It was a good week for the favourites in the last round of the A-League's regular season, as you might expect.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Mariners beat a competitive Jets side to stay in the title race, before sealing the Premiers' Plate earlier this week, beating Adelaide at home in a deferred fixture on Wednesday night.
The other contenders for minor-premiership honours, Wellington, did all they could in their 3-0 win over Macarthur.
Sydney FC pummelled a forlorn Perth Glory 7-1 to leapfrog MacArthur into fourth place, clinching home-ground advantage for their elimination-final clash.
Melbourne City did just enough in beating Western United 1-0, to take the remaining finals spot, finishing just in front of the Wanderers.
The first week of the new finals program is a one-off elimination contest, third v sixth and fourth v fifth, while the teams that finished first and second put their feet up.
The lowest-ranked winner of the two elimination finals will play the Mariners, and the highest will play Wellington, in a home-and-away two-legged qualification match-up, with the aggregate winners scheduled to meet in the grand final on May 25.
Simple eh?
The formula has changed so often I can't remember if this has been tried before (I don't think so), and what we did last season.
What this system does mean is, in true Aussie tradition, we give the underdogs every chance to succeed.
In true Aussie tradition, we give the underdogs every chance to succeed.
There is, unlike in days of yore, no guarantee that either of the teams finishing top two will contest the grand final. Does that seem fair, or sit well with you?
Does that diminish the reward for toil and consistency over 27 games of the season?
In my eyes it certainly could.
Melbourne City, for example, whether you love them or hate them, or perhaps just respect them a little, have largely deserved their championship success in the past five or six seasons, and perhaps a touch more, because of their consistent quality and effectiveness, year after year.
This season they have been largely inconsistent, scoring some huge wins, amid a series of surprising defeats, and lacklustre form.
They finished 16 points behind a Mariners team that lost their first four games after an off-season loss of coaching staff and important players.
They also lost their best player in the January transfer window!
In an unlikely scenario, any one of teams three through six could win three penalty shoot-outs, and no games in the final series, and be crowned champions in front of teams who were much more consistent and productive over many weeks.
That is highly unlikely I admit, to make a point, and I can hear people saying it's the Australian way. It sure is, but is it the way for our game?
One refereeing error, VAR misinterpretation or malfunction (2017-18, anyone?), or player mistake is a lot more difficult to overcome in our code, than in others where scores of 30 points or 90 or 100 lend themselves to time for recovery by the better team.
Melbourne City have had heartache in grand finals (and that is why I use them as an example), and probably are due a break. But after finishing sixth, more than five wins adrift of the minor premiers, can it happen?
On the balance of probability, maybe not, but they do have several internationals, the league's most prolific goalscorer all time, and in my opinion the best talent in the league in Tolgay Arslan, so it's hardly out of the question.
Could be a hell of a story, but what then of the 27 weeks preceding the play-offs?
I'm advocating a system that ensures one of the teams finishing first or second in the league is guaranteed representation in the GF, the others should battle for the right to play them.
