In the NSL, times were tough, wages were limited and players had to look overseas to make a good wage, forcing them to battle for spots in Europe.

But it also meant stars were for the most part home-grown, developed locally, nurtured and then, most importantly, given an opportunity to shine…and not overlooked for foreign talent to appease TV bosses or casual fans.

Now every point is vital towards the make or break of getting to the A-League finals and the FFA is under intense pressure to deliver viewing figures to justify their $60m a year TV deal.

So what’s the solution? Well, first of all, stop chasing headlines just for the sake of it. It’s tawdry, vulgar and will only hurt us in the end, diminishing both the A-League and Australian football.

Secondly, more expansion and quickly. We need more than nine Australian striker spots to play for in the A-League. More teams will at least offer more opportunity, and more sooner rather than later. If we can rush in four teams in the next expansion window, we should, and add another couple as soon as possible afterwards to give us a healthy 30 week home and away season.

A national second division with the prospect of promotion and relegation as soon as possible will also help. It will work on several levels - it will recreate that limited budget hunger of the old NSL, and any teams on the verge of promotion via the work of natural born Aussie goalscorers will soon have the attention of all A-League clubs…

We could also develop some sort of reward for clubs that do back local talent - perhaps giving extra salary cap for clubs who played Aussies for a set minimum of minutes the season before - but which can only be spent on Australian player salaries.

And allow transfer fees between Australian clubs. Let lower league clubs benefit from developing local talent. Make A-League clubs (and players) truly commit to contracts.

But most of all, kick the sugar habit before it kills us.