Thurgate has signed on a scholarship contract, not a senior, therefore does not take a spot in the 23
So this Ridenton bloke
Cant say i have seen a lot of him but is he counted as a foreigner??
Or is he coming on some type of Kiwi allowance thing like Glenn Moss ??
Because if he counted as one of our foreigners that is a pretty big call to use a spot on him
When Bert can find blokes like Vargas and Pato and KFC Hernandez in the past etc it seem on face value a waste on what appears to be a plodder in this Kiwi kid
Hope to god we not just wasting foreigner spots on rank and file plodders like Brown Poljak Bridges etc like we have done in the past because that be not a good thing
Cant be relied on for much actually
Bloke cost us a Grand Final at the weekend
How you blokes can fap over a bloke who missed an open goal in a GF and then a simple tap in blows my mind
Bloke could have been up there alongside Griff as the man who scored the winning goal in a GF but choked
The Championship Chronicles - The Jetstream's review of the 2007/08 season. www.newcastlefootball.net/chronicles
Vujica needs to find his early season form and keep it up all season. Wouldve been handy to have him firing for the GF
Ok, pure fantasy at work here: let's say there is a chance we won't keep Vargas and Pato, and Dimi will be snatched by some european club after the world cup for a good transfer fee.
This would put the club in a position to spend something important for a marquee: we'll never be able to afford an Iniesta... who else could be in the picture in case?
Reckon Lee would look at someone like Honda? What's the Japanese held like in China? Would be good for ACL?
So sick of the Iniesta talk. He is too good to be playing in the HAL, I would be offended to see him playing at such a rubbish level.
Also, if we spent that much money bringing him here it would put the club back a few years financially. I know he would put bums on seats, but not enough to cover his wage. The game isn't big enough in Australia to justify the costs.
There is a ceiling to the impact a marquee can have on this league. Iniesta is way beyond that ceiling.
Also, instead of the FFA putting money into a marquee fund / war chest, maybe they should spend even a single dollar on advertising the league.
x1000 this
And in this league, the casual isn't impressed by a midfielder. Iniesta is an amazing footballer, but there's nothing flashy about him that will make him feel like that star the a-league wants. It's no suprise that the biggest marquees this league has seen have all been attacking third based players.
A player like Honda seems to suit the league more, wouldn't be as pricey, attacking based player and would definitely bring some extra eyes or attendance to the team he plays for.
Then again, the NRL seems to thrive off over the top advertising and PR. They have a knack of making every match sound like it’s going to be the best match in the history of the sport, and no matter how boring games actually are, they have a way of making that go away and fans are already getting excited about the next huge game.
If we don't start advertising the league to the wider public we are going to shrink back into a hole again. The numbers are getting worse even though the actual football is improving. (Albeit very slightly but still.) I don't think we need a big name to get long term interest in the sport. We need to convince casual football fans to back a team and start becoming members.
There's no point adding a second tier if we only have the same 100k football fans just migrating between teams or doubling up. We need to attract another 60-100k fans to the fanbase.
Iniesta / Honda will give the league a boost short term but we need to do something to get faith back into the league. Gallop going would be the first step.
**** the wider public??
Seriously why do they matter??
We had a game last weekend that the wider public came to
They killed the atmosphere and wont be back
That is exactly what you get when you chase the wider public
Why you want moire of that??
How about we cater towards the football fans in this country 1st 2nd and 3rd
If the Plastic New Dawners want to come on board in the meantime fine
But unite those in the game already first before trying to go entice some blow ins who dont care for the game
Football fans are broken enough already in this country.
Unite them first
Last edited by MFKS; 13-05-2018 at 11:02 PM.
I think they are trying to make the wider public/casual/plastic a “football fan”.
Trying to entice euro snobs, NPL focussed people, families to come and be a member or attend more games.
It’s not a bad thing. Raising the profile of our league and club is the objective.
Yes, give due respect to those members that have been around since day dot.
Maybe in the form of a 1,2,3-10% membership discount or something for every year you’ve been a member. Some kind of loyalty discount. (Probably should be 50% after the last few years).
Idk, you can’t say having 20,000 to a Jets home game Vs Wellington Phoenix wouldn’t be awesome. If those blow ins are converted and buy into the game and support the team, the atmosphere would be on par with those foundation years.
Nobody is disagreeing that the “plastics”/blow ins contributed to a lack of atmosphere.
But what if 5,000 of them turn up first game next season, what if 2,000 of them become members? I dare say our membership numbers will improve next year. At what point does a blow in, become a football fan?