It’s been labelled the speech every Australian football fan should hear. Western Sydney Wanderers coach Alen Stajcic’s impassioned six-minute rally cry at the weekend took issue with the local soccer community’s propensity to put the game down, while the NRL and AFL take every opportunity to pump their codes up.
After he oversaw his team’s 1-0 win over Sydney FC on Saturday night, Stajcic was keen to celebrate the occasion while admitting he envied other codes’ ability to unite and promote their game. “I love NRL and I don’t want to give any other sports stick because I’ll watch six or seven NRL games every weekend,” Stajcic said.
Alen Stajcic mentioned Andrew Voss (L) and Phil Gould (R) in his passionate plea. Image: Getty
“But ever since I was a little kid in the mid-80s and 90s, all I hear is (it’s) the greatest game of all. The NRL people pump up their own sport all the time. Peter V’landys is on every single press conference telling the whole world how good his sport is.
“He’s an advocate for his game. He’s passionate about his game. He’s an advocate for his product. The amount of times I’ve seen (Fox Sports caller) Andrew Voss commentate a game and at the end of the game I’m buzzing.
Alen Stajcic has called for change. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
“When do you hear him criticising the NRL? Phil Gould had a bit of a go – he’s obviously a very smart guy, one of the top administrators in the country for me – and they critique the game, but most of it’s positive.
“They’ll find solutions there and talk about how they can make the game better. But we don’t. We just fight each other all the time. We want to put each other down at every possible moment.
“We’re infighting all the time. We’re like two seagulls fighting over one chip. It’s a great spectacle, so I don’t know why we always put ourselves down.”
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Stajcic pointed out the rise of the Matildas and the Socceroos’ World Cup performance in 2022 as cause for celebration, while conceding there were areas in the game that need fixing. “There’s things we need to critique and do better, and we’re always striving to do better because it’s a global game,” he continued.
“We’re not the NRL that’s just popular in two states of the whole world. We’re the global game and we’re competing. Why don’t we talk about all the positives in our game? I don’t hear that (negative talk) in the NRL. You’re going down to Melbourne and it’s just AFL, AFL, AFL.
“You guys (the Australian football media) are lucky to get a column and then I read a column and it’s all negative. At some point you’ve got to be grateful and celebrate the good parts of your game, while at the same time trying to improve other parts.”