Sky Blues aside, it’s a sad state of affairs for NSW A-League teams
For the third time in five years, it’s now odds on that NSW will have three teams in the bottom four of the A-League and patterns suggest things aren’t about to change.
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IT’S a pattern being set with depressing regularity – and with 11 rounds to go, there’s plenty of time to consider at leisure how it might be changed.
Defeats to the Mariners and Newcastle at the weekend, coupled with Western Sydney snatching a draw from the jaws of victory, means the top six look set almost in stone.
With Newcastle, in seventh spot, 11 points off the finals positions, and the Wanderers, Brisbane and the Mariners even further adrift, it’s now odds on that for the third time in five years, NSW will have three teams in the bottom four.
In fact, since Western Sydney’s advent in 2012-13, giving NSW twice as many teams as any other state, at least two of those four have finished outside the top six in every season bar one.
In a league where mediocrity is rewarded by giving 60 per cent of the teams a place in the finals (at least until expansion begins next season), that is a damning indictment.
By definition, a salary-capped league is meant to be evenly matched, so teams can’t dominate consistently. But there are patterns here suggesting the underperformance in this state isn’t about to change.
Sydney FC (3rd)
The Sky Blues’ success over the past two and a half years has been a model of consistency, but it’s easy to forget that their record was rather more chequered previously.
Sydney missed out on the finals in 2012-13, despite boasting Alessandro Del Piero in their ranks, scraped into the finals a year later, and missed out again in 2015-16.
What Graham Arnold was able to build in response was a culture of consistency, helped by strong recruitment and a fit squad. That’s why Steve Corica was appointed to succeed Arnold, stepping up from the assistant’s role, and so far arguably hasn’t received due credit for having his team firmly in the title race, especially given the departures of Bobo and Adrian Mierzejewski.
Western Sydney (8th)
The Wanderers’ fans must feel like passengers belted into the back seat of a car on a wild journey, desperately hoping that the man at the wheel, Markus Babbel, genuinely does have a plan to return to the top of the league.
The fall from the top can be starkly illustrated by comparing the fortunes under Tony Popovic and since. In Popovic’s five years at the helm the club reached three grand finals, won the minor premiership and in the one season they missed the finals, won the Asian Champions League.
In the 16 months since Popovic quit on the eve of 2017-18, Western Sydney have been in the top four for just seven weeks; and this season, in the top six for just three weeks. For the players it’s hard to know what has stung more this campaign, the continual defeats or the weekly criticism from Babbel.
The next few months loom as utterly pivotal for Babbel and the club, assuming he is given the responsibility of rebuilding and leading the team next year into the new Parramatta Stadium.
Newcastle Jets (7th)
The Jets’ fall from last season’s heights is dispiriting, but is it a surprise? Boss Ernie Merrick’s resume over nearly 10 seasons coaching in the A-League follows a startling statistical pattern of alternating between success and failure.
Only once has he backed up success (winning the double in 2008-09) with anything comparable (coming second in both the regular season and the grand final the year after).
Injuries and suspensions have severely hampered Merrick’s season, while several players have fallen well short of last season’s standards. But a financially sound and well-supported regional club deserves better than one season of excitement after so many years of failure.
Central Coast Mariners (LAST)
It’s hard to know where to begin with a club so full of enthusiasm and good intentions, but now apparently hard-wired to fail. Since the huge over-achieving under Lawrie McKinna and Graham Arnold the Mariners have done nothing more than make up the numbers.
Finishing eighth or 10th in the past four years has been bad enough, but this campaign has been particularly disappointing after spending more than ever on the squad.
Overall spending at the club remains precariously low, and it’s hard not to feel that only a change of owner, with a consequent injection of finance and belief, can save the club.
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Originally published as Sky Blues aside, it’s a sad state of affairs for NSW A-League teams
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