It is now acceptable to cast a cursory glance at the nascent A-League ladder. League tables may be published in real time from the campaign’s opening kick off but no mind should be paid until at least three rounds have been completed.
What does an early stocktake indicate? The outlook for the competition is deep and even. A forecast for celebration. Only two teams are yet to win and only one is yet to lose. Of the 30 opportunities to register a score only five have been declined; two of those by last year’s premiers.
In a 10-team competition featuring just five matches per round stragglers are a hefty burden. Last season’s bottom three teams – Newcastle Jets, Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers – dangled like chum. Collectively they won just 12 of 81 matches, accumulating 58 points. Melbourne Victory alone triumphed 15 times, accruing 53 points.
The Jets already have two notable scalps this term, accounting for Phoenix in Wellington and now Victory at Hunter Stadium. In between they were unfortunate to concede a late heartbreaker to Sydney FC.
There is good reason for Jets fans to celebrate the impact of the competition’s youngest coach, Scott Miller, and the esprit de corps he has generated since his June appointment. There is good reason also for Football Federation Australia to celebrate the renaissance of a club that was a laughing stock under Nathan Tinkler’s ownership. With a re-issued license and a new broom sweeping through the club’s backroom, these early shoots of recovery strengthen the governing body’s hand while negotiations continue irascibly on a number of fronts.
Miller, and his respected assistant JP de Marigny, have not reinvented football. Rather they have drilled their charges to compete for everything, concede nothing and fight for one another. In other words, the bare minimum a supporter would expect from their team, but a necessary foundation nonetheless. Furthermore, in a competition limited by a salary cap, the distribution of talent is always likely to be such that 90 minutes of effort without a cataclysmic mistake should be sufficient to compete on a regular basis.
Miller has initiated the turnaround without an international or an Australian marquee. Instead he’s played to the strengths of his community, one of the richest sources of talent in the country.
Four Novocastrians made the Jets starting XI this weekend. Captain, star recruit and defensive lynchpin, Nigel Boogaard, learned his craft at the nearby Weston Workers Bears. Ben Kantarovski was the youngest A-League player ever to sign professional forms when he joined his hometown team as a 15-year-old. Jason Hoffman has returned for a second stint after coming through the ranks as a trainee. 28-year-old goalkeeper Ben Kennedy has known only Newcastle.
Victory should have left with the spoils on Friday night but were uncharacteristically wasteful in the final third. The longer the Jets defended their clean sheet the more likely it became that a moment of individual brilliance could snaffle the three points. And what a moment of brilliance David Carney delivered. Just the dozen days between A-League strikes for the Socceroo this time, as opposed to the record 3,257 between his previous two.
The round was not as productive for last season’s other cellar dwellers but there were positives for both Central Coast and Western Sydney all the same.
The Wanderers went down to a late Milos Ninkovic strike in a damp squib of a Sydney derby after failing to convert their second-half superiority onto the scoreboard. It took an excellent strike to beat a well-marshalled back four though and it’s unlikely the Alberto-led unit will be breached as often this season as last.
Tony Walmsley’s Mariners on the other hand will have to get used to shipping goals if Sunday’s 3-1 reverse to Melbourne City is anything to go by. With a 22-year-old as the most senior defender and a midfield containing just one anchor, Central Coast were shredded at will by a fatigued City side missing a swag of stars. There is a clear commitment to youth and open attacking football from Walmsley however, and for that he should be commended. There will certainly be no shortage of entertainment in Gosford over the coming weeks.
Elsewhere, Michael McGlinchey’s free-kick was the highlight of Wellington Phoenix’s 3-2 victory over the previously unbeaten Brisbane Roar. Both teams look well prepared to mount serious salvos for silverware and this end-to-end contest enhanced both side’s credentials.
And Perth Glory delivered a counter-attacking masterclass to show Adelaide United’s brains trust that there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Adelaide’s 70% possession produced only an own-goal whereas the home team’s infrequent sorties upfield delivered three efficient finishes to open Glory’s account for the season.
