Notes from the 2022 AGM

Another year, and another delayed AGM, this one even more delayed than the one before. For whatever reason, the interest of our ordinary members on such matters remains weak; the less said about the non-existent interest from parents of the juniors, the better. Maybe some people prefer it that way. At least the attendance was much better than last year's effort, which is not saying much; but we should grab onto whatever positive that we can.

Those who did turn up were engaged, and asked some good questions. There was better attendance also from board members and/or directors, though no note was made of those who were apologies. Officially facing up to the members were secretary Skip Fulton; chairman Bill Papastergiadis; president Nick Maikousis; and former club treasurer, and now merely the club's accountant, Mario Vinaccia. I'd say it's difficult to keep track of who is and isn't on the board these days, but that's more of an ongoing problem.

I think I tend to note most times when I post one of these reports that I'm apparently morally obliged to not reveal every little detail that was revealed on the night, but instead to keep it informative but general, if not vague. Sometimes there's even hostility at revealing any detail about what occurs at our AGMs. But this year there's even a Neos Kosmos article about the AGM, including incorrect info about new directors being elected to the board, where they were actually merely appointed; it is not an election year after all. There was even a cock-up where our financials were sent to categories of people that they shouldn't have been, but for me that's more of a database issue (one that we just will not solve).

Besides which, I don't see the point in hiding our finances - if they're bad, they're bad, if they're good, they're good, and it doesn't really make a difference who sees them. But that's probably a minority view, based at least in some part on my not understanding financial reports. In any event, the club's finances at the moment are apparently good, so there's probably less angst about the accidental disclosure than would ordinarily be the case.

First up was the South Melbourne Hellas AGM, which took up most of the night; the SMFC AGM was pretty much just the playing out of the necessary legal formalities. Naturally, coming through the other side of the lockdown years coloured pretty much everything. The club's on and off field achievements over the past year were listed. The senior men finished top of the table, the boys 21s won their grand final, and the women's department continues to develop players for higher leagues. 

The financial position remains relatively strong, with the club recording another surplus. This was helped in the relevant financial year by the Australia Cup match against Melbourne City, the hiring out of the futsal court to the combat sports group, and increased sponsorship. Then again, the fact that the Melbourne City game of 2021 is being talked about in 2023, shows how out of date some of this information is. Along with pandemic crowd capacity restrictions, the filming demands of the host broadcaster also took their toll on revenue that day; corporate box related revenue made up for that in some respects.

The club's government stipend has recently reduced in size, as per the terms of the lease agreement. Overall wages across the organisation remain stable, including for coaches and players. Sponsorship continues to improve, thanks to increased networking efforts from the top brass, but also because of our work with the blind and powerchair teams. While these teams are worthwhile ventures in and of themselves, their presence gives the club as a whole a more diverse public face, opening up the range of grants and sponsorship opportunities available to the club. Though the state Labor government has remained in power, there has been a change in the local member of parliament, with Martin Foley retiring, and being replaced by Nina Taylor. The club is also nurturing relationships with the new federal Labor government.

The club has cleared its bank loan debt, which was taken out after the heirs of the late Tony Toumbourou asked for their father's club saving loan to be paid back. In order to avoid a similar fate reoccurring with extant directors' loans, the board is looking into the process of arranging for those debts to be dealt with; one suspects that more info will be provided on this at the next AGM, whenever that is. Aside from removing a tangible financial liability hanging over the club's head, it would also look better for our National Second Division bid to be coming in without those kinds of debts, even if they were for the time being merely theoretical, in that none of the current directors with loans would act upon them. 

The National Second Division process continues as before, with the club expecting news of the next bidding phase (the second of three phases) to be made soon. The board noted that there remains uncertainty around key elements of the competition - principally how high the degree of overall professionalism, and thus cost, will be. The board claims that the club would be able to successfully participate in both higher and lower-end NSD models.

(this is me editorialising here somewhat - the problem is that pushing too hard for a higher-end, higher-cost model would potentially leave the NSD without enough viable teams; push too low, and the enterprise will come across as cheap and second-rate, as opposed to just being second tier)

The expectation remains that the NSD competition will be ready to go in March 2024. The club has created (or rather, adapted from its most recent A-League bid) a legal entity under the broader umbrella of the South Melbourne Hellas group, in the event that the club secures participation in the NSD. After a question from the floor, the club acknowledged that while now five years out of date, the club was able to use at least some of the work done in the preparation of that most recent A-League licence bid, as part of the club's bid for an NSD licence.

(one may recall that even among those more skeptical about the club's chances of securing that A-League licence back then, that there was nevertheless the belief that the process was useful from a reconnaissance and educational point of view; even in failure, the club gained a degree of knowledge and information that would become useful at some indeterminate point in the future, a point in time which just so happens to be now)

There was also an update (prompted in part by a question from the floor) about facility upkeep and improvement at Lakeside. The function room upstairs has had a refit of sorts, and there have been improvements made to the corporate spaces. The scoreboard has received a software upgrade, and may even have its screen replaced at some point. There is no news on whether things like proper permanent camera/media positions will be installed in the near future. No, the Puskas statue will not be relocated to Lakeside, a matter which is out of the club's hands. 

Little mention was made of the current state of the relationship between the club and the Trust which manages the stadium. The exception to that is that the club is exploring its options in terms of being able to get more control of venue operation and management of the stadium on our match days. In other Lakeside news, the organisers of the grand prix are attempting to exclusively commandeer the precinct for longer and longer periods in the time around their event. Where the usual expectation has been that we will be barred from the stadium for about two weeks, the attempt now is to exclude us for four. The board is attempting to use its political networks to prevent that from happening.

The Greek national day parade which was held at Lakeside this year (following its forced removal from the Shrine of Remembrance) was deemed a success, but with many unspecified lessons to be learned. A complex logistical operation in its own right, there is no firm indication that the club can or will seek to integrate a high profile Greek derby match into the event, an idea which has been raised by a number of people.
 

The now formalised partnership with Yarraville is apparently off to a good start, with last week's triple header at McIvor Reserve being considered a success. The board also confirmed that our two senior mens' home matches in early July against Hume and Oakleigh - unable to be played at Lakeside, due to the stadium being used exclusively as a training venue for the Women's World Cup - will be be played at McIvor Reserve. Special dispensation has been made by Football Victoria to allow for the lack of certain facilities at McIvor Reserve - a protected players race for example - though who knows if we will make an attempt to provide scaffolding for the media.

(The under 21s will be playing their matches after the senior men, which makes you wonder if the lights at Yarraville are good enough. The senior women will be on the road during this time, with their opponents being more accommodating in switching their fixtures).

Overall, the club finds itself in a reasonably strong position off field, albeit much of this seems unduly dependent on those currently on the board, and the sponsor and political networks that they have cultivated. It remains of concern that this approach seems quite top-heavy, and that there is always a risk that if the top two or three people go, that the sponsorship and influence that they bring will go with them. Without an increase in membership at the bottom end, successful generational renewal at a fan and board level remains at risk.

While not a distinct topic in itself, a common theme ran through much of the night, as it has done for much of the past 20 years - that the dissolution of the National Soccer League and the change in local soccer governance structures didn't mean just mean the material exclusion of our club from the top-flight; it also initiated the sudden onset of a loss of relevance at a political level. The project of keeping the club alive since the end of the NSL has not just been a material concern - paying our way, not going broke, etc - it has also entailed the necessity of rebuilding the club's reputation almost from scratch, as well as rebuilding the club's networks and sphere of influence.

Back then, as a mainstay of national league soccer and before that, a leading Victorian club, the club could count on an assumed level of social status, and a certain degree of deference from other soccer bodies (club and federation), as well as the Greek community. It could also count to a degree on club alumni to if not outright push South's interests, than to at least be a reminder of our influence on Victorian soccer. So much of that influence was lost when the NSL died, when we went into administration, and especially when FFA and the A-League (initially) prospered as if we never existed.

But the future lasts a long time, and the local soccer environment changed again, as is its wont. Sometimes all you need to do is hold on, and wait, and especially out-wait those tasked in part with keeping you down. That time spent waiting doesn't mean being inactive; rather it is time to be spent improving yourself for when an opportunity might arise. In a variety of ways, the club hasn't improved as much as you'd like it to have done during this time, even taking into account the many obstacles placed before it. And yet we are told, and I suppose there is enough evidence to suggest, that there has been enough progress made over the last little while - pick your own numbers of years of when you think it might have started turning - that we are now reasonably placed to take up the opportunity for "something better", assuming that "something better" actually materialises.

Ode to Joy - South Melbourne 5 Port Melbourne 2

Look, one utterly brilliant performance, one magical night of attacking football, should not make up for some of the utter dross we've had to put up with (and yes, I know we're in second place). I've been duped by grand romantic gestures like this before. How about that Gully game from earlier in the season? Or the 3-2 win away at Bentleigh last year? My brain tells me to be wary, that we'll be back to the usual way too defensive stance very soon; but my heart wants to do its own thing, to believe that I can love this team, that it has changed its ways.

(In some respects it also reminds me of our win over Oakleigh at home in 2007, and not just because of the score line - but also because of the same kind of vibe that night, including the cherry on top final goal - that we could do some good things if we wanted to. Then the season started falling apart again a couple of weeks later.)

After the AGM the other night, a board member said to me that he hadn't seen me leave a game smiling like that for a long time. Think about that - we finished top of the table last year, and have lost only one game in the league so far this season - but still, it didn't make me as happy as it should have. Sure, I can be a hard taskmaster and an all round curmudgeon. But I think what I felt is what a lot of you have felt - that while it was good to win, that at some point the whole enterprise should also aim to be joyful. 

(something, something, the game is about glory; something, something, it is about playing with style)

People work all week; the players train. I imagine a good chunk of our players also work, maybe at jobs that are psychologically fulfilling or perhaps not, but probably unlikely to provide the opportunity of being able to express themselves individually and collectively (on an admittedly small scale in this case), in a situation where they can bring joy to themselves as individuals and as a collective, and to those of us watching them. Yes, we take it seriously. But it's also a game. If the players don't have the freedom to express themselves within that context, if we as fans aren't provided the opportunity to be entertained, then doesn't it become just another version of work? And that's me saying that as person who kinda likes their job.

In a previous life I was a hack academic, and it's probably unwise to retrace your steps and go back to what you wrote years ago; but I can perhaps at least look back at some of my old work and see who I quoted. Ken Inglis said "by studying a people’s ceremonies of leisure one may get closer to understanding them", which makes immediate sense to me. If you turn leisure into work, is it still leisure? Inevitable as any form of organised sport may be to being cast as part of Brohm's "prison of measured time", are we not as least partly obligated to try and not make it as bad as he said it was? What about Pieper's rejection of the view that leisure should be a reward for work; that a Sunday or lunch break should not merely be reduced to a device by which someone can be called upon to work once more.

But I'll stop here before I start quoting Proudhon. The performance from both sides on Monday was a credit to the game of soccer. Both teams sought goals, it's just that one was better at seeking them than the other. When Port's Dor Jok scored a cracker to bring it back to 4-2, South fans applauded the goal. Sure it's easy to do that when you have a two goal buffer, but it's no crime to admire excellence, even if it comes from your opponent. When Andy Brennan stormed up the field and smashed home the final goal of the game, in retro 2015 Brennan style, it near on brought the house down. That's as it should be. 

I understand that not every game is going to be like that. And I understand why not every game can be like that; I don't expect the team to score five goals every week. But I do have the expectation that we should look like we want to score that many every week. Not just because we are South Melbourne (though why not have that as a reason), but also because scoring goals is fun. The intent to move the ball with purpose was evident all night; players were also willing to run with the ball and create space for teammates. How good to see Riak working his arse off, but with actual help from his teammates. How good to see the fullbacks repeatedly get up the field. How good to see every midfielder looking to receive the ball, or to win it back from the opposition. How good in general not to see the team (especially Lirim) camped on its own 18 yard box when it's not needed.

How good is it when people see something so good, that they can't wait to come back? That was my favourite part of the night. People seemed genuinely excited by what they saw. There was no feeling of "oh, we were lucky to win that game". No, the feedback was we deserved to win that game, and that we could've scored more goals, and not just from our usual set piece routines. The long throw and corner goals aren't the problem. They were never the problem. They're not the problem for other teams when they score from those situations. The problem was that we were seemingly intent on creating nothing else. So, yes, two long throw goals on Monday night, but also three goals from open play, from counters, from winning the ball in midfield, from pressing Port up the field, from the full backs getting up the ground and putting good crosses in. And scarcely a player on the field for us that I could criticise.

(and how close did Morgan Evans look to putting Brad Norton out of a job?)

Some were quick to attribute this performance to Esteban Quintas being forced into watching the game from the stands, thanks to receiving a third yellow card during the course of this season thus far. I think that's unfair. He still trains the team, he still picks the team, and his mere absence from the touchline shouldn't negate all the work he puts in. It does help when you get most of your players available again from various absences. It helps when you play against a team that plays open, passing football, which makes them vulnerable in certain ways that other teams are not. Indeed, it's probably no accident that our best two performances in 2023 have been against Gully and Port, two teams with not the best of defenses, and who also like to attack and knock the ball around.

But something was different. There were passes and moves that had not been seen much this season. There was a hunger in the side all across the field, and not just desperation on our own 18 yard box. Who knows what switch was flicked, why it all clicked into place the way that it did, and whether we'll get to see more of it. But please, more of it, because it gives me joy, which is the whole point of this endeavour.

Next game
Altona Magic at home on Sunday afternoon. I am looking forward to it.

Is there a curtain raiser this week?
Yes. The senior women take on Alamein, kickoff at 1:30PM

Room for improvement
Would have been even better if we could have bought a drink outside the social club.

Our other senior team
I had not seen much of the women's team this year, and what I had seen hadn't filled me with much optimism. It all looked a bit clunky. But I had a free afternoon last Saturday, and for whatever reason their game against Box Hill United had been moved to McIvor Reserve, not a long drive for your correspondent. I was wondering whether there would be any food, and as I was driving to the ground I went past Edwards Reserve, where the Melbourne City (Argentinian variant) reserves were in action, and thought about stopping there for a moment, to see what their canteen had to offer.

But I drove on, and saw a decent enough turnout at McIvor Reserve, and a functioning canteen. Not a great souv, mind you, but passable under the circumstances of being hungry. I'd checked earlier to see if the women's under 19s were playing the curtain raiser, and they weren't, so I didn't get to the ground too early, only to find out upon arrival that the men's 21s team had just finished their game. 

The ground was in excellent condition, though the grassy areas around the perimeter could do with a good mow. Also, it's possible that because it was just the women playing, but the lack of scaffolding and /or an appropriate elevated position to film and commentate the match from was not a good look. Credit to Joey Lynch doing a professional job at ground level while staring into the sun for a couple of hours.

I probably should have brought a hat instead of a beanie, and possibly applied some sunscreen because it was a lot warmer than I expected. Or maybe I should have just stayed in the shade. Anyway, it was a cracking performance from the senior women, who dominated proceedings up until they scored midway through the second half, and then let Box Hill fight their way to the end; the visitors probably should have equalised, but that's what goal line clearances are for. Before all that, we were being scuppered by a huge amount of offside calls.

But late fade-out aside, I was pleased and pleasantly surprised with how the women played - it was smooth, attacking, attractive football, and the only thing that annoyed me about is that I only wished that the men's team could do something similar. Wish granted!

More room for improvement
There was an ice cream truck at Yarraville. If we can't get beers outside at Lakeside, can we at least get a Mr Whippy van to turn up? Or bring back the loukoumades!

Final thought
Still buzzing.

Spoiled Brats - South Melbourne 1 Bentleigh Greens 0

Sitting in second place, and still complaining. Good. 

Finding new ways towards self-loathing for a team continuing to eke out wins, despite a few injuries. Also good.

Hearing news of an old foe copping eight goals, and being unable to take much joy from that either, because the style of play of your own team is utterly joyless. You better believe that's good.

The thing is, our style of play is what it is. You can raise the problem of injuries and outs, but would it really be that much different even with everyone back in? Not really. We cop stick from non-South people for complaining about winning, but they don't watch whatever this is, week in, week out. It's hard to watch and hard to cheer for. Wins feel more like getting something where we shouldn't have, which is OK once in a while; but make it routine, and it feels like a guy always winning the lottery. 

Since I stopped really trying to do anything of note with this blog, the already limited readership has tanked. I bring that up only to make this observation: that the things I say here really have such minimal impact nowadays. And I only bring that up as a preemptive defensive stance against any accusation that my misery guts point of view here has any sort of profound influence on others in the South Melbourne community. At best it seeps out, but it's easy enough to ignore.

What's a little harder to ignore is that others feel much the same way. They're not just wondering where the goals are - currently at just 1.2 per game despite our high ladder position. They're also wondering about where the Hellas mentality is? And where is the desire to create joy? Some people can wring joy merely from good results, and that's great. But what if you want something more? I suppose if the results are enough - and cup shambles aside, they've been good - why would you actually go to a South game? No one's going to South for the food. Some people might go for the social aspect. But for the football? That's debatable. 

Why not stay home, and flick across this and whatever other game is on NPL TV? Why not just check score updates on Futbol24? Why not just come across the result by accident while scrolling through social media? If the result is all that matters to such an extreme, there's no reason to watch the game. Just send the team out there, in front of no one (not as far-fetched a concept as you'd like it to be), and play the game out for the benefit of insomniac overseas gamblers.

I'm reminded, for the first time in many, many years, of the online football manager game Hattrick, which a few South people used to play. It was a random-number generated game if ever there was one. You'd set up your team lineup, conditional subs, tactics, and then the team would play twice a week in real-time matches. There was no action to watch - you'd get intermittent textual updates about important or interesting events during a game. Sometimes, a game might be so dull, that there'd be very little t report.

Then the game would finish, you'd train players, make limited business decisions, and do the whole thing all over again. The main point of the basic game was to set up your team in such a way that the random-number generator that ran the game engine would more likely favour you over your opponent. There were other goals you could set yourself - collect flags in international friendlies, develop players for the national team - but the basic game remained the same. Crunch the numbers, figure out what the percentages were, and go.

Since I suck at maths, and refused to do my homework, I was never very good at the game. But sometimes it was obvious what your only hope was. Sometimes you would clearly be the inferior side, and all you could do was set up your team for a smash and grab. So basically the most all-round defensive set-up your training regimen would allow, and hope that the random-number generator would make you a winner.

And on those rare occasions when it happened, it was marvelous. You'd try and expend the least amount of attacking effort to get the best possible result. Almost inevitably, such wins would contain a ton of luck, and your goal(s) would often come from what were called "special events". Back then Hattrick would allocate about ten chances in each game, which the two teams would fight over. Apart from that pool of about ten chances, each team had access to a limited number of "special event" goals - based on player specialties (speed, power, heading, technique).

During a live match, the match engine would fire up a text update. Maybe one of your "quick" players had burst through the offside trap. Or just as likely, your team took a corner... one of your players with the "head" specialty rose up, and connected with the ball... oh, what a save! But the ball is still live, and it's tucked away by one of the other players fulfilling the need for the text update to come up with some scorer! 1-0 to Juniper Hill, or whatever your team was called!

If it was the league you'd take the points and take pride in potentially ruining someone's promotion run, or if it was the cup, the extra money, and roll on to next week. You'd show some good grace for your win on the forum, while your opponent might take their frustration out on the same forums, slamming "too much random" being in the game.

Anyway, such were matches between the strong and the weak, and no really cared about style, because what could you read into a clutch of prepared text updates? But here we are in the real world, playing against an absolute no-name Bentleigh side - I knew just one player of theirs, goalkeeper Bon Scott -  who'd won one game all year. And they torched us, as much as a clearly battling side could do so. We gave them the ball, and territory, and let them come at us, as they intended to do.

Meanwhile it took about 12 minutes for us to get a meaningful touch in the opposition half. Thank goodness for set piece special events to get us out of jail, again. I counted about five minutes of play by us in the first half that showed initiative; others counted about seven. The second half was not much better. Marcus Schroen was a little wasteful, but that's about all you could say. We are fortunate in that our league opponents so far have been more than wasteful. Surely it can't last?

Next game
Anzac Day eve at home against Port Melbourne, kickoff at the non-overwhelming public interest time of 7:30pm.

Is there a curtain-raiser?
No. The women play tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) at McIvor Reserve in Yarraville.

AGM coming up
They tried to keep this very quiet. Goodness knows why, it's not like anything stupid is going to happen. Do they not want a quorum? Ah, memories. Anyway, mark down Wednesday April 26th in your calendar;  the SMH AGM is at 7pm, and the SMFC AGM is at 8pm. 

On the streams
A little bit more like it
Flicked across to Oakleigh vs Port for a bit. Not the best standard of game - and if you think we score a high proportion of goals from set pieces, Oakleigh's not far behind - but what stuck out was the intent from from teams to play, and play quickly. And play quickly didn't play panicky. It meant see an option, and go for it, don't let the defence get set. Pass and move. 

Final thought
This seems to come up every year now, if not twice a year. Sometimes it's our fault, more often than not it's theirs. Saturday was particularly farcical; at least at Kingston Heath we have the excuse of the painted grass fiasco from a few years back. But you'd think Bentleigh would be bursting at the seams to get some sort of mileage out of their away kit, whatever it is. Instead we had the farce of ourselves in a dark royal blue, and the visitors in a dark green that was even darker on the front, on a gloomy day. The cherry on top was the refs, who you think might have something to say about this, being in all black.

Look, if you're some two-bit club near the bottom of the pyramid, you can say that these things happen, and people would understand, albeit begrudgingly. But this is meant to be the de facto national second tier. Against better judgment, it's broadcast all over the internet. People bust their arses to make it look and feel presentable, and then Bentleigh just decide to make it look more amateurish than it really is. AT least the Lakeside lights are a bit more than passable, even if they don't all fire up. Bentleigh did the same to away to Oakleigh - who wear navy blue, and who's ground is not so well lit - earlier in the season, so clearly no one cares, and nothing is going to change.

At least we'll be out of this league soon enough, and hopefully joining something with a bit more professionalism, and a tad more aesthetic sense.

Monkey's Paw Curls - South Melbourne 3 Kingston City 4

Getting done over by a lower division team helmed by two former coaches of ours, while fielding several ex-South players was bad enough. But you know how they say "it's the hope that kills you?" I'm wondering where the hope is nowadays. We trudge on, bedraggled, now reduced to the forlorn hope of being rescued by getting into the National Second Division, and leaving the dregs of the last five and a bit seasons behind, regardless of how 2023 ends. A true restart, a new team, a new coach, and maybe a new (old) approach as distant from whatever this is supposed to be.

For the time being, no visiting team should show any fear or deference toward South Melbourne. In the past, poor or lesser teams might put in more effort to take our scalp. In recent times, some of the better teams in our own division have paid no mind to it being an away game, an overrated concept in this league anyway. Now we're at the stage when any opponent of ours - even a lower division one - is well advised to just play. Play with the ball, knock it about, take the game on, take the ball up the field. 

It will sound flippant, but in the game we played against Kingston during the pre-season in the Greek Cup, I noted of one of their goals that it had the style of how I would want a South team to score a goal. Sure, all goals count the same, but the usual ways - set pieces and scraps - will always be there. So why not add style to that, to create more avenues to goal?

Watching this game, it was difficult to tell that there was an entire division between the two sides. That can happen in a cup match - one team plays out of its skin, and gets the rub of the green when it counts. But there was almost no rub needed for Kingston. Their goal scoring chances - the ones they scored from and the ones they didn't - were almost all from quality build-up play, and a welcome fearlessness. 

And what's to fear from us? We started with our second choice keeper, even though we have the best keeper in the league. (though to be fair to Lejeune, not one of the four goals we conceded were down to him). Our vice-captain and key mid (Schroen), played just an hour, before being dragged. Our only striker (Riak) was also benched after an hour, with the game still very much in the balance. He was replaced at first by a winger (Brennan), and then by a defensive mid (Langlois). 

Despite all that, we still scored three goals. But the more important thing, at no point did this game feel safe. Worse, at no point do I think that any South fan felt with anything resembling confidence that we would take this out. It's not about doomsaying, or death-riding. It just felt like there was no point in hoping. We might have won, but it would have somehow felt hollow, unearned. The three goals we scored were all from our holy trinity - penalty, corner, long throw. It was the "monkey's paw curls" of goal hauls, emphasising only that we have little else.

Next game
Tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) against Bentleigh.

Is there a curtain raiser?
Yes. The senior women kick off at 1:00 PM, playing against Bayside United.

Final thought
Someone says to me after the game, "there's more to life than South". Thank goodness for that.

Everybody Knows - Hume City 0 South Melbourne 0

You know me, I don't like to complain. Things don't always go the way you planned. Case in point: I wanted to go to Saturday night's game, but events transpired so that I couldn't. So instead I sat on the couch and put the game on the television instead. How good is NPL TV? You don't get cold or wet, you don't have to give bad people money, you (or really, me) don't have to spend hours on public transport to get to games. And if you tune in early enough, you get to hear the commentators doing the sound check using such phrases as "big boy, big boy". Sure, sometimes there's a pole in the way, or the lighting is crap, or the cameraman gets bored and starts spacing out, but you get what you pay for, and usually it's watchable from a technical standpoint. And I'm sure all those kinds of idiosyncrasies will be absent from broadcasts of the National Second Division.

Anyway, it's been 30 years since an out-and-out ruckman won the Brownlow, and it's been 20 years since Jim Kourtis achieved the even rarer feat of winning Victorian soccer's Gold Medal for player of the year as a goalkeeper; but geez, I reckon Javi Lopez is going to give it a good shake in 2023. That's surely two games in a row where short of the refs ignoring what's right in front of them, that Javi's going to grab six votes. That's an endorsement of how well Javi's playing, but clearly not an endorsement of everything which leads to him being in that situation where he has to be a superstar week in, week out.

It's like this. Last week we had two shots on target against eleven. This week it was one shot on target against eleven, and I think that one shot was Ajak Riak having his shot deflected for a corner late in the first half. We then proceeded to play that corner short, for who knows what reason. Even taking into account my long-running hatred of short corners, it was an unfathomably cowardly sequence of play. It was very late in the first half. There was no chance that were Hume to gain possession, that they would be allowed by the ref to take the ball up the field. More than that, one of our only two shots on goals from the previous week - which went in! - was from a corner. It's like we're trying to fix the game, which makes me sound like one of our angry gambling friends who pollutes NPL social media. It's utterly baffling, unless you somehow come to the conclusion based on, I don't know, reams of evidence, that this is how our players are being told to play the game.

Speaking of that game, it was Javi Lopez keeping us in the contest, and let no one tell you anyone else out there for us did anything to lessen some of his burden. Remember that FFA Cup game against Melbourne City in 2021, where we were camped on our own 18 yard box for much of the game, and hanging on for dear life for most of the 90 minutes? Well, it was disappointing, disheartening even, but also you could sort of rationalise it. We were, realistically, a mediocre team from one of eight or nine second tiers, playing against the best team in the country, made up of full-time pros. Also COVID made things worse for us. And yet even in that game, we had a five or so minute patch where we managed to take it up the field, get a legitimate shot on target, and win a couple of corners. We made whatshisname make an actual save. Meanwhile an actual whatshisname, Rory Brian - a former South youth team keeper who's bounced around a few teams in this league - had nothing to do from an actual goalkeeping point of view, except take the occasional goal kick, and look a bit out of place as a mock-sweeper on a slippery field.

Result aside, last week's performance against Oakleigh could be judged as being not good. By comparison, Saturday's performance could only be described as pretty bad. We once again sat so, so deep; 2013 Southern Stars deep. We once again had no plan other than bombing it long, very long. Or playing it short across the backline, and then bombing it long. Poor Alun Webb being made to sprint up and down the wing like a dog chasing a tennis ball. Poor Danny Kim, watching the ball sail back and forth over his head. Poor Ajak Riak, expecting balls at his feet, and instead getting high balls sent to him while he's being double teamed, with no support; he got maybe one pass to his feet that I can remember, with his back to goal on the halfway line and an opponent on his hammer, and still managed to get a nice touch into George Tsitsinaris into space. 

And poor central mids who are effectively third and fourth centre-backs. Even having an overloaded defense is doing nothing to stop Javi being the main guy. Any opponent with enough patience to keep the ball and knock it around in a simple pass and move fashion, is able to pick us apart. We gift the opposition the ball, and we gift them territory. By all means, give them more of the ball if you think they're going to turn it over somewhere in midfield. But expecting effective counter-attacks from your own 18 yard box - or worse, six yard box - seems self-defeating at best. People keep taking the piss about Esteban Quintas' shouted refrain of "press, press", but where's the press? 

And yet we're second on the ladder. Shame on every other team below us for letting us get away with it. A pox on all your houses.

That game against Melbourne City, coincidentally, was Javi Lopez's first game for South, and through no fault of his own, he has been the team's most important player since, because he's ubiquitous. Arguably Pierce Clark was that guy before that. Lopez won the club's best and fairest award in 2022, in a season in which we finished top, and had a player score over 20 goals. So it's not like it's a secret. Everyone knows what we're about. If you happened to be watching this game at home, you would have noticed the commentary duo of Lachie Flannigan and Ed Gooden being very... careful in their observations. Maybe South Melbourne should try a different formation? Maybe send someone to help Ajak Riak? Danny Kim doesn't seem quite suited to what South's trying to do. Pat Langlois, normally a midfielder, was seen moonlighting as a right-back, yet is also the squad's leading scorer. Jake Marshall has the most block and clearances in the league. South's last three wins have all been by one goal to nil.

So, in short. I see it. You see it. Non-South people see it. But what's to be done about it? 

Next game
Kingston City at home on Tuesday in the Australia Cup. Kingston is currently near the top of NPL 2, has ex-South coaches Con Tangalakis and Gus Tsolakis as their co-coaches, and also has its share of ex-South players. What could possibly go wrong.

Is there a curtain raiser?
No.

Final thought
Forget for a moment nostalgia and the guff about "South DNA". You know what's really funny? For reasons of fealty to family (fair enough), clinging to relevance, and generating social media traffic, we are obliged to celebrate the ongoing success of Ange Postecoglou. That's fine, it is what it is, and I have no gripe with it. But even considering the particulars of his situation - managing the best funded team in a strictly two-horse league - we South fans on social media are constantly reminded of his coaching ethic, to entertain as well as get results. And while no one expects the same from our players or coaching staff, let alone for an equivalent kind of funding that Ange gets to be dumped into our senior men's team, we as remnant South fans can do little but cringe, as Ange gets to talk about his football ethic and where it came from - our club - while those of us still here have to watch highlight clips of our goalkeeper making saves, because there isn't anything else to show. We're a rump state off the field, and we're a rump state on it, defending what little territory we have left within our besieged walls.

Torn - Oakleigh Cannons 0 South Melbourne 1

Provided with two options, I decided against going to this match, preferring instead to watch it with a friend at their city apartment. A pleasant dinner on Clarendon Street, a nice stroll with only the hint of humming of the Formula 1 cars down the road (the roar of the V8s a different matter), and then a little bit of whiskey along with Altona Magic vs Thunder while we waited for our game to start. 

Here was hoping there wouldn't be the usual kinds of technical snafus when we've tried this before, but what do you know? A big error message saying "forbidden this", and "failed that", and seemingly no way to work around it. And then it started working, and everything was fine again. Well, almost.

One is naturally torn about such wins. In terms of the league season, it's always nice to pick up points. And to win at this ground, where apart from a couple of games against the Bergers, we haven't won against this mob at that place in ten years? I mean, yes, we did "win" here last year in the cup, but this was a tad more legit, in that it was one goal to nil. You know, an actual win, instead of winning nil-nil.

And after last year's grand final humiliation, I suppose we can restore a hint of self-belief about being able to get a result against Oakleigh, including missing several important (to us) players; Schroen, Djiba, Brennan, Norton, and Riak on the bench. And whatever happened to Jack Painter-Andrew Three of the subs being basically kids. In that respect, even with Oakleigh having played midweek, getting the win here was slightly more than nominally impressive. But there's also the other side of it, which is as follows.

Oakleigh had eleven shots on target to two, and eleven corners to one - the one being the passage of play we scored from. Stats of course don't tell the whole story. A shot on target can be a timid long ranger out of desperation, for example. But anyone who watched the game will know that the stats here do tell a story, and that's that this win was pure filth. A 1/10 chance that somehow came good. I don't know how Oakleigh didn't score, how their efforts kept ending up just wide or just high. Who knows how many goal line clearances. Even taking into account our being short-staffed, it was hard to take anything of value from it in the long run.

It was back to the very worst of the bad old days. It looked like we were a team in relegation trouble, not near the top. Kick and rush would have been a dream; kick and hope, something to aim for; a good chunk of last Saturday was pure kick and pray. Poor Danny Kim. Remember Fernando's ill-fated stint at New Zealand Knights, where he watched the ball sail back and forth over his head? Maybe Danny's a good player, maybe he isn't, but we're never going to find out playing like this. But we must be grateful for what we have, and acknowledge that things could be worse - we could be playing dire football and losing, instead of playing dire football and winning.

Next game
Away at Hume on Saturday.

Is there a curtain raiser this week?
Yes, but with a massive caveat - the under 21s curtain raiser kicks off at 3:30, meaning that it will finish over an hour before the scheduled start of main game. Hardly seems worth the bother popping in early.

Vale Jack Dardalis
I should have noted in the last post, but Jack Dardalis passed away last week. I never met Jack, but we all know the legacy - Marathon Foods, major sponsor, forever linked to the club through some of its headiest days, and some of Australian club soccer's greatest moments. What more iconic kit in our history than the solid royal blue Marathon Foods jerseys of the 1991 grand final and the years after that? Another elder statesman of the Greek community passes away, and another element of the past fades away with it.

On the streams
It could be better, it could be worse
Travelling into town on the train, I switched on NPL TV, and saw a snippet of Moreland getting smoked by Hume, and Knights about to have the same done to them by Avondale.

Final thought
Will I get a post up before the cup game on Tuesday?