SITTING back watching the famous Old Firm derby between Rangers and Celtic on Saturday night, I couldn’t help but feel that the intensity of ‘F3 Derby’ matches has gone backwards this season.

Perhaps it’s unfair to compare a rivalry that spans some 120 years and is formed on religious divides with one manufactured just four seasons ago, but I honestly believe it is reasonable to expect that with every derby day that goes by, an increased amount of feeling and emotion should be evident from both the players partaking and the fans in attendance.

I’m not complaining or comparing the quality of football on display at EnergyAustralia Stadium to the SPL, just what I perceived to be a slight lack of fervour.

Indeed, the half and fulltime highlight reels of the Old Firm clash were a collage of helter skelter action and carnage, with players committing themselves to winning the ball (or not letting it past them) at any cost.

Time and again rival players squared up to one another, epitomising their immense passion for their respective shirt or their sense of occasion.

Referee Craig Thompson realised the importance of the match, allowing challenges that would have earned red in Australia to be registered only as fouls.

Even fellow comrades weren’t immune from the underlying will, na, need to win as Australian Scott McDonald chased after teammate Georgios Samaras, giving him a hefty verbal spray after the Greek had failed to return a pass.

These were all things I saw little of in Newcastle on Friday night. Sure, Adam Griffiths put a couple of zealous challenges on John Hutchinson, Sasho Petrovski caught Jobe Wheelhouse with his studs and their was a minute melee at the end of proceedings, but other than that the action could only be described as tame and predictable.

I’m not promoting thuggery, but for me, the high tempo, full blooded nature of the Old Firm made the ‘F3 Derby’ look soft as butter and even unworthy of the ‘derby’ moniker. Put simply, the passion displayed by the players and fans at Ibrox made EAS look like a nursing home.

So how can this be rectified? How can we make sure that A-League derbies are whole hearted affairs both for players and fans?

My thought is to play them less often.

In all matches in 2008, the Jets have met the Mariners nine times. Put in perspective, that’s once every 41 days.

The small number of teams in the A-League means it’s necessary for three rounds of play, but the Jets and Mariners should be kept apart in the pre-season cup and shouldn’t play pre-season practice matches. This goes for other rivals too.

Australian derbies need to be games fans and players wait months for and hence yearn to come around, with the chance to gain bragging rights for an extended period of time seen as sacred, just as they are in the great football nations of the world.

An unprecedented swap deal involving Danny Vukovic, Sasho Petrovski and John Hutchinson for Ante Covic, Joel Griffiths and Ben Kantarovski, could also do the trick...

What do you think?