Fantasising About Women
Fantasy #1
The Roar women are champions and so far are in the champion position this season as well. To be accurate and fair, and to avoid being too hubristic, they have some serious competition this year in Sydney, Melbourne and Central Coast. Yesterday I reckon they barely outplayed Melbourne at Ballymore, but it couldn't be said that Melbourne didn't deserve their point (1:1). It was a brilliant struggle and the 1400+ fans got a great show from both teams. But it is also absolutely fair to say that Brisbane remain the favourites, still undefeated this season, and clearly a very special bunch of women.
The situation begs for more competition. I would just love to see this team play the American champions, or for that matter a top women's club from anywhere in the world. I honestly don't know if they'd win, and I guess nobody does until it's tried. But I can't help thinking such a match possible commercially. Women's teams and women's competitions could, I believe, attract a variety of sponsorships that the men's game might not. In the United States the women's competition is much more established and attracts big crowds, which is why I think it would be the best place for such women's champions games to be held. Surely the U.S. fans would like their heroines to face higher competition as well, and would be very tempted by the prospect of a tour by Australia's most successful women's team.
Fantasy #2
As a general rule female players would not cut it in professional men's teams, but I think it might only be a general rule. For a team like the Brisbane Roar (men) in the A-League I can see a window of possibility which would be very exciting for the A-League and soccer in general. A female keeper, defender or even midfielder is probably out of the question. 90 minutes with the boys is also probably out of the question. My speculation is for a high quality striker, like Brazil's Marta or Perth's De Vanna to play an impact role up front off the bench, Timmy Cahill style.
So far as I know it's not against any rules and if it is, why?
For one thing the defenders would be under pressure to defend legitimately and not foul them, with the fear of chagrin from both the ref and the fans in the back of their minds. And if that were the case Marta or De Vanna could carve up your average A-League defense. I'd love to be proved wrong, but I don't think I would be. Once again I don't think they'd be effective for a full 90 minutes with the pace of the men's game. But in that last 15 minutes I think they might be uniquely effective.
Can you imagine the attention this would attract?
When comparing men to women playing soccer - and it is clear that men are, all things being equal (as such), bigger, stronger and faster - it is important to keep in mind that some of the distance between the quality is just about resources, coaching, professionalism and training regimes. That's not to say the gap could be closed, but it might not be quite as great as we think.
I have other fantasies about women but I won't be writing about them on this blog.
The Roar women are champions and so far are in the champion position this season as well. To be accurate and fair, and to avoid being too hubristic, they have some serious competition this year in Sydney, Melbourne and Central Coast. Yesterday I reckon they barely outplayed Melbourne at Ballymore, but it couldn't be said that Melbourne didn't deserve their point (1:1). It was a brilliant struggle and the 1400+ fans got a great show from both teams. But it is also absolutely fair to say that Brisbane remain the favourites, still undefeated this season, and clearly a very special bunch of women.
The situation begs for more competition. I would just love to see this team play the American champions, or for that matter a top women's club from anywhere in the world. I honestly don't know if they'd win, and I guess nobody does until it's tried. But I can't help thinking such a match possible commercially. Women's teams and women's competitions could, I believe, attract a variety of sponsorships that the men's game might not. In the United States the women's competition is much more established and attracts big crowds, which is why I think it would be the best place for such women's champions games to be held. Surely the U.S. fans would like their heroines to face higher competition as well, and would be very tempted by the prospect of a tour by Australia's most successful women's team.
Fantasy #2
As a general rule female players would not cut it in professional men's teams, but I think it might only be a general rule. For a team like the Brisbane Roar (men) in the A-League I can see a window of possibility which would be very exciting for the A-League and soccer in general. A female keeper, defender or even midfielder is probably out of the question. 90 minutes with the boys is also probably out of the question. My speculation is for a high quality striker, like Brazil's Marta or Perth's De Vanna to play an impact role up front off the bench, Timmy Cahill style.
So far as I know it's not against any rules and if it is, why?
For one thing the defenders would be under pressure to defend legitimately and not foul them, with the fear of chagrin from both the ref and the fans in the back of their minds. And if that were the case Marta or De Vanna could carve up your average A-League defense. I'd love to be proved wrong, but I don't think I would be. Once again I don't think they'd be effective for a full 90 minutes with the pace of the men's game. But in that last 15 minutes I think they might be uniquely effective.
Can you imagine the attention this would attract?
When comparing men to women playing soccer - and it is clear that men are, all things being equal (as such), bigger, stronger and faster - it is important to keep in mind that some of the distance between the quality is just about resources, coaching, professionalism and training regimes. That's not to say the gap could be closed, but it might not be quite as great as we think.
I have other fantasies about women but I won't be writing about them on this blog.
Labels: W-League
posted by Hamish Alcorn at 1:47 pm
2 Comments:
nice post hamish,
mata is a fantastic player how I would love to see live, but the prospect of her bamboozaling an a-league defense could be the the perfect amunition for the knockers who claim the A-league is rubish because the standard is not high enough - a PR risk I would not go near with a poll if I were running the game...
Lol Ed. That was indeed something I had in mind. Can we not be honest about the quality of the A-League? Of course my suggestion would be absurd if I were speaking of the EPL.
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