City Views – The 2015/16 Draw
It’s hardly an inspiring draw and on the face of things looks like a very disjointed fixture for the club. Once again we travel to Sydney for the first game of the year so the FFA can view our big money marquee signing purchased by City Football Group. The jokes on the FFA because it’s still Slovenian Robert Koren.
The predictability of an early Melbourne derby happens in round two where we play Victory at Etihad, the same venue the FFA has kindly booked if we host the Grand Final. The other derbies will be played in Rounds 11 and 19, with round 11 hosting the underwhelming Christmas derby. Thankfully this year’s edition appears earlier than normal so many of the fans can still attend even though they may be travelling to see family during the Christmas period.
The Australia Day eve fixture is a curious one and will be interesting to see how well it’s received. The FFA has played this very safe featuring us against Wellington, a team we fail to draw a big crowd against anyway. If this works expect to see this as a permanent fixture, but personally I liked the dynamics of the WSW v City and Syd v Victory Australia Day games.
As a result of our finals finish we seem to have been given more ‘Primetime’ games this season with five Friday night games, up from three last season and far less family friendly Sunday afternoon games (Down from five last year to only one, our season opener).
Our home campaign starts with two ‘soft’ games against Central Coast and Newcastle where John Van’t Schip should pencil in six points given the previous season but this won’t be pleasing those counting the numbers at the turnstile. The first Sydney FC home fixture has been hidden amongst the mess that is Christmas/New Years. Sydney is usually our best drawing team outside Victory and will no doubt spend some money to replace Marc Janko. The visit of Western Sydney is out only real highlight before the Round 11 derby and if the team isn’t travelling as well as expected we could reach ‘Heart numbers’ for the attendance figures.
Like every other team form is everything in the A-League and playing each team three times hardly equates to people breaking down the gate to attend a City fixture. It’s hardly an overwhelming fixture but if the team finally starts to perform like most expect them to this season we could see AAMI Park with a few less green seats this season. No favours from the league with this draw, but honestly we haven’t deserved many for the football we have produced over the last few seasons.
Now the draw is released our fixture turns to the FFA Cup draw on Wednesday and the continually ‘Who will replace Josh Kennedy’ speculation. For goodness sakes don’t select yet another former Socceroos star who struggles to play 30 minutes, let alone 30 games.
Here is the fixture, home games are in bold. Memberships are on sale and I’ll no doubt put myself through another year of frustration by purchasing one. At least we have a W-League team to watch if our men’s team follows an all too familiar path.
Anyway I digress, check out the fixture and cross your fingers we get a decent Cup draw, personally I hope we don’t get South Melbourne away, we’ll probably get rolled by them.
| ROUND | DATE (AEDT) | VS. | WHERE |
| 1 | Saturday 10th Oct – 7:30 | Sydney FC | AWAY |
| 2 | Saturday 17th Oct – 7:30 | Melbourne Victory | AWAY |
| 3 | Sunday 25th Oct – 5:00 | Central Coast Mariners | HOME |
| 4 | Friday 30th Oct – 7:40 | Newcastle Jets | HOME |
| 5 | Thursday 5th Nov – 8:00 | Adelaide United | AWAY |
| 6 | Friday 13th Nov – 7:40 | Western Sydney Wanderers | HOME |
| 7 | Friday 20th Nov – 8:00 | Brisbane Roar | AWAY |
| 8 | Friday 27th Nov – 7:40 | Perth Glory | HOME |
| 9 | Thursday 3rd Dec – 8:00 | Central Coast Mariners | AWAY |
| 10 | Sunday 13th Dec – 5:00 | Newcastle Jets | AWAY |
| 11 | Saturday 19th Dec – 7:30 | Melbourne Victory | HOME |
| 12 | Sunday 27th Dec – 7:00 | Brisbane Roar | AWAY |
| 13 | Saturday 2nd Jan – 7:30 | Sydney FC | HOME |
| 14 | Saturday 9th Jan – 7:30 | Western Sydney | HOME |
| 15 | Saturday 16th Jan – 9:40 | Perth Glory | AWAY |
| 16 | Monday 25th Jan – 7:30 (Aust Day Eve) | Wellington Phoenix | HOME |
| 17 | Friday 29th Jan – 7:40 | Western Sydney Wanderers | AWAY |
| 18 | Sunday 7th Feb – 5:00 | Newcastle Jets | AWAY |
| 19 | Saturday 13th Feb – 7:30 | Melbourne Victory | HOME |
| 20 | Sunday 21st Feb – 5:00 | Central Coast Mariners | AWAY |
| 21 | Friday 26th Feb – 5:30 | Wellington Phoenix | AWAY |
| 22 | Saturday 5th Mar – 7:30 | Sydney FC | HOME |
| 23 | Friday 11th Mar – 7:40 | Adelaide United | AWAY |
| 24 | Friday 18th Mar – 7:40 | Brisbane Roar | HOME |
| 25 | Monday 28th March – 7:30 (Easter Mon) | Wellington Phoenix | HOME |
| 26 | Sunday 3rd Apr – 7:00 | Perth Glory | AWAY |
| 27 | Friday 8th April – 7:40 | Adelaide United | HOME |
