Cobbling together wins and blog posts - Green Gully 0 South Melbourne 2

Someone wants the perfunctory report straight up, while others want actual genuine detail about the game. 

So here's the perfunctory report: have you seen the five matches prior to this one? Well it was more of the same. Thirty minutes of good stuff by us, followed by sixty minutes of slop. Gully were alright once we let them into the game, certainly a notch or two above several opponents.

Not entirely unlike last year, we are hanging on to top spot and undefeated run, with increasing unease about when it will all come crashing down. To be sure, this year is looking better, which is to say, we are winning games instead of drawing and winning. In addition, our good bits this year look more convincing than our good bits at the equivalent stage of the season last year. But we are still stuck in the same ideological mire, in the sense that even while we have scored an impressive amount of goals, the astonishingly quick deterioration of our midfield once we retreat to protect a lead is really bloody worrying.

I suppose we should be glad, even as our fears last season were a bit of an overreaction, that in 2022 we are in no way shape or form relegation candidates. And yes, we didn't win a league game for about a three month stretch last year, but we probably had enough points on the board to go around again in NPL1. But still, the same problem remains, and in some cases you can only really tell how bad it is when standing behind the goals - for it's when you can conduct an extended discussion with the opposition goalkeeper, without any fear that it will be interrupted by an attacking move your team, that you know you're in a bit of strife.

Meanwhile, 110 metres or so away at the other end, you see a purple blur bouncing around making all sorts of audacious saves to keep your team's clean sheet intact. On those few occasions the ball did come to our end of the ground in the second half, we had to deal with the ignorant petulance of the Gully players, who apart from trying to intimidate the referee, also asserted that that assistant referee had no right to make any calls that the referee night have missed.

"Stick to your job" I believe was the line, which I did note to the Gully players was actually anachronistic. While assistant referees are not meant to replace the main referee when it comes to making the vast majority of decisions, they are to be encouraged these days in making calls when the central referee is blindsided, or when the central referee gives a subtle indication asking for confirmation of something he may have suspected to have happened.

But back to conversations with opposition goalkeepers. I must say those few of us behind the goal really let ourselves down on that front. We had done no preparation of material or talking points. We managed to figure out that Liam Driscoll was 22 years old, and thus ripe for some "banter" (ugh), but we hadn't done any homework. Which better clubs had he played at? What was his stance on Australia's dominant preferential voting system vs Hare-Clark? What is the meaning of life? Instead we had to resort to "let's see what's in the news" gags. Had he seen the Hume keeper's stuff up? Did he want some near undrinkable vodka mixed in with Powerade? Things of that nature. 

Being neither that kind of drinker, nor a 14 year old trying to make unpalatable alcohol taste just that bit less unpalatable by being mixed in with other garbage, I did not imbibe, but each to their own. Planning for this trip started all the way back when we found out we were playing this match in Ballarat instead of Green Gully Reserve, without ever knowing quite why it was being played 95kms (or thereabouts) west of Keilor. In the time since, I've narrowed it down to two possibilities of how it came to pass:

1. Green Gully genuinely wanted to take a major fixture of theirs on the road to regional Victoria, hosting it in an otherwise underused soccer specific stadium. If it went well, it might be the start of more such adventures to regional Victoria.
2. The Green Gully Reserve pitch was getting a necessary touch-up, and while Gully had requested that we swap our fixtures around - with us playing this match at Lakeside, and reversing the later fixture - South Melbourne, remembering Gully's refusal to accommodate us in a similar request in 2019, told them to stick it.

It could really have been either of those, but who knows for sure?

Anyway, fifteen years ago a long range trip like this would have attracted a good chunk more people for a train trip except... maybe it wouldn't have? I remember the 2014 trip out here, and I'm pretty sure it was just me and Gains on the train to and from Melbourne. OK, so that eight years ago, rather than fifteen and the days of Frankston train trips and Canberra bus trips, but maybe the occasion just wasn't big enough then or now. Maybe only interstate trips for FFA Cup games is what people care about, and can limit themselves to now that a good chunk of Clarendon Corner is in its mid-30s and having babies and responsibilities.

So there were four of us, thinking of taking the 12:!4 out of Southern Cross, and hitting a Ballarat pub for an hour or so before the game. Good luck with that. Rail replacement buses made one of our quartet miss the 12:14, which meant all of us sticking around for the train in a further hour's time, by spending that hour at the bar inside Southern Cross station. Also, there's a bar inside Southern Cross station, who knew?

So an hour later we're on the rails, admiring the scenery when it's visible. Some people who hadn't traveled west of Harvester Road in Sunshine since 2015 wanted to see what remained of Chaplin Reserve, not realising (where it was it actually located in relation to Sunshine station), and not understanding that thanks to the massive trench through which trains heading west from Sunshine now travel through, that you could not see anything of the (not very much left to see anyway) remains of the former home of George Cross.

Arriving in Ballarat around 2:45, my fellow travelers wanted to find a pub, even though it would have been cutting things a bit fine in terms of making it to kick off. As luck would have it, the pubs around the station seemed to be closed because of covid-related under-staffing, or because they weren't serving drinks until 3:00. Walking down to Sturt Street, because Google maps said we had to do that to catch a bus down to the ground, even though apparently (and logically) we could've caught a bus from the station, we waited for the number 25 bus that either came earlier, or was incredibly bloody late.

While waiting for the 25 we got asked by some kids about what we were chanting, and whether we were going to a soccer match. We ended hitching a ride on the 24, which unlike the 25 which dumps you on the front side of the Morshead Park precinct on Pleasant St, instead dumps you out the back on the western side, necessitating a walk around the back of the trotting club. Also, on the way there we saw another match day at Trekardo Park, doubtless full of persons oblivious to greatness that was soon to be on display down the road.

The reward for trudging through the back lots of Ballarat was a Gully match program, a six dollar burger turned into a five dollar burger because they didn't have any change, and a fence you could safely place a drink on without worry that it would fall over. Oh, and another win, marred only by having to watch us scrap and scrape in defense for an hour, and Josh Wallen getting what looked like a serious hamstring injury.

On the way back two of the blokes watched rugby league, I watched juryo day 14 of the haru basho. A good day all around.

Next game

Australia Cup against Avondale, at Broadmeadows Valley Park, on Wednesday night.

All information available at present indicates that this match will not be live streamed.

I'll be giving this game a miss for various reasons, but mostly because of competing commitments at home. 

Final thought

Thanks to Johnny for giving us a lift back to Ballarat station.

Seventeen - South Melbourne 5 Hume City 0

Perfunctory match report

First half, quite good in terms of taking down an opponent likely to be near the bottom third of the table.

The second half was pure slop.

How old is seventeen really?

This post is late because I wrote about 1700 words of self-indulgent junk trying to figure out what the hell happened on Friday night, and what should happen next. That was 1700 words where I'd maybe only got halfway through writing the damn thing. This extended thought bubble is also strictly about male football, because female sport - and the cultural infantilisation of such by various parts of the media and the public sphere - is a whole other kettle of fish.

To be honest, it's probably better to fret less, and get to the point. We were 1-0 up early against Hume, and then Marcus Schroen, the scorer of that opening goal, took a shot which was well saved by the Hume goalkeeper Lucas Trenkovski with his legs. The ball remained in play however, and the South attacking move continued until striker Harrison Sawyer hit a low and relatively tame shot from the edge of the box, which was easily gathered by Trenkovski in the six yard box. 

The crowd's attention momentarily drifted away from the scene, as the save allowed for a natural moment of pause, one of many where a football crowd is not obligated to be as focused as they might be at a more pivotal moment. As Hume's defenders turned around, and as South's players turned their backs to the ball in order to retreat toward their own half of the field, Trenkovski attempted to get up from the ground after his save. As he did so, the ball slipped from his grasp and fell back across the goal line. 

One Hume defender saw this happen, his hands going to his head in shock. The South Melbourne ball-boys behind the goal reacted the same way. Instinctively, Trenkovski reached across the line to collect the loose ball and turn up field,  running past the edge of the six yard box almost as if nothing unusual had happened. The referee was alert though, and ruled for a goal. The time which elapsed from Sawyer's muddled shot to the referee's whistle for the goal was barely seven seconds.

The South players celebrated, and the crowd slowly caught on to what happened. Clarendon Corner began fumbling through the NPL TV app on their phones searching for the footage that we missed in person. Just four minutes after conceding that goal, an angled shot from Andy Brennan appears to go through the hands of Trenkovski, with the scraps tapped in by Schroen.

At least that's my view from Clarendon Corner, a view partially obscured by the congestion of the players in the 18 yard box. It's also a viewing position which is separated from the goal at the lake end of the ground by about 100 metres of grass, a ten-lane running track, a concrete concourse, and about eight rows of grandstand seating. In actuality, Brennan's shot was somewhat mishit. It bounced awkwardly in front of the goalkeeper, who managed to parry it away - ineffectively as it turned out - onto the chest of the oncoming Schroen, who in all honesty would have had zero time to react to the ball hitting him after the save.

Those two suspect goals in four minutes led to what would, in any normal league with semi-organised and vocal supporter groups at every ground, an entirely expected reaction: chants and commentary directed at the goalkeeper and his nightmare of a game to that point. Now most of the clubs in the Victorian top-tier don't have anything resembling "active" support, and so a bad day at the office would ordinarily be limited to banter from the odd keen supporter daring to supply witty comments, or a player seeking to further humiliate a vulnerable opponent, in the hope of seeking a further psychological edge.

Unfortunately for Trenkovski, his bad day was at a venue and a club with a vestigial element of active support. There was the usual, unimaginative stuff, like "pass it back to the keeper", and elevated excitement any time the ball got anywhere near him. There was also stuff more specific to local soccer history, especially the Southern Stars match fixing scandal of 2013, and the ongoing interest of foreign gamblers who pollute the social media pages of local teams when they lose their bets.

There was nothing particularly remarkable about the chants and commentary. There wasn't anything particularly offensive. Whether it was even funny was perhaps in the eye of the beholder. There was certainly nothing personal in it, because we didn't know the bloke in goals for Hume. But at half time, a woman (who we later learned was a parent of a Hume player) came down to Clarendon Corner to berate us for targeting the goalkeeper, which caused a shouting match between the woman and members of Clarendon Corner. Her main point was to leave the player alone, because he's only seventeen years old, and the backup goalkeeper is only sixteen.

She was eventually convinced to leave the area. Within Clarendon Corner, there was bemusement at the incident, and also anger. Anger, because people felt that we hadn't actually crossed any lines. Anger also because we have been the victims of much more than merely verbal abuse at the hands of people associated with Hume City, on more than one occasion. But there's also laughter at the absurdity of the whole exchange, and mocking consideration of her request. I took it a little more seriously, suggesting for the sake of not causing further issues, because there's nothing to be gained from further humiliating a seventeen year old - and seeing as we were 4-0 up at halftime - that we ease off on the issue.

Besides which, we have a pretty ordinary track record of accidentally (and sometimes less accidentally) upsetting friends and relatives of players and coaches in this league, both from South and from the opposition. Which, when you think about it, is not such a hard thing to do, when a good chunk of an NPL Victoria crowd is made up of friends and relatives of players and other personnel.

The self-declared attempt at abstention from making comment on the goalkeeper worked for a while. But the second half was complete rubbish, and boredom and distraction set in. The game not providing suitable entertainment, we searched for ways to entertain ourselves. And so the earlier "banter" is adapted to the newly acquired knowledge about the keeper's age. "You can't drive!". "You can't drink!". "You can't vote". The adaptation of the usual "you're shit" chant from goal kicks into "you're seventeen". And of course, renditions of songs about being seventeen, like this classic.

The game ended on one more farcical note. Bumbling defending saw Trenkovski come out of his box to make a harried clearance. It was not a good one. South won possession in midfield, and Harrison Sawyer strolled through near non-existent pressure from Hume, and scored with the final kick of the game. After the final whistle, Sawyer, Brennan, Schroen and Alun Webb all went over to speak briefly to Trenkovski, and that appeared to be that. A bad day for the goalkeeper, and a bad day for his team.

Post match in the social club, there appeared to be no carry-on or after effects of the whole affair. Some Hume players stayed back for a meal, but most did not. Attention turned, at least for me and those I'm speaking with, to looking ahead to next week, and trying to get someone to put the footy on on the big screen.

That should have been the end of the matter, except that I haven't really been able to stop thinking about the incident from halftime. More specifically, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the particular choice of argument the woman chose to use: "he's only seventeen". What does "he's only seventeen" actually mean? Is there an implication that his age makes him more fragile, and less resilient to such banter than a more experienced player? Is it that he's too inexperienced in the ways of the senior footballing world to comprehend, understand, contextualise, and deal with the attention being paid to him by opposition fans?

And let's then take the implication of her argument one step further - at what age is it OK for a player to be heckled by opposition supporters? Where do you even start with this question, and how much are the possible answers informed by probably faulty notions of common sense? So seventeen is out. Is 20 OK? In 2019 when he was 22 and we were standing behind his goal, because we were spectacularly unenthusiastic about our team on the night, then Hume City goalkeeper Michael Weier begged us to throw some shade his way, We had been doing that since he was about 20. At no point did we know his age. It didn't seem important I suppose. 

Oh, I understand that a 17 year old playing senior football - and especially a goalkeeper - is likely to be under more risk of failing to live up to the grade than a more seasoned player. That goes for the mental, as well as the physical and technical aspects. And I see where the argument comes in - we should be supporting player development, and we should be more aware of mental health matters.

But we must also remember that until halftime, Clarendon Corner had no idea who Lucas Trenkovski was, except that he was the opposition goalkeeper. We didn't know his history, and certainly not his age. We didn't even know his name after the game. When we first dropped back into the state comps, your average Clarendon Corner fan knew a lot more about the identities of opposition players. That's mostly because a not insignificant chunk of them were either former players of ours, or notable rival players from the NSL. Nowadays, unless they're once more a notable former player who almost inevitably left our club on bad terms, we have next to no idea who most of the blokes running around for the opposition are. 

Turns out Trenkovski is just some kid making only his fifth start in senior football. Quite why Hume is banking on a seventeen year-old keeper is anyone's guess. Maybe he's actually not too bad of a goalkeeper? I don't know. But people out there - maybe even me, sometimes - they'll use the line if you're good enough, you're old enough. And added to that, if you're good enough to play, you're old enough to take the hits on the field, and the commentary off it.

Of course, there used to be far more up for grabs on the heckling front. Racist abuse persists, but is largely frowned upon nowadays. Sexist abuse is more prevalent, and persistent. Homophobic abuse is still going to be with us for a long time unfortunately. But even so, those three categories are at least the subject of regulations within rules of the governing body. But making fun of a player having a bad night, in such a manner that someone might consider it a mental health issue? Is that the next frontier? In which case, is there any place for booing, jeering, or condemning the play of an opponent?

Maybe. But back to the original question. Assuming that there is an age where you can start mocking an opponent, what is the formula for figuring out what the appropriate age is? How many games does the player need under his belt before he becomes fair game? Does the level of competition influence when you can "go"someone? And should the player's position have any bearing on the matter? 

One of the arguments made within Clarendon Corner was that since it is senior football, that any player taking the field should be aware of the possibility of receiving disparaging remarks about the quality of his play. So we have an ethical demarcation already - in junior sport in Australia, where youth sport is in theory at least primarily about player development, companionship, and not entertainment for spectators, such conduct from supporters would be less acceptable, perhaps even unacceptable.

We can take that argument further. The game being played on Friday night was not only of a senior level, but it was, in an Australian context, a comparatively high level affair. Compromised though the Australian soccer second tier is by being split eight or nine different ways, this was still in effect a second division match. Furthermore, players in the Victorian division of this fractured national second-tier are playing in the best or second-best of these second-tier competitions. 

The players also get paid, usually quite well considering the paucity of income they generate for their clubs or the league as a whole. Yes, payment for their services is due in terms of the high level of commitment players must make to training (including pre-seasons) and playing, effectively across about nine-to-ten months of the year. So the players are, even in their semi-professional state, professionals. And there is, I think, an unspoken acknowledgment that if you're getting paid to play, you're also getting paid to be cannon fodder for spectators.

That sounds awful when we actually spell it out like that, but it's not a new idea. Not everyone is onboard the bandwagon of integrating hate alongside love in sport, but it's been a persistent theme since sport's day dot. Can we excise hate out of competitive sporting contests? Or should we just cut our losses and strap on P Plates onto young and/or inexperienced players? Not that that stops certain fully-licenced drivers from having a go at learner and probationary drivers.

Being perhaps just a couple of steps short of phrenology, we should also be careful into how much we read into how Trenkovski's body language during and immediately after the match. This is not only because the vast majority of us have no expertise in such matters, but also because - again - we don't know him. At various times during the night he was angry - with himself or his teammates - or inconsolable, like he wante the earth to swallow him up. Any one one of those things could be indications of a faltering mental state, but equally they could also be perfectly normal reactions to playing a shit game?

We could say that his inexperience and/or his mistakes are due in part to the overestimation of Trenkovski's abilities by Hume's coaches. Or that the reaction to his mistakes by Clarendon Corner is because we didn't know he was just a kid. But Hume's coaching staff... OK, so you chuck a young player in to play who may or may not be ready. Until you do it, you may very well not know. Maybe he has four solid games, and you think this is going well. And then he has a stinker. I mean, his whole team has a stinker, but he makes the worst play of the night.

Some of his teammates rallied around him, and at the end of the game, so did some of his opponents. But maybe that attention only further served to remind him that he played poorly. Even keeping him out on the field, though it could be seen as an attempt at reinforcing trust in him and building his resilience, could be interpreted as psychological tokenism. Goalkeepers have enough to worry about without having to second guess whether their own team trusts them to do a job.

Perhaps the final word should go to Brandon Galgano, who was one of the commentators of the live-stream on the night. Galgano - a goalkeeper himself in his playing days - noted that seeing as Hume were keeping Trenkovski out there, the best thing to do would be to stay on your feet and keep going. I remember watching Galgano playing for Moreland City, where the final score of 1-0 to Brunswick City was due in part do a Galgano error. On the video, you can even hear one Brunswick fan yell out "Hey Galgano, put that in your highlights reel". 

People, and sport, can be cruel. Maybe the point is to be a little less cruel when we can. 

Next game

Green Gully on Saturday, in Ballarat. Don't know why this is in Ballarat, though it would be nice to know. I'll be taking the train and then a bus to the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility at Morshead Park. I assume that, partly because of covid protocols, and partly because of inherent lack of fan interest, that the club will not be providing a supporter bus option to this match.

Australia Cup news

The fixture details for our Australia Cup match against Avondale have been confirmed. The match will be at Broadmeadows Valley Park (Hume City's ground), on Wednesday March 30th at 7:30PM.

Some basic ideas from improvements to the social club experience

Working beer taps.

Souvlaki that comes in a roll, rather than a panini.

Non-cardboard buns for the burgers.

A souvlaki open plate option, which seems eminently doable.

Footy on the TV screens after a match.

Final thought

You know, I don't even know if Trenkovski registered any of the crowd noise.

Solid Sunday Entertainment - St Albans 1 South Melbourne 4

Churchill Reserve being probably the second closest NPL venue to my house, I decided to get there super early on Sunday. I even drove there, because that would only take about 15 minutes, whereas the equivalent public transport trip would take close to an hour, which does not seem ideal for a seven kilometre trip. Plus if you get there early enough, there's a nice parking spot in the shade on Fox Street. Then again, if the price of petrol keeps going up, I might as well walk to games like this.

I got to the ground in time for the under 21s, and parking myself in between the two benches, I must say that I was left asking myself a lot of questions. First, whose bright idea was it to have our away kit look like a Carlton SC away kit? Frankly, it was a little sickening, and having to see that for the rest of the year isn't going to be easy.

But more questions, this time related to junior development. Now granted that on any given topic, there's always someone who knows less than you do, I'm still somewhere near the bottom of the knowledge pyramid when it comes to junior or youth soccer. But there's always a chance to learn more, even if that attempt at gaining knowledge is limited to a couple of games a year.

Do we place enough emphasis on the difference between being robotic and being automatic? I ask this, because I have come across complaints about youth players under various methods (often attributed to this or that "curriculum"), and the tendency to create robotic players who are unable to adapt to unfamiliar or especially to dynamic situations. 

And the micromanagement of the players by the coaches! I understand that they are youth players, and that they need instruction, but at what point should players in this age group (under 21s, so say about 16-18 year olds) no longer need to be constantly told where to stand, where to run, and what pass to make? At what point do not only the individual players themselves take charge of their own positioning and decision making, but also certain players adopt leadership roles to help implement whatever game plan the coach has them playing under?

I won't make much if any comment on things like the quality of first touches, or when's the right time to play back to the keeper, or decision making as it relates to playing on a small ground that has more ups and downs than a vinyl oval from the Test Match board game that's been gathering dust in a cupboard for the past 25 years. 

One thing I do know, though, is that it's never a wise idea for match officials to get involved with banter with the hoi polloi standing behind the fence. I mean, you can usually answer a rudimentary question about something that just happened without too much harm, and maybe at a more social level the whole experience is a bit more relaxed. But that young man running the line would have done better to not take the bait of arguing with a mouthy St Albans fan (and self-declared NPL player), because nothing good will come of it.

An attempt at a well-thought out post on the senior match held last Sunday is pointless if you were standing on the outer side of Churchill Reserve. That ground has to have some of the worst sight-lines in Victorian soccer, with only the social club wing affording anything approaching near unimpeded views. And of course I didn't stand on that side of the ground, but instead on the Fox Street wing, where my view was blocked by fencing, media scaffolding, poles, metal benches, and lots of people. Imagine a finals match played there, with say, double the crowd of Sunday's match?

But let me first digress a little further. If you did not attend because you are slack, not only did you miss on another great victory for Hellas, but you also missed out on one of the worst attempts at mowing a lawn you've ever seen. While our view of the game was poor, South of the Border had a first class seat to watch a shambles of an attempt at mowing a nature strip. Not sure why the bloke living across the street decided that kickoff was the right time to start mowing a lawn, but each to their own I suppose.

Initially I thought the rumble in the background was the generator being used to keep the batteries running on the camera for the live stream, but a quick look behind us saw our man in his hat, hi-viz, and gloves wielding his machine like he was trying to stab the grass. Now I'm no lawn mowing expert, but I'm pretty sure the general idea is to just mow one lane of grass, and then go back the other way slightly to the left (or right) of whatever line you just mowed?

This bloke looked like he was a devil of a time, though he did get one bit right, when he tossed a small branch onto his neighbour's nature strip. We've all done that, because you know it will come back to your side eventually, and there's nothing malicious in the act. It's the kind of entertainment you wouldn't get in a national second division loaded with proper grounds.

The senior match seemed to go the way most of our games have gone so far this season. Fair start, messy middle, reasonable finish. That whole messy middle bit is an ongoing concern, especially when we come up against better teams. Again, there were signs of panic and an inability to wrest the initiative when under sustained pressure. The small ground however meant that in this case, flailing long balls to Harry Sawyer were automatically more dangerous than they would be on a larger ground.

Improved set piece taking - and decision making - has been a boon so far this season, and so it proved again on Sunday, with corners and such helping bail us out when we needed it most. Credit to Pat Langlois and his surely unsustainable run of headed goals. Credit also to Max Mikkola, Jai Ingham, and sub for this week Alun Webb for at least showing that we'll be a consistent counter attacking threat this season. In 2021, we scored just 19 goals in 18 leagues matches. We're already up to 12 from 4 games in 2022. 

Once we get Sawyer not trying to jump too high to connect with crosses he could really just walk to, we might be even stronger. Sometimes I'm not sure that he realises how tall he actually is.

The real hardcore cynics out there, in an attempt to outdo themselves, are still stuck in a 2018-2021 mindset, counting down the points needed to reach 30 in order to claim safety from relegation. Half-joke it may be, but I think this season's personnel make relegation extremely unlikely. If this team doesn't make finals, it'd be an astonishing failure. 

There are defensive issues, issues with tactics, issues with giving up initiative for long periods of time, and of course the possibility that we haven't exactly come up against the strongest opponents as of yet. But for the most part the 2022 team has not been a side cobbling together undeserved points, but rather one that has deserved, clearly, to win at least three of its four games so far. It might not yet be time to believe that good things will inevitably happen, but it might soon be time to start things that bad things inevitably will.

Next game

Hume City at home on Friday night. This is an ordinary match, for an ordinary three points. How dull.

In case you were wondering

That's four from four from our eight twenty-twenty-one six pointers for twenty-twenty-two. 

Here at South of the Border we're going to track this novelty as it relates to us, though good luck to anyone trying to keep tabs on how the entirety of the bespoke solution is going. Our revised 2021 points tally is now 37 points, well clear of the hypothetical relegation placings; and with Port Melbourne being docked 18 points for 2021, we're also in with a real shot at a hypothetical finals place.

For the record, we have four more bespoke six point matches to go:

• Round 9, at home against Oakleigh
• Round 13, at home against Avondale
• Round 15, away to Eastern Lions
• Round 25, at home against Dandenong City

Australia Cup news

The Australia Cup fourth round draw was conducted last week, and we were drawn against away to Avondale. Oh well, we had a good run. Just for the record, Victoria has been granted five spots in this year's national stage of the cup. Because there was no national NPL championship last season - of which the winner would receive a place in the Australia Cup as a reward - Victoria was granted that extra spot because the state's superior performances in FFA Cup tournaments past.

NPL TV app updates 

The other week on the steps outside the social club, a fellow Hellatzi noted that the Cluch app on his Android phone wasn't working - furthermore, it was asking for an update which didn't seem to exist in the Google Play Store. Whatever the issue seemed to be, it had not yet caught up to my ancient Nokia - but South of the Border eventually reached that point on Saturday while trying to catch up with some of the overnight goals. 

An uninstall/reinstall maneuver only managed to turn my phone's Cluch app into the soccer-less, and largely pointless version of the app that's been available on Google Home devices. Not ideal. A search for NPL TV in the Play Store did unearth an NPL TV specific app however; so if you came across the same problem of your Cluch app carking it, it seems like we are being migrated across to a new app.

Now, it does seem like that there are incremental improvements being made to the product, like the ability to go back and forth in ten second increments, as well as rewind in some games, but I haven't really had the chance to check it out fully. I'm not even sure if they've added the ability to pause matches. Still, what we wait for most is a smart TV app so we're no longer casting from PCs.

But I'm told it's still a much better product than whatever Paramount+ is offering for its A-League coverage, so apparently I shouldn't complain so much.

Final thought

Oh boy, those Dinamo kids behind the goal with those firecrackers. Someone could blown a finger off, or an ear drum out, or... well, since no security or marshals cared on the day, I probably shouldn't either.

Notes from the 2021 AGM

South Melbourne Hellas members are now well used to AGMs being delayed for unorthodox reasons, but the pandemic is the unimpeachable get out clause for everything these days. Attendance from committee members was poor, but that of the members was worse. A lot of regular faces at these things did not show up. Why, I do not know. Indifference? Covid? Inconvenient time-slot? Heaven help us if the senior men's preferred match day discussion ever gets combined with this topic.

And goodness knows where the armada of junior parents now eligible to attend such meetings was - thanks to Football Victoria constitutional changes some years back - because they weren't there, and have seldom ever attended since they have bee able to. Well, maybe they were at junior games. Still the meeting went ahead, and some useful information was parlayed to the small audience. 

As per usual, this is not a complete account of the AGM, because I did not take such detailed notes; nor should everything be made known to people who did not attend the meeting, or so I'm told. Then again, some people don't like any AGM details making their way into the public domain, but that ship sailed a long time ago.

There were two key presenters on the day, treasurer Mario Vinaccia, and president Nick Maikousis. At times the meeting resembled a conversation rather than a one-way information session, with the odd spiky exchange. But we get but one formal opportunity per year  (on average) to grill our representatives, and one would be wise to take it. 

Insofar as the treasurer's report went, there was generally good news in regards to the club's financial position as it ended at June 2021. The club made a profit of about $160,000, a good result considering the difficulties created by the pandemic with regards to sponsorship and match day revenue. The club is also on target to clear its external debts by June 2022. 

The club's business structure was once again explained. Essentially, the South Melbourne Hellas Club acts as the umbrella for a set of subsidiary organisations. Half of these are for profit businesses (the Bar & Grill, the Futsal Court, etc), and the other half are the various teams and clubs we operate (NPL and NPLW teams, miniroos, state league women's teams).

The assertion was made by the board that contrary to popular wisdom, it is the finances of the senior men's team which fills in the budgetary gaps (if and where they exist, though most teams break even) in other parts of the football business. How one gets that message out to a soccer public which takes as gospel that junior money funds senior wages (across many clubs, not just ours) is a difficult task. Because much more of the 2021 season was played compared to the 2020 season, there was less damage done in terms of refunds of fees to junior players due to the cancellation of the season.

The Bar & Grill more or less breaks even on match days, but does much better on special events. Of course, club hosted special events and the hiring of the function room by the general public have been hindered by the pandemic, but one hopes that will change as things open up again. The club's leasing of the futsal space to the Combat Institute of Australia for use as its National Performance Centre, which became official in January 2022, will see the club receive an annual six figure sum in rental fees. I think most of us will be glad that that space is finally earning its keep, albeit in an unorthodox manner. 

On the question of why no Sunday matches, it was made reiterated that much of the cost savings achieved by the club in recent times have been due to avoiding hosting Sunday matches, and especially the staff penalty rates that make Sunday games unappealing from a financial point of view. The four senior men's Friday night matches in 2022 are also being used as part of the attempt to garner and maintain sponsor networks.

Sponsorship is in a strong position, with the number of principle partners increasing substantially, as the club continues to leverage the business links of the current board. What might happen to that generosity should those members of the board - especially in the financial services sector, which we seem to have a focus on - depart, is a question left to the future. This approach is a variant of the construction industry funded teams in our league. Realistically, there would be few clubs in Victoria who can get by predominantly on gate takings, and in that sense we are not an outlier.

In short, gate takings and membership dues play second fiddle to sponsorship and other business ventures. While the club made a reasonable sum on the 2022 Melbourne City FFA Cup game given the circumstances, restrictive pandemic related trading circumstances diminished what could have been a higher taking. Still, it's nice to know that the club has a not insignificant item for its next financial report. Also to be taken into account for next year, is the already improved takings from merchandise sales. 

Though hampered by Lakeside Stadium being under the control of the state government rather than a local council, the club has improved its accessing of government grants. Most of these grants are relatively small, but collectively they help offset costs across our various football departments.

The president's report had some crossover with the treasurer's report, but also included other matters as you would expect. The relationship with the regular, match day staff of the Trust is currently good. However, the high turnover of bureaucrats at the Trust continues to make the management of that part of the relationship more difficult.

There was some discussion about further cementing our presence at some of our other locations, and the hope that there would be funding made available for the relaying of the synthetic pitches at Middle Park, among other improvements to our amenities.

With regards to Lakeside being used as a training venue for the 2023 Women's World Cup, there was little concrete news as of yet. There is the possibility of minor improvements being made to player amenities. It is also possible that the venue may be unavailable for several weeks, but otherwise there is scant detail on what the 2023 Women's World Cup will mean for us in an operational sense. That's something to keep an eye on for next year.

There was also discussion on the prospects of a National Soccer Division, but precious little of certainty to latch on to. There remain many open-ended questions about whether the NSD would be held during a winter or summer season; how long inaugural NSD clubs would be given to settle in, without the threat of being relegated themselves; how quickly full-time professionalism would be introduced; and of course, about how many clubs could realistically be expected to participate.

There was an acknowledgment that there would be need to be significant increases to membership, sponsorship, and attendance in order to the transition to an NSD work, with the club needing a large increase in turnover from its current position. The board however asserted confidence in its ability to make a successful transition to an NSD. In addition, the board was confident that the club could participate successfully in an NSD regardless of the ultimate format of the NSD,

Those members in attendance, while sharing the club's ingrained ambition to play at the highest level possible, generally had a more a wary disposition on the matter. Having said that, there are a wide range of opinions within the South community about the merits of an NSD, and the course of action the club should take. Thus it was disappointing not to have a greater attendance to have the range of those views considered. One hopes that the next AGM, which will hopefully see more concrete details released on the actual NSD format, will attract more interest from members.

A full-time sponsorship person has been hired.

The membership database issue is still an ongoing matter. 

Medium term, if the circumstances allow, the board is interested in re-aligning AGM dates and financial reporting to match the senior men's season, rather than going by the financial year.

At the end of the meeting, it was announced that Mario Vinaccia would be stepping down as treasurer, due to increased family commitments. The change will happen as soon as a suitable successor for the treasurer position is found. The membership thanked Mario for his efforts not only in cleaning up the club's books, but also for his efforts in changing the club's culture around transparency on these matters.

The Dying Derby - South Melbourne 2 Melbourne Knights 0

Another week, another six points, and that's all you can really ask for if you have low expectations combined with a sense of the absurd. Football Victoria's bespoke solution rolls on, but good luck trying to find an amended and in-progress 2021 table keeping tabs. It's not much easier finding a commentator on the match streams willing to bring it up as well, though I have come across it once.

Somehow no one at a South game seems quite sick of this nonsense arrangement yet, but what else is there to talk about? The National Second Division? Still not quite worth the digital paper its been pixelated on. The social club trying to stuff loose souvlaki-like meat into a Turkish panini instead of an ordinary, but nevertheless structurally sound bread roll? The lack of Knights fans who turned up?

On that last point, I think everyone noticed it. Maybe they were there and didn't make a sound, but if so, that doesn't say much good about their enthusiasm for all of this at the moment. It's hard enough getting any away supporters to Lakeside, so seeing another formerly half-enthusiastic visiting cohort become further diminished lessens the appeal of these so called derbies.

It's not like we haven't done the same in recent seasons, but that's usually been when we've been poor, we're away from home in the middle of winter, and not usually where this so-called derby is concerned. Maybe the Knights fans have adopted the styling of a middle-aged homebody, which is their prerogative I suppose. Maybe it's all about the near inevitable cup match ups these days, which probably makes sense on a whole range of levels, not least Knights having been largely rubbish in league competition for the better part of the last 25 years.

The game itself provided few great moments. A Marcus Schroen free kick looked good, but was saved in no small part because it was hit where the keeper should have had it covered anyway, but otherwise he'd have been more useful on patrol with the coppers trying to prevent non-existent trouble. Harrison Sawyer was reliving the worst moments of the past two seasons, when in one of our now standard phases of playing without a midfield, he was trying his best to do it all himself. He got some help in the second half, and helped set up a goal. Andy Brennan was sent chasing long diagonal ball after long diagonal ball, being reduced to the role of a dog let loose at an off-leash park. After his customary hour of doing that he was done, but credit to him for putting in some good corners.

Alun Webb didn't have a great one, and while I liked things that Max Mikkola did, getting pinged for a dive wasn't one his better moments. Still, you keep him on because he does nice things, and he can throw the ball a long way, which came in handy on Friday when Patrick Langlois headed one of those long throws from the edge of the box, had the ball bounce, and sneak in at the back post. It was an absurd goal, it won't ever happen again, but it was nice to get, especially if you're not going to be scoring more goals.

This giving up of momentum, combined with an inability to retrieve the initiative within a match until the opposition has been gifted several opportunities, doesn't fill me with much confidence about the other 23 league matches to come. We should have been punished harder last week, and this time around too, but the Knights were gun-shy to the extreme, even when staring the gift-horse in the mouth - and those were just the moments when your defense and your goalkeeper can't figure out who's meant to cover what angle. When your otherwise competent goalkeeper tries his second failed superman impersonation in as many weeks.

Nevertheless, if the opposition doesn't want to score, that's on them. We managed to get up to the other end of the ground and Jai Ingham - one of five substitutes, because that's how we still roll in pandemic times - found himself with a half-time warm-up caliber opportunity on the edge of the box. Give him  credit on two fronts - first, that he got the ball on target, and second, that he hit the ball hard.

Two-nil still didn't feel quite secure, but Knights could only manage a disallowed for offside goal. Unless their enthusiasm was tempered by seeing the assistant referee's flag go up before the ball went in, even that bit of action failed to raise a stymied response from their fans. Meanwhile over in Clarendon Corner, it was chants for more throw ins, and top of the league (for now), and six points. 

At least someone was enjoying themselves - even better that it was us.

Next game

St Albans away at Churchill Reserve on Sunday, in a top of the table clash. Get your head around that.

Final thought

During the week Port Melbourne was docked 18 points for the 2021 minor premiership race, for reasons only a select few know. You can't even call it a retrospective decision, because that title race is still going.