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.