With interest in the A-League at a low rarely seen before the Sky Blues’ sheer dominance is pushing the league to the brink.

Pundits have flocked to the thesaurus in the wake of an Adrian Mierzejewski-inspired Sydney Derby triumph in order to find superlatives worthy of describing Graham Arnold’s team.

And with the Harbour City side’s dominance in the past two seasons now unrivaled on the stat sheets (118 points in 48 matches), we may well be watching a side better than the likes of Ange Postecoglou’s 2011/2012 Brisbane Roar (114 points in 57 matches).

The Sky Blues are the big fish in this salary cap-strapped pond.

While this is great news for Graham Arnold and his talent-laden squad the pond is stagnating and starting to smell.

Television ratings on Sunday made for horrendous viewing.

The Sydney Derby was outgunned by both of the AFL’s JLT preseason matches and an AFLW match with the A-League’s strongest rivalry pulling just 61,000 viewers.

Attendances across the season make for similar viewing.

The 2017-18 season’s average of 10,924 is the lowest since 2011-12’s average of 10,819.

For those blissfully forgetting the season that was 2011-12, Clive Palmer’s empty stadiums send their salutations from the Gold Coast.

Interestingly enough it was the second season of Brisbane’s all-conquering back-to-back championships, a strikingly similar scenario to that of Sydney’s current season.

Of course there are other influential factors that affect the statistics but one just needs to cast their eyes abroad to see the impact of a league-dominating team on clubs and their fans.

The Scottish Premier League has been at its dreary worst in recent seasons after Rangers went into administration and eventual relegation in 2012.

Celtic have won each season largely unopposed with smaller Scottish clubs unable to bridge the gap in class, though the era has failed to improve the 48-time SPL champion’s time in Europe as nothing more than group stage cannon fodder.

A similar case of dropping attendances and lowered interest is occurring in Germany and Italy as powerhouses in Bayern Munich and Juventus (until this season) maintain their sustained periods of dominance across recent seasons.

With the A-League in a spot of bother and perhaps worse, evidence points to Sydney’s dominance as more of a burden on the league than something worth cherishing.

Which begs the question: will the FFA have to intervene in order to save its league or risk losing fans altogether?

Probably the latter.

Though if rumours on the Socceroos have any credibility, perhaps the FFA will cut off Sydney’s head and resolve this crisis by nabbing Graham Arnold post World Cup.

Feature image credit: Jaime Castaneda @jamcas50
Statistics courtesy of Ultimate A-League.