- Maybe! But I still love them. And I don't think you understand that...
Spent a lot of time this past week and a bit not thinking about this match.
Started writing something yesterday or the day before. Scrubbed parts of it. Or rather, moved those few parts to an offsite location, where they will fester away until this laptop dies, which seeing as it's a Linux setup, could be forever.
The question is, of course, where do we go from here? The answer remains unclear. It's all very much complicated by what may happen with the National Second Division. If that gets up and if we're a part of it, we probably saw 90% of the senior men's squad play its last game in this most recent grand final disaster. Up to you to ponder who'd warrant keeping, and who wouldn't be. I had my say on that at Olympic Village late on Sunday evening, long after the game had been won, the medals and trophy had been awarded, and most people had gone home. I think I sacked a lot of people, banished others, and regretfully kept a few because you can't get rid of everyone all at once, at least in theory. And that's just assuming there is no NSD, and we're back in this backwater of a backwater.
But it's not up to me and my reactions based on very sudden post-season blues. I'm just a guy who cares, but not one with any say or influence, and caring without influence is a feeble kind of impotence. Pitiable, really, and the only person more pitiable would be someone with influence and day-to-day involvement who put too much stock into what I thought.
And as for the coach... again, it's not my call. I didn't like the style and have never done so, even if it was more watchable this year on the whole, and even if results were good. But he managed to get us this far two seasons in a row, and was undone, in part, by having his leading striker absent for a second year in a row on the biggest day of the year. What a mess. I knew that the grand final would clash with the final round of this part of African Cup of Nations qualifying, and yet somehow I didn't think Ajak Riak would get the call up this time, if only because South Sudan were out of the running for the next stage, and surely he could be excused for this one club match.
But then while speaking to some knowledgeable non-South people after the women's grand final, they alerted me to the fact that Riak had indeed pulled a 90 minute shift for South Sudan against Mali that morning our time. Blame the club if you must (though some of you don't need prodding on that front) for putting Harrison Sawyer's professional career prospects ahead of the club's immediate goals during last year's finals series. But this time they were stuck - international football takes precedence over club football, and had the club kicked up a stink, South Sudan could have easily barred Riak from playing for us anyway. Who knows if Ajak even asked South Sudan if he could sit this game out to play in the final. Others are suggesting he didn't even inform the club that he was leaving to play in that game against Mali.
At any rate, much as I had us pegged as the underdogs anyway, I thought we were in deep trouble once I learned that news. Say what you will about Ajak as a forward, but he caused Avondale some problems this year, especially in the game at Lakeside. Without him we would have to put in Luka Ninkovic; not quite fit enough, and not quite up to Riak's standard, but at least he was a striker. Last year we had no back-up strikers at all, and resorted to playing an unfit and disinterested Jai Ingham. This year we did have a striker, also unfit, but surely better than the alternatives? But we put together a makeshift forward line made up of midfielders instead. And yet despite this could have had a couple of goals within the first twenty minutes. And then things started falling apart, and once more having the best goalkeeper in the league only meant keeping the score to single digits, rather than getting close.
Copping the first goal didn't help, and neither did copping the second, You're all of a sudden chasing the game, and we are not a good chasing the game team. But the signs were there of a pending defeat, if you looked closely enough. Even before the talent and personnel differences became clear, you could see that we were being outdone tactically. We had no overlapping fullback play. We had no answer and seemingly made no adjustment to Yusef Ahmed dropping from his striker's role into the gap between the midfield and forward lines. The hit and hope tactic which worked well against a shaky Oakleigh defence the week before was not so good this time around without anyone to make a nuisance of themselves the way that Riak did.
But the thing which annoys me most, even now, a week and a bit later, is the difference in method. Avondale moved the ball beautifully, switching play, getting up the field, every chance they created looking like it was planned. For us, though we created chances and squandered so many - unusually so, given our outsized efficiency the past couple of seasons - so much of what we produced still looked dependent on where the ball would fall, and not what we were doing with it. We had a go, but were outplayed by the best team in the league. Sure we were the only team to beat them in the league this year, but when push came to shove, we clearly weren't good enough to hope for anything more than a bit of luck on the day to get a positive result.
But it's not up to me and my reactions based on very sudden post-season blues. I'm just a guy who cares, but not one with any say or influence, and caring without influence is a feeble kind of impotence. Pitiable, really, and the only person more pitiable would be someone with influence and day-to-day involvement who put too much stock into what I thought.
And as for the coach... again, it's not my call. I didn't like the style and have never done so, even if it was more watchable this year on the whole, and even if results were good. But he managed to get us this far two seasons in a row, and was undone, in part, by having his leading striker absent for a second year in a row on the biggest day of the year. What a mess. I knew that the grand final would clash with the final round of this part of African Cup of Nations qualifying, and yet somehow I didn't think Ajak Riak would get the call up this time, if only because South Sudan were out of the running for the next stage, and surely he could be excused for this one club match.
But then while speaking to some knowledgeable non-South people after the women's grand final, they alerted me to the fact that Riak had indeed pulled a 90 minute shift for South Sudan against Mali that morning our time. Blame the club if you must (though some of you don't need prodding on that front) for putting Harrison Sawyer's professional career prospects ahead of the club's immediate goals during last year's finals series. But this time they were stuck - international football takes precedence over club football, and had the club kicked up a stink, South Sudan could have easily barred Riak from playing for us anyway. Who knows if Ajak even asked South Sudan if he could sit this game out to play in the final. Others are suggesting he didn't even inform the club that he was leaving to play in that game against Mali.
At any rate, much as I had us pegged as the underdogs anyway, I thought we were in deep trouble once I learned that news. Say what you will about Ajak as a forward, but he caused Avondale some problems this year, especially in the game at Lakeside. Without him we would have to put in Luka Ninkovic; not quite fit enough, and not quite up to Riak's standard, but at least he was a striker. Last year we had no back-up strikers at all, and resorted to playing an unfit and disinterested Jai Ingham. This year we did have a striker, also unfit, but surely better than the alternatives? But we put together a makeshift forward line made up of midfielders instead. And yet despite this could have had a couple of goals within the first twenty minutes. And then things started falling apart, and once more having the best goalkeeper in the league only meant keeping the score to single digits, rather than getting close.
Copping the first goal didn't help, and neither did copping the second, You're all of a sudden chasing the game, and we are not a good chasing the game team. But the signs were there of a pending defeat, if you looked closely enough. Even before the talent and personnel differences became clear, you could see that we were being outdone tactically. We had no overlapping fullback play. We had no answer and seemingly made no adjustment to Yusef Ahmed dropping from his striker's role into the gap between the midfield and forward lines. The hit and hope tactic which worked well against a shaky Oakleigh defence the week before was not so good this time around without anyone to make a nuisance of themselves the way that Riak did.
But the thing which annoys me most, even now, a week and a bit later, is the difference in method. Avondale moved the ball beautifully, switching play, getting up the field, every chance they created looking like it was planned. For us, though we created chances and squandered so many - unusually so, given our outsized efficiency the past couple of seasons - so much of what we produced still looked dependent on where the ball would fall, and not what we were doing with it. We had a go, but were outplayed by the best team in the league. Sure we were the only team to beat them in the league this year, but when push came to shove, we clearly weren't good enough to hope for anything more than a bit of luck on the day to get a positive result.
Maybe that's a tad pessimistic for a team which finished second, with only four league losses. But the signs were there at different times during the season, and none more so then on the league awards night when our best players (as decided by non-South people) were our keeper and one of our central defenders. We've won titles in this competition with far worse goalkeepers and even worse defences, because we had midfields and attacks that could hold their own, that other teams were wary of. That might just be me being wistful, and forgetting some of the crappier times.
If the manner of the defeat on the field was fitting and familiar in its own right, so too was its setting - a perfect pitch surrounded by neglect. Rust, cigarette smoke, and more pigeon shit in that grandstand than the stairs leading into Sunshine station - and even Sunshine station has cleaned up some of that bird mess in recent weeks. Unless you happened to be one of those people fortunate enough to be on green grass, Olympic Village was barely fit for human habitation. Oh, it was nice to be allowed into the ground via the gate on Southern Road instead of having to walk all the way around to the Catalina Street entrance, but could people have at least cleaned up the broken glass?
And then, because this is soccer, and because this is soccer in Victoria, multiple people decided to be stupid and/or incompetent. Having doubled their lead, Avondale's players decided to celebrate in front of the stand with all the South fans; they did this despite having considerable support of their own at the ground, including within the vicinity of the goal. Of course a couple of South fans then thought that something should be done about this affront to common decency by confronting those Avondale players, which only made things worse.
At half time, one of our supporter marshals, alert to the possibility of more stupidity, told the hired security that it would not be a good idea to let the Avondale supporters behind the goals walk in front of the grandstand lest more nonsense ensue; so security, instead of telling those guys behind the goal to go around the ground the other way, gave them an escort in front of the stand instead. Cue a small brawl which I still cannot believe did not blow up into something much worse.
By the end of the game, my faith in the club, local soccer, and humanity as a whole was pretty drained. I go to South games to support my team, watch it play some attacking soccer, get some good results, and have a laugh with some people to break up the monotony of my otherwise humdrum existence. What happens when there's no joy on the field or on the terrace? You end up copping it both ways, and start looking forward to the off-season instead of dreading it. It's been nearly twenty years since we were where we were, and even with the NSD being nominally around the corner, it still feels like we're as far away as ever from being in a better place. Deserved or not, probably delusional, but back then it felt like we were halfway to putting some distance between ourselves and the scene we'd grown up in. Now we're stuck in it more than ever.
Next game
Who knows when, where, and perhaps just as importantly, in what competition this will be.
On the other hand
The senior women were very good value for their grand final win. Not perfect, maybe a touch fortunate, but deserved winners nevertheless of their grand final. Most satisfying, is that they did it while playing a pleasing brand of soccer. A bit too counter-attack dependent for my taste, but it was ball on the ground, fluid passing oriented play that made me happy, not just for the result, but also for its method. As successful as our previous championship winning teams were, they also had more than a whiff of brute force about them: an overpowered team, and the get out of jail strength and power of players like Melina Ayers and Lisa De Vanna; from design to implementation, it lacked a certain subtlety.
(to a degree, they were kind of like the senior men's teams of the same time; get the best players, put them in their right spots, and storm over your opposition).
It's a long trek by bus (or tram) to the new Home of the Matildas. I did it by bus from the city, after a brief stop to try and find confirmation of something from early 1990 in the Athletic Echo. I didn't find it. But the Home of the Matildas! It's quite nice, actually. The lighting could be better. They could put more bins out around the place - it's a bit Southern Cross station in that regard. And I didn't go up into the stand to watch the game (because of... reasons), but otherwise what a great little venue. Huge scoreboard, good surface.
Scoring two goals direct from corners helped a lot, even if one of those was a cock-up by the Bulleen goalkeeper. Still, our keeper stuffed up late in the game too, so pretend that it was 3-1 instead of 4-2. Really happy for everyone involved with the women's program, because it's been a rough few years. I didn't watch as many games as I would have liked to this year, and there were times when we were hard to watch. But when it all came together, and when we didn't play against nemesis Calder, it was pleasing to see that an attacking ethos could pay off.
In the mean time
State team football returns this Saturday at the Home of the Matildas, with Victoria taking on Queensland in men's and women's matches. Four of our senior men's players Javi Lopez, Marco Jankovic, Brad Norton, and Patrick Langlois have been selected in the Victorian squad. I might go.
Brad Norton testimonial, when?
There was some talk of this early in the year. Is it going to happen? I know it needs someone to organise it and round up people. Hope we can do something, not just to celebrate Brad, but also to have a gathering at our club that ordinary punters can attend, something that isn't just about the sponsors.
Final thought
Don't expect much action here during the off-season. I'll hand out some awards at some point and comment on news if there is any, but otherwise I'll be working on some side-projects.
Next game
Who knows when, where, and perhaps just as importantly, in what competition this will be.
On the other hand
The senior women were very good value for their grand final win. Not perfect, maybe a touch fortunate, but deserved winners nevertheless of their grand final. Most satisfying, is that they did it while playing a pleasing brand of soccer. A bit too counter-attack dependent for my taste, but it was ball on the ground, fluid passing oriented play that made me happy, not just for the result, but also for its method. As successful as our previous championship winning teams were, they also had more than a whiff of brute force about them: an overpowered team, and the get out of jail strength and power of players like Melina Ayers and Lisa De Vanna; from design to implementation, it lacked a certain subtlety.
(to a degree, they were kind of like the senior men's teams of the same time; get the best players, put them in their right spots, and storm over your opposition).
It's a long trek by bus (or tram) to the new Home of the Matildas. I did it by bus from the city, after a brief stop to try and find confirmation of something from early 1990 in the Athletic Echo. I didn't find it. But the Home of the Matildas! It's quite nice, actually. The lighting could be better. They could put more bins out around the place - it's a bit Southern Cross station in that regard. And I didn't go up into the stand to watch the game (because of... reasons), but otherwise what a great little venue. Huge scoreboard, good surface.
Scoring two goals direct from corners helped a lot, even if one of those was a cock-up by the Bulleen goalkeeper. Still, our keeper stuffed up late in the game too, so pretend that it was 3-1 instead of 4-2. Really happy for everyone involved with the women's program, because it's been a rough few years. I didn't watch as many games as I would have liked to this year, and there were times when we were hard to watch. But when it all came together, and when we didn't play against nemesis Calder, it was pleasing to see that an attacking ethos could pay off.
In the mean time
State team football returns this Saturday at the Home of the Matildas, with Victoria taking on Queensland in men's and women's matches. Four of our senior men's players Javi Lopez, Marco Jankovic, Brad Norton, and Patrick Langlois have been selected in the Victorian squad. I might go.
Brad Norton testimonial, when?
There was some talk of this early in the year. Is it going to happen? I know it needs someone to organise it and round up people. Hope we can do something, not just to celebrate Brad, but also to have a gathering at our club that ordinary punters can attend, something that isn't just about the sponsors.
Final thought
Don't expect much action here during the off-season. I'll hand out some awards at some point and comment on news if there is any, but otherwise I'll be working on some side-projects.
Thanks again for your regular output, Paul.
ReplyDeleteHave you brought yourself to watch the replay of the Men's GF? (I haven't, personally)
ReplyDeleteAm curious if there was much merit to the repeat handball claims, as it seemed from the grandstand, or if the ref got those calls right?
I couldn't stand to watch it again, but if someone had a timestamp for the incident I'd be curious enough to check that specific instance.
DeleteI watched the replay when I got home... no dice on the handball... Result still stings but, for yet another season, we go into the ultimate match with a striker down and "unique" match day line-up......
DeleteCredit to Esteban getting us to finish top and second (x2 if you count the "Avondale Supreme Court season Pty Ltd") on the table in 3 seasons but it has NOT been an enjoyable watch. If this mythical second division is to actually start in March 2024 then some wholesale re-building needs to start ASAP.
Thanks Paul, the season wouldn’t be the same without this blog. I think you covered everything here. Couldn’t bear to watch the full replay but had a look nonetheless. I know the media crew are trying their hearts out but I’d rather do without the multi camera cinema vérité — I just wanna watch the flippin’ match.
DeleteI am thrilled to see a phrase like "cinema vérité" being thrown about on this blog - still surprises to be had here sixteen years or whatever it is into the journey.
DeleteIt was a strange match. Both keepers seemed to be on the way out, yet both stayed on (remember they had no 2nd keeper on the bench). Chances galore early on, Bryce goal line clearance with his face. Then a 2nd goal before HT is always a dagger in a GF. We gotta push and it blows out to 4-0. I really think it was one of those games where it just panned out badly for us, rather then being totally belted off the park, as the scoreline suggests.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your write-ups Mr Paul. As you said, this league is a backwater of a backwater, and you're probably 50% of the online written coverage.
ReplyDelete