Lens Flare - Eastern Lions 0 South Melbourne 4

More apologies for lateness and brevity.

I did not attend this game, as I decided to go to a mate's place to watch it instead. That would have worked well, were it not for multiple protests in the city curbing public transport - and me being an idiot - for not being able to get to my mate's place in time. That itself would not have been an issue if the pause button on the app actually worked. Is there even a pause button? The trick I think is to actually watch matches through the "match centre" portion of the site, which inevitably boots you out of the app to your browser. 

So I missed the first ten minutes or so thanks to public transport delays, being required to be buzzed in and taken up a lift, and then not being a pause button. Since Eastern Lions, despite their struggles in 2022, had at least had a habit of scoring first and/or early, I was concerned that we might already be 1-0 down, and playing even more catch up to Oakleigh. Oakleigh ha already dispatched Dandenong City 5-0 the night before, so not only was there the matter of Oaks having taken the lead at the top of the table, but also a matter of goal difference.

As it was, we were actually already 1-0 up, and going to the replay function showed that it was pure training ground stuff to take that lead. Eastern Lions have barely been competitive this season, and that trend continued in this match. In 2021's abandoned season, they won four games from eighteen, three draws, and tended to always look plucky. This season they've had one win and three draws, and have probably been lucky to get as much as that.

So the disappointing aspect from this game, if one is to be disappointed, was that we didn't look that threatening from general play. A corner goal, a penalty, a throw in goal, and an open play effort after a dreadful backpass was picked on by Harrison Sawyer. Players that came on as a subs, and who could've had some downhill skiing fun, didn't really take that opportunity. No matter - we got through the game with the expected win, the expected margin, and I assume not too many injuries or unnecessary yellow cards.

At home, even if not my own home, the experience was augmented by a potent negroni, and in this case by lens flare. The great thing about livestreaming at this level, is all the variances in quality. The wrong cameraman, the wrong commentator, the wrong weather, the wrong lighting, teams that can't work out a uniform clash. One thing that's harder to deal with is that you want the crowd (such as it exists at NPL level) to be visible, but that may also mean putting the camera on the side facing into a setting winter sun. And is the case with almost every single game broadcast from Gardiners Creek Reserve, the commentators staring into the sun can't see what's going on, and neither can the home viewer half the time because of lens flare. It's not exactly an appealing aspect of the live stream experience.

Next game

Tomorrow night against Dandenong Thunder. Oakleigh plays away to Avondale earlier in the day, so we'll know by our own kickoff time whether we'll be needing a win to retain top spot for another week. Top spot meaning not much at all officially, except for the hope and assumption that it will include entry into a post-season NPL champions tournament. 

Speaking of Harry Sawyer...

Earlier this year, Sawyer became the 10th known South Melbourne Hellas senior men's player to score four goals in a league match. On Saturday, he became the first known South Melbourne senior men's player to score four goals in a league game, twice.

We say "known", because the 1960 season, South's first, remains primeval in terms of lineups and scorer details. There were about ten league games in 1960 where South scored at least four goals, including two hauls of nine, and one of ten. In all likelihood, someone would have scored at least four in one of those games, and most likely more. 

But that shouldn't diminish Sawyer's achievement. To add to the novelty of this record, Sawyer's four goals on Saturday was the first (known) time that a South player had scored four or more in a league game, without any teammates scoring in the same game. Discussion however, over whether Sawyer is a better striker than Milos Lujic - as ventured into by some online South people - should be put aside for at least awhile yet. 

At some point as well, adding on the many other statistical oddities we'll have to take care of, is finding out which South player has scored the most goals against each opponent. For his part, Sawyer has scored 12 goals against Eastern Lions in four league games spanning 2020-2022.

Women's team

A week is a long time in football. Saturday the girls lost 4-2 to Box Hill, giving them a four match losing streak, and putting them miles out of the race for the finals. There was talk of player exits and holidays, and then the coach - a long-time servant at the club - parted ways with the club, farewelled with as perfunctory a press release as you can get. So far, so bad. Then on Tuesday night out at Oakleigh, they were 2-0 down against Heidelberg in the semi-final of the cup. Then came the comeback, and the 3-2 win, and progression into the final for the second season in a row. They'll meet the winner of the Bulleen-Calder match, which is taking place next week. I'm not sure we're equipped to beat either team, especially Calder, but stranger things have happened I suppose, and in a one-off game, you just never know.

Sponsor Splash-out

Here's some good news, with a strange twist. The club has just announced a record (post-NSL?) sponsorship deal with CF Capital, which will run for the next two seasons. Great, wonderful, can we afford to have Sunday games back now etc. They're even tipping in money specifically for the blind and powerchair teams, which is also good. My info on this is that after the agreement was already made to be our new principal partner, that after seeing the blind and powerchair teams at the player auction night, CF Capital decided to increase their sponsorship of the club. Who knew being a good social citizen could have such rewards?

The strange part however is no doubt this:

South Melbourne FC members and supporters will become familiar with the CF Capital brand around Lakeside Stadium as with signage featuring the logo prominently for the livestream audience in front of the Clarendon Corner. 

Are there enough people in Clarendon Corner most weeks nowadays to find this appealing? If Clarendon Corner does something stupid, do you really want to have your brand attached to that? Since we can no longer hear Clarendon Corner because of the nature of live stream filming from the opposite side of the ground, what can you actually see from that distance that makes it worthwhile? And what happens of Clarendon Corner decides, out of spite or whimsy, to just move to a different part of the stand? 

Ah, it's all moot anyway, everyone's too old to care.

Final thought

I completely forgot to take an inadvertent photo of my host's cable setup this time.