FNQ A-League star backs shift from summer to winter

One of Far North Queensland’s former A-League stars has backed calls for the nation’s leading football competition to shift to winter.

• RANKED: Northern Pride’s best 50 players, #11-20
• Cutters keep AFL Cairns flag aspiration on track
• How coronavirus will affect local netball draw
• FNQ Football tackles club system issues

One of Far North Queensland’s former A-League stars has backed calls for the nation’s leading football competition to shift to winter.

“It would be brilliant, playing in the cooler weather adds to the speed of the game, especially in football,” Cairns-born Zenon Caravella said.

“Sometimes it gets so hot out there it just turns to s***.

“It’s just too hot to play at that level for so long.”

Zenon Caravella from Caravella Football Academy has been running live football sessions in his backyard so his students can keep their skills sharp during the coronavirus pandemic. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE.

The A-League’s need for a shift from summer reared its head at the start of the year when players were exposed to excruciating conditions during the height of the bushfires which swept the southeast corner.

Australia’s national football competition, formerly the National Soccer League, moved to summer more than 30 years ago so it wasn’t directly competing with the AFL, rugby league and rugby union.

Former Socceroos striker John Aloisi, who coached in the A-League for several years after his retirement as a player, has trumpeted the need for a change in the past few months.

In a wider discussion about the A-League earlier this week, he said postponements caused by the coronavirus could finally allow the A-League to align with the rest of community football, and other leagues across the world.

He said that if the season didn’t resume this year, it would mean the 2021 season would be ready to kick off come January or February.

Caravella spent the better part of a decade in the A-League with stints at the New Zealand Knights, Gold Coast United, Adelaide United and Newcastle, playing almost 150 games in Australia’s top competition.

Zenon Caravella in action during a Newcastle Jets training session. Picture by Peter Lorimer

He said a shift would allow for a faster and better standard of football than what is currently on offer.

“Football isn’t like some of the other sports,” he said. “We don’t have interchange, and there’s a lot more focus on explosiveness and repetition and movement.

“Playing in cooler weather, you can just run around all day. It doesn’t zap you as much as playing in the heat.”

A-League officials are eyeing August as a time they can resume and complete the season.

Sydney FC, coached by former Innisfail product Steve Corica, have one hand on the league title being eight points clear of nearest rivals Melbourne City atop the league with three games in hand.

Originally published as FNQ A-League star backs shift from summer to winter