By Scott, you're right

One of the more thought provoking pieces of sports writing this week concerned Scott McIntyre's article regarding Saturday's A-League Grand Final between the Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC. More specifically, McIntyre's contention that Melbourne should in fact field a team predominately comprising youth league players in order to focus on its critical Asian Champions League encounter against Kawasaki Frontale, due to be played in Japan just days after the A-League finale.

Writing for SBS' 'The World Game' website, McIntyre suggested that the Victory not so much take a fall in its Grand Final against the Sky Blues, but rather field a team which would instead give the Victory a better chance of progressing in the Asian Champions League, a tournament which, by no means disrespecting the A-League, means much more, and where Melbourne's chances of progression have already been tarnished thanks to two below par performances.

Unfortunately however many sports enthusiasts in Australia will view McIntyre's argument as akin to blasphemy or downright lunacy and regard the piece as something which could only emerge from a sport so many in this country are yet to fully comprehend or appreciate. And this is a tremendous shame.

McIntyre's interests lie in Asia and so too should those of the two Australian clubs who qualify for the Asian Champions League each year. He's written and covered Asian football for some time now, particular within Japan, and was recently responsible for one of the only Asian Champions League previews to be found in Australia thanks to his impressive, two part ACL preview which appeared on the SBS website a few weeks ago. In it, McIntyre provided an intriguing insight into the 32 clubs competing in this year's ACL and generated the kind of excitement the mainstream media, in Melbourne at least, are not prepared to invest in.

Like many others McIntyre would be thrilled at the rise of the A-League in addition to the fact that its clubs now engage in the region's most prestigious club competition and, in Adelaide United's case, achieve some success. Participation in the ACL is crucial for soccer in this country and the A-League both in terms of making Australia relevant and respected in Asia and because of the millions of dollars such participation can generate. To say nothing of actually winning the tournament and the further riches that would come the winners' way due to qualifying for December's Club World Cup.

Only a few months ago in an interview with the Age Merrick claimed his biggest disappointments as Victory coach was failure to progress out of the group stage at its one and only appearance in the ACL back in 2008. If that is the case, and Merrick's disappointment was as acute as it sounded, then why wouldn't he be doing everything in his power to rectify that, quite possibly by creating a situation where Melbourne would be particularly careful with the team it selects Saturday night against Sydney. Which would perhaps be as simple as keeping three or four of his best players on the bench, only to be be deployed late in the game, and only if the Victory desperately needed them.

Scott McIntyre should be commended for writing the kind of article rarely written in Australia and for rallying for what at first appears as a radical proposal but which in actual fact has plenty of merit. By no means does Melbourne have to deliberately lose, nor does the A-League Grand Final have to have any of its lustre taken away. It just happens that the Melbourne Victory has a particularly important ACL assignment in Japan just a few days later, the kind of assignment Melbourne shouldn't take for granted as qualification for the Champions League will become a lot more difficult once the A-League expansion is solidified.