Can football grand final pregnant with possibilities finally transcend the sport itself?

THE grand final is pregnant with possibilities. Hopefully it forms part of a tradition that, like other major sporting events, one day transcends the sport itself.

Captains Eugene Galekovic and captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley with the grand final trophy.

PUBLICLY the FFA would tell you they were ecstatic with an A-League grand final between the small market Central Coast Mariners and the offshore Wellington Phoenix so long as the competition was conducted with integrity. Of course they would.

But privately those still trying to give the A-League grand final the spotlight it deserves will be delighted how the playoff cards have fallen. In a marketing sense, this A-League grand final has two significant factors in its favour.

It involves the Western Sydney Wanderers, a club that was iconic before the ink was dry on the first souvenir T-shirts four years ago.

The Wanderers bring with them a band of colourful fans, a brooding and brilliant coach, his rejuvenated and more attacking team and, most significantly, the intense media coverage the franchise has enjoyed — or, in more controversial times, endured.

Then there is the venue. Complain all you like about the length of the grass and the wear and tear from other sports. That local fans would fill the 52,000 capacity Adelaide Oval for full-contact scrabble ensured this grand final would be sold out.

The game itself? Potentially a cracker for purists and tourists.

Adelaide United under Spanish coach Guillermo Amor is both python and asp. The Reds can strangle the best attacks with their tight and compact defence but can also strike suddenly and lethally.

The Wanderers? The Barcelona General Hospital does not transfuse as much Spanish blood as Tony Popovic has into his team. But it is the Wanderers quest to win a grand final after two previous defeats, as much as the way they hope to win it, that makes their participation so compelling.

Throw in the exposure generated by the Wanderers pulsating 5-4 semi-final victory over Brisbane Roar — the highlight of an enormously entertaining finals series — and this is an A-League grand final to savour.

Wanderers and United fans ahead of the grand final. Picture: Tom Huntley

So why the gnawing feeling that, despite everything this match has in its favour, the biggest game on the domestic football calendar does not gain the media traction and widespread public interest it deserves?

Why does the A-League grand final not yet occupy the same exalted space as the NRL and AFL grand finals, the Australian Open tennis final, the Melbourne Cup and the other truly marquee occasions when TV eyeballs and casual conversation exceeds our day-to-day involvement in the sports themselves?

Timing is everything. In April, Mal Meninga burps and the back page is covered. The A-League fixture has been shuffled back and forward but, unlike the Wanderers midfield, cannot create time and space for itself.

Significantly, you cannot expect the wider public to be emotionally invested in the A-League grand final if it is not wholeheartedly embraced by its core constituents. There is still an anguished debate among football purists about the worth of the finals system against the “traditional’’ top-of-the-table championship model.

As the Wanderers prepared to play a grand final they desperately want to win, Tony Popovic suggested players in the team that finished first on the table should be awarded championship medals. A justifiable argument. But to divide the spoils diminishes the winner-take-all nature that makes grand finals in any sport so compelling.

Most obviously interest in the A-League grand final remains a reflection of the wider public exposure of the league. Something we have said countless times will not grow until the league gains meaningful free-to-air exposure.

In the age of instant gratification it seems absurd that you can watch an episode of Game of Thrones at the same time as American viewers, yet the A-League grand final will be shown on one hour delay by its free-to-air partner SBS. Fox Sports has paid for the privilege of their exclusive live telecast. But the successful live telecasts of the AFL and NRL on both commercial free-to-air and Fox Sports surely points the way to the A-League’s future.

The fault does not lie with the “product’’. The first decade of A-League grand finals produced some exceptional drama. Brisbane Roar’s 2011 victory over Central Coast Mariners in 2011 was as engrossing as North Queensland Cowboys’ celebrated win in last year’s NRL grand final.

Today’s game is pregnant with possibilities. Hopefully it forms part of a tradition that, like the other major events on the sporting calendar, one day transcends the sport itself.

Originally published as Can football grand final pregnant with possibilities finally transcend the sport itself?