A comment on Ataturk Apreciation Day by the Kiss of Death; plus Round 10, 2011 match previews

Big week in Kiss of Death land, coming back fired up after a week on the sidelines. The usual VPL match previews, Scotch Watch and a rant of the month railing against the ceremonial oddities at the recent Anzac Day Cup match against Hume City. Enjoy.

Scotch Watch
South's heavy loss before the Easter break and a draw on the road to the Greens saw the gap  close slightly.

• South Melbourne, 2nd place, 20 points, goal difference +3
• Bentleigh Greens, 6th place, 14 points, goal difference +0 

Bentleigh Greens vs Northcote City
6th v 5th. Oh, I dunno. These are the games that put me into a deep sleep. An incubation period if you will. Even though I will be at this game, it's only because I have nothing better to do on a Friday night. Bentleigh drew away at Dandenong a fortnight ago, while Northcote were kept scoreless at home by Springy. I'd have to give this one to Northcote, only to preserve my gap in Scotch Watch. Bentleigh Greens 1 - Northcote 3.

Melbourne Knights vs Richmond
9th v 8th. Two struggling teams. 8:15pm Friday night kick off at Somers Street. This will rattle the Knights boys. Richmond will take this one due solely to the kick off time which favours them. A fortnight ago, the Knights struggled at the Saints, and Richmond lost to a poor Oakleigh. Richmond will be too good for the Knights. Melbourne Knights 1 - Richmond 2.

Springvale White Eagles vs Green Gully Cavaliers
11th v 12th. Two topsy-turvy teams. Seriously, this must be the most boringest VPL fixture week in the history of the universe. I'm lost for words on this match.
Springvale White Eagles 0 - Green Gully 3.

St Albans Saints vs Heidelberg Utd
13th v 7th. A boring 0-0 draw awaits whoever can be necked going down to Fox Street and witnessing this clash of the titans.

Oakleigh Cannons vs Hume City
1st v 3rd. Can someone tell me why the popstars down at Oakleigh are playing this game on a Monday night? Two hack teams. An exciting 2-2 draw.

South Melbourne vs Dandenong Thunder
2nd v 4th. South without Milicevic and Krncevic due to ridiculous decisions by the ref at the Hume game, and Dandy coming off a six point deduction, $8,000 fine and four games behind closed doors poutsa from the FFV. South is coming off a 14-0 gang rape of State 3 club Yarraville Glory midweek, while Dandenong is still licking its wounds after the FFV tribunal. Will be a tough game for both teams, but South will come up trumps. South Melbourne 3 - Dandy Funder 0.

Rant of the month - Ataturk Appreciation Day
Let's flashback to a fortnight ago down at Broadmeadows Valley, for the Hume City vs South Melbourne clash. Day was ridiculous to say the least. I understand that Anzac Day is a very important day for every Australian, but when I have some bloke muffling into the microphone for over 25 minutes in a foreign language, then I'm given a hashed up two minute English translation, and all I manage to catch is "Ataturk this, Ataturk that", and something about the Turkish language been kept in schools. Now, I take nothing away from the Anzac Spirit of the day, and respect both sides of the Gallipoli battle, however, what relevance is this to a soccer match one week before Anzac Day? Oh that's right, it's the Anzac Cup. A "Cup of Great Cuppage", once said by a friend of mine. South Melbourne Soccer Club is an Australian club formed by Greek migrants back in the 1950's and currently supported by at least 75% Greek background peoples. I am a person who respects the national anthem of every nation, I have no issue with this. I do have an issue though with Ataturk being praised as a great leader. Yes, he is looked upon as a great leader and the father of modern Turkey by the Turkish people, but no one asks me what i feel about this. When the Greeks of Smyrna and Pontos (Asia Minor) were chased out of their homes for centuries, and the Armenians were marched through the desert by Turkish generals under the orders of Kemal Ataturk, who gave a shit? No one. So why should I give a shit about the Anzac Cup. If Hume City wants to push their local community agendas while using the FFV as a source, then quite frankly they can find another club. Fans of South Melbourne do not need to sit there and watch their club participate in a cup supposedly representing the Anzac Spirit, when all it does is slap any Greek fan in the face. Here's one for yas. Why don't Bentleigh Greens organise a 'Peace Initiative Cup' in remembrance of the  1974 Invasion of Cyprus and have Hume City as the opponent?

South opens Mirabella Cup account with easy win - South Melbourne 14 Yarraville 0

Nicky Jacobs adds to the torrent of goals. Photo: Gains

Possibly several records broken today - most notably, it might have been South's largest ever win in a competitive fixture. It was 4-0 at halftime, with a bundle of squandered chances for South. In the second half, Yarraville gave up the ghost entirely. The match was played at very leisurely pace - I was informed by someone more knowledgeable on the matter that Yarraville had a nearly full strength squad out on the park today. For our part, it was a mixture of some senior heads and some youngsters that got a run. Jacobs, Russell, Sardelic, Treloar, Simmons, Deroune (the so called Moroccan keeper, who I haven't seen seriously tested yet) and Vandermay got a bit of a run, as did Gianni De Nittis. It was a mess of a day really. Even when Yarraville managed to get an all too rare chance, they managed to squander it by going round in circles. Next game should be more difficult, assuming that Port Melbourne do the business against South Yarra.

South Melbourne vs Yarraville on Easter Tuesday, in the Mirabella Cup

South Melbourne finally enters the Mirabella Cup in round four, where we will play Yarraville Glory, or Doxa for all you old school types. The match will be held at our temporary home ground of John Cain Memorial Reserve, and will be on April 26th, with kickoff at 3pm,.

Yarraville progressed through the opening three rounds by knocking off Yarra Jets 6-0, Collingwood City 3-2, and Old Melburnians 2-0. All of these opponents have been from division ranked lower than Yarraville's state league 3 position, but as with all prospective opponents, should not be taken lightly.

The official South site has indicated that this fixture is not free for members. Costs are $5 adults, $2 concession. Chance to bring out the old media pass.

Highlights from 2011 Ataturk Appreciation/Anzac Day Cup

South Melbourne and Box Hill United playing for the Adidas Cup

If you need a South fix on this otherwise football free weekend, here's something which may pique your interest, and it's for a good cause as well. South of the Border may be in attendance, but only in the event that we choose to give the Green Gully - Mildura United match in the Mirabella Cup a miss. No women's matches... I guess we're still estranged from each other...


Easter Saturday Football Gala – Box Hill United SC v South Melbourne FC,

Date Saturday 23 April 2011

Venue: Wembley Park, Canterbury Road, Box Hill - Full Canteen Facilities will be open

Entry Cost – Gold Coin Donation, proceeds to Royal Children’s Hospital – Good Friday Appeal

Schedule of Games (Age Group/Kick Off/Game Length)

• U12 Boys 9.30 am 50 min (2 x 25 min)
• U14 Boys 10.45 am 60 min (2 x 30 min)
• U15 Boys 12.00 pm 70 min (2 x 35 min)
• U18 Boys 1.20 pm 80 min (2 x 40 min)
• U21 Men 3.15 pm 90 min (2 x 45min)
• Senior Men 5.15 pm 90 min (2 x 45min)

All Junior boys teams are at A Level. SSF Matches U10 & U11 Kick off at 11am, in tandem matches at Sparks Reserve – across the road, from Wembley Park. FFV competition rules apply.

Points to be allocated on basis of result of each game.
• 3 points for Win
• 1 point for Draw
• Bonus point for every 2 goals scored, for either team.
• Goal Average to decide winner, if needed.

Winner will be awarded the Adidas Cup

Parking available across the road from Wembley Park, at Sparks Reserve.

Bad day at the office - Hume City 5 South Melbourne 0

More or less everything that could go wrong on the field did so today. Captain Steven O'Dor was missing from the start, with Carl Recchia in defense once more. After a couple of early chances for South, Hume took the lead with a powerful and accurate long range strike, which Zaim Zeneli had little chance of reaching.

Things took a turn for the worse, when Jesse Krncevic received an instant dismissal for a behind the scenes incident, and was soon followed by Ljubo Milicevic after an at best clumsy, and at worst reckless high challenge. The 2-0 goal followed from that free kick, with Recchia injuring his ankle in the goalmouth scramble that lead to the goal.

After half time Hume eased off the pace, but still thoroughly controlled the match, except for the occasional foray forward on the right hand side by South. In one of those instances, while 3-0 down, one of our players received a two handed push in the back while chasing a ball in the box that was either missed or ignored by the officials.

It summed up the day for South, as the game, dead as a spectacle from early on, petered out to its predictable finish with more goals to the home side. Senior players were subbed off, and some kids got to fill in the time left. A tough few weeks coming up after the Easter break, where Eddie's coaching mettle and the talent and readiness of some our younger players will be put to the test.

Kiss of Death, round 9, 2011

Scotch Watch
The Greens had a surprise win against Hume last week, but South maintain their lead with a week to go before the Easter break.

• South Melbourne, 2nd place, 20 points, goal difference +8
• Bentleigh Greens, 6th place, 13 points, goal difference +0 

Richmond vs Oakleigh Cannons
7th vs 3rd. A less than impressive Oakleigh got all three points against St Albans last week. Richmond played well against South and got zero points. Weird game this one. I really can’t separate these teams. Will be a 2-2 draw.

Green Gully Cavaliers vs Heidelberg United
11th vs 8th. Green Gully suffered a shock loss to Northcote last week, and the Bergers beat the Knights 2-1. Gully is traditionally struggling. It’s only a matter of time before Dobbo steps back in and takes the reigns from Lapsansky. Bergers made the Herald Sun this week for all the wrong reasons. I’m not going to comment on those events. Bergers are struggling on the park and will struggle again at Gully this week. Green Gully 2 – Heidelberg 0.

Northcote City vs Springvale White Eagles
5th vs 12th. Springvale got absolutely pumped at home to Dandenong last week. What went wrong? Pretty simple really. Zoric had a bad day and therefore Springvale lost. Northcote City had a big win at Gully last week, and this will continue against Springy. Northcote City 4 – Springvale White Eagles 0.

Dandenong Thunder vs Bentleigh Greens
2nd vs 6th. Dandenong bounced back from their 0-3 home loss to Gully, with a 0-3 win at Springy and seem to be over it already. Johnny A took over last week from Andy O’Dell down at Bentleigh with a comfortable 4-1 win against Hume. It must be said that Hume finished the game with nine men. A promising sign for Bentleigh was the 25 minute spell of youngster Jonno Bounas. A solidly built 17 year old centre mid that seems to have finally found a club that will give him a chance at senior level. Good luck Jonno. Dandenong Thunder 3 – Bentleigh Greens 1.

Hume City vs South Melbourne
4th v 1st. The match of the round. The Anzac Day Cup played early. A great cup of cuppage in Victorian football. Hume is struggling. A shock 4-1 loss to Bentleigh and Issy Erdogan along with Kenny Gerohristodoulou being sent off. This means that they are without a goalkeeper as Lupce Acevski is on the sidelines with an injury. I have no idea what the U-21’s keeper's name is or what he is like, but he will be under a lot of pressure to withstand South's firepower. South goes into this game on a four game winning streak, looking to extend it to five as the Easter break approaches. South played well against Richmond last week and were unlucky not to score two or three more. Two clean sheets in a row is also promising for all you, “it’s important not to cop goals” people. Honestly, I can’t see South losing this game. South seem to be the only team you look at in this league and say, “yep, they’re going to win”.  Hume City 0 – South Melbourne 4.

St Albans Saints vs Melbourne Knights
13th v 10th. The Croatian Derby. St Albans is struggling, and struggling bad. I don’t know what mess they have gotten themselves into, but it isn’t good at all. They will be playing State 1 next year if they don’t start getting it right. Saw them against Oakleigh and they were the better team, but Oakleigh's counter attacking style on the night killed them. The Melbourne Knights are also in some strife and most likely will be facing the FFV tribunal in the coming weeks due to the incident at the Olympic Village last week. I don’t know what it is about fans getting their clubs in the shit, but you’re not doing anybody any favours. I hope the Knights don’t get relegated along with St Albans, but they way both teams are playing, it could become a reality by round 16. St Albans 2 – Melbourne Knights 2.

Friendly tonight against Altona Magic

If you don't feel like reliving last week's win against Richmond on SMFCTV tonight on channel 31, there's a friendly tonight against Altona Magic at Paisley Park, kickoff 7pm. Match report will be posted in the comments section.

FFV highlights of Richmond game

Day of Ghosts - South Melbourne 1 Richmond 0

Well, this was an unusual day.

The weather wheeled and turned the way it used to do in Melbourne. Rain, sun, wind, hot, cold, not necessarily in that order. Got to wheel out the Greek phrase "ο ήλιος έχει δόντια (the sun has teeth)", meaning that even though the sun is shining, there is no warmth. There's apparently also a version of this saying in Albania, so there's a good chance that it's a wider Balkan thing. The second umbrella I bought from Aussie Disposals kicked the bucket about five seconds after I opened it. So it goes.

And Lefteri was back, after years and years away. For the uninitiated - Lefteri was the sound of South Melbourne Hellas for about 25 years. The specific sound was his trumpet, calling ours fans to arms. Even if you didn't know what he looked like, even if you stood in another part of the ground, the trumpet was as much as part of the South Melbourne experience as souvlakia and a long line at the ticket booths two minutes before kickoff.

South fans happy to have Lefteri back. Photo: Cindy Nitsos

There are several rumours circulating about the reasons for his seven year absence. And it wasn't like there weren't several efforts in the post-NSL era to try and get him back. Why did he come back today of all days? Will he be back next week? The week after? Who knows. With all due respect to Bruno, the lad who's filled in on trumpet duties on and off in the year's since Lefteri's absence, it was nice to hear the original, even if it wasn't quite as powerful and fluent as it used to be, and to see him in his vintage vest, loaded with patches. In a very small way, for many it felt like nothing had changed. A quick look around though quickly breaks that illusion.

We started off the game well, dominating the first twenty minutes or so. All our chances went to waste though, and our slicing and dicing of the Richmond defence was all for nothing. The visitors picked up their game, but were still mostly reliant on set pieces on causing us problems. Steven O'Dor was back in this week, but he barely lasted half the game. He came off and Recchia was forced back to the defensive post he held last week. He's doing a good job - it's amazing what decent pre-season can do for a player.

But as the game wore on, we kept losing our shape. The main culprit was Ljubo Milicevic, who whether under the coach's instructions or his own decision to hark back to the days of Total Football, decided his role was to roam across the field, in every position it seemed except for the one he was supposed to be in: centre back. It caused all sorts of chaos on the field, and raised the ire of several of his teammates. And all of a sudden the ghosts of Ljubo's past are coming out again, to the point where maybe a Captain Obvious/Dr Philism comes into play - hey, maybe it's not always everyone else, maybe sometimes it's you.

Where was Simon Colosimo today? Photo: Gains

Anyway, Carl Recchia managed to score the winning goal, from a corner where allegedly the keeper was obstructed. I couldn't see if that was the case from the distance and angle I was at, suffice to say I was pretty confident when I saw the ball dip quickly at the near post with the keeper somewhat stranded. All in all not pretty stuff again for the most part, but good enough. Next week away to Hume for an earlier version of the Anzac Day Cup, one of the so-called 'Great Cups of Cuppage'.

Now for some of the other crap that happened today.

• Discussing the current status of Greek provincial team Kalamata, it came to my attention that they had been relegated to the fourth division there due to either financial irregularities or mismanagement. Hell, let's just call it shenanigans. Somehow I managed to quip that there's probably a rumour starting over there that the fans are asking whether George Vasilopoulos or his Kalamata equivalent has a mansion in Dromana. 
• Remember when Tony Free was captain of the Richmond aussie rules club? Hilarious stuff.
• Dean Uthoff or Shawn Bradley?
• Now this one's from Steve from Broady, so I can't really ascertain the truth of the matter. All I can say is that it sounds good. Anyway the story goes that former South Melbourne players and current Melbourne Victory employees Mehmet Durakovic and Kevin Muscat were at the game. At half time as Clarendon Corner went past as they were switching ends, Muscat for some reason apparently called us a club run by fish and chip shop owners. I haven't had this story verified by anyone else yet.
• The "Keeping It Real" fad is getting out of control. I think I'm going to start the Hyperreal faction.

Kiss of Death, round 8, 2011

Scotch Watch
Top of the table South extends its leads to seven points. Long way to go, but Bentleigh will want to get a move on if they're to scuttle the Kiss of Death's side of the wager.

• South Melbourne, 1st place, 17 points, goal difference +7
• Bentleigh Greens, 6th place, 10 points, goal difference -3

Bentleigh Greens vs Hume City
According to people in the know, John Anastasiadis is now the coach of Bentleigh Greens. Will this turn things around? No. A few players have already made plans to return to the UK, a few are shopping themselves out to other clubs, and frankly they are a lost cause. Hume was disappointing last week against lowly Springvale. One of my scouts was very disappointed in the way Hume played, and they failed to even get close to scoring as did Springy. Was more of a midfield possession game. This week they will bounce back. Quick update on the scotch situation. The bottle has been upgraded to a black label as a gesture of goodwill as to how early I called Bentleigh's demise. Bentleigh Greens 0 – Hume City 5.

Oakleigh Cannons vs St Albans Saints
My Friday night match. I’ll be there tonight admiring the tactical nous (?) of both coaches. I’m not sure if St Albans have found anyone yet, so they will most likely be coached by the ressies coach tonight as they were last weekend against South. Oakleigh, well, problems, problems, problems. Rumours of infighting, rumours of cliques being formed, and basically starting to implode. My mail tells me that one of their young players from Queensland, packed his bags last week and headed back home. The rent free place in Footscray never eventuated. BOOM! Oakleigh Cannons 1 – St Albans Saints 2.

Green Gully Cavaliers vs Northcote City
I’m going to have to go with Green Gully after their upset win away at Dandenong last week. No one in the betting world picked that 0-3 win. Are they back? Maybe.
Northcote had a good 4-1 home win against a nine man Heidelberg last week. They are still missing players through injury, but I can’t see their young boys being up to the challenge at the more experienced Gully this weekend. Green Gully 2 – Northcote City 1.

Springvale White Eagles vs Dandenong Thunder
The Balkan Derby. Cevapi to sell out, and beer runs to be had. Will be a very, very entertaining game. However, I suspect Stuart Munro will shut down Zoric very early on and render Springvales' attack impotent. Springvale White Eagles 0 – Dandenong Thunder 2.

Heidelberg United vs Melbourne Knights
Bergers are gone for this year. They will struggle to keep up with the pack after this weekend. They are slowly falling apart both on and off the field. Crowd numbers are woeful, red cards are being handed out like Christmas cards, HUFC.TV is still not up and running and their spelling mistakes continue. Melbourne Knights on the other hand aren’t too bad at all. Heidelberg United 1 – Melbourne Knights 3.

South Melbourne vs Poormond (Richmond)
South Melbourne is sitting on top of the table and playing very well. Last week's 0-2 win at St Albans was rather special. No O’Dor, no Topalovic, no Krncevic and Ljubo ate his own. There has been a lot said about last week's game. A lot of rubbish and a lot of good stuff. Nonetheless, I’m more than happy with a 0-2 win at the Saints, knowing that we won’t need to go there for at least another three years. Richmond are rubbish. They should change their name to Poormond. No money, no honey. They have no hope against a full strength South this weekend. I am expecting South to come out and absolutely batter them. South Melbourne 7 – Richmond 0.

Highlights from match against St Albans

George likes his chicken spicy - St Albans 0 South Melbourne 2

So the Public Transport Faction elected to alter its usual habit of watching the reserves (who won 2-1 by the way) and headed instead to 'pre-drinks' at the St Albans Hotel, a venue I've walked past a number of times on my way to uni without ever stepping inside its doors. We went out the back to the sports bar area which all in all is actually not too bad a place. And it had a pinball machine! OK, so it was only Pirates of the Caribbean, a terrible table, but pinball is still alive! The last time I played pinball in St Albans was at uni when they still had that soccer one with the moving goalie. That was some years ago. Man, that was a good table.

First ever visit to Churchill Reserve, which is something like a cross between Sunshine George Cross' Chaplin Reserve (the stepped terraces) and Western Suburbs' Ralph Reserve (the compact field), but about ten times better than either of them, thanks in no small part to the very nice social club. Unfortunately the line for food and drink was too long for my tastes, and I can't write anything good or bad about the local fare.

Anyway, amongst all these things, a VPL match did break out at about just after 3pm, and despite St Albans being in an absolute mess at the moment - no coach, ow wins, no morale - our task was made harder by the absence of Jesse Krncevic, doing some kind of law exam, and Steven O'Dor and Steven Topalovic carrying injuries. In addition, Marinos Gasparis started on the bench. What all this meant was Kyle Joryeff up front, Bobby Russell getting a start, and Carl Recchia playing in defense in what looked like a sweeper's role. Recchia's absence from the middle saw Seb Petrovich get another chance in central midfield.

We started off well enough, and a save from a Joryeff shot lead to an early corner. Taseski whipped the ball in, the St Albans defence failed to clear it, and Fernando latched onto the loose ball for the opening goal, his 50th league goal for South. We seemed to be, if not in control of the match at that point, then at least doing more than enough to keep out of trouble and create the occasional forward thrust. But the big tackles on the small ground started coming in, and all of a sudden Russell was off with Gasparis replacing him. St Albans created perhaps the only other good chance of the half, with a goal mouth scramble from what appeared to be a clear offside - the linesman did put his flag up - all of which lead to Carl Recchia saving the ball with his face. When the linesman made his next offside call - this time acknowledged by the referee - he got a big cheer from the visiting fans, and he flashed a little smile.

The second half wasn't so flash from us. We were pinned into our half for long stretches, and we struggled to get and maintain possession. But it wasn't all bad, as we defended well for the most part, blocking the long range shots and intercepting the loose balls in the box. It helped that St Albans moved the ball slowly and predictably, but it was nice for once to go to a small ground and actually put out an appropriate response to the conditions. About fifteen minutes from time, Ljubo Milicevic sidled past three opponents, slipped a through ball to Joryeff who made it 2-0, and more or less iced the game.

Seb Petrovich became another victim of the home side's physical approach, and he came off with the assistance of the medicos with ice on his ankle. Nicky Jacobs got a late run replacing Kamal Ibrahim, and eventually time ran out for Dinamo, who remain winless. South jump to the top of the table for the first time in about four years. Apart from Recchia, who played an excellent game outside his usual position, no one stood out for us. But a cleansheet and a backs to the wall performance was more than enough for me. Next week back at Northcote, at 3pm, against an improving Richmond who have won a couple of games on the trot and have momentarily at least picked themselves up off the canvas.

Gains was celebrating his 27th birthday today, keeping it very quiet until we got to dinner at the Hot Space Sichuan Bar on Russell Street, where he decided it was his treat. The Kung Pao chicken was excellent, though one suspects the mirrored wall they have there is for gweilo like me and Steve from Broady to see for ourselves how red we became. In fact this was he first time I'd even seen Steve struggle to finish a meal, not because it wasn't good, but because the heat of Sichuan cuisine got through to him. All in all, a good day out. Tomorrow, international ice hockey action.

Kiss of Death, Round 7, season 2011

This week's lesson? Don't get the Kiss of Death angry. You wouldn't like them when they're angry.


Scotch Watch
Both teams had wins last week, so the gap is still four points.

• South Melbourne, 2nd spot, 14 points, goal difference +5
• Bentleigh Greens, 5th spot, 10 points, goal difference -1

Northcote City vs Heidelberg United  
This is the game where Northcote bounces back. They have had a slow start and are struggling with injuries. Heidelberg still have their coach suspended and they will struggle in the derby. They had a good win against an overrated Oakleigh last week. Northcote City 2 – Heidelberg 2.

Dandenong Thunder vs Green Gully Cavaliers
Dandenong had a good win at Northcote last week, while the Cavaliers lost at home to Hume. Green Gully are struggling and time would be right after this week for Ian Dobson to step in and take over from Ljubo Lapsansky. After this week's loss to Dandenong, I can see this happening. Dandenong are travelling well sitting top of the table and they look to have settled and gone under the radar.
Dandenong Thunder 3 – Green Gully Cavaliers 0.

Hume City vs Springvale White Eagles
Hume was disappointing last week against Green Gully. They still did win 0-1 however, as well as a 0-3 thumping of the the VTC midweek. Springvale is a yoyo team. They can score, but can also concede. A 4-1 home win to a dead Richmond last week was a good result, but I don’t think they can get over Hume. Experience will be a factor in this weekend's game. Hume City 3 – Springvale White Eagles 2.

Richmond vs Bentleigh Greens
Don’t mind me, I’m already drunk. As bad as Richmond has been so far this season, surely they should notch up a win over Bentleigh. Bentleigh has yet to impress. Then again neither has Richmond. Richmond 2 – Bentleigh Greens 1.

St Albans Saints vs South Melbourne
So this week I travel down to Fox Street, St Albans. Haven’t been there for a few years. Nice little compact facility, parking's a bit of a bitch, the food is great, the fans are hardworking blue collar Labor voters, and the chick behind the bar is apparently a moisty. St Albans sacked their coach Kruni Razov after the loss at Bentleigh, and a rumour which I made up the next day seems to have gathered some pace. The day after this sacking, North Geelong sacked their coach Vinko Buljubasic. I don’t know who has replaced Razov, but Buljubasic seems the perfect replacement.

Here’s a big BAM rumour going round the traps at state league level concerning the sacking of Buljubasic. Joe (Josip) Skoko, that’s right, ex-Socceroo Josip Skoko will be kitting up for North Geelong in this year's State 1 competition.

South Melbourne on the other hand seem to have finally steadied the ship and plugged the goal leaking. They sit second on the table behind Dandenong and should gain another six points in the next two games against St Albans and Richmond. This attacking brand that Eddie has brought to the club seems to be a match winner, and a crowd pleaser. There are some people who sook and carry on if we win 6-4, but are happy when we win 2-1 or 3-1. You do not lose points for conceding goals if you score more than the other team! I really don’t care how many goals we concede, as long as we score more. I also don’t care how many midfielders we have down at the club. Contrary to this blog, I don’t think a club can have enough midfielders. Statistically midfielders are the most injury prone players due to the amount of kilometres they run, the amount of time they have the ball, and the amount of tackles they get and make. There is nothing in the rule book that says only strikers are allowed to score goals. The majority of midfielders at South are attacking midfielders anyway, so what’s the problem? People at South seem to fall for whatever the media (however limited) seem to say. Sheep! Yes, as a fan you have an opinion, however when it’s trumped by someone qualified, then shut it. South is on 2.5 goals scored per game, and a 1.8 goals conceded average so far this year. Whinging, whinging, whinging. We could win it this year, yet some idiot will come out and say, “yeah, but we copped 50 goals”…yeah but we scored 100 you moron. St Albans Saints 0 – South Melbourne 4

Melbourne Knights vs Oakleigh Cannons
Three losses in a row and surely it’s good bye to Arthur Papas down at Oakleigh. The young coach doesn’t seem to have the tactical nous that everyone made out he had. He has been tactically outsmarted by Eddie Krncevic at South, and the reserves coach down at Heidelberg. Surely the pressure must be on. The popstar team just isn’t performing and are lucky to be in the top half of the table. Melbourne Knights on the other hand play good football. They attack at any chance, and close down the opposition very quickly. They have become pack hunters and this showed against South Melbourne last week. Their only weakness seems to be defending against three or more strikers. To concede three goals in the last 11 minutes of a game is not good enough at this level. Melbourne Knights 2 – Oakleigh Cannons 1.