It's a frisbee. A donut. A toilet seat. Wear it around your neck or perhaps, if your head is big enough, on your temples like a laurel wreath. Wrap some razor wire around the edge and wield it like a weapon ala the Predator or Oddjob. If Sydney win will it be nicknamed the 'Bling Ring'? Will hundreds of fans throw cheap plastic frisbees onto the field during the trophy presentation as a sign of protest? Some of these and other hilarious comments about the A-League's newly designed trophy can be found on the Sydney FC-Unofficial forum.
The official statement from the FFA reminds us that issues of difference and divergence remain the key marketing hooks of their vision for football development in Australia:
In the end, the panel of judges felt the D3 design would best reflected the brand values of 'New Football' and could easily become intrinsically and enduringly linked with the Hyundai A-League.
The aim has always been to develop a trophy that is both prestigious and enduring, but also differentiates the Hyundai A-league competition from the other sports. We have a new national league and we feel it is important to re-define the conventional view of a trophy to reflect this.
Let's hope that all of this breaking with convention doesn't go so far as to include some of Miron Bleiberg's suggestions to "improve" the game itself.
For the record, I didn't vote for the frisbee in the public poll, but it certainly wasn't because one of the other four options was far superior. (The option that looked like an Olympic torch was a sad farce indeed. Imagine the captain running a celebratory lap with that glorified stick in hand! He'd be lucky to make it back to the podium without being mugged.) Now that we're lumped with the strangest looking piece of silverware in the country, I'm more than happy to embrace its publicity and freakshow values.
But, I sincerely hope Ross Aloisi doesn't wear it around his neck.
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