Australia's new A-League is set to kickoff

[Cooks]

16 hours and counting until Australia's completely revamped national league gets the ball rolling.

Check it out at http://www.a-league.com.au

I'm wishing them well, as they may prove to be a model that we can follow.

A Perth vs. New Zealand match offers travel distances that rivals anything that we would have in Canada.

Some facts:

There are 8 clubs (stretching from places like Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Auckland NZ, Newcastle, Brisbane, and Gosford.

There are 20 players on each roster.

The league has implimented a $1.5 million salary cap, but one player can be named as a marquee player and can be paid using private funds that don't fall inside the cap. Some marquee players include Dwight Yorke and Brian Deane.

They've got great sponsorship and TV deals, and it looks like most of the ducks are nicely in a row.

Again, I wish the league well. Go Perth Glory!

[Desigol]

Sydney FC have a fella from County Derry called Terry McFlynn on their Side;

http://www.sydneyfc.com/default.aspx?s=playerprofile&pid=56

[Cooks]

Average attendance for the opening weekend of action was over 17,500 (not bad!).

Let's see if it holds up over the course of the season

[Cooks]

Friday night action:

Adelaide 0 - 0 Queensland

New Zealand 1 - 3 Sydney

Sunday's battles are Central Coast vs. Newcastle and Melbourne vs. Perth.

[Cooks]

Sunday's scores:

Central Coast 1 - 1 Newcastle (a wet and cold match)

Melbourne 2 - 2 Perth (an 88th minute equalizer from Melbourne's Kevin Muscat robs Perth of their first victory).

The weather and smaller market venues played a role in the attendance figures this week, as the average attendance came in at 11,200. On a bright note, the Melbourne match was a sell-out; the first sell-out at Olympic Park for any sport since 1998.