“If I only came tonight just to watch that goal, it was worth it,” remarked commentator Stan Lazaridis following Bruno Fornaroli’s superb finish for Perth Glory against Wellington Phoenix on Friday night. “You’re not supposed to see goals like that in the A-League are you?” he added, tongue-in-cheek.
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It was a strike that showcased the Uruguayan’s singular brilliance as a No 9 in this competition. He received the ball with his back to goal and shielded it long enough to lure his marker out of position and buy time for the onrushing Joel Chianese. He then spun through 180 degrees and ghosted into space before presenting for the return pass. The Shed was soon bouncing its way through another chorus of Chelsea Dagger following a shot delivered with a gratifyingly brawny thump executed with dead-eye precision.
It was a rare moment of joy near the end of a difficult week for the A-League. There were reports Hyundai was preparing its exit strategy as naming-rights sponsor. Broadcast partner Fox Sports discontinued its support of domestic rugby, sending the latest in a series of ominous warnings football’s way. Then on Saturday one of the marquee nights on the Australian football calendar, the Sydney derby, was postponed due to heavy rain.
Weeks like this are despairingly common in Australian football. They’re accompanied by uncomfortable introspection within the game and death-riding from outside. But there are counterpoints. It might be the blur of a boot in Perth or the unpoetic intensity of a collision-heavy derby in Melbourne; glimpses of something beyond code wars and existential crises, something potent. Happiness.
There’s a quiet revolution taking place around the world to recognise the importance of happiness, and it could do wonders for Australian football.
On a macro level there is a push to reframe how governments measure success. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has for decades acted as shorthand for a nation’s prosperity, but it is increasingly considered too crude to accommodate the myriad factors that encompass a country’s overall wellbeing. As Joseph Stiglitz puts it, “what we measure affects what we do: if we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing.”
The happiness of Australia’s football community – fans especially – has rarely appeared a priority. The members of clubs marginalised by a closed league system; active supporters disincentivised by fearful administrators failing to recognise they were smothering their competition’s unique selling point; anyone considering sitting in an unshaded ground in midsummer heat, the list goes on. And yet we wonder why attendances have plateaued and viewing figures have nosedived. Stiglitz’s maxim applies.
VAR is a useful case study. Lawmakers may point to an increase in correct decisions, but at what cost? A recent poll of fans in the English Premier League revealed 67% felt matches were now less enjoyable since the introduction of VAR. As Daisy Christodoulou argues persuasively, “VAR succeeds not if it gets ‘more right decisions’, but if fans & players think it improves the game. Like most governance, it’s about consensus.”
There’s a comparison to be made with the establishment of the Big Bash League. Cricket Australia understood from the outset that there had to be more than just the cricket as a means of attracting and retaining fans. Further, they recognised the zero-sum game at play if clubs prioritised winning as the focus of their crowd-building. That’s not to say the solution for the A-League is to replicate the BBL’s in-game entertainment approach, (football’s terraces have long had that covered) but that fans have to be incentivised to turn up come rain or shine. For a competition still not far from a start-up, devotion cannot be taken for granted.
At an individual level too there are gains to be made prioritising happiness and wellbeing. Australian football is plagued by “compare and despair” culture, a mental health bear trap. It benefits nobody to continually measure the condition of the game against other sports in Australia, or against football overseas. Likewise, forever casting forward to an imagined optimal future based on the game’s massive participation base only sets unrealistic expectations.
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There is more merit applying the mindfulness principle of living in the present. Melbourne City’s surging breakaway that ended with Florin Berenguer backheeling exquisitely to Jamie Maclaren was objectively brilliant. It can (and should) be enjoyed for what it is, without layers of whataboutery taking it down a peg or ten.
The sight of City fans embracing Tom Glover, despite his earlier howler gifting Ola Toivonen a goal (and nominative determinism an assist), was also terrific. Simon Hill made a note-perfect Dead Parrot Sketch gag during Brisbane Roar’s victory over Adelaide United – the same match in which 15-year-old Mohamed Toure became the competition’s third-youngest ever player.
There are reasons to be cheerful, lots of them. And they could provide the foundations for a healthy sustainable professional football community.
