By LAURENCE ROSEN
While last season was arguably a step back off the field, the actual football played was some of the best the A-League has delivered. With a glitzy marketing campaign launched and promotion of the league at an all-time high as the new season begins, the pressure is on to deliver the best-ever season on the pitch.
On the face of it, the standard can only go up from last season. There are now more fringe Socceroos coming home to play in the A-League, while the level of international talent hitting our shores is younger and more exciting than ever before. Last season was good but season 2016-17 looks like being the best yet.
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Tim Cahill stole the headlines on his return to Australia.
Socceroos returning
Tim Cahill’s arrival at Melbourne City has rightly stolen the headlines but beyond him, there’s a crop of fringe Socceroos fresh off European experience that return to the Australian domestic competition this year. James Troisi (Melbourne Victory), Josh Brillante (Sydney FC), Brett Holman (Brisbane Roar), James Holland (Adelaide United) and Rhys Williams (Perth Glory) are just some of the big local names returning home in search of more game time and ultimately a spot back in Ange Postecoglou’s national side. Season 12 of the A-League could land up being the year of the Socceroo.
New international arrivals
There’s also plenty of foreign talent coming in ahead of the new season kicking off. Perhaps the biggest international name in the A-League this season is Melbourne City’s Nicolas Colazo, who comes direct from Boca Juniors at the age of 26. Beyond that, Sergio Guardiola arrives on loan from Granada in Spain, while Sydney FC snapped up Bobô from Brazil’s Grêmio. Marco Rojas makes his much-anticipated return to Melbourne Victory, while a pair of Danes join Brisbane Roar (Thomas Kristensen) and Melbourne City (Michael Jakobsen). On paper this looks like some of the best overseas talent ever seen in the A-League.
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Melbourne City’s Nicolas Colazo is perhaps the biggest international name in the A-League this season.
New eras at Newcastle and Central Coast
The new season also sees the rebirth of two proud regional football clubs. Both the Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners enter season 2016-17 with new managers, and in the case of the Jets, new ownership entirely. On paper, they arguably have the two weakest sides but both are coming from a long way back. For both NSW clubs, this year is about consolidating a game plan while giving their fans hope. Paul Okon and Mark Jones look like promising appointments but they’ve got a lot to prove to quieten down the anger that permeates the clubs’ supporter bases.
Crowd record being broken
Meanwhile off the field, the A-League's long-standing crowd record is set to be broken. Both the regular-season crowd record (50,333) and all-time crowd records (55,436) are expected to be shattered as Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers meet at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night. This year marks the first time Western Sydney will host games at the former Olympic Stadium, with their regular Parramatta home undergoing renovations. The A-League has had to prove itself off the field for a numbers of years when competing with other sports and, with a 60,000+ crowd looking likely from all reports, the season is set to start with a bang.
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A bumper crowd is expected when Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers meet at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night,
City slickers
If the squad Melbourne City has put together isn’t the best in A-League history, it has to be close. While they’ve lost Aaron Mooy in the off-season, they have brought in Luke Brattan and Fernando Brandan, while Nicolas Colazo’s flexibility adds a dimension in the middle of the park. City’s defence is probably their weakest point, but they have still brought in Michael Jakobsen as a starting centre back, while A-League veterans in Josh Rose and Manny Muscat come in from Central Coast and Wellington respectively. City’s fortunes will largely rest on two things – how Bruno Fornaroli and Tim Cahill combine and whether a defensive pairing between Jakobsen and either Connor Chapman or Osama Malik can gel quickly. The City Football Group-owned club will likely revert back to a 4-3-3 formation this season and if they can start quickly, they will be mighty tough to stop.
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Luke Brattan has joined Melbourne City this season.
A-League in shop window
Football fans are a restless bunch and as season 12 draws ever closer, that restlessness is only amplified. As FFA CEO David Gallop has said on record, the season to come is vital ahead of a new broadcast deal beginning in 2017. With the A-League largely still hidden away on Pay TV and with commercial FTA channels reportedly circling, the spotlight is on the league to deliver not only on the pitch but off it. TV ratings and crowds slid slightly last season so an upturn in both could be vital in convincing mainstream TV networks to invest in Australia’s domestic competition from next year and beyond.
Laurence Rosen’s A-League ladder prediction1. Melbourne City2. Perth GlorY3. Melbourne Victory4. Sydney FC5.Brisbane Roar6. Adelaide United7. Western Sydney Wanderers8. Wellington Phoenix9. Newcastle Jets10. Central Coast Mariners