Australia's best football prospect?

Forget James Holland, Newcastle might just have the Socceroos best of hope of future success on the bench.

Gary Van Egmond’s performance over the past two seasons has been nothing short of remarkable.

It’s not unheard of for manager’s to experience a honeymoon after arriving at an underachieving club, but this season’s success pales the impressive 2007 run.

Van Egmond arguably had the hardest lot of this season’s manager’s in recreating and improving on the Jets’ 2007 success.

Losing key playmaker Nicky Carle and popular forward Milton Rodriguez left the squad seemingly without the inspiration to progress.

Yet Van Egmond’s ability to have not only got the best out of existing players, but bring in a new crop of youngsters has been the foundation for the clubs grand final win.

He should also receive credit for tactically outthinking many of his opponents. Most notably was his side’s domination of the Victory (unbeaten against them in five) and coming back from the setback of giving up a 2-0 lead in the second leg of the major semi-final.

With the heavy smattering of Jets players in both the recent provisional Socceroos squad and new Olyroos squad, the argument for bringing Van Egmond into the national coaching setup is even stronger.

The 42-year-old clearly has a promising future, but already faces a struggle for 2009. With grand final goalscorer Mark Bridge set to move harbourside and Andrew Durante heading across the Tasman, the promising coach will have to move into the transfer market to replicate this season’s success.

But with the promise already shown, it might not be out of his reach.

Serious Assault or a frustrated high-five?

The aftermath of Central Coast’s loss to Newcastle may be even more keenly felt for the Gosford side than Adelaide twelve months ago.

The suspension of Danny Vukovic for 15 months (six of which have been suspended) is a crippling and certainly unnecessary one.

There is no question Vukovic’s actions in the wake of the poor missed penalty were stupid.

Evidence of that was how quickly the stopper ran away from Mark Shield, seemingly knowing what was due to follow.
Vukovic did not even stop to approach his bench before disappearing straight down the tunnel.

Yet despite the recklessness of his actions, one needs to ask whether one rush of blood to the head is worth such a severe reprimand.

Vukovic is young, and given it is his second red card of the season has a discipline issue. Despite that one would think the FFA could have taken more than 24 hours to make a decision that could dramatically shape this young man’s future.

There is no excuse for hitting a referee, yet clearly from the replays and photos that have emerged since, the contact was relatively minor. In fact, you have to wonder why the FFA has chosen the hard-line approach in this case, yet ignored calls to suspend Joel Griffiths following his incident with a linesman early in the season.

Justice seems to have been delivered swiftly… very swiftly.
The statement released by the FFA tonight does not indicate whether Vukovic has been able to plead his case. Let’s hope the FFA’s eagerness to resolve this issue has been due to efficiency rather than potential image problems in the mainstream media.

With the added burden of Sasha Petrovski facing action and John Aloisi potentially out the door, the Mariners may see the new season as August too soon.

Blowing the whistle on refs

While Australia may have criticised the performance of referees at last year’s Asian Cup, the problem of standards at home may be of greater concern.

Peter Green’s performance in yesterday’s A-League Preliminary Final took the gloss off a fine game, and forced Newcastle to play an extra 30 minutes ahead of the coming Grand Final.

The three penalty decisions were all questionable, and the offside decision against Joel Griffiths potentially robbed the Jets of a second goal prior to extra time.

That’s not to mention a series of poor judgement calls including a soft booking on Sasa Ognenovski that would have seen him miss the Grand Final.

By embracing the Australian love of the finals system, the FFA has also placed more pressure on the nation’s top officials to perform on the big stage.

Rather than a decision being accepted as part of the swings and roundabouts of a regular season, a dodgy penalty or red-card could see a team’s season disappear.

The fact is the standard of refereeing has not been good enough, with even the nation’s premier officials, Mark Shield and Matthew Breeze often getting basic calls wrong.

And one has to question the logic in not allowing players or managers to comment on their performance.

I have always thought referees should be treated the same as players. We should expect them to make mistakes, sometimes they even have a shocker.
There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s part of the game. And the same as we might question a player’s inclusion in a team, or whether they are up to the standard referees should face the same scrutiny.

It is not about denigrating the role of the official, it is about making sure every part of the game is at the highest standard.

Blackout on A-League

I will start by talking about a subject which will come up frequently on this blog – the lack of coverage of the A-League and Socceroos games.

Keen for radio commentary or even regular updates on the Preliminary Final, I was driven to frustration and the local pub to get my fix of the second most important game of the season.

It seems ridiculous that free-to-air A-League coverage is limited to SEN’s coverage of Victory home games and ABC Newcastle’s great service to their fans.

In particular ABC Radio Sport’s ridiculous decision to provide a full eight hours coverage to every international cricket one-day match, including matches not involving Australia.

Quite simply football is one of the few sports in Australia that has true national appeal, with attendances rivalling the NRL and interest rising.

Coverage in the media needs to reflect this.

No football match in Australia is currently considered worthy of a place in the government’s anti-siphoning list, meaning the sport remains hamstrung.

Government regulators and the ABC need to look at their role covering football and stop leaving fans short-changed.