Player of the year: Nikola Roganovic. I thought about this for awhile. Couldn't give it to Nick Epifano. Iqi Jawadi was good, but was he 'meaningless internet award' good? Brad Norton had some good games, Milos Lujic scored a ton of goals again. Andy Brennan wasn't there long enough. But one horror mistake aside, Roganovic earned us a lot of points this season, especially early on when we were not playing particularly well.
Under 21 player of the year: The Cliff Hussey Memorial Trophy goes to Iqi Jawadi, who I thought had a very consistent season, even adding goal scoring to his repertoire this year.
Goal of the year: Andy Brennan vs Dandenong Thunder, you know, the goal that no one saw.
Best performance: All things considered, the demolition of Oakleigh in the Dockerty Cup final was a real standout, especially after the disappointment of the FFA Cup a few days previously.
Best away game of the year: For those that went, I assume Palm Beach. For me, Green Gully away, for obvious reasons. Overall though it was a season where the atmosphere and excitement of the home games really came through a lot more than away fixtures.
Call of the year: Yes I could have gone with any number of Epifano related moments, but my favourite was still the call made at the 2014 AGM, by an unknown person at Tom Kalas: 'You're not going to try and get our hopes up again, are you?'
Chant of the year: Directed to Andy Brennan during the home game against North Geelong. 'Newcastle is broke, Newcastle is broke, stay with South, Newcastle is broke!'
Best pre-match/after match dinner location: There were crepes, pancakes and galettes, some pretty ordinary pub burgers, visits to two different places doing Korean fried chicken, and three trips to Mexican restaurants. The winner though has to be the day Gains and I did banh mi and cannoli on the same day while waiting for the bus to Avondale. If only there was a half decent team in Footscray so we could eat out of there more often...
Friends we lost along the way: My old laptop.
Barely related to anything stupidity highlight of the year: Steve from Broady convincing one of the barmaids at the Limerick to exchange two Heineken scratchies which had won him free hats, in exchange for a rugby ball. I guess you just had to be there.
Monday, 12 October 2015
7 comments:
A few notes on comments.
We've had a lot of fun over the years with my freewheeling comments policy, but all good things must come to an end. Therefore I will no longer be approving comments that contain personal abuse of any sort.
Still, if your post doesn't get approved straight away, it's probably because I haven't seen it yet.
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No
ReplyDeleteStill not 21?!
No
Was swimming in Greece
Because of Epa?!
My 1999 prediction? I still can't believe I actually said that!
I don't sit close enough to chanters
I ate food at ground every time so cannot offer a selection
Didn't we lose them years ago?
Still waiting for Real Roma Hellas to emerge in the A League
I'll have to pull out some more stuff from those internet archives. Some of the player profiles are interesting in their utter banality.
DeleteBit rich not to give goal of the year to Epa... you're 100% spot on about that Dockerty Cup win though! Absolutely dominated. I know we had a successful year but considering our style is high risk high reward it doesn't look pretty and keeps me pretty nervous during games. Despite our stature and results I don't think we ever looked like we dominated games against quality opposition (ironically I think our most dominating performances aside from the final were the 2nd halves of the Hobart and Palm Beach games) but yeah, that final... WOW!
ReplyDeleteTop season once again Paul, always looking forward to reading your stuff each week!
Manny
Thanks Manny. Epifano scored some nice goals this season, but Brennan scoring a goal that no one saw - not even Lujic saw it, and he was right there - and all the attendant comedy that came with it, for me it was shoe in for goal of the year.
DeleteThe ref didn't see it either.
DeleteTwo people saw it. The linesman and Andy
The Cliff Hussey Memorial trophy hahaha you're acting asif I'm gone for good. I'll be back when Leo allows it.
ReplyDeleteActually nothing to do with your banning, but rather an acknowledgement of your work for the blog back in the early days.
Delete