It’s the dirty derby with a lingering foul smell as Wanderers and Jets perpare to lock horns

YOU could dub it the dirty derby, when the two most-fouling teams so far this season - Wanderers and Newcastle Jets - go head to head on Friday night. The outcome could be predictable.

Wanderers’ Rashid Mahazi brings down Sydney’s Michael Zullo.

YOU could dub it the dirty derby, when the two most-fouling teams so far this season go head to head on Friday night. The outcome could be predictable.

Western Sydney host Newcastle at Spotless Stadium as the two teams boasting more fouls per game after four rounds than any other, and both well above the average for the season.

In four games each, Western Sydney and the Jets have given away 18 and 17.5 fouls per game respectively, compared with a league-wide average of 15 per team and ahead of Central Coast on 16.5. Melbourne City and Wellington are tied in fourth place on 15.3.

Wanderers’ Rashid Mahazi brings down Sydney’s Michael Zullo.

To put it another way, between them the protagonists on Friday night – in what is Western Sydney’s first real home game of the season – have accounted for almost a quarter of all fouls in the A-League this season.

The most striking feature of the Wanderers and Jets scoring so highly is the change on this point last season. At the equivalent stage, after four rounds, Newcastle were fourth on the fouls ladder at an average of 16.3 per game while Western Sydney were sixth on 15.

By the end of last season, Western Sydney’s figure had risen to 17.1 fouls per game, reflecting their increasingly desperate bid to make the finals, while Newcastle’s average foul count had fallen to 14.4 – both compared with an overall average of 15.4 fouls per team.

In this campaign, the weight of fouls isn’t necessarily translating into yellow cards; in a very tight field, four teams have 10 yellow cards each and three have eight.

Overall the A-League is very similar to last season for fouls, down after four rounds to 29.9 per game from 30.85 at this stage last season.

In fact overall this is the cleanest season after four rounds since 2014-15 when the average was 29.8 a game – in total numbers, a fall of some 6 per cent.

Perhaps surprisingly, the referees aren’t seeking credit for the reduction. If anything, A-League referees boss Ben Wilson believes it could be that teams have decided to clean up their game, albeit on the basis of a relatively small statistical sample.

Adam Le Fondre feels the full force of a tackle from Newcastle’s Ben Kantarovski.

“It’s been our philosophy for the past few years that we want to facilitate entertaining football,” Wilson said.

“Letting the game flow Is one area, and adding on more stoppage time to increase the time the ball is in play is another.

“But it’s not a new initiative, maybe some teams are deciding to play football a bit more. Certainly as referees we know we’re part of an entertainment industry, and anything we can do to help that, we will.”

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