Purple Monkey Dishwasher - Round 7, South Melbourne vs Green Gully

Now that we have your attention, we can move on from the adrenaline soaked heroics of last week's match, get back to reality and see if South can make it two in a row, and get some real momentum going forward into the early middle part of the season.


Last time they met
Round 19, 2007, at Green Gully Reserve

Green Gully 0 South Melbourne 0

A fairly even game, in which South worked themselves back in after being on the back foot for awhile. Good goalkeeping and poor finishing combined to see the game end scoreless. This was the fourth consecutive game in which South had failed to score, which typified the 2nd half of the 2007 season.

Preview
Green Gully are hardly playing inspiring football from the footage I've seen, but they keep getting the points, which is what counts. Despite being earmarked as a struggler this year, their only loss so far has been to the rampant Richmond, and that was all the way back in round 1. Certain folks on certain forums have been critical of the lack of youth and goalscoring ability in this team, perhaps best exemplified in the continuance of talented young striker Matthew Sanders being overlooked for starting 11 duties, but on the flipside, they appear to have a fairly miserly defense to compensate. And with one of Australian football's best coaches in Ian Dobson still at the helm, Gully should never be written off.

For South, last week's win just may be the impetus which sets up the rest of their season. Coming from behind, against a bitter foe on their own turf, and with a reshuffled 2nd half line up which included Shane Nunes playing in defensive midfield, there's an opportunity here to at last settle on the line up that will take South on a journey up the table and nearer the finals spots instead of hovering far too close to the relegation zone. South also has a rather mixed record against Gully in recent times; in eight matches between the two, South has only scored in two of those, the 3-0 win home win in 2006, and the later in the year in the elimination final at the same venue, by the same scoreline. Back then it had seemed that perhaps South had thrown some kind of monkey off its back, after having failed to score in all three of their contests in 2005, only to get that monkey straight back on in 2007 with two uninspiring performances against Gully. I can see South winning this, but equally a side that can grind out results like Gully can should not be underestimated, and therefore South will do well to get a draw. But here's hoping.