On Sunday, May 4, 2014, a sold-out Suncorp Stadium brought down the curtain on season nine of the Hyundai A-League.
On Sunday, May 4, 2014, a sold-out Suncorp Stadium brought down the curtain on season nine of the Hyundai A-League. Not only was this live experience of 50,000 plus fans utterly mesmerizing, but the game itself was the most watched in A-League history.
An incredible 57 countries, including European markets, broadcast Roar and Wanderers. It was streamed live for the first time and shown on free-to-air in Australia for the first time, too.
In total, thanks to a network of broadcast arrangements around, 250 million people saw the A-League-s showpiece finale of season 9. Wow! We-ve come a long way in just nine seasons, haven-t we?
Season 9-s memories are sweet, and not just Sunday-s Brisbane blockbuster. For me, the rise of young Australian coaches was a vital indicator of the league-s health. Phil Moss at Central Coast and Kevin Muscat with Victory – both stepping up when Australian coaching gurus Graham Arnold and Ange Postecoglou left their respective clubs for new challenged – were just a whisker away from AFC Asian Champions League group stage glory.
But more than that, the way they coached and their approach shows they get it. It-s about technical, attacking football.
The one coach who did succeed in that ACL respect, Tony Popovic of Western Sydney Wanderers, continued his meteoric rise as a coach. This is heartening and important for our development that the coaching quality remains as high level as possible.
To improve each season is surely the goal, as we saw from Mike Mulvey and Brisbane Roar.
Although not an Australian, Josep Gombau added to our coaching culture with stunning success at Adelaide United. And to cap the Spaniard-s season, was voted FOXTEL A-League All Stars coach for our date with Juventus on August 10. And how good was his passion on the bench?
Roar-s Thomas Broich, Wanderers- Shinji Ono and Mark Milligan at Victory stood out for me as the league-s best, while rising stars Awer Mabil at the Reds, Terry Antonis with Sydney and Golden Boot Adam Taggart from Newcastle showed us why the future is rosy.
But for pure colour and passion, Hyundai A-League fans take a bow all active fan groups, members and new fans of the league. An average attendance during the seaons of 13,000 showed this is a league on the rise (so become a member of you-re A-League club this off-season).
On the terraces and on the pitch, we-ve built a league the Football Family can be proud of. So do everything you can to make season 10 stronger, better, louder and more engaging than ever before.
As this retweet says…
So much ahead of us football fans with the AFC Asian Champions League Round of 16 featuring Western Sydney Wanderers, the Westfield Matildas at the Asian Cup, the Socceroos at the FIFA World Cup, the FFA Cup, the NPL and the FOXTEL A-League All Stars in August.
Season 10 of the Hyundai A-League will be around in no time. But for now, let’s just reflect on how far we’ve come and what a stellar season we’ve just witnessed. The Football Family should be very proud (even if your team didn’t win the Grand Final).
