Prelude to madness - Hume City 1 South Melbourne 2

Roganovic, Norton, Adams, Eagar, Foschini, Pavlou, Millar, Schroen, Daley, Epifano, Lujic.

That was the starting line-up against Hume last night; full-strength, taking no chances, and about as much of a dress rehearsal for Wednesday - and perhaps the rest of the season - as you could get. The only change I could see happening? Pavlou being dropped for Konstantinidis, with Foschini being moved back to defensive midfield, and Konstantinidis being put in at right-back. In ordinary situations - where the team is unaffected by injury, suspension or the need to rest players, this will be the usual starting eleven. Mala is now only a backup defensive player. Zinni is the impact player off the bench if the opposition is tiring. Minopoulos is the player most likely to be put into situations where one of Daley or Schroen are under-performing, the 'fixer' if you will.

If there was the temptation to rest certain players, than this game was probably not a good enough fit for that. Hume are stuttering but still have some good players, and were able to pinch an undeserved win against Heidelberg last week. The game was on a Saturday rather than a Sunday, and so the extra day to rest would've also convinced Taylor to put out the strongest team he could. After all, even with the FFA Cup being so important to the club, we're still right in the mix for top spot, which gives us the chance to play nationals and earn an FFA Cup spot for next year. Besides, at South Melbourne we want to win everything.

So with a full-strength team and Bentleigh having won earlier in the day (and Heidelberg winning today), expectations for this game were that nothing less than a win would be acceptable. The potential for a spectator-friendly game was ruled out from the start. A strong, cold, and relentless wind from the north made things difficult for all concerned. We had the benefit of that wind in the first half, and fortunately we were able to nearly make the most of it.

I say nearly, because it took a penalty about 25 minutes in to get us on the scoreboard despite having being camped in Hume's half for most of the first 45 minutes. At first glance it looked like a pretty stupid and unnecessary tackle by the Hume player. We were playing the ball in the box, carefully trying to find a gap, with no immediate or obvious danger. The replay suggests it was perhaps a bit soft, but I'd have given it. Regardless, if it was there the ref should give it, and if it wasn't, then that's just more fuel for those pushing the conspiracy that South gets looked after by the refs. Milos' penalty being hit straight up the middle did the job even if it didn't make me happy in the long run for its future predictability.

Hume keeper Michael Weier dives left as Milos Lujic's penalty shot goes straight up the middle. Bulent Yontem

The second goal summed up the game. A nothing moment when the Hume defender should've and normally would've cleared the danger, ended up with Lujic one-on-one with Hume keeper Weier, and this time I could not begrudge Milos' finish, a tidy one into the bottom corner. So 2-0 up at halftime, and while I would rather had been 3-0 up it was better than many of the alternatives.

Then we gifted one back to Hume early in the second half, with an over-hit Eagar pass meeting Pavlou hesitation, The feeling then was not so much the nerves that began, but rather the feeling that with that wind it should be near inevitable that we would concede another. Hume however didn't do that much with that wind advantage, and we still had our moments going the other way. Lujic was taken off for Minopoulos after an hour, who did the running and hustling stuff pretty well under the circumstances.

The officials plucked five minutes of additional time out of nowhere, and added two more probably for how slowly we made our late subs. Had anyone used this game as a measure of what the NPL is capable of, or as a form guide for our cup match on Wednesday, they'd have walked away disappointed. The history books, should they bother to remember this game, will note a result and not much more of importance.

Annual Broadmeadows trip whinge
It was fortunate that I had things to take care of earlier in the day, which meant that I couldn't get to the ground much earlier than 6:00. I say fortunate, because for reasons unknown to me, the under 20s game was played at 3:30 instead of a 4:30 or 5:00 kickoff. I don't understand that at all, but having not looked at the fixtures closely at least I lucked out in not getting there at 5:00.

There are many fine elements to this ground: the grandstand is comfortable for the crowds that will usually turn up; the dining facilities are of a good standard,;the surface is always good; and there's an electronic scoreboard that's big and clear (and which has a clock that counts up past 90:00). But how a facility was built in the plains of the outer northern suburbs without any meaningful windbreak I can't understand. Some more trees or even just a hedge, anything to lessen the impact of the wind coming through the ground unimpeded, would be most appreciated.

The lighting is also inadequate. The well lit areas are clear, but those areas at the margins of the ground, including the goal ends, are awful. I know my eyesight is pretty bad, and I will also apportion some of the blame to South for not wearing white and Nikola Roganovic for wearing black, but the action at the other end of the field became a dark and muddy blur.

From a personal point of view, pedestrian access to the venue remains appalling. One can cross the road from directly across the entrance to the car park, but that's a death-trap with cars coming past quickly and unsighted from both directions. There is a paved path next to the bus stop on the south side of Barry Road, but it stops well before the entrance to the car park, where the safest place to walk is in the gutter. Who designs these places?

Next game and match day details
Our next game is our FFA Cup round of 32 match at home against Edgeworth Eagles.

South Melbourne members and season ticket holders receive free entry as part of their membership.

For walk-up punters, the price for an adult ticket is $15, concession $10, under 16 free. Ticket sales and entry for non-members will be via Gate 2.

There is no online pre-purchase option for this game.

If you are not attending the business coterie function in the social club, you will have to wait until 7PM to enter the venue. To that end, I'll be having dinner and a drink at the Limerick instead.

For those unable or unwilling to attend, the game has been selected for broadcast by Fox Sports. There will be no streaming available outside of Foxtel's services - at least when it comes to legal ones.

Click and hate and click and hate and click
As FFA Cup times rolls around, so do the articles on South's ambitions.

I want whoever is running South Melbourne's publicity machine to plug my book when it comes out. The amount of press is gangbusters.

— Les Street (@official_lesdog) July 21, 2017

I noted to our friend Les that the secret lies mostly in hatred - sure, every South fan with internet access will click on the link, but let's be clearheaded for a moment here: there aren't that many of us. It's those who despise us who really push things along.

There's a strong argument to be made that it's as much the idea of us than the reality that these people hate. It's an argument which is implied by earlier posts of mine on this issue, but also by the comments some people leave on these pieces. These are comments so exaggerated in their vilification of us that one can only sit back and laugh, The best are those comments which allege South fans going deliberately out of their way to make supposed curious newcomers feel uncomfortable. I mean, who has the time?

But the specifics of that hatred are neither here nor there in the great scheme of things. The point is that the hatred exists, and there are people who can make mileage out of it. Matt Windley of the Herald Sun has done well on this front in recent times, and good luck to him. There's another article by Windley on us that's come out in recent days, but even I have to admit this one starts off with an unexpected bang by starting off with Bill Papastergiadis relating a meeting he had with Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

So much of what we have done over the past decade is play down our Greekness, not out of shame (as some South fans would have it), but out of knowing that it's not what a lot of people involved with Australian soccer want to hear. And besides which, there are all sorts of other arguments that could and should be made about what South Melbourne can offer Australian soccer as it is now. But the point is that even if it wasn't meant to come across as apologetic or timid, it often came across as if we were avoiding the elephant in the room. When conversations turned that way, the responses came across as weak. But Papastergiadis' front foot approach here, and Windley's putting it at the front of the article, offers a change in approach:

“Everyone has a history and ours is a proud one,” Papastergiadis said. 

“But what defines us is that we've continued to refine and develop our future rather than relying on our history."

Put so simply, so succinctly, it encapsulates what I and others at the club have been saying for ages now. Don't write off the past, don't overemphasise it, just acknowledge it, with something like AA Phillips' 'relaxed erectness of carriage'. A comment like Bill's above shows that we are comfortable with who we were, who we are, and who we hope to be.

As to whether internet hatred is enough to run a sustainable A-League team... well, I think you know where I stand on that question. Hatred is useful but what is more important is love. Do people love us enough that should we come back into the national spotlight in some fashion. that they will support us at games in good times and bad?

To get back to the point we started on. Les, if you want to get the kind of publicity that South gets, it's difficult, but not impossible. You need to network. You need to wine and dine. You need to learn how to whisper sweet nothings into people's ears. But you also need to be hated. You then need to look at what South has achieved under this manifesto, and ask yourself, is it worth it?

South, too, needs to ask itself at some point if whether being hated is enough - there is after all a more important question that needs to be asked: 'is there enough goodwill, and is there enough love out there to draw people towards us?' Not that any of that matters of course.

I'm not an expert, so please don't hurt me
I don't really like talking about second divisions or promotion and relegation, because as you're all no doubt well aware, I consider them at present to be pie in the sky ideas.

That's not an expert opinion, nor is it an opinion based mostly on my self-loathing and loss of hope. In part it's based around the fact that there has been nothing concrete done about this for a ten year period apart from mostly self-pitying waffle, and I like to think it's understandable, perhaps even forgiveable if I mostly ignore the whole thing, come up for air every six months or so to give the whole scene a bit of a half-arsed bake, and then go back to ignoring it again while writing my usual piffle about other nonsense.

Certainly that approach to this topic makes me happy, but others apparently don't agree that it's particularly helpful, which misses the point somewhat; the point being that if all the dreamers of dreams on this front actually got together, put some effort beyond mere plans scribbled on the back of metaphorical napkins, there'd be less justification in me being grumpy. Though as we've all no doubt established by now, I'd be grumpy regardless of the situation. There's some interesting background to that, but that's not for this blog.

It's not that I hate the idea of a second division or promotion and relegation; it's just that I have serious doubts about either of them working. I don't believe there are the funds, or the prospect of substantial and continuing customer support. I believe that the concepts are largely anathema to Australian sporting culture at the top level. I don't agree that we should have them simply because nearly everyone else does. Yes I do agree that there are potential benefits in condensing the second tier talent pool into something more meaningful, and that a merit based system which includes up and down is more desirable than what we have now. But I also put forward the notion that a principle is not the same thing as a plan.

But the most important reason I don't think it will happen is because it undermines the very idea of the A-League. The A-League was designed to be self-contained, and to be like the other major sports in Australia. It's a cartel league, but sporting leagues in many places are cartel leagues for good reason - it's about creating a situation of mutual interest, almost a sense of commonwealth. That doesn't imply that the intentions are always pure - members of the cartel can and are motivated by selfishness - but when a cartel works roughly as it should, no individual team's interests are set above the others by such a magnitude as to destroy those at the bottom end.

That ideology has always bothered some people - especially when the cartel's interest is misleadingly or undeservedly put forward as equivalent to the whole of the game's interest - but the proof is in the relative pudding. The A-League, for all its faults, for all its stuttering, is the most stable national soccer competition that has ever existed in this country. It has also been embraced by the media, by broadcasters, by sponsors, and by patrons in a way that the past competition was not. I'm not arguing that the A-League is perfect, or that the cultural assumptions it makes about Australian society are not distasteful to me; but for the time being the competition is working, and has been relatively successful against the benchmarks both those within the game and outside of it have set for it - give or take a TV deal that didn't manage to reach the heights some people misguidedly hoped for.

So to my mind then a second division and promotion/relegation completely undermine the ideology that underpins the A-League, and of course the cartel would be against it. Be that as it may, I reiterate that I'm no expert on this issue. That's not of out some flimsy sense of self-preservation. It's just that I don't have the relevant data, information, research, call it what you will, to go beyond casual assumptions. My feeling however is that, except as concerns their own estimated capabilities of how they could function in such an environment, most of the interested parties don't have that data, information, or research either. And that to me is a big problem.

That some would hide behind notions of intellectual property also troubles me. Doubtless that's because apart from a lack of trust in other groups - that lack of truly believing in a common interest - some would also be happy to unleash a more dog-eat-dog model of competition upon Australian soccer. My concern then is that if proper vetting isn't done to ensure that a second tier league (with or without promotion/relegation) as a whole would be sustainable as opposed to individual licensees being sustainable, then the whole thing could collapse in a heap very quickly, and the consequences for such would be much worse than a little bit of embarrassment at having tried and failed.

And yes, there are very good points to be made about this same kind of distrust being at the core of the current FFA/A-League licence holder wrangle. Each side of that debate is attempting to claim the moral high ground, putting forward that in one way or another they have the game's best interests at heart. Instead things have gotten so bad that those masters of ethical practice FIFA have been brought into to sort stuff out. Anyway, that's where a lot of my less than informed reticence to discuss this particular matter comes from.

Like other issues that come up in Australian soccer these days, #prorelforaus is one that's embedded within the ultra-niche #sokkahtwitter culture; yet it's also managed to get more traction than #EraseNCIP ever could in all sorts of media circles. Even Elias Donoudis of Neos Kosmos chipped in with his opinion, urging people to get on with it sooner rather than later, adding in the slightly pithy piece of folk wisdom:

όποιος δεν θέλη να ζύμωση, 40 μέρες θα κοσκινιζει

('whoever doesn't want to knead, will spend 40 days sifting', with the 'whoever' replacing the less PC 'νοικοκυρά/housewife')

And while I'm a sucker for peasant sayings, each piece of folk wisdom also has its counterpoint saying. Anyway, in tune with those who want something to happen and for it to happen quickly, the Association of Australian Football Clubs has met recently and nutted out a few things, which is a good thing! It's not the be-all and end-all, because goodness knows a gabfest without any subsequent action is pointless. I've seen those kinds of things happen so often in all sorts of different spheres. But on the matter of the second division and such, they had this to say in a press release:

We intend to talk with all stakeholders, as well as complete some financial modelling from independent experts, ahead of publishing a report on the preferred model by the end of October.

October! Of this year! That seems like an awfully short turnaround time for an organisation that hasn't been around for all that long, but for those who know how to evaluate such things, it would be interesting to put this eventual model up against the sketchy modelling put up by the PFA, who have come out strongly against what they consider a cut-price semi-pro set up. I can see their point of view on this, from both their own self-interest and from a wider operations point of view. From their own point of view, a fully professional second tier means more PFA members. More full time professionals who are members of the PFA also means that their bargaining hand improves. There's also the hard-fought player welfare angle they've got in mind, but also the influence they've had as a collective in shaping the direction Australian soccer has taken.

South Melbourne chairman Nick Galatas in the thick of
 things at the AAFC meeting held recently. 

There's also of course the self-interest of the clubs, some of whom are no doubt interested in seeing the game progress out of the goodness of their own hearts, but the driving force for change comes mostly from another place. It's one of the reasons Crawford recommended eliminating the power of the clubs, as he had done with the VFL before. Keeping this in mind, many modern people fronting these clubs will be diplomatic and careful with their public words, but for some the thoughts of what is best for clubs is best for all is not that far from the surface - and lest one think I'm targeting only the dispossessed here, the A-League teams are no different when it comes to the manoeuvring they are trying to do to get on the FFA board.

There's always going to be argle-bargle on this but the issue is also tied up in the FFA's need to expand its voting structures. The AAFC want to get on the FFA board, as do the PFA, and of course the A-League licence holders. Being already represented by the states, it's difficult to see from my non-expert and very much outsider position how the AAFC could possibly get onto the FFA board. The A-League franchises, which generate most of the FFA's revenue because of the A-League broadcast rights will get some representation, and I don't see how the conceptual architects of so much that has happened in Australian soccer in recent years - the PFA - are going to be left stranded. That means that one way or another, the voting franchise will be made up of state votes that need to look after more than the interests of their NPL sides, and the A-League and PFA whose interests at this point in time lie in maintaining and refining the status quo.

For the South watchers though, there was also this:

The Board also welcomed the appointment of Nick Galatas of GPZ Legal as Legal and Regulatory Advisor to the Board, on the same voluntary basis as the AAFC Board.

which means that we're well involved in the goings on in this area, while still beating the South for A-League drum. It's nice to have something slightly different to occupy our time.

Then again...
If one doesn't care for my lacklustre enthusiasm for this topic, I'm always on the lookout for people to do guest pieces. South of the Border was never intended to be solely made up of my miserableness.

Final thought
There's a certain old foe which wears red, white and blue that's doing it a bit tough at the moment. Now I'm advocating sympathy, because goodness knows they'd be quick to dish it out if the positions were reversed. But it's always best to be careful what you mock, lest you become it. Greeks invented hubris, don't forget.

Everybody happy! Or not! Avondale Heights 0 South Melbourne 2

As one would expect, there was only a small crowd on hand to watch this game, with a good deal of South's usual traveling support probably performing part of their one bit of socio-culturally mandated religious duty for the year. So even with three quarters of the ground off limits to spectators, there was still plenty of room to stretch one's legs out at Knights Stadium in its Avondale hosted configuration. Not that this fixture was likely to attract a blockbuster attendance anyway.

Oh Marge, I went to plenty of NPL matches and it never hurt me.

Both before the game and during halftime the host team blared out music at a ridiculous volume, probably in a poorly thought out attempt at creating 'atmosphere', or perhaps trying to reach those Avondale supporters on the other side of the quarry. I'm not much for stadium music as it is, but could we at least keep the volume down to a level so that I could talk to the person next to me without needing to yell?

I thought we got off to a reasonable start. The handball decision which lead to our opening the scoring via the penalty spot seemed harsh - I'm not sure how much the Avondale defender knew about it as he was tracking back hoping to block the cross into the box. The game was fairly even at this point, though I think we looked the more likely to score the next goal. Sadly we didn't help our cause in this matter by resorting to playing corners either short or along the ground, a strange decision considering that opposition keeper Chris May is not the tallest goalie in this league. We also didn't do our cause much good by virtue of one of the most amazing botches of an otherwise certain goal you'll see for some time - the low cross fizzed across the face of goal, barely a metre in front of the goal line, and somehow three of our players missed it despite being in prime position to get us to 2-0. So it goes.

Avondale gradually started getting on top, and while some may say that the removal of Mathew Theodore for Iqi Jawadi during the second half was a catalyst for that, to be honest I think that the rot had already set in well before that. We found it very hard to keep the ball and were camped in our own half during the second stanza for long periods of time; and while we managed to scramble well in defense and repel most of the aerial bombardment, Avondale's poor finishing (and the tidy goalkeeping work of Nikola Roganovic) was as important to keeping the home side from scoring as whatever else happened on the night.

Having said all of that, we did manage to get into promising attacking positions in the second half, even if that was partly due to Avondale committing players forward, but that's the price you pay for falling behind. That need to push forward saw Avondale take more risks than they really needed to, with Chris May flying out of his own area; on one occasion a poor clearance saw him stranded, with the long range shot striking an Avondale defender and triggering calls for another handball, waved away this time by the referee; on another occasion, in May's haste to get the ball as far up the field as quickly as possible, it looked like he carried the ball about a metre outside his own 18 yard area before kicking it. Probably the only people who didn't see this were the officials, as even May looked around wondering how he'd managed to get so far up the field.

We did manage to score again via the last kick of the game, making the scoreboard look more respectable than a dispassionate analysis of the game would warrant. The result left some of us happy because we'd won, while others of us happy because we hadn't played well, and their feelings of vindication will only be magnified when we eventually do crash. Avondale were happy because they outplayed us, which is worth more than the three points on offer if you haven't managed to get those three points - though useless of course if you find yourself in a relegation battle. Massimo Murdocca came off the ground smiling for reasons one can only speculate on. The referees, too, would have been happy to get off the field without copping any abuse from the South fans alongside the players' race, as Roganovic distracted those supporters with a rendition of the trumpet chant. Clever man, that Nikola.

It's interesting to ponder the nature of the team as it has been developed during Chris Taylor's time. Not that the team has only ever played dour, results oriented football under Taylor (I can sense the objections flying in already...), but to some extent it was built to play and succeed in the conditions traditionally associated with Victorian soccer - crap, bumpy, muddy grounds. Think back to the years before Chris Taylor, where ball playing South Melbourne sides would often look much better at home on the usually well kept surface at Lakeside, only to struggle away where the grounds were often in much worse condition. But in 2016 most of the surfaces have been in great nick so far. Life persists in providing such paradoxes,

Like John Cain Memorial Reserve when we had a co-tenancy with Northcote, the surface at Somers Street is beginning to show signs of wear and tear, though it seemed to be far from unplayable. Barring the possibility of being drawn away to Knights or Avondale in the next round of the cup, we'll likely only have the one game left there this year, so we probably won't see it at its worst. Then again, is our team perhaps suited to grounds in poor condition rather than good? And after all the fence mania in 2016 - which seems to have died down already - I finally got to see the newly asphalted car park behind the grandstand. It was very asphalt-y*.

*Keep in mind that it could have been bitumen, not asphalt. I don't know anything about this stuff.

Next game
Melbourne Knights at Somers Street. At this stage the game is scheduled for Friday night, but this could conceivably change to a more traditional Sunday afternoon time-slot, so keep an eye out for that.

Update from South Melbourne regarding incident against Melbourne Victory
For those who have not come across it yet, the club released a statement yesterday providing an update on the investigation and identification of those Victory supporters involved in the attack on our supporters.

South Melbourne FC wishes to update its members, sponsors and the general football public on the recent progress made by the Club in regards to the incident against Melbourne Victory’s NPL team last Sunday 24 April 2016. 

SMFC has so far positively identified 21 individuals connected to Melbourne Victory Football Club that organised an unprovoked attack on SMFC supporters in the designated SMFC grandstand early in the second half of last Sunday’s match. 

Relevant information relating to these individuals, including names, footage and photographs have been given to Victoria Police, Melbourne Victory Football Club, Football Federation Victoria and Football Federation Australia. 

SMFC thanks the many people – including non-SMFC members and supporters – for assisting with information that has helped lead to the 21 positive identifications. The Club continues to investigate the incident as there may be more individuals that need to be identified. 

SMFC wishes to once again praise the actions of the SMFC supporters, who despite the unprovoked attack on them, remained in their allocated section to allow for security, parents, Board of Management, staff and club marshals to de-escalate the situation. 

Senior Coach Chris Taylor, his football staff and the players have all condemned the actions of the Melbourne Victory supporters but have praised the SMFC supporters and give their best wishes to anyone that was affected by this appalling incident. 

The players urge all SMFC supporters to continue their fantastic support of the team tonight against Avondale FC at Knights Stadium.

I think the club itself has done well with its public relations efforts, which is not something you can always say about South Melbourne, especially when an incident like this occurs.

Neos Kosmos
Some South Melbourne fans were wondering how much would be dedicated and how hard Thursday's Neos Kosmos would go regarding this incident, and how it would be spun; especially when compared to some of the criticisms levied at South Melbourne by Neos Kosmos in the past for unruly fan incidents by South fans. For the benefit of the non-Greek readers, in this piece, Elias Donoudis says more or less the following:

• Donoudis calls these Victory supporters disorderly and hooligans (on several occasions)
• Makes the erroneous statement that the Victory hooligan behaviour started after Victory fell behind on the scoreboard.
• Says that eyewitnesses reported to him that the Victory fans (who grabbed banners, threw bottles, etc), created the kind of atmosphere not seen in Australian soccer for some years, especially in the state leagues where the crowds are so small that they know each other by their first names.
• He claims the situation was eventually diffused by calmer heads and the police (which is wrong, because the police didn't turn up until after the main incident was over)
• He makes the point of how by the incident making it into mainstream media, those responsible for the incident also damaged the game and served the interests of those who oppose soccer.
• He mocks (cynically) the fact that Victory, South Melbourne and FFA made press releases on the matter, in a snarky manner adding 'good, we're saved now'.
• He hopes that these hooligans are already banned from the A-League, and will be banned from the state leagues.
• With some more sarcasm, he notes that in an era where we're told the game has made large strides, the continuing presence of these extremists will see the game go nowhere.
• He finishes with noting the irony of Vaughan Coveny (one of the nicest boys and a good footballer) coaching Victory Youth, having worn and done honour to the South Melbourne shirt as a player.

For whatever it's worth
The whole post 'botched banner stealing incident' reaction has been interesting. Most Victory fans have condemned the actions of those involved, even if some of those took their time on the matter. Pretty much the only ones not condemning the action have been people close to those allegedly involved, and that's hardly a surprise, though one attempt to turn those Victory fans attacking South's grandstand into the real or at least co-existent victims was at the strange end of those showing a lack of contrition. Still, it was better (and more amusing) than those feeble attempts by some to make both this and last week's incident of a South supporter getting hit by a flare somehow South's fault. I'm not so sure that some of the internet lynch mob efforts by our fans are appropriate, but welcome to the internet I guess - not every place is populated by people as kind and serene as those who read South of the Border. Add to that the fact that so much of this stuff is played out on the internet anyway, where everyone can spin events their own way. Thank goodness this blog has nothing to do with the internet.

The most interesting comment I came across regarding this incident was not on the internet, but rather on the physical plane of existence, demonstrating that the real world still has something left to offer. At Paisley Park today, where Altona East were hosting North Sunshine Eagles, I overheard some North Sunshine supporters discussing last Sunday's incident, with the woman among the group not buying South Melbourne's claim that they had identified 21 people. Now considering North Sunshine's own problems with the FFV tribunal during recent years, including a massive point deduction in 2016 for a pre-season barney with Sunshine George Cross which relied a lot more on eye witness testimony than the documentary evidence gathered in the South-Victory case, you'd think this supporter could be a bit more cautious and/or circumspect with such assertions.

Anyway, best to let the justice system run its course in this matter. Besides which, there were more extra curricular activities which took place today which had nothing to do with us, so this thing now has its own momentum independent of us.

Talking head for hire
Spent some time at Lakeside on late Thursday afternoon being interviewed for a uni project by a couple of budding sports journalists from La Trobe University. Usual drill in terms of questions, not sure if it will get a release beyond the confines of their class. The lads were very professional though - production had the works, discreet microphone, establishing shots (including hokey looking into the distance stuff). I hope they get a good mark, and remember the little people when they become famous journalists.

Match programmes
I got given some more stuff yesterday, late 1990s and early 2000s. Hope to begin uploading that stuff soon.

Around the grounds
Another favourite goes through to the next round. How inspiring.
Found myself making my way out to Port Melbourne on Wednesday night to see the Sharks take on the struggling Sunshine George Cross. Apart from languishing near the bottom of the NPL2 division, Georgies were lucky to get this far in the cup according to those who saw them play Keilor Park. Anyway, the Georgies showed a bit of pluck as you would expect them to do, but as soon as Port scored their second goal, this game was done. Port won it 6-1, and could have had double that, all while barely raising a sweat. Some fresh air and casual exercise walking to and from the ground was about all I got out of this game.

You get what you pay for
I was greeted at the entrance to Altona East's side of Paisley Park with 'hello, Mr Pass Man'. So off to a good start there. To make up for not paying entry I bought a souv (which I usually do anyway), but also a couple of raffle tickets (which I rarely do), and of course I didn't even hear the winning ticket announced. The first 15 minutes saw Altona East and North Sunshine provide some lively entertainment, which must have then buggered off to the pub or something, because the rest of the game was pretty ordinary. North Sunshine bundled in a corner at the back post, and made sure of the points with a goal at the end. Altona East never looked like scoring; even when they somehow beat the offside trap early in the game, the player in possession decided that instead of aiming at the entirety of the goal face he'd put it wide. The only other fun to be had was in spotting the Dodgy Asian Betting guy at the game. It looks like Victorian soccer's version of Where's Wally has infiltrated the state leagues.

Final thought
Clearly the problem last week was that our security measures were too sophisticated.

Extensive security measures in place to segregate fans at Epping Stadium to today's match #BunningsHazardTape pic.twitter.com/B4b5qCBAOL

— NPL Vic Football (@NPLVic_Football) April 30, 2016

Farce shambles - Green Gully 0 South Melbourne 2

Never, ever a dull day for South at Gully, but even I wasn't expecting today's shenanigans. But before the usual shoddy rundown of the game, well done to Green Gully for once again offering SMFCTV no help whatsoever to find a suitable place to film, a disgrace in itself in terms of hospitality, but even more woeful when they're not even sending their own film footage to FFV for the weekly highlights video. Clowns.

Gully have been a bit all over the shop this season, while we ourselves hadn't put in anything close to resembling a cohesive 90 minute performance; yet we were still undefeated and picking up points against some good teams under difficult circumstances. Leigh Minopoulos, who got a start at the expense of Andy Brennan, scored during the first half only to have it called back for offside. My immediate gut instinct, admittedly from viewing the incident from the halfway line, was that it was offside, though others closer in line insisted it was a legitimate goal. Minopoulos had another chance though to open the scoring, but mucked up the opportunity spectacularly - either shooting or better still, passing it to his right to the unmarked Milos Lujic would have sufficed - instead his inaction saw the chance squandered and Leigh copping a barrage of abuse for the effort. What was that it that Mr Miyagi told Daniel-san about being decisive?



Speaking of South fans abusing players, I didn't hear anybody abuse Nick Epifano at the point in time when he decided to abuse the South supporters. Now whether he said 'Greek cunts' or 'spastic cunts' or 'spastic Greek cunts' is irrelevant. But more on this later. And as something completely unrelated to this (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), the call of the day outside of the farcical post-match scenes was one of our fans offering to buy Roddy Vargas' Socceroo jersey for ten bucks.

It was a very even game, with Gully also finding themselves in good positions to score, but more often than not failing to make the most of their opportunities throughout the game. This was either due to woeful finishing, overuse of the ball, or when required, the heroics of Nikola Roganovic - and before I forget, yes there was a substitute keeper on the bench yesterday!

Remember also when I was a little mystified by Chris Taylor's comments following the Community Shield win over Melbourne Knights about us playing too direct? I mean, isn't that the supposed hallmark of the Chris Taylor game plan? Well yesterday highlighted to me what he was going on about. As with with several games this season, there have been too many moments where we have coughed the ball up cheaply in completely unnecessary situations - situations which weren't down to opposition pressure, but merely poor decision making. I'm no opponent of the long ball, but when it becomes the default option even in circumstances where it's not warranted, and all you do is end up giving the ball back to the opposition under no pressure, with the opposition closer to the middle of the ground... it just sucks man, you know?

Andy Brennan dispossesses Green Gully goalkeeper Kieran Gonzalez.
Photo: Kevin Juggins.

Was Lujic's first goal offside? Again my instinct was yes, but the officials thought otherwise, and we took the lead late on and put ourselves in the best position to win this arm wrestle of a game. Dane Milovanovic's ball to Lujic was perfect, and it was great to see Dane get a start and stiffen up the spine of the the whole structure. His distribution was also very good. I'm a big Andy Brennan fan, and while I know he's got a lot to learn yet about playing in this competition - especially in learning how to pace himself - off the bench thus far this season he has been an asset. Even if not every cross goes where it should, his attitude and willingness to fight for the ball means that defenders always have to be alert, and are more prone to making a mistake from implied pressure as well as actual pressure. Brennan's dispossessing of Green Gully goalkeeper Kieran Gonzalez, which he followed up with a lay-off to Lujic who snuck it into the net, was fabulous stuff.

Quite why Tim Mala received a red card after all of that is probably only known to those who were on the field. The inference being made is that Mala abused Gonzalez for screwing up, and after Gonzalez made an issue of it the referee decided to send Mala off, a heinous overreaction akin to when Jesse Krncevic was sent off a few years back against Heidelberg. Chances are that the red card won't be overturned, and who knows how many games Mala will miss because of it. Then the game finished and another tumultuous game at Green Gully Reserve had come to end,

And then...

the farcical scenes began, or should I say probably continued on from a few weeks ago. During half time of the Bentleigh game, one of our supporters had posted a comment critical of Nick Epifano's performance during that first half (see the screenshot on the right) on the South Melbourne Facebook page. Epifano responded in a hostile manner, and tagged in Iqi Jawadi to the discussion. I only became aware of this because of anonymous person who mentioned the incident in the comments section of that post. Upon trying to find evidence of the discussion, I came up mostly empty, as apparently comments with swearing automatically don't get published on the South Facebook page. If that's true, what this means is that the person who saw the post was either an insider, or was otherwise Facebook friends with Epifano and thus able to see the comment regardless of its content. Since I don't befriend any of our players on Facebook, and follow almost none of them on Twitter - a deliberate policy of mine - I can't say for certain how the comment was seen.

Regardless, all of that is beside the point. Epifano bit back in a very offensive manner to what was fairly tame commentary, and while the club tried to keep it quiet, it did leak via the relative blog comment onto smfcboard.com where it was confirmed by Con Shomos that indeed the incident had happened. From there, I asked the club via Twitter if Epifano would be punished, to which board member Tony Margaritis replied that the matter had been dealt with, without elaborating on what the exact punishment would be. Fair enough, give the bloke a bake behind closed doors, let the internal processes try to sort the situation out,

Now I'm always reticent to try and say things like 'all supporters think this' or 'most supporters consider that'. The risks and pitfalls are too obvious. But I think I can safely say that for most of our supporters, in their minds abuse directed at our players is not personal - though I can certainly see how it would be taken personally - but almost entirely an expression of their frustration at a given passage of play, or match or even season. In that sense, it's no different to supporters from almost any sporting club around the world.

Nick Epifano heads clear during the game. Photo: Kevin Juggins.

There's also a legitimate stream of thought out there that you should never abuse any player on your team. It's not one that I subscribe to for all sorts of reasons, but it's an opinion that a lot of people hold, and I'm not going to begrudge them that. The fact of the matter though is that yesterday Epifano didn't react to abuse, but to encouragement! While I didn't hear his comments, I can categorically state that those of us on the fence near where the outburst occurred did not abuse him, but only sought to encourage him to make a follow up effort while the Gully defender was in a relatively tight spot and potentially susceptible to making an error if put under more pressure - in other words, comments directed to every one of our players. Some fans even noted on the forums yesterday that even after Epifano's outburst, that the supporters by and large kept on trying to encourage him during the second half.

South fans don't have the best reputation for abuse of their own team, but the fact that Epifano seemed to get upset at that and not abuse is kind of disturbing to me. Does he have other issues that he's dealing with? I'm struggling to figure out what his problem is. I'm also hardly the eternal optimist when it comes to pretty much anything South related, but even at the end of the match I felt that the situation could have been rescued (even if only partially or temporarily) if only he'd come over with the rest of the team and thanked the fans for turning our, and in turn receiving thanks for the team's efforts - a display of mutual respect despite whatever tantrums were had in the heat of the moment. Instead this happened.

Picture says a thousand words. @smfc @PaulMavroudis @LAthanasakis @sthmel pic.twitter.com/NiO5q2rVpd
— KissOfDeathFootball (@KODFootball) April 4, 2015

Instead of swallowing his pride somewhat and trying to defuse the situation, his actions only served to make what was a hard fought win in a game that could have gone either, all about himself.

Then, as those of us along the fence were about to begin our exit out of the ground before having to deal with the traditional bottleneck situation in the Green Gully car park, attention turned to supporters further up on the hill getting into a blue with Nick Epifano's mum and assorted other friends and relatives of his, all while you could clearly hear the players singing the song in the change rooms with gusto. Now what exactly was being said and who started it, I have next to no idea, as I stayed near the fence watching on in amused horror at the utter farce shambles of the situation, only joining in with the childish yet appropriate Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! chant.

It was hard to make head or tail of the situation, as those on either side of the argument ended up inadvertently ganging up on those who were trying to calm the situation down, as well as somehow involving those who weren't even in the discussion at all. As stupid and unseemly as all of this was, it only got worse when Epifano came out of the dressing rooms in his club polo and track pants, crossed over to the outer side, jumped the fence and looked like he wanted to fight with some of our fans, only to be held back by his mum.

Eventually our president Leo Athanasakis came out, and people started to move on slowly, though the yelling and abuse continued out into the car park area. Thank goodness that the situtation didn't manage to escalate even further. The remaining South fans stood in the car park holding an informal debrief, trying to figure out what had happened, how it had happened, and what would happen next - as well as an inordinate amount of people asking me when it would all go on the blog.

The general though by no means unanimous consensus seemed to be that whatever actions the club had taken to punish Epifano after the initial Facebook incident, they had failed to make the situation better; that by and large, Epifano was not copping any abuse out of the ordinary, that indeed it was still mostly genuine encouragement (though word had spread of his first half outburst, and thius some fans were in mood to be conciliatory) and that he was certainly not receiving the kind of attention that Minopoulos had received when he fluffed his chance in the first half, After fan frustration at a poor cross he put in during the second half though, the abuse and frustration was more apparent, and to make matters, Epifano had another go at the supporters. Epifano is now as good as persona non grata and that the club (and certainly not the coach) has no option but to sack him; and that had he been playing for Melbourne Knights for example, the hardcore fans there would have been a lot less tolerant of his behaviour than we had been.

During this debrief, several South players emerged from the ground on their way to their cars, all of whom were applauded by the fans. I even made the (unusually for me) witty quip to those players that they shouldn't worry that we were all in the car park, as we weren't out to get them. So what happens next? There are some who are still willing to believe that the club can deal with this issue. For others, perhaps most of those who witnessed the incident, there is no option other than the most blunt and most obvious - Epifano needs to be sacked, and anyone else who wants to go with him can please themselves, In the anger of the moment, that was my opinion, too. However, on thinking about the situation overnight, it occurred to me that in some ways this is a situation I've dealt with before, and that my reaction in that case was very similar.

For those not aware, part of my non-South life includes teaching literature classes at university. A few years ago I had caught a student of mine blatantly plagiarising. What made it worse was that upon discussion with some of my colleagues, it turned out that she was a serial plagiariser. I was all ready to throw the book at this student and be done with her. However, after going through the plagiarism process with the student advocate, it turned out that there were deeper issues causing the plagiarism. It was only after the adherence to due process though that we got to that point. Now this student, who was shy and lacked confidence, was at least able to get the help she needed, and eventually she graduated.

Whether that experience of mine is entirely analogous to this situation is perhaps in the eye of the beholder. I had got upon my high horse about the matter, but what had that achieved? Likewise, it's an easy and understandable fact about those South fans that have remained loyal with regards to getting on their high horses about the matter. Part of our self-esteem as South supporters these days is in the fact that we are still supporting our club in the same way that we did when we were in the NSL instead of this horrid existence trapped under the metaphorical floorboards of Australian soccer.

We still expect excellence from our players, many of whom have no regard or understanding about what the club means to us. In some ways this is inevitable - the players are from a different generation, and their experiences are often very different to our own. We don't even have a social club to get to know them outside of South's media team, where acknowledgement of the fans may as well be part of the performance as opposed to something from the heart - a harsh thing to say when clearly there are players of ours who do appreciate the supporters.

The entire experience was light years away from the recent Dockerty Cup game against Whittlesea United, where Tansel Baser was treated like the legend of the club he is, while he wholeheartedly reciprocated after the match. All of which is a very long-winded of saying, is there truly no hope for Epifano to remain at South? Are we past the point of no return? The evidence seems to say that he's a goner one way or another, and the supporters who have spoken on the matter seem to generally be on the same page on this matter. Will the club hold the same point of view? What will be the consequences if he isn't sacked? What's the point of having a code of conduct if its not enforced? Should supporters get access to the players' code of conduct? So many questions that I'd love the answer to.

Or we could just sack the bloke and let the chips fall where they may.

Next week
Saturday afternoon on Orthodox Easter Saturday, at home against the Melbourne Knights who have an equal share of the top of the table - and doesn't that second part of the sentence just sicken you?

Pearl Jam sucks
Yesterday myself and another music fan agreed on this matter. We may have to start a support group for all those who don't get why so many people seem to rate them.

Elias Donoudis and his narrow sense of what our clubs mean
More nonsense from this chump, this time complaining about how last week's derby against the Bergers was hardly relevant to the Greek community, as there were hardly any Greeks playing in the game. Nevermind that his beloved 1984 South championship team had only one Greek starting player during both grand final legs. What a malaka.

Final thought
Later that night, after listening to Collingwood squeak home after almost coughing up a 50 point lead, I went out into the backyard with my dad so we could watch the lunar eclipse. In the background, the usual western suburbs hoons were doing their thing, passenger and freight trains rumbled past, and some fruit bats attacked my neighbour's fig tree in search of a feed. Watching the moon gradually become hidden by the Earth's shadow naturally brought out all the usual Sagan-esque clichés about how small and insignificant we are, and how stupid getting so angry and passionate about soccer is. Yet, we'll be back next week to do it all again, taking this game way too seriously relative to its cosmic importance, People are strange.

One Step Closer - Melbourne Knights 0 South Melbourne 1

On Friday night, a nervous crowd of close to 5,000 spectators - achieved despite almost zero promotion in the mainstream press - saw the Melbourne Knights fritter away several good chances in what was an often scrappy affair, to bow out of the finals in straight sets. It was the Knights' third loss in a row, all at home, after also having lost to Oakleigh in round 22, and Bentleigh Greens last week.

Conversely, Trent Rixon, a player not particularly rated by several Knights fans (mostly due to his apparent struggles against them over the years), ghosted in unmarked at the back post on 67 minutes, as a cross from the right eluded the clustered Knights defence, and with his first time finish sent South through to the preliminary final, its first appearance in that game since 2005 (remembering that in 2006, we skipped the preliminary final courtesy of our 2-1 win in the major semi final against Altona Magic).

After its near catastrophic mid-season slump, South has now lost just one league game out of its last 10 (to the Knights away), and is just one game away from a first grand final berth since 2006. Standing in the way are Northcote City, the deserved minor premiers who will be out to avoid a straight sets exit ala the infamous 1995 Port Melbourne team.

It was also South's first win against the Knights since 2011, and our first win against the Knights at Somers Street since 2010 (though that wasn't our last win there - that honour went to this dead rubber win against George Cross). It was also, somewhat remarkably, our third consecutive clean sheet after months of battling to even get near one.

Watching the video below by MFootball, you'd think we were comprehensively outplayed for the vast majority of this game. In reality that's only half right.



While we weren't great on Friday night, I reckon we still had the majority of possession in the first half, and a couple of chances as well. But possession football without much meaningful end product isn't very telegenic. The Knights squandered several gilt-edged chances, with their ultra direct style of play - directed mostly into the deep wing areas - seeing South put onto the backfoot almost every time after we turned the ball over.

Brian Bran soars high to win another header. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

The three players who stood out for us were Brian Bran - who was immense - but also Pete Gavalas and Shaun Kelly, who did much of the scrambling defensive work that was needed throughout this game. Trent Rixon and Luke Hopper, while not as effective as you'd want them to be, still did a good job of holding the ball up, and the Knights defense found it difficult to mark them both out of the game. Iqi Jawadi was good in the first half, though he faded a little little in the second.

The wings were once again were we were most vulnerable - Mala and Kearney not helped though by lackluster performances by Nick Epifano and Nicky Soolsma. The former was subbed off for Rhys Meredith in the second half, with Soolsma moving to the left and looking a little better for it, with Meredith putting in an industrious performance on the right. Tyson Holmes too, put in the hard yards - if only his long range shot had crossed the line! (and according to the Knights fan known as Mumbles, it did).

The celebrations on Quarry Hill at the end of the match were short and sweet, as the crowd was compelled by security to exit quickly. The organisation of the match was very good, with entry into the game compounded not so much by not having enough ticket sellers, but more by the sheer volume of people coming to the game and the nightmarish traffic situation outside the ground. Credit to the Knights for charging a flat $10 rate as well.

Players and fans celebrate the win, separated only by Somers Street's
 famous prison camp fencing. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

The crowd was boosted by being held at the same time as the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament, being hosted by Melbourne Knights due to it being their 60th anniversary. Some clueless South fans have fobbed it off as a bit of a gimmick, even though we can't even get a Hellenic Cup going consistently using only Melbourne based teams, let alone sides from across Australia and even New Zealand. I managed to catch a couple of minutes of one of the games on the outer fields - I saw a penalty won and then squandered when the keeper made a diving save to his right.

The Only Stat That Matters
Goals: Trent Rixon, 67th minute.

Around The Grounds
Part 1 - Going Up, Going Down (and let's just ignore the ramifications of the NPL and Southern Stars debacles for now)

Got to Port Melbourne early to watch North Geelong take on Avondale Heights in a promotion/relegation playoff. North Geelong were the State League One team hoping to stay in that division for one more year (hence the chant from their fans of "one more year"), while Avondale Heights were looking for consecutive promotions. North Geelong had a decent amount of support, including a chanting group, though Avondale Heights also had their own support as well.

The first half was complete balls. I think it took about 25 minutes for the first chance of the game, which the North Geelong player chipped over the bar. After that, there was a little of goalmouth action at the other end of the field, but nothing to write home about. 0-0 at halftime and everyone hoping for something more substantial in the second half.

Avondale Heights picked up their game, getting some through balls going and forcing the North Geelong defence into scrambling. North Geelong were also a little better in the second half, but the spoils had to go to someone, and in the end the right team won. With about 10 minutes to play, Avondale Heights won a free kick on the edge of the box, which was curled over the top of the wall, skimming a North Geelong head, and grazing the outstretched arm of the keeper as it went into bottom right hand corner.

North Geelong had one glorious chance to equalise after that, but instead their recent status of being a bit of a yo-yo club continues. On a side note, the souv yesterday was crap. Eight dollars for 5 pieces of meat surrounded by doughy pita? Ridiculous.

Part 2 - Who's Next? (Two usually good teams serve up inedible slop, which they wouldn't dream of doing to us next week)

Northcote vs Bentleigh promised so much, and delivered so very little. Admittedly, I was only there because we had won the night before, otherwise I would have been far too miserable to go to this match. So while looking for an enjoyable night out, with hopefully a lot of injuries and cards, and a draining, bruising extra time period, both these clubs (and Bruno the referee) did their best to disappoint.

No cards, because while it was wasn't a very physical game, Bruno in his usual fashion didn't bother handing out any cards, even when one Northcote player was chopped from behind. Few injuries, because most of the turnovers were created not by crunching or physical challenges, but by the shocking passing games of both teams.

There was maybe one half-chance to Northcote late in the first half, but that was about it. The second half was little better. Both teams struggled to create meaningful passages of play, struggling with the tight confines of the ground, The defenses did their job, marking tightly and staying disciplined, but it would have been nice to see them under some genuine pressure as well.

Bentleigh opened the scoring with about 10 minutes to go, when De Vries was left wide open at the back post. Northcote won a penalty straight from the re-start, to send the game into extra time. Bentleigh took the chocolates with a headed goal by De Vries, sending their 50 fans completely mild.

The obvious concern is that both these teams can a play a lot better than that, and that they'll certainly lift when they play us.

Next Week
Against Northcote this coming Sunday Saturday Sunday at Port Melbourne. Shades of 2011 much? There were rumours of other grounds being used - most notably Epping - but instead we'll all be crammed into SS Anderson Reserve. Hopefully they'll open up the outer wing, otherwise no one's going to be able to see anything. The goalmouths at each end also need some love, because they're a right mess at the moment.

Also, if we win this game, then we better hope that Bran doesn't pick up another yellow card. One more, and he'd miss the decider, if we made it that far.

Old Man Bus Stop Chat
Waiting for the bus home, got talking to a Northcote/South supporting old bloke. Another person who has noticed the nonsense being peddled by Elias Donoudis about present day South bearing no relation to olden times South.

Final Thought
When the number of titles won by a team are counted, they're never split into the 'good ones' and 'shit ones'.

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times

Let's see what happened over the last week or so.

• The Dockerty State Wide Knockout Cup was played, and won by Green Gully over Dandenong Thunder. Gully were presented with the State Wide Knockout Dockerty Cup for doing so. Confused? Why should you be confused by the actions of an organisation which has promoted an A-League team's special junior membership season ticket offer more than it did for one of its own showpiece events for the season.
• Speaking of the A-League, old mate Patrick Kisnorbo has ended up at Melbourne Heart. You may recall that in this article that we reported how someone else reported that Kisnorbo wanted a lot of money. Bleed them dry, Patty.
• When I went to go on the Victory forum to see them gloating with their usual 'yoof!' catch cry (or to do it first myself), it turned out their forum had been hacked. What's the future for that site? I don't know. I hardly visited there any more, all the debates that were worth having (in a manner of speaking) were sorted out a long time ago, in everyone's else's favour, of course.
• More Syson vs Lynch hysterics on Twitter last week, which lasted for a good 3-4 days this time, as people dropped in and out before eventually getting bored. Bloggers from all over the place, fellow Fairfax hacks, people who hate Ian Syson (and there's a lot of those on the net it seems) - just who didn't get sucked into that vortex of stupidity? Incidentally, this latest edition of their feud was kicked off by Lynch's paranoid response to a Bonita Mersiades tweet. Was anything solved or sorted out? I don't know. Things got so absurd at one stage that I was even dubbed 'the nation's most under-appreciated football writer' in Joe Gorman's rather good article on the matter, and 'a funny man and if only he could be tamed he'd be a great columnist' by another writer. It lead to a moderate boost in my Twitter following, which was good for my ego I guess.
• Elias Donoudis blathered on more about the shadowy (yet full of morally upright Hellatzides) group looking to take over the board, without saying much at all.
• Bob Jane T-Marts is back on board as a sponsor.
• I went and saw Altona East beat Westgate 2-0 in a catch up game. Ex-South player Andy Bourakis scored one of the goals, a first minute penalty.
• Ex-South junior Peter Skapetis has apparently pledged his future to Australia.
• Back to the FFV for a moment, some of the zone reps have apparently called for an EGM to get rid of the current board.
• In addition to that, the NPL keeps on keeping on, but some people at Bulleen aren't so happy about their club's direction. They're looking to get their own special meeting thing going, if the link is correct.

So all in all, a pretty quiet week in Victorian soccer. This week, back to the horror that is the real world of actual on field South Melbourne action.

Fire Up, Farken - Knights vs South preview

This 'derby' is a bizarre one. When did it become a derby game? How much of it is retrospective? Because let's be honest, while there have been many classic encounters between the two sides, and a healthy sort of respect for each other built up over many years, when did it become the match of the season?

Pre-NSL, Croatia's flame burned too briefly at the top - and they got banned in 1972 anyway - to say there was a derby at that time. Besides, they were probably gunning more for Footscray JUST during that era. I'm guessing we were more interested in games against Alexander, Juventus, George Cross? At a pinch, against our Middle Park co-tenant Hakoah?

Then we barely played each other for seven years. So I guess 1984, Croatia's first NSL season, where we eliminated on them on the way to our first NSL title, is the start of it? Perhaps. 1991 creates something far more tangible. Then the Mark Viduka show that was the 1995 preliminary final. A few more finals along the way - but still, for a lot of the NSL, as with a lot of our history, it's been Heidelberg that's been our focus.

On a quick and lazy search, there's mention of it being a 'derby' game by 1996. But that's in the context of Sydney derbies, Adelaide derbies etc. And it's still not the Melbourne derby yet. But then every other Victorian team dies or goes away by 2001/02, and we're the only two Victorian sides left in the NSL - so it becomes The Melbourne Derby by default. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's interesting to see how what was a healthy rivalry has been dubbed a derby game partly in retrospect.

Although, as one forum person noted today, the FFV's preview for this doesn't even bother to mention that NSL history.

It hasn't helped that neither side has set their post-NSL eras on fire. Hell, it doesn't help that being in the VPL has doused much of the passion that once fueled these sides. Even the numbering is probably off as well. 87th derby? More like 98th, according to whomever compiled the relevant stats for the Melbourne Knights wikipedia page. It appears that the Knights person who wrote their recent press release and made up that stylish flyer has left out the finals matches, which would actually give them a slightly better record. How generous of them.

But trivia aside, this game is huge for both teams, and both sets of fans still take this fixture very seriously. The Knights are still within sight of a top place finish, something they haven't achieved since 1995. Even a single win will almost certainly guarantee them their first finals appearance since 2008, the year they lost the grand final to Altona Magic courtesy of Carl Recchia's, late, late, late goal in extra time, when the Knights were being coached by one Chris Taylor.

I've seen Knights play three times this season - their away win at Richmond, away loss to Oakleigh, and draw with us at Lakeside. It's fair to say that the first two results, both early in the season, don't matter at all now. Even their draw against us, meh. There's no Ljubo this time to settle them, but also no Ljubo to give us a hand with an own goal.

It's also the second best defence against the second best attack in the league. Immovable object against irresistible force and all that. Do these things actually play out in that manner though? I don't know, I expect us to cop goals every week now, but scoring them is not so easy, even with our recent good form in that department, and the 2013 Knights have a habit of getting last gasp, never give in, Stabba Marth™ wins.

I'd like a win, but I'll reluctantly take a draw on the road.

But Before All That
Me and/or other writers from this blog may well be seen at Port Melbourne tonight the game between the Sharks and the Greens. Here's hoping for a dour, violent 0-0 draw. Tomorrow, life permitting, we may be taking a trip out to Brunswick City for their clash against Altona East. Souvs are only part of the attraction here - ex-South winger/forward Kyle Joryeff is apparently playing at Leonidas these days, and it'd be nice to see him in action again.

A Boring, Petty Old Man (And The People Who Allegedly Talk To Him)
We don't usually like giving Elias Donoudis and his column in Neos Kosmos that much oxygen on here. We've covered our grievances briefly here in 2012 during the Wellington Investments farce. And the Kiss of Death (remember them?) went in harder earlier this season, here.

So, yes, Elias is back on his old hobbyhorse of South not being the real South, and that it's all the fault of the current board and not the people - pleb and committee man alike - who left the club in the lurch, and wasn't it better when Elias' mates were running the club etc.

(It's funny though how the teams we play most weeks these days lift their performances when they face us. Funny also how the Melbourne Knights, leading into this game, have produced promotional material which leaves no doubt that they think we are the real South Melbourne - we get more respect from our opponents than our supposed 'fans' these days).

But this time there's a twist! Elias says he can't reveal more, but he says there are plans for former sponsors or committee people or something to come back and turn the club from poor old unrecognisable and irrelevant South Melbourne back into Mighty Hellas! PHWOAR!

While his details are scant - of course - I welcome any and all South members who want to have a tilt at running the club the opportunity of doing so. Look at me, saying that as if it was up to me, ha.

Of course, one has to consider several things here. Is this even real? At both previous elections, there were rumours of people willing to make a move, create a ticket, and fight for control of the club. It didn't happen.

But assuming this is real, are these people even members? If they are, why haven't they made their move earlier? Unless of course it includes disgruntled recently evicted board people.

If they aren't members, why not? Is the club only worth rescuing now because people - the people who've done the hard yards over the past nine years - have actually made it salvageable?

Ah, the questions that keep you up at night, to quote someone or other.

FFA Cup, Here It Comes (Seriously!)
I've scoffed at this many time before, but here's something a bit more concrete, apparently.

The plan for the FFA Cup includes amateur and semi-professional clubs, including National Premier Leagues, and Hyundai A-League clubs entering the draw on a progressive basis.

The options allow for existing State and Territory based cup competitions to remain in place as feeder competitions to the national cup.

The nine State and Territory Member Federations and 10 Hyundai A-League clubs have unanimously endorsed the proposal to stage the inaugural FFA Cup within the calendar year with a Cup Final in December 2014.

But will it actually happen? And the final in Decemeber? Two or three months after the state leagues have finished their seasons? Rubbish. Then again, I've never been a fan of this idea anyway.

Semi-Mandatory NPLV Update
Now heading for mediation in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Tired Of Writing This Week - Oaks vs South preview

So Here's The Match Preview As Stolen From The FFV's Official Preview Service

Oakleigh Cannons (9th) vs South Melbourne (7th)
Sun 3:15pm, Jack Edwards Reserve

Round 17
Dandenong Thunder 3-1 Oakleigh Cannons
South Melbourne 6-1 Hume City

VPL History
Oakleigh Cannons win: 6
South Melbourne win: 9
Draw: 3
Last time they met: South Melbourne 2-1 Oakleigh Cannons

Form
Oakleigh Cannons: DWWWL
South Melbourne: DLWDW

Could this be the most highly anticipated ninth versus seventh match ever?

Both teams looked down and out a month ago but are now preparing for a mini elimination final.

The winner will find itself roaring into finals calculations, while it could be season over for the loser.

South Melbourne has become a goalscoring machine at home, scoring 12 goals in its past two matches at Lakeside Stadium.

The situation in away matches is a lot different though, where it has not won on the road since Round 3 against Bentleigh.

Oakleigh was firing on all cylinders before it again bowed to fellow 2012 grand finalist Dandenong Thunder at the weekend.

The Cannons are running out of lifelines and could either flourish or implode against South Melbourne, such is the latter’s Jekyll and Hyde season.


An Idiot's Guide To The NPL Victoria Argle Bargle
Here's a massive, probably over long, yet not long enough piece on what's going on with NPL Victoria, from hopefully a more objective perspective. Thanks to Costa from Goal Weekly for commissioning the piece.


Τιτιβίσµατα
To end this slack edition, we'll head over to Twitter, where our friend Pavlaki noticed that the twitterer known as SMFC Mike managed to get the attention of Elias Donoudis. It's in Greek, unfortunately for the non-Greek readers.

@smfcmike you got a mention in the Rag, lol. pic.twitter.com/oEGp2bpj6R
— Paul Touliatos (@pavlaki1969) August 15, 2013

Casual Friday - Richmond 1 South Melbourne 1

Bloody cold on Friday night, with a bitter wind. A win would have made it worthwhile, but we didn't get it, did we? What hurt the most - apart from the missed opportunities - is what looked like a casual attitude of playing out from the back and of clearing the ball out of that area. It eventually came back to bite us on the arse, and saw us drop two points again against a competition struggler, after we'd already dropped two points each against Southern Stars and Pascoe Vale.

It's just a little bit dispiriting. In the end, I thought Richmond probably deserved a goal, but we deserved two. We didn't get it, and now we're back in our little hole. Hopper's goal was great, but his missed opportunity in the second half - damn it! - one of those occasions where either side of the keeper would have done the trick, but unfortunately it went straight at the keeper. Holmes' shooting is still reliably unreliable, though I thought he had a good game otherwise. Rixon coming off the ground injured changed the game a bit. His presence suited the style of play we've adopted (I think), and we were a bit lost when he went off. Meredith got a go, where usually Vlahos has been subbed on in such situations. Somebody on smfcboard has suggested that Vlahos may have quit the club. Hope that's not true, as surely we'll need someone of that calibre for our cup run at the very least.

It was interesting to see Maynard in goals again considering Gavalas could have returned after serving his suspension. But having done nothing wrong, and possibly because he is our wave of the future, Maynard started and did well again. I don't think he made any significant errors - though late in the game I would have preferred he kick it long rather than throw the ball short.

It's always crap when we play a thug/physical team and we get a ref like Bruno. He and the assistants copped their fair bit of grief from our supporters, but in the end it wasn't a deciding factor in the result. It's not been the most descriptive of match reports, but I paid even less attention than usual to what was going on.

Steve From Broady's Under 21s Report
South Melbourne's under 21s were away at Richmond on Friday night. South were aiming to make it a perfect month with four wins from four games. South kicked off the match and in the fourth minute they lost the ball on halfway and the Richmond front man ran the ball down half the pitch, dummied a shot, rounded the South keeper and slid the ball home to give Richmond a 1-0 lead.

South kicked off again trying to get back on level terms but the South lads just didn't look right with several South players slipping over and calling for a change of boots. The boys were made to pay for their poor start again with Richmond running down the wing with the ball, cutting into the area and firing in a shot which beat the young South keeper on his near post in the 12th minute. 2-0 Richmond and South would have to perform a miracle to come back from their poor start.

And not even 10 minutes later South had conceded again, Richmond's number 28 picking up his second as he put the ball through the South keeper's legs and into the back of the net to give Richmond a 3-0 lead. Richmond continued to control possession for the rest of the first half and once again were rewarded before half time with Richmond's number 28 completing his hat-trick putting the ball through the South keeper's legs once again to send Richmond into the sheds with a 4-0 lead and unfortunately for South conceding their third soft goal of the night.

Baggio Yousif who had scored 8 goals in three weeks was non-existent in the first half. As Richmond kicked off the second half four goals to the good South quickly regained possession and dominated it for the whole second half, creating heaps of opportunities but failing to score them.

They were condemned to their first loss in a month, but there was some good news for South in the last minute, as Baggio Yousif got the ball inside the area and fired home to give South a consolation goal. 4-1 to Richmond it finished, a disappointing result for South, the worst game they have played all season and unfortunately the championship looks gone with Northcote running away with the title 15+ points clear with six games left. South are at home against Hume city next week see ya then.

Steve From Broady's Canteen Report
I was at Richmond's canteen on Friday night. With all the news coming out of there I was not expecting much. I had a burger witch was in general OK to solid, but it was not filling and the tomato was rubbish. I give the Richmond canteen a 6.5 - the glory days of Richmond's canteen are over and with them likely to get relegated it looks like we will never eat there again. Sad, but life goes on. Back at the South food van next week, can they get their average score up? All will be answered next week, see ya then.

1. Pascoe Vale 10/10
2. Hume City 8/10
3. Bentleigh Greens 7/10
4. Richmond 6.5/10
5. Northcote City 3.5/10
6. Southern Stars 2/10
7. Green Gully 1/10
8. Dandenong DQ 

South food truck

• Week 1 - 4.5/10
• Week 2 - 7/10
• Week 3 - 8.5/10
• Week 4 - 5/10
• Week 5 - 5.5/10
• Week 6 - 9/10
• Week 7 - 6/10
• Week 8 - 7.5/10

Next Game
Hume at home. Do or die and all that.

A scene from the reserves game, before the weather turned.
Photo: Paul Mavroudis (taken on my shitty phone)

Around The Grounds
For the first time in a few months I was able to make it out to an Altona East game. They were playing Whittlesea Ranges, a team I don't give a toss about, especially since they've never really played soccer that has caught my attention.

I caught the second half of the ressies match, where East managed to score an equaliser against the run of play, and probably should have snatched it. 1-1 it finished there, a pretty sloppy game even by state 2 reserves standards.

East's senior haven't been having a good time of it this season, but I must have caught them on a good day, because they were all over Ranges in the first half. Winger Peter Meletis should have opened the scoring but put his header onto the crossbar unmarked and about metre out. Never mind though, as East took a 2-0 lead through Colin Hopgood and Teddy Yabio.

The wind that East had in the first half dropped off, and the rain started, slowly at first, but then increasing in intensity as the match wore on. Ranges were the better team in the early parts of the second half, and their persistence saw them pull back a goal and make a game of it. Too bad for them, they conceded a goal at the near post from a corner, Paul Galea the scorer. Teddy Yabio nabbed another goal at the end for East, and that was that.

So all in all, a cold, wet, but happy day at Paisley Park. And the souvs are just as good as they ever were.

Neos Kosmos
Kings of comedy these people. So, after reading about our whinging somewhere about how they've called us Σαουθ Μελμπουρν in their Greek language section, and not doing similar things to other clubs, they've relented and have started mixing it up a bit with all the teams getting a bit of a treatment.

Still, they couldn't avoid having a dig in their own pathetic way. When Mr Donoudis was talking about the NPL issues - I thought he wasn't really interested in writing about state league issues, but there he was anyway - and he writes about how none of us thought we could have a national league with Marconi, Olympic etc, he mentions us in that list as 'South (then)', once again making his insipid point about us not being the 'real' South.

It's an attitude so childish even a blogger would blush.

NPLV
Off to court it seems. It's become an annual tradition.

Final Thought(s)
Considering he has his own Ferrari, yacht and Hawaiian island (one of the good ones, not one of those with the lepers) the Cypriot nut-man could at least crack a smile as he pushes his trolly around, especially after Hopper's quite lovely goal. And what happened to peanuts anyway? It's all seeds and cashews these days. And he could at least have put a warm towel over them to keep the cashews warm.

Anyway, while I don't want to go all Michael Lynch and judge our soccer primarily by its food, but in the event that the NPL doesn't go ahead or that we're in situation where we don't play them because we're in separate comps, good riddance to Richmond and whoever's running the joint there these days, for ripping out the heart and soul of that club. Got rid of the cakes, got rid of the good burgers and kranskies, and it looks like they've messed up the bar as well. And speaking of the cakes, your little prepackaged muffins aren't fooling anyone. Go to hell.