Five things we learned from A-League Round 21

Despite years of blog posts, tweets, podcasts, round table discussions and the dreaded comments section of any A-League story, it was the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday night who made the most compelling argument in years for promotion/relegation.

Sydney's Reza Ghoochannejhad (L), Mark Rudan and Mike Mulvey (C), City's Jamie Maclaren (R) Source: Getty Images

Mariners lost in sea of mediocrity

Just over 3,000 people showed up to watch the Mariners record a historic 8-2 loss to Wellington.

This will be the fifth season in a row they miss the finals, the third season in four that they finish bottom.

Yet they won’t be replaced next season by an exciting new team, hungry to build on the success they’ve had in a lower division, like would be the case in almost every other league in the world.

If the trend of mismanagement continues, the Mariners will be last again, with lower attendances, lower TV ratings, and a couple of empty sauce bottles.

The Nix went through the home side with embarrassing ease. It wasn’t so much a hot knife through butter as a chainsaw through air.

Mike Mulvey was sacked at 12:51am on Sunday morning, 10 months after he had confidently declared “the age of mediocrity was over”, and about three hours after he less confidently admitted that it was “men against boys out there.”

Mulvey did, of course, select those ‘boys’, including an 18,19 and 20-year-old.

But then again, Mark Rudan chose an 18 and a 20-year-old also, so it makes you wonder did Mulvey mean Wellington’s 20-year-old Sapreet Singh, scoring twice and assisting once, up against 32-year-old Michael McGlinchy and 30-year-old Jem Karacan?

Mulvey has somehow managed to take a side that finished last in 2018, backwards.

Rudan, on the other hand, has achieved the reverse. Last season, Wellington finished 9th, just one point above the Mariners.

Since then Rudan has come into what is still a pretty dysfunctional club and got them up to 4th, 24 points ahead of the Mariners.

It’s amazing what the right coach can do, but the Mariners haven’t had the right coach since Graham Arnold in 2013.

But since Arnie left mid-way through the 2014-15, the Mariners have won just 19 of 129 games, with a goal difference of -135. They’ve had four coaches in that time.

The one-time champion, three-time grand finalists club deserve better. This club has helped bring through Socceroos like Tom Rogic, Mile Jedinak, Mat Ryan, Trent Sainsbury and Alex Wilkinson.

It might be time to start looking at the person selecting the coaches, at the person failing to give these coaches the adequate investment they need to succeed.

It is definitely time to start looking at a natural selection process, caused by promotion and relegation.

From Roarcelona to Brisbanyol

In 2012 the inaugural Chairman of Brisbane Roar under the Bakrie Group’s ownership, Dali Tahir, was asked by SBS what he’d like to see in ten years time.

“For Brisbane Roar to have its own stadium,” he said. “That would be fantastic.”

And so here we are in 2019 with 8,000 people sitting in a 52,500-seater stadium, watching their once great side get dominated by a slightly-improving, but still very-average Western Sydney Wanderers side.

They don’t get compared to Barcelona anymore. They’d be lucky to get compared to Barca’s crosstown rivals Espanyol.

There is no sign of a new stadium and no sign of improvement under Darren Davies.

There is some hope though in the continued good form of 21-year-old Dylan Wenzel-Halls.

Five games ago, he made his first start of the season. Since then, he has scored four times and set up another. The strike against the Wanderers might be the pick of the lot.

However, Wenzel-Halls aside, major changes are needed at a club that should regularly be challenging for the title.

Smart foreign investment pays dividends

I will now ask you to cast your mind back to March 1, when this round kicked-off with Sydney FC beating Adelaide United 2-0 at Leichhardt Oval. A fence collapsed during a goal celebration if that helps jog your memory.

But, apart from realising it’s important to build sturdier venues, the big lesson learned from this game was that so often the difference between A-League sides is how successful they are with their foreign imports.

Sydney had Reza Ghoochannejhad open his account in the league with a well taken first-half goal. The Iranian was set up by another foreigner in Adam LeFondre.

It seems Sydney FC have got it right again, just as they did with Bobo, Milos Ninkovic, Adrian Mierzejewski, Marc Janko and Jordy Buijs in recent years.

Adelaide on the other hand are having very limited return on their foreign investment.

Baba Diawarra has been injured, only playing three times. Ken Ilso only has three goals in 23 matches for the club. New signing, Jordy Thomassen is still yet to score after four games.

Adelaide have been solid this season, but lack the international class that they once had in the likes of Marcelo Carrusca, Sergio Cirio and Pablo Sanchez, when they won the title in 2016.

You can't put a rectangle pitch in an oval hole

Melbourne Victory played at ‘home’ in Geelong and lost 2-0 to Newcastle.

Victory have played one match per season at Kardinia Park for the past five years. They have seen the crowds go down every single year from 21,289 in 2015 to just 8,039 this time around.

No doubt there is an appetite for football in Geelong - it’s the place that produced Josip Skoko, Matthew Spiranovic and Steve Horvart among others.

But these games, in an AFL ground, which put fans miles away from the actual pitch do not showcase our game in the best possible light and should stop.

Any games away from home grounds should be in rectangular stadiums at the very least.

Geelong has been a rough place for the Victory to play at ‘home’, they’ve won just one of five matches there.

The MelBourne Identity

They don’t splash the cash like Manchester, they don’t play exciting attacking football like Guardiola’s side either, they’re not even really bringing through great young players.

Melbourne City’s only real selling point seems to be, ‘we’re not Victory’.

A 2-0 lead was squandered against Perth Glory, and the 2-2 draw led to respected writers questioning what has been the point of the club?

Fan favorite Bruno Fornaroli's time with the club is officially over. He was farewelled with a five-month stint watching in the stands, no doubt as bored as everyone else watching.

Jamie Maclaren’s form is encouraging for City fans, but given all that was promised when the City Football Group took over Melbourne Heart, you wonder when, if ever, City will be exciting again. You wonder who will want to support them?