The end is near - Moreland City 0 South Melbourne 2

Could that blog post have come in any later?

For the second week in a row, a bit of a grinding, rough around the edges, albeit professional performance against a bottom-end team. Got the job done, and now on to the next match and a probably much trickier run of fixtures.

Not sure how much else can be said of the match itself, except to say that it was proof that there's no future in this. Not in the blog (that's another story...), but in the league. It's cooked. It won't be saved by us being good, or Knights being good, or Knights and us being good at the same time. It won't be saved by playing on Friday nights or Sunday afternoons. It won't be saved by the Australia Cup. It won't even be saved by the possibility of Preston getting promoted with their resurgent fanbase. 

There have been bursts of enthusiasm post-NSL, but they all fizzle out, and each burst of enthusiasm fizzles out faster than the last. Let's look at the short history of this particular fixture for example. Back in February, on a Thursday night (!), a disappointing amount of our people, and a surprisingly good amount of their people, turned up for the opening game of the season. Last Saturday afternoon, in Moreland's traditional timeslot albeit not at their traditional home, there was a disappointing amount of our people, and seemingly even fewer of their's.

The vibe is vaguely late-era NSL (but with better access to televised matches), in that even the people who are still emotionally invested in this nonsense have at least half their attention on the the unknown potential of the NSD (which is definitely happening). We are all killing time, and the only thing one can look forward to is a South vs Knights grand final which after 18 years of this slop, would sure have taken it's time getting here. 

There's a fair bit of time to go before we get to that, so in the mean time, it's more appalling crowds, more food that's too expensive for what you actually receive - Moreland's chicken/pork skewer rolls (including skewers not removed from the roll) made our own offerings look passable. And while I applaud Moreland for putting out a match program, I've never seen a match program which did not include any squad lists whatsoever. Quite remarkable. I just wanted to know who number 21 for Moreland was, so we could personalise our suburban banter about why his teammates wouldn't pass it to him.

No, it's all gone to hell, and only our winning (and currently watchable) form has made it tolerable. That, and reminiscing about the protest outside CB Smith in 2007, or the "why, why, why" incident there in 2008, or when Alistair Bray gave away that goal and Billy Konstantinidis got sent off for whacking an opponent in the guts in the same game in 2019. 

Otherwise, it's all grimly hanging on for the NSD, and wondering about all sorts of things about that - like where the hell is Brunswick Juventus - currently playing senior matches out of CB Smith, along with three (Fawkner, Moreland City, Pascoe Vale) and half (occasional Brunswick City matches) other teams - going to play if they make it in. CB Smith is used a lot by a lot of teams, has a dodgy surface in part of because of that, has no media scaffolding, has a giant pole in the way of the grandstand, and the lights are appallingly weak.

I'd call it absurd, except yet we're apparently less than a year away from finding out an or the answer to the "what would the NSL look like if it still existed?" hypothetical. 

Next game

At home against Green Gully tomorrow (Sunday)

Is there a curtain raiser?
Yes, our senior women play against Boroondara, in a top of the table clash, kickoff at 1:30. 

Final thought
Oh man, rail replacement buses tomorrow and the end of our game clashing with the end of the Pies' game at Docklands. Pray for Paul.

Flag appreciation day - South Melbourne 2 North Geelong 1

This felt so much like a preseason game that I'm really not sure if anything of value can be said of it. The crowd was small, as you'd expect of a low profile game on Mother's Day. The crowd was also relaxed, maybe relatively more tense up until we actually opened up the scoring, and then nabbed the second, but otherwise, much chatter in our vicinity was taken up arrant nonsense, like how deeply weird Don Scott is, and the crowning highlight, the five minute or so delay in the second half while we waited for someone to replace a malfunctioning corner flag.

It really was that kind of day, one where you appreciate the comfortable wins, knowing that your team is good enough to go up another gear and/or sort itself it out quickly if it needs to.  It was good (again) that we did not backslide and go conservative, but coming off the three matches before it, it wasn't our best performance. That's bound to happen, it can't always be at the highest level, but the mentality remained correct. But still, it was messy. Credit to North Geelong for having a go, which is not meant to sound condescending, even though it surely does. They made it harder for us than I expected, and not just thanks to their goalkeeper, who made some excellent saves.

But as much as North Geelong took it up to us as best they could, and even created a couple of good chances, we also made it harder for ourselves with a bit of complacency, and a lot of substandard, and perhaps even showboaty finishing. Lots of guilty parties on that front, not really worth singling anyone out. The game should have been wrapped up much earlier; instead North Geelong got one back almost right on full time, which created a nervy 30 seconds or so. 

After the three points, the best part was being able to sub on a few different players, and get some minutes into the legs of a few guys usually on the bench, and give some of the starters a bit of a rest. If there's a time to do it, it's in games like this.

Next game
On the road again, at last, tomorrow afternoon against Moreland City. Please note that this game is at C.B. Smith Reserve, not Campbell Reserve.

Is there a curtain raiser?
Yes. The under 21s take the field at 1:00 PM.

Oof files
The annual police kickaround on Lakeside really seems to be slipping away in organisation. No opponent lined up by or for them this year, after several years of ex-Socceroos taking them on.

Final thought
It's in! / What a tremendous goal! / It's that man again! / etc

A Reason To Believe - South Melbourne 3 Avondale 0

I don't know who or what is ultimately responsible for the recent change in this team. I can spuriously speculate, and will happily do so privately, but for the sake of public consumption I am content to remain merely dumbfounded. But also a little bit amazed, and relieved, and also a bit annoyed. I did not see this coming. I am glad that it has arrived. I am upset it did not happen sooner.

I wondered, coming up against an undefeated team going at an absurd four goals a game, how could we not be tempted to crawl back into our shell even just a bit? But that's not what happened. For the most part, we continued with the approach that had seen us start smashing goals in the preceding two games and look like a contender, instead of a miserable, grinding, ridiculously lucky also-ran.

I was told that Avondale were missing the services of key central midfielder Kristian Trajceski (out with five yellows), and it kinda showed - so much of what they tried to do ended up being wide things - not that there's anything wrong with that. And they controlled chunks of the first half, in a way that was disconcerting; after we started off the first ten or so minutes looking the slightly more likely, Avondale took control over the next 10-15 minutes, and they seemed to be inching closer to the opener. They even started using the long throw (if this is anyone but but Max Mikkola, you're stealing our bit), and got closer to making it work than you would have liked them to. 

But then Riak won the penalty which Mikkola converted, and it was advantage South. And speaking of Trajceski's absence, it was his replacement (ex-South man) Gavin De Niese who coughed the ball up in a bad spot (and how good to see Marcus Schroen making important tackles in forward areas), and then forward/midfielder Manny Aguek (another ex-South man) giving away the penalty. Right players in right positions, vs wrong players in wrong positions.

Riak was excellent. I don't think anyone played a bad game for us, it was a pretty solid effort right across the park for us, but Ajak was the man. He won the penalty, forced the own goal, and then scored one of his own. More than anything, each of those goals showed the value in having a forward who could run at defenders with the ball at his feet. He was too strong for their fullbacks, and too quick for their centre-backs. NPL central defenders (the good ones at least) are great when you bomb the ball at them, but attack them on the ground, and things start getting a bit more iffy.

The other standout on the day, apart from Mikkola, was Jack Painter-Andrews, who replaced Ben Djiba in the starting lineup, and held his side of the fort down well on he right. If Morgan Evans is doing a bang-up job at left fullback, then Painter-Andrews' performance in his first start after his injury layoff was also good to see - the more competition for places, the better, instead of wondering who to chuck on out of desperation. 

It wasn't all smooth sailing - at those points in time where we didn't have the ball, Avondale did look good, and our ability to play out from the back wasn't always the best. The outlet ball to the wings from defence was a problem at times, but we struck a balance between just bombing it long, and holding the ball on the 18 yard box forever. Some of the finishing once we got on top and they were chasing the game could have been better, too.

But all these are minor, fixable gripes. In just three games we've come a long way from the side that looked like it didn't believe it was allowed to cross the half way line.

Next game

North Geelong at home on Sunday, to close out the first half of the home and away season on Mother's Day. Ah, Mother's Day - the mother of all "excuse not to come to the game" days. Anyway, without wanting to assume that this will be a walk in the park, this and the Moreland game next week should in theory provide a chance to get six points, improve goal difference, and get some game time into a few players who have been in and out of the starting eleven. Or we could just power up and go nuts.

Also, if it starts getting a bit dark, can someone turn the floodlights on a bit earlier this week? They came on so late on Sunday that it felt we were back in the pre-athletics track, George Koukoulas penny-pinching days.

Is there a curtain raiser this week?
Yes. Our senior women take on Calder United, kickoff at 1:30.

National Second Division news - Welcome to Phase II
People were starting to freak out, and be all like, when's the next stage of the NSD happening? Why isn't there any news? Oh, I bet Football Australia is just trying to stooge us and/or all the old clubs again. But I wasn't thinking that, and not just because I love and have full faith in FA and the NSD, and always have. No, it's also because I was at the South Melbourne Hellas AGM not too long ago where our board (who I also love and have tremendous faith in, and have never said or thought otherwise) said that news of the successful clubs moving on from Phase I to Phase II (he attends a couple of trial days about haematology meds, and he's abandoned his humanities training for hard sciences lingo) would be announced in a couple of weeks.

And here we are. So, from 32 parties who expressed an interest, we are down to 26, of which we are one. What a relief. Of those excluded from the next phase, I suppose the most notable are Valentine FC, which means no northern New South Wales participation; the combined Western Australian bid, which means no super expensive trips to the far west; Bentleigh Greens (the only Victorian team to be ditched so far); and Blacktown City, the very successful NSW club, who have thrown a massive and eerily familiar to South fans tanty about being left out, as is their prerogative.

So now, onto whatever the next bit is, copy pasting stuff from the A-League bid but making sure to update the dates and other references to make it more relevant. 

Final thought

Woof, bark, grr, etc.

More goals! South Melbourne 5 Altona Magic 1

Everyone's all like, we need more Sunday home games. Well, there you go. Sunday afternoon, beautiful day out, team coming off a big, entertaining win and... not a great turnout. Maybe word hasn't gotten out yet that the attacking South you know and loved has been let out of detention. Maybe people just assume we're still playing on Fridays or Saturdays. Maybe people don't want to come regardless of what day it is, and how well the team is going. One change that a Sunday arvo game brought along, which made me feel aged, was how many nominal members of Clarendon Corner (and all people who sit or stand with Clarendon are only nominal members of CC) had now moved one bay to the right with their sprogs. Call it Clarendon Childcare Corner faction.

As for the game itself, much anticipation about how we'd come out and play. Would we go back to the old way? Would we persist with the attacking approach taken against Port? The answer was the latter, which as an unreconstructed Hellas traditionalist who wants attacking football and results, was good to see. What was interesting about this, as it must always be, is finding out how good our individual defenders and our collective defensive structures actually are when we actually have to do real defending, as opposed to stacking the defence and hanging on for grim life, which to me is an imitation kind of defending.

And the answers in this game were, well, there are issues, at least against teams that have pace and can exploit a wing. Magic have pace across the forward line, and found that they could attack along our right side in particular. Not that our defending was particularly bad - while Magic could have taken some of their shots a little earlier, our scrambling back into place was actually not too bad - but it actually showed things that needed to be worked on. It was the kind of performance where, with potential weaknesses highlighted, things can be learned from, worked on, adjusted.

I don't want to harp on it, but I think that I will. The previous approach, sitting as deep as we were... there was never going to be the possibility of improvement there. What are you going to learn parking the bus, and hoofing the ball long? How is the team team going to get better? So much of my emphasis in the lead up to the game against Port was on how poor we were going forward, that I almost missed an even bigger problem - that we were actually not a good defending side. How can you tell if a team actually knows to defend if all it does is park the bus? That's not defending, at least not at a level that's intended for anything other than a smash and grab, let's avoid relegation approach. Either we have good defenders (and a great goalkeeper) and a good defensive set up, or we don't. Sunday had its fair share of iffy moments, highlighted by Magic's speed in transition. 

However we had our own chances as well, even before the red card which irrevocably changed this game in our favour. What is it a red? Well, maybe. I don't know. But what was good is that, unlike other times playing against ten, we actually stepped up and crushed an opponent. It helped that they took off a forward, chucked on a defender, and tried to batten down the hatches, But we stood firm, and ground them into the dirt. Good. Yes, easier to do when you're playing against a side that's small in defense, and where set pieces matter. But there were goals and chances which didn't fall into the set piece mold. So that's ten goals in two matches, compared to the 11 goals in nine games before that. And, it could've been more. Such has been the obvious change in intent.

Next game
Top of the table clash tomorrow at home against Avondale, who are going at four goals a game. 

Is there a curtain raiser
Yes, our senior women are taking on Preston, kickoff at 1:30 PM. 

Around the grounds

Going soft
Had intended to go to the Friday night game at Paisley Park, but then it started raining, I'd chucked the footy on, and then fell asleep on the couch.

On the streams
Quality
Sat down on the couch on Saturday afternoon and watched Avondale and Oakleigh. Very good game. 

Final thought
Sorry for the severe lateness. One of those weeks I guess.