Wednesday 31 May 2017

IMPORTANT FIXTURE NEWS

There were some rumours about fixtures being changed and such, and somewhat surprisingly, they've all turned out to be true.

Here are the details of those changes, some of which you can check on the official site.

Round 16 vs Avondale - Postponed
This week's scheduled league match against Avondale has been postponed, due to the unavailability of Lakeside because of Brazil's visit to Melbourne and their extended use of the ground. Avondale have had a little bit of a sook about this, which would be all well and good if they didn't play at someone else's ground because their own ground is a piece of crap (playground excluded).

Women's fixtures - moved to Knox
The WNPL team has had its fixture for this week against Southern United moved from Lakeside to the Knox Regional Football Facility.

Round 17 vs Heidelberg - Venue and time changed
Due to the unavailability of Lakeside, this game has been moved to AAMI Park, with the kick-off time being changed from 4:00 to 6:30. The WNPL match against Alamein will act as the curtain raiser. The date remains the same.

In terms of entry at the gate, it is a South home game and thus South members will be able to use their membership to gain entry to the match. I anticipate that most of the ground will be closed off and everyone will be bunched up into one side of the ground.

As a one-off, this switch does not bother me in the slightest. My information is that we have been appropriately remunerated by the Victorian government for being forced to relocate the game from Lakeside. It's an opportunity to experience something different, and maybe engage a broader audience for the novelty value if nothing else.

For those South fans who have never been to any events at the Bubbledome because of:
  • FFA/A-League/Socceroos/Asian Cup related boycotts.
  • No interest in other Victorian soccer teams who have played there for cup finals or grand finals.
  • No interest in rugby league or rugby union.
  • Did not attend 2010 AFL grand final replay fan site broadcast, or post-match celebrations.
  • Have never been to a concert there.
  • Were unable to attend closed doors Victory vs South game from last year.
  • Some other reason I can't think of between now and the start of a Simpsons repeat coming on in five minutes.
You are in for a real treat. It's a terrific stadium. I hope we win big and I hope that you get a kick out of the venue. I also hope all the Negative Nancys who apparently don't come to Lakeside because of the running track come out of the woodwork for this game.

The only real drawbacks so far as I can tell are that a 6:30PM kickoff will mean that it will probably be freezing, and that the pitch may not be in the best shape because the Wallabies will have played there the night before. Here's hoping that for the sake of the surface it doesn't rain during that weekend.

Dockerty Cup semi-final details
Rather than being played next week, our Dockerty Cup semi-final against Bentleigh has been pushed back to Thursday 22nd June with a 7:30PM kick-off. The neutral venue that has been arranged by FFV is Jack Edwards Reserve in Oakleigh.

In the meantime..
We'll be looking to post up one or two new posts during the week to keep you occupied.

6 comments:

  1. Don't mind the AAMI game for the derby. Should be a good crowd and it won't look too bad on the highlights because the camera generally shows only 1 tier and broadcasting on one side means you automatically eliminate 15,000 seats.
    Plus when the VPL Grand Finals were held there it didn't look that bad.
    Atmosphere should be good too so hopefully the South boys use it to full effect. Game deserves the trumpet.

    Shame we couldn't host Avondale this week, but what can you do.

    Let's hope results go our way this week and next week get a win against the Hambergers

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  2. Am pretty upset about all of these fixture changes.

    Have no idea why Brasil need to lockdown Lakeside from this Sunday, when their first friendly isn't until the Friday.

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  3. The biggest problem is all these games being played late in the season. Can we cope? Lucky for us the other contenders (Bentleigh, Heidleberg, Avondale and, lets include Oakleigh) are in the same boat to various extents.

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    Replies
    1. The schedule will get very crowded at that point in the season. While it's difficult for FFV to create a fair fixture when you have situations such as seven games away from home, I think they've dropped the ball on this one a bit, especially with regards now to the Dockerty Cup situation.

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  4. How often do you get the Victorian state government spruiking one of your matches?

    http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/aami-park-to-host-historic-womens-football-match/

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  5. Considering the state is effectively underwriting the match...i would hope is providing free tickets for all female soccer players in the state. What better way to publicize the gwme them by having it filled full of grassroots junior female footballers watching a hero in de vanna. Alas, it looks like the club will emphasise the south v heidelberg NPL derby....thats not wrong but probably could be done through the back channels.

    ReplyDelete

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