Is everyone over it already? - Port Melbourne 0 South Melbourne 1

Arriving at Port straight from work in the city, I expected not much from the experience and just about got it. The pomegranate trees outside the ground? Basically empty, and what fruit there was wasn't quite ready yet. Tons of figs though, but like the fruit on my neighbour's tree, not close to ripe. And I had my tote bag ready to go and everything.

I got there early enough to watch most of the under 23s game. Not many South people in attendance at the time, which sounds like self-fulfilling prophecy (or self-actualised punchline). Not many in attendance for the senior match either. It's the kind of turnout you might expect in the dog days of winter, not in the first week of February. So it goes.

I saw my dad's patrioti in the canteen, though he almost didn't recognise me. A frequent traveller to Greece, they asked him there if he still saw my dad and myself anywhere. "I told them that I still see the son at Hellas games, but that the father was in the other patrida now." Quite. Chicken souv was fine, touch salty, but that's probably because they want you to buy a beer to counter the salt. Didn't get sucked into that one.

I'll reserve any withering judgements on the quality of the curtain raiser, because it'd be easy to overdo the Simpsons gags. Besides which, it may have just been an off night for everyone. Still, the Port coach may have had a point about his charges not listening to the instruction to keep the ball on the ground in midfield, especially with how windy it was, which was quite.

The wind, blowing to the Plummer Street end, didn't let up all night. The scoreboard read 12 degrees, but that detail probably hasn't changed since they installed the scoreboard. The Williamstown Road end was out of bounds, because of work to the secondary fields. It all had the potential to feel a bit less than quite the real deal as a setting, except Port's players came out with the kung fu, and the officials let it go. If there was any doubt that the NPLV MMA was back, the first fifteen minutes or so put paid to that.

Of course, if the officials let not just one bad tackles go unpunished, but several, then shit will eventually hit the fan. It is one of my biggest gripes that yellow and red cards are not dished out from the get go in matches. "Oh, but you'll ruin the game if you do that". No, players who have played the game for 15-20 years, and know very well what a bad tackle is and put in a few early ones because they assume (usually correctly) that they'll get away with it, ruin the game. Too bad for Port that they ran through their quota of bad tackles at such an insane pace, that they were down to men before twenty minutes had elapsed. The less said about the attempts by George Mells and Lucas Inglese to suck the ref 

We were on top anyway, not just because of the wind, or because we were playing against a Port team that had so few recognisable names, but also because we were sort of playing the game smart. Being a wing heavy, and set piece heavy team, it was quickly deduced that the wind, and Port's massive backline (including an ex-junior in Maker Maker), made regular corner taking useless, so we went to the short corners.

"But Paul, you hate short corners!". Wrong. Short corners are not the enemy, only poorly conceived, poorly designed, and poorly executed short corners are the enemy. Last Friday, we actually did good from them, including setting up a three on one situation from one such corner, which ended up with Max Mikkola scoring the decisive goal. 

After that, it all became a bit of a blur because it was all a bit familiar. That, and the game being largely up the other end in the second half to where I was, and a good chunk of the game being played in twilight, made my experience less than ideal. So, more of the same, then.

Next game
Monday night home against the Knights. The first of three consecutive games of Monday Madness.

Major sponsor
If you're wondering where the new major sponsor was on our shirt, I was told it'll be on there next week.

If you're wondering where the old major sponsor went... unfortunately you're going have to do your own work on that one. 

Danish / Doorstop watch
Danish got ten minutes, but didn't seem to impress anyone. Doorstop got a start in the A-League, but got subbed out after 55 minutes.

Second division news, barely

The rest of you start thinking up a name for this NSD. I don't know. Something along the lines of, say, Australian Championship - only more proactive. https://t.co/ndp81no2Lk pic.twitter.com/netAMZ4eaS

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) February 12, 2025

Final thought 
We've become so decrepit, not one of our people seemed to notice that John Markovski was coaching Port.

No community, no shield, only... victory! - South Melbourne 1 Oakleigh Cannons 0

Got a lift to the ground on Friday night, which I am very appreciative of, but... it was also slightly unnerving, in the sense that it was clear we were cutting it very fine in terms of getting to the ground in time for kickoff. It was a bit like going to games with my late dad back in the NSL days, dad being one of those people who always wanted to get to the venue at the very last moment. 

It only occurs to me now, writing this up, that back in 2008 my dad and I gave Friday's driver Johnny a lift home from Olympic Village - 17 years ago! - where does the time go? If you've been with this blog for long enough and are still with this club, that's clearly a rhetorical question. The time went exactly where you left it - at Lakeside, and at assorted Denmark Division 6 equivalent grounds around Melbourne, and occasionally in Lara, Ballarat, and Shepparton.

Traipsing through the car park and making a note that we'd parked in the Itchy Lot, we missed the first minute or so, as we strolled past security at the gate. Yes, there was security doing magic wand searches at the entrance, which I felt was overkill - but if they're going to hire them, they might as well keep them busy, I suppose. They attempted to amuse themselves by cracking a few jokes, like pretending that they were also checking to see if people were bringing in alcohol in their bottles.

This fixture was brought into being roughly ten years ago, in an attempt to hype the upcoming NPL season, and to also do some fundraising for charity, Given that it was free entry, and that there was no sign of any charity partner for this match, I'm not sure where the "community" aspect of the evening was. Given that the game was not live streamed, I'm also not sure where the "hype" aspect of the game was either. There was a trophy on offer, but somewhat poetically, it wasn't even a shield, but rather a cup, prompting the age-old philosophical question of when does a bowl become a cup?

Having to deal with all those lies on top of each other was obviously a harrowing experience, and then there was also the ordeal of having to watch a game that meant something (there's a trophy on hand!) and nothing (it's no league grand final) at the same time. Football Victoria have tried to do things with this concept, including shifting it into the middle of the league season, but the idea just hasn't captured the imagination of the Victorian soccer public. It's a broken record by now, seeing as how I've already delegated saving the competition and Victorian soccer as a whole to them alone, but maybe only Preston can save this idea by qualifying for it next season, whatever next season looks like.

As for the game itself, it's a good thing it wasn't live streamed. It wasn't horrible, so far as pre-season matches go, but it was violent, and the referees seemed largely indifferent in trying to get the teams to tone down the kung fu even a little bit - and when they did, the officials must've thought that Oakleigh were the Kansas City Chiefs, and Joe Guest and friends were various versions of Patrick Mahomes, and that if anyone should be punished it should be the opposition for being so mean to the teachers' pets. Don't break apart this clumsy analogy by asking who Taylor Swift is in this example.

We amused ourselves in the outer by reminiscing on olden days and characters, chanting the odd chant, and trying to figure out where Joe Guest's accent was from (which led to the listing of village English rugby league teams). So, standard pre-season fare.

Next game
Port Melbourne away on Friday night to open the season proper.

Crummy Old Danish watch
But let's be genuine for a moment. 90% of the reason I attended this match was to see the man, the myth, the legend, Gustav Møller (the Danish footballer, not the Swedish writer/director) in action, and to practice my pronunciation of mid front rounded vowels. Now I didn't necessarily expect Møller to get a start, but surely they'd give him a solid run at some point during the game? Friends, they did not. The fact that Møller was subbed on after 85 minutes suggests that we're not going to be seeing much of him, at least not in the early part of the season. 

It would be madness to think someone who's barely got on the park during pre-season will be our main guy up front. But we've been mad before with players who haven't done a proper pre-season - remember old mate Billy Konstantinidis? I wonder how good Gustav is at giving behind the play gut punches? When Møller was on the field, he didn't really get a chance to do much - he won a header on the right wing which may have led to something, but otherwise the game was at a stage where Oakleigh had to chase an equaliser, we were looking to kill time, and his talents were reduced to being another body on the field.

What this suggests is that Nahuel Bonada will likely be the main guy up top for at least the earlier part of the season, which I am not opposed to, especially if it means we change our style of play away from "kick it to the big guy". Here's hoping that Bonada can get some decent service from the midfield, and some protection from the opposition thugs who are going to inevitably try and break his legs.

Delicious Doorstop watch
Harrison Sawyer got to play for a whole minute the other week in the A-League, his first appearances in Macarthur's senior team since late November. Today he played a whole 25 minutes. Someone asked me at Bundoora if it was true Sawyer was going to be released, and might we be looking to get him back. I have no idea on that, and have heard nothing to support such a suggestion.

Ruining the line of the garment
Getting my eye fixed and getting new glasses has really opened up a whole new world to me - like noticing Andy Brennan playing with massive holes in the back of his socks. Apparently this trend isn't new, and is an attempt in increase blood flow and avoid cramps. Still looks like shit, though.

Final thought
How can you make a hype video for the new kit featuring notable landmarks from the local area, and leave out the Montague Street Bridge?

The 2025 season is almost here, and aren't we all just champing at the bit

Back when the fixture for the 2025 NPL Victoria season was released, no one was happy, as expected. And why would they be? First, it meant another season of NPL football for us, which after all the "hope" for the commencement of the National Second Division, is a serious letdown. Second, it also means that South Melbourne still exists as a going concern for at least one more season, which means allocating precious free time and mental energy into traipsing into Lakeside once a fortnight (for some people), and into a slew of suburban grounds (for fewer people) whose particular charms, such as they were, have completely worn off.

I was disappointed at the time to see some misplaced criticism on social media levelled at Football Victoria for not opening the season with a certain marquee fixture. Thankfully, the FV rep conversing with said complainants took the feedback with good grace, explaining that the fixture process was conducted in the same way it has been done for the last few years, and that it was actually South Melbourne's idea to do it like that.

But since everybody is meant to play each other twice anyway, and people have their eyes set on certain fixtures as a matter of course, does it really matter if South vs Preston doesn't open the season? The bigger issue is that outside of whatever game Preston plays in a given week, that there won't be remotely be as much interest in what any other team is doing. 

No right days, only wrong ones / no good times, only bad ones
So having opened with whatever that was above, let's look at what South's doing. Oh dear, oh my, oh goodness. Wait, let's not overreact. 

More Monday night games to open the season, as we, I guess, have to work around athletics' busy part of the year, and the need to get the ground fenced off quickly for the grand prix. Some people love Monday night football, but that's primarily when they live near the ground (e.g., Bulleen or Kingston). Since very few of our supporters live near Lakeside, it's seen as a chore to get to the ground. But our fans have made it clear that going to South games is a chore regardless of the date, whether that's because of an inconvenient day or time, the sluggishness of the food service, or the panel beating style of football on offer.

Most home games will be on Sundays at 5:00 PM - a traditional day, albeit not a traditional time. Still there were the complaints about that. What can the club do? Fridays you compete against the footy, as well as every other club (NPL and otherwise) that's got new lights and wants to show them off. Saturday afternoons you're up against nearly every senior men's team in the city. Saturday evenings have been tried, and rejected by our supporters. Sundays clash with juniors and family commitments. Maybe people just don't really want to come to South games? Maybe South is incompatible with the modern world?

New places / new old places

• Preston play their home games on Friday nights.
• Melbourne Victory youth will host us on a Monday night, at the Home of the Matildas

Other teams changing days and times
Speaking strictly from a South Melbourne point of view, there are a few changes to some customary away fixtures.

• Port Melbourne on a Friday night, instead of the more recent Saturday evening fixture
• Green Gully will be on a Friday night (Anzac Day)
  
• Hume City will be on a Friday night, as opposed to the usual Saturday night
• St Albans will be on a Friday night, as opposed to the usual Sunday afternoon.
• Heidelberg away will be on a Friday night
  

Public transport faction

Not good news on this front. Preston is not good for public transport. Ditto St Albans for Friday night (even though I'm accustomed to driving there), and Bundoora on a Monday night is just awful. 

Easter

2025 will be one of those freak years where the Orthodox and non-Orthodox Easter dates align, so there will be no issues here, aside from having to accommodate a potential cup tie.

NPLW Double-headers
There are five of them spread throughout the season.

As for the senior men's team, and perhaps the club as a whole
There is just no hype, no sense of our supporters looking forward to the season. Despite three seasons in a row where the team has been very competitive (apart from grand finals), including last year's Australia Cup run, people just seem over it. Yes, the style of football hasn't helped, and the signing of a physically like-for-like replacement for Harrison Sawyer suggests not much will change there. 

But it's more than that - there's no sense that things are going to get better. A mongrel NSD competition tacked on to the end of the year (for a gruelling ten month long season) has just made things seem even worse. However bad and uncertain things were at the start of 2005, the uncertainty then at least provided an opportunity for a belief that the ship could be righted, and for a little while at least, it was going OK. Twenty gruelling years later, everything depends on Preston sparking an interest in not just South, but the entire league. It's a big ask.

I'M NOT BLOGGING UNTIL I GET MY DANISH

 

Yeah, I know I'm on. But I don't care. I don't read the news until I get my danish. Go ahead, try to find a replacement.

It's the only question that matters this season. Not NSD, which is a dud already. Not how many riots are going to happen, which we know will be several. Where is the danish that's going to be the new goal scoring machine for us? Why can't we find out anything about him? Why doesn't he even have a self-serving highlight reel on social media? This guy must be the greatest hidden gem in the history of our club; either that, or he's some nepobaby who's ended up at Lakeside by some strange series of behind the scenes shenanigans. The idea that he's just some guy in witness protection is funny until you realise that Victorian soccer, being full of criminals, would be the worst place to hide someone from whatever criminal syndicate they've snitched on. Here's us, watching the game against Olympic (who looked pretty bad, but that's a little beside the point), and there's only one new player for us in the starting eleven - and it's not the danish. Apparently the danish was there in the stands watching the game. Apparently he is real. Let's hope he's also really good, because Plan A depends on it.

Things that are happening, or that have happened, or that will happen, or that will never happen

Just when you thought it was over...

Screenings of the documentary on Ferenc Puskas and his time in Australia just will not quit. Now the club itself is getting into the game by holding its own screening on December 4th, 7pm, at the Astor, with all the trimmings of a Q&A and special guests and such, rather like the film's Melbourne premiere in October. If I may say so, this is getting a bit weird, in ways that I can only really articulate in a separate post dedicated to the film as a whole. I may have started writing something about that, but don't hold your breath on waiting for that to come out, because you know how the blog is these days. Anyway, the film's pretty good, so go check it out if you haven't seen it already, unless you've already bought tickets to the Matildas match on the same night.

Forums - apparently people are still setting up new ones!
I was asked via email to promote this new Australian soccer forum which includes some South Melbourne Hellas content and commentary, and would apparently like more. It looks like an off-shoot of the 442/Inside Sport forums - not my cup of tea, but it may be yours, especially if you're looking for an alternative to the relative Fort Knox of smfcfans.com, and the dearth of South content on other social media like Twitter, Facebook (at least the places I visit), and Reddit. (and while it's still early days, I really don't anticipate Bluesky becoming a South Melbourne Hellas/NPL wonderland).

2025, here we come

A very large chunk of the 2024 senior squad has re-signed, notably minus Harry Sawyer (living the dream), Emile Peios (rumoured to be heading to Preston), Mario Barcia (rumoured to be heading to Port), and maybe one or two others I haven't got on top of. No mention of Andy Brennan's status for next season just yet. George Mells is the most notable new signing so far, joined by an outwardly underwhelming cohort of former junior players of one sort or another, which has a few people flummoxed, me included. No sign of a new striker just yet, though the rumour is we're bringing in an import whose size makes Harry Sawyer look like Gus Tsolakis. Make of that what you will. 

Back to Oceania?
Apologies to the person who sent this to me on Twitter messages a few weeks ago, to which I did not respond. Quite unlike me to do that, but anyway. The answer to whether South should consider joining a mooted Oceanian Professional League is "no". Occasional sojourns into things like the Singapore Cup had their uses, but even their limited windows of participation were incredibly taxing on the club from an organisational point of view, and upon the part time players that make up our squads.

People generally mean well when they bring up stuff like this - they see no future for the club plugging away in this comp as we have been doing for the past twenty years. But putting the question of logistics aside, the main issue is this: either South Melbourne is relevant playing in Australia, against Australian opposition, or it is not relevant at all.

Second division, yeah right
Just a very quick comment on the "champions league" model for the NSD being brought in next year, and the disappointment and concern that the NSD really seems just as far away as its ever been. 

Show me the money.

If the money was there, if it all stacked up, clubs, sponsors, governing bodies (some of them at least) would be falling over them to make this thing happen.

Blocked by Mike artefact Wednesday - 1960s Ladies membership card

This is a post I had tucked away for a long time, which I just kept pushing back for some reason.

I came across this item back on this date in November 2018. It was posted on Twitter by my erstwhile nemesis SMFCMike, (and if you don't have a nemesis, are you really living?) though of course because I was blocked by Mike at the time, I didn't actually see it until Ian Syson tagged me in to a discussion Mike had started on Twitter about this matter, though of course I couldn't see what the original post was all about.

To see the post, I had to do that stupid thing back then where you would just jump onto Twitter by logging out of your account, thereby bypassing the block. And what did I get to see for my troubles? Well, I got to see a rather nice historical artefact, a South Melbourne Hellas Ladies Membership from, I assume, some time after 1966 and probably before 1972, though I'm guessing this is from the late 1960s.

We don't know how much a ladies' membership cost, but check out the stamp: "Hellas Soccer Club Melb, Vic." - which shares a quality of nomenclature with an old pennant of the time, as noted in this post,

Extra screening added for Puskas doco

If you were hoping to catch the Puskas in Australia doco "Ange and the Boss" tomorrow at the Astor, you're out of luck - tickets for that screening have completely sold out.

However, an additional screening has been announced for tomorrow at 5:30 at the Pentridge Cinemas - tickets for that are available here.

Puskas in Australia documentary screening this week

Hello everyone, as per the title, after seven long years, the Puskas in Australia documentary I've mentioned one or two times on here is finished, and will be screening this week at the Greek Film Festival in Sydney and Melbourne.

Unfortunately, the producers couldn't raise the finances to use footage subject to copyright to get a commercial release for the film, but they have raised enough for film festival screening. So this might be your only chance to see it!

The film is screening in Sydney this week on the 17th (Palace Norton Street), and in Melbourne on the 20th (Astor Theatre) - tickets available through the links. The Sydney session has a Q+A session with Paul Trimboli and Simon Hill, and the Melbourne screening has a Q+A session with Trimmers and Mike Petersen.

Having some minor involvement with the production of this film (the real heavy lifters were kind enough to give me an associate producer credit), I'm obviously a biased about the film, but the last version I saw, I laughed, I cried, and I learned stuff - it's pretty good. One very lucky South fan I showed a near-finished version to a little while back loved it.

I'm just so relieved it's actually going to at least have a limited public screening. Fingers crossed it can take off from there.

You can watch the trailer here. 

2024 South of the Border Awards

Player of the year: Harrison Sawyer. 

Goal of the year: Jankovic's second goal against Olympic FC.

Best performance: I'm going to with the Australia Cup quarter final against Hume. 

Best away game: Preston, and yes, I know I missed it.

Call of the year: Dickface. Just incredibly juvenile.

Chant of the year: More seagulls than fans / more seagulls than fans / South Melbourne's dead / more seagulls than fans

Best pre-match/after match dinner location: The Hungry Jacks at the Collins Street end of Southern Cross Station, but only late at night when they've closed off most of the dining area, and the only customers are the desperate and non-discriminating. 

Friends we lost along the way: Jimmy Armstrong, John Margaritis.

Barely related to anything stupidity highlight of the year: 

The Melbourne Sports Centres Trust staff again not knowing how to turn on the floodlights, and then turning on all the lights at the stadium, even the irrelevant ones.

The student in the undergrad unit I taught this year (yes, I know, I sold out, they drove a dump truck full of money to my house, I'm not made of stone), who thought he could find paid off-field work at NPL Victoria clubs. 

When I was in the lift at work in the Federal Court after having finished working on a matter, and I put my Hellas beanie on before I went outside, and one of the people in the lift who was the subject of the court matter at hand said "South Melbourne Hellas?" and I said "yes", and he said "I'm on the board, and I'm the major sponsor".

Look, it wasn't stupidity as such, but I enjoyed that one night where we could watch the seagulls feasting on the moths attracted to the floodlights.

Magic of the something or other - South Melbourne 0 Macarthur FC 1

If you want to read something closer to a match report without the hand-wringing, see this post.

Being that this was the one time that pretty much everyone in Australia who cares about such things wanted South to win a match, it's almost satisfying to me that we didn't. As soon as the brackets for the latter part of the Cup draw were made, there was all this internet fuss about Victory vs South, and playing it at the MCG to accommodate the crowd, and proving some kind of point about something. A rivalry that exists almost entirely off field? The chance to test out theories about assumed torn loyalties? A litmus test on what kind of latent support we actually have?

Of course internet fuss when it comes to domestic soccer in this country, at least on the social media platforms I tend to use, is rather a niche topic, which is a point I've laboured for many years. Still, that doesn't mean that this kind of particular internet fuss doesn't matter, but discussing it solely within the ideological confines of old soccer/new football does it a disservice in terms of the simplicity of that binary - especially now that pretty much everyone is an "FC" anyways. Where were the literary and philosophical allusions in these discussions? As far as I could see, there was no mention of shadows, of strange doppelgangers, or the umheimlich - it was pretty much all politics, and tending to scabby wounds that never heal (that's us), and a form of victory (no pun intended) that will never be complete nor satisfying (to them), no matter how long, how enduring, and how complete our exile and ongoing cultural humiliation is.

(it's worth adding, maybe, that even the irrelevance of our cultural obscurity is itself another form of ongoing humiliation)

Even history sort of got chewed up and regurgitated in the most predictable way - I get that it's 20 years on, but almost no-one cared to see a possible South vs Adelaide United match up. Maybe there's not enough meaning there for anyone except the most esoteric or bitter among us for an attempt to avenge the loss in our final NSL game. But forced attempts at creating "meaning" are a relative thing. What does Macarthur FC mean, apart from the licence fee they stumped up, being the unwilling party to certain Sydney Croatia fan nonsense, and a punchline for alleged match fixing? Right, something about a cowbell. Oh, and Matt Millar ending up there during the course of his wanderings, and now... not.

(By the way, I hear that Dushanbe is lovely at this time of year. And yes, I checked, Australia doesn't have a bilateral extradition treaty with Tajikistan, not that that's important for anything in this discussion. Also, did you know, in the 9.5 clubs Millar has played at, his 65 league for South (84 all up) is still the most he's played for any one of them?)

Apart from those items listed above, I knew squat about Macarthur, and couldn't care less. How do they play? What kind of support do they have? What do they think of us, if anything? I didn't really see anyone talking about them during the lead-up to the game, except that they looked ordinary against Oakleigh the week before, and that they took our Sawyer away. That pretty suggest to me that as in the NSL days, that the gulf between the teams that people care about (whether they like them or not) and those they don't is still as large as it ever was. 

There was, however, one crutch of familiarity - the presence in the Macarthur back-line of old school genial thug Tomislav Uskok, who's been crashing into our players on and off since 2009, back when he was still known merely as "Tom" Uskok. It's unclear whether his particular style has rubbed off on his teammates, or whether he's there because he fits in with a preexisting leg chopping style, or he and his teammates just haven't learned the lesson yet that it's not smart to try and deliberately collect yellow and/or red cards too obvious.

At any rate, the ref did not oblige with even the pretence that he was out there to create a safe environment for the players, because we were hack'n'slashed almost from the start, and certainly to the finish. It made no sense. We were missing our best defender (gallivanting around Europe), best midfielder (on the bench, carrying an injury), and our best forward (raptured), who was also like approximately 85-99% of our game plan. What threat were we to them that they needed to resort to such brutality, against an undermanned team semi-pros coming to the end of a gruelling near-40 game season?

Anyway, promising 20-30 minutes at the start where we actually played (all things considered), but couldn't create much of value. Then the war of attrition and the professionalism of the opposition ground us into the dirt. Them winning it via a late penalty (which some of you still contest) is almost a moot point. We gave everything, but didn't have enough to give. If we had Sawyer... if, if, if. It was kind of predictable in the end. And I'm on that side of the fence that thinks it was a penalty, but in the context of what hadn't been given all game by the ref, that penalty call was nothing. Well, we had a good run I suppose.

So after that disappointment, what was there left to say? That's right, crowd numbers. That was not a great crowd - the 6pm Sunday timeslot that everyone loves, no junior soccer, no footy, fantastic weather, school holidays, and yet there was no threat of the northern side being opened up. It was also not a terrible crowd - enough people turned up to more or less fill the southern stand, even if they didn't necessarily sit or stand in it, preferring to stand along the fence or line up for a souv; the crowd was also in fine voice, passionate and engaged. There were people there I hadn't seen for some years, who had time and/or a reason good enough to come back, at least for one match.

It was also an unknowable crowd, because no one can believe any crowd figure dished out, official or otherwise. People doubted the 4,000 odd figure announced for this game, in part because they doubted the 4,000 figure announced for the Wellington game, because they doubted the 6,000 figure Preston quoted for our game back in May or whatever it was, and... well, I think you get the picture. There has been that much bullshit made about crowd sizes going back decades, that only the select few who have access to the actual numbers - and that assumes that they themselves have access to accurate numbers - can know for sure what is real, and what isn't on this topic.

(and there's a difference between the number of people who turned up, and the number of people who actually paid for a ticket)

Ordinarily I wouldn't care so much, because it's been 20 years and we're running on fumes anyway, and the live stream images of most of our games in front of our malnourished stand tell their own grim story. But this NSD thing, you know, the thing that's going to save us (and Australian soccer!), I kind of have this odd idea about it - and that odd idea is that for the NSD to work, apart from much better crowds then pretty much all bar one lower tier crowd is currently getting, it will actually need accurate counting of said crowds, if only for the sake of bookkeeping and future planning. And maybe something real to tell sponsors and investors about why they should their put their money into such an enterprise.

Unless it's just a front for money laundering - but no-one in Australian soccer would ever dabble in such antics.

Next game
Well, see the thing about that is...

Next year

Assuming there's no NSD - and I'm going to assume that as hard as I can - as someone on the terraces noted a few weeks back, it's going to get a bit stabby next year. Maybe that's a bit of an overreaction. Let's bookmark this post and come back to it at the appropriate time if needed.

NPL Victoria will see some changes next year, apart from Preston and the Victory NPL side coming back up. First, there are going to be roster rule changes. There won't be any match day age requirements for 2025 (they're coming in 2026), but you will need to have a minimum of three home-grown players (whatever that means), in your senior roster. That really shouldn't be a problem for anyone, and certainly not for us as a club which has spent this year giving actual extended first team starting action to our own youth team players.

A bigger problem for us is that first-team goalkeepers must now be Australian, unless the visa goalkeeper had a contract prior to September 2019. Three-time goalkeeper of the year Javi Diaz Lopez has only been playing in Australian since. 2021. Makes you think.

Relegation down to VPL1 has also been increased from two to three teams, and all of those are automatic relegation spots - no playoff for third last.

A few rumours floating about Esteban being on the way out (after his most successful year, no less), but that's all it is for the moment. Just a bit too early for definitive news from us, having just finished our season, about which players might stay or go. I'd start some scuttlebutt about players with NSD related clauses not sticking around in the event of there being no NSD, but that would be very irresponsible of me.

Match program news
Added the grand final match program to the collection. 

Final thought
What am I even doing back here?

A load of Bull (guest post)

Originally posted on Manny's blog.

It was a cruel way to exit the Cup. South were the better team on Sunday but in football the better team doesn’t always win, and this was unfortunately the case this time. One could say though that we had already enjoyed our fair share of luck. Our Australia Cup run featured two extra time wins, a miraculous upset against Wellington, four matches in Victoria during the national stages, and a draw that would have ended with a dream fixture against Melbourne Victory in the final. Even considering all that though, no one deserves to bow out on a controversial 85th minute penalty. The morning after the match I couldn’t help but feel a sense of what might have been…

In contrast, the feelings in the lead up to the match were universally positive, even to the point of non-South fans wanting us to win and being vocal about it online. A dream fixture was on the line and almost everyone wanted to see South face off against Victory.

Macarthur themselves partially contributed to this sense of hope by virtue of being a bang average team during the tournament so far. They had managed to stumble into the Semi-Finals after looking second best to Oakleigh and some South fans (myself included) saw this as a positive to our Australia Cup chances.

Of course the lead up wasn’t all hopeful. The worst kept secret in the NPL was confirmed during the week when Macarthur themselves announced Harry Sawyer would be joining them for the A-League season. The move was fantastic for Harry, but a huge blow to our chances. Although he wouldn’t be able to face South in the Semi due to being cup tied, it did mean we had to rethink how we would approach the game.

First Half

Question about South’s attack were answered pretty quickly after kick off. South came out firing in the first half with Brennan, Mikkola and Bonada leading the attack. Macarthur on the other hand seemed unable to hold the ball and were left to soak up pressure for the first half hour of the match. South repeatedly entered the Macarthur box, forced a couple of saves and even created a one-on-one chance that should have seen Mikkola put us up one-nil. South did just about everything… except score.

If Sawyer was playing I have no doubt we would have scored in those first twenty minutes. The box was extremely crowded with Macarthur defenders and South struggled to get clear shots away without being blocked. A big body like Sawyer would have created a clear target and found a way to bully through the congestion.

Further up field Macarthur defended aggressively making a number of dangerous challenges which riled up the crowd but failed to find punishment from the ref. The tone set by these early referee decisions certainly went on to play a factor later in the game.

As the half wound down Macarthur got more of the ball and looked to slow down the play, passing it around with no intention of trying to penetrate South’s well organised defence. Their team was coming to the end of preseason and seemed comfortable to let their size and fitness win the game later on. They finished the half with no shots.

Second Half

In the second half Macarthur dominated the possession but South remained well structured in defence and made a number of direct attacking plays. Unlike the first half though where the boys created a few threatening chances, South looked increasingly fatigued and seem to lack the intensity of the first half. Whilst in the first half, shots were being blocked in a congested box, in the second half South was getting the ball into the box but failing to even get shots away.

During the whole game Clarendon were in great voice. It helped that the drummer this week seemed to have improved on his efforts in earlier cup games, but generally the section was fuller and more lively than it had been for much of the year.

Macarthur were a good opposition to support against. Their yellow card match fixing scandal made them an easy target for supporters, and even their signing of Sawyer was banter fodder (give us our Sawyer back). As well as a better turn out from South regulars there were the non-so-regular friend-of-friends, a Puskas banner waving Hungarian addition, a group of kids who sat on the side, and even a strange Oakleigh fan content on sitting in front of Clarendon trying to engage in shit banter.

Crowd wise, the game had the lot except for a goal to celebrate. The largest emotional reaction was towards Tomi Uskok who threatened to fight seemingly the whole South bench after coming off 2nd best in a tough challenge. He would go onto be booed every time he touched the ball for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately the most impactful challenge of the game worked against us. At the 85th minute Macarthur earnt a penalty after a soft collision in the box. It was a brave call from the referee who had been otherwise silent during the game, but the call sent the crowd crazy. Not only was the challenge unconvincing from the spectator side, but the call seemed to be inconsistent with the refereeing earlier in the game. On replays from the broadcast side it looks tough to avoid a penalty, but either way Macarthur scored and left us heartbroken. South went on to lift the intensity but Macarthur ate up the few minutes remaining  including with a needless red card from their scorer Valere Germain.

The final whistle was followed by a flood of boos. Fans flooded the player race to voice their issues with the referees and then turned their attention to our own team which was celebrated with cheers for their huge season. It was a bitter sweet end to 2024 and one of the more memorable seasons of the NPL era. South has played 39 games, lost only 6, won two trophies and gone deep in the Australia Cup. Well done to the team, the staff, the board, the lot. There were low points (the Grand Final loss), but far more high points, and I’ll say it again – this season did wonders to restore the reputation of the club in the wider football community.

Offseason

So what now? The rumour mill has been warming up in recent weeks and we will no doubt see if it has produced anything meaningful. There are NSD murmurings (a mini-season to be hosted in Spring 2025), there are club rumours (Esteban gone) and event player point system shenanigans that will play out in the next season (is Lopez a permanent resident)? The offseason will certainly be eventful, but this week at least, I am welcoming a pause.

Final Note

What about that crowd?

So Tonight That I Might See

 

Third time’s not the charm (guest post)

 

This post was originally published on Manny's blog.

I’m not sure how many people want to read this, and to be honest, I’m not really sure I wanted to write this. As you probably know, South lost their third grand final in a row to Oakleigh on Saturday. I made the effort to be there and watch the game.

Pre-match and the State Football Centre
I was feeling rather numb about the whole experience even before the game. Having attended South’s last two Grand Final losses, my emotional battery was running pretty low. Knowing that the best case scenario involved 90 minutes of nerve racking direct football meant that I was doing my best not to come into the game with too much expectation.

I drove into the ground with a few mates. It really should have been a few more but a lot of people avoided the match – weary of South’s recent Grand Final record and avoidant of the new facility out in Bundoora. Surprisingly, regarding the latter point, I was actually quite impressed with the facility. Even the parking experience was quite straight forward, with an ample number of spaces available and only about a 10 minute walk needed to get to the venue proper. I think as this venue is used over time, more people will be willing to make it down and we should expect even bigger crowds. However, for elderly and immobile fans, the 10 minute walk I endured would not be feasible, especially in the rain.

Walking towards the gate, a lot of people were leaving from the earlier NPLW Grand Final. Heidelberg had snatched a 3-2 win in extra time and were celebrating as we entered the ground. We picked up a matchday program, which was simple but did the job (except for an error on the Heidelberg team sheet which required a manual fix on every copy). We also grabbed a snack from the kiosk, which is where the facility’s limits really started to break.

We were thoughtful enough to arrive early, so the kiosk line wasn’t too bad, however the toilet lines were terrible even with the ground half empty. Somehow they built the male toilets without any urinals, meaning the lines were about twice as long as they needed to be. The only other food vendors we could find around the ground were also unsuitable for the occasion. A second kiosk had run out of pies, and the Souvlaki kiosk at the end of the stand was overwhelmed with hundreds of people waiting – whether it was to order or for food we weren’t sure, but we didn’t see anyone with a Souvlaki which was a little ominous.

The facility itself was pretty neat. The ground level was fully fitted out with administration areas, a gym and player rooms, whilst upstairs the facility had corporate areas and about 800 seats with a great view of the ground. For crowds under 1,500 the State Football Centre is perfect, anything more, and the thing starts ripping at the seams. The surrounding areas were also well maintained and modern, a big step up from DISC.

We completed our lap of the main ground passing the two worst viewing points available. One goal end lacked any elevated view whilst the outer wing only had a low rising hill. This side also hosted a temporary media gantry. It astounds me that these temporary arrangements are economically justifiable. They look terrible, and offer limited amenity. I don’t understand why so many ground lack the foresight to include permanent media vantage points especially as considering the prevalence of streaming at community sports level. Even larger grounds (Lakeside and Olympic Village) use temporary set ups in the stands which offer suboptimal broadcast experiences. I hope there are plans for a permanent vantage point at the State Football Centre because this current arrangement is unacceptable.

Eventually we made our way to the other major temporary structure and settled in the stand behind the goals to watch the first half. This was a neat stand, but also illustrated the need for more seating at the venue. As the game kicked off, Clarendon settled near us and would go onto chant for much of the first half. This was great, and people in the stand would join in throughout the game. What was less good was the lack of cover, which dispersed the atmosphere and would have left two thirds of the crowd soaked if it rained as threatened.

The match
Maybe if it did rain the result could have been different, but except for quick light showers, the weather remained as expected and so too did the result. In the first half South managed to carve out a few chances and controlled the game, forcing a couple of clutch saves from the Oakleigh keeper. As the half went on though, Oakleigh played their way into the game and carved out more well-constructed chances – a sign of things to come. Except for a strange double substitution at the 42nd minute, South’s half remained uneventful and the score remained nil all.

In the second half South appeared to withdraw into themselves, defending deeper and struggling to get the ball into the box. By this point we were watching from the hill side along the fence which wasn’t the best view of the game. Worse still, Clarendon Corner had moved behind the goals where there was no elevated seating. This killed the atmosphere and I think contributed to Oakleigh’s increasing dominance.

Oakleigh’s goal was a well worked piece, and it was only in reaction to this that South appeared to play with more urgency. However, with Oakleigh now comfortable to sit a little deeper, South struggled to get the ball in the box even with more of the possession, When they did manage to get into dangerous areas the crowded Oakleigh defence denied South any clear shots on goal. Except for clearing crosses, I’m not sure we forced a save out of the keeper in the second half. It was frustrating to watch this and the play eventually sucked the hope out of the crowd, the little energy left toward the end of the game was saved for desperate calls to move the ball forward. The result was known long before the final whistle blew.

Australia Cup
Tight turnaround for the boys as they will face Hume on Wednesday in the Quarter Final of the Australia Cup.. The game will be played away, so if you go down, rug up because it’s freezing up there. The winner will face either Oakleigh or Macarthur in the next round. This means only one thing, I reckon we’re pretty good odds to beat Hume and then lose to Oakleigh in the Semis…

Rumours
Just as the promised Women’s Australia Cup never eventuated, if the rumours are to be believed, the H&A NSD will not come to be in 2025. Perhaps I was naïve to think it would happen but I’ve remained hopeful until now. I am officially now pessimistic about the whole thing. What this means for South is at least one more year in obscurity.

There are also rumours that Esteban Quintas will not return as coach next season, possibly taking a number of players with him, many of which were on contracts tied to NSD participation. In combination this could mean South looks very different next year to what was expected. New coach, huge squad turnover and ongoing participation at State level.

At this point, regardless of the reality, I’d like to thank Esteban for miraculously resurrecting this team. South just a few years ago were on the brink of relegation and despite the Grand Final failures and direct football, the current group has restored a sense of pride in the club in the form of silverware. We have beaten A-League opposition, made it deep into the cups, won a Dockerty Cup and two Premierships. On top of that many Youth players have been blooded at Senior level. From a South fan perspective the last few years have not felt as glamourous as this list of achievements suggests, but certainly from non-South fan’s point of view, the club has been restored as a team to beat.

At this point I’d also like to make a plea to readers to sign up and participate in the Australian Football Forum on Inside Sport, for more rumours like these and even more zany ones.

https://forum.insidesport.com.au/Football/Australian-Football

Puskas Documentary
As well as being advertised at the Grand Final, an official post online confirms that the long awaited Puskas Documentary is complete and will be screening to the public! For now I have only seen a screening posted as part of the Greek Film Festival. The film covers Puskas’ time coaching South Melbourne. Production was stuck in production for an extended period of time while the producers sought funds to pay for archival footage. Well done to all involved and I am excited to see the final product!

https://greekfilmfestival.com.au/sydney/films/view/586

A final word
Interestingly, South joins Rockdale (NSW) and North Eastern MetroStars (SA) on the list of 2024 Premiership Winners who went on to lose their Grand Finals.

Anything can happen in a four hour game (guest post)

This piece originally appeared on Manny's blog

As I made my way to Lakeside I had to face a delayed train, missed tram and buckets of rain. Despite these annoyances, I remained hopeful for tonight’s Australia Cup match against Olympic FC. South was coming off of a full week of rest, and Olympic was not of the same caliber as Wellington. It was sure to be a straight forward night, right?

First Half: Part I

I managed to get to the game just after kick off where I was welcomed by a vocal Olympic FC contingent. A small group of them were chanting behind a banner and dotting the white grand stand with their red tracksuits. As I made my way to Clarendon Corner I also noticed that the crowd was much smaller than that of the Wellington fixture. This only solidified my expectations of an easy win as the night felt very similar to the Sorrento game in 2017 – back then South won comfortably and progressed to the next round of the Cup.

On the pitch things were looking good. South had started the game well, and looked generally composed on the ball despite a lot of intensity and pressure from Olympic. Not long after I arrived, South even managed to score from long throw and took a deserved lead. The opening goal seemed to relax South, whereas  Olympic remained unchanged in their intensity. This allowed the game’s momentum to shift to the visitors – not that anyone was paying attention.

Much of the crowd was distracted by the black clouds slowly making their way from the city, whilst many others were closely tracking the final moments of the Carlton vs St Kilda game on their phones. It was only when Olympic scored an equaliser that the crowd really re-engaged with the game, however, by then the weather had deteriorated significantly and the officials soon made the call to delay the game. The players reluctantly hit the sheds, fan huddled under the grandstand roof and some spectators decided to leave the stadium early rather than wait out the forced delay.

First Half: Part II

I decided to kill time by doing the unthinkable – ordering food from the Social Club. To my surprise though, my order was ready almost instantly, the gyros was very tasty and the portion size was huge! I spent the rest of the break enjoying my dinner in the grandstand and watching the lightning strikes, as the stadium DJ exhausted their rain themed playlist.

Although songs like ‘Umbrella’ and ‘Thunderstruck’ helped keep the mood relatively light, the overall delay experience wasn’t the most pleasant. The weather was so bad that one of the outer bays was evacuated, we were informed by the emergency PA system not to leave the venue, and worse still – no one knew for sure if the game would even resume. Forty minutes after the initial delay, we were finally told the game would resume. ‘I can see clearly now the rain has gone’ played over the speakers.

The rest of the first half frustratingly went on to mirror the game dynamic present before the delay. South again controlled the ball, but Olympic again managed to score against the run of play. The crowd reacted poorly to this. Not just in regards to the lost lead but also to the fact that the goal seemed to come from an offside attack. When half time arrived, South were trailing and – worse still for me – St Kilda managed to beat Carlton. This left me backing two losing teams and facing a cold late public transport trip home.

Second Half

Except for the occasional attack from Olympic, South completely dominated the second half. Right from the start, South held the ball well and showed restraint in their attacking plays, often opting to knock the ball around the back rather than hit it up forward quickly. This demonstration of patience though was perceived by fans as a lack urgency and as time passed there was a sense of growing frustration throughout the grandstand. I was also frustrated at the team, especially at their inability to shoot more liberally in the wet conditions. On reflection though, the possession heavy approach did have an impact on Olympic which eventually worked in South’s favour.

Olympic were ultimately forced into an endless series of exhausting defensive runs on the extremely water logged Lakeside pitch. They sat deep with ten behind the ball which limited their attacking plays to isolated and direct efforts which were easily cleared by the South defence. Tired legs and deep set structures also meant Olympic were ineffective when attempting to win loose balls in the midfield, this often gave South second chances in their build up play. Eventually though even the Olympic defensive efforts would fail when late in the game they gave away a penalty.

Astoundingly though, even this wasn’t enough for South. Sawyer’s penalty was saved and the team still had nothing to show for an entire half of dominance. The team though, to their credit, didn’t put their heads down. South continued to pepper the Olympic box with crosses and shots. Finally, a beautifully timed overlap on the left wing saw the ball crossed to an unmarked Archibald. Archibald slammed the ball into the back of the net to equalise at the 90th minute – sending the crowd wild and the game into extra time.

Extra Time

I took the pause in play to introduce myself to Paul Mavroudis. Having read his work for over a decade, and attending South games for longer, the introduction was definitely a tad late. How late you ask? About three minutes. How can I be so exact in this calculation? Well in the brief moment we chatted not only did we miss the extra time kick off, but we also missed the Puskas Award worthy goal which put South back in the lead. Jankovic had converted a free kick from half way after noticing that the Olympic keeper was off his line. Somehow he not only chipped the keeper, but he also managed to keep the shot on target!

The rest of the extra time was a blur. Clarendon erupted into almost non-stop chanting and sang away the remaining time, after being nervously quiet for much of the game. The game remained a relatively open affair and could have easily gone to penalties, but South held on and secured passage to the next round of the cup. For me, things managed to get even better. ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ had found its way onto the speakers a little earlier – confirming the Power’s defeat of Fremantle and consequently Carlton’s passage to the AFL Finals. The rain had also managed to clear up, meaning my trip home was looking a lot better.

I eventually left the ground at 9.30, two hours after the match’s scheduled completion but knowing that both my teams were through to the next round of competition, and that I wasn’t going to be drenched on the way home.

Jimmy Armstrong

It’s also worth noting that the great Jimmy Armstrong had passed away earlier in the month. At the game, a number of memorials were conducted, including a video package that was played at half time, a fantastic banner hung up at Clarendon Corner, and a commemorative shirt which was placed by the South bench during the game. I believe there was a memorial pre-game as well but I arrived too late to catch it. Jimmy was an SMFC great that I never had the privilege of watching play, but I still managed to see him around Lakeside over the years.

One odd moment I had regarding Jimmy was after a game at the Limerick Arms. It was St Patrick’s day and my group was the only ones in the pub wearing Blue in a sea of Green. Speaking to some of the Irish expats and even the bar staff though was a bit of cultural exchange, and Jimmy proved to be the bridge between both worlds when we found out the bar tender was related to him. Moments like these emphasised how important Jimmy was for South, but also how respected he was by everyone that met him. Rest in Peace Jimmy.

Finals

South will next face Hume City in the NPLVIC finals on Friday the 30th of August with the winner progressing to the Grand Final. The week after the Grand Final, South will play their Australia Cup quarter final. The natch will be played away to either Melbouren Srbija – or possibly Hume City. For now the team will pause and recover but these will be a huge few weeks ahead! 

Something to fill in the gaps, something to tide us over

While blog-wise I'm in semi-retirement for the time being (test for new prescription tomorrow, new glasses not long after that, I hope, and then who knows...), in the meantime we are fortunate to have been given permission by Manny - he of the comic strips produced for South of the Border some years ago now - to republish some of his South related posts from his own blog.

On his own blog, Manny dabbles in commentary on soccer, literature, poetry (some of which now appears on this blog), the local Greek community, and assorted cultural critic odds and ends. 

Think of it as filling in some of the gaps from my 2024 lost weekend (all the relevant posts are from this year), as part of an ongoing archival project, but also as a throwback to an earlier goal of this blog - providing a forum for South people to express themselves outside the limitations of short-form, disposable social media posting. Thanks Manny!