A-league Men hit restart button again

A-league chief executive Danny Townsend is confident a season free of Covid-19 disruptions can give the stuttering A-league Men competition a chance to reset and fire at pre-pandemic levels

After two heavily-disrupted years in 2020 and 2021, last season was meant to be the league’s big relaunch, with a season free of border restrictions and a brand new broadcast deal.

Instead, border issues remained, while clubs were smashed by the January Omicron wave, with outbreaks in playing groups forcing multiple games to be postponed.

That created a massive backlog, then the league struggled to gain momentum as it crammed in midweek games in front of small crowds.

‘‘Last year was was obviously all about survival for many sports who were in the situation we were in with Omicron peaking in January,’’ Townsend said at yesterday’s season launch.

‘‘But this is genuinely a reset for us and we’re excited about being able to provide certainty for our members and fans and our players to go and put on a show.

‘‘If we can get the league back to the metrics that we were delivering pre Covid, that would be a great step. But we’re investing for the long term.’’

Bumper late-season AFL attendances have shown the Covid-19 fear factor is no longer an excuse in terms of attracting crowds.

Townsend hoped that would translate through to the ALM, and flagged more intensive marketing throughout the season.

‘‘Everyone’s moved on from being concerned about being in those type of environments,’’ he said.

‘‘The other codes have proven that and we proved that towards the end of last year when the north terrace [Victory active fans] came out in force in that preliminary final.

‘‘So we’d like to see a lot more of that this year.’’

The league will start on Friday, October 7 but will pause between November 14 and December 8 for the start of the World Cup.

Townsend hoped to build momentum before Qatar, then capitalise on interest in the Socceroos afterwards.

‘‘It’s amazing we can do this first six-week burst of great matches and we structured the draw to ensure we can really start strong,’’ he said.