Pumpkin Seed Eater Origins artefact Wednesday

Way back in the mists of time, the NSL was still dead, but the A-League had not yet officially begun. In those days, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, as well as trepidation - and anticipation - of what the A-League would bring.

Many people had chosen sides, while a lot of other people hedged their bets. In amid the clamouring, there were many op-eds. and roving reporters, and prognostications. Would it work? Would the tribes be united? 

In Melbourne, this situation was probably more heated than anywhere else; one can speculate in their own time why that might have been.

Forums (remember them?) old and new were filled with passionate arguments and open hostility. Many were willing to offend, and many more were willing to be offended.

Come to think of it, that seems a lot like the present, too.

One of the most contentious (relatively speaking) comments made during that time was often attributed to then Melbourne Victory majority (or was he outright? Doesn't matter.) owner Geoff Lord.

He was accused of calling the old soccer guard 'pumpkin seed eaters'. 

Of course, later on the phrase 'pumpkin seed eaters' would be taken up by a podcast of the same name, one which others enjoyed more than myself. 

Then, as the arguments for and against got stale, and as 'three years tops' became many more, the phrase slipped out of the Australian soccer lexicon. 

But what was the context for that statement? How did people come to hear of this utterance? That seemed to get lost in the wash somewhat.

The answer lies, at least partly, in this week's artefact. In the Wednesday July 13th 2005 edition of Goal Weekly (remember print journalism, kiddies?), in Eddie Krncevic's 'Krncevic's Korner' segment - why did I think it was Krncevic's Krunchlines? - where Eddie opines on said incident.

Right off the bat, Krncevic makes it clear he didn't hear the comments made himself, nor does he name the person involved. And while Krncevic is concerned at the offence caused, he doesn't see it as a deal-breaker by any stretch of the imagination, only more of a misstep that should not be repeated if Victory and the A-League were to succeed in Melbourne.

Of course, as with many of these kinds of 'outrages', though they were heartfelt by many of those who were listening at the time, the fact of the matter was that most weren't - just as today most Australian soccer followers or participants have no idea of the debates being had on Twitter and the remaining forums and blogs.

Besides which, as was noted by a member of the Victory forum at the time, even one of the blokes who sold pumpkin seeds at Lakeside ended up outside Victory games anyway.

12 Days of NSL Talkback - John

What kind of soccer will Eddie Krncevic's team play? And does Red Star play from behind?

And now it's official

Eddie is gone. All these things are viewed best with hindsight. In the end, Eddie was a victim of his inability to stamp his authority on the side. For most of the season, Joe Montemurro and even Ange Dallas were doing most of the coaching, with Eddie cowering on the bench.

Though restricted in the middle of the year by injuries and suspensions, his squad selections at times seemed to favour certain players over others regardless of form or suitability. The side should have finished at bare minimum with a double chance - instead they squeezed into the finals on the final day, and were helped by other teams having points docked.

Where South goes from here is an interesting question. There is still no proper football director to make such a decision; then again, look how far well we've done even with someone in that paid position; The names of former players Peter Tsolakis and Joe Palatsides have been bandied about, while others have suggested that Mike Chatzitrifonas, current coach of Richmond, might be a left-field choice of sorts.

With Eddie gone, which players of his will also go? It sadly seems almost a given that Jesse won't hang around; Topalovic leaving would please a few; the fate of Sebastian Petrovich and even Fernando De Moraes may also hinge on what the new coach has in store. Long off-season ahead of us.

Is Eddie still with us?

Reports circulating on soccer-forum and in Neos Kosmos that Eddie is gone, but no confirmation from the club as yet. Also in Neos Kosmos, interview with '91 championship player and current Mirabella Cup winning coach with Northcote Peter Tsolakis, where he claims he has made no plans on who he will coach next year - but that Northcote naturally has first rights to his services for next year.

Only mentioning it because Gus' name has been bandied about a bit. And look at me go - South of the Border officially into the 2012 pre-season. The Tintin jokes managed a brief moment in the sun.

South deducted three points for fielding ineligble player

Things go from bad to worse. The club has been deducted three points for fielding an ineligible player in last week's 1-0 loss against Richmond. The relevant player is Kliment Taseski, whose loan period with us apparently finished on July 4th. We were apparently notified of this on July 5th, but proceeded to play him on July 9th anyway.

The one slim chance of having this overturned is that during the transfer window, we applied for an extension to his loan. Logically however, I would imagine that the loan period would have only been extended to this point in time. I mean, surely even the FFV could not be that incompetent to have not accurately read its own player data?

So, taking that into account, and assuming that the FFV did not make an error, the blame must fall on the people responsible. The pretend coach Eddie Krncevic, the real coach Joe Montemurro and footballer director Ange Dallas. Because it's their job to know who's right to play and who isn't.

You wouldn't knowingly play a suspended player. And the responsibility for getting a team on the park is their job. No one else's. It's what they get paid to do. They've been delegated that task because that's how it all works. And if they're not held responsible, then the whole lot of them, from top to bottom, should probably be thrown out.

All the facilities, hard work and scrambling to stay alive is pointless if we don't have the merest hint of respect for ourselves and our primary purpose which is, after all, to play football and be pretty damn good at it. And to be brutal for a moment, we've sucked balls for most of the past five years. Something has to be done.

Highlights from match against St Albans

A Glorious Night of TELLING IT LIKE IT IS! (or maybe just how some people see it but with the use of an authoratative voice so people are more likely to think you're being a realist and more knowledgable)

Or,


Reading Slaughterhouse 5 before rocking up to events celebrating the past and the future can alter perceptions in ways probably entirely intended by the author.


This entry has the usual wearying digressions.

I missed the 2010 jersey presentation with the least troublesome of my many medical emergencies of last year. I was in recovery mode after having my wisdom teeth taken out. Insert corny joke about that being less painful then such events; it'd have been true anyway, as unlike many dental themed horror stories, I was under general anesthetic for the entire procedure.

Anyway, the 2011 version was back at Kinisi for the first time since 2008. Almost the entire crew I would have normally attended and fraternised with in the past was absent. The reasons were many and varied - illness, hatred of Kinisi, disillusionment and being halfway through a nervous breakdown, the last of which I learned this week is not an actual medical term. Even I probably qualify for several of those categories, but I'd already committed! Blast!

I was with Gains and Hellas Johnny though, which made the evening more than tolerable. I'll say this about the seating arrangements. Not that I wish any sort of harm to those in the bliss of romantic entrapment, but being on a table filled with single people and one obviously very much in love couple makes one feel like a recalcitrant of some sort.

The player auction didn't seem to really take off. Indeed, the majority of the evening seemed muted, as if, after the recent celebrations of the past and the apparent end to life on the slow train to financial oblivion, there was no more need or energy to be fired up about the club anymore. That perhaps we'd found a niche we could survive in and that perhaps everyone was emotionally spent. Or maybe it's just a transition year. No home ground yet, the major battles won but the war not quite over. A 50 year old suddenly feeling the full force realisation of its best years behind it?

There was also the panel discussion. There was no Q&A segment, which was just as well I suppose, as I had been shunted into the back corner of the room facing away from the stage. They perhaps should have put me behind a curtain just to make sure I didn't do anything stupid - in the past I had an awful habit of rolling my eyes at almost anything, such was my teenage cynicism. I'm better at that these days, I have a little more self-control.

Too much talk about the EPL and pandering to the imagined loyalties of overseas allegiances forged in the heat of a suburban loungeroom. Koutoufides and Christou had some interesting anecdotes - did you know they were both Collingwood fans growing up? - but for the most part their presence on the panel was more of a fifth wheel. For all Ljubo's theatricality, there is an eventual one dimensional aspect which comes into his rhetoric. Still, it was interesting to hear about how while he was in Switzerland, he was getting half the wage of his time at the Glory.

Unlike Les Murray in the past, Mark Bosnich at least had the courtesy not to humour our delusions of grandeur by being unapologetic about his and/or the FoxSports team's stance that change was necessary in the game and that we should be relegated to the toxic waste dump of Australian football. Nor was he sorry that the players reaped the benefits more than anyone of the television money revolution, even while the fans were frozen ever more out of accessing the teams they love. His point had some merit - players, like other workers, had been exploited for generations by their employers. But has the ledger in some cases swung too far the other way? There wasn't any chance to ask that question, or any other.

After all the formalities were done, we stuck around for a bit catching up with people I see on a weekly basis anyway. Hellas Johnny, being a starfucker, got a few photos taken with some of the luminaries. Then we left. East Richmond station is one of my personal favourites. In the heart of the inner city and yet skipped over so often. So it goes.

In all seriousness, I probably should be banned from attending such functions, since I seem to always miss the point. It's about the hobnobbing and fundraising, not about quarter-literate cultural critiques and the fact that the chicken was dry again.

Heidelberg vs South highlights

The 'you've already got your jersey' presentation on next week

What with all the hilarity of everything else that's been happening, I've almost totally forgotten that the jersey presentation is on next week. And apart from being held several weeks into the season it's also got an interesting little twist on the usual goings on. Details below

• It's at Kinisi, it's $50, and it's on Friday 25th
• And it will have a panel discussing Australian football!
• The panel will include Eddie Krncevic, Ange Christou, Anthony Koutoufides and... Mark Bosnich! Very exciting!

Too bad it's a football discussion because there were some kickass questions that could be asked. Should be interesting regardless.

Highlights from win against Bentleigh

Fast Love with the Green Hornet

Rama Rumours Run Rampant

So the story's going something like this.

Eddie Krncevic has stripped the captaincy off Ramazan Tavsancioglu and given it to Steven O'Dor, for reasons which have not emerged yet in any official capacity. Since then, the situation has deteriorated so much that Rama is out of the side altogether. Rama is a free agent and assessing his options - with a return to South under Eddie's tenure almost impossible. Naturally this has set off a massive torrent of support for Rama and a heap of abuse against Eddie Krncevic and the board. But it's never so cut and dried.

Eddie's appointment as coach was not a universally popular one. His previous stint at the club back in the NSL days ended in controversy, with rumours of transfer impropriety, which it must be noted, have never been definitively established in the public sphere. More recently, with his work as a player agent, it has been assumed that he would try and get work for some of his clients, even though as a coach he can no longer be an agent. Bringing over his son Jesse, despite Jesse's undoubted quality as a striker and our desperate need for one, is just another target to aim at for his detractors.

In his first stint as coach at South, Eddie took over after Mike Peterson upped and left for the Football Kingz - Eddie was left with a weakened squad, and after the betrayal of a favourite son, was granted a bit of leniency. For his second stint as as coach at South, Eddie has replaced Vaughan Coveny, whose contract was not renewed. This time will not be easier. Of course, Horsey is a 'club legend', and all sorts of rumours started about how he was treated poorly by the club. All this ignores the fact that the style of football we played was atrocious, regardless of earning enough points to finish in the finals.

Add in the anti-board agendas of several groups, of whom few have had the temerity to actually say something at an AGM, where they did actually attend; the fact that before this situation started, half the Greeks of soccer-forum.net and even some non-Greeks wondered how a 'Greek' club could have a Turk as captain, a tune which has now changed to focusing on the club's apparent betrayal of Rama. And lastly for now, the fact that Rama's uncle was providing sponsorship to the club as well, and it keeps getting worse and worse.

Now if Eddie's goal was to stamp his authority on the team - and I seriously hope it was - he's seriously messed up this situation. If it's merely a case of not rating Rama as a player, Eddie has obviously gone about conveying that message in the worst possible manner, and it has only emboldened those who had him as a marked man even when his appointment as coach was still an internet rumour. It's also interesting to note that Rama has still been appearing at our Hellenic Cup fixtures, while at the same time also acknowledging that the rest of the squad has not risen up in rebellion against Eddie's decisions and processes. Why this is the case, I do not know.

For what it's worth, I like Rama. He seems to genuinely care about the club, has improved his disciplinary record a great deal, and the players generally seem to look up at him. However, there is also the playing side, which I;'ve felt for some time hasn't improved significantly. His crossing is still very poor, which nullifies his effectiveness as an overlapping player. And he's still having difficulty judging balls going over his head, as well as getting dragged towards the middle far too often. But Eddie's also cut James Stefanou and Eddie Cetkin from the side, meaning that experienced defensive stocks are thin on the ground, and that perhaps Eddie's squad management and people skills aren't exactly crash hot.

Should Rama not return this season, will it mean more opportunities for players from our youth squad, such as Josh Colosimo and James Riccobene? I certainly hope so. Krncevic, as coach of Carlton, despite having a large budget for which to purchase high profile players, which he certainly did, also gave opportunities to young players such as Marco Bresciano, Simon Colosimo and Vince Grella. Several young players have been trialled against the lesser likes in the pre-season, and our under 21s did of course cruise to the title last season, playing some attractive football. And isn't this what having sttrong junior sides is all about? Using them to rebuild and replace without needing to shop around?

I'd say this is going to be fun, but it obviously won't be. Once upon a time this club even sacked Paul Wade, who was the Socceroo captain at the time. In part this was because the coach at the time, Frank Arok, felt Paul Wade wasn't up to it any more; and surely an additional reason would have been because Arok wanted to create his own group with new leadership. I hope that this is what Eddie has been aiming for, and that his methods are proven right. Getting rid of a captain and player with several years at the one club is never easy, and Eddie's success and legacy may well rest on this issue alone. The old maxim that no player, no coach and no fan is bigger than the club is about to get a massive work out.

Meanwhile, I'm going to be in my bomb shelter until this thing blows over.

Eddie Krncevic excited about bringing South to Tasmania

The scratch match that was scheduled for tonight between ourselves and South Hobart has been canceled or postponed due to the inclement weather down in Hobart. In the meantime, please enjoy this piece by Tasmanian football blogger and journalist Walter Pless, looking at a previous trip by South to the Apple Isle in 1986 - there's some nice photos in there as well.

There are so many interesting coincidences when one looks at football history.

This is even the case in Tasmania.

South Melbourne Hellas first visited Tasmania in 1986 to play Olympia at KGV Park. That was before the administration building was constructed at KGV Park. In one of the above photos taken at the time of that visit, one can see the skeleton of that building in its early stages.

Former Greek international John Margaritis had been appointed coach of South Melbourne in 1980 and again in 1986.

Margaritis had, in fact, coached Olympia for a season before moving to Victoria.

He was replaced at South Melbourne in 1982 by former Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty.

Docherty had actually played in Tasmania in 1965. He was manager of Chelsea when they toured Australia that year.

Chelsea beat Tasmania 12-0 at North Hobart and Docherty put himself on in the second half and scored a penalty.

The Olympia team that played South Melbourne in 1986 was coached by current South Hobart supremo Ken Morton.

Alan Davidson, the Australian international who had just returned from Nottingham Forest, was a member of the South Melbourne squad that met Olympia at KGV Park, but he did not play.

He had played for the Socceroos against Tasmania at KGV Park in about 1984.

Ange Postecoglu, the Brisbane Roar coach in the A-League, was also in the South Melbourne team against Olympia and he is shown in the team photos above.

South Melbourne coach Eddie Krncevic, 50, is looking forward to this week’s visit to Hobart and is hoping for good attendances at the games.

Krncevic, born in Geelong, played professionally in Croatia, Germany and Belgium and represented the Socceroos 35 times, scoring 17 goals for his country.

“I’m quite excited about the visit,” said Krncevic from Melbourne today. “The last time I was in Tasmania I was only 14.

“I haven’t been back since. I’m excited about it and I’m looking forward to having a look to see what’s available, to see what’s happening in Tasmania and to establish a good working relationship with the clubs and people in Tasmania.

“I think it’s important because I think Tasmania has been neglected.

“I look forward to seeing what sort of talent the boys have got to offer. Yes, I’m excited.

“It’s a preparation for my players. We’re bringing a mixture of young ones and senior ones in a squad of 19 players, with two goalkeepers.

“Some of my players will fly in on Saturday as they’ve got work commitments.

“It’s a fairly competitive team and it’s our pre-season so I’m looking to hopefully play my best team, especially on Sunday, but fielding a strong team in every game we play.”

Budget Cuts Go Overboard

Finally the SBS segment goes to air. And finally I can acquiesce to the disillusionment that was building up inside me. Now I know we're stuck in a Global Financial Crisis™, but is 90 seconds all we could get? And what's this about six state championships? Hello, we've actually won, like, eight of them. Unless we sold a couple of them off to pay off some debts. If that's the case, can the bigwigs let me know which ones were sacrificed, so I can take them off the wikipedia page? Ta.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder - SWE 2 South 1

Whatever, I wasn't there, I don't have any in depth report on how this match went  apart from new keeper Zain Zanelli allegedly looking good and very few first teamers getting a go. As you can tell by the watermark on the photo, I nicked this photo from the rather good Football Chaos site, not to be confused with the utter cesspool that is the Football Anarchy forum.

Notes from the 2010 VPL grand final

In all honesty, I was most looking forward to attending this game because of the opportunity to see what all the fuss was about regarding the new Bubbledome Stadium. And unless I have a sudden change of heart regarding attendance of the A-League, this was set to be a very opportunity indeed.

Outside the ground, memories come flooding back, with one in particular standing out - it hasn't gotten any easier to find parking on that side of the precinct, with my crew ending up on the other side of the MCG. Walking past the food stalls around that ground, we were a little perplexed by one of the stalls selling something called Albanian marinated chicken rolls. We didn't bother sampling, with my reasoning being, if it's not cooked in a garage kitchen, it's not authentic Albanian food.

Anyway, outside the ground, it seemed like everyone that has ever been associated with Green Gully was bussed in, which meant mostly lots of juniors and their parents attending perhaps their first ever Gully game - there may have been a couple left over from their 2005 championship win, but I doubt it too much. I like the gimmick, and hopefully we can make it there next year so we can do the same, but the resulting atmosphere was dead for the entire match except for the goals.  I doubt whether 90% of the Gully fans knew who any of the players were.

Speaking of random fan appearances, the Heyington Bridge Crew, or at least people resembling it, turned up to their first game in... I don't know how to count that far. Our once upon a time sorta kinda colleague and/or collaborator Neil Zimmerman was there, had a very brief chat with him. Seems in good health. Overall, seemingly very poor turnout by the Richmond faithful. Obviously they couldn't or didn't think to pull of the Green Gully juniors bus in stunt, and I know they have low numbers and there wasn't much to get excited about last night, but still a very low presence.

The game itself was pretty poor. Gully are a grinding team. Always have been when I've watched them. Yesterday they actually tried playing football, and it was somehow even more tedious to watch than their drudgery. Still, it was better than Richmond's virtual non-appearance at the game for about 70 of the alloted 93 minutes. There was no energy, no creativity, no nothing. The second goal they conceded was especially poor, with Graham Hockless dribbling a a terrible shot in from about the penalty spot - with our crew behind the goals thinking surely Richmond goalkeeper Stephen Gal (who had a terrible game in general) will at least dive to stop it going in, hell, even just walk across and pick it up, the ball rolled slowly past him after which he dived like he was going lie down on a couch.

Richmond were resorting to long balls, looked slow and uncoordinated, but the managed to pick themselves up a bit in the second half, to no avail. It seemed to me that they should have received some clear penalties, but the referees last night were clearly on Gully's side, especially the linesman on the crowd side, who kept giving thrown ins to Gully even when it seemed utterly clear they should have gone the other way. Eventually Gully got a terrible penalty awarded to them, and that was finally that. Richmond finally came up against a team that didn't waste chance after chance and didn't stick Kyle Joryeff on the right wing when what was needed was Sebastian Petrovic to shut down the game when you're 2-0 up. Ahem.

If I was to have a guess, and it would only be a guess, I reckon the crowd would have been around the 2000 mark. The figure wasn't announced unlike previous VPL grand finals that I've been to. The venue itself is fantastic, viewing quality is amazing pretty much wherever you sit, though I think elevating the stands a little more above the level of the playing field would have improved the viewing quality even further - the rows immediately behind the goals seem to suffer the most. It felt odd after so many years of traipsing around local grounds to be at a soccer match with a video scoreboard, this feeling coming despite watching Socceroos matches at Docklands and the MCG. Is this something we can look forward to at South at the new improved Lakeside? I sure hope so.

Security and amenities seemed quite all over the place though. The usual bag checks took place, but there were no cavity searches for flares. I suppose they deemed it unnecessary what with the two clubs that had reach the grand final having no hardcore ultras kulcha. There was, surprisingly, a little bit of argle bargle involving a Green Gully fan. Green Gully, the club that tells us they aren't really Maltese (or are they) had one bloke decked out in a full on Malta jacket. I'm not saying that's nor right, you can make of that what you will though. The choice of food was of course, poor. It's the VPL, but with no chevaps or souvs. I hope this isn't the future the FFV has planned for everyone, and yes I know they don't control the food outlets, but it's a pretty distressing picture of Australia's and soccer's multiculturalism when the most appealing and diverse food seems to be the usual cow(?) guts and hooves stuck in a roll or flaky pastry. The match program consisted of a single A4 sheet of paper with squad lists, and they couldn't even get that right, screwing up the number order of Green Gully's team. I'd put up a sample, but I threw mine away in disgust.

From a South watch point of view, apparently Rhodri Payne was there, but I don't remember seeing him. Fernando was there. Eddie Krncevic was there, obviously with his son playing it would be remiss of him not to attend. Jesse Krncevic did little to endear me to the possibility of taking him back to cure our striking problems. After the game and the presentations we tried getting into the MCG to watch the last quarter of the Bulldogs/Swans game, but apparently the free entry after three quarter time caper no longer exists. A pity, that. What we were left with on the night, was a lot of what could have been and what might possibly bes, and a stupid joke involving Heidelberg, Green Gully merchandise and FK Pelister. If that makes any sense whatsoever.

Eddie Krncevic back as South coach

Ok, so the official site has announced it - but pretty much everybody seemed to know the facts of the matter a long time ago. The question of who leaked it - maybe even how many leaked it - is impossible to know, but it's the return of a bad old habit, one that I wish would go away.

Anyway, what to make of the disengaging of Horsey? I'm not one for syaing a first year coach coming in straight after finishing their playing career will always be a liability. That's a nonsense argument, and there's enough bad coaches who get job after job in this state to render it even more stupid.

Horsey has a reputation for being a tough negotiator, as well as stubbornness, certainly when it came to signing his last playing contract with us, and I would not expect that to have changed in his time as coach. He's obviously keen on making coaching a serious career - he's been racking up coaching licences - but the never ending circus surrounding the assistant roles never gave much confidence in regards to who was actually in charge and with whom the buck stopped - David Lugli got the arse, Joe Montemurro was often given credit for 'the right moves' and the other bloke 'Franz' did I know not sure what.

Of course, the six point deduction will come up and complicate matters. With those points we would have finished fourth - better than missing out on the finals and dealing with the interminable 'what could have been' argument. And the momentum kicked out from under you, and the sucker punch of having to deal with that for close to a whole season, something that was out of your control is still hurting the players - it was readily apparent at the MVP night.

But having said all that, the team should have done a lot better than it did. The forward problems never got solved, defensively we were a mess, and our brilliant fluid football which appeared every now and again made that all the more frustrating. Too much was left to too few this season - particularly Fernando's surprisingly good season and Peter Zois' pulling off several amazing saves to get us over the line or keep scorelines at least respectable. Some of the substitutions and set ups in particular seemed to boggle the mind. The insistence of still playing Gianni De Nittis alone up front for much of the year; the putting on of attacking wingers - notably Kyle Joryeff - when we were in the lead and needing to shut down the game; the often and obvious defensive incoherence, torn apart most notably by Northcote who made a mockery of the high line and offside trap style we attempted to play; and perhaps most tragically, the disappearance of last year's MVP winner Sebastian Petrovic off the face of the earth, in relative terms at least.

So, having said that all that, I'm personally not disappointed that Vaughan's been shown the door. But what of his replacement and his credentials? He coached a cashed up and professional Carlton, got them to a grand final, and then 11th. Coached Marconi, who by that time were making the finals and not much else. Of course, everyone will remember that Eddie coached us for a season in 2001/02 - the season after Mike Petersen (and several players) ditched us for the Football Kingz. But even more so, that season will be remembered for Con Boutsianis. It was Con's return half way through that season that turned around what was looking like a bottom two finish. Sure a lot of youth got blooded, but that was by necessity. Eddie didn't come back the next year.

For most of the past few years, he's been the player agent business. He obviously has to let go of that pursuit now that he's a coach, but it could well mean the addition of several clients to our playing roster, and possible, foreseeable complications. My opinions of him as a coach are, at best, cloudy and tainted by factors outside his control. It could be refreshing though to have someone with his sense of style back at the club - there was a guy with a gay leather biker jacket at the MVP night yesterday - not that there's anything wrong with that. How about that though? Bamboo Harvester replaced by Mr. Ed.

Politically Correct MVP night

An enjoyable evening was had last night at Honey Bar, with the usual and requisite personal quibbles. Fernando won the golden boot award of course, as well as the Theo Marmaras award for player of the year. What was perhaps a little surprising to me was how close it was - he finished up with 63 votes, just four ahead of Steven O'Dor and Peter Zois, and only overtaking those player with a nine point haul in the final round against Sunshine. I suppose it summed up the kind of year it was, where we flirted with both finals and relegation at various times during the year, playing at the extremes of appalling and brilliance often withing minutes of each other.

Fernando gave quite an emotional speech. The thing that was only semi-danced around, and not very well for most of the night, was the six point deduction. No sign of Horsey there - the rumours of his being sacked have been very strong, but nothing has been confirmed yet, no matter how strong the rumours are of Eddie Krncevic making a return to the South helm are. The notion of hiring of 91' championship hero Joe Palatsides has been been been buried - he's been having too good a time of it apparently coaching lower leagues sides in Greece, mostly recently at Karditsa in the Greek second division.

Lots of thank yous dished out. Echoing somewhat the omission of Kevin Nelson's name from the 2006 championship commemorative t-shirt, David Lugli didn't get mentioned. Maybe I don't have the stomach for such political antics, maybe he committed war crimes in the Sudan or something, but it seemed awkward. As did the somewhat cocky attitude of the players towards the Singapore Cup tie against Bangkok Glass - me, I don't know, maybe I read too many south-east Asian football blogs.

I was also offended by one George Koukoulas more or less accosting me and then berating me for not knowing about previous winners of our best and fairest, and then asking me what kind of club historian I am. Well, I'm not the official club historian, John Kyrou is - maybe Mr Koukoulas should check the South website. And considering the appalling record keeping of such matters within the club (with the exception of certain isolated individuals over the years, and the recent great work of John Kyrou), I don't see how it could possibly be my fault that I only know Steve Iosifidis won the award I think in one of our back to back seasons. It was hard enough even finding that out

But to focus any more than necessary on such small, petty individuals for too long is tiring. Back to the coaching situation. Some people seem convinced that a decision has already been made, and that they know who will be coaching us next year, maybe even this year. In better news, there's word that memberships and merchandise may very well be available even as early as this year, towards December of course. Now that's a level of progress that was mooted early this year, but seems to have much more to back it up this time around. I didn't dare ask about whether we could have a shirt with hoops though - I doubt it'd get up anyhow.