Editorials

The general public of Brisbane are, at best, only dimly aware of it right now, but over the past few months fresh battle lines have been forming between the Brisbane Strikers and the Queensland Lions. On this occasion, the battle is over which of the two clubs will become their city’s representative in the new national soccer competition being pieced together by the Australian Soccer Association.

Perhaps it is just as well the general public knows little about what is going on behind the scenes. That is because anyone with a keen interest in the matter does not have to scratch too far beneath the surface before they start to find the sort of stuff that turns the stomach and makes the head spin.

On either side, you have two clubs with years of boardroom enmity between them. They are both going full tilt toward the same prize, but in different ways and never the twain, it seems, shall meet. That much was always to be expected.

But ranged in between them there are a variety of people either actively involved in, or getting innocently caught in, the crossfire. These people include other administrators in the local soccer scene, journalists, supporters and even, heaven forbid, players.

Over the last week or so, for one reason or another, your faithful amateur BSSA scribe has found himself getting immersed in a gathering blizzard of intrigue, allegation, rumour, muckraking, claim and counter-claim. Of non-information, misinformation, disinformation, misrepresentation, misadventure - you take your pick! It has been a week in which the collateral damage amongst the soccer community, involving all of the groups identified, has been growing. A week in which reputations have been tarnished, egos shattered, feelings hurt and friendships destroyed. And the puzzlement and shame of it all is that, as far as I can tell, it invariably involves decent people.

Worse still, we’ve still got the best part of two months to go before the ASA decides which of the protagonists (if any) get to carry Brisbane’s reputation in the new league! How much more damage can be done?

When you get to see some of this stuff going on, you can’t help but ask yourself: "Is it any wonder soccer has struggled in Queensland for so long"?

Now, before I get to the real nub of this article, I would like to assure readers of the following: That in anything I write for this website about this burgeoning "Battle for Brisbane", from this point forth, I will studiously avoid any attempt to editorialise. While, as a declared supporter of the Brisbane Strikers, I can hardly be expected to be totally impartial, I will do my very best to report only the bare facts as told to me by whoever is the identified source at the time.

Now to my point: I would like to appeal to everyone concerned - whether in the employ of the Brisbane Strikers or the Queensland Lions, or involved as a supporter, a player, a journalist, a lawyer, an accountant, a consultant or just an interested observer - to stop for a breath. Take a step back. Look a bit further into the distance and get a fresh perspective.

Why? Because when the battle is won and lost, and the successful bidder is named, the vast majority of you are all going to have to get along with each other - for the good of the game we all love. You are going to have to seriously consider giving your support to the other side, because if you can’t or won’t, the last great chance the game might have in our lifetime to capture the imagination of the Brisbane public might be lost.

From all accounts (and there are plenty, without the real details being provided) the Strikers and Lions are each going to table a tremendous bid with the ASA. The mind can only boggle at what they could have tabled together. That’s potentially another story. But separately, it seems, they are both going to have a lot to offer to the beautiful game’ in this city and Queensland.

Remember, what the protagonists are competing for is the honour of advancing the game of football in Queensland by a quantum leap - for all of us.

So, if we have to have a fight, let’s have a fair fight and a clean fight so that when it’s all over we can all move forward in one direction.

Is that too much to ask? 

Without a doubt, the most inspiring story in world sport this year was the triumph by Greece in the final of the Euro 2004 tournament a few days ago.

Not particularly inspiring if you are Portuguese, mind you - but for everyone else looking on this was surely the stuff that sports dreams are made of.

For as long as most of us have been alive, and probably even longer, the national football team of Greece has been little more than a laughing stock in the world game. Passionately supported, but with their teams lacking in technique, discipline and organisation, the Greeks have generally been cannon fodder for the stronger nations of European and world football.

Coming into the Euro 2004 tournament, few people gave the Greeks a chance of progressing past the group phase of the tournament - drawn, as they were, against the home country Portugal, the ever-disappointing but highly fancied Spain, and the well-performed (in European Championships) Russia. So unfancied were the Greeks, they were bracketed with Latvia as rank outsiders.

While their form leading into the tournament had been solid, even encouraging, the conventional wisdom was that they might get away with a win or a draw somewhere, but would depart the tournament early. Hell, even the Greeks apparently believed it - one report this week suggested they had not booked accommodation for the latter games of the tournament.

As usual, the opinions of the experts tended to favour the established superpowers of the game - holders France, Italy, England, Holland or perhaps Germany. Yet only two of those made it past the group phase and one of them (France) were then given early tickets home by the Greeks in a quarter final.

The Greeks served notice from the very first game of the tournament that they should not be underestimated - beating the home team and threatening its survival in the competition. Their subsequent draw with Spain meant that a loss to the Russians in their last group match was insufficient to prevent their progress into the quarter finals.

The ensuing boilover against France - surely the Greek’s finest moment in the game to that point - merely served to pitch them into a semi-final against the Czech Republic. The Czechs were most observers’ pick as the most fluent, talented and confident team left in the tournament. They had won all four of their games and were expected to cruise past the Greeks, who surely had played their final against France.

Wrong again. A near-post header from Traianos Dellas in extra time propelled the underdogs into the final against the host nation. Given their victory over Portugal in their first game of the tournament, the impossible now looked distinctly possible.

And so it was.

It is difficult to remember, or even to research, a bigger upset in the entire history of international football than Greece winning the European Nations Cup. Football fans with a sense of history might point to the USA beating England in the 1950 World Cup, North Korea beating Italy in the 1966 World Cup, Cameroon beating champions Argentina in the opening game of Italia ‘90 or even Senegal beating holders France in the opening game of the 2002 World Cup. But massive as those results were, in terms of aristocrats being dethroned for a moment by the football equivalents of peasants, they were "one-offs". The perpetrators of the upsets had raised themselves for one colossal tilt at the heavyweights and could not go on much further.

The Greeks have now shown them all that it can be done - that a team lacking in superstar quality and household names can, if it is organised enough and believes in itself, go the distance in a major tournament. What South Korea and the USA hinted at in Japan/Korea 2002, Greece has now proven.

In doing so the Greeks have given a shot in the arm to underdogs all over the football world, and a reminder that the spirit of the game is alive and well. More and more nowadays, football - the beautiful game that has inspired the poverty-stricken to dream - has taken on the appearance of being the prisoner of the super-rich. Fuelled by massive TV deals and other blue-chip sponsorships, the football leagues of Italy, England, Spain and, to a lesser extent Germany, Holland and France have sucked in the cream of the world’s football talent and then proceeded to treat it as if they owned its body, heart and soul.

Recently, the massively wealthy "G14" group of football clubs has begun to strut the world stage, lobbying and, some might say, in some cases threatening international bodies such as FIFA and UEFA to adopt policies that suit the G14, on the premise that if something ain’t good for them, it ain’t good for the game! The unspoken assumption in all of this is that the super-rich clubs are the repositories of all that is top quality in the game, and that if you aren’t playing for them you can’t play at the top level.

How insolent it is, then, that of the 23 players who made up the Greek squad for Euro 2004, only one of them - midfielder Georgios Karagounis - plays for a G14 club (Italy’s Inter Milan). Of the rest, fifteen play their club football in Greece, while the other seven play for what might be termed "second tier" clubs in England, Germany, Portugal, Italy or Spain. Perhaps the Greeks have shown that who you play regularly against is just as important as who you play regularly with.

With that in mind, there could be considerable inspiration to be drawn from Greece’s triumph for us in Australia. We, too, have a national team made up largely of players plying their trade in European clubs outside of the G14, but who play regularly against the best that the top European leagues can offer. If we can mould a team with the same sort of collective spirit as the Greeks, we can achieve a great deal more than might be expected. In order to do that, it will be necessary to reward the players who show the right attitude - a desire and preparedness to make sacrifices to play for their national team wherever and whenever possible. Given the right attitude and preparation, maybe we can climb to the top of world football

Wishful thinking? Last week, the answer might have been "yes". This week, however, the Greeks have shown it is still all right to dream and that the beautiful game has not lost its capacity to surprise.

The NSL season is but three days over for the Brisbane Strikers, but the almost traditional speculation in Brisbane’s media about whether the club has a future has already begun.

This morning’s Courier-Mail carried a column almost guaranteed to make Strikers supporters choke over their morning coffee. One of the paper’s most senior sports writers, Mike Colman, wrote a piece under the headline "Lions lick lips as Strikers prepare to hit the cash barrier". 

The theme running through the article was that, while the Strikers are a nice bunch of guys, they do not have the money to mount a stronger case for inclusion in the new national football competition than the Queensland Lions, who are cashed up and waiting to pounce. Here are a few grabs from the article, commencing with an observation about last Saturday night’s almost miraculous performance by the Strikers against Adelaide United:

"Yet another heartbreak chapter in the story of soccer’s great survivors had been written, but this time it might just be the last.....Before the 2002 season started the NSL said ‘thanks but no thanks’ and announced the Strikers were through. A court ruling in their favour later (funny, we don’t remember any such court case), they were back.....Good ol’ Clem Jones, deep-pocketed former lord mayor and club benefactor, kept writing the cheques and the boys kept on winning. It was a big story at the time, a triumph of good blokes over big bucks.

This time, though, you’ve got to wonder.

Soccer isn’t what it used to be. In a couple of years it might even be well run.....The Strikers can be the best blokes in the game, Clem Jones might be the kindest old gentleman since Santa, but if the Strikers can’t come up with the dough, they’re history.

Strikers officials continue to speak of the great contribution the club has made to the game and the mighty spirit of the players and fans, all of which sounds a lot like whistling past the graveyard.

Ominously, when asked last week whether the Strikers would be in the competition next year, (John) O’Neill made the point that any decision would depend on the ‘financial viability of the participants’.

‘Any club must pay its own way,’ he said.

Given that clubs in the revamped competition will be required to pay a million dollar-plus entry fee that would test even the financial resources of the Clem Jones group of companies, the future isn’t looking too bright.

Especially as the rival Queensland Lions are licking their lips in anticipation of a kill. The Lions have been waiting for this moment for years. They have players, a junior infrastructure and, most importantly, pots of dough".

And so it went. For those of us who have watched the Lions v Strikers war portrayed in the local media over the years, it sounded all too familiar. But just why a journalist of the senior status of Colman would start going on with the sort of stuff that we’ve been used to from the jaundiced pen of a journalist who now works for another newspaper, is anybody’s guess.

It’s almost as if the Queensland Lions are an article of faith. Someone only has to mention the words "poker machines" and they are automatically considered to be an economic powerhouse who will simply steamroll the Brisbane Strikers. And if that someone also mentions "junior infrastructure" - hey presto! Lions automatically have a burgeoning support base and a well-spring of top talent.

Okay, so there is room for speculation about whether the Strikers or any other football club, existing or otherwise, will be successful in joining the brave new world of John O’Neill and Frank Lowy. But to keep on reading suggestions that the Queensland Lions are a better option than the Brisbane Strikers - suggestions that are made without any real research - is tiresome.

For what it is worth, the noises from within the Brisbane Strikers suggest the club is determined it will mount a strong case to be part of the new national competition that will kick off next season, and confident it will be successful. If the noises are to be believed, Brisbane Strikers supporters can be assured the club will not throw in the towel and that it is financially well positioned to make its case.

Now, having got that out of the way, here are a couple of things we would dearly like to see happen in the weeks and months ahead as this annual guessing game heats up.

Firstly, we would like to see journalists start to think outside the box a little when talking about the relative merits of the two clubs - to start questioning a few truisms that might just turn out to be myths. It isn’t a lot to ask that proper research be done. And while they’re at it, perhaps they should examine the type of clubs that O’Neill wants in the future national league. Are they clubs who have the capacity to unite their communities, or are they clubs that divide their communities?

Secondly, we would like the Brisbane Strikers to get on the front foot and get active in a PR and communications sense. The perceptions that exist in the media and, through it, the public, about the relative strengths of the two clubs have surely got a lot to do with who engages with the media, and who doesn’t. By and large, Brisbane Strikers supporters are fed up with watching their club’s reputation getting junked, off-season after off-season, while the club appears to watch in silence. Perceptions can be damaging, no matter what the real story is behind the scenes, and they have probably contributed somewhat to the decline in support for the club since 1997.

It is way past time for the Brisbane Strikers to start dealing with this.

The Strikers are doing a fantastic job on the pitch, and the fans are all delighted with the past two weekends’ entertainment. Well done to all the playing and coaching staff!

In the Free Kick last Saturday I put up a challenge to the Strikers board– to take advantage of the BSSA’s offer to help with the web site, with promotion of the Strikers, and with informing fans about what is going on with the club. Well the Strikers have responded to that challenge just like the team did to Parramatta Power ten days ago, and to prove it, their web site is now carrying full match reports and articles. You will soon see articles informing fans about the progress with the initiatives put in place at the start of this season to ensure the Strikers’ inclusion in the new league next season.

The BSSA is going to prepare articles for the Strikers, and they will be prepared with the media in mind, so that they can be used as media releases. You will see articles about key figures in the club, those ‘shady characters’ who work behind the scenes and receive no reward except to see the players on the park. We will feature ‘Thor’, Charlie who runs the gates, and Batman who runs the raffles, all of whom have been around the club since its infancy, and some of the other faces on the board, the medical and other specialists, the office people, and those who look after the ground.

Once the fans know who runs the club, they will have a better appreciation of all that is involved, and they may not worry so much about the future of the Strikers. At least they will not be wondering…

So thanks to the Strikers – all of them – on the field, in the board room, in the office, in the change rooms, the groundsman’ shed, at the gates, everywhere. This is a great response to my challenge, and now it is up to the fans, the BSSA, to show what can be done.

Come along to Crosby’s at Albion on Tuesday night – 7pm, where the BSSA will hold a meeting to work on publicising and promoting the club.

With the dedication of Clem Jones and his colleagues, the volunteers, and the supporters, we can show the Australian Soccer Association what a great asset they have in the Strikers. Can you match the dedication shown by Dr Jones, Thor, Charlie, Batman and the rest? Make yourself part of the team. Phone the Strikers to see how you can help, or send an e-mail to the BSSA or the Strikers:


Phone

BSSA – [email protected]

Strikers – [email protected]

never give up

New directors on the board of the Brisbane Strikers, the return to Perry Park, the establishment of a Social Club, a ‘Queenslander’ senior side, the formation of the youth team, the acquisition of Meakin Park, the employment of Mr Steve Wilson to establish the new set up, and new director Mr Robert Green's 'portfolio which will involve the promotion of the Strikers and the marketing of the new Club' (Anon article in Eye on Strikers Vol 12-1, Sat 27 Sept, 2003) were all positive signs of fundamental change to the Strikers’ management before this season began. And, of course, Dr Clem Jones continues to pour funding into the club.

In the days following Stuart McLaren's appointment as coach supporters eagerly awaited the new season.

On the field they have not been let down by the senior side, or by the youth team.

But despite the announcements that indicated to the contrary, off the field there seems to have been very little real change from previous seasons to the way the Strikers are run from week to week.

The Eye on Strikers is still the best program available on any NSL home ground, with the possible exception of Perth’s, but the club's official web site remains an embarrassment to it. It is seldom updated at all, and tends to be poorly written when it is.

There have been no media announcements from the club since the media briefing seven weeks or so ago, at which all the good new things were announced.

There was no promotion of the match against Da Nang, even amongst the Vietnamese community in Brisbane.

When the town was full of England fans waiting for the Rugby match the following day, our game against Newcastle United was not advertised to attract them to Perry Park.

At the Newcastle game supporters were intrigued by Strikers President Ross Melville’s article in the Eye on Strikers (Vol 12-3, Sat 1st Nov, 2003), in which he wrote about the Power of Effective Marketing, at national level with the Rugby and at club level with Adelaide United and "their marketing team".

Intrigued, and a little encouraged. Surely this was an indicator that some promotion of the Strikers will now commence.

The return of the previous Strikers ‘BSSA-Players of the Season’, Clint Bolton and Fernando Rech and the big spending Parramatta Power, ‘the team’ of the season, presents great promotional opportunities: a team of underdog Queenslanders against the best that a silvertail New South Wales outfit can throw at them - a real 'David and Goliath' contest in the best tradition of Queensland versus New South Wales sporting fixtures. Queenslanders love that stuff, and the Strikers know they do.

Surely these promotional opportunities will not be missed too. What message would that send to the Brisbane public, media, football community? What message would it send to the ASA Task Force?

Would it be enough for Dr Jones to assure the ASA that marketing at Brisbane will commence when the national marketing commences, when TV coverage is secured? Would that be enough to get the Strikers into the next season of national competition in Australia? Would that be enough to convince corporate sponsors to back the Strikers, now or in the brave new league?

We at the BSSA would feel much more secure about the future of our club, of Dr Jones’ club, if it was seen to be promoting its product and its players to a Brisbane community that ought to know more about one of its elite sporting teams.

Let’s see the Strikers use Parramatta Power and the Power of Effective Marketing to send a message about Queensland football back to NSW, and to the ASA.

What do you think? Should the Strikers be promoting themselves, & issuing media releases? Why, or why not? Send your opinions in an email to [email protected] And send a copy to the BSSA at [email protected]

On Sunday, 14 September, the BSSA hosted a "Meet the Players" brunch.  Wade Hart on behalf of the BSSA, prepared and delivered the following welcome address to the Strikers players and attendees:

"Whether it is Buenos Aries, Birmingham, Bruges or even Brisbane, each city in the world shares a common bond. They each have clubs that represents their good citizens on the football pitch.

To think of these clubs as eleven men kicking a ball, J.B. Priestly would say, is like thinking a violin is merely wood and catgut and Hamlet so much as ink and paper. Football is much greater then its simplicity, it’s a unifying power. Feelings and experiences that are shared through football are common to all.

The feeling after a goal is scored, a shimmying dribble past a defender, an execution of a perfectly weighted pass excites all fans, no matter what city they are from.

Perhaps it’s the fact that our game, more then any other reflects the unfairness of life, the best team doesn’t win, just as the best person for a position is not selected, and best decision is not always made, means people can relate to it.

For someone to be part of the game, part of the foot-balling family is easy. The foot-balling family embraces everyone who loves the beautiful game. Membership of this family does not depend on ability but rather on devotion and comradely, bound together by a shared respect for this most beautiful and basic game. It is a simple game and the people love it.

Football people, real football people, will do anything anytime, for other football people. This is community at work.

The people who are members of the Brisbane Strikers Supporters Association have this spirit. Young and old, male and female, white and blue collar, creed or birthplace matters not. Just your love of the game, and Brisbane itself. As members we work for the good of the game in our fair city, to increase the atmosphere at the games and attempt to bring more people into our foot-balling community.

We strive for the mutual benefit of our game and our team. We hope in our actions we can inspire you, our city’s representative in the world game and hope that you can make us happy with your desire to play the game attractively, but with strength and that proud Queensland tradition of never giving up.

Thank you all for coming, together we can make this the second great year in the clubs history. We hope that we will be proud that you represent us and our city in our game. And that you in turn will be proud to represent us, the beautiful game’s supporters in this fair city."

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to reply to your editorial.

While I admire and commend your enthusiasm for the National League and understand from where you are coming, I feel you were a little harsh in your criticism of me _ and other journalists _ re our previews of this season's competition.

As I see it, your editorial has fallen into the boring trap of blaming the media. It seems we are the core problem of the NSL. We did not cause the problems, we just report on them.

The NSL does nothing to help itself. For the second season in succession, Soccer Australia couldn't be bothered having a season launch. How bad is that?

How many clubs had launches? I know Parramatta did, but I did not receive an invitation from any other club. They don't care.

How are we, as journalists, supposed to help the NSL when the clubs and League won't even lift a small finger to help themselves?

Also. most clubs can't even be bothered to contact the soccer writers during the season to offer ideas or ask for help. I'm lucky to see media announcements from three or four clubs. The so-called media guys of the clubs are faceless identities.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the NSL, I lost my rose coloured glasses many years ago (maybe I can borrow yours one day!). Sadly, the League IS dying a slow, painful death...we all know that. Some say it died long ago and that what passes as a league is the bare bones with a little bit of
flesh hanging off of it.

As a journalist, it is my duty to say it as it is. As much as I wish I could, I simply can't pretend that we have a super, exciting and viable league. If I was too blunt then I apologise, but it is the nature of the
business.

It is important to note that Mike Cockerill (as you mentioned) and John Taylor (Daily Telegraph) were also critical of the league and started off their previews almost in the same way as I did. It is also important to note that we did not collude on our stories. They were written independently.

Remember, you have three guys with almost 70 years experience in writing about Australian soccer. The game is our living. We have seen some good times and plenty of bad times in the NSL so, surely, we are well qualified to express our opinions.

My boss is not an idiot. He knows the poor state of the game, he knows the problems. I can imagine the ruckus if I had written a colourful, over-exaggerated preview of the NSL while other journos got stuck in and gave it stick.

You say The Australian is my vehicle to push the merits of the NSL. I disagree. My job is to inform, not to give a false impression of a competition that does not have:
(a) a major sponsor
(b) television coverage
(c) its best players involved
(d) a media profile
(e) proper marketing
(f) a vision for the future

Despite all the bleatings, surveys and promises, we still don't have a plan for the NSL. Where is the restructure? There is no guarantee the League will be fixed up in time for the start of next season. All we are getting is that we have to have another transitional season, another season of twiddling our thumbs while other sports laugh at us.

It irks me that people are fooled into believing that the standard of the NSL is much higher than it is.

Your website used the following paragraph from a good mate of mine, Michael Lynch.
""While it is customary to bemoan the fact that more than 100 Australian footballers who might be playing here are overseas in pursuit of better career and financial rewards, the standard in the NSL is still, in many quarters, higher than a lot of pundits are prepared to concede'' Michael wrote.

With all due respect to Lynchie, he has seen very little of the NSL compared to myself, John Taylor and Mike Cockerill as he has only been involved in Australian soccer for a couple of years. Michael Lynch and I have had this discussion (argument) a number of times over the last 12 months or so.

I speak regularly to former players and, to a man, they say the standard of the NSL has slipped dramatically to what it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Yes, they can sometimes be accused of using the same rose coloured glasses you have, but many of them were quality players who represented the Socceroos. They know what they are talking about.

As for your suggestion, and I quote, "If you're wondering whether or not to go along to an NSL match this season, we suggest you stick with Lynch and Pramberg's views of the world. They focus on what the players have to offer and, when all is said and done, that's what it's all about.''..........

If our (Gatt, Cockerill and Taylor) view of the NSL is way out of line, then Lynchie and Bernie's decision to ignore the league's obvious failings and, instead, paint a flattering picture is misleading and, dare I say, a form of false advertising.

It doesn't help the game and, judging by the crowds, doesn't fool the pundits, sponsors and media giants either. 

Look, like all of you, I wish we had a fantastic league with super crowds, great stadiums and players, tv coverage and heaps of space in the newspapers. Unfortunately, we live in the real world. 

Finally, I want to say that I admire your passion for the game. I admire your passion for Australian soccer, the NSL and the Strikers. It would be great if that passion could be replicated 10 million fold around the country.

I honestly wish all the good luck to Stuart, the Strikers and your passionate fans

Regards
Ray Gatt

The article by Ray Gatt in today’s (19/9) The Australian is disgraceful. Given the opportunity to raise a cock crow at the dawn of the NSL season, Gatt came out with the familiar sty born gruntings about the administration of the NSL. 

Given the opportunity to discuss the exciting team put together by Parramatta Power, or the likelihood of Glory defending their Championship against that team; given the opportunity to speak of the Phoenix rising from the ashes of Adeaide City; or the young coach putting together a fast young Queensland side up north; or the careers of Shroj and North continuing to parallel each other; or the introduction of boutique stadia at Brisbane, Northern Spirit and elsewhere; given the opportunity to emphasise to Frank Farina that Laybutt and McKain came directly from a mid-table NSL team into his National Squad; Gatt chose to pour more criticism onto the administration.

This was the time to tell Australia about the excitement to be found in the NSL, to point out that the standard of the game in this country is higher than the Arsenal fans of Oz think it is. And the national newspaper was his vehicle to do it. 

Then again, Gatt has not been on his own this week in needlessly denigrating the NSL and the state of Australian football in general. Michael Cockerill in the Sydney Morning Herald also introduced his NSL preview today in a funereal mood, with the following little observation:

"For most of the past decade, it has been clear the league was living on borrowed time. The only issue was who would be brave enough, or big enough, to administer the last rites".

Even the NSL Chairman, Remo Nogarotto, has been up to his now familiar annual promotional high jinks with his description of this season's NSL as a "low rent" season.

With 'friends' like these, who needs enemies? Thank goodness, then, for this little piece of optimism from football journalist Michael Lynch, in The Age:

"But try telling the coaches, players, administrators and fans that the 26-round National Soccer League championship that starts today is at best an irrelevance, at worst a waste of time.

While it is customary to bemoan the fact that more than 100 Australian footballers who might be playing here are overseas in pursuit of better career and financial rewards, the standard in the NSL is still, in many quarters, higher than a lot of pundits are prepared to concede.

At the very least, it remains a nursery where some the best and brightest of Australia's emerging talents can cut their teeth in a competitive league and prove themselves at senior level before seeking alternatives overseas. The success of Marco Bresciano, Vince Grella, Mark Viduka, Danny Tiatto, Scott Chipperfield and Brett Emerton - all established Socceroos who played in the NSL as youngsters - is testimony to the league's efficacy as a proving ground.

Former South Melbourne defender Patrick Kisnorbo was a NSL centre-half three months ago - today, he is preparing to line up for Scottish Premier League club Hearts in its top-of-the-table clash with Glasgow Rangers this weekend".

That's a little more like it, Michael. But for the final word from the professional journalists, we'll turn to our own dear Courier-Mail and a piece this morning from that paper's Bernie Pramberg, a former Rugby League referee:

"This weekend's low-key opening round of the NSL does not do justice to the overall playing standard of playing strength. 

Brisbane Strikers player-coach Stuart McLaren subscribes to the argument that this season's NSL shapes as the strongest for years in terms of quality players.

A number of footballers with proven track records in Europe, including Socceroo Shaun Murphy (Perth Glory), Nick Carle (Marconi) and Michael Curcija (South Melbourne) have returned to link with NSL clubs.

And the Football Kingz have signed two Norwegians and aligned with English giant Chelsea in a move the New Zealanders hope will provide two Blues players on loan later this season.

'It's good for the game that players who have forged a career in Europe and made their money are still prepared to put something back into the game at home', said McLaren.

'The standard of player has been reflected in our recruiting. I've been surprised at the quality available and also some of the good players out there who are still without and NSL contract'."

Isn't it a rum deal for football fans that a man like Pramberg, steeped in Rugby League, seems far more willing to look positively upon the game than football's "own" journalists like Gatt and Cockerill - whose years of frustration and cynicism about the game's administrators seems to have got the better of them and discoloured their views on the players?

Thank you so much, Michael Lynch and Bernie Pramberg, for a little bit of acknowledgment that the players who are about to run around in the NSL might have something to offer the paying punter.

We know that they do. Why? Because we have been out there, season in and season out, supporting them and, significantly, BEING ENTERTAINED by them.

If you're wondering whether or not to go along to an NSL match this season, we suggest you stick with Lynch and Pramberg's views of the world. They focus on what the players have to offer and, when all is said and done, that's what it's all about. 

We hope you enjoy your football this NSL season - whoever you support.