Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!

I hate our press releases at the best of times - this one's even more desperate than usual, so you've been warned.

South Melbourne FC supports the recommendations of the FFA National Competitions Review

Having said that, there is word going around - including from people not at South - that the eventual format of this new competition will not quite resemble the rumoured strictly patsy under 23 development pathway, nor even be as extreme as the recommendations seem to suggest.

The fact that the Melbourne Knights, who had been strongly rumoured to be completely uninterested in this concept, but are now allegedly at the forefront of this new setup says a lot to me. Still, a fans/members forum provided by the club would be worthwhile.

If there's chance that this could be a genuien attempt to help 'progressive' clubs (whatever that means) and punish the alleged money laundering, no junior playing, senior wage splurging clubs for their years of apathy, then I've always been in favour of that kind of arrangement.

Of course, it would have been nicer if we were to have had the V-League proposal get up back in 2006/07, with a certain grace time given for ambitious clubs to get their house in order and prepare. But that opportunity was squashed by the likely suspects.

No attempt at reform or improvement is perfect, but the thing to do is to at least try and make it as wholistic as possible. I'm not sure if this is even halfway to something sensible, but the current arrangement is going nowhere and nowhere fast.

Concerns about getting the board to focus on the disaster that is our onfield form this season are honourable, understandable, but also misguided. Yes, our season has been poor, but that should not preclude the club from attempting to look towards the next 3-5 years.

Either you karate do "yes", or karate do "no". You karate do "guess so", [makes squish gesture] just like grape. 

If there is one thing that afflicts Australian soccer, it is short term 'planning', and I use that word loosely. Genuine plans spanning a five year period are almost non-existent. Hell, even a season length plan is a struggle at many clubs.

That is not to say that there are no outside factors which prevent clubs from undertaking a long term strategic plan, but too many clubs are slaves to an operational cycle which lasts a mere two weeks, from one home game to the next.

At some point, certain (all?) South fans need to toughen up and take a stand one way or the other. No more hedging bets by bagging out the VPL and FFV as a death sentence for the club while whining about any and all attempts (other than farcical breakaway leagues) to make a decent effort at trying to adapt to the changing football landscape.