Sunday, 14 December 2025

2026 senior men's fixture updated on blog

Manny's guess post the other day focused on the worst case scenario for the logistical nightmare we've signed ourselves up for in 2026. No need to retread that just yet,

This post is just to indicate that I've updated my fixtures page on the blog. Many OFC Pro League details are still yet to be finalised, including the venue(s) for the Melbourne circuit of that tournament.

One will notice a lot of Monday night home games, before eventually settling down into a 3:30 Sunday afternoon slot further into the season. Speaking strictly from an NPL perspective, there is one new opponent (Melbourne City NPL), and two new venues: Casey Fields (Melbourne City) and City Vista (George Cross). Apart from the away game against Preston being scheduled for a Saturday afternoon - because it falls on the Orthodox Easter weekend - there aren't too many surprises.

The other interesting thing about the fixture is that as far as curtain-raisers go, there are no senior men's/senior women's double headers this season. The women's team (and their reserves) will be predominantly playing home games on Saturday afternoons at Lakeside. The Sunday senior men's games will have the under 23s as the curtain raisers. The senior men/senior women double headers seem to go in and out of fashion at Lakeside, and I guess we're in the part of the cycle where we say damn the cost of match day operations, let's go for maximum occupation of Lakeside.

EDIT:
One of our eagle-eyed readers noted that our round 4 game against Bentleigh couldn't possibly be at Lakeside because of the grand prix. After checking the fixture list again, rather than hosting rights for that match being reversed, we will be hosting it at the Home of the Matildas.

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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous15 December 2025 at 09:07

    Round 4 v Bentleigh @ Lakeside is the F1GP weekend. Would you expect the H&A to be flipped, or South find a temp home that day?

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    Replies
    1. Paul15 December 2025 at 09:16

      Well spotted, I must have been on autopilot when I was doing that bit.

      Turns out we'll be playing that as a home match at the Home of the Matildas. Fixture list on here has been updated accordingly.

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  2. Anonymous15 December 2025 at 11:38

    Thanks for putting this together Paul.

    A personal gripe I've had with the club is its use of home grounds. In short, we use too many grounds, play games at inconsistent times, and this I feel impacts our ability to develop a strong club culture.

    I wrote about this issue last year and discussed it at the fan forum too. Based on the above fixture list it looks like the club is at least trying to address these problems.

    https://blueandwhiteviews.com/2025/04/10/south-will-use-7-home-grounds-this-year/

    Firstly, I think there is more sensible fixture consistency. Broadly, the Women reserves and Seniors play on Saturday, and the Men's reserves and Seniors play on Sunday. This should improve interconnectedness of the Reserves and the Seniors, but also should improve fan connections to broader squads. It could also deliver a more appropriate match day experience with lower operational overheads for the women's games on Saturdays.

    I'm really pleased to see the U23s and U20s moved from South Springvale and now playing their games at Princess Park and Lakeside instead. Last year was a bit of a farce in that regard, and the enhanced use of our long termed controlled facilities will further enhance the club's connection to their home grounds. I think Caufield generally is a huge opportunity for the club that many people don't realise.

    Finally, the GP issues at Albert Park need to be addressed somewhat. It's a shame to play any games at the Home of the Matildas. I hope our recent visit to Parliament and connections with State Pollies can improve our access in the coming years.

    Manny

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