Middlebrow - Port Melbourne 1 South Melbourne

Not that anyone's happy about it, or that anyone should be happy be about it, but given the last two and a bit years, did anyone expect us to be any better than one win, two draws, and one loss at this stage of the 2020 season?

In a battle between an upper-middlebrow side and a lower-middlebrow side, I think you'd be more upset with a draw if you were the former. Neither of these two sides is particularly good, and Hellas fan trademark histrionics aside, neither of these two sides is particularly bad either. It being the case that there are 14 teams and six finals spots in this competition, Port might sneak a finals place by virtue of their being less mediocre over the course of the home and away season than several similarly equipped teams. Not seeing our side as being that capable, I don't believe we'll be a serious contender for sixth, but barring some disaster on a slightly bigger scale than what we've become used to, we probably won't be in the bottom two or near enough to cause us extended angst.

So hooray for optimism and all that. Nevertheless, four games in I am struggling to figure out where the improvement will come from this season. All I can see happening is more shuffling players on and off the starting eleven, and on and off the bench. I used to half joke that it was foolish and unfair to expect better from players at this level - after all, with the odd exception, if these players were better than what they are, then they probably wouldn't be here in the NPL. Sadly, the joke now seems to have been extended to if these players were better than what they are, they would be playing for someone else in this competition.

That's all very cruel sounding from someone like me, who can't kick a ball, jog, or see further than a a few metres. But, to wit - we fielded two players on Friday night that had played for Port last season, one of whom was a bench option for us when we were good, and who now has a starting eleven sport ahead of someone many of us assumed would be one of our rare junior to senior success stories. And the other Port pickup hasn't done much yet either, and I am not counting the Eastern Lions game because they still managed to score twice, and chances are that everyone will beat Eastern Lions this season.

There is no middle of miidfield. Flawed potential saviour Marcus Schroen is injured. Luke Pavlou is serviceable, but serviceable isn't commanding, dominant, or game changing. Melvin Becket, bless his enthusiasm, was so enthusiastic when he came on last week that ran around like an eight year old chasing the ball everywhere, and found it tangled within his legs at the one time he found himself in the actual correct position on the field. Just as troubling is that considering that we have a squad full of wingers, we got torched on the wings, and probably our second most-capable winger (Chris Irwin) got his face cut up so bad he had to come off before half-time. Our most seasoned and one well-credentialed winger (Nick Krousoratis), who came on to replace Irwin, was probably *this* close to being replaced himself for his continued ineffective performance.

Gerrie Sylaidos, trying to make things happen. Photo: Cindy Nitsos. 

Our actual best winger (Gerrie Sylaidos) is being shuffled between number 10 and the wing, with fans complaining about the wisdom of both moves. Yet in the first half, it was he who created and scored our one good chance single-handedly - you'd be generous to give Amadu Koroma an assist credit for his throw in - and when moved out to the left in the second half, looked lively again as we sort of walked back from the cliff edge we peered over during the minutes 15-45. And where's Peter Skapetis? Now without pretending that Harrison Sawyer is the Second Coming of Milos - and these days even Milos barely looks like Classic Milos, and that was against a whole of team effort that was seemingly begging him to score - the service to him has been mostly been dire.

But we didn't lose, and that's what I'm taking out of this. Not one South person is genuinely quibbling about the result or how we got there. As upset as anyone can be for the penalty that was awarded against us - which even with the modified, pro-cruelty handball ball, seemed beyond harsh - Port should've scored at least two or three around that goal. And that extra bouncy ball lifted over Pierce Clark, which took an off-break towards goal, and somehow managed to bounce over the crossbar? There's good luck and bad luck, and we had our fair share of both.

When you were growing up, you probably thought your life would turn out, turning up to three-quarters-dark sporting reserves in the suburbs - seriously Port, are you planning to host witness protection cells in the corners of that pitch? - to watch semi-pro footballers fumble about frantically. Maybe you dreamt of being an astronaut, systems analyst, or military strongman, but we're all in this together until they shut the league down along with the rest of society - assuming of course, that NPl Victoria is considered part of society.

Next game
Saturday evening away to Altona Magic. Some say Magic are a very poor side, close to the same level as Eastern Lions. Others say Magic are not that bad, and are more capable of creating chances, and even producing some solid enough defence. I mean, you tell me what to make of any team after four games, especially one 99% of us haven't paid much attention to. Whatever happens on Saturday, we'll get upset.

Soccer Saturday Football Friday
It seems strange to think of now in these days of multiple content streams, but there used to be a time when people in Melbourne  - or at least Australian rules fans in Melbourne - yearned for the days when all or most VFL games were played on the same day at the same time. You'd go to your preferred game on a Saturday afternoon, and rush home to watch extracts from two or three other games on television in the evening.

Those days are long gone of course, even for local soccer. Once upon a time top-tier senior soccer in Melbourne would've been all on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, midweek cup and tour games notwithstanding. But we've long been accustomed to the situation of having some combination of Friday nights, Saturday afternoons, Saturday evenings, Saturday nights, Sunday afternoons, Sunday evenings, and even that most cursed of all timeslots, Monday nights.

But change being the only constant, things keep evolving. And so for a variety of reasons, we've seen more and more teams migrate senior games to Friday nights. Last Friday we had six of the round's seven matches being played at close enough to the same time, mostly staggered (probably by coincidence more than anything deliberate) at kickoffs of 15 minute intervals.

There's not much that Football Victoria can do about this. They set rules about how early or late games can kick off on a proscribed match days, but otherwise leave fixturing to the clubs. Which is fair enough - clubs should have the ultimate say in when they think they'll get their best turnouts, and how best to manage the load and availability of the fields they have at their disposal. Now some people might complain about not being able to get to other NPL games, but if I'm being honest here, that doesn't seem to be the main complaint people have with this arrangement. I mean, one can't simultaneously say that NPL crowds are crap (which they are) and then posit that simultaneous matches are inhibiting attendances for all but the most sick NPL attendees.

(though clubs who have come to rely on fortnightly visits by George Katsakis and his chucking fifty bucks on the bar and canteen might have a more valid complaint - I mean, not even George can visit all six games on a Friday night)

No, the biggest gripe seems to be from and for those poor souls who prefer to stay home and watch the NPL live streams. Switching between two or three games? Easy. Between six? Much harder, especially as NPL Victoria is still well short of being able to produce an NFL RedZone production. But even though the live streams have at least anecdotally hurt NPL attendances, it's hard to know how much of an impact they've had because no one's done and no one's really capable of doing the due research.

But the live streaming is an important thing to consider, because with this national second division that's set to come in some time within the next few years, the people who want an NSD need to get their heads around who's going to come and watch their games, and who's going to pay to watch their product on some sort of screen. And proper fixturing of games, including spreading out games, will become a key element of that, though I figure that an NSD will see Melbourne teams have a lock on Fridays, because the other states generally don't seem to play games on Fridays.

Until I was disabused of my assumptions by someone more in the know, my assumption was that far fewer Australian soccer fans are interested in watching NPL (and even an NSD) than certain groups would like to think, and that goes especially for live streaming. Counting incidental ultra-short-term views on Facebook as having a value beyond their measure seems like a dangerous form of self-delusion. Plucking out numbers without context and comparing them at all as like for like with free to air and pay television seems like a recipe for self-delusion. Apparently however, most of NPL Victoria's viewership - around 80% - comes from Victorian sources.

That apparently changes significantly for Monday games, after gamblers in Asia collect their paychecks. (Monday is apparently payday in many south-east Asian nations). Not being the kind to watch these games on Facebook, I can't say much for the comments left there which might indicate who the audience might be. But recently on NPL Victoria's YouTube streams, the comments have been opened up again after being locked for all of last year, and the results indicate very little local or Australian audience interaction. Like YouTube streams of Tasmanian games, which tend to leave their comments sections open, Monday's standalone NPL match between Eastern Lions and Dandenong Thunder held few surprises in terms of the audience.

And that audience seems to be mostly made up of overseas gamblers taking advantage of games  being played outside the time slots of most football leagues. So apart from the comments that are in Arabic or Cyrillic scripts, most of the rest is easily intelligible. People claiming to have inside knowledge, people alleging rigged games, and people confused about what level they're actual watching, with comments running the gambit from expecting VAR to be part of the experience to the assumption that no one is being paid, and that the league is completely amateur.

These idiots actually go to games. Photo: Luke Radziminski.

To be fair, when you see utes moving around in the background, it can be easy to assume that the competition is amateur, however the cruelty of some of the comments - poor standard, poor players, poor stadiums, poor crowds - is probably not the kind of commentary Football Victoria, the broadcast teams, and even fans of the comp will want to have spread, even if fans of the competition especially already think and post much the same criticism. The live stream is, after all, meant to function as a form of promotion of the talents of the players and commentators and the local game as a whole, not matter how funny it is having some guy going "i have corona virus who wants some" in the comments.

I've noticed that...
The club has put up a notice on its Facebook page that:

"South Melbourne has been working with all stakeholders Football Victoria, the AAFC and Football Federation Australia & more recently PFA to see Australia return to a football structure which embraces and encourages aspirational football. 

We believe the NSD is critical for the development of Football. We are looking forward to continuing our participation in the next phase on this journey, including the submission of South's Expression of Interest, which will enable South to once again play regularly on the national stage."

Which is fair enough I suppose, though you kinda wish they could put something up on their website, not least because the website hasn't been updated since February 24.


Final thought
It was really a very minor thing, but I heard some news about South the other day that was so unexpectedly positive, containing evidence of the club's attempt to be morally upright and legally compliant in a way that any normal business should be, that my first reaction was not joy, but rather shock and disgust.