Streaming - Oakleigh Cannons 1 South Melbourne 1

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, and because my family circumstances have changed, but on Friday night I found that I had a limit to what it would take to keep me away from a South game in Melbourne - and that limit was what I surmised as being a train replacement bus service that was just going to be too much bother.

Getting there wasn't going to be a problem - and it usually isn't when it comes to getting to Jack Edwards Reserve, one of the NPL's better grounds for the public transport minded - but getting back was going to be a different story. Basically, it would have required getting a train for one stop to Oakleigh (or walking through the dark industrial backblocks), a bus out to Burnley, a train back to the city, and then another train to Sunshine.

On a normal night, when everything goes as planned, I'd get back home about midnight. And maybe something similar would have happened last Friday even with the altered travel arrangements, but lord help us if something went askew. And while I could've, I guess, asked someone for a lift back to the city on the night, I'm not a big fan of doing that because of my first rule of using public transport to get to a ground - that being, always be sure you can actually get back.

I made the call early enough in the week so that I could arrange other entertainment for myself and a mate, in this case seeing Luke Howard (piano) and Nadje Noordhuis (trumpet) at the Melbourne Recital Centre, playing material off their Ten Sails album. If this was early last year, I'd say it was unusual for me to head to a concert of any sort; but as it's this year,  it's unusual for anyone to head to a concert.

Aside from the sauna-esque conditions of the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, and some problems with a crackly speaker during the performance of the seventh piece, the night was otherwise the epitome of middlebrow contentment, in the best sense of jazz-classical improvised compositions, complete with overpriced drinks from the bar next door. 

And despite not being at the game, I still reached my weirdo quota for the week, when some blokes - who may or may not have been attached to the Free Julian Assange protest on the Flinders Street station steps - trailed me and my mate, trying to recruit us for what they called an Oceans Eleven style attempt at busting Assange out of jail. Luckily as we were walking past the National Gallery of Victoria, our potential recruiters noticed that some bloke was standing in the gallery's moat looking for something, and we were able to walk on in peace.

All of which is a very longwinded introduction to my actually watching the game on YouTube the next morning. I thought the biggest issue would be coming across something to do with the game on social media, especially on Twitter to which I have a serious addiction. But actually avoiding news of the game was quite easy. The most difficult part? Turning on the stream on Saturday morning and having Brandon Galgano's voice blaring out of the television. Now I'm a morning person, but Brandon's enthusiasm was nonetheless a bit startling, but one became accustomed to it soon enough.

It looked like a decent crowd, but since the effects mic (if they had any) wasn't picking up any noise, I don't know if the atmosphere was any good. Bit too much food talk for liking, of which I have a low tolerance even when it's meant well and with zero attempt at being patronising. I tell you one thing though, this is the closest attention I've paid to a South game for some time, not because I'd stopped caring, but mostly because in-person attendance is also a social and sensory experience. 

One thing that surprised me however was how much I still care. When Henry Hore tore that Oakleigh defender a new one, and Josh Wallen subsequently tapped home, I was in raptures - and I don't think it was just because it was unexpected. Within the context of the game we were the better side in the first half, and even though it wasn't like Oakleigh weren't in the game, we actually looked the most competent we have so far in 2021. Big sample size I know, and I wasn't getting carried away with anything, but it was nice that even within the strictures of Esteban's ultra-defensive setup, that we could be competitive against one of the league's better squads.

After half time though Oakleigh adjusted and started playing a few more balls in the channels either side of the 'D' the 18 yard box. When the ball got played there, there was confusion between our DMs, CBs, and FBs - all of whom are generally playing deep - about who was meant to step up and fill the space. That doesn't mean one should excuse the apparently blatant handball in the leadup to the goal, only that on the balance of probabilities, Oakleigh were going to score a goal eventually, and they did.

The disappointing thing for us, as is likely to be the case going on, is that because we are set up in an obviously unbalanced manner, scoring one goal is going to be tough, but two or more even harder. That's especially the case if we decide to just hold on to a 1-0 lead for 45 minutes. While at least in this game the long balls to Sawyer were less a case of being the first option, and a bit more of the being the next option, when he got subbed whatever our one plan is for going forward this season went to the bench with him. 

But back to that unbalanced lineup. If you were to take a stab at who was going to be our most important player in 2021 based on these three games, it's got to be. He's the midfield lynchpin, he's the pivot, and he's the main harasser. If he's not being marked out of a game, if he isn't gassed an hour in from the workload, and if he doesn't trip over the ball under his feet, we might have a chance of jagging a goal. If he's not in the game, the midfield becomes rudderless, and there's not enough pressure to create a turnover higher up the field - because Quintas basically only has Clark and Sawyer doing that job.

Sawyer is our second most important player, because as streaming co-commentator Lachie Flannigan noted, we're playing Sawyer as the bounce-pass forward for whoever's meant to be running off him. I don't think Sawyer's particularly suited to the hold-up role despite his frame, but if we're going to play with one up front and using this method, he's all we've got. 

(though one should remember, when extolling the success of the Chris Taylor era, that as much as Milos Lujic was a superior talent to Sawyer, Lujic barely missed a league game from 2014-2017, an astonishing run broken up only very rarely for injury or suspension; things might have been a different for us back then if Lujic hadn't played as much as he did)

Our third most important player? It's go to be Brad Norton. Why? Because he's the only attacking threat from behind the halfway line, considering how defensively this side is set up. Quintas needs to decide once and for all to select players in their best position, and where necessary in their best tandem. We have several full-back options. Lirim Elmazi, Brad Norton, Ben Djiba, Perry Lambropoulos, and yet we play Luke Adams at right-back, who cannot effectively make his way up the field.

If Adams is not the best option for a centre-back pairing with either Jake Marshall or Marco Jankovic, then he should be on the bench. If Adams is a better centre-back option in a pair with either Jankovic or Marshall, then one of those two should be on the bench. Because Adams is at right-back, one whole side of the field is taken away from us going forward, and we are essentially already pinned back there when we're defending.  

Watching this team is becoming annoying, not because I think it's capable of winning a championship any time soon, but under another coach there'd at least be the chance to pick the best eleven to start a game without playing favourites, and without thinking you're halfway to losing a game from kickoff. Whatever enthusiasm the team is showing - and they're certainly having a go - playing ninety minutes of frightened or neutered backs to the wall football every week is going to wear thin eventually. 

And that's got to have a deleterious effect on our attacking options. Gerrie Sylaidos looks like he's lacking confidence. There were moments in this game that, had they happened even last year, Sylaidos would have certainly acted more assertively. His refusal or inability to pull the trigger so far this year, whether that's in the form of a pass or shot, is of a deep concern. Henry Hore finally got the ball at his feet and managed to show what he can do, but like Gerrie offers nothing going back. Now that's fine if the team is set up in a way where Hore and Gerrie don't need to do things they're not equipped for; but everyone else (apart from Norton) is sitting so deep that Gerrie and Henry have to run themselves ragged, and if they do get the ball up field, they then have to wait for everyone to come up by which time they've been dispossessed by a stronger player, or had to make a backwards or sideways pass which kills the momentum of the forward thrust.

And bloody hell, are we actually going to manage to get behind an opposition defensive line by design rather than by fluke? And some of our players need to stop looking for soft penalties, too.

All of which is to say that, as usual, you'd have taken a point before the game, but you hate the point you got at the end of it. Hard to please, it's true, but I know this team can do better. I'm not sure anyone with the agency to make that happen believes it though.

Next game

Port Melbourne away on Friday night. I should be there for that one.

This Luke, That Luke

Last week I wondered Luke Patitsas of fellow South blog Sour Grapes would resume his efforts in 2021; word is that work and study commitments, as well as inconvenient fixturing are going to limit his output this year, though he is looking to write some stuff when he can.

But if you want Luke action, Luke Radziminski - better known for his photography - has been writing pieces on South games for the Footy Almanac, which you can find here. 

On the streams

Wet n' Wild

At home, just because. No genuine opportunity to go see a game of any sort, but there's streams, always streams. And then when it starts raining, staying home looks like a sensinble deicision, even when it's not really a decision. Mark Van Aken and a cameraman are huddled together under a tarpaulin in the media scaffold at the Reggio Calabria Club. It starts raining, and then bucketing down. The camera operator periodcially wipes the lens clear. Van Aken's research notes are ruined by the weather. He pushes on, taking his commentary a step back from naming individual players, as Gully scores, has a man sent off, and as the rain comes in sideways late during the first half, he decides that people shouldn't have to work under these conditions; he's had enough, and as he abandons his post, I can't say that I blame him. The cameraman stays in place, and we get the rest of the game, Gully gets the win, and we find that collectively we have a long way to go before our facilities catch up to our ambitions.

Unwatchable, and to some people, also unlistenable

Found myself with a little bit of spare time late on Sunday afternoon. Decided to drop in on the stream of St Albans vs Melbourne Knights. Now Greg Blake as main commentator... I get it, he's not everyone's cup of tea. I can tolerate his style when I'm in the right frame of mind, or when he has someone like George Cotsanis in special comments. But a game should at least be watchable. Thanks to Melbourne Knights style-over-substance kit preferences - wearing some of grey and black number - watching passages of play that drifted into the shadowed parts of Churchill Reserve absolutely pointless. So I stopped watching, with Knights 1-0 up, and moved onto something else. But then I decided, what the hell, let's just have the video and I'll listen to it in the background, and what do you know, that was a nice payoff as Dinamo scored two goals in the last ten minutes or so. Squinting at the video was a little more fun than usual.

Final thought