15 years, and doesn't it show

Thank you to everyone who still reads South of the Border fifteen years into its journey. It's not as good as it used to be, I know that. Times change. I've changed. I seriously thought about wrapping it up this year, but I figure that there's a second division coming, and someone should be around to talk it down. Also, maybe a bad South of the Border is still better than no South of the Border. I'll keep plodding along until I don't. I might take this thing back to its roots, and post more frequently, even if the quality isn't there. See everyone in 2023.

I never promised you a rose garden

Things got to the stage where people would expect South of the Border to post on all sorts of matters regarding Australian soccer, however tenuous the connection may have been to South. People also expected a certain degree of promptness, and usually I delivered, in great quantity, even if the latter was not quite as welcome in a time-poor reading environment. Sometimes that approach worked for the best, other times not so much.

Things are different now, and so there are fewer people clamouring to demand that I talk about the "latest big news", whatever that might be. Someone wants me to discuss this "A-League grand final in Sydney for three years" deal, and I'm like, pfft, nothing to do with us. Better off making a few pithy comments on Twitter while that site is still a going concern, while waiting for our own season to start.

But then this odd thing started happening, and I guess I just couldn't let it pass without at least some comment. That "thing" being the quite emotional reaction by some A-League fans to the A-League ownership's decision to fund its way out of some money problems; and the suggestion made by some of these disgruntled fans of coming down to NPL and grassroots levels to clubs like ours. 

Hey! Clubs like us! We're a club like us!

Some people were smoother and more subtle than others in trying to make a move on these sheep newly separated from their flock. That includes overselling, I hope more by accident than design, the actual experience of watching a team like South at a level like this.

And overselling means a higher chance of under-delivery. Following NPL Victoria and South Melbourne (for example) is a lot of things, and often enough a lot of good things, but it's also not a like-for-like replacement of what people conditioned to following the A-League are used to. The standard of play is worse. The grounds, in general, are worse. The weather is worse. The media coverage is much smaller. The feeling that you're part of something bigger, that's much worse. Oh, and the perks of having voting rights are, generally speaking, overstated.

(but yes, there are also good things, and you will come across them if you give it a chance; and I'm also at pretty much every AGM, so take that into consideration, too, when reading my downplaying of voting)

Of more importance is the fact that as a newbie fan, you're going into something that has existed for much longer than what the A-League and its teams have. The chance to move into an environment either on the ground floor, where every fan is at least nominally culturally equal, or at least within an environment where you can be anonymous among thousands? That's gone.

Unless you are a returning apostate or lapsed believer - which has its own issues - you will stick out. You will feel out of place. The crowds are low enough that even if regular fans don't know everyone by name, they know most people by face. Back when clubs like South had a lot more fans, it'd be a little easier to blend in. Still, clubs like South were always a bit insular - it was an ethnic thing, and a soccer thing - and in the post-NSL era, insularity becomes more instinctive.

But to be fair, we're not the worst, and the long-term existence of our outward looking social media efforts means that we have not regressed completely into our own shell. (and we still, remarkably, have our own independent fan forum) But people coming to South, knowing little about South other than what they've read from perhaps more dubious online sources, and knowing nothing of what it is like to follow a team at this level... it's just not that easy.

And the thing is, it's also very difficult, and actually counter-productive, to discard one set of long-standing ideologies regarding following soccer in Australia, without only gradually replacing them with another. A-League refugees coming across to a club like South might be keen for the first little bit, but then if they get lonely, or feel isolated, or feel like outsiders - or if it just doesn't match the hype they've been sold - they probably won't come back. 

Then they might come up with things like it was "too ethnic" or some other reason, when just as likely the reason was that they did not get the chance to build a social connection to the club. Their friends or family that they went to A-League games with didn't come along with them. They had no one to discuss the team or the league with, in a way that they would with a more popular competition. 

So, to those contemplating coming across (or back) to a club like South I would say: absolutely, yes, we'd love to have you join us. But also: temper your expectations of a revelatory experience, especially an immediate one. Don't force it if you don't feel it; but also, give yourself time to feel it. And come have a chat with me - I'm happy to initiate people into supporting what I think is a pretty OK club, one that's much less bad than others. 

And for South folk encountering new fans, focus on talking about South. Don't worry about running down the A-League. These people likely had a lot of good times at the A-League. In time, you want people to learn to love being with us, and then becoming one of us, on their own terms. Few as they are in the post-NSL era, we still have enough examples of people who came in tentatively, and are now all in.

2023 fixtures released

Let's try make some sense out of this.

OK, so there were going to be unavoidable issues of ground availability regarding Lakeside and its use as a Women's World Cup training venue. Thus we have eleven confirmed home games at Lakeside, and two remaining to be confirmed. Either venues have't yet been secured for those two games, or we may even be allowed back in to Lakeside at that time. The World Cup training venue issue also applies to Avondale, so the details of their home game against us also remain unconfirmed.

The grand prix also comes into its own, as per usual, seeing us away from Lakeside for three consecutive weeks in March and April, followed by five consecutive home games. The fixture finagling associated with the exclusion from Lakeside means we'll be playing our final five matches away from home.

Now, to the elephant in the room.

The justification for Friday and Saturday night home matches in 2022 (apart from trying something new) was that sponsors prefer Fridays, and that Sundays are too expensive because of penalty rates and such. It was also the case that having the women play standalone fixtures at Lakeside was too expensive. 

So we had a lot of Saturday home games in 2022, which included double-headers with the senior women. Now we're back to a mix of (mostly) Fridays and Sundays, and more standalone NPLW fixtures, including a couple of home games for the women out at Knox. Go figure. 

And if that wasn't confusing enough, we've also got what looks like a home game against Bentleigh on Orthodox Good Friday. I'm also not sure why we are playing a Monday night home game against the Knights the week before the public-holiday Monday. 

Still, one should be glad I suppose that we've got some Sundays back, and that there's still a few Fridays especially during the warmer months. No Saturday home matches might mean the chance to attend some state league soccer for me for the first time in a long, long time.

Some other NPL clubs have also changed up or mixed up their home game scheduling. Green Gully are back to Friday nights. Bentleigh's Friday night kickoff times have now been brought forward an hour to 7:30, while they're also throwing in a few Saturday afternoon games, including their game against us. 

Knights are keeping their Friday nights of recent years, but also chucking in a few Sundays, though not the game against us. The Bergers have gone almost all-in on Friday 8:30 PM kickoffs, including against us. St Albans are mixing in Fridays and Saturdays in among their usual Sundays.

Of the newly promoted teams, Moreland continue their tradition of being a Saturday afternoon side, even at their 2023 home away from home, CB Smith Reserve. North Geelong will largely be a Saturday afternoon team, including against us. Speaking of which, this year's final home and away round will be on a Saturday, not a Sunday. That might be because the final of the Women's World Cup will be on the Sunday. 

Speaking of which, for those like me attending Women's World Cup games in Melbourne, no South game will be going up against any World Cup matches in Melbourne. That's because they'll all be weekday matches, or held during the catch-up round / Dockerty Final weekend in between rounds 24 and 25.

November 2022 digest

Hall of Fame news
At a function held just prior to the recent Matildas vs Sweden match, Ange Postecoglou and Ted Smith were inducted into the Football Australia Hall of Fame last month. You already know all the things that Ange has done, but what about Ted? Ted played a couple of matches for the Socceroos (before they were even called the Socceroos) in the Melbourne Olympics, while he was at Moreland. Ted later joined Hellas and won a title or two with us, then joined Hakoah. He was an assistant coach during the early NSL years, including coaching one match while regular manager Dave Maclaren was ill (a 4-0 win over JUST). Mostly though, Ted's accolade is due to his tireless work in establishing the Hall of Fame, and especially his efforts in organising events and such for past Socceroo players, including getting former players their national team caps.

But also

Neither Ange (overseas) nor Ted (ill on the day) were present to receive their awards, but fellow Hall of Fame inductee Walter Pless was. While I'm generally cynical about the merits of Halls of Fame, it was great to see Walter receive official acknowledgment for his over four decades worth of work covering Tasmanian soccer for a variety of news publications, as well as his own blog. Reporter, photographer, historian, and mentor, Pless' nomination was greeted with jubilation by both Tasmanian soccer fraternity, as well as the anorak Australian soccer history brigade which pushed for Pless' nomination.

The anorak Australian soccer history collective celebrating a legend of the local game.
From left to right: George Cotsanis, Mark Boric, Paul Mavroudis,
 Greg Stock,  Walter Pless, Ian Syson, Greg Werner, Tony Persoglia.

Pre-season training
Get ready for the social media collage of players sweating, running, lifting, etc. Not sure when the friendlies at home will start that we can't open to the public, nor the friendlies in the middle of nowhere.

Fixturing news
The ridgy-didge fixture apparently comes out today! If it does, I'll make sure to report on that some time before the 2023 season starts.

Speaking of which

Remember how we said that we'd be out of Lakeside for a couple of months around the Women's World Cup? Don't be surprised if we play a couple of our home games during that time at McIvor Reserve in South Kingsville. The home ground of Yarraville Glory, our senior women have played there before, and now that we have formalised (whatever that means) our sister-club (also whatever that means) our relationship with Yarraville, it looks like it would make sense to play a couple of lower key games there. 

See you, too, in 2023

Lirim Elmazi, Jake Marshall, Javier Diaz Lopez, Alun Webb - more or less everyone who wasn't let go last go last month, is going to be back on 2023. 

Extra people

Filling out some of the spaces of those let go are Dandenong Thunder attacking midfielder Ali Sulemani; Jack Painter-Andrews from Bentleigh, a full-back; Bentleigh midfielder DannyKim; and striker Ajak Riak, also from Bentleigh Greens. All of these were noted on the forum before being announced by the club, so the official announcement was not very surprising.

Somewhat out of the blue was the signing of young winger Kosta Emmanuel from Eastern Lions. So, one biggish name, some good players with (we hope) upside, and a couple of players we're gambling on being bolters. I'm keeping expectations muted, as per usual.

AGM

No date yet. 

Second division
Expressions of interest in 2023. Winter season to start in 2024. If you believe that, which you're entitled to do. You're also entitled not to believe it, but how boring is that?

At least it's in South Melbourne, I guess
It's a fickle world. Until last night, he was the greatest Australian manager of them all. Still, at least he was good enough for long enough to get a mural. The mural, by artist Shaun Dev, doesn't depict any local connection of Ange's to South, but that's my gripe with the Ferenc Puskas statue as well, so maybe it's a me problem. I believe the mural is located somewhere on Coventry Street, if you want to check it out before it gets defaced, or painted or with something else.

Amir Abdi

The article doesn't mention us, but The Guardian nevertheless had a decent piece on South Melbourne blind footballer Amir Abdi. All told, it's a pretty interesting story.

Hellenic Cup coming back?

At least three ex-South players (Peter Skapetis, Anthony Giannopoulos, Kosta Strotomitros) were involved with Greece's win in the All Nations Cup at Knox. In the Neos Kosmos article discussing that win in the final over South Sudan, there was also mention made of bringing back a Hellenic Cup tournament as early as next year, run under the auspices of the Greek Community of Melbourne rather than the former Hellenic Cup organising committee.