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The Australian Championship Thread

Without pro rel w
Monoethnic Social Club said:
and also:

This unique structure ensures the Australian Championship remains inclusive, aspirational, and representative of the national football landscape. ...

as opposed to............ I may be reading fffaaaarrr too much into this but I have a feeling, boys and girls that FA is on a crusade to make this a stand alone rival league.... no more tlak of "second division" or "second tier" .... woooohooooooo its good to be back in from the cold....
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I don't get it though. What's in it for the FA to go up against the APL?
 
Hellenic_blue&white said:
IMO also this needs to go head to head bc ALL shortcuts only lead to failures.. Weekend games and if they clash so be it (we arent here to cater to aleague) if we are serious about proper indicators then let the cookies lay where they fall ..It will only harden the hardened to their own domains either way!
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This is the MOST fascinating thing about the whole exercise this year for me.. IF the Championship is indeed to be put up directly against the Aleague season, with the FA producing the games and, I hope, broadcasting quite a few of them free to air. Then its almost a declaration of WAR on the ALeagues..

I mean the FA's launch speaks about tying all of football together, of pro rel, of historic clubs, of respecting cultures and communities, of empowering ALL Australian clubs ... seems like its not too much of a stretch for them to turn around in a few seasons when full pro/rel is in place below the Championship and declare it first division status for all domestic and International competitions.....

Alot of "dormant" Hellas fans Ive spoken to over the past couple of days are telling me they would be keen to see what it looks like at the end of the year, and some even plan to come down during the NPL season to reconnect with the old club .... I'm alot more upbeat with this "mini comp" than I was a few months ago... Now its going to be competing for football bums on seats with the Aleague I wonder how many of the original NSL deserters may find themselves wandering back to Lakeside (and Edensor and the Palace etc etc) for a sticky beak?
 
I think everyone here has the right ideas about pro/rel structures between NST and NPL. And it's all up to how quickly clubs below can professionalise for which model FA choose. Maybe they'll choose multiple models as time helps shapes the landscape. No doubt the clubs up to 16 in the NST will be hand picked based on criteria, not merit. And that's totally acceptable and wise!

After that, this NPL<>NST pro/rel tournament would need to be really affordable, so maybe a group format like our 2025 Aus Champs. But I favour a single round-robin, as a double RR is more expensive and a tad boring playing the same clubs twice in short time. Single RR would mean an odd number of clubs and a bye, but with equal home & away.

Another option is the Swiss style, like the Euros have, where we could have any number of eligible clubs enter and the number of league matches played by a club could always be locked at a certain number (e.g. 6) regardless of the number of clubs. This might be more flexible because we'll likely never have the same number of eligible clubs entering each season to form a consistent group format.

Or, if there aren't many pro clubs ready, you could have a "merit" only tournament where you don't need a pro licence or ambition to be promoted, but have won your way to enter this comp. If the winner of this happens to have a pro licence then they get promoted. If the winner doesn't have it, then no pro/rel for that season. Or maybe give it to the runner-up, if eligible. We kinda want to hope that someone gets promoted with the money being spent on this.

I think aiming for 15 or 16 clubs in this pro/rel tour is best. Either 3 groups of 5, 4 of 4, or the great felixibilty of Swiss. It depends somewhat on the number of promotion spots to the NST as well. The best two clubs for promotion to NST (assuming that number of pro spots) could come from the one federation, so If we have only one club from each fed participate it screws up the "merit based" angle.

We could have premiers and runners-up from each fed.
Or premiers and Cup winners from each fed (this adds much more value to the local Cups too). Runners-up if the same.
Or we could have fed slots based on coefficients. E.g. after a few years of performances, ACT and NNSW might get one spot, and Victoria and SA might get an extra one each.
Or a mixture of everything!

By now, FA would have a good idea of how many clubs are serious and capable of turning pro and the depth of each federation, and will create an appropriate tournament(s) befitting this over time. I just hope I'm alive to see our potential realised haha!
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
This is the MOST fascinating thing about the whole exercise this year for me.. IF the Championship is indeed to be put up directly against the Aleague season, with the FA producing the games and, I hope, broadcasting quite a few of them free to air. Then its almost a declaration of WAR on the ALeagues..

I mean the FA's launch speaks about tying all of football together, of pro rel, of historic clubs, of respecting cultures and communities, of empowering ALL Australian clubs ... seems like its not too much of a stretch for them to turn around in a few seasons when full pro/rel is in place below the Championship and declare it first division status for all domestic and International competitions.....

Alot of "dormant" Hellas fans Ive spoken to over the past couple of days are telling me they would be keen to see what it looks like at the end of the year, and some even plan to come down during the NPL season to reconnect with the old club .... I'm alot more upbeat with this "mini comp" than I was a few months ago... Now its going to be competing for football bums on seats with the Aleague I wonder how many of the original NSL deserters may find themselves wandering back to Lakeside (and Edensor and the Palace etc etc) for a sticky beak?
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My sentiments exactly.. on all parts of that! 👏
 
MoorePark said:
By definition, haven’t the 8 clubs become a franchise of this exclusive spot in the leagues? Why is that a bad thing though?
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simple understanding:
FRANCHISE is the one that if you take the aleague away and block it from the top tier would be dead, buried and forgotten after its first year!!
The opposite of that is a club, ill let you fill in the gaps! 🤣
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
This is the MOST fascinating thing about the whole exercise this year for me.. IF the Championship is indeed to be put up directly against the Aleague season, with the FA producing the games and, I hope, broadcasting quite a few of them free to air. Then its almost a declaration of WAR on the ALeagues..

I mean the FA's launch speaks about tying all of football together, of pro rel, of historic clubs, of respecting cultures and communities, of empowering ALL Australian clubs ... seems like its not too much of a stretch for them to turn around in a few seasons when full pro/rel is in place below the Championship and declare it first division status for all domestic and International competitions.....

Alot of "dormant" Hellas fans Ive spoken to over the past couple of days are telling me they would be keen to see what it looks like at the end of the year, and some even plan to come down during the NPL season to reconnect with the old club .... I'm alot more upbeat with this "mini comp" than I was a few months ago... Now its going to be competing for football bums on seats with the Aleague I wonder how many of the original NSL deserters may find themselves wandering back to Lakeside (and Edensor and the Palace etc etc) for a sticky beak?
Click to expand...
I think you are reading too much into it.
First and foremost FA want to bed this comp down and that, in my opinion, will take a few seasons.
They will then have to begin the process of pro/rel with leagues down the pyramid, again this will take time.
They will have achieved the stated goal of having a predominantly autumn/winter season so the next step will be to integrate the A League into the format as I believe Johnson’s (thus FA) plan is to unite the game not further divide it.
 
Sutherlandbear said:
I will , when you do it as well.
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Mate i get the feeling, you among several others, would be the first to claim priveledge (after crying foul ofcourse) as a true "old football" fan if your franchise ever got excluded ... probs sell your merch on ebay to recoup some of those wasted costs when they would fold in the first yesr of any exclusion and you know it! 🤣
 
libelous said:
I think you are reading too much into it.
First and foremost FA want to bed this comp down and that, in my opinion, will take a few seasons.
They will then have to begin the process of pro/rel with leagues down the pyramid, again this will take time.
They will have achieved the stated goal of having a predominantly autumn/winter season so the next step will be to integrate the A League into the format as I believe Johnson’s (thus FA) plan is to unite the game not further divide it.
Click to expand...
I tend to agree with you except for the autumn/winter comment. The current start in October ties them to the ALM calendar. Assuming the Championship and the ALM get to 14 in the next couple of years with a full home and away they will be replicating the ALM schedule.
 
libelous said:
I think you are reading too much into it.
First and foremost FA want to bed this comp down and that, in my opinion, will take a few seasons.
They will then have to begin the process of pro/rel with leagues down the pyramid, again this will take time.
They will have achieved the stated goal of having a predominantly autumn/winter season so the next step will be to integrate the A League into the format as I believe Johnson’s (thus FA) plan is to unite the game not further divide it.
Click to expand...
I probably am.. its hard to see beyond the fairly obvious language though.... I agree the FA's plan seems to be to unite all, its just that they seem to be gaslighting the APL a little.... Could just be lip service to the 99% of football though, I guess well have to wait and see what plays out.. IF (and again just IF) the schedule comes out in October and matches are scheduled against Aleague ones, especially in places like Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, then i guess we will know what the intent is? fair?
 
patjennings said:
I tend to agree with you except for the autumn/winter comment. The current start in October ties them to the ALM calendar. Assuming the Championship and the ALM get to 14 in the next couple of years with a full home and away they will be replicating the ALM schedule.
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JJ HAS been pretty clear on the desire for a winter league though...... to tie in with ALL of the football being played around the country??
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
JJ HAS been pretty clear on the desire for a winter league though...... to tie in with ALL of the football being played around the country??
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Yeah I think it has to be a winter H&A season if they want it linked to NPL.
Eventually when it can be linked up and down with A-League and NPL, the Championship would have to sit inbetween those seasons. There's no other way, really. A-League is staying summer, grassroots is staying winter.
 
patjennings said:
I tend to agree with you except for the autumn/winter comment. The current start in October ties them to the ALM calendar. Assuming the Championship and the ALM get to 14 in the next couple of years with a full home and away they will be replicating the ALM schedule.
Click to expand...
I don’t think the October start will extend beyond this initial ‘champions league’ format. This was the only way to fit in to the current NPL seasons.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
I probably am.. its hard to see beyond the fairly obvious language though.... I agree the FA's plan seems to be to unite all, its just that they seem to be gaslighting the APL a little.... Could just be lip service to the 99% of football though, I guess well have to wait and see what plays out.. IF (and again just IF) the schedule comes out in October and matches are scheduled against Aleague ones, especially in places like Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane, then i guess we will know what the intent is? fair?
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I don’t think they can schedule it any other way unless they play weekdays but that will, almost certainly, not happen.
 
libelous said:
I don’t think they can schedule it any other way unless they play weekdays but that will, almost certainly, not happen.
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Sure, but its only 24 matches and they CAN schedule an Adelaide match on Saturday while the other Alegaue match in Adelaide is Sunday or vice versa.... or even play the Adelaide Championship match on a weekend where Adelaide United is away.... WILL THEY is the 64 million dollar question?
 
HappyGuus said:
Yeah I think it has to be a winter H&A season if they want it linked to NPL.
Eventually when it can be linked up and down with A-League and NPL, the Championship would have to sit inbetween those seasons. There's no other way, really. A-League is staying summer, grassroots is staying winter.
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The planned ‘ champions league’ format will fit between the A-League and NPL this year but when it moves to a home and away season will need 20 plus weeks to complete.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Sure, but its only 24 matches and they CAN schedule an Adelaide match on Saturday while the other Alegaue match in Adelaide is Sunday or vice versa.... or even play the Adelaide Championship match on a weekend where Adelaide United is away.... WILL THEY is the 64 million dollar question?
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That would be a sensible arrangement 😀
 
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