Thursday News Headlines – March 16th, 2017

AFC Asian Champions League

• 2017 ACL – FC Seoul v Wanderers – 4,769 at Seoul World Cup Stadium
• 2017 ACL – Adelaide v Jeju United – 3,539 at Hindmarsh Stadium

AFL

• THE GABBA could get a drop-in wicket after Sports Minister Mick de Brenni backed the idea as a way of avoiding future clashes between AFL and cricket.
• BRISBANE Lions triple premiership ruckman Clark Keating says Queensland Cricket should start exploring the option of using drop-in cricket pitches at the Gabba.
• Robert Craddock writes in the Courier Mail that if you yuo a crappy drop in deck at The Gabba you make it just like those vanilla decks of Adelaide and Melbourne.
• The Brisbane Lions have restated their “absolute commitment” to having the AFLW Grand Final played at the Gabba.
• PLAYERS are prepared to embrace a twilight Grand Final as the AFL Commission has its last chance this year to make a historic switch. The player union said on Wednesday it would support a twilight Grand Final, with new board member Scott Pendlebury adamant the time was right.
• GILLON McLachlan says the AFL wants to experiment with a twilight Grand Final at the right time, not at the right price. The AFL chief executive says the league will let the fans know by Round 1, but no change will be made with ratings or broadcast riches as considerations. McLachlan says he wants to balance tradition with progress.
• Adelaide coach Bec Goddard wants extra pay for her regularly travelling players to cover their missed work days and give her list the ‘luxury’ of training together weekly.

State Footy

• Michelangelo Rucci writes that the Crows, Power, SANFL are all winners after Adelaide Oval move, but what about the SANFL clubs?
• STURT Football Club will lodge plans for Unley Oval’s $4.6 million redevelopment as soon as next month — stepping up efforts to deliver the long-awaited revamp.

A-league

• A “SUPER Sunday” of consecutive A-League finals is on the cards as Western Sydney and Brisbane Roar grapple with a potential fixture pile-up next month. A-League officials are looking at the option of playing two finals on one day to avoid penalising teams in the Asian Champions League, as Football Federation Australia continues to address issues over ACL scheduling.
• Melbourne Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro touted as man who could save Australian soccer, but can’t become Football Federation Australia chairman for at least two years. That’s because clause 15.15(a)(iii) of FFA’s constitution stipulates a person who has held an “Official Position” at an A-League club can’t become an FFA board member within two years of that appointment ending.
• 442 reports that A-League promotion/ relegation could mirror K-League
• The FFA is under pressure from NPL clubs as FIFA backs plans for national second division.  A meeting of representatives of more than 80 clubs will take place in Melbourne on Monday with the backing of FIFA, which is supporting their push for greater inclusion and influence in the game in Australia.

NRL

• The Roosters announced on Wednesday that John Lee’s short stint at the club has lasted just 13 months after he made a high profile switch from archrivals South Sydney. He was the first Roosters chief executive since 2012.
• The Telegraph reports that The Sea Eagles are about to implode spectacularly in the front office as the bitter war between club legend Bob Fulton and Cleary, just eight weeks into the job, heats up. Allegations of questionable workplace behaviour towards two female staff members have undermined Cleary’s intentions stated on Wednesday of a new, modern era of governance for the Sea Eagles.
• Manly owner Scott Penn has issued support for new chief executive Tim Cleary amid an escalating power struggle with Bob Fulton, saying the former school principal had been given a mandate to be “across everything” including the club’s football department.

Super Rugby

• 1 NEWS NZ has been told three teams will be cut from the 2018 Super Rugby competition, including the Kings. A source out of South Africa today told 1 NEWS that two teams from the republic, including the Port Elizabeth-based Kings, and one from Australia will be axed.
• Peter Fitzsimmons writes that he expects the Rebels to be the Australian team to go.
• The Melbourne Rebels are adamant they’ll remain, as the unthinkable prospect of the Brumbies being cut from Super Rugby looms larger. However, the Brumbies’ apparent fight for survival was news to chief executive Michael Thomson.
• The Australian writes that The whole Super Rugby brand has been trashed as SANZAAR umms and aahs and whispers behind its hands about whether it will reduce the number of teams in the competition from 18 to 16.