Diving culture? What diving culture? If you want to see top-level diving and simulation, don't look at the A-League – look to Spain for players making hilarious efforts to con referees and gain an advantage.
Melbourne City's Danish defender Michael Jakobsen has played in Norway, Denmark and Spain, and he says there is no real problem in Australia, despite the furious debate that has been sparked following Brisbane veteran Jade North's comical attempt to con the referee with a blatant dive in Saturday night's 1-1 draw between his team and City.
Jakobsen says it is far worse in other leagues, particularly in Spain, where he played for second division Almeria for two seasons.
North on Monday issued a red-faced apology for his actions, and his club insisted in a statement that it did not condone simulation.
Asked if he thought North's actions were typical of a wider trend (earlier in the season his City teammate Neil Kilkenny had provoked criticism for going down after a challenge from Adelaide's Isais) Jakobsen was unequivocal.
"I don't think it's an issue here. I have seen worse, let me say it like that. When I played in Spain it was hilarious sometimes, you get a small knock and people fall over like somebody tried to take off their legs. It's not a big issue here."
It was Jakobsen who on Saturday night told Luke Brattan, the City midfielder, to ignore the Roar players' calls for him to put the ball out of play as North lay writhing on the ground in an attempt to convince referee Shaun Evans that Bruno Fornaroli had hit him in the face.
Evans was standing over North and had not blown his whistle, so Jakobsen urged his teammate to continue attacking. There was poetic justice for North, as Brattan slipped a pass to Nick Fitzgerald, who played in Nicolas Colazo for City's equalising goal.
"Yes, I did say to carry on. The referee was standing above him [North] and if he is not whistling, then we have to keep on playing, we can't stop playing.
"And when I saw the situation [before], he was right in Bruno's face after he went down, and I don't like that kind of mentality, so I was like 'play on until the referee will whistle'.
"That's how I am used to doing it in Denmark, if the referee has a clear vision of the situation and he sees there is nothing dangerous happening then you play on until he whistles."
The Dane has fitted in well to a City rearguard that switches between a back four and a back three and has been a virtual ever present, only missing one league match.
He scored in his first game for the club, an FFA Cup quarter-final against Western Sydney Wanderers, and he preserved City's narrow lead in the final with a goal-line clearance to deny Sydney's Bobo when the Brazilian's header looked sure to level the scores.
Jakobsen says that switching formations at the back has taken some time to get used to but is not that unfamiliar (he played in a back three for a while during his time in Spain) but like all tactical structures, players get more used to things the more they play.
The Dane believes that City are only now just hitting their straps and there is a lot of improvement still to come in a squad in which there were so many new signings this season.
"You always have to adapt to everything. I don't know if things have clicked in the last couple of weeks but you get in better shape, you understand your team mates better. We will perform better and better in the season.
"It's good that we can do both [switch from a back four to a three]. When the team plays well it's easier to play well. I don't know if a back four is easier, but it's what I have done my whole career, so normally it would be easier, but now when we play many games in a row as a back three it's going to come.
"In Scandinavia it's not that common, when I was in Spain we did it a bit so it's not brand new. I came here, I am open to new adventures and to learn new stuff."
There is, however, plenty of room for improvement for a team that sits second on the table with one third of the season gone.
"We want to keep more clean sheets and keep more goals. The way we play is very aggressive, attacking football. We are quite open sometimes when we attack.
"We need to be better with our pressing as a group, sometimes it's very good sometimes it's lacking. It comes down to when you are tired in the games because it's a very hard way to play."
City travel to Sydney on Friday night for a crunch game between the top two on the ladder, at ANZ Stadium. Sydney are six points clear at the top, and if they can gain revenge for their Cup final defeat will stretch that lead to nine points.
