The fourth iteration of the Hyundai A-League kicked off over the weekend amid a fair amount of hype and fanfare. But by the gods, the standard of football has to be questioned!

Throughout the entire competition, no side showed any sort of polish or class, with a string of five passes being an absolute rarity! Every team looked nervous and cagey, which was a far cry from the expansive football of last year’s competition – including the Grand Final which are usually notoriously dry affairs.

The most disappointing would have to be the Sydney and Melbourne clash. The two traditional heavyweights of the competition usually provide enthralling and entertaining matches, but this particular clash had about as much excitement as watching the New Zealand Knights play in days gone by. Both sides were negative and kept men behind the ball. They also played through the middle of the park, and never gave any license for their wide players to get forward.

On paper, Sydney has recruited strongly throughout the off-season so were perhaps more disappointing than most, when you look at the quality of players they possess across the park – which is especially scary for any non-Sydney fans considering their lengthy injury list. Simon Colosimo looked out of sorts, and will take some time to settle into the role. Whilst he was a commanding presence at Perth last year, he is no longer the talisman of his side, and may need some adjustment to adapt to life as one of the also-rans of a star-studded side. It appears that the slow creak of father time has begun to invade Steve Corica’s legs, but he is not alone in the competition when it comes to that.

Melbourne’s much-hyped recruits produced little, and Merrick’s normally astute judgment must start to come under scrutiny should Fabiano et al not start to produce the goods. The Victory looked sound defensively with the ever-reliable Muscat marshalling the troops, but they looked a bit light in the final third.

I think it would be fair to say that Central Coast will struggle to reach the lofty heights of minor premiers again this year, as they spent a second half under huge amounts of Newcastle pressure. Petrovski is looking to be suffering from the same effects as his former Sydney team mate Corica, whilst Elrich appears to have merely picked up where he left off from his time at the Wellington Phoenix.

Newcastle surprised me a little, as I felt they would be weak considering that they had lost so many of their stars from last season’s victorious campaign. They were the pick of all the sides for me, and they will no doubt feel robbed at having not come away from the match with all three points. Zura looks like he will take some time to settle into Australian football, but showed a few glimpses of what he is capable of – albeit fleeting ones.

Adelaide and Perth appeared to go through the motions at Hindmarsh, with a single piece of poor goalkeeping separating the sides. Perth was the other side that I picked to do poorly this term (along with Newcastle, who proved me wrong on the weekend), but like Newcastle, they will feely harshly done-by to not grab a point. Travis Dodd showed some nice touches and Ognenovski looks like he was a quality acquisition for the club. Vidmar no doubt had half an eye on the upcoming Asian Champions League fixture, so it is perhaps fair to cut them some slack.

Queensland and Wellington was much of the same, with the sides battling to a rather dour and uninspired 1-1 draw in the New Zealand capital. Neither side showed any real adventure, and both appeared content to sit deep and earn a point rather than chase the match to grab all three.

Maybe I’m a being a little harsh given that it was the opening weekend of the competition, but when I think back to the same round last year, I distinctly remember a thriller between Syndey and Central Coast, and a similar nail-biter between the Phoenix and Melbourne.

What do you think? Drop me a comment and let me know.

Adam Brown is one of the founders of Yellow Fever – the Wellington Phoenix supporters group. As a freelance writer, he covers football for Sportal in both New Zealand and Australia as well as writing for several local publications. He is a keen footballer himself, but has never managed to excel beyond plodding through the local divisions in Wellington.

Photo credit: Victory In Melbourne on Flickr via the84thminute photo pool.