By TERRY MADDAFORD
Soccer Australia has almost certainly been hit in the pocket by its decision to award 3-0 wins to teams who had been due to play Eastern Pride in the last half-dozen rounds of the National Soccer League.
For Wollongong Wolves, the walkovers meant second place on the league
table and a double life in the top-six playoffs.
Perth would have had a better goal difference had they not had to play Eastern Pride twice, for 3-2 and 2-1 wins.
The effect is that the West Australians, who attracted a record 43,242 crowd at Subiaco Oval for last year's grand final, missed out on the chance of hosting it this year.
Now the final will be played at either South Melbourne's Bob Jane Stadium (capacity 18,500) or Wollongong's WIN Stadium (14,500).
Soccer Australia owns the final and seems set to lose big money with Perth now out of that equation.
The playoffs begin this weekend with sixth-placed Melbourne Knights at home to Perth (third) and Sydney Olympic (fourth) at home to Marconi (fifth).
The goal count also cost the Kingz, who eventually finished eighth. In the flurry of goals scored in Sunday's last round, TV commentators calculated that the Kingz, with 52 goals for and against, had improved one place to seventh. But by the time all the games ended, Adelaide City Force had also amassed 43 points with a better goal count of 54-54.
