You may have heard this one before, but this season is make or break for the A-Leagues. A potentially future-defining moment for competition, an opportunity for its administrators to grow the sport and relaunch it into the public consciousness. Again.
After limping through 2021-22, which began with such promise only to fall into a maelstrom of Covid chaos and a series of self-acknowledged own-goals, the A-League Men returns this Friday when defending champions Western United take on Melbourne City at AAMI Park. New competition administrators, the Australian Professional Leagues, are targeting 2022-23 as the one to come good after presiding over a maiden campaign which rapidly descended from triumph to triage.
