You wait a few weeks to get back to Lakeside, and you get served that rubbish. Maybe one or two shots on target in 90 minutes, against a side that hadn't won a game all year.
Once again, I get that we have suspensions and injuries, but a good chunk of this terrible run of form (especially after the lockdown break) feels like chickens coming home to roost.
The constant rotations on and off the field remain mindboggling, How can any player feel secure, when they are in and out of the side, on and off the field, and played in several positions, with little sense of rhyme or reason?
How can the team as a whole feel confident about scoring goals, when the default set up has them playing so deep, that even mediocre opponents feel confident in taking the ball up field, knowing that they will not be pressured?
I know that it's not 1966, or 1976, or 1984, or 1991, or 1998, or 2001, or even 2014. And I know that sometimes as a coach you've got to deal with the hand you've been dealt (or the one you've dealt yourself).
But there is still room for mythology, and an acknowledgement of the club's history: that this club was built upon entertainment, and that a desire to score goals is in the club's DNA. It is an indispensable part of what this club represents to its supporters.
What happened to the South team that, just a couple of months ago, pressed the Knights, and Gully, and Bentleigh, and looked like a million (NPL equivalent) bucks?
If the coach and anyone else with a say about how things are done on the field doesn't want to do things the South Melbourne Hellas way, there are plenty of other clubs they can go to where they can be timid.
Next game
This Saturday night away to Dandenong Thunder.
FFA Cup draw news
Just when you thought things couldn't get worse, for the next round of the FFA Cup we've been drawn as the away team against the winner of tonight's Oakleigh vs Green Gully match. The game is due to be played next Tuesday or Wednesday. The way we're going, they only advantage we're likely to have against either opponent is that they'll have played a rather more congested schedule than us, especially Oakleigh.
Things could not really have gone much worse in this draw. I mean, we could've got Avondale, but this ain't much better. It does kind of feel like all roads will lead to a Chris Taylor (and Foschini, and Matthews, and Holmes) vs South clash for the national stage, as some kind of massive let's see who was right after all these years.
What I wouldn't have done for another match up against Monbulk; but one has to admit, we've at times had a blessed run in this competition. While we've done quite poorly in FFA Cup qualifier fixtures against NPL teams (two wins, four losses), we'd never lost against a lower league opponent (something like fourteen wins) even though we struggled in more than a few of those games.
And notwithstanding how overpowered Dandy City were for an NPL2 side in 2017, in that year we didn't face a single foe from our own division in qualifying. So if this is the universe righting itself after a number of years, than I suppose we can't complain too much about finally getting a difficult run to the FFA Cup national stage. And who knows, if we actually do manage to make it through to the FFA Cup nationals (and the Dockerty Cup semis), we'll have really earned it this time.
Women's chat
I watched the first half of this game against Box Hill United in the social club, and the second half outside in the grandstand. After smashing Bayside last week, and getting off to a very fast start here, I was expecting another avalanche of goals. It did not happen that way, and that can be put down to some untidy finishing, but also to Box Hill's tenacity throughout the game, never throwing in the towel. But the South women did get the win, and they remain on top of the table.
Merch chat
How good did those retro bomber jackets look in the pro shop? Now if only they made them in adult sizes.
Food chat
Had the salt and pepper calamari, with salad. Calamari was a bit too much salt, and not enough pepper, but otherwise it is a significant improvement over the chicken burger.
Final thought
Just behind Row H, someone made a comment so obvious and insightful, that it'll be carved into Esteban Quintas' coaching tombstone: "he tried to win games 0-0".
Well well well. The chickens are finally coming home to roost.
ReplyDeleteTo say the season is panning out as expected is an understatement. I was not one of those who believed that we were a team worthy off a finals spot, based on the 'unbeaten' streak we had at the start of the season. We were simply the better of a bad bunch. Now though, its done. Season for us is over in all competitions (incl upcoming cup fixture). We can finally put the season to rest and start planning off the field for next year, because quite frankly we can's change shit on the field.
The ridiculous rotation system implemented by (whatever he is) has absolutely killed us, and this is why we have injuries. The players go through the following process on a monthly basis.
- Week 1, Start, 90 minutes.
- Week 2, bench, last 35 minutes.
- Week 3, bench, 0 minutes.
- Week 4, not even bench, 0 minutes, and back to the start again.
This is absolute madness on a grand scale. If anything, its used as an excuse for our poor results, as if this rotation system has been perfected just to have an excuse !
He got the formation right once this year at Green Gully Away, then he went and butchered it. Why ? That's a mystery.
Out of the remaining matches I calculate a gain of 4 pts. 1 this week at Dandy Thunder and 3 pts away at St Albans. Then that's it for the year, no more.
Luckily I'm negatively inclined, and not a goose who's confident watching south these days and vigorously masturbating at a measly, scroungy fkn pt or 3 over poor opposition.
This team has taken the jam out of my donut and I no longer care if i miss a match. Club is slowly leaning into the arms off the grim reaper and unless something happens, and quickly, on the field, we are doomed. The board need to really think about its next coach.
Enough for now. I'm sick of this shit !
Enough is enough.
ReplyDelete#tamtako_out
How can the club sit by and watch the damage this coach is doing to the clubs brand? South has the equal worst attack in the league, word has spread that we are boring to watch and are coached by a numpty, we had a crowd of under 200 on Saturday which is embarassing even by our standards these days.
ReplyDeleteOur season will officially end after our cup exit next week, we will win the 2 games required to not have to worry about relegation, but after that it will be a couple of months of dead rubber games.
It’s infuriating that the club has not taken the coaching appointment seriously since the sacking of Chris Taylor, this charade is in its 4th year now. Our players are going to start dropping like flies shortly because the majority of them can’t get an extended run in the team, not to mention the obvious where the confidence of the team is shot.
Pitiful, pathetic, putrid, and pissweak
ReplyDeleteThat's how I would describe that abomination of a performance against a team that has not savoured victory for over 18 months. If you cannot beat a poor team that is dead last on the ladder then step aside pal and let someone else have a crack.
The coach's timid, cowardly, and un-South approach has really squeezed the jam out of my choc top donut. This is not the South I grew up with. I'm not after the NSL quality of play, nor am I after re-enacting the World Club Championship performances, but bloody hell.... have a bloody go at a team and try and beat them the South way. Playing attacking and effective football that won us 2014 and 2016 titles.
For me there is no other possible decision but for Tamtako to be sacked. Don't go back to your coach's office to collect your belongings - the club can courier it to you.
Enough is enough - Step aside pal and let someone else in to have a red hot crack at resurrecting our season.
Hey .... at least we scored a goal from open play .... and it was from Daniel Clark!
ReplyDelete