And that's finally that for South teams in 2019

Photo: Luke Radziminski.

I was unable to attend the women's team semi-final last Saturday because of *reasons*, reasons which the usual ones, and what could be done about it? Not much under the circumstances, but you'll have to trust me that I wish I could've been there.

Succeeding against Calder United was always going to be a tough ask, and I don't think there was anybody who didn't think otherwise. Some people thought we shouldn't even bother, and I get that - know when you're going to get beat, and just go out on a high note.

Still, such courses of action like taking the afternoon off and going to the pub instead might work for lower league men's clubs engulfed in self-inflicted crises, but here at Victorian top-flight women's football such behaviour would be considered uncouth, disrespectful, even unprofessional.

Photo: Luke Radziminski.

So the game, played on a poor pitch, with rain and wind going crazy, went on. Sitting in a local fish and chip shop at about a quarter past two, waiting for my order of flake and minimum chops to get sorted, I checked out YouTube and bloody hell! We were 3-0 down after 14 minutes, to which all I could do was exclaim on Twitter that we were 3-0 down after 14 minutes, which elicited responses ranging from "well, I think we all knew this could happen" to "well, I think we all knew thus could happen, but this really sucks."

Being 6-0 down at half-time meant that no one could see our side keeping the score line under double figures. Miraculously or otherwise, we did, keeping Calder scoreless and even pulling a goal back ourselves. So, the season and even its conclusion were not a complete disaster, and I guess everyone hopes that the young squad will have learned something from the whole experience, and will come back better for it in 2020.

And then it was done to two
Caught bits and pieces of the Moreland Zebras vs Bulleen Lions NPL2 playoff match, while watching Highway Patrol repeats and then 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. This match sucked fr the first half, and since I was watching it on and there were no score or time graphics, it was an ordeal that I did not want to resume until both the standard and the graphical display were fixed.

Eventually this is what happened, and I rejoined the action at about 10 minutes to go in regular time, with Zebras up 1-0. And then Bulleen equalised from a penalty.

Bloody hell, we were *this* close to avoiding Monday night football in 2020. https://t.co/2DvLG5cUhS

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) September 10, 2019

Worse, the Bulleen Lions Twitter account soft-trolled me and my loathing of Monday night soccer by liking my tweet, and further salt was rubbed into that wound when the Lions took the lead and won the game via another penalty. Bulleen now go into the relegation-promotion playoff against Dandenong Thunder on Sunday, which in all likelihood I will attend, and hopefully report on.