IT’S only about three kilometres from Plummer St Oval in Port Melbourne to Batman Park on the banks of the Yarra, but they might as well be light years apart as the A-League tries to show that things are starting to change around here.
The helicopter stuffed with A-League and W-League talent that buzzed AAMI Park and the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne on Thursday lunchtime could not have struck a more different note to recent pre-season events, most pointedly the gathering of injured and fringe players held at a suburban club on that Plummer St field three years ago.
That was even before Alessandro Diamanti roared up in a Ferrari as the helicopter landed near AAMI Park – literally roaring, Western United’s Italian playmaker revving the California T engine lovingly while complaining about Australian speed limits – to burnish the shiny-and-new theme further.
Ten days before the two competitions start, the shift away from a singular “season launch” is a sign of the clubs doing things differently as they move to assume imminent control of the two leagues.
That’s why there was playing talent and silverware on show in Melbourne on Thursday, but in a radically different context and without a suit in sight.
Australia’s record goalscorer, Lisa De Vanna, stood opposite Melbourne City’s Jenna McCormick – there to represent the newest vintage of Matildas talent. Similarly Diamanti arrived with Young Socceroo Dylan Pierias, a teammate and prospect who the Italian might prefer not to realise is only a little more than half his age.
If Diamanti seemed a mite disappointed at not being able to take the Ferrari home, Rudy Gestede looked happy simply to be in human company, even socially distanced, after two weeks in quarantine in Perth that ended only on Wednesday.
Melbourne Victory’s French-born Benin international – who scored goals in the EPL – has been signed to do likewise in the A-League and add the sort of x-factor that draws fans to games.
A similar league-wide sense of excitement has been promised by the clubs once the season begins for both competitions two days after Christmas, with a 12th team joining the A-League and a clutch of Australian coaches appointed with a mandate to attack and to entertain.
In the end it is that entertainment which drives all successful football competitions. Dylan Pierias will be just one of a swathe of Australian youngsters given their head in both the A-League and the W-League this season and given the chance to prove there is a generation of talent coming through.
