Huntingdale Hilarity - Round 20, Oakleigh vs South

Last Time They Met

Old South 0 New South 0
at Lakeside

Johnny A stuck 10 men behind the ball and got a point.

Preview

So they've got us doing some kind of career development subject before they let us out into the big bad world for reals. They've stuck us in a large auditorium, with flickering lights and 16 of us sitting there in front of a non-existent boxing ring. They ask us who we are, what we're doing, where we see ourselves in a year's time and what we'd like to be doing in the future or some other such question. People with work placements and ambition and a sense of purpose end up getting follow up questions, and people with vague non-committal answers - i.e., me - getting a look of confusion mixed with maternal (person in charge was a woman) disappointment. Yes, I am cynical when it comes to these things. And I am insecure and unsure about my abilities and everything new that happens. But it was still lame. They want us to look back through our previous three years worth of subject readers. Most of mine contain short stories and literary theory and/or criticism. Anyway, game tonight, should be fabulous, as per usual.

Dodgy Asian Betting Advertisement

And to the Dodgy Asian Betting guy at the game today

Seriously, I know you didn't bring it up with me personally - and I don't blame you, because I was angry and had an umbrella (yes my umbrella is back after half a season!) - but I make no apologies for my behaviour causing you to move across the way a bit in order to communicate to your superiors. I wonder what you said though when the guy's heart attack brought an abrupt end to the 1st half - home dead perhaps?

Killer touch deserts Blues again - South 0 Hume City 1

This was one of the better games of the season. Both sides went on the attack, Tommich was required to make a couple of reflex saves, and Zoric missed a once in 50 years opportunity - the long goal kick bounced, was misjudged by the last two Hume defenders and required Goran only to hit the target really - but he failed, sending it wide. Missing those sort of chances doesn't do anyone's health any good - and one elderly South fan got a heart attack right on half time - apparently he's ok though, which just ace, because we can't afford to be losing any more fans the way we're going.

Anyway, the crowd which milled that particular scene was rather silly. I mean, understand that people would be concerned - or did they think there was some sort of punch on? - but really, unless you're going to get involved in helping out, there's no reason to be there. Just let those already at the scene and those who know what they're doing take care of it. Anyway we copped a penalty and that was pretty much that. We get enough of the ball, have enough decent players despite the lack of Greeks - yes, that was brought up as a reason again - what is it with the inability to score at the crucial at this club that has plagued us for three seasons now in a row?

Anyway, there are three tough games to go, all against teams with finals aspirations. Leo da Prez made the announcement that our tenure at BJS as we know it is coming to an end. The round 22 match against George Cross could well be our last there, if we don't play a final at the venue of course. I also finally picked up my polo top which I get because of my gold membership. And someone spilled coffee on my South top. And I got the unclicked slots on my membership card snipped. I'd been to all the home games but for some reason a couple of tomes w=my card didn't get clipped. A bit of everything today - except South scoring.

Vipers give South a scare

It took four Laura Spiranovic goals and every last bit of game time, but South's senior women's team did just enough to edge out a determined Bendigo Vipers outfit who showed plenty of fight belying their 9th placing. South took the lead three times, only to have the scores leveled three times, before finally managing to score twice late and win, depsite conceding a goal right at the death. It wasn't exactly stirring stuff, and the girls didn't really celebrate, knowing they had not put in one of their better performances. Still, the win keeps their tilt at finals action on course and an outside chance of even sanring one of the top two spots and the double chance. The Reserves lost 3-1.

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A location. A date. Giddy up. Ok, now I just need some money.

Needs more Turks - Round Meh, South Melbourne vs Hume City

Last Time They Met

Hume City 1 South Melbourne 2, at some shithole out in Westmeadows on Anzac Day 2009.

It was cold. It was wet. It was bloody windy. Horsey got his 100th South goal. Some local kickboxers decided to say hello. They didn't do a very good job.

Preview

Last time we played them some of us tried to wreck their sponsorship boards. Last time we played a match - last week as a matter of fact - some of us tried to wreck our own ground signage. It's not always someone else's fault, much as I wish it was.

Van Dominator wants his money

Hmm. Not good news folks. It seems that former South defender Adam Van Domelle thinks he's owed money by South. The FFV seem to agree with him. We appear to have disagreed with them both, ignored them, and they disagreed with us even more, with the FFV setting a deadline of 5pm, August 28th. What will happen if we don't pay up? It says we get kicked out of all comps. Not cool. How did we end up in this situation? I don't know. Maybe I should set up a countdown for it.

Kisnorbo joins Leeds

From Tribal Football - and no, we don't get any money from it - but mostly in here because a couple of our South lads still follow The Peacocks, and this might be a chance to update their Leeds United wardrobe with a South name.


Kisnorbo signs with Leeds United

23.07.09 | Andrew Slevison

Patrick Kisnorbo has completed a move to Leeds United.

The former Leicester City captain has joined the ill-fated club as a free agent on a two-year deal.

Kisnorbo, 28, was recently on trial with Championship club Derby County and had also attracted interest from Crystal Palace but decided he wanted t join a successful club.

"Leeds has a great tradition and history and I want to be part of a successful club," Kisnorbo told the club's official website.

"Other clubs were interested but I saw more in this club than in the others. None of them appealed to me as much."

Good times with academic essays

Be careful what you write on the Internet, or it may just end up in an academic's essay. The following excerpts are from 'The Australian football wars: fan narratives of inter-code and intra-code conflict' by Buck Clifford Rosenberg. More stuff next week hopefully referencing smfcboard opinions.


Another member, 'conya62', highlights the fact that Melbourne Victory crowds have been successful because of their diversity, but writes that the reason for such diversity lies in the fact that 'they have no choice if they want to watch the game in Melbourne'. This member declares who the 'real' soccer fans are: 'Good on these true supporters of the game that are going in numbers [to watch MVFC] and do not use the excuse of “I didn't feel welcome” and “there were too many ethnics”'.


and this


A South Melbourne fan, 'hellas7' believes South Melbourne would indeed be successful in the league, given its history in attracting large crowds. Yet this fan is both pragmatic about their chances of entry and forewarns about the threat successful entry would pose for the club: 'financially I can't see it happening for us, if it was to happen we would be forced to change our name and perhaps our colours, and I'm simply not for that'. Thus this South Melbourne fan regards the potential entry of SMFC into the new league as being dangerous for the club, and argues that the entry would damage its identity which is not worth the risk.

SMFCTV footage of the Gully game

More of the same really - South 1 Gully 1

Just about every week we concede goals. And just about every week we throw away a swag of good chances too. It's getting frustrating. Still, we fought back well, controlled the 2nd half and seem to have a resilience of sorts... but at the same time, we've had just three clean sheets, and fallen behind in nine matches - that's 9 out of 18! Something to think about.

South Women's Scores

A Melinda Aloisio hattrick was the cornerstone of the Seniors scrappy 6-1 win over Preston. Relocating to the redirected and redimensioned Field 13 - with two smaller fields taking the place of the previous larger one, and decreasing the effects of the big black hole in the middle of the field. Preston weren't really up to the task, though they had their moments. But South overall were a class above, and went to town in the second half after leading only 2-0 at half time. They solidify their spot in the top four, and are within touching distance of cementing a finals place. The Reserves also won their match, 3-1. Next week SMWFC is at home again to the second bottom Bendigo Vipers, once again on Sunday at 1:00 at Albert Park Field 13, nice and convenient for getting to the men's senior game afterwards.

Why it was so quiet on here the past week or so

I was in Jan Juc for a couple of days on my Offset project. I also got sick with whatever's going around now that isn't swine flu. And there wasn't much news anyway. Thanks to Mildura Vasili who notice. :smileyfase:

The Week My Umbrella Finally Gets Returned, Hopefully - Round something or other, Hellas vs Cleaning Product

Last Time They Met

2-2 at Gully earlier in 2009, we scored late to equalise. Seems like such a long time ago.

Preview

Well, we haven't beaten them in 3 years or so. But they're not crash hot this year. Could go either way really. I'll be down at Albert Park Field 13 prior to this game, watching our Women's team take on Preston in another important clash.. Good that the scheduling works in such a way to make both this week. And hopefully I get my brolly back, because I've gone almost half a season without it now.

Women's Seniors, Ressies, both lose

Both going down 2-0 to Ashburton. Pretty much kills off the Ressies outside chance of a tilt at the title. The Seniors result means they get drawn back into the mire somewhat, now just one point clear of Ashburton in 4th. Must win game against Preston at Albert Park 13 this week, conveniently finishing an hour before the men's senior game against Gully.

Good night all round - Richmond 1 South 3

The Pies held on for a one point win, South came from behind and withstood a late rally, both finishing pretty much at the same time. Kranskys as good as ever, donuts delicious, my mate Gains making his South away game debut, while another regular was noticeably absent perhaps fearing being killed by some guy on a forum he may not even know. We'll find out soon enough if he survived. Not sure where Zimmerman was - maybe he doesn;t like me anymore. The Heyington Bridge Crew appears to have died - they lasted longer than I thought they would, but it appears the gimmick wore thin eventually.

In the game itself, Tommi Tommich did well, Yusef Yusef came on late, his first bit of senior action for a very long time after his knee injury. Petrovic and Yousseff did well in the middle. Stella destroyed Karahan. Overall, good performance, room from improvement as per usual, and hopefully we can carry that form into a tough two weeks at home against Gully and Hume. smfcTV already up with the best packaged version yet of the highlights, and interviews with Shane Nunes and Sam Torrens.

Is the Heyington Bridge Crew still in existence? Round whatever, Richmond vs South Melbourne

Bah, I'd have written this tomorrow but the game's on tonight.

Last Time They Met

South 3 Richmond 0 at BJS earlier this season

Horsey scored an awesome long range goal and then got greedy.

Preview

They're not playing that well and I'm not convinced by our performances either. A win would be good.

Ghosts from the past - Dimitriadis, Raftopoulos, Marmaras

I feel a little like Bob Dole, dissatisfied with the present and therefore digging a trench to the past asking no one to come with me. This photo has next to nothing to do with football or South. Except that it's a photo of the wedding of Apollo Athletic and South Melbourne Hellas founder Floros Dimitriadis to some bird called Poppie Lekatsas, taken in 1938. From hints in the public record, they did stay married for a while, until 1960 at least - there's reference to a civil suit the couple brought against the Bolte government or something like that.

In the squad are [Back row] G. Papageorge, H. Anastaciou, S. Doubaras, P. Polites, E. Mocenigo, C. Geralis
, N. Regos, J. Harlambe; [front row] N. John, T. Doubaras (Captain), H. M. Catsis, N. Raftopoulos (Vice Capt.),
 C. Kostas, G. Proios. (Thanks to Ian Syson and the librarian who transrcibed the names)

The photo comes from the Raftopoulo family archives donated to the state library. It also includes this photo of another of Melbourne's Greek clubs, Olympic, which disappeared circa 1952, just before the apparent birth of Hellenic - we don't know if this is a coincidence.

Obviously it's the Raftopoulos connection, as well as the name of the Marmaras trophy, that starts bridging gaps in the pre-South Melbourne Hellas genealogy. Hopefully when the National Library of Australia archives really start getting their shit together, we can start filling in even more gaps.

Out Of Hibernation

South vs Whittlesea highlights... courtesy of Mark Murray!

Mark Murray was the recent FFV PR/Media Managing dude. On the day of the Anzac Day game against Hume City, he was allegedly spotted at the AFL Anzac Day game... but one of the better things he did was set up an account to upload VPL highlights... the fact that dedicated local soccer followers like myself didn't realise he had done so doesn't say much for his promotional skills though. Anyway enjoy the clip, complete with heritage strip.

First half



The Other Half

I went up to Villier's Terrace...

No, nothing to do with the Echo and the Bunnymen song. Yesterday Ian Syson and I sought out pioneering Victorian football journo Fred Villiers. Fred had been at a number of papers (Argus, Sporting Globe to name just two), as well as on radio and a lengthy spell on World of Sport. Fred's getting on in years, and his mind and memory are slipping... I would easily say it was the most difficult interview that I've had to do, and was not any easier on Fred either. Questions, comments, memories, references to friends vanished and gone, often nameless, all looped and repeated upon themselves... so while we couldn't get full access to the goldmine that was Fred's football life, we did come away somewhat humbled nevertheless, as well as informed by those things Fred could recall.

Amongst those things were Fred's pushing for soccer coverage in the papers he was working on... with the proof being in the pudding with circulations rising whenever the round ball game was included. The young men he recruited to report on the games, and who got paid twice over, once for their print reports and once for their radio work. His struggles within the 'mainstream' sporting media, and against those who hated our game... Jack Dyer in particular received ratbag status while others, like Lou Richards, were more indifferent to the game.

An interesting theme has started developing perhaps about cultural gatekeepers... we covered this earlier with our first interviewee, women's soccer pioneer Betty Hoar, who said the ability of women and girls to break into established clubs was dependent on the main stalwart, worker, diehard, however you'd like to put it, being either for or against women playing. Likewise it seems, in the media, newspaper editors and culturally important people like Dyer hold large sway over how their minions will behave... and what they say goes. So no second tier sport in The Age really means no second tier soccer, but heaps of second, third, fourth and fifth tier aussie rules. Jack Dyer ripping into soccer and giving Fred a hard time repeatedly on the show means that acceptance from the wider public, who hold Dyer up as a paragon of Australian values (especially masculine and sporting wise), is near impossible to attain.

Fred also showed us some of his photos, taken before he came to Australia in the late 1940s. Few had anything to do with football (there was one photo of the team he played for in England), but there were some taken from a position in the crowd, of such people as the late Queen Mother, Princess Elizabeth, Wallis Simpson, Edward VIII, Neville Chamberlain.... in my opinion some remarkable shots, taken with a photographer's eye for the moment. It's sad that we had to meet Fred at this time, and not earlier - but it was better late than never. I'm certainly richer for the experience.