“People must not get distracted by all this public holiday talk. Rather, hold the government to investing in a clear plan for football and infrastructure,” Wright said … “All I’m hearing is public holiday this and that. That’s the distraction. We’re talking about a country that yes, you’ve got your league, but there’s six or seven world-class players in your team without an infrastructure to come from. [Almost] every single one has had to leave these shores to go and get football and come back. It’s very inspiring, you know?
Football is the most played sport at a grassroots level in Australia. The issue is that there is no clear pathway for young people to go pro. Particularly outside the capital cities there are so few clubs which are competitive, it’s just a breeding ground for nepotism.
On top of this, aside from our national news sources most news in Australia is owned by a single source (thanks Rupert) which has a clear bias against football in favour of rugby league. Football has an image problem - every negative incident with fans is blown way out of proportion to demonstrate that we are thugs; and so many football “fans” won’t go and see their local team because they’re too busy crapping on about how the premier league is so much better quality.
The unique position we are in with the women’s national team is that a lot of the players do actually play for local teams. This is the same for the men, but they don’t make it to the semi final. Hopefully all this hype pushes kids to drag their parents to the games when the season kicks off.