Here comes the Aldi NSL...

Disclaimer - a good chunk of what follows assumes that South Melbourne will be a successful applicant for a national second division.

Well, knock me down with a feather, it's finally here. Or somewhat more precisely, just over there, somewhere between reality and social media clamouring.

The other week Football Australia announced that expressions of interest for the National Second Tier were now open. The competition format isn't settled yet, as that will depend on the level of interest from prospective parties. Assuming that enough clubs are capable of competing in a league competition, the NST competition would be a standalone tier between the A-League and NPL, with promotion and relegation happening only once the NST had become "mature". If not enough suitable clubs are found - a minimum of ten - then we're looking at a Champions League style, post-season group format.

Participating clubs would be required to withdraw their senior team from their state NPL competitions.  You'd hope and assume that our upper age youth team (the 20/21/reserves) would still play in their NPL competition.

(but there's also this requirement: "investment in and operation of a full talent development pathway within their club structure", whatever that means)

Among the concerns I've seen is what happens if the whole thing falls over after a year or two - what happens to us then? Do we get straight back into the NPL competition, or would it be a complete mess like after the dissolution of the National Soccer League? 

The first thing to remember is that in 2004 there was overlap between the end of the last NSL season and the beginning of that year's Victorian Premier League season. That wasn't an issue that couldn't be overcome - it's just there wasn't the willingness (hello fridge magnets!) from some people to make the effort. The other thing to remember is that it's not 2004 anymore. Let's assume for argument's sake that this thing gets up, at least for one season., but then goes belly-up. There were changes made to the rules after the 2004 debacle in the event of something similar happening to an A-League team. While you could never rule out colossal stupidity on the part of a governing body to stuff something like this up, you'd like to assume that such provisions would be carried over to the NST; especially since the eventual goal is to implement promotion and relegation.

At first, the NST will have a winter season, with a March 2024 start. Not a great outcome for those hoping to boost crowds by getting out of the winter soccer quagmire. I suppose if you're of the belief that merely being back in a (quasi) national competition will be enough to get people out of their boycott of what we do now, that's not an issue. For those who believe that winter and competing soccer (senior and juniors) and AFL seasons - in addition to ongoing degraded prestige - have a substantial impact on our current numbers, there's a lot more doubt about how many people would return, and for how long.

That goes also for the potential "revival" of old rivalries. Assuming that most of the NST's participants will be former national league teams - and throughout the process, that has been the main assumption of both NST supporters and detractors - will there really be enough and sustained interest? It's easy to point to classic/pinnacle NSL matches with big crowds. It's also easy to point out matches where crowds were not so good. And away crowds for interstate travel - never a strong point in the old days, even taking into account much higher travel costs - well, I'm not sure how many even the "big" clubs will be bringing to an interstate match. 

There's additionally a requirement to have access to "a suitable high-quality match day facility 12 months of the year", which seems fair. I suspect that requirement is in place in the event that the competition eventually moves to a summer alignment. Such a requirement does pose an interesting question about how South's tenure at Lakeside qualifies. It's not that we don't have access to the venue 12 months of the year; but our winter priority period does muddy the waters a little, assuming an eventual summer switch. There's also the grand prix and other special events which sees our access to Lakeside curtailed from time to time. I'm sure it'll be fine, though.

I've also seen some contention about the requirement of squads being made up of players on professional contracts, being paid 52 weeks of the year. Some people have inferred that this will mean full-time (and thus non-affordable) professionalism, when it's not quite clear that that's the case. In Australian soccer, we tend to get too much confusion about professionalism means. There are two different concepts which should not be conflated: professionals vs semi-professionals, and professionals vs amateurs. The first concept is a social distinction, while the second is an administrative one. 

So we don't know yet how many, if any, NST teams will field squads made up of full-time professionals. It's got to be the aim at some point that full-time professionalism will be the default, as opposed to the exception. In South's case, at any rate, the club has long moved to a contract and payment system adhering to these standards (or so we've been told), in part to spread the payment load across an entire year, and to avoid contractual disputes (not always avoidable, but you know).

For those who come from outside the South supporters bubble - especially those who get most of their knowledge about the views of our fanbase from social media - it's hard to get the point across that the views of our supporters are much more varied than is actually the case. Those holding the view of getting into the A-League or NST at any cost are just one part of who we are as South supporters. So while on social media you see the gung-ho attitude of the loudest people, on our forum it's a lot more circumspect and cautious. 

Is this idea actually viable? Does our board really think that the NST's financial and attendance targets are achievable for us? How much of it is being driven by the fear that if we don't apply and get in, that we'll be left even further behind? But despite the many unknowns of an NST, we do know what we've had to put up with for the past 18 years, and thus it's a choice between two unsustainable competitions, one which is moribund, and the other which is, at best, untested. For us, it looks like "better the devil you know" is likely to give way to "swim, until you can't see land".