Football purists in Australia have loathed the Grand Final concept that is a mainstay in Australian sports. In most established football competitions, the champion is the team on top after the home and away season with a separate cup competition taking place simultaneously. However in Australia, the champion has been the winner of a finals competition with a ‘minor’ premier being the leader at the end of the regular season. For those fans that believe in a more traditional structure for a football competition, the finals series has been a de facto cup competition and the true champion has been the recipient of the Premiers Plate. Some teams even subscribe to this idea with the Mariners under Graham Arnold claiming to be two time champions for winning the Premiers Plate. Of course winning the Grand Final last season likely changed all of that.
So the question then becomes what place does the Grand Final have in Australian football if there is now a separate cup competition? Well the game and finals series will be going nowhere for the simple fact that in this country, the finals series concept is ingrained in the minds of the public. There is still value in crowning a champion that was and that game is responsible for lasting memories from each year. Nobody will forget the Roar’s comeback win over the Mariners, or them becoming the first team to go back to back a year later in a game that Perth fans still love to complain about. As well as the Roar’s historic efforts, there is also the Victory’s thumping of Adelaide or the Mariners finally breaking their drought in last season’s decider. If nothing else, the potential for new memories being created on the game’s biggest stage each year means that the A-League Grand Final will still have a place in Australian football.
While the new FFA Cup will undoubtedly have some growing pains in its early stages, it represents positive growth for the game of football in Australia. It brings the nation into line with the rest of the footballing world with a standalone cup and also it provides the game with another way to make inroads into the Australian sporting market. With the opening round beginning on July 29, the next five months provides fans with a chance to get out to their local clubs and see what the next tier down of Australian football looks like and try to pick the first team to cause the first ‘cupset’.
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''While no confirmation has been offered from the Asian Confederation, a place for the Cup winner in the Champions League will likely prove to be too tempting for A-League teams to pass up.''