Magic of the something or other - South Melbourne 0 Macarthur FC 1

If you want to read something closer to a match report without the hand-wringing, see this post.

Being that this was the one time that pretty much everyone in Australia who cares about such things wanted South to win a match, it's almost satisfying to me that we didn't. As soon as the brackets for the latter part of the Cup draw were made, there was all this internet fuss about Victory vs South, and playing it at the MCG to accommodate the crowd, and proving some kind of point about something. A rivalry that exists almost entirely off field? The chance to test out theories about assumed torn loyalties? A litmus test on what kind of latent support we actually have?

Of course internet fuss when it comes to domestic soccer in this country, at least on the social media platforms I tend to use, is rather a niche topic, which is a point I've laboured for many years. Still, that doesn't mean that this kind of particular internet fuss doesn't matter, but discussing it solely within the ideological confines of old soccer/new football does it a disservice in terms of the simplicity of that binary - especially now that pretty much everyone is an "FC" anyways. Where were the literary and philosophical allusions in these discussions? As far as I could see, there was no mention of shadows, of strange doppelgangers, or the umheimlich - it was pretty much all politics, and tending to scabby wounds that never heal (that's us), and a form of victory (no pun intended) that will never be complete nor satisfying (to them), no matter how long, how enduring, and how complete our exile and ongoing cultural humiliation is.

(it's worth adding, maybe, that even the irrelevance of our cultural obscurity is itself another form of ongoing humiliation)

Even history sort of got chewed up and regurgitated in the most predictable way - I get that it's 20 years on, but almost no-one cared to see a possible South vs Adelaide United match up. Maybe there's not enough meaning there for anyone except the most esoteric or bitter among us for an attempt to avenge the loss in our final NSL game. But forced attempts at creating "meaning" are a relative thing. What does Macarthur FC mean, apart from the licence fee they stumped up, being the unwilling party to certain Sydney Croatia fan nonsense, and a punchline for alleged match fixing? Right, something about a cowbell. Oh, and Matt Millar ending up there during the course of his wanderings, and now... not.

(By the way, I hear that Dushanbe is lovely at this time of year. And yes, I checked, Australia doesn't have a bilateral extradition treaty with Tajikistan, not that that's important for anything in this discussion. Also, did you know, in the 9.5 clubs Millar has played at, his 65 league for South (84 all up) is still the most he's played for any one of them?)

Apart from those items listed above, I knew squat about Macarthur, and couldn't care less. How do they play? What kind of support do they have? What do they think of us, if anything? I didn't really see anyone talking about them during the lead-up to the game, except that they looked ordinary against Oakleigh the week before, and that they took our Sawyer away. That pretty suggest to me that as in the NSL days, that the gulf between the teams that people care about (whether they like them or not) and those they don't is still as large as it ever was. 

There was, however, one crutch of familiarity - the presence in the Macarthur back-line of old school genial thug Tomislav Uskok, who's been crashing into our players on and off since 2009, back when he was still known merely as "Tom" Uskok. It's unclear whether his particular style has rubbed off on his teammates, or whether he's there because he fits in with a preexisting leg chopping style, or he and his teammates just haven't learned the lesson yet that it's not smart to try and deliberately collect yellow and/or red cards too obvious.

At any rate, the ref did not oblige with even the pretence that he was out there to create a safe environment for the players, because we were hack'n'slashed almost from the start, and certainly to the finish. It made no sense. We were missing our best defender (gallivanting around Europe), best midfielder (on the bench, carrying an injury), and our best forward (raptured), who was also like approximately 85-99% of our game plan. What threat were we to them that they needed to resort to such brutality, against an undermanned team semi-pros coming to the end of a gruelling near-40 game season?

Anyway, promising 20-30 minutes at the start where we actually played (all things considered), but couldn't create much of value. Then the war of attrition and the professionalism of the opposition ground us into the dirt. Them winning it via a late penalty (which some of you still contest) is almost a moot point. We gave everything, but didn't have enough to give. If we had Sawyer... if, if, if. It was kind of predictable in the end. And I'm on that side of the fence that thinks it was a penalty, but in the context of what hadn't been given all game by the ref, that penalty call was nothing. Well, we had a good run I suppose.

So after that disappointment, what was there left to say? That's right, crowd numbers. That was not a great crowd - the 6pm Sunday timeslot that everyone loves, no junior soccer, no footy, fantastic weather, school holidays, and yet there was no threat of the northern side being opened up. It was also not a terrible crowd - enough people turned up to more or less fill the southern stand, even if they didn't necessarily sit or stand in it, preferring to stand along the fence or line up for a souv; the crowd was also in fine voice, passionate and engaged. There were people there I hadn't seen for some years, who had time and/or a reason good enough to come back, at least for one match.

It was also an unknowable crowd, because no one can believe any crowd figure dished out, official or otherwise. People doubted the 4,000 odd figure announced for this game, in part because they doubted the 4,000 figure announced for the Wellington game, because they doubted the 6,000 figure Preston quoted for our game back in May or whatever it was, and... well, I think you get the picture. There has been that much bullshit made about crowd sizes going back decades, that only the select few who have access to the actual numbers - and that assumes that they themselves have access to accurate numbers - can know for sure what is real, and what isn't on this topic.

(and there's a difference between the number of people who turned up, and the number of people who actually paid for a ticket)

Ordinarily I wouldn't care so much, because it's been 20 years and we're running on fumes anyway, and the live stream images of most of our games in front of our malnourished stand tell their own grim story. But this NSD thing, you know, the thing that's going to save us (and Australian soccer!), I kind of have this odd idea about it - and that odd idea is that for the NSD to work, apart from much better crowds then pretty much all bar one lower tier crowd is currently getting, it will actually need accurate counting of said crowds, if only for the sake of bookkeeping and future planning. And maybe something real to tell sponsors and investors about why they should their put their money into such an enterprise.

Unless it's just a front for money laundering - but no-one in Australian soccer would ever dabble in such antics.

Next game
Well, see the thing about that is...

Next year

Assuming there's no NSD - and I'm going to assume that as hard as I can - as someone on the terraces noted a few weeks back, it's going to get a bit stabby next year. Maybe that's a bit of an overreaction. Let's bookmark this post and come back to it at the appropriate time if needed.

NPL Victoria will see some changes next year, apart from Preston and the Victory NPL side coming back up. First, there are going to be roster rule changes. There won't be any match day age requirements for 2025 (they're coming in 2026), but you will need to have a minimum of three home-grown players (whatever that means), in your senior roster. That really shouldn't be a problem for anyone, and certainly not for us as a club which has spent this year giving actual extended first team starting action to our own youth team players.

A bigger problem for us is that first-team goalkeepers must now be Australian, unless the visa goalkeeper had a contract prior to September 2019. Three-time goalkeeper of the year Javi Diaz Lopez has only been playing in Australian since. 2021. Makes you think.

Relegation down to VPL1 has also been increased from two to three teams, and all of those are automatic relegation spots - no playoff for third last.

A few rumours floating about Esteban being on the way out (after his most successful year, no less), but that's all it is for the moment. Just a bit too early for definitive news from us, having just finished our season, about which players might stay or go. I'd start some scuttlebutt about players with NSD related clauses not sticking around in the event of there being no NSD, but that would be very irresponsible of me.

Match program news
Added the grand final match program to the collection. 

Final thought
What am I even doing back here?

A load of Bull (guest post)

Originally posted on Manny's blog.

It was a cruel way to exit the Cup. South were the better team on Sunday but in football the better team doesn’t always win, and this was unfortunately the case this time. One could say though that we had already enjoyed our fair share of luck. Our Australia Cup run featured two extra time wins, a miraculous upset against Wellington, four matches in Victoria during the national stages, and a draw that would have ended with a dream fixture against Melbourne Victory in the final. Even considering all that though, no one deserves to bow out on a controversial 85th minute penalty. The morning after the match I couldn’t help but feel a sense of what might have been…

In contrast, the feelings in the lead up to the match were universally positive, even to the point of non-South fans wanting us to win and being vocal about it online. A dream fixture was on the line and almost everyone wanted to see South face off against Victory.

Macarthur themselves partially contributed to this sense of hope by virtue of being a bang average team during the tournament so far. They had managed to stumble into the Semi-Finals after looking second best to Oakleigh and some South fans (myself included) saw this as a positive to our Australia Cup chances.

Of course the lead up wasn’t all hopeful. The worst kept secret in the NPL was confirmed during the week when Macarthur themselves announced Harry Sawyer would be joining them for the A-League season. The move was fantastic for Harry, but a huge blow to our chances. Although he wouldn’t be able to face South in the Semi due to being cup tied, it did mean we had to rethink how we would approach the game.

First Half

Question about South’s attack were answered pretty quickly after kick off. South came out firing in the first half with Brennan, Mikkola and Bonada leading the attack. Macarthur on the other hand seemed unable to hold the ball and were left to soak up pressure for the first half hour of the match. South repeatedly entered the Macarthur box, forced a couple of saves and even created a one-on-one chance that should have seen Mikkola put us up one-nil. South did just about everything… except score.

If Sawyer was playing I have no doubt we would have scored in those first twenty minutes. The box was extremely crowded with Macarthur defenders and South struggled to get clear shots away without being blocked. A big body like Sawyer would have created a clear target and found a way to bully through the congestion.

Further up field Macarthur defended aggressively making a number of dangerous challenges which riled up the crowd but failed to find punishment from the ref. The tone set by these early referee decisions certainly went on to play a factor later in the game.

As the half wound down Macarthur got more of the ball and looked to slow down the play, passing it around with no intention of trying to penetrate South’s well organised defence. Their team was coming to the end of preseason and seemed comfortable to let their size and fitness win the game later on. They finished the half with no shots.

Second Half

In the second half Macarthur dominated the possession but South remained well structured in defence and made a number of direct attacking plays. Unlike the first half though where the boys created a few threatening chances, South looked increasingly fatigued and seem to lack the intensity of the first half. Whilst in the first half, shots were being blocked in a congested box, in the second half South was getting the ball into the box but failing to even get shots away.

During the whole game Clarendon were in great voice. It helped that the drummer this week seemed to have improved on his efforts in earlier cup games, but generally the section was fuller and more lively than it had been for much of the year.

Macarthur were a good opposition to support against. Their yellow card match fixing scandal made them an easy target for supporters, and even their signing of Sawyer was banter fodder (give us our Sawyer back). As well as a better turn out from South regulars there were the non-so-regular friend-of-friends, a Puskas banner waving Hungarian addition, a group of kids who sat on the side, and even a strange Oakleigh fan content on sitting in front of Clarendon trying to engage in shit banter.

Crowd wise, the game had the lot except for a goal to celebrate. The largest emotional reaction was towards Tomi Uskok who threatened to fight seemingly the whole South bench after coming off 2nd best in a tough challenge. He would go onto be booed every time he touched the ball for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately the most impactful challenge of the game worked against us. At the 85th minute Macarthur earnt a penalty after a soft collision in the box. It was a brave call from the referee who had been otherwise silent during the game, but the call sent the crowd crazy. Not only was the challenge unconvincing from the spectator side, but the call seemed to be inconsistent with the refereeing earlier in the game. On replays from the broadcast side it looks tough to avoid a penalty, but either way Macarthur scored and left us heartbroken. South went on to lift the intensity but Macarthur ate up the few minutes remaining  including with a needless red card from their scorer Valere Germain.

The final whistle was followed by a flood of boos. Fans flooded the player race to voice their issues with the referees and then turned their attention to our own team which was celebrated with cheers for their huge season. It was a bitter sweet end to 2024 and one of the more memorable seasons of the NPL era. South has played 39 games, lost only 6, won two trophies and gone deep in the Australia Cup. Well done to the team, the staff, the board, the lot. There were low points (the Grand Final loss), but far more high points, and I’ll say it again – this season did wonders to restore the reputation of the club in the wider football community.

Offseason

So what now? The rumour mill has been warming up in recent weeks and we will no doubt see if it has produced anything meaningful. There are NSD murmurings (a mini-season to be hosted in Spring 2025), there are club rumours (Esteban gone) and event player point system shenanigans that will play out in the next season (is Lopez a permanent resident)? The offseason will certainly be eventful, but this week at least, I am welcoming a pause.

Final Note

What about that crowd?

So Tonight That I Might See

 

Third time’s not the charm (guest post)

 

This post was originally published on Manny's blog.

I’m not sure how many people want to read this, and to be honest, I’m not really sure I wanted to write this. As you probably know, South lost their third grand final in a row to Oakleigh on Saturday. I made the effort to be there and watch the game.

Pre-match and the State Football Centre
I was feeling rather numb about the whole experience even before the game. Having attended South’s last two Grand Final losses, my emotional battery was running pretty low. Knowing that the best case scenario involved 90 minutes of nerve racking direct football meant that I was doing my best not to come into the game with too much expectation.

I drove into the ground with a few mates. It really should have been a few more but a lot of people avoided the match – weary of South’s recent Grand Final record and avoidant of the new facility out in Bundoora. Surprisingly, regarding the latter point, I was actually quite impressed with the facility. Even the parking experience was quite straight forward, with an ample number of spaces available and only about a 10 minute walk needed to get to the venue proper. I think as this venue is used over time, more people will be willing to make it down and we should expect even bigger crowds. However, for elderly and immobile fans, the 10 minute walk I endured would not be feasible, especially in the rain.

Walking towards the gate, a lot of people were leaving from the earlier NPLW Grand Final. Heidelberg had snatched a 3-2 win in extra time and were celebrating as we entered the ground. We picked up a matchday program, which was simple but did the job (except for an error on the Heidelberg team sheet which required a manual fix on every copy). We also grabbed a snack from the kiosk, which is where the facility’s limits really started to break.

We were thoughtful enough to arrive early, so the kiosk line wasn’t too bad, however the toilet lines were terrible even with the ground half empty. Somehow they built the male toilets without any urinals, meaning the lines were about twice as long as they needed to be. The only other food vendors we could find around the ground were also unsuitable for the occasion. A second kiosk had run out of pies, and the Souvlaki kiosk at the end of the stand was overwhelmed with hundreds of people waiting – whether it was to order or for food we weren’t sure, but we didn’t see anyone with a Souvlaki which was a little ominous.

The facility itself was pretty neat. The ground level was fully fitted out with administration areas, a gym and player rooms, whilst upstairs the facility had corporate areas and about 800 seats with a great view of the ground. For crowds under 1,500 the State Football Centre is perfect, anything more, and the thing starts ripping at the seams. The surrounding areas were also well maintained and modern, a big step up from DISC.

We completed our lap of the main ground passing the two worst viewing points available. One goal end lacked any elevated view whilst the outer wing only had a low rising hill. This side also hosted a temporary media gantry. It astounds me that these temporary arrangements are economically justifiable. They look terrible, and offer limited amenity. I don’t understand why so many ground lack the foresight to include permanent media vantage points especially as considering the prevalence of streaming at community sports level. Even larger grounds (Lakeside and Olympic Village) use temporary set ups in the stands which offer suboptimal broadcast experiences. I hope there are plans for a permanent vantage point at the State Football Centre because this current arrangement is unacceptable.

Eventually we made our way to the other major temporary structure and settled in the stand behind the goals to watch the first half. This was a neat stand, but also illustrated the need for more seating at the venue. As the game kicked off, Clarendon settled near us and would go onto chant for much of the first half. This was great, and people in the stand would join in throughout the game. What was less good was the lack of cover, which dispersed the atmosphere and would have left two thirds of the crowd soaked if it rained as threatened.

The match
Maybe if it did rain the result could have been different, but except for quick light showers, the weather remained as expected and so too did the result. In the first half South managed to carve out a few chances and controlled the game, forcing a couple of clutch saves from the Oakleigh keeper. As the half went on though, Oakleigh played their way into the game and carved out more well-constructed chances – a sign of things to come. Except for a strange double substitution at the 42nd minute, South’s half remained uneventful and the score remained nil all.

In the second half South appeared to withdraw into themselves, defending deeper and struggling to get the ball into the box. By this point we were watching from the hill side along the fence which wasn’t the best view of the game. Worse still, Clarendon Corner had moved behind the goals where there was no elevated seating. This killed the atmosphere and I think contributed to Oakleigh’s increasing dominance.

Oakleigh’s goal was a well worked piece, and it was only in reaction to this that South appeared to play with more urgency. However, with Oakleigh now comfortable to sit a little deeper, South struggled to get the ball in the box even with more of the possession, When they did manage to get into dangerous areas the crowded Oakleigh defence denied South any clear shots on goal. Except for clearing crosses, I’m not sure we forced a save out of the keeper in the second half. It was frustrating to watch this and the play eventually sucked the hope out of the crowd, the little energy left toward the end of the game was saved for desperate calls to move the ball forward. The result was known long before the final whistle blew.

Australia Cup
Tight turnaround for the boys as they will face Hume on Wednesday in the Quarter Final of the Australia Cup.. The game will be played away, so if you go down, rug up because it’s freezing up there. The winner will face either Oakleigh or Macarthur in the next round. This means only one thing, I reckon we’re pretty good odds to beat Hume and then lose to Oakleigh in the Semis…

Rumours
Just as the promised Women’s Australia Cup never eventuated, if the rumours are to be believed, the H&A NSD will not come to be in 2025. Perhaps I was naïve to think it would happen but I’ve remained hopeful until now. I am officially now pessimistic about the whole thing. What this means for South is at least one more year in obscurity.

There are also rumours that Esteban Quintas will not return as coach next season, possibly taking a number of players with him, many of which were on contracts tied to NSD participation. In combination this could mean South looks very different next year to what was expected. New coach, huge squad turnover and ongoing participation at State level.

At this point, regardless of the reality, I’d like to thank Esteban for miraculously resurrecting this team. South just a few years ago were on the brink of relegation and despite the Grand Final failures and direct football, the current group has restored a sense of pride in the club in the form of silverware. We have beaten A-League opposition, made it deep into the cups, won a Dockerty Cup and two Premierships. On top of that many Youth players have been blooded at Senior level. From a South fan perspective the last few years have not felt as glamourous as this list of achievements suggests, but certainly from non-South fan’s point of view, the club has been restored as a team to beat.

At this point I’d also like to make a plea to readers to sign up and participate in the Australian Football Forum on Inside Sport, for more rumours like these and even more zany ones.

https://forum.insidesport.com.au/Football/Australian-Football

Puskas Documentary
As well as being advertised at the Grand Final, an official post online confirms that the long awaited Puskas Documentary is complete and will be screening to the public! For now I have only seen a screening posted as part of the Greek Film Festival. The film covers Puskas’ time coaching South Melbourne. Production was stuck in production for an extended period of time while the producers sought funds to pay for archival footage. Well done to all involved and I am excited to see the final product!

https://greekfilmfestival.com.au/sydney/films/view/586

A final word
Interestingly, South joins Rockdale (NSW) and North Eastern MetroStars (SA) on the list of 2024 Premiership Winners who went on to lose their Grand Finals.