The State of the A-League : Australian Football going forward....

90 minutes….90 emotions is the slogan of this years Hyundai A-League and it looks like it is shaping up to be just that.

In just its fourth season, the A-League promises even more than it has delivered in the past, and that is a mouth watering prospect.

The league has developed year after year and is slowly becoming stronger, not only as a result of “marquee” players like Dwight Yorke and Romario but also due to homegrown talent with players like Kevin Muscat, John Aloisi, Ross Aloisi, Danny Tiatto and Mark Bosnich, all of which have had careers in Europe and have returned home to finish their careers.

The flow of play can be a little stop start at times but you have to keep in mind that this is still a fledgling league not far from its embryonic state of a few years back. Eight teams currently compete in the A-League with the addition of two more in the next season or so.

The plusses are there for all to see though, older, wiser players with the experience to guide their teams and raw young talent which is the undoubted future of not only the A-League but the national team as well.

There are however one or two bones of contention I have with the progression of the A-League though, one is undoubtedly the standard of refereeing.

A-League referees, despite being the best we can produce, seem to fail on a regular basis to call fouls that would be blown up straight away in Europe or anywhere else. This has a small upside in that the instances of diving are few and far between but bone-crunching tackles only occasionally receive a yellow card and numerous fouls are waved on as if they never occurred.

The vision of the officials seems to be lacking as well, a case in point, during the game last night between Perth Glory and the Newcastle Jets. Newcastle striker, Joel Griffiths was fouled a good couple of yards outside the box, with the linesman in clear view yet was awarded a penalty! The foul was there for all to see but just as obvious was the fact he was nowhere near being inside the penalty box.

In the professional game, mistakes like these are really unacceptable and this is one area that definitely needs improvement.

The other area that the A-League falls down in is the retention of good, young talent. Local clubs produce some very high quality youngsters who go on to sign with A-League clubs.

The problem becomes, once they perform well in the course of a season, they are whisked away overseas by the promise of fame and fortune and A-League clubs can do very little to hold on to them due to the salary cap imposed on clubs and the general lack of big dollars in the A-League.

I think the league is definitely headed in the right direction and is looking better every season. If the standard of refereeing could improve and we could hold on to some of the talented youngsters coming through to blend with the experience of the old heads it could become something quite outstanding.