.
We both advocate for a National Second Division, although we have differing opinions on who should be in it (sorry South Melbourne fans). But really we just want to see the game grow in Australia.
You can follow A-League Couch Critics on a few different social media sites like: Facebook- facebook.com/alcouchcritics Twitter- twitter.com/ALCouchCritics
It died before it was even born. The clubs proposing this are park teams. They should stick to creating players, like grade cricket does. Keep it cheap and merit based, but no, that's too hard for these pay-to -play outfits.
Grew up with the NSL. It was basically what you see in the NPL every weekend. They were not professionals, but it was good for what it was. I recall Frank Lowy, who also was a founder of the old NSL in the 1970s saying they could see the NSL was dead in the water in about 1982. It was not going to go mainstream. Credit to old soccer for keeping it going for so long. Weird how they want to bring it back as the NSD. Bottom line is, the people who are nostalgic for it didn't grow up with it.
The nsl consisted of 3 teams without them it would have gone broke.Olympic,Sydney croatia & south Melbourne hellas all crowd pullers.Btw i was there in 85 as a 19 year old OOOLLYYYYMPIC.
@@aussiegreek4993 true Sydney croatia for a while had a good fan base and at one time the strongest. Lovely set up there, great stadium. I like both the Thesaloniki teams, Paok and Aris but truth be told i prefer Aris as they remind me of my Australian side both in colours and history.
The ref was paid off by Lowy, the most corrupt administrator in soccer history. Mate, get your fucking facts right .That day Sydney city got away with deliberate bad tackles at Olympic players..Ha was one of the worst refs in Australian soccer .Sydney city players most of them ,were called butchers.
@@ozzyay9720 dream on Even before the NSL, Panellinios the original name for Sydney Olympic used to get crowds in excess of 40,000. Don't believe me, google it and find out for yourself and maybe educate yourself about Australian Football. Football didn't start when the Z league started
It set back football years. I stopped going for a while. I'd been to Pratten Park a few times. There were occasional weekends when football had games with bigger crowds than Sydney Rugby League. The code was getting some momentum. Honestly Olympic had some feral fans that couldn't handle losing. Sydney City didn't have many fans but they had the best team for a few years because they had the most money behind them. Every one else hated them.
Were you even born at the time ? The guy whowas sent off was MARSHALL Soper. He attracted controversy wherever he played , always infuriating opposing fans with his little niggly style of play . Hakoah were no angels either. They always seemed to have all the referee decisions go their way. They always got away with a lot of shit !!!
No, I was still a decade off being born. As mentioned in a previous comment, I unfortunately realised I made a mistake with Soper's name after recording.
We had soper as a god in 1986 he was living in Newcastle he’s car on the way to St George stadium broke down.So what happened my self & a few mates of mine drove about an hour & a half away to pick up him up.
My dad played league here in his junior days, and my brother and I played football here. So much history in these Sydney inner west home grounds that need to be told. Oh and on a wet day the cricket pitch is literally Quagmire.
The A-League is terrible, try and get that right before even thinking about a second tier. How on Earth clubs like Macarthur and Western United were given a place in the league is beyond me.
All of us Football Fans, no matter which team you support, can all agree that a *16 football club, *30 matches per season (plus finals), Australia Cup, Confederation Championships/Cups is best for A-League, and the World Game of Football in Australia going forward.
Make no mistake, the FFA(and definitely the APL) are lowkey gleeful about this, bc anything that prevents those ‘nasty effnik clubs’ from having a national platform again fits w/the agenda of ‘mainstreaming’(or rather more accurately, boganising💡) ⚽️ in 🇦🇺. The one true way forward has always just been to cater to the existing, longtime fans of the game. Actively trying to convert ‘mainstream Australia’ to it, however well-intentioned this presumes to be, is ultimately more trouble than it’s worth IMHO. Intergenerational support and immigration are where our numerical growth comes from..not from converting AFL/cricket-mad etc. skips💡
As a cricket fan first and foremost, I wouldn’t mind a carnival style second tier at the end of the NPL season, maybe in a month like October where not a lot of sport is on, have every team play nightly for a few weeks BBL style or at the very least in a hub to lower travel strain. ISL showed it could work with franchises, would fans over east do the same for their ethnicity’s club?
In theory, it was an okay idea but how hot it gets in Townsville in the summer made it terrible for the players. The only positive thing was Robbie Fowler and away games, as Fury always got a good crowd at away games due to Fowler, but not much at home. But they were dead in the water once the original owner pulled out after a season.
In a way, I'm glad it's not going ahead. The club I support in NPL has a squad budget of $400k, that's it, which is probably smart when comparing to a couple of other clubs who have 1-2 million dollar budgets, and never win anything. You'd have to think how much money these clubs will lose entering a pro 2nd division - I reckon a heck of a lot. Maybe not worth it. I honestly don't think the crowds will be very strong for some of those clubs in the 2nd division. In NSW, no one gets a decent size crowd, not even for derbies. Preston are by far and away, the best supported club and would get decent crowds every game, but who else would?
The only reason Preston have good crowds is because of a massive rebuilding process to get them back into the top flight which has been well publicised and a huge amount of money thrown in , lm hearing wage bill of more than some A league clubs. That said all this support will die off once their wins dry up and you will be lucky to see 500 people there soon.
@@Dnvk-xy5xr sounds about right, but at least they are getting crowds. Marconi have a budget of over a million, and can barely get 100 people to any game. The only game they might get an okay crowd is against Sydney United.
Speaking as a person who is involved in Melbourne grass roots soccer(football to the Eurosnobs). The game here does not get enough support to club matches to warrant a NSD. The biggest Melbourne clubs outside of A-League are lucky to get Sheffield Shield level attendances to matches and the viewer ratings on RU-vid are at best in the hundreds or even lower(less than a hundred is the norm). And this is a world wide audience for free. It has no chance to ever be successful. Just expand the A-League and follow that.
Its a shame, Preston hosting South Melbourne last month had just under 7000 at a mid week game. If that was on a weekend one would suggest that would have drawn close on 9000. Most A league teams dream of getting that kind of turn out.
get all the clubs back in and let the landscape sort itself out!! I grew up supporting Marconi. I cant get behind any of these plastic aleague clubs. stop trying to fabricate football FFA
@@da45ep And I can't get behind these ethnic clubs that represent other countries rather than regions of Australia. This is Australia, right? Besides, tell SFC or Victory fans that they or their club is plastic and you'll get the passionate response you deserve!
Watch all the other matches outside those chances for a barney. That match was a blip, you do not see that every week. The audiences are miniscule. Move on, it is not 1974 anymore.
the problem is, football just isnt big in Australia. Even in Brasil and Argentina, they have their second division and then i believe their 3rd div is into states/regions. They are both big countries like Oz. You cant fabricate passion. But a closed shop is not the way to go. Marconi and Hellas would probably get more supporters to games than some clubs if they were in the A league ..open it up and let it sort itself out. some clubs will die (theyre on life support already) and some will rise from the ashes and we should see some new ones..let them get 4000 attendance. its what football is here. A league..B league. States NPL.. done. if you dont survive, you shouldnt have ever been there
Having just the top team from each NPL obviously severely limits the number of teams playing in the "champions league". What about a 16 or 24 team champions league with larger representation from the bigger states? If the A-League in its current state was to go belly-up, rebadge the eight NPLs as conferences with each conference comprising eight teams playing three home and away rounds plus eight inter-conference rounds for a regular season total of 29 games. For the inter-conference rounds Qld teams would play teams from NNSW, NSW with ACT, Vic with Tas and WA with SA. The top x number of teams would play-off to decide the A-League champs with the bigger states having a greater number of teams in the play-offs. The conferences would each have their own in-built pro/rel structure, which they currently have, and the comp would be played in the cooler months thereby aligning us with Asia.
Collingwood warriors didn't work because Collingwood F.C. management and their fans didnt do enough to make it a success. The potential of a club which has such a huge ethnic following having another sport to follow at the same ground they would go to during winter was huge but Collingwood marketed the venture from the book of how to not market and deter followers.
Hey Brad and Sogg 👋 Thanks for your informative video 📹 about the Australia Cup 🇦🇺 🏆 and the revamped ACL Elite and ACL 2 Asian club competitions ⚽️🏆. I'm really excited for each of these cup competitions this coming season. I'll be going to watch NWS Spirit vs. Glenorchy Knights from Tassie at Christie Park on Wednesday, 7th August. In terms of the ACL club competitions, I'm glad they've been completely revamped to improve the standard of both competitions. CCM and Sydney FC will have their work cut out for them however with the increase in prize money 💰, there's even more incentive to go as far as possible. I read the winner of the ACL Elite will receive $18 million AUD and the winner of the ACL 2 receives very close to $5 million AUD in prize money 💰 Winning the Australia Cup and finishing 1st in the A-League table is even more important for all A-League clubs now.
i think a breakaway league would be better. much like the super league in the rugby league back in 1997. cant all these clubs get together and put together the league they want? maybe it wont be recognised by asia or fifa or FA straight away but if they ruffle enough feathers, they will have to have conversations
Why have a new Auckland team in the A-League when the clearly the Knights failed in the past? Bit dodgy for me. Although a big massive Congrats to Canberra, they deserve it. When will the A-League start taking regional football seriously? It just saddens me that I want to follow the A-League but cannot find a team from Tasmania.
Auckland is the biggest market in Australia-New Zealand without a team. I think like Gold Coast and Nth Queensland, an Auckland team can succeed when done right. And they seem to be doing something right with Bill Foley and co. Hopefully Tasmania will get a team in the next round of expansion and in the National Second Tier
@@ALeagueCouchCritics I think you are quite missing my point, and for you to see my point you must play devils advocate. Firstly, I dislike the idea of going back into markets that failed over new markets. In my opinion Auckland, Gold Coast and Northern Queensland should not have top priority for expansion. They had their chance, why go back? That was the crux on why I am happy for Canberra and upset with Auckland. I am not going to discuss Second Tier. It's NSL part II. As for expansions, I doubt A-League will expand further and if they do they will ignore Tasmania again. As seen with basketball, a Tasmanian team will have a great fan base, passionate loyalty and wherever they play will have a Tassie contingent in the crowd. I just wish the heads of A-League would see this and not the "chuck another team in Sydney, Melbourne, or New Zealand" mentality that we have seen over the past 10 years
Auckland had 4 different bidders for its licence while Canberra has been delayed until 25/26 and if Canberra is struggling to get itself sorted what chance does Tasmania have?
@@TOTN17 Canberra is different to Hobart. A lot different. We have a government that is focused on sport (MyState Arena and the AFL stadium are two examples). A rectangular stadium could arise in the works. So to answer your question it has a great chance.
@@redthezz If Canberra a city with almost twice the population of Hobart and far more disposable income is struggling to find an owner then what chance does Hobart have through it doesn't matter now as its now being rumoured that South Hobart under the name Team Tasmania has been approved for the NSD pending an official announcement if that rumour is true any chance of an A-League team in Tasmania is dead in the water as Tasmania cannot support 2 pro clubs
Ill support Western Sydney for that game against Brisbane City as Football Queensland's CEO Robert Cavallucci supports them and he is a corrupt piece of crap
I have a theory that teams named after concepts (fury, force, glory) are never as successful as ones named after animals or people or even without nicknames at all
