Sunday Pondering: Coverage, Cup Upsets and a Bloke Who Won't Go Away

Photo courtesy of the Mercury

Funny old week.

For months I've been banging on about the Mercury and their patchy coverage of grassroots football.

Then Kingborough draws Melbourne Victory in the Australia Cup.

Suddenly it's front page.

Double page spread.

Under 11s posing with jerseys.

The lot.

Nothing like a giant killer story to get the ink flowing.

I'm not complaining.

Genuinely thrilled for Kingborough.

Thrilled for the kids who get their photo in the paper.

Thrilled the whole state gets to see what our football looks like when the spotlight actually turns up.

But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't filing this away for later.

Apparently all it takes is an A-League team.

Who knew.

Kingborough play Victory tonight at 5pm and I'm not going to get in the way of that story today.

It deserves its own air.

Go well, Lions.

Roar loud.

It's not just us

Turns out Tasmania isn't the only state having this exact experience.

Preston Lions, an NPL Victoria club most Australians couldn't point to on a map, knocked out reigning A-League premiers and Australia Cup holders Newcastle Jets this week.

A 93rd minute winner, scored by a signing only weeks out of Victory colours.

One of the biggest upsets in the competition's history.

Up in Queensland, Lions FC did the same to Perth Glory, on penalties, with a striker who's the NPL Queensland's leading goalscorer this season and was working a normal job before kickoff.

And down in Sydney, NPL side Sydney United 58 knocked out the Central Coast Mariners in a penalty shootout for the ages.

1-1 after extra time, then 11-10 on spot kicks, with a 17 year old's miss finally settling it after 22 penalties.

Suddenly these clubs and their volunteers are getting the kind of coverage they've never had before either.

Same story as Kingborough.

Same reason.

Except Preston's week wasn't all good news.

Days after their giant killing, Football Victoria hit the club with sanctions after a group of their supporters displayed offensive anti-Greek and misogynistic banners at their league match against South Melbourne.

Preston's next two home fixtures will now be played behind closed doors while the matter goes to the Football Victoria Tribunal, with further penalties still possible.

So even the good news story has its own footnote.

A club can produce one of the great cup boilovers and still have to answer for what a handful of its own supporters put on display days earlier.

Football doesn't let you have the highlight reel without the accountability that comes with it.

As it shouldn't.

It says something too about the Australia Cup's coverage bump.

The whole country gets to see what grassroots football looks like once a year, warts and all, and it only happens because a big name is standing across the halfway line.

Meanwhile the big name is having its own week

While all this was going on, the A-League was busy falling out with its own players.

The competition's collective bargaining agreement lapsed at the end of June and the players knocked back the new offer from the league, unanimously.

There's now genuine talk of industrial action, and reports of players already walking for the NPL and overseas rather than wait it out.

On top of that, there's now real doubt over whether clubs will see any money at all from this year's TV distribution.

SEN's Adam Peacock said this week that the figure has fallen from $3.5 million in the Fox Sports heyday to potentially nothing this season, and he hoped he was wrong.

So here's the thing I keep turning over this morning.

The A-League can't get its own house in order, can't guarantee its clubs a cent from television this year, and still gets wall to wall coverage as of right.

Grassroots clubs run entirely on volunteers, somehow keep producing giant killings on the biggest stage in the country, and get a guernsey in the paper only when they happen to be standing next to a famous jersey.

Make of that what you will.

I know what I make of it.

Out on the muddy fringes

It's a bye round for a lot of us, which has been a small mercy.

Not because anyone wanted a weekend off, but because half the grounds around the state can't take a full round right now.

Watching some of the livestreams this week, the fields have been a mess.

Not from one big dump of rain, but from the sheer consistency of it.

Day after day of steady, soaking rain that never quite lets a ground dry out or recover.

Mud where the centre circle should be.

Puddles collecting in the goal mouths.

Every outdoor sporting club in Tasmania is dealing with the same thing right now.

Groundskeepers, committees, volunteers, all trying to keep pitches playable through a winter that just won't ease up.

Spare a thought for them today.

What's coming

Tony Pignata's Part two interview is coming, I promise.

There's enough from our conversation for a Part Two and a Part Three, and I want to do it properly rather than rush it out around a big game weekend.

It'll get there.

One last thing

Photo courtesy of Julian Proud

Somehow this bloke keeps turning up everywhere at the moment.

Donald was in Tasmania, apparently.

Turned up pitchside for a trophy presentation, medals and all.

Reckon he just can't resist a trophy presentation, this bloke.

Photo courtesy of Julian Proud, who clearly has too much time and talent on his hands.

But even football can't get away from him lately.

Right.

Go Kingborough.