Originally Posted by Gary Fish
Finally realised there's more then one sport in this country
Finally realised there's more then one sport in this country
tinks gave them an opportunity to stick it up fairfax.
speaking of fairfaxA-League's marquee trio ready to go
Liam Fitzgibbon
The A-League's star marquee signings have declared themselves ready for action and are confident of figuring in the opening round of matches this weekend.
Sydney FC's Alessandro Del Piero, Newcastle's Emile Heskey and Western Sydney's Shinji Ono came together for the first time at the league's official season launch in Sydney today.
And while questions remain over their match fitness having all arrived in the past two weeks, the players were talking up their chances of making their debuts this weekend.
Italian great Del Piero is upbeat about Saturday's match away to Wellington after playing 70 minutes in an intra-club training match last week.
"I have to take time with the team but at the moment it (my fitness) is good," Del Piero said.
"I'm OK for the first match and I want to improve day by day.
"The 70 minutes I played last week is good news for me and for the team.
"We will have to see what happens with the flight to Wellington but I'm OK, I feel good, and this is the most important thing."
Sydney coach Ian Crook said he would wait until later in the week to decide on Del Piero's involvement against the Phoenix but warned he would not take any risks with the 37 year-old.
Former England international Heskey only arrived in Australia last Friday and appears most likely to come off the bench in Sunday's home clash with Adelaide.
The former Liverpool striker admitted his fitness was not at the level of his Jets teammates but said it would not take long to get up to speed and was ready to go.
Japan star Ono arrived on Monday but has already had two sessions with his Wanderers teammates and said he'd be up to playing in Saturday's match against Central Coast at Parramatta Stadium.
"I want to start. I'm ready," Ono said.
Football Federation Australia held simultaneous season launches in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday.
Outgoing FFA chief executive Ben Buckley declared the hype around season eight of the competition was unprecedented while it was announced Korean motor company Hyundai had extended their sponsorship of the league until 2016.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league...#ixzz288dszYiq
It's not just Newcastle stuff though.
The telegraph has been running heaps of Sydney and Wanderers stuff too.
And not the usual effnik sokkah hooligan riots rubbish.
Maybe cranky franky threatened to withdraw Westfield advertising worldwide.
Or David gallop has started work early.
The turn around is stark.
And extremely unnerving. I'm not used to this much positive crap coming from them. This is the same mob that ran with the Cahill incident FFS.
I wouldnt go that far, they have been running a lot of positive stuff but lets not forget it was only a few months ago that Tom Smithies was mainly responsible for the sokkah riotz headlines.
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Can't remember who it was, but there was a twitter post a few weeks back from one journo having a bit of a dig at Sydney FC during the height of the Del Piero signing, telling them to not forget the journalists who have covered them from the start.
I wonder if the FFA is going out of the way to over service the Daily Telegraph to turn it around. As long as they don't burn bridges with other media outlets I think it is a great strategy. I seem to be getting more out of the Telegraph than other papers at the moment.
That's what I mean Furns, the turn around in only the last few weeks is amazing.
And it genuinely looks like its all happened since adp landed.
Do they have a new editorial team?
Is buzz rothfield a closet Juve supporter?
It's definitely been a huge change, interesting to see how long it lasts.
The decline in SMH/Fairfax football coverage has somewhat coincided with Cockerill being made redundant. Say what you will about him, but he was the lead football writer for them, and I don't think they've replaced him. From what I can tell the only regular dedicated football journalist they have now is Seb Hassett (and Foz with his weekly opinion pieces).
As sammydog said, it's probably a situation that the FFA are quite happy with given the coverage by News Limited in the past.
When did that happen? (Don't read papers. Not a print media fan....save the trees!)
I saw The Cockerill sitting in a cafe in Sawtell....shootin' the shit with Gary Phillips. That was midday, Wed 11th July.
He was part of the recent redundancies in Fairfax, this was his last column:
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football...831-255m1.html
Got a new job with the FFA this week for A-League coverage.
Thoughts from Griffiths on the finals.
http://www.sportal.com.au/football-n...or-jets-201623The talk of rebuilding and the club going through a transition phase simply doesn't wash with Newcastle Jets striker Ryan Griffiths.
While the Jets have had the most change of any A-League club when it comes to playing personnel for this season, Griffiths isn't one for excuses when it comes to getting results.
Gary van Egmond's side missed the finals last season and a repeat won't be tolerated.
"Last year we under-achieved so we have to make the finals this time," Griffiths declared to Sportal ahead of the club's season opener against Adelaide on Sunday.
"We could say we were starting our transition last year but we don't have any excuses any more.
"It's been a long pre-season so everyone should have their team together the way they want it to be.
"I'm happy with where we're at as a team.
"We're flying, we're fit and it's a matter of being able to bring that into the A-League.
"Hopefully that pressure doesn't get to the players but I don't think it will because they all seem to be winners and they're all competitive."
Much of the 30-year-old's confidence comes from the addition of their international stars including Emile Heskey, Bernardo Ribeiro and Dominik Ritter as well as the wealth of young Australian talent in the squad.
"And we've still got Jobe Wheelhouse, (Ruben) Zadkovich, myself and Tiago there so the core is the same," Griffiths said.
"That's so important when you've got a lot of new signings.
"We're able to keep that continuity going which should help us right from the start."
Asked about the new imports, Griffiths said: "Ribiero just needs to get used to our system and the way that we play.
"I think being a Brazilian and a star player he's probably not used to the work ethic in Australian football and that everyone needs to chip in.
"He's getting there and I think he'll be great.
"Ritter has impressed me a lot. He's a really strong player and has a great cross on him and I'm sure you'll see him putting a few assists in this year."
Meanwhile Heskey is adamant his game won't change despite coming from the higher standard of the English Premier League to Australia.
The former England international has made his name more as a provider than goal-scorer over his 17-year career and foresees a similar pattern in the A-League with the Jets.
"That's the way I've grown up playing so I don't fancy changing anything," Heskey said.
"I've managed to win cups and managed to go to two World Cups, two European championships doing that same thing, so why change now?
"Everyone wants to be a goal scorer but not everyone can be. Everyone thinks they're a goal scorer as well.
"I'll carry on doing that, being a provider."
Does this mean we might be able to drop the FFA shitfest that is the walkout song for NTUA?It's Over To You!
This season, for the first time, Melbourne Victory will deliver a supporter-owned pre-match entertainment experience.
In the lead up to the 2012/13 campaign, Melbourne Victory has gone through a thorough process to identify key areas of the match day experience. A match day committee, involving members selected across different segments of the membership base, was formed and helped to build a program aimed at creating a more authentic pre-game atmosphere that members could take ownership of, as seen around the world.
As a result of this, the Club is excited to announce, that with the support of the FFA , the 15 minutes prior to kick-off will be owned by Melbourne Victory supporters.
During this period, there will be no advertisements, no standardised scripts and no ‘player walk-out’ song. Instead, the club will play songs selected from a collection submitted by the members and voted on by our match day committee. The big screen vision will include footage from Melbourne Victory milestone events. Our ground announcer will also be on pitch to present the playing list and most importantly, when the players walk out, they will walk out to the sounds of Melbourne Victory supporters chanting.
From the 2012 Member’s Forum and 2011/12 Member’s Survey, it was clear that members wanted to improve the match day experience and there was a general consensus among members “wanting to generate their own atmosphere”.
Last season, substantial steps were made by way of the Supporter Charter, which enabled the North Terrace to return in full voice.
So, make sure you arrive at the stadium no later than 30 minutes prior to kick-off, assume your rightful place in the stands and take ownership of the pre-match experience. You can take part in welcoming our team onto the pitch and stand united with Melbourne Victory supporters to build a formidable atmosphere that will unsettle the opponent and give our players a home-ground advantage and extra ‘edge’.
http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/...r-To-You/49523
This is awesome. If we don't follow suit it will be a disc race.
Thank **** for that.
I have my doubts. I think Melbourne are an exception as they can do a good job of creating an atmosphere.
Happy to be proven wrong though.
Any news on whether our video can get some airtime pre-game? I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to do the same thing as Melbourne, we have NTUA and the vid and a lot of passionate active supporters to contribute
They made the video to play before the players walk out.
This development with Victory is new, I will email the Jets and chase it up.
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Official A-League twitter account has just posted this:
FAN UPDATE | We have listened to your feedback and have given the choice of the team walkout music to Hyundai @ALeague clubs. Meaning your club can decide which track your heroes will walk out to at every home game of the 2012/13 season.
Soft.
Make a decision and stick with it.
Lolololololololol
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