As promised here is the preview thread for this weekends matches.
ALW
Early start to the week in the Aleague Women’s with the postponed round four clash between Sydney and Canberra kicking off tonight at 7:00pm AEDST at Leichhardt Oval.
Then round 11 kicks off from Saturday.
Matches:
Saturday 6th Jan
Newcastle v Canberra
Adelaide v City
Victory v Western
Sunday 7th Jan
Mariners v Sydney
Brisbane v Wellington
ALM
This weekend Round 11 action kicks off on Thursday night and we get a bonus Round 12 match on Monday night.
Matches:
Thursday 4th Jan
Adelaide v Wellington
Friday 5th Jan
MacArthur v Newcastle
Saturday 6th Jan
Wanderers v Mariners
Brisbane v Sydney
Perth v Victory
Sunday 7th Jan
Western v City
Monday 8th Jan
Adelaide v Macarthur
Big talking points:
Will Ben Cahn have an immediate impact at Brisbane?
Will the changes to how the ladder is determined, now that everyone knows about them, affect how teams play? context
The clubs were aware of the updated league sorting rules prior to the season so if there is any change in their approach we should have already been seeing it. I don’t think it makes much difference at this point of the season but maybe we’ll see more risky football towards the end, particularly if there is a log jam around 6th place.
But coaches didn’t know when asked about it last weekend. Fans (no-one I know at least) sure as hell didn’t know about it.
They didn’t understand the sorting rules or they didn’t know that the table on the official website wasn’t displaying properly? Those are two different things. According to the APL, all clubs were notified in pre-season. As I said though, I think it matters so little at this stage that no team will actively be planning games around it.