For a percentage of the football-gripped population of Australia, a simple utterance of the words Football Manager are enough to bring a grown man to his knees, such is the pulling power of Sports Interactive’s popular management simulator.
But for the game’s incredible realism, and meticulous detailing of player knowledge in it’s highly-regarded SI database, there has yet to be an edition in which stay-at-home managers have been able to control their local NPL outfits. But thanks to a few sleepless nights, countless pots of coffee and a bullish will to make the countries second tier competition playable, Moreland City goalkeeper Brandon Galgano has created a publicly accessible game file that allows us to do just that.
Dubbed the ‘Australian Lower Leagues’ file, the 20-year-old has spent his time away from both football and uni creating a five-tier footballing pyramid headed by the Hyundai A-League in which any Australian team in the game can be promoted to the top-flight, providing the prom/rel advocates a way to vicariously live out their ambitions as they bide their time in real life.
“Through the Football Manager Editor [a free tool available to edit the structure of leagues, players and clubs] you can activate certain competitions as playable,” Galgano says about his FM database.
“Nearly every lower State League club in Australia is in the game already and while they don’t necessarily have all the real players – NPL and NPL 2 do pretty much have every single player – but towards the lower leagues, it has all the clubs, the stadiums, but unfortunately not the players.
“Currently the A-League is the only league playable. So using the Editor, I activated and edited leagues which probably took three days straight of sitting there. It took a lot of time but I’ve basically created a promotion-relegation system from the A-League all the way down to what I have called the Australian Amateur League.
“So the A-League has 10 teams and two relegations places to a National B-League. The best thing about it is that you can go all the way from the bottom of the pyramid to the top. It’s a really special thing for the game because there’s a lot of people around Victoria that go down to their local game and thing ‘wouldn’t it be good to coach at this level in Football Manager?’
“You can sign your mates and guys you know personally. As a player, it’s really cool to be able to coach in your own league and sign players you’d love at your own club.”
Having spent 10 years rising through South Melbourne’s junior system, Galgano understands the frustrations shared by its supporters, who’d like to see the club one day rightfully return to the nations top-flight. While perhaps just a small step forward for now, he admits his creation is a good way of bridging the gap between the two competitions in some way, despite how far away a second tier competition may seem at the moment.
“Growing up as a South Melbourne kid, I knew [top-flight football] was something the club always wanted. It was something I always wanted as well as a player and a fan,” he says.
“I think realistically [a second tier] is still a while away; financially it’s still pretty difficult to get implemented. In saying that, Football Manager is a good resource for those ‘Old Soccer’ fans that want that promotion/relegation system – myself included.
“I do believe someday it will happen, but for the meantime we can just play through it in Football Manager and just enjoy it. Hopefully with enough interest in the game, it can become a reality.”
With such a large undertaking, the motivation to put so many man hours into the project was something that he said was born out of the due diligence the SI scouts put into the NPL competition from its launch. The increased attention to detail across the nations second tier made it almost impossible for Galgano – who’s been an FM addict for the best part of a decade – to ignore, which pushed him along in his journey.
“It’s been a long association with the game, it started off with a Melbourne Victory game at Etihad Stadium in 2007 where a guy was handing out demo discs for Football Manager 2008. I had never really heard of the game, but I got one because I saw it had the A-League in it,” he says.
“Back in those times, FIFA didn’t have the A-League so [that was a big sell]. What caught my eye was the first friendly I played in-game with the Victory against Bulleen Lions at the Veneto Club, where I’d played football in the under 12’s.
“I couldn’t believe they had the South Melbourne’s, the Bulleen’s – nowhere near as much depth as they have now – but they had a lot of the Victorian Premier League clubs and players.
“[Using the Editor] I created a VPL type thing on Football Manager 11. As I said, the difference back then was that there was nowhere near as much depth as there is in the NPL now. They’v got more depth below the A-League now than ever before.
“I got the beta version a few weeks ago before Football Manager 16 came out and looking at the depth they had, it was unbelievable. They had every NPL and NPL 2 club, and I thought it was too good not to be able to play with it.
“Knowing how to do the database, I knew it would take time to set up, but it would be worth it. I wasn’t planning to release it to anyone else, but me an my best mate having sat down [re-assessed]. It’s been really enjoyable and I think it was all worth it.
“If it helps getting the NPL coded into the game full-time, then I think it would be great. But in the meantime, it’s just nice to see the simulation come alive and perhaps just see how things would work if there was a B-League.”
Galgano has spent just as many hours playing his database as he did creating it, and has taken the reigns of his own club Moreland City, who sit in the fourth tier ‘D-League’ competition. There, he’s been charged with leading his side to promotion, which both the board and media expect from him this season.
“Currently we’re sitting in second place behind Bankstown City, who’ve actually got a good squad. They just released Michael Beauchamp which was surprising,” Galgano says about his current save.
“The top two get promoted, while third to sixth go into a promotion play-off. It’s really interesting Pascoe Vale are looking at promotion in the C-League, while Sydney United are sitting top in the B-League. Marconi are actually the surprise package in the B-League; having been relegated from the NPL NSW, they’re sitting second on the ladder.
“South Melbourne are fifth which is surprising, so they’re just hanging onto a promotion play-off spot to the A-League. The other interesting thing I’m waiting for is who’s going to get relegated from the A-League. Currently the Newcastle Jets and the Central Coast Mariners are sitting ninth and tenth.
“Interestingly in my save, Kevin Muscat has just been sacked and the Victory are hovering just above the relegation zone in eighth. Imagine that in real life, if the Victory got relegated to the B-League, there would be real question marks.
“It’s been really interesting to see how the teams handle themselves, especially with the signings. For example, South Melbourne signed Steven Gray – former Melbourne City – and Daniel Vasilevski – Heidelberg and former Melbourne Victory – while down at Moreland, we signed Massimo Murdocca and Francesco Stella. Going down to the D-League, they were keen on helping us get promoted.”
Of course, being the manager of Moreland City presents Galgano the rare opportunity to coach himself for the first time in-game.
“It’s a surreal feeling. You grow up playing the game, hoping one day that you’ll be in it without having to create yourself. This year is the first year I’m in it!
“Coaching myself has been quite funny, I was asking for a raise the other day and I didn’t really want to give it to myself; I hadn’t been performing all that well on the game.”
Many coaches around the world have seen the potential of Football Manager to be something beyond just a football simulation game. There have been stories of clubs using the player system as a means of scouting future talent, while many promising young coaches have taken their first strides into the profession by playing the game and developing a feel for what works on the pitch, such is the level of realism attached to the series.
“I grew up loving Football Manager, it’s my favourite game ever,” Galgano says.
“I believe I learnt a lot tactically from it as well. Being a footballer, I’ve always been really interested in that side of the game, I’ve always wanted to get into coaching. It was a really helpful tool and it’s been a big part of my life over the last few years.
“I think the game has grown massively, it’s just come on leaps and bounds. The biggest strength it’s always had over other games is the depth of knowledge. You read up about how club’s use it as a scouting tool and are signing contracts with SI for their database [of players].
“It’s a really important tool tactically for coaches and players to use as a way to sort of understand football as a game. It’s so realistic in the way that you have to deal with players, deal with finances, with management, all those things.
“I think it’s a crucial tool for any young coach to use in learning the basics of football management, because it is that realistic. As a player yourself, you sit there and try different tactical scenarios and you get your own philosophy of how you want to play. I think that translates to how you play when you’re in a team environment [in real life].
“It’s a tool that NPL/NPL2 coaches could use, because there’s that much depth now in Victoria. It’s pretty much got every player in [the two leagues] in the correct position, and the ratings are quite realistic as well.
“It could be used as a scouting tool because it’s quite hard to scout players, especially in the lower levels where there’s not really that much exposure. We’ve seen Football Manager in other countries predicting the growth of players before they’ve even made it on the scene.
“I think that’s an area where NPL coaches could use the game.”
This Football Manager 16 database can be found on the Steam Workshop by typing the term ‘Australian Lower Leagues UPDATED’ into the search bar. There, all that you need to do is press subscribe and then the file should be made available the next time you start up FM16. When starting a new save, press custom on the Editor Data Files drop down box and ensure you have the right database checked off. Ensure that the ‘Add players to playable teams’ button is clicked, while the ‘Don’t add key staff’ button in not clicked.
