Expected - Avondale 4 South Melbourne 0

After disregarding the ample time available to me on Sunday to post something about this game - for whatever reason it seemed more worth my time to harvest the olives from next door's tree that hangs over our fence - I'm just popping in quickly to note that in terms of the scoreline this is probably exactly what we expected; in terms of how it happened, probably about 50/50.

I don't know how many players Avondale had out which made us look slightly better than what we are, and I don't really care. Nor do I care that they kinda put the cue in the rack after 4-0. I do care that we copped three in five minutes, but I also care that the team at least played the game out to the end, and looked closer to scoring a league goal than it has for a couple of months. Don't get me wrong, though - the experience still sucked.

Next game
Tonight, Dockerty Cup away to Bentleigh. This game will not be televised. This game will be televised. Bloody late notice.

New caretaker coach
Having gone through our entire rolodex and being hung up on by everyone they've called - including Mrs Neville from across the street - we finally have a coach to take us through to the end of the NPL season. Welcome back, I suppose, Sinisa Cohadzic, former South youth team coach and technical director.

Final thought
I know that the Dockerty Cup isn't a priority anymore, but... I don't know... I still care about it.

South are Premiers! NPLVIC Centre of the Universe! (guest post)

This post was originally posted on Manny's blog.

It had been an exhausting week to say the least. First, a 120 minute Saturday showdown against Oakleigh saw South claim the Dockerty Cup after penalties. Second, over 4,000 people rocked up to watch South eliminate A-League opposition on a cold Tuesday night. Third, the boys escaped the Reggio Calabria club with a draw – and the Premiership.

On paper things could not have gone any better for South this week, but it’s amazing to me how fine the margins are between success and embarrassment for this team.

Parking the bus despite a full car park

Saturday morning was a quiet affair, consisting of a couple of coffees in the sun. The second coffee pushed us a little too far though, so that when we actually made our way to the game, we did so knowing we’d miss kick off. What we didn’t realise though, was that the carpark was absolutely chockers. After circling the Reggio Calabria club (only to find even the double parked opportunities already seized), we were forced to drive into Royal Park and walk to the ground.

As we approached the facility gates for a second time we were greeted by a roar from the crowd, thankfully in response to a South goal. It was a welcome surprise. I wasn’t confident heading into this game that we’d be able to breach the Avondale defence and considering the team’s fatigue, an early goal was absolutely necessary.

Any contest against against Avondale is tense, but this game was a six pointer with silverware on the line. For South, a draw was the bare minimum needed to secure silverware. For Avondale a win was necessary to keep their premiership hopes alive. As well as the pressure to play on the front foot Avondale were coming into this game with the league’s best attack (60 goals scored) but South were coming into the game with the league’s best defence (18 goals conceded)… the early goal only cemented how this game was going to play out.

A Decent Meccano set up

The first half though seemed to be a relatively even affair, mostly locked in the middle with a few half chances for both teams. We spent most of this half slowly walking around the ground to watch from different vantage points and I need to say, the set up has greatly improved since last time I was at this ground. No doubt though the club will need to play potential second division games somewhere else…

There was more than a few hundred in attendance with Avondale fans probably making up just less than half of that and mostly congregated on the sunny side of the pitch. The amenities were neatly organised portables offering drinks, toilets and player change rooms, with slight hill and terracing on one side offering some close and comfortable vantage points (as long as you had sunnies). A couple of food trucks had been added too so I snagged a decent kebab to sustain me for the half.

We made our way to the temporary stand out of the sun, where I was surprised to see half the seats were packed up an inaccessible. The small stand was pretty much filled with South fans and offered the best views of the ground. Overall it quite comfortable, despite the looks from the outside. I enjoyed the atmosphere from here including banter between South fans directed at the fourth official.

Could have lost badly

The second half told a very different story. Avondale came out on the front foot and threatened on multiple occasions, winning one-on-one opportunities in the box only to fire over the bar. The early onslaught though managed to yield an equalising goal in the 53rd minute and seemed to be the start of things to come. Avondale were relentless. Carving up the wings and entering the box easily. Honestly they could have had another two or three if it wasn’t for their poor shooting. A tired and at times unorganised South defence could do little to manage the threats even with numbers at the back.

However as the game continued and the nerves crept up on Avondale they seemed to play themselves out of the game. As they grew tired and increasingly desperate Avondale opened themselves up to a few decent South attacks. Sawyer managed to carve out what should have been another goal scoring chance, South generally managed to play the ball deep into the wings, and even managed to win a few threatening corners.

As the game ticked on things started getting messy. A corner clearance by the Avondale keeper collected a South head as collateral forcing a medical stoppage which seemed to break the rhythm of the game. This is how the last 20 minutes seemed to play out. Stoppage after stoppage enraged the already frustrated Avondale crowd and the pressure seemed to break their bench. The team by all measures should have been in front and the fact they were trailing seemed to leave them confused and frustrated.

In the final moments, minor player skirmishes resulted in a South red card, multiple Avondale yellow cards, a nine minute injury time period and a final free kick opportunity for the home team which was effectively handled by Lopez to seal the game.

Ceremoniously…

Honestly props to Avondale, they’ve managed to carve out a great team, a slowly growing supporter base and a neat ground despite a hostile local council. I was bit nervous going into this game as to whether they’d be any more hostility, especially considering the shenanigans at last year’s Grand Final, but was pleased that the experience as a whole was relatively cordial – Avondale staff even allowed a couple of South banners to be hung instead created petty issues which other clubs have done in the past.

A small presentation of the Premiership plate even followed the game and South nabbed a photo along the wing with fans before Clarendon Corner convinced them to also take a photo behind the goals. The mood was celebratory, but there was also a sense of relief, of rest, at the game’s conclusion. This whole week has been so emotionally draining, on the pitch and off it. Every time South seems to contest these kinds of big matches there’s always external pressure that wants to see the team lose, so being able to keep them quiet for a week was a massive relief to say the least.

The club though is looking down the barrel of more intense scrutiny, which includes a relatively favourable Australia Cup draw, and a finals series which we have only recently been banana-skinned on. Not much needed to change yesterday for Avondale to nab the win, and flashbacks of the last Grand Final have only marginally been held at bay for now. Yes, there will be a week of rest, but this will all come back sooner than we think.

Props to the whole club in managing this season and this week, but there is still a long way to go, and a lot of silverware on the line. Two major trophies though is nothing to sneeze at and one wonders how the silverware may embolden and free the team in the weeks to come.

Now though we can breath…

…and drink apparently! The celebrations continued at Lakeside after the victory, which was likely a nice family affair with fans and even the NPLW team which had played at home that afternoon (despite not getting the result). Apparently the club was even hosted at Kinisi Live to celebrate their week which honestly I love to see!

Other happenings

In a bizarre series of events earlier in the round, the Melbourne Knights vs Dandenong Thunder match was abandoned for a kit clash. There was a bit of confusion about this online as a similar kit combination was allowed to play earlier in the season when Thunder faced Hume. Perplexingly, apparently the Monday night rescheduled fixture is set to be played with the same kits anyway! If true, that’s one of the funnier ways a referee has discovered their own colour-blindness! It’s a shame the regular kick-off couldn’t precede though as the match was meant to be a final game for the Ivan Franjić, a legend of the game who deserved a better send of than this.

A few Australia Cup thoughts. South, Oakleigh, Melbourne Srbija and Heidelberg all upset higher league opposition which helped see all five NPLVIC clubs progress to the next stage. Another example of NPLVIC superiority – huzzah!

Also of note, with the additional of Auckland to the A-League, the position of New Zealand teams in the comp is creating some discussion online. Wellington are already barred from hosting home games in the competition (mostly to avoid every Australian based community team requiring passports for their squads), but with Auckland’s potential entry we face the prospect of future all-Kiwi clashes. In a worst case scenario we may see a Wellington-Auckland Cup Final played in Canberra one day! As both teams are ineligible for AFC competition qualification anyway the competition is somewhat less important for them. Perhaps it might make sense for the competition and for the clubs themselves – to remove Kiwi teams from future editions of the Australian Cup.

Another noteworthy talking point of the competition this year in the new draw process. A fully open draw was implemented this season as well as a new drawing process which saw the final four rounds drawn on the same night. Supposedly this helps with logistics but I think it also created some good discussion online as fans could discuss paths for their teams. I’d like to see future editions expand on this dynamic. A fully open draw, entirely drawn before the competition kicks off would also create a promotional opportunity for a tipping competition, allowing for fans to compete a full bracket and better engage with the comp!

Final note

Go South, fantastic week! Hope the post-Kinisi hang over clears up before finals.

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.

A small, petty man - Avondale 0 South Melbourne 1

Your reporter could have purchased a ticket to the big AFL game that day, but instead did what he almost always does in such situations, and decided to head to the South game, regardless of the circuitous public transport path chosen, and especially regardless of the (as it turned out) even worse than usual public amenities on offer at the football arena portion of the Reggio Calabria Club, which at least in previous times had a half decent/passable canteen. Good luck to the food truck offering prawn twists and other novelty items at outrageous prices for making Lakeside's food offerings seem almost sensible by comparison. It's never a good sign when you don't see almost anyone eating anything at a game.

The worst part of the whole thing is that I got there early enough to catch about 60 minutes of the under 21s curtain raiser, so it was a hell of a long day to spend without consuming other than a can of coke, and a bit of someone's novelty Snickers bar.

For us, this was a dead rubber. A chance to continue working out the immediate future without Harrison Sawyer, while avoiding serious injuries and unnecessary yellow cards. For Avondale, it was basically win or bust, with Heidelberg likely to smash Eastern Lions, and Bentleigh Greens favourites against the all-but-relegated Dandy City. Now there was that one observant person on Twitter who noted that we must really hate Avondale considering that we played a pretty strong starting line-up, and there might be something to that. But otherwise, I think we went in pretty much as expected, minus the odd player here or there that didn't absolutely need to be out there.

And we got the job done. A 1-0 win thanks to an earlyish goal which highlighted a big part of Avondale's slip from preeminence this year; namely some pretty soft defending. I was disappointed that we couldn't add to the tally, especially as Avondale increasingly had to chase the game to give themselves some chance of making the finals; but I was otherwise happy that we seemed to be a bit more assertive overall, looking more like the side from the early parts of the season that pressed its opposition higher up the field. A good outing by Ben Djiba as well, after a few sketchy performances - when he was in the side. 

And, yes, it felt good to not only dispense with Avondale, who have given us a torrid time n recent seasons, but also to stick it up some pretty annoying characters at that club, who sought to target our supporters in prior visits to the Reggio Calabria Club. Yes, pity our poor feelings and all that, but good riddance (for the time being) of some pretty sore winners and now, also pretty sore losers judging by the antics of their coaching staff in the car park after the game. Not that I stuck around for such shenanigans, as I was hoofing it up Brunswick Road to catch a tram that would not properly sync up with the train arriving at Royal Park station.

Still, all the good feelings of the home and away season are now worth not much, as we head into the finals, which means we're either two wins from glory, or one loss from what will be deemed failure. But that's the Australian way I guess, even if New South Wales - the soccer state which loves finals systems more than anyone - is apparently dumping finals next year. Good luck to them for the principle of that move, but damned if I think they'll actually keep first past the post in the long run.

Back in Victoria, we're stuck with finals, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't this particular finals system. In other respects, things remained much the same, as the top six was made up of five Greek teams, well earning the competition the title of NPL Greece. I mean, look at this for the most recent title winners:

• 2019 - Bentleigh Greens
• 2018 - Heidelberg United
• 2017 - Bentleigh Greens 
• 2016 - South Melbourne
• 2015 - Bentleigh Greens
• 2014 - South Melbourne
• 2013 - Northcote City

I know that it helps that the last two seasons being obliterated means that run wasn't interrupted by Avondale winning the title, but Greek teams have also frequently been the runner-up during those seasons, and have won five of the past seven Dockerty Cup finals.

Next match

Thanks to finishing in the top two, we have a week off this week, and are back again next week. We'll be playing the lowest ranked winner of the first week of the finals. As it turns out, that will be fourth placed Green Gully, who knocked out Bentleigh last night, and are the lowest ranked team remaining thanks to Oakleigh defeating Heidelberg.

The match will be on Sunday 4th September at 4pm. Apparently that's also Fathers Day, though I never took much notice of such things. It was a choice between going up against the AFL finals on the Friday night, the AFL finals on Saturday afternoon/evening, or Fathers Day. I think the club made the right choice. Port, the host of the other semi-final, are going up against the sold out Geelong vs Collingwood game on Saturday.  

The under 21s final will take place after the seniors' game.

Nag, nag, nag

People scoff, but gentle intermittent nagging can sometimes achieve serious results. My nagging is now on record as seeing the restoration of the Dockerty Cup, the production of pompom beanies at South, and perhaps my greatest accomplishment so far, the recent availability of South Melbourne Gunners merch. Does it matter that it's via a RedBubble style outlet with $10 postage? Does it matter that the Gunners gimmick was loathed back when it was introduced, and still remains largely unappreciated now? Not a damn bit. If you can't appreciate the magnificent irony of the early 1980s attempt by Rik Booth and friends to de-ethnicise the NSL and introduce ridiculous gimmick team nicknames, and yet somehow make the South Melbourne Hellas logo even more ethnic, then that's on you. Or you could just buy the re-make of the Hellas World Order shirts, which may be more to your liking.

My Everest

Some people are asking, now that I've accomplished this trifecta, what's next on the nag wishlist? And after thinking about it, I have to say: the abandonment of short corners, which I realise is outside the control of pretty much everyone that pays attention to what I say at South. However, I will note this: last week the team played a short corner. It failed, as most corners (short or otherwise) tend to do, and I didn't even entertain the idea that we would score from it. But it was at least a short corner taken in the right circumstances, with the opposition scrambling to organise itself and not exactly paying attention to what was going on. It's a start.

Absentee Golden Boot

Congratulations to Harrison Sawyer, who despite missing the final two matches of the home and away season due to signing with Indian side Jamshedpur, nevertheless managed to finish the season as the league's top scorer. Sawyer finished on 17 goals, two ahead of Oakleigh's Wade Dekker and Heidelberg's Kaine Sheppard.

On the streams

Hello, hello (and goodbye)
Saturday last I got home in time from the supermarket to watch most of the Moreland City vs North Geelong game. The sums were pretty straightforward, even if I cocked them up twice on the South forum. First-placed North Geelong, already promoted, only needed a draw to be crowned champions. Second-placed Moreland City needed a win to guarantee promotion, and to win the NPL2 championship; a draw would leave them vulnerable to being overtaken by Brunswick Juventus, who were playing relegation threatened Werribee City. Well when I said I got home in time early enough to watch most of the game, I meant that arrived home about twenty or more minutes into the game, with the score already 1-0, and who'd know that that's the way it would stay for the rest of the game? A pretty tight, kinda ugly game, ideally viewed from the ground level camera. North had a couple of good chances late on to take the draw and the title, but didn't.

Brunswick Juve then allegedly threw their game very late against Werribee, conceding what some have called two very suspect goals, which kept Werribee in NPL2 for another season. Having not seen the late comeback in question, I could not possibly comment on whether the result was indeed suspect, much like I could not possibly comment on Port Melbourne's equally allegedly suspect 95th minute equaliser against Werribee in the final round of 2014, a result which incidentally kept both teams up. But where was I? Oh yes. We'll be seeing North Geelong and Moreland in NPL1 next season, at the expense of Dandenong City and Eastern Lions, neither of whose grounds I was able to get to this year, and in the case of Dandy City, I'm not sorry they and their impossible to get to ground are gone, even if the eually ridiculously located Elcho Park is its replacement.

But what of Moreland City? Their Campbell Reserve ground might be up to scratch (just) for NPL2, but I doubt it will pass muster for NPL1. The thinking seems to be that they'll end up playing out at CB Smith, but good luck with that considering Fawkner, Pascoe Vale, and Brunswick Juve also play out of there. Anyway, while I won't buy into the rhetoric that Moreland City have returned to the top-flight for the first time in 75 years (or whatever the number is), because I'm counting their history from their 1989 merger rather than from their individual constituent parts, we can I suppose talk some history. We last played against Moreland in a competitive fixture in 1962; against Coburg, another merger constituent in 1960, our first season; and we never played against Park Rangers. Still, the fact that the Moreland City family tree does include Park Rangers, it means that next season will see a meeting of distant cousins, in that Park Rangers were born from an early 1940s offshoot of South Melbourne United. Think of it like the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac getting together.

Through the fog

Against all your natural inclinations you try to be kind, you hope to be forgiving, you want to be understanding, and not even from a "what if I was in their place" mentality; just because it's the right thing to do, and there's not much to be gained from being unnecessarily cruel. But the NPL TV product is not up to scratch on so many levels, and while I wish it wasn't so, there's no way of getting around it. Even the things the offering does well, get undone when they're not done well or at all. To wit: the last couple of weeks, NPL Tv's social media (at least on Twitter) has begun sharing goals as they happen. A marvellous innovation, long overdue, but welcome nonetheless. But if you wanted to see last week's winning goal in the Avondale vs South game? Not there. And if you were watching the Oakleigh vs Heidelberg game on a unwieldy stream cast from a laptop to a television, because there is no dedicated NPL TV app even though the host technology Cluch TV app exists, and you wanted to catch up painlessly with the goals ftom the Green Gully vs Bentleigh game on social media, because you don't want to deal with the mobile NPL TV app... well, they weren't on the socials last night either. Sure you could get the goals from the dead rubber Kingborough Lions vs Olympia game, but nothing from last night. So it goes, but damn if it doesn't suck, despite the best intentions of everyone trying to make it work.

Now I will note of this game that it was exciting. It was of a pretty decent standard at times, albeit too fast at times. There were two injury time goals that bailed Heidelberg out temporarily, plenty of near misses, a penalty shoot-out, and lots of shenanigans. And yet so much of the experience was undermined by a stream beset with technical issues - including missing the first part of what turned out to be an anti-climactic shoot-out - and so many bouts of out of focus camera that one felt bad for the people trying to put together the product. 

I never (OK, maybe not never) like to think I go out of my way to be cruel when I criticise, but the quality of the footage stream last night was not up to scratch, I know that it's done on the smell of an oliy rag, but if we are going to offer this service which dissuades people from going to games, the least we can do is make it good. How many times last night was a team streaming towards goal, only for the footage to look like a news segment on some sporting scandal which blurred the images so no player could be identified?

The penalty shoot-out turned temporarily into a radio broadcast, and though it came back eventually,for a moment there I had to use my imagination, like some sort of caveman. The graphics for the scored/missed penalties also got botched, though I suppose luckily for all concerned the shoot-out was over almost as soon as it started.

Anyway, as for the match itself, people will talk about things like Sean Ellis' free kick with the last kick of the game. Me, I'm all about Matthew Foschini acting like a pork chop, in this case trying to start nonsense with the Heidelberg bench after Oakleigh equalised against the run of play in the first half. It was so petty and stupid, and he got the yellow card that he deserved, but it was also disappointing in a different way. Foschini has had his back and forths with us over the past few seasons, but seeing him get it on with the Berger bench and fans, well... I thought we had something special. 

Well, those kinds of antics at least help explain in part why our so called leaders at the time had so much trouble reigning in the excesses of the People's Champ.

Final thought

It's a shocking thought, but it would be nice to win the grand final.

Never get high on your own supply - South Melbourne 2 Altona Magic 0

Just a short one this week because I'm back in what by my standards would be considered gainful employment, and time is no longer my friend. Well, that's my excuse this week, and there's always an excuse.

Welcome back to the blog for South fans who love to metaphorically slash wrists. Welcome back to normal diabolical crowds, but still continuing on with the same results, with much the same method, with one frustrating exception. What was it with all the short corners? It's not just having Harry Sawyer, Marco Jankovic, and Jake Marshall to aim at, but also little Pat Langlois - remember him that scored those headers from corners early in the season? But also, apart from having all those perfectly cromulent targets to aim at, we also have Andy Brennan who has mostly been providing rather excellent service from corners.

Let's put it down to feeling so comfortable with our position and our opponent, that we decided to use this situation as an opportunity not to showboat - because we would never, ever do something like that - but rather to attempt some in game variations which may become useful in the finals. Now I don't believe that for a second, what with my pathological hatred of short corners (at this level), but it might help other people rationalise what they were watching, assuming anyone else loses sleep about these the way I do. It felt like a targeted hate-crime against me, and in this fishbowl that is South Melbourne Hellas post-NSL, every time we take a short corner attention is brought to me.

Well, I painted that target on myself I suppose, and it's not like one can un-paint that now. Speaking of paint and other brilliant chemicals, how good was the smell of paints, sealants, and whatever other alchemic concoctions are being piled into, under, and on top of our grandstand? It was like being in the back of the old Capricorn Floors van - there's an inside joke for like, three people, tops. I suppose since we're not not allowed to take booze outside the social club (except for trace amounts of alcohol in a lemon, lime & bitters), and the outside beer tent went back into hibernation, why not substitute liquor for fumes? What could possibly go wrong?

Apart from the awful second half, where we lost all shape, the only really bad thing to happen was Ben Djiba's red card, which felt contentious live, and much less contentious once we saw the replay of someone with way too much adrenaline after dribbling past three or four opponents, like your correspondent back in a CC White vs Blue match many, many moons ago. At least I had the good sense to finish my poor run with a mere crappy pass, and not trying to knee-cap someone. 

Anyway, Djiba will be out this week and probably for at one game after, but what a great chance for someone else to do something. I give Esteban credit for this - pretty much everyone gets a go of some sort, sometimes more than I think they should, and sometimes less, and sometimes not in a role I think they're suited to; but it's not like you die wondering most weeks over whether we'll make a sub. It is easier to do now that we can make five a subs a game, but that doesn't mean that the sub will always get made. Look at Chris Taylor for example - still stuck to his more rigid method of well, it's 1984, we've got a squad of 14 players, and you have to fight tooth and nail to somehowbreak your way into the starting XI.

Whatever works for you I suppose, and like I always maintain, there's more than one way to get to your destination in this game. There's pretty and ugly, there's big spenders and slightly less big spenders, and there's even apparently playing with no meaningful sense of a central midfield and not even bothering to make a mid-season transfer to at least pretend to fix this. If we win this title - and I hope that we do - it just may be the first time South (or any club) has won a title mostly through sheer spite. The throw-ins, the set pieces, the playing 15-20 minutes of comparatively good football a game - all while knowing (or some of us fans believing) that we could be doing even better. 

Now you may ask what's better than being three games clear at the top with three matches to go, but that's what the easily placated like to say. I just hope we're not getting complacent. I saw Max Mikkola sit on the main subs bench instead of by himself after he got subbed off last week, and I'm worried we're going soft.

Next game

Port Melbourne away this Saturday. Thanks to Oakleigh's loss on Monday, we are now just one win from claiming the minor premiership and the chance to play in the NPL national playoffs... wait, I'm being passed a note which says that no one seems to know whether the NPL national playoffs will actually take place this year. It seems like there's no mention of them on either the Football Australia or Football Victoria competition calendars. Well, I'm sure everything will turn out fine. 

I hope that if it's not going ahead that the thing was cancelled due to COVID or a failure to attract a sponsor for it, and not because people were planning to fill in the space with a National Second Division. 

Final thought

Whatever stupid thing happens in the rest of this season, let us all bask in the quiet relief that Avondale did not win its stupid 2021 Bespoke Cup. They might still win the 2022 title - and good luck to them if they do - but their failure to take out the title they felt they so deserved, and which they spent so much money on lawyers on, and which they thought was a right laugh until their seven point lead got chipped away to nothing, and then they stopped posting about it on their socials, and then started blocking people on their socials who brought it up... where was I going with this? Oh yes: the Bespoke Cup is over. Let's never speak of it again. 

Brute Force - South Melbourne 4 Avondale 3

Home responsibilities meant that I missed this game in the flesh. It was the first time I'd missed two games in a row since... I don't even know when. Not happy about that, but not much to do be done about it.

There was an almost satisfactory alternative in the form of the live stream service, but there is no substitute for actually being there. So while the few hundred that were at the game will have a story to tell for years to come (assuming there are indeed years to come), most of what I can do is relay what it was like watching this game from home.

In a nutshell, a lot like the other times I've had to watch a game by myself at home. Not unemotional, not detached, but also not quite attached. The stream running on delay behind social media means that I couldn't watch it alongside say, Twitter. Having to go out to pick up my brother at a certain point meant that I had to let Dave (who was messaging me on Facebook) to pause with the interactions, because it'd just mean spoilers. But at least there's a pause option now, which I suppose we should be glad of.

Of course, what was there to spoil in the first half? That was a fairly ghastly opening 15 minutes or so, for reasons which I don't think anyone's really looked at in the wash after the eventual comeback. It's not like we didn't create our own comparatively inferior chances during that time, or during the first half as a whole, but each Avondale goal was concerning because of its repetitive nature. Each time we were picked apart with ease. They kept the ball, moved it around, moved us around, and eventually worked their way into a situation where they had people lining up for easy shots.

It was devastating to watch. The only assumptions one could make about what was likely to follow on from that start, was that we would lose 7-0 or win 4-3. I'll let the gambling community opine on what would have been a more likely outcome at 3-0. 

It's not like there weren't signs that we couldn't score a goal. But every time the ball went up the other end, it almost looked inevitable that Avondale would score. It should put paid to the idea that we're some of awesome defending machine, because we're not. Our opponents have often been stupid when playing against us, or profligate, or both. Thanks to the heroics of our goalkeeper, Avondale didn't score any more goals, and we managed to brute force our way back into the game.

And while this brute force lacks the more violent aspects, the process reminds me somewhat of Gully's teams under Ian Dobson. No one ever said of those sides that they played pretty football, but they managed to bully and force their way into winning positions through solid fundamentals. Set pieces, physicality - in our case that physicality manifesting itself pace, rather than strength - and creating contested situations. 

Avondale were all about avoiding contests. Ball possession, teamwork, short passes. When it works, it's glorious. When it doesn't, how do they reliably win the ball back, except by virtue of poor passing from their opponents? Which, to be fair, we were excessively guilty of in the first half.

The aesthetic ugliness of our style even extended to our goals. Two deflections, a penalty, and a power free kick as opposed to a curling/precision based one. If that sounds like a lot of whinging for the sake it, it kinda is. I want my team to score goals but also play something a bit more aesthetically pleasing than this style. But all goals count the same, and as the momentum shifted, one could not help but be drawn in to the spectacle.

Being at home meant that the spectacle also had to be shared with the commentary team. I'm not one who likes to criticise mostly young guys (and occasionally gals) doing commentary for very low pay, but if there was anything which reinforced my wishing I was at the game, it was the standard of commentary. Lots of yelling and screaming, lots of cliches, and an unbearable number of references to Ange Postecoglou. 

Look, I get it. Like us, these guys have just witnessed a miraculous comeback, and they feel like they need to put their stamp on it. But it was like listening to two Simon Pijacas, and it was unbearable. It's made watching the highlights near impossible for me, to the extent that I wish the club would release a a highlights clips with ambient crowd noise from the go-pro and sideline cameras.

And another thing, which is not just a problem with this game. Please, whoever's in charge, if it's going to be two people hosting, make it so it's one match caller, and one special comments person per game, as nature intended. Having two people trying to fight to get on air to do commentary is not working. I don't expect it to be like the days of NPL radio, where Teo Pellizzeri's match commentary was interspersed with analysis and conversation. But I do expect it adhere to successful soccer commentary templates. 

Anyway, there's Harry Sawyer at one end, Javier Diaz Lopez at the other, holding together two ends of whatever is in the middle. On Friday they put a dent in Avondale's 2022 minor premiership ambitions, as well in the Avengers' (snarf) hopes of winning the 2021 Bespoke title. I tried my best (sort of) to keep with that, but it's over to you guys to keep proper tabs on what's been dubbed by Mark Boric as the Bespoke Choke.

Next game

Bergers away on Sunday afternoon. A chance for all the people who love Sunday afternoon soccer to show up in big numbers.

Final thought

Congrats to the senior women for picking up their first win of the league season last weel.

I can't even - Avondale 4 South Melbourne 1

Some games you know you've got to avoid the socials for a while after a game. This was one of those games.

I wasn't there, and I'm glad that I wasn't. What would be the point, to be disrespected in such a way? I feel awful for those of our fans who went out to Westmeadows expecting if not a win, then at least the best effort possible. Instead each one of those fans there was personally insulted by the decision by someone to tank in a cup game. 

Sitting on my couch, I saw the team list with its nine changes to the starting lineup - including two debutantes, one bloke playing his first game in over a year, and a smattering of youngsters - and I could not understand what was going on in people's minds. Several social media updates later, we're down 3-0, and it still made no sense.

I understand that this year, the league is more a priority than the cup. That's been made clear by the board. That's fine. But there's a time and a place. Six games into the new season, we are six wins from six, and clear on top of the table. We're not playing perfectly or up to our complete potential, but we're doing well. We have room to stumble in the league without it being disastrous, our squad seems to have good morale, and the expectations of our fans have changed from worrying about relegation, to thinking about finishing in the top two or three positions in the league.

Our opponent in the cup was a team that had beaten us eight times in a row, with us never even really getting close in any of those games. The upcoming league opponent was Eastern Lions, who have just one win from six matches, and even that win was due to grand theft football. Logic, common sense, the plain facts of the upcoming week as presented to anyone, would say that if you wanted to rest some senior players, and rotate some fringe players into the starting lineup, you'd do that in the league game against the side that's second last on the table.

Instead we made the decision to do it against the best team of the last two and a bit seasons, whom our fans believed that we could give a run for their money. This was a chance where even if we did not win the tie, we could at dent their confidence, reset the dynamic between the two clubs where we could prove that we could be competitive against a recent title contender.

Someone made the decision to essentially sabotage the season. We were feeling good about ourselves, we had turned a corner, there were even five slots in the Australia Cup for Victorian sides this instead of four, so you could even afford to screw up later and still have a chance of making it in. But someone decided to kneecap our chances of even that.

Now I hate the Australia Cup, don't get me wrong. I hate the way it distorts attention, money, and feelings of worthiness. But I still want to win as many games as possible, in every meaningful competition. I want our club, when it is playing in serious fixtures, to try and win them. Like, actually, genuinely try and win them. 

This whole thing makes no sense. Even board members at the ground nearly coming to blows with each other. How did we get to this point? It's enough to make you give up the ghost on this club, because clearly there are people involved with running the team who have pretty much given up themselves. It's easy to say that these people should not be allowed near the club ever again, but what force could make that happen?

I now dread Saturday, and I now also dread the rest of the season.

Welcome back to the 2021 season

For those of you who haven't yet caught up on last night's news, here it is. A classic case of the Friday night dump, at 5:44PM last night Football Victoria released a press release which required a few attempts at parsing because a) it didn't make much sense, and b) once it did make sense, it came across as insane. Pity the poor communications staffer (though not so much the legal team, who would have also been involved) who had to draft this dross. 

But back to the beginning of this mess, which means going back to 2020. You may remember that we barely got through five games in the top NPL division before the pandemic came in and killed off the remainder of the competition, despite efforts to revive it before the big lockdown kicked in. Since there'd only been five games played in NPL 1, and none of the other leagues had even started, there really wasn't anything for anyone to argue about. The whole year was a bust.

So on to 2021, with knowledge gained about what it would take to survive another cancelled season. Well, some knowledge, but clearly not enough preparation and planning in one regard - what to do in the event that a whole lot more than five games were played, across multiple leagues. And thus we ended up in the situation where it became untenable to resume play and complete the league season, but also the situation where a something in between half and three-quarters of a season had been played.

Football Victoria managed to complete its men's and women's cup competitions at the end of the year, but all the leagues remained incomplete. Many would have been happy enough to dismiss this as another bit of pandemic related misfortune, but not everyone - namely teams up and down the Victorian league pyramid who were leading championship and promotion races, and who had spent a good chunk of money getting into those spots.

Regardless of whether they were even allowed as amateur clubs to be spending that much money on winning games is a moot point. These clubs wanted to be crowned as champions and/or awarded promotion to higher leagues as a reward for their incomplete efforts. Magnanimously, these "winning" clubs also wouldn't seek to punish clubs that had found themselves in the relegation spots, without the opportunity to dig themselves out.

So that meant expanded leagues, and filling in gaps left by disappeared or inactive teams, as the case may be. If only we could say that this was all new. In the last 15 years alone we had the farce of the 2006-2007 relegation shambles whereby muddled yellow card bookkeeping saw both George Cross and Essendon Royals stay up, and the Victorian Premier League expanded to 16 teams. Then there was the start of the NPL, which included as a compromise to its tangled legal wrangling the inclusion of two new country teams that were not equipped for life in the Victorian top-flight.

With a history of such messes in the not too recent past, and a cancelled season in the even more recent past, you'd think someone at Football Victoria would have had the foresight to draw up contingencies just in case something like another cancelled season happened thanks to a pandemic that was not yet over. Maybe they thought that the clubs would be more gracious and understanding of the exceptional circumstances we've all found ourselves in.

If FV did actually set up constitutional or regulatory contingencies for a re-occurrence of 2020's interruptions and subsequent cancellation, clearly none of these rules was remotely watertight enough to withstand even the slightest pressure. Blame the FV board and the lawyers on retainer. And thus into this void of bylaw uncertainty came a set of aggrieved clubs, with Avondale loosely set as its figurehead - and I mean loosely, because the "bespoke" solution adopted seems dedicated entirely to placating them, and setting every other aggrieved party adrift. 

So now we have the patently absurd "solution" of the 2021 home and away season being revived within the confines of the 2022 season fixtures equivalent to those not played last year. There will be no finals, no relegation, just points awarded simultaneously to two different minor premiership races, all to soothe the ego of whoever is funding Avondale.

Apart from a lack of foresight and preparation from FV, part of the problem, too, is an issue of nomenclature. For most of the past 30 years in Victoria, once we adopted a finals system to decide who would be the competition's champion team, the grand final was the be-all and end-all. Finishing on top of the ladder saw you crowned "minor premiers" as was the case in Australian rules, a mostly meaningless title. As a bonus for finishing top, you got a week off, a nominally easier route to the grand final, and a double chance to help you out if you needed it.

Then we had to go and copy the confusing A-League methodology of having "champions" and "premiers", based on the long running New South Wales practice of making it clear as mud as to who was ultimately the winning team from any given season. (we also adopted the A-League's horrendous finals system, which makes finishing on top less of an advantage than it used to be, but that's another story).

Still, there's little enough doubt that in Victoria, it remains the grand final winner who gets the ultimate kudos. So why all this effort by Avondale to win what is still effectively a secondary accolade? Finishing on top of a zombie 2021 campaign won't make add to the list of Victorian title winners. It won't get them to the NPL national playoffs, and with it the chance to qualify for an FFA Cup berth. The entire effort makes so little sense, especially when put up against the concerns of teams lower down the pyramid, who are at least attempting to snatch a place in a higher division.

While it would be ironic if Avondale somehow managed to cock up its chance to finish top of the table, I'd hate to think that there would be other clubs who would attempt to claim such a title as a victory in its own right. Still, as part of this compromise, FV could have at least reinstated the three point deduction Avondale incurred in 2020 for payment irregularities in the 2019 season, and which disappeared into the ether once 2020 was flushed down the drain. Another missed opportunity. 

We lost. Again. - Avondale 2 South Melbourne 0

This report is late because of reasons. It's nice to know people care, though I suspect one such concerned reader is mostly gagging to go nuts in the comments section against the mysterious Esteban loving "anonymous" user. Whatever floats your boat, dear reader.

Back in the real world, our resident traffic and transportation guru is interested in how I get to games. Well, for Lakeside, that's easy - usually a car to Sunshine station, a train to Southern Cross, and the tram down to Lakeside. 

But for Avondale and the Reggio Calabria Club, that's a bit more complicated, especially last Saturday. Drive to Sunshine station, then a replacement bus service to North Melbourne station, then Upfield train up to Royal Park, then switch to a tram for two whole (admittedly relatively lengthy) stops, then down the hill at Brunswick Road to the Reggio Calabria Club. That explains the how.

(and if that seems excessive and stupid, think about the poor sap who drove around and around looking for a parking spot at that ground)

The why, however, remains somewhat elusive. Short of remaining hostage to the idea that one should remain loyal to something which may not merit that loyally, and hanging out with a bunch of people you would never associate with in "real life" (and vice versa), I suppose there's something in watching the competition's best worst team on a weekly basis.

Undefeated for how ever many weeks, and now two losses on the trot. The "big month that was supposed to reveal the truth about this team" is now halfway through, and we've learned at least that sitting back doesn't work that well after all, especially if you sit too deep against competent opposition. Also, maybe having more than one striker on your books could be a good idea.

Some people say that Harrison Sawyer will be back this or next week. Harrison Sawyer at the ground seemed to think he was at least a few weeks away, and who knows if it's actually worse? Sawyer is gangly, awkward, and in the eyes of a good chunk of our support, also ineffective; but what a baby giraffe shaped hole which has existed since he got injured. 

Some people tried to sell us on the idea that Josh Barresi was a forward instead of an attacking mid, but that line died on Saturday afternoon when we started with Marcus Schroen started up front as a false nine. That almost worked for ten minutes, to the extent that we probably should have been in front either from the shot from, six yards straight at ex-South man Rory Brian, or - and boy, you've got to be careful about how you phrase these things, considering what happened later - from what was probably a pretty good penalty shout waved away by the referee.

It was right in front of me, and right in front of the ref - who was *this* close to blowing his whistle and pointing to the spot - and yet we were probably the only two people in the vicinity who had doubts about whether it was actually a penalty. Me, I guess it's because I'm a reflexive contrarian, but it's also possible that I was trying to figure out what the ref's reasoning might have been. Did he think the Avondale defender got the ball? Did he think Schroen just sort of, I don't know, fell over the defender?

Whatever the reasoning, the net result was that Schroen got hurt and had to go off, our players' feelings - especially skipper Brad Norton's - got hurt, and we picked up a bunch of stupid yellow cards (bye bye Braddles for the next league game), and walked into half time with nothing to be happy about except that it was still 0-0 and that neither team looked particularly superior or inferior, at least in terms of creating chances.

Then during the second half (and a more than passable chicken sandwich, a perfectly fine but also completely overrated cannoli  - but also, cannoli at the football, how marvellous - and charity donuts) 

we looked like a mid-range contender being toyed with by a team for whom it's grand final or bust. We were directionless going forward because we have no idea who the forward is meant to be in the absence of our one obvious forward option. As usual, midfielders posing as forwards is not a solution, and has not been a solution for many years, under a variety of post-Chris Taylor coaches, but short of playing Yianni Panakos from the 21s, this is probably the best we have to look forward to in the short term at least.

Although think of the possibilities if we actually chose to play a smaller, more mobile forward instead of (in the absence of Sawyer) trying to force the issue through ill-suited midfielders options. Think also of what it would mean to promote another youth team player. I mean, Ben Djiba did give away the penalty which set us back last week, but what's one mistake in the long run of finding out that you might actually have talent under your own roof?

We were also under the pump going back, because we sit so deep, and once we copped the goal (these things happen, even to the most miserly defence in the league), it was a case of good luck making that up. Things only got worse when we actually managed to get a penalty of our to match the one Avondale scored from, only for Gerrie Sylaidos' shot to be saved by Brian. Then 2-0, and all we could hang our hat on was a Norton shot (which might have been a pass, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt) that went wide, more s***t c*****s, and the relief that we didn't get beaten by more goals.

Speaking of penalties, remember that season - I think it was the first Gus Tsolakis season - where we couldn't get a penalty to save ourselves, and yet here we are in 2021, with this terrible, defensive set up, and still picking up penalties like no tomorrow. Port (Sawyer, saved), Magic (Sylaidos, scored), Werribee (Panakos, scored), Knights (Jakovic, scored), Avondale (Sylaidos, missed)

Still, we lost, and copped grief from Avondale's subs warming up near us, Rory Brian getting away with time-wasting over and over (except for that belated one time), and the relief that we didn't get beaten by more. I also had to climb up that damn hill to get home. Then the tram flew by before Gains and I could get across the street to catch it. Which again brings back to mind the question of "why" instead of "how", a question which will probably remain unanswered for the foreseeable future.

Next game

At home on Saturday night against an in form Bentleigh, to close out the first half of the season. The senior women play the curtain raiser, in the first of several men's and women's double-headers. Then the club will have a DJ, which scares the crap out of me.

FFA Cup fixture news

It looks like our cup fixture against Eastern Lions has been scheduled for Wednesday June 2nd. That places it in between our home league game against the Bergers, and our away league game against Eastern Lions.

They finally sorted it out. Good for them. 

Thanks to my new temporary job - taking the staples out of decades-old civil aviation safety dossiers - I completely missed this bit of news. After the match was postponed so that all the parties involved could work on "maximising the enjoyment of the fans", the Oakleigh vs Preston FFA Cup match will be played at Lakeside next Tuesday. Will we make any money off this? Will we get the blame if something goes wrong? Does Oakleigh really need the help of several new signings in order to beat a team two divisions below them. Some people may care about the answers. I'm more interested in how to remove staples more easily.

Final thought

Someone asked me (eventually) if we have our NSL Cup (not league) trophies somewhere, because some bloke is trying to track down the whereabouts of all the NSL Cup trophies. Quite a few of them are missing - I know Brisbane City's and Newcastle (Adamstown) Rosebud's are nowhere to be found; not sure about Collingwood Warriors, I assume the Bergers have that stashed somewhere, I don't know if ours are in storage, or missing like so many other things, but it will be nice to find out, eventually. I know we have the Charity Cup, which we won against Olympic, in a match we qualified for because we won the NSL Cup back in 1990.

Streaming - Oakleigh Cannons 1 South Melbourne 1

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, and because my family circumstances have changed, but on Friday night I found that I had a limit to what it would take to keep me away from a South game in Melbourne - and that limit was what I surmised as being a train replacement bus service that was just going to be too much bother.

Getting there wasn't going to be a problem - and it usually isn't when it comes to getting to Jack Edwards Reserve, one of the NPL's better grounds for the public transport minded - but getting back was going to be a different story. Basically, it would have required getting a train for one stop to Oakleigh (or walking through the dark industrial backblocks), a bus out to Burnley, a train back to the city, and then another train to Sunshine.

On a normal night, when everything goes as planned, I'd get back home about midnight. And maybe something similar would have happened last Friday even with the altered travel arrangements, but lord help us if something went askew. And while I could've, I guess, asked someone for a lift back to the city on the night, I'm not a big fan of doing that because of my first rule of using public transport to get to a ground - that being, always be sure you can actually get back.

I made the call early enough in the week so that I could arrange other entertainment for myself and a mate, in this case seeing Luke Howard (piano) and Nadje Noordhuis (trumpet) at the Melbourne Recital Centre, playing material off their Ten Sails album. If this was early last year, I'd say it was unusual for me to head to a concert of any sort; but as it's this year,  it's unusual for anyone to head to a concert.

Aside from the sauna-esque conditions of the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, and some problems with a crackly speaker during the performance of the seventh piece, the night was otherwise the epitome of middlebrow contentment, in the best sense of jazz-classical improvised compositions, complete with overpriced drinks from the bar next door. 

And despite not being at the game, I still reached my weirdo quota for the week, when some blokes - who may or may not have been attached to the Free Julian Assange protest on the Flinders Street station steps - trailed me and my mate, trying to recruit us for what they called an Oceans Eleven style attempt at busting Assange out of jail. Luckily as we were walking past the National Gallery of Victoria, our potential recruiters noticed that some bloke was standing in the gallery's moat looking for something, and we were able to walk on in peace.

All of which is a very longwinded introduction to my actually watching the game on YouTube the next morning. I thought the biggest issue would be coming across something to do with the game on social media, especially on Twitter to which I have a serious addiction. But actually avoiding news of the game was quite easy. The most difficult part? Turning on the stream on Saturday morning and having Brandon Galgano's voice blaring out of the television. Now I'm a morning person, but Brandon's enthusiasm was nonetheless a bit startling, but one became accustomed to it soon enough.

It looked like a decent crowd, but since the effects mic (if they had any) wasn't picking up any noise, I don't know if the atmosphere was any good. Bit too much food talk for liking, of which I have a low tolerance even when it's meant well and with zero attempt at being patronising. I tell you one thing though, this is the closest attention I've paid to a South game for some time, not because I'd stopped caring, but mostly because in-person attendance is also a social and sensory experience. 

One thing that surprised me however was how much I still care. When Henry Hore tore that Oakleigh defender a new one, and Josh Wallen subsequently tapped home, I was in raptures - and I don't think it was just because it was unexpected. Within the context of the game we were the better side in the first half, and even though it wasn't like Oakleigh weren't in the game, we actually looked the most competent we have so far in 2021. Big sample size I know, and I wasn't getting carried away with anything, but it was nice that even within the strictures of Esteban's ultra-defensive setup, that we could be competitive against one of the league's better squads.

After half time though Oakleigh adjusted and started playing a few more balls in the channels either side of the 'D' the 18 yard box. When the ball got played there, there was confusion between our DMs, CBs, and FBs - all of whom are generally playing deep - about who was meant to step up and fill the space. That doesn't mean one should excuse the apparently blatant handball in the leadup to the goal, only that on the balance of probabilities, Oakleigh were going to score a goal eventually, and they did.

The disappointing thing for us, as is likely to be the case going on, is that because we are set up in an obviously unbalanced manner, scoring one goal is going to be tough, but two or more even harder. That's especially the case if we decide to just hold on to a 1-0 lead for 45 minutes. While at least in this game the long balls to Sawyer were less a case of being the first option, and a bit more of the being the next option, when he got subbed whatever our one plan is for going forward this season went to the bench with him. 

But back to that unbalanced lineup. If you were to take a stab at who was going to be our most important player in 2021 based on these three games, it's got to be. He's the midfield lynchpin, he's the pivot, and he's the main harasser. If he's not being marked out of a game, if he isn't gassed an hour in from the workload, and if he doesn't trip over the ball under his feet, we might have a chance of jagging a goal. If he's not in the game, the midfield becomes rudderless, and there's not enough pressure to create a turnover higher up the field - because Quintas basically only has Clark and Sawyer doing that job.

Sawyer is our second most important player, because as streaming co-commentator Lachie Flannigan noted, we're playing Sawyer as the bounce-pass forward for whoever's meant to be running off him. I don't think Sawyer's particularly suited to the hold-up role despite his frame, but if we're going to play with one up front and using this method, he's all we've got. 

(though one should remember, when extolling the success of the Chris Taylor era, that as much as Milos Lujic was a superior talent to Sawyer, Lujic barely missed a league game from 2014-2017, an astonishing run broken up only very rarely for injury or suspension; things might have been a different for us back then if Lujic hadn't played as much as he did)

Our third most important player? It's go to be Brad Norton. Why? Because he's the only attacking threat from behind the halfway line, considering how defensively this side is set up. Quintas needs to decide once and for all to select players in their best position, and where necessary in their best tandem. We have several full-back options. Lirim Elmazi, Brad Norton, Ben Djiba, Perry Lambropoulos, and yet we play Luke Adams at right-back, who cannot effectively make his way up the field.

If Adams is not the best option for a centre-back pairing with either Jake Marshall or Marco Jankovic, then he should be on the bench. If Adams is a better centre-back option in a pair with either Jankovic or Marshall, then one of those two should be on the bench. Because Adams is at right-back, one whole side of the field is taken away from us going forward, and we are essentially already pinned back there when we're defending.  

Watching this team is becoming annoying, not because I think it's capable of winning a championship any time soon, but under another coach there'd at least be the chance to pick the best eleven to start a game without playing favourites, and without thinking you're halfway to losing a game from kickoff. Whatever enthusiasm the team is showing - and they're certainly having a go - playing ninety minutes of frightened or neutered backs to the wall football every week is going to wear thin eventually. 

And that's got to have a deleterious effect on our attacking options. Gerrie Sylaidos looks like he's lacking confidence. There were moments in this game that, had they happened even last year, Sylaidos would have certainly acted more assertively. His refusal or inability to pull the trigger so far this year, whether that's in the form of a pass or shot, is of a deep concern. Henry Hore finally got the ball at his feet and managed to show what he can do, but like Gerrie offers nothing going back. Now that's fine if the team is set up in a way where Hore and Gerrie don't need to do things they're not equipped for; but everyone else (apart from Norton) is sitting so deep that Gerrie and Henry have to run themselves ragged, and if they do get the ball up field, they then have to wait for everyone to come up by which time they've been dispossessed by a stronger player, or had to make a backwards or sideways pass which kills the momentum of the forward thrust.

And bloody hell, are we actually going to manage to get behind an opposition defensive line by design rather than by fluke? And some of our players need to stop looking for soft penalties, too.

All of which is to say that, as usual, you'd have taken a point before the game, but you hate the point you got at the end of it. Hard to please, it's true, but I know this team can do better. I'm not sure anyone with the agency to make that happen believes it though.

Next game

Port Melbourne away on Friday night. I should be there for that one.

This Luke, That Luke

Last week I wondered Luke Patitsas of fellow South blog Sour Grapes would resume his efforts in 2021; word is that work and study commitments, as well as inconvenient fixturing are going to limit his output this year, though he is looking to write some stuff when he can.

But if you want Luke action, Luke Radziminski - better known for his photography - has been writing pieces on South games for the Footy Almanac, which you can find here. 

On the streams

Wet n' Wild

At home, just because. No genuine opportunity to go see a game of any sort, but there's streams, always streams. And then when it starts raining, staying home looks like a sensinble deicision, even when it's not really a decision. Mark Van Aken and a cameraman are huddled together under a tarpaulin in the media scaffold at the Reggio Calabria Club. It starts raining, and then bucketing down. The camera operator periodcially wipes the lens clear. Van Aken's research notes are ruined by the weather. He pushes on, taking his commentary a step back from naming individual players, as Gully scores, has a man sent off, and as the rain comes in sideways late during the first half, he decides that people shouldn't have to work under these conditions; he's had enough, and as he abandons his post, I can't say that I blame him. The cameraman stays in place, and we get the rest of the game, Gully gets the win, and we find that collectively we have a long way to go before our facilities catch up to our ambitions.

Unwatchable, and to some people, also unlistenable

Found myself with a little bit of spare time late on Sunday afternoon. Decided to drop in on the stream of St Albans vs Melbourne Knights. Now Greg Blake as main commentator... I get it, he's not everyone's cup of tea. I can tolerate his style when I'm in the right frame of mind, or when he has someone like George Cotsanis in special comments. But a game should at least be watchable. Thanks to Melbourne Knights style-over-substance kit preferences - wearing some of grey and black number - watching passages of play that drifted into the shadowed parts of Churchill Reserve absolutely pointless. So I stopped watching, with Knights 1-0 up, and moved onto something else. But then I decided, what the hell, let's just have the video and I'll listen to it in the background, and what do you know, that was a nice payoff as Dinamo scored two goals in the last ten minutes or so. Squinting at the video was a little more fun than usual.

Final thought

*opens newspaper* hmm, let's see what's in the news today

The online response to the club's release of the 2021 membership packages seems to have been pretty muted. Maybe it's because people have stopped caring, or maybe because the club did the right thing (whatever their motivation for doing so) by offering the renewal discount to 2020 members, there's nothing to complain about. And when people aren't complaining, there's fewer clicks, less rage posting, and less overall engagement. Maybe the club should've actually charged the full rate to everyone, getting those social media metrics up?

(Also, where is the link to the membership portal on the front page of the club's website? And are members still going to be charged for entry to home FFA Cup matches?)

Anyway, memberships are for real games with with real meaning, unlike the past two pre-season friendlies, which mean nothing. These two recent friendlies, both played behind closed doors at lakeside, were a 2-1 win over Northcote, with what looked like a pretty soft goal to concede; and a 3-2 win over Avondale, which I hope people won't latch on to as proof of anything, especially competency. 

Not that I think that there's actually much chance of people getting carried away, because I wasn't there and neither were you. So what can we say? Nothing, that's what, except that maybe Marcus Schroen looked thin or trim or skinny or what have you on one of those recent videos the club posted. Maybe I've forgotten what he looks like in person, and while it's not like he was ever the chonky type, maybe a proper pre-season instead of galivanting about the Spice Islands has done him some good.

Much of the rest of the week's focus (online at least) seems to be on the continually degrading state of the Ferenc Puskas statue out the back of Gosch's Paddock. In a recent-ish I noted the reaction to what appeared to be the then vandalism or theft of the plaque on the plinth. Now whether because of more vandalism, or shoddy craftsmanship, the plinth has degraded further, and the calls by South fans (and some others) to repair the statue and move it to Lakeside have been re-doubled.

Most of this anger comes from a good place. The statue is of a South legend, and the statue is in a poor location and in an increasingly poor condition. And after all the effort involved in getting the statue project up in the first place, I don't think that anyone would be happy with the outcome four years on, not just because of the money spent, but also because it's supposed to be honouring a legend of world football, and someone the statue's funders apparently hold in high esteem.

Moving the statue to Lakeside (apparently there's plans to at least try to make that happen now) would probably solve at least some of those problems: namely, the more prominent location, being closer to the club he was closest to while he was here, and you'd like to think also a reduction in the chance of vandalism. Repairing the statue and moving it to Lakeside (hopefully at someone other than the club's expense) won't solve the aesthetic problem of it being a lousy looking statue, or of its design bearing little connection to what Puskas looked like while he was here, but the perfect being the enemy of the good, you'd rather an imperfect solution rather than the situation that exists now. That, and it would be funny to have a statue conceived of and funded in part by a prominent former sponsor long since associated with the A-League, to have visit Lakeside and South Melbourne in order to get close to his attempted homage to one of his heroes

(NPL)Woah! South Melbourne 2 Heidelberg United 1

This about as late a match report as you can get. How 2019.

I finally, finally managed to get out to another game for our women's senior team. And lest anyone doubt my resolve to do so, yes it helped that this game was on a Sunday - but having to negotiate a very annoying double rail-replacement (radial and city loop) service should demonstrate that while I'm hardly on my way to being top-dog in the South Melbourne Ladies Active Supporters, I do at least try and get out to a few games where possible.

Before the senior women could get started, there was the matter of the under 19s, who were soon enough trailing Heidelberg 2-0, and not looking too good. Soon enough however our 19s worked their way back into the game, and stormed over the top of the visitors, winning 5-2. The thing I most remember though was the melee which nearly kicked off into a full-on dust-up after a bad tackle. It's not the kind of thing I see in women's soccer too often - usually there's a much more obvious "compassionate/duty of care style reaction" to fouls and injured players, so it was interesting from a sociological perspective, even if undesirable from a sporting one.

Photo: Luke Radziminski.

The equation for the senior women was pretty simple - win, and they'd make the finals. Any other result, and the Bergers would get in instead. Even prior to the game, there was the less than ideal situation of not having replacement keeper Shannon Flower available, and having to put in Sascha Lypiridis from the 16s for her senior debut. There was also no Sofia Sakalis, who was injured.

Our women started off well enough, looking threatening and creating some good chances. We really should've gone 1-0 up with one particular sequence of play, where it seemed the universe was conspiring against us. Then the rain and the wind came, sending the ball girls, Our Resident Cockney, and I think eventually even Heidelberg Harismidis running for cover. It was during this burst of mother nature's wrath that Heidelberg scored, whipping in a corner that went straight in, thanks in no small part to the wind swerving it in. Let that be an argument against women's teams resorting to short corners.

Second half, and you just had that feeling that despite getting on top of the game well and truly - apart from rare moments - we just weren't going to score. And then Leia Varley sent home a long range free kick into the top corner levelling the scores, and then my feeling was that we wouldn't manage to get another goal, and the season would end on this bitter disappointment - that despite the improvement we'd shown from the 5-1 loss against the Bergers, and then the 1-1 draw, that we'd be left to rue the sorry 1-1 draw against NTC.

Yes! Photo: Luke Radziminksi.

The clock ticking over to 93 minutes, in the media control room I buttoned up my jacket, put on my beanie, and got ready to go down into the social club. Then we got a free kick too far out for a shot, and though I'd hoped in a perverse way throughout the 90 minutes that we'd steal the game and the finals place from the Bergers at the absolute death, I didn't really believe that we would actually do it. But then the ball was sent into the box, the Bergers' keeper committed to getting to the ball without getting anywhere near it, a flicked header from Kelsey Minton sailed over the top of everyone and into the back of the net for the win.

The team's reward for making it to the finals? An elimination final against Calder United, this year's standout team, at Keilor Park Recreation Reserve this Saturday (ie, tomorrow) at 2:00. Calder have beaten us comfortably four times this season, three times in the league and once in the cup. While I'm not ruling out an upset, it's really very much a nothing to lose game for us.

2020 SMFC senior squad roster as of 06/09/2019
For teams still aiming for success in 2019, the season has not ended yet, but that doesn't mean our club can't get on the front foot and start announcing squad members for next year - in this case, Brad Norton, who I think we'd all have been surprised if he wasn't around next season.

For any other player on our list, it would perhaps be odd to do a re-signing announcement now without having officially named the coach, but it's Braddles, so there's nothing to see on that front. Not too long afterwards Marcus Schroen was announced as having re-signed for two more years, and the public response ranged from the relatively cheerful to those pencilling in the death of the club.

Leigh Minopoulos is the only absolutely confirmed 100% out so far, having announced his retirement prior to the end of the 2019 season. The future of Kristian Konstantinidis doesn't exactly look too promising, so there'll be umming and uhhing about that for a little bit. Meanwhile striker Billy Konstantinidis was on Football Nation Radio yesterday talking about exploring his options in the Indian Premier League.

In terms of coaches, the two names thrown up - by desperate and/or hopeful South fans more than anybody else - have been secured by other teams. Regular South Melbourne watcher and local resident Scott Miller, currently coaching at Langwarrin in NPL2, has reputedly been signed on there for another season. 

The other name belonged to ex-South player Nick Tolios, most recently of Kingston City, who have just been relegated down to NPL 2. Tolios had long been rumoured to be heading towards the Bentleigh head coaching job left vacant mid-year by John Anastasiadis, and surprisingly, Tolios has ended up at Kingston Heath on the eve of the Greens' finals campaign. Ever seen a coach get a team relegated and win a championship in the same league in the same season? Not me, but we're two weeks away from that happening.

Signed

• Brad Norton
• Marcus Schroen

Played with us at the end of 2019 but who knows about next year

• Tom Aulton
• Keenan Gibson
• Peter Skapetis
• Nick Krousoratis
• Perry Lambropoulos
• Kostas Stratomitros
• Gerrie Sylaidos
• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Ben Djiba
• Amir Jashari
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Will Orford
• Nikola Roganovic 
• George Gerondaras
• Zac Bates
• Andrew Mesourouni
• Josh Dorron
• Melvin Becket

Exploring options in India

• Billy Konstantinidis

Maybe retiring

• Kristian Konstantinidis

Out

• Leigh Minopoulos (retired)

Just take the damn survey for the sake of your old pal Paulie 
The wording here is confusing to me, because I thought I was on a Football Victoria Historical Committee already. Anyway, Football Victoria has released a survey about which direction the organisation should take with regards to its historical commitments:

Football Victoria history survey

At the moment Football Victoria's historical committee (of which I am a member) has a role largely limited to oversight of things like the Hall of Fame and Life Member approvals - the survey asks whether Football Victoria should be doing more, and if so, what kind of action people in the soccer community would like Football Victoria to take.

If you could take a few minutes out of your day to fill in the survey, that would be great. If you're uncomfortable using your real name, you could always fudge that bit. Not even sure why they're asking for it.

Throwing stones from glass houses
It was a big week in footy, with some disgruntled person setting up an anonymous Twitter account and publishing document details allegedly derived from the contracts of two current Avondale players, as well as snippets of Avondale's week-by-week payment spreadsheets.

After the initial post, where the leaker had posted the contract details for Kiwi Avondale player Scott Hilliar as well as an extract from an early season portion of the payment spreadsheet, it looked like the account was locked or shut down. Soon enough however it was back up, posting details from Japanese star Tasuku Sekiya's contract - including his wage - as well as posting a spreadsheet extract from the middle of the season.

While there were some legitimate grumblings about breach of privacy most of the attention on this leak of sensitive information naturally centred upon Avondale's spending, which based on the spreadsheet snippets would be up toward the $700,000 mark.

(and for the record, while some questioned the legitimacy of the published extracts, believing them to be fake, I think the level of detail - see for instance Liam Boland receiving a sizeable monetary bonus around the time he reached 15 goals - as well as the publishing of player signatures, suggests that the documents are all too real.)

Around the grounds, those with more insight into the Avondale back office were wondering about the identity of the leaker and their motivations, while others wondered about the tax and regulatory implications, which the leaker had also emphasised as rules that Avondale had broken. I'm more of the opinion that it's the players who are probably in bigger trouble, assuming that there is actual Australian Tax Office investigation and that the players involved didn't manage their tax affairs probably.

Prurient interest aside in terms of seeing behind the curtain of semi-pro player payments, there was the unfortunate but predictable spectacle of some South fans forgetting the lessons of "be careful what you mock, lest you become it", and instead of just slowing down past the bingle on the side of the road, decided to get involved. Why, when our club is so often the subject of similarly prurient well/semi/and un-founded speculation?

Cue some minor blow-back from a former youth team coach and a former a technical director of ours, the latter of whom provided some rather unflattering comments on his time at South Melbourne. These comments were later deleted, I assume under some legal duress. It's going to be another fun off-season.

Blergh - South Melbourne 0 Avondale 3

There's no lolly quite like a home-name brand lolly bought from a pharmacy.
Photo: Luke Radziminski. 

I can forgive the fatigue of three games in eight days, even though not every player out there on Sunday played in all three games. I can forgive the players for suffering under the yoke of some diabolical early refereeing (how did Krousoratis not get a free kick after his opponent tried to snap him in half?), though some of our own players - and the coach - really should be doing all they can to avoid nonsense yellow cards for dissent, time-wasting, and scuffles.

I can understand being disheartened after going behind to the league leader after matching them for forty minutes, in what was admittedly up to that point a pretty ordinary game without much football played for long stretches. But what happened after that was pure garbage. The second goal we conceded was completely fucked. You're 1-0 down, it's going to be the last play of the half, why you don't have every player in the box, why Pep Marafioti doesn't stay on the post and instead wanders into no man's land, and why doesn't Nikola move? Just mind-bogglingly shit. The header came from beyond the penalty spot, it didn't have much power, and yet instead of being cleared away all of a sudden we're 2-0 down and as far as I'm concerned, out of the game.

The rest you've probably already seen or heard about. A third goal conceded early in the second half, all part of the most dreadful, half-hearted 40 minutes of football you've ever seen. Thank goodness that Avondale also took their foot off the pedal, because if they hadn't we'd have lost this game by double the score or more. There was a five minute period late on where we had a couple of attempts on goal, and looked OK from corners, but that was it. Even with the commentary headphones on you could hear the bronx cheers from Clarendon Corner.

It will be interesting to see what the line-up will be next week with more or less a full-team (sans the injured Kostas Stratomitros) at our disposal. And that goes for Marcus Schroen and Nikola Roganovic as well - because while one doesn't want to single out any player for a below par performance, because everyone lowered their colours - these two above all seemed to put in flat-footed, awkward performances not befitting their status as senior players.

Sophomore album blues
Being on the live commentary for a second consecutive week was less enjoyable this week, if only because one had to maintain a professional veneer and remember to praise the opposition as well. Had your correspondent been in his customary position in Row H, he may have been able to vent a little more.

Now that I think about it...
My commentary gimmick should have been to call Avondale "Avondale Heights".

Next game
Kingston at home on Sunday. The kind of game we really should be winning, but we'll see I suppose.

Relegation battle (status: ongoing, stable, approaching a fork in the road)
All things considered - including the likelihood, now realised, that we weren't going to get a point off Avondale - this was a pretty good week for us on the relegation front.

The only really negative thing is that Kingston couldn't get a point off Oakleigh, but since I had little doubt even before their form reversal that Oakleigh would sort itself out, perhaps it's better that Kingston lost, lest the Reds manufacture some sort of recovery (probably starting against us).

Dandenong Thunder choked hard, coughing up a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 - let's leave aside for now whatever points punishment they may receive for last Saturday's shenanigans. Pascoe Vale got crunched by Port. Dandy City only drew with Gully. And as bad as our goal difference is, the teams in the bottom four spots are all worse off than us in this regard.

So with 9 games to play (27 points), we're 10 points clear of 13th, and 9 points clear of 12th. Certainly not safe, but I'd rather have the head-start than have to play catch up.

If some of you are still holding on to the finals fantasy, well, good for you. I'll be happy to join if and only if the next two weeks goes well.

Women hovering in that mid-table sweet-spot
Yes! I finally got to see a senior women's match after such a long time; of clashes, impossible to get to venues, of enjoying the Collingwood bandwagon before it sputters out sooner rather than later. I watched the first half of the women's game against the lowly Bayside United from inside the scoreboard operations room; which is to say, I saw bits and pieces of the game because the seating arrangements in that room are not exactly conducive to watching the action unless you're in the hot seat. I did see our first and only goal for the first half, as well as Sofia Sakalis' penalty hit the upright and go across the face of goal.

Later I decided to get a souv in the social club, and watched the second half from in there. The game turned into a procession, with South adding four more goals and showing that there's great disparity between these two sides, despite South's incredibly young team and whatever other results they had between them earlier this season. It's remarkable that in a ten team competition that there would be five kinds of club. Calder, the runaway leader and favourite for the title. Then there are the two teams behind Calder, who might be able to knock off the ladder leader on a once off, winner takes all game. Then there's the three or so clubs looking to sneak into the finals even though there's little chance of them doing any damage. Another three clubs just killing time. And Southern United, with a goal difference of -146.

Basically, we're in that sneak into the finals group, relying on taking care of business against the NPLW's dregs, and making sure to win the balance of the games against Box Hill and Heidelberg.

Around the grounds
Karpeh (oh no, please no, don't do it) Diem (damn you to hell)
Ralph Reserve. Third last (I think) Western Suburbs hosting (probably last) Altona East. Jerry Karpeh, playing for East, had an eventful game. Karpeh booked about 20 minutes in for persistent backchat. Half an hour in he was asked to put black tape on his socks because they had too much white. About 40 minutes in he scored the opening goal of the game, bundling home a goal from a long free kick that fell out the back of the Suburbs defence - important timing as Suburbs had just started to get on top. And with about 15 minutes to go, he cut back a ball across the six yard box that the Suburbs defenders thought had gone out, which was bundled in for 2-0 and the game. He also cocked up 2-3 more very gettable chances. Suburbs had enough of the ball and territory, but in general struggled to create meaningful chances until they were 2-0 down. They had a 15 second goalmouth scramble at 0-0, and hit the post at 1-0 down. I think both sides had a man sent off late for off the ball stupidity. A good day out, except for getting thorns in my hands while retrieving a ball that had got stuck in a cactus.

Final thought
Two Indonesians at Hellas! There goes the neighbourhood.