A-League 2015/16 Preview
In Australia there is an agonisingly long wait for soccer fans between the crowning of the Hyundai A-League Champions and the beginning of the new season. The good news is that the wait is almost over. In just over a month the A-League will be back and there will be another 27 rounds of matches before the all-important play-off finals.
For those who may be unfamiliar with the way the A-League works, the winner of the league proper is crowned as the 'Premier', and the winner of the Grand Final is the 'Champion'. Over the short time since the league's inception there have been a variety of teams sharing the spoils. Five different teams have won the league and six different teams have won the grand final over the last ten years.
Six times out of 10, the Premier winners have gone on to do the double and also win the Grand Final. This has happened two years running now, but interestingly no team has ever done the double in two consecutive seasons. The team that came closest to doing this were Brisbane Roar, who won both titles in 2011 and then went on to win the Grand Final the next year. They lost out to Central Coast Mariners in the league that year.
The current Premier and Champions are Melbourne Victory, and, at the time or writing 32red have them at 11/4 to win the league again this year. Grand final runners-up Sydney FC are also looking strong and Unibet have priced them at 4/1 to win. There is a good chance the two teams could meet in the Grand Final once again at the end of this campaign. This would be an exciting climax to the season as the two teams have developed quite a severe rivalry over the years. When the two teams play it is called "The Big Blue", because both teams play in blue, and this is also Australian slang for a fight or contest. These tend to be rather spiteful encounters, and the teams have met in two grand finals previously.
Sydney FC won the first ever A-League Grand Final and Victory went on to do the double the following season. The last time Victory won both the league and play-offs in 2009, Sydney went on to do the same the following year, beating Victory on penalties (see above) in a thrilling Grand Final. The only other time the two teams met in a Grand Final was last year where Melbourne Victory comfortably won 3-0.
Since 2010 Brisbane Roar have been the most successful team in the league. In this short time they have won the league twice, and the Grand Final three times. Unfortunately for fans of The Roar, the club are in disarray at the moment. The owners of the club - The Bakrie Group - have been given a final warning by the Football Federation of Australia and will lose control of the club if the financial issues are not resolved soon. Since buying a 70 percent stake in the Roar in October 2011, the group have poured in excess of $9million into the club, but over the last few months a number of financial issues have emerged. The owners want to stay in control to try and recoup some of their losses.
Players have been paid late twice, and some staff members are still waiting for overdue wages. Socceroos midfielder, Luke Brattan, has become a free agent after securing a release from his contract with the Roar. Over the next few weeks other players may follow suit if some stability isn't reinstalled at the club. This is bad news for fans who had become used to seeing their club flying high in the league. Due to all the problems behind the scenes, 32red are giving odds of 10/1 for them to win the league.
The 2015/16 A-League season gets under way on Thursday 8th October at The Pirtek Stadium, where Western Sydney take on Brisbane Roar. The following day will see the reigning champions in action against Adelaide United at the Adelaide Oval. The first three rounds of fixtures include the Sydney derby and the Melbourne derby, and the season is set to get off to a lively start.
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