1. The farewells
It was a big week for the A-League, but also for Australia with the passing of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke AC two days before the Federal election.
The Grand Final not only invited the 56,371 fans at the Grand Final to give thanks for Hawke's contribution to the nation, but also to mark the deaths of former national soccer league player David Cervinski after a battle with cancer, as well as Perth Glory's original kit man Wynnie Russell.
In farewells of another kind, the A-League also recognised those players who had announced their retirement this season: Fahid Ben Khalfallah, Adrian Leijer, Robert Cornthwaite, Manny Muscat, Bruce Djite and Luke Wilkshire. Two of the prominent retirees, Alex Brosque and Brendon Santalab, still had a game to play and one would end the day in a happier frame of mind than the other.
2. The Joe Marston Medal winner presentation
FFA Chairman Chris Nikou alluded to a change in who would present the Joe Marston Medal when he spoke at the Football Writers' Festival in March and it was good to see it happening. The entire medal presentation was low key – not least because the away team won 4,000 kilometres away from home and the Joe Marston Medal winner, Milos Ninkovic is a Sydney player – but instead of the 'suits' at FFA handing over player medals, it was done by a former winner, in this case Goran Lozinovski who won the same award in the 1998-99 Grand Final between South Melbourne (for whom he played) and Sydney United.
South Melbourne, which was coached by Ange Postecoglou, won 3-2. In more coincidence, Sydney FC's CEO Danny Townsend played for Sydney United in that match, coming on in the 68th minute for Michael Santalab – Brendon's dad.
We can look forward to Scott Chipperfield presenting next season's Joe Marston Medal.
3. The mascots
Football in Australia has a long way to go when it comes to having women in Board or executive positions but at least we can manage to have an all-girl team of mascots. It was a good recognition by Hyundai of the popularity of the game with girls and women, and in light of the 2019 World Cup kicking-off in 18 days time.
4. The police and stadium security
In contrast to many (if not most) A-League games, particularly in the experience of fans of Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers, the WA Police and Optus Stadium security staff were complimented by fans on the ground in Perth.
For a start, there was no incidents such as the one in Sydney last week when fan Rory Carroll was thrown out for wanting to check the cleanliness of the nearest disabled toilet for his special needs daughter. Veteran home and away game supporters said the policing/security had the right touch, and demonstrated that they wanted fans to enjoy themselves in a safe and secure manner – not be treated like thugs looking for trouble as the default attitude.
Can I just say @OptusStadium security and @WA_Police were fantastic tonight. The way they managed the fans before and during the #ALeagueGF was exemplary. The Sydney FC fans I spoke to reiterate this sentiment. — Les Street (@official_lesdog) May 19, 2019
5. The crowd
It was almost a capacity (60,000) crowd, but the 56,371 (mostly) Perth fans had their marquee stadium looking and sounding like a football city with their sea of purple in the stadium, around the streets, and rocking the game for 120 minutes plus.
We made the point in our look at the latest football news today that the crowd was 46,011 more than their average season attendance and 45,518 more than the number of members. The challenge always is to convert at least some of those 'day-trippers' into members and regular attendees. We trust Perth Glory CEO Tony Pignata is not having an off-season break and gets to work!
