It wasn't that I was forced to spend my Valentine's Day watching football - I just chose to. The whole Valentine's concept annoys me a bit. It's really just an excuse to overprice things and make singles feel bad.
Despite my refusal to participate in the giving of frilly pink heart shaped things, I am sure I'm not the only one who ended up heartbroken this Valentine's Day. Was it something you said? Did you smell bad? Or are you just not their ‘type'?
I am, of course, talking about the lack of appreciation for the National Youth League. Why is it that, despite being one of the most wonderful things that I know of, the Australian sporting media continue to reject and shun it?
FourFourTwo and FootballNews are the only sites to give what could possibly be described as coverage to the competition.
Let me start with Fox Sports FC. Does anyone else think that for "the most comprehensive football wrap", FSFC is alarmingly non-comprehensive?
So it covers the A-League and the EPL. Occasionally it will mention an Aussie or two in mainland Europe or Scott McDonald. Sometimes (when they're really stuck for stuff to talk about), they mention the W-League. But that's about it.
Next, The World Game. I remember watching TWG on a Sunday afternoon as a kid and thinking it was the most exciting thing in the world. Recently, I've rekindled my love for it because it offers a more in-depth discussion of world football and is actually a bit comprehensive. It's coverage of the NYL is however, restricted to only the scores of matches and the table.
That's better than most sources though. I have three ideas that could improve the coverage given to the competition.
Firstly, why is there not live updating on the A-League website? One would think that it's not too much too ask for this to occur.
Secondly, why is it not televised? When the NYL matches are held as curtain-raisers to A-League matches, there are Fox Sports cameras set up all around the stadium. There is television coverage given to rugby league's youth competition, so why can't we give it to the NYL?
Maybe the ABC, or even the SBS would be keen to take on one match a week. Maybe the FFA could con one of the other FTA networks into taking it on.
Lastly, maybe a name change is in order. I'm talking a big name sponsor here people. I don't know how viable this is but think about it - we have the "Hyundai" A-League and the "Westfield" W-League. Maybe we need the "Powerade"/"Optus"/"Zurich" National Youth League.
It's little wonder that many people don't even know about the existence of the NYL. A friend of mine who claims to be a Mariners supporter was completely unaware of it until about a month ago (even though I'm sure that I've mentioned it several times).
This is going to sound incredibly, incredibly sad but I really do love the National Youth League. Sometimes I love it more than the A-League. I don't understand why people don't share the same love for it as me.
Let's hope the FFA have something in the works vis-à-vis the NYL being televised next season.
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ASIA CALLING
I've loved the NYL since it started (have I mentioned that? LOL) and I was rather excited to see three of the Mariners youth players called into their extended ACL squad last week.
Matthew Lewis, Brady Smith and Nathan Sherlock will all have the chance to represent the Mariners on the world stage. Hopefully, Lawrie will come to his senses and actually use them (come on coaching staff, you know that you could ‘use somebody'! That was my very bad attempt at a joke btw).
Earlier in the NYL season I interviewed Nathan and Brady. To find out a bit more about the boys taking on Asia, you can read my interview with them here
