We're not starving

Now I suspect the Football Federation of Australia believe that a starving man shouldn't be choosey. And when they discover that the man isn't willing to eat the poor-quality shit dished up to them they blame the man instead of concerning themselves with improving the fair. This is what happened last night at Subiaco Oval.

Just under fourteen-thousand people watched Australia's second-string side beat Indonesia's second-string side. The FFA are allegedly complaining about the size of the crowd, but they have no reason to complain. The match was at best a poorly conceived and organised B-grade friendly between two out-of-form sides. It was allegedly all about raising money for the Tsunami Relief Fund. But I ask you, if the FFA really wanted to entice the crowd to spend their cash why choose to stage it on Easter Tuesday night? Who wants to go to work after a four-day break and then head out that night to watch two B-sides play a meaningless game of football? Under fourteen-thousand Perthites, that's who.

It's been 10 years since the last International was played in Perth and that was a 1-0 loss to Ghana. Last night's poor crowd showing will likely mean that it will be a long time before Perth gets another International. This will be a further blow to the already ailing sport. Anyone who has been to a Glory game knows what an intimidating place the crowd can make Perth for visiting teams. We love our football. There is no reason why we can't create a similar home game advantage for the Australian Football Team. If you give us a fair go.

A few years ago Cricket Australia was threatening to remove the Perth Test from the schedule because of poor ticket sales. What they failed to take into consideration was that the poor ticket sales reflected the poor quality opposition teams. We don't get a lot of international cricket here in Perth, but what we do get we expect to be of the best quality. Where two visiting teams would be playing Australia over the summer series the Perth Test would always feature the weaker of the those two teams. So it was no wonder that they received a poor turnout when the best cricket team in the world is up against Zimbabwe, or depleted New Zealand or English teams. Only the NZ game lasted more than three days and that was drawn. Cricket Australia seem to have realised their mistake and have taken measures to rectify it. The Perth Test featured Pakistan last season and will feature South Africa, for the first time, next season. We're not expecting to receive top-grade all the time, but we do expect it sometimes. Thankfully in the cricket world that is now happening.

Unfortunately, Australian football has a long way to go. The top opposition sides have always been reserved for the East Coast grounds. If the move into AFC pays off then, the FFA has an opportunity follow in Cricket Australia's footsteps and spread the good teams around. With quality International football the people of Perth will swarm the tables of the FFA, even on Easter Tuesday. All the FFA needs to do is provide a better spread. But until they do, there will be lacklauster support at best, because frankly, while we may be hungry, we're certainly not starving.