Shambles to shambles, farce to farce - South Melbourne 1 Green Gully 0

This Federation! This competition! Every week there's something new. In especially good weeks, you may get several bits of nonsense all on top of each other. And if you've been very good, the Victorian soccer farce fairy might even bless you with the gift of multi-farce in grand final week. This week has been one of those glorious occasions - and we still have grand final day itself yet to come. The way the events transpired, Football Victoria comes out looking like an organisation that did not seem to have a Plan A, let alone a Plan B.

I can't help but think this is all South Melbourne's fault. If only we had folded in 2004 like we should have. If only we had not won the 2006 grand final that Oakleigh didn't qualify for, thanks to their legendary choke. If only we hadn't won the 2015 Dockerty Cup final at Lakeside against Oakleigh. If only we hadn't won the 2016 grand final n home turf against Oakleigh. If only we'd smiled and said "please sir, can I have some more" whenever Oakleigh inevitably came for another one of our players, in their vain and ongoing attempt to be us. If only we had sucked just that little more than we have managed to over the past 17 years - not quite as bad as Melbourne Knights, but somewhere in that ballpark - then there wouldn't be an issue at all.

Can you imagine anyone caring about all the things that happened this week, had it been an Oakleigh vs Green Gully final instead? Sure, there might've been some fuss-kicking, but it's probably fair to say that had Gully qualified for the grand final instead of us, the grand final double-header would have been played at Lakeside, Lewis Italiano parachuting into Jack Edwards Reserve onto the corpses of Oakleigh's seven or eight eligible goalkeepers would have been grumbled upon mostly by a handful of Heidelberg fans, and there's no chance that federations and clubs would feel the need (at implied gunpoint, in some cases) posting notices reminding people not to take recourse to abuse on social media.

But we mucked things up making the finals, then by winning the minor premiership, and we especially mucked up last week by defeating Green Gully despite much inconvenience. Within the first 20 minutes, the referee missed (apparently due to an unfortunate angle) Ben Djiba having his leg snapped by a Gully defender. The we had Andy Brennan go off with a groin injury. Twenty minutes gone, and two of five substitutions gone, and two of the three (not including half time window), substitution making slots gone. And yet, somehow despite this - and despite having to take off substitute Josh Wallen early, because had a yellow card, and who'd want to (hypothetically) play with ten men for 50-60 minutes deep into injury time in the event that Wallen got sent off - we got through.

Sure, we were the better team for most of the game, but my goodness was there also some arse involved. Morgan Evans had a solid game replacing Djiba. Alun Webb's outside-of-the-foot winning goal, past a wrong-footed and blindsided Gully goalkeeper, looked magical live, and much less magical on replay. I haven't even dared look at the last ten minutes of the match, where we sat back to hold the lead, and saw one cross after another flash across the face of our six-yard-box. I don't even really want to think about long throws, or no Harrison Sawyer, or as some (including this pseudo-reporter) have put it, getting this far with basically no midfield. I'll say this of this team - one thing it hasn't lacked for all season is heart. Normally that shouldn't be enough to get you this far, but here we are.

You won't die wondering this year. "Swoop the ref" has
 already been crowned South of the Border's chant of the year.
I will not be taking any further questions on this matter.
Photo: Luke Radziminski.

So on Sunday evening, having won our way into our first grand final since 2016, we were faced with the absurd situation that no-one knew where we were going to play the grand final, or when. To be fair, the warning signs were there even in the lead-up to the finals, when media pass holders received an email to apply for grand final access, and there was no detail about when or where the grand final would be played.

Normal people had perhaps assumed that as per the most recent grand finals prior to the Covid cancelled seasons, that'd we end up at AAMI Park. But as the finals series wore on, it appeared less and less likely that would happen. Uncertainty about if/when Melbourne Storm would host an NRL finals match was certainly something to consider. Cost too exorbitant to hire, especially in the event that South didn't make it, especially against an equally marquee opponent? Also sensible to take on board. Where else could they play it? Knights Stadium, with its pitch troubles? Olympic Village, with its lighting troubles? Anywhere else, with its everything else troubles?

It was a surreal moment when post-match some South fans threw out as a suggestion - completely in jest - Caroline Springs George Cross' ground in Plumpton, I mean, it was just a joke. It was also surreal seeing South championship winner, former Football Victoria president, and current Football Victoria CEO Kimon Taliadoros being corralled in our social club by several people, all asking the same question: where is the grand final going to be played? And all he could offer with certainty was "not Lakeside". Which, despite all the rumours going around, seemed to be the most certain detail once we'd qualified for the final. 

That only serves to reinforce the conspiracy theory that our winning the game on Sunday was the worst thing that could've happened to FVs grand final plans. You can almost guarantee that had we lost, the grand final would have been held at Lakeside, and pretty much no-one would have complained. But we had won, and our opponent would be Oakleigh, a long-term grumbler on being made to play cup finals and grand finals against South at Lakeside.

So Lakeside was out. And night fell, and no announcement had been made. And then the next morning, and still no news. Until finally the announcement came. City Vista! With 280 odd seats, limited shelter, and no elevation around the outer. City Vista, with its small car-park and poor public transport connections. 

Some of us have been around long enough to remember the 2013 preliminary final at the neutral SS Anderson Reserve in Port Melbourne, and what a magnificent occasion that was: lines out the door, crap sight-lines, rain pissing down with next to no shelter. Some of us are also able to recall the 2016 grand final at Lakeside, and in particular its shambolic organisation. Limited ticket booths and that slow Ticketmaster printing mess. People not getting in until 20 minutes after kickoff. The outer stand not opening until the second half. Not enough food vendors. The crowd being let in for free because of the gate shambles. 

Some of the people who made the City Vista decision were literally in charge the day they realised too late that they should've opened the other grandstand for the 2016 grand final. Instead of remembering that farce, they decided to play the 2022 grand final in a phone booth. What about the elderly, those with children, those who are unable to stand for long periods of time - hell, what about short people? A venue chosen purportedly in part for its accessibility - unlike some other options, it has four changerooms, which can accommodate both the women's and men's finals - ironically excludes almost every other class of soccer person.

Even as a relatively tall, able-bodied person, I can't say that I would want to watch a match of this importance at a venue like that. Judging by the highlights videos that Essendon Royals made from their away games there, the only elevated part of the non-seated areas is the media tower. And you've also got those big, black benches like Hume City have, which also obstruct views, and those big black fences at each end. 

While things have changed over the past couple of years for me and my sojourning around Melbourne's grounds, I still like to think that I generally make an effort to get to far-flung and below par amenity wise grounds. I think my record on that speaks for itself. And yet, the decision to play this match at City Vista was so insulting, so degrading, I made the choice early on that I would not go. I'd watch the game in the social club, or at a mate's place, or at home. I'd rather not do that - I'd rather be at every game we play, especially this one, supporting our players -  but at some point even I have to think about my own sense of dignity. Others were torn on the matter of whether to attend or boycott, and I had no quibble with that. But it's fair to say that regardless of whether you were planning to go or not, the reaction to the announcement of City Vista as the grand final venue was intense.

What a way to start grand final week. The original
 announcement on Facebook had attracted tons of
mostly negative commentary before the deletions
 started; and then it was locked completely. 

And it wasn't even just South fans having a go. No one loves a crisis (and a whinge) more than Australian soccer fans, but it's been years since I've seen this level of engagement with Football Victoria's social media efforts. Like most social media efforts at this level, most posts enter the world while barely leaving a footprint in the digital engagement snow. Here though, it got to the stage where there were so many people voicing their frustration, that a Facebook post promoting the first local grand final in three years had to lock comments. Just about the only people defending the decision were a couple of George Cross supporters. I feel sorry for the people running the social media for FV. They're the ones being asked to put lipstick on one hell of a pig. This should be the week where they get to do some of their best work; yet they've been relegated to deleting comments to shield an incompetent and unaccountable board from their incomprehensible decision. 

So FV couldn't promote the final. South Melbourne couldn't promote the final. Even Oakleigh weren't promoting the final. This wasn't just because of the backlash, but also because even after having announced the venue and timeslot, and having announced the time that tickets would be available for purchase online, no tickets - not even a link for those tickets - were available at that designated time. 

One hoped that the radio silence was because alternatives were being thrashed out. It's hard to admit when you've got it wrong, especially with everyone hammering you - but there was still time for FV

to fix their mistake. Take the social media outrage on the chin, and just do what was best for the game. Show some leadership. Maybe even make a display of that core value of "openness", and explain how we got here, and how we're going to move forward to a better solution.

Somewhat incredibly, that's (kind of) what happened. 

Football Victoria put out a press release announcing a change of venue for the double header from City Vista to Olympic Village. It even explained that AAMI Park was ruled out due to expense, and that Lakeside was ruled out because it would not be a neutral venue. Fair enough. But surrounding those brief explanations about why two grounds weren't used, there was also some extremely salty prose on why City Vista, and why that was actually still a good decision. And that justification basically comes down to the venue having four changerooms, better accommodating the men's and women's matches, making sure that "the player, officials and sponsor experience would be exceptional."

The fans appeared to have been nowhere in FV's consideration of choosing a venue. What's quite astonishing about that is that it reveals a belief within Football Victoria that they doubt that there'll be much of a crowd to a first NPLMVIC (and even NPLWVIC) grand final day in three years. It's one thing for fans to moan about the state of local soccer crowds but it's quite another for the organising body itself to come out and say that a venue with 280 seats (many of which will have their sight-lines blocked from people standing on the fence line), no meaningful elevation, no shelter, big black benches, and big black fences at each end, would be more than adequate. 

Either that, or Kimon's comment in our social club following the Gully match - that they had no idea where the grand final would be played, except certainly not at Lakeside - was absolutely true, and that they made the City Vista decision on the run. Honestly, I don't know which would be worse - that FV were going to play the grand finals at City Vista all along, and only pretended to not know that in advance; or that they had no plan of what to do in case Lakeside did not present itself as an option, and then had to get their PR crew to write retconned guff about how City Vista was the perfect venue for such an occasions, if only it wasn't for the pesky fans demanding that they be allowed to enjoy the day, too. 

And even though Olympic Village is an improvement, it still could have been better. Pave Jusup, president of Melbourne Knights, noted that his club had offered Knights Stadium to FV weeks in advance of the finals, and that the problematic pitch would have been prepared with due care for the day. The lack of changerooms which apparently ruled out Knights Stadium, with its 4,000 seat covered grandstand, plentiful parking, and elevated terracing, did not rule out Olympic Village. One could gripe about not making the "perfect the enemy of the good (enough)", but the persistence in playing both men's and women's finals on the same day is an obvious part of the problem.

Given that they apparently had no plans about what to do either way, it doesn't make sense as to why FV didn't just choose to play the NPLW grand final on a different day, as a standalone fixture. They've done it before, and it was fine, good even. They could even have played it at the City Vista venue that they apparently think so highly of. That way you could also play the men's 21s grand final - which also includes South - at a venue with only two changerooms, but also one that can accommodate fans in relative comfort. The decision to play the NPLW and NPLM grand finals on the same day at a venue with only two changerooms, also means that there will be incredible delay between the two games. The men's final will now start at 6:30PM on a Sunday. If there's extra time and penalties, with all the post-match awards guff it might not even finish until 10:00PM. People have work the next day. Kids have school the next day. If we win, we can't even celebrate it properly.

As if everything else wasn't farcical enough this week, FV decided to crash a fuel tanker into the flaming rubble of grand final week, by finally making a public announcement of journeyman goalkeeper Lewis Italiano's eligibility to play for Oakleigh. He has been allowed to arrive at Jack Edwards well after any and all transfer windows have closed, but apparently because all of Oakleigh's (four, or six, or eight, or whatever it is) other eligible goalkeepers are not fit enough to play, well they were allowed to sign him. Was Heidelberg allowed the same dispensation for their goalkeeper availability issues? Do the medical certificates all check out that, over Italiano's last three or four weeks at Oakleigh, not one of the other keepers has come good?

I really want to see the hospital records, or the death certificates, whichever may be relevant. I want to know which of Oakleigh's keepers is in hospital due to gigantism caused by abuse of brain and nerve tonic. I want to know which Oakleigh keeper is lying on the barroom floor having come off second best in an argument about who was England's greatest prime minister. And I certainly want to know which Oakleigh keeper Chris Taylor sacked, because said keeper wouldn't shave off his sideburns.

Such antics are not without precedent in Victorian soccer, and yes, there are rules which make allowances for replacing keepers. Your correspondent recalls late in the 2012 season, when Bentleigh Greens lost their on-loan keeper Lawrence Thomas back to Melbourne Victory with three games left in that home and away season. Thomas was replaced by Griffin McMaster, who up until that point of 2012 had been busy playing in a hopeless Moreland Zebras side. McMaster came in for Thomas, was part of a team that scraped into the finals (at our expense), and got knocked out against an Oakleigh side who featured some bloke called Lewis Italiano; that Oakleigh side went on to lose the grand final to the rocket flare powered Dandenong Thunder side coached by Chris Taylor. 

Which just goes to show how pathetically small Victorian soccer is, and that we need more Queenslanders just to open up the family tree which seemingly more resembles a stump. And yes, Oakleigh also have a bloke who played in a championship with us eight years ago (and against in our loss in 2015), and another bloke who played in a championship with us six years years ago. 

Anyway, history lessons aside, there's now a venue and a time, and those of who can go, should. But my goodness, I am expecting the worst. Not just on field, where I expect our luck/charm/whatever to come wanting, but off it, too. Kimon Taliadoros has already copped it online, but so has FV president Antonella Care - who just so happens to be the spouse of one Aki Ionnas; the long time and well known - and already not very much loved among South fans - power-broker of Oakleigh, whose management of that club over the past 17 years has had more than the whiff of trying to become a pseudo-South Melbourne.

You can imagine the commentary that's come out, both level-headed and otherwise, trying to draw connections between Oakleigh being in the grand final and not wanting to play at Lakeside, and getting their wish; by being able to sign a replacement goalkeeper, when another club could not. Just about the only thing that they haven't got is a changing of the date away from tomorrow, which would allow them more rest before (or after) their upcoming FFA Cup semi-final. I imagine that vitriol tomorrow will be much worse which, from a purely angry perspective, I understand. What I don't hope to see is the clu  getting punished because things go too far, especially of things are going badly for us.

I guess the best that I can hope for is that nothing said or chanted tomorrow crosses the lines of targeting someone based on protected category (race, gender, etc). I already expect for any all FV officials to cop a worse reception than Tony Labbozetta did after the 2001 NSL grand final. Maybe the aim tomorrow should be for sarcasm? Instead of chanting "fuck the FFV", how about "we love the FFV"? They couldn't do much against something like that. 

Anyway, all this, and the grand final to come tomorrow.

Awards

Somewhat lost in the kerfuffle over the venue, South picked up a few awards at the Gold Medal night on Monday. Our media team won some kind of award. South fan and photographer Luke Radziminski won the Les Shorrock award for best photo. Harrison Sawyer was officially awarded the golden boot, and finished just one vote behind the two joint winners of the Gold Medal; one naturally wonders what would have happened if he'd closed out the home and away season with us, instead of heading to India.

Our biggest win on the night - and really no surprise - was Javier Diaz Lopez winning the goalkeeper of the year award. That sees Javier join Dean Anastasiadis (2005, 2006), Peter Zois (2010), and Peter Gavalas (2013) as state level goalkeeper of the year prizewinners. 

Final thought
Only just figured out this week that my new job is basically Dodgy Asian Betting commentary, but in a courtroom.

An assortment of items

Except for a lucky few, the flicker of love fades over time. Or at least it changes. Nothing stays as it was. But never doubt my commitment to this club on my good days. Sure, those good days might be fewer in number than they used to be, but what kind of idiot would otherwise take a train out to Dandenong on a Saturday evening for a practice match, unless his level of commitment was at some sort of peak?

I decided to add value to the trip by making a stop into the State Library, ostensibly to check out a couple things on newspaper microfilm. First, anything to do with two matches in Shepparton, one in 1960 and the other in 1961, between girls teams from Shepparton and Echuca, following a lead in a copy of Soccer News that has otherwise been lost to the digital ages. 

Going through the Shepparton News though, I did find one South Melbourne Hellas item of interest, a match report of a post-season friendly against Hakoah from October 1961, played at the Shepparton Showgrounds. There's all sorts of curious moments, but the one I want to focus on today is the observation by the journalist that Hellas played a short passing game, and Hakoah a long ball game. Oh, to be following a team that plays the short passing game that Hellas is adept at, instead of whatever it is we were trying to do the past few years.

Anyway, the journey from the State Library to Dandenong was interrupted by a rail replacement scheme, which meant that I missed the first bus connection to George Andrews Reserve from Dandy station, and had a 25 minute wait until the next bus... so vending machine chocolate and Christos Tsiolkas' latest thing to pass the time. Arriving to the ground five minutes late, I am made aware that we scored within the first 30 seconds of the game. But what game? I can safely say that collectively, our new and old attacking options look a cut above what he had last year, and that in general the whole team looks more assertive.

But it's just a pre-season friendly, against a mediocre looking opponent, who were absent their talismanic striker from last season because he's shopping himself around for better offers. So, several below par opponents might help build a bit of confidence and fitness, but it's nothing reliable to attach your hopes to. Even Marcus Schroen scoring another free kick - this one looking a lot more legit than some of the other ones against dodgier looking walls and goalkeepers - does nothing more than set up a situation where I get made when he doesn't get close during the whole season proper.

The thing is, however, that any sort of show of concern - of anticipation or of dread - would be stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. It used to be that there was chat about what every team is doing, who they'd signed, who they playing against pre-season. Now there's almost nothing. I know I've said it a few times, but this is really worrying. Hopefully the first few rounds, stacked with a couple of derbies for us, helps light things up, but at the moment we're in an awful, league-wide state of malaise, that might be only partly due to the pandemic.  

But like I said, love is a funny thing. A few years ago I would've moved heaven and earth schedule wise to get to South's next friendly, probably on Wednesday, likely against another lower league opponent. Instead I'll be at the Myer Music Bowl with a mate, at a concert by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. I was told a few years ago, by the most alarmingly intelligent and well-read student I came across in my uni teaching days, that the MSO was more or less a third-rate orchestra; but since I'm a comparative philistine in such matters, and the concert is free, that it doesn't matter so much as long as you have good company. 

And pandemic permitting, there'll be plenty of chances to see South this year, right?

Like doughnuts signings, and the possibility of more doughnuts signings to come

The club has signed another attacking player, one Jai Ingham. People may remember Ingham from his Hume City days; while others will remember him playing for Melbourne Victory, because they are bad people who watch the A-League. Ingham was very recently signed by Gold Coast Knights, who also put out a terse press release noting that Ingham was no longer a player of theirs. How long he remains one of ours, well, that's for Fate to decide.

In any case, it looks like we are throwing the cheque book at all sorts of older already credentialed people, while the stated goal, made so many AGMs, of trying to get more of our own juniors into the team, becomes something that only gets said at AGMs. "Yoof!", as the Victory fans used to say about something or other.

By the way, when is the next AGM?

Accredited again

Just a passing note that I have once again been accredited as an official media pass holder by Football Victoria. It was a near run thing though. I tried to apply roughly when the applications came out late last year, or early this year, but the system would not accept my photo upload. Wouldn't have a bar of it. Not interested. A sloppy email sent to the FV communications team alerting them to this fact, and letting them know to just to re-use last year's application if that was allowed, was met with no response. The application deadline drifted by, and I just figured to myself that maybe I would just pay to get into away games in 2022, I'm on a concession card anyway; and besides, the blog's output has been comparatively crap for years now.

Then FV extended the application time-frame, I tried the site again, and this time it worked. And later I got an email saying you are accredited, and isn't that nice? No need to lineup, no need to pay to get it, and all I need to do to maintain that status is keep up a reasonable output of nonsense. A more daunting task than it used to be.

2020 NPL Victoria season cancelled

So, that's it for senior men's or women's soccer in the mainline metropolitan competitions for 2020.

While Football Victoria and a select few clubs who believed in their (given by who knows) mandate of football heaven that they must try and play through a pandemic, the pandemic has ultimately won.

But only for now. Because even as there appears to be no end in sight to the pandemic easing in Victoria to such a point where we might conceivably see local soccer return this year, still the dreamers of dreams are going to try and find a way to get any sort of soccer played in what remains of this awful year.

At the moment that seems to be mostly around getting junior competitions completed under some modified format, because won't someone think of the children and all that. Or won't someone think of a governing body that would hate to have to refund a ton of money back to clubs who would, in theory at least, return those fees back to those who put the money in the food chain in the first place.

And while sporting body budgets are always erratic things prone to mild swings of boom and bust, and belt tightening and free spending, having no competitions and therefore no fees coming into your coffers for a whole year would be hard to deal with for any governing body. And even if there was some kind of government bailout to cover your arse for this situation, it might not yet be enough.

Anyway, all of this is disappointing, but understandable. I blame no one who wanted to bail on the whole year when it seemed like most teams were gearing up for some kind of return. I blame no one who bailed when it became obvious that the virus' first wave had returned. I don't even blame those who wanted to play, whatever their motivation for doing so.

As it is, Football Victoria is looking to try and organise cobbled together tournaments of some sort for the spring and summer, for what purpose other than trying to claim some of their soon-to-be missing fees (assuming they don't keep the fees of those that choose not to play in of these proposed tournaments).

As it is, I would like to be able to say that I can write up a season review now, but since there might be some sort of South related action yet in 2020, I'll guess I'll just pad out the weeks with other crap until such time as everyone gives up on trying to get anything going this year.

News! Sweet, nourishing news!

Finally some solid sense of when local soccer might come back, as well as in what form. Hold on to that feeling for as long as you can though, because you don't know when it will be taken away from you by irresponsible Essendon players or people attending poorly thought out house parties.

So the date for resumption of NPL Victoria is the weekend of July 25/26th. According to this Joey Lynch article (which is well worth a read), the recent spike in corona virus infections and the associated re-implementation of some pandemic restrictions won't have any effect on the resumption of local soccer, but we'll see. 

The consensus resumption format *seems* to be that in the men's NPL competition there will be eight more rounds played to complete the home and away season, which with the five already completed rounds, will at least set up a situation where everyone has at least played each other once. After that there will be an eight team finals component, of who knows what format.

This proposed return to action has been complicated by the fact that Bentleigh Greens have withdrawn from the rest of the 2020 season, As long as they pay their fiscal dues for this year, they get to keep their spot, and it seems like there won't be any relegation anyway.

As to what happens to Bentleigh's first five results, one assumes they'll be annulled and each team granted a bye from now on, but until such time as Football Victoria clarifies the situation all I can d is speculate. No official word either on what happens to members of Bentleigh's squad now that there's no senior team for them to play for in 2020. The talk is that at least some will try their luck in the state leagues.

No word either from what I can on the status of and/or existence of a mid-season transfer window, or whether the Dockerty Cup will continue - though the persistence of the latter for 2020 does seem to be something that is being mentioned.

As for the NPL women, they're looking at a 14 match home and away season with a top four finals series. Unlike the men, the women's NPL had not yet started before the pandemic lockdown. South is still signing players up for that competition, and in some respects it all looks a bit more straightforward on that front, for the time being at least.

In terms of whether fans will be allowed to attend games, my hunch - and it really is only a hunch - is that it's not bloody likely, especially with the recent spike in corona virus cases. Quite how anyone will enforce a ban on spectators at games in open parks - such as those used by many women's teams, and of course many state league teams - is anyone's guess though.

Football Victoria plans to continue streaming some games, but that doesn't mean there's any guarantee that we'd be a team being covered. Still, I assume the club itself would endeavour to do whatever is possible to provide streams of games.

And there's also this...
Interesting news emerged over the weekend that along with a reformatted broadcast deal, the A-League will move to a predominantly winter season from next year, for at least the next couple of seasons. Whether this is a temporary move in order to deal with the effects of COVID-19 and the 2022 Qatar World Cup - which will be played in November-December - or a move that the A-League will be in for the long haul, remains to be seen.

I have my doubts about the sensibleness of this change in direction, but that's for those who are more engaged with the A-League - and those who are trying to get promotion and relegation up - to deal with. What hasn't been explained yet - not that I was expecting to have been sorted out so early in the piece - is how this will effect the leagues below the A-League.

From a Victorian perspective, one assumes that there will be little problem in terms of accommodating the match day use of AAMI Park between Victory, Heart City, Storm, and the Rebels. Where Victoria Patriots Western United end up is an ongoing problem, and while I don't think that any of the local A-League teams will end up at Lakeside at times during the winter, it will be interesting to see if any attempt is made by the government to accommodate them on the off-chance that AAMI Park is double-booked by another sporting event or a concert.

Of course there's also the issue of training venues which some local A-League teams are sorted for (City, United), and one which still isn't (Victory). Again, we will wait and see.

Up until now the tail-end of the summer-based A-League seasons have already extended into the start and/or end of the NPL Victoria (and before that, Victorian Premier League) and state league seasons. In the beginning, when the A-League had an August-September start, the competition would finish in early February. In more recent seasons, as the A-League has pushed back its season starting point, the competition has gone all the way into May. That is much like the National Soccer League had done its business during its summer seasons, with both competitions crossing well over into the start of grassroots soccer seasons across the country.

Where this becomes relevant to us is scheduling. Some states - I believe South Australia is one such case - does not allow local competitions to run against Adelaide United fixtures. That's easy enough to do when you have just one A-League team in your city, but also where there isn't a holdover collective of clubs who are not fans of your city's A-League team representatives. The multiple teams issue in particular is going to be very interesting to see play in Victoria in terms of scheduling A-League matches.

On any given week, there could be two A-League games in Melbourne, with limited premium time-slots available. Saturday afternoons are out, because that's already taken up by the vast majority of senior men's soccer teams. Sunday afternoons have a variety of junior and women's competitions in action, though most will be over by early afternoon in the event that our local A-League teams choose to go with a late Sunday afternoon kickoff.

Friday nights, apart from often being the AFL's marquee night (with most of those games being played in Melbourne), will also go up against the majority of NPL senior men's games. These Friday night senior men's games have come about sometimes from long habit, and some from recent attempts to avoid clashing with junior NPL Sunday fixtures.

Will the A-League seek to create rules in cities like Melbourne, which have multiple teams, preventing local soccer from clashing with local A-League fixtures? Or will most teams - including the increasing numbers of state league teams which have gone with Friday nights as their preferred home game timeslot - simply move out of the way when there's a clash? It will be interesting to see how the A-League goes about trying to make this work, considering that some of the accompanying rhetoric around the move to winter is about coming into line with/connecting with grassroots soccer and its participants.

(keep in mind that I don't buy the angle that there is any great hostility toward the A-League from most local soccer people - apart from the usual suspects - just indifference)

The switch to winter doesn't seem to bode well for the future of the perennially embattled Y-League. Will they persist with their too-short, budget summer season? Or will it also move to a full-length winter season winter, where you would then assume the A-League (senior) NPL reps would leave their respective comps? Or will the concept gets dumped entirely - with A-League youth teams (and I assume senior players who miss out on A-League selection) going on about their business in the NPL competitions?

There's also no word on what will happen to the W-League, and whether it will also move to winter. If the W-League moves to winter, it jeopardises its favourable alignment with the American NWSL. If the W-League does move to winter, it will probably see most capable W-League players move overseas to the more lucrative NWSL, as well as then sucking up even more players from local WNPL competitions to fill out the numbers.

All in all, a lot of things to ponder for those of us in the second (and third and fourth) tiers, even though public consideration of our relationship to this change seems to have been negligible at best, except as possible customers for a competition heading into waters left uncharted for 30 years.

Brief secondhand notes from SMFC members forum on 15/08/19

I wasn't there - I was here - this is just stuff that I've absorbed through a mystical aether. 

In some respects much of the following material seems to resemble stuff that would get mentioned at an AGM, just without the detailed financial reports. President Nick Maikousis and club secretary Mario Vinaccia did most of the talking, in front of an attendance of about 30 odd members.

One of the taekwondo practitioners who use the social club for their training dislocated their shoulder on the futsal court just before the members forum started. So, you know, promising start, heinous omen and all that. A speedy recovery to our Olympic hopeful.

The board claimed that the club's external debts would be gone next season, but that director repayments would still be there. Despite the external debt being lifted, money would not be reinvested toward the playing budget. This suggests not only a desire to pursue the club's recently announced and youth product oriented "Baby Blues" program as well as a desire to attract players from other clubs that wish to participate within that ethos - it also suggests a reluctance to get involved in the player wage arms race which is taking place in this league.

In terms of of rumours of players being owed money, the club cited that they use a different payment system to many (if not most) other clubs, with wages being paid monthly even during the off-season. This results in a better (more balanced?) cash flow for the club. The board noted the difficulty of attracting players from other clubs, with the reason being players accepting more lucrative offers from other clubs. I suppose though that no matter what the club says and regardless of whatever the truth may be), rumours of us falling behind in player payments will continue to circulate.

There was a rumour published in Neos Kosmos that Andrew Mesorouni (who was not present at this members forum) was putting the most money into the club and thus controlling the club. This rumour was rejected by the board.

With regards to the stadium, it was noted that at state government level, if AAMI Park is unavailable, Lakeside is the backup. There was concern from members on how our football veto works in this situation, possibly with regards to the arrival of Western United on the scene. There was mention of ongoing issues with the State Sport Centres Trust, some of which related to simple bureaucracy, as it relates as government people coming and going, and (I assume again) relationships (and understandings) having to be built and re-built on a frequent basis. All in all, nothing particularly new here - these are questions which regularly brought up at club sanctioned member gatherings. Still, it's good to see these matters get a run, because they will remain relevant to our well-being for hopefully the next four decades.

There was also some discussion on how to retain young players and parents, miniroos and junior sub-committee which include parents. With regards to the turnover in technical directors, at least in the most recent case it's simply a matter of the hiring of the previous guy not really working out.

It was noted that the league's live-streaming this season had had a noticeable effect on attendances (and gate money) for the negative - this is, to be fair, a league-wide issue. The only saving grace from NPL Victoria's live-streaming was the chance for the club to save some money on our media team costs (even though some of those costs will be lost next season when Football Victoria institute their $5,000 media levy). It was noted also that promised income from the streaming had not eventuated; it's unclear if this is solely a South Melbourne issue, or once again a league-wide issue.

On the matter of bringing back the name "Hellas" now that the National Cub Identity Policy is no longer in operation, the board noted that the name has not been used for decades, and that it was not a pressing issue for the club/board, and not something they were looking to initiate - however, the club's members would ultimately have a say in the matter.

There was the odd (to me at least) situation that there are currently 13-14 (depending on who/how you count) active board members (see right) which exceed's the limitations set by the club's constitution. The board responded that some of these people are observers and/or volunteers, and not decision makers.

There was some discussion about the second division/Championship model, which included the hope (from the board at least; I'm not sure if anyone else agreed) that our latent/dormant/in occultation fan-base would return to the club if it played in a proper second tier. However, as there are still many details to be settled with regards to the second division, it's not really worth discussing it in  much depth.

It was promised that the next AGM would be held this year.

For some reason the old news that Chris Taylor knocked back Nelly Yoa way back when was brought up.

Meandering thoughts on the 2017 Victorian soccer media landscape

FFV has been circulating within certain circles its 2017 media strategy video. That it has released this publicly means there is the chance for the general public to make comment on FFV's media strategy, and that includes members of the independent and most fringe media such as South of the Border.

I'm not going to recount everything mentioned in the video (which is indexed, so you can easily skip ahead to more interesting segments), but rather I'd like to present some scatter-shot thoughts about the Victorian soccer media landscape as it appears in 2017.

To start with - if there has been one area in which FFV media efforts have struggled over the years, it has been in continuity. Limiting that concept of continuity to merely a lack of continuity of strategy is insufficient - the lack of continuity within the ranks of the media and communications departments has meant that even good initiatives have always been on the verge of imminent collapse because of personnel changes at FFV.

That's both understandable and unavoidable to an extent within an entity such as FFV. As a state organisation, whose constituencies are based mostly around participation rather than spectatorship - and with limited financial resources allocated to promoting its spectator tangent - there's really only so much that can be done.

Those limited resources in terms of funds and staffing at FFV are true for whomever is the media coordinator. Being second tier also means that its often seen as a stepping stone rather than an end in itself, which is understandable for young and passionate soccer people looking to get their foot in the door in the sports media industry.

Having said that, the attitude towards Victorian soccer and its media arms from those in FFV's media roles is as important as anything else in terms of what success may come on the media front. Do those in the role love and/or understand the game as it exists in Victoria? Do they understand the passion of those who love the game and seek to cover it in the media?

As an example of previous efforts I would consider below par: it took me three years before I had the courage and self-esteem to apply for an FFV media pass for my work on South of the Border. When I got given that media pass, I was over the moon, because even though this was and still is mainly a hobby and chance for me to muck around, it was validation that my work added something of value to Victorian soccer's media landscape.

That media pass access continued for a bit, until another media person came in and decided that what South of the Border did wasn't important or worthwhile enough to get a media pass. When I asked why, just to get my head around what they were looking for (with a trace of self-entitlement, I must admit), I was told that while my blog was entertaining it was not necessary for me to have a media pass.

The next year, my application was rejected again, because FFV's media reps said that if they gave every blog a media pass, they would have to give every blog a media pass, ie, thousands of them. Which was nonsense from even the practical sense that it was only me blogging week in, week out, let alone from the devaluing of the fringe parts of new media. But more importantly, it was evidence that those in FFV's media department had no sense of what was going on in the media landscape here.

When Alen Delic came in, things changed for the better, and while it was sad for Victorian soccer that he moved on quickly up to FFA, at least you can say soccer didn't lose him, and that we ended up training and promoting someone from within the game's own ranks. Now with Teo Pellizzeri still being FFV's main media person from 2016 to 2017, one can be confident that a continuity of attitude will also remain.

That doesn't mean that FFV, Teo and his offsiders have to like or endorse everything the Victorian soccer media does, but what was most reassuring is this group seems to get that we are all pulling in the same direction. When I picked up my media pass last year outside Kingston Heath before the Charity Shield, Teo was there to hand it to me, and he even knew my name! It's a long way from certain other experiences of older attitudes, where FFV's media people saw pretty much any media outside of the FFV bubble as inherently hostile.

So seeing as how at present we have an engaged FFV media group, as well as one with some continuity of personnel and attitude, we should move on to discuss some of the specifics the video has brought up.

In 2017 FFV will be looking to once again change its website (continuity be damned), this time with the goal of making it more tablet and especially mobile friendly, as people move away from desktop browsing, but also to make the website more about resources than news. Pellizzeri explains that this is down to how people engage with FFV's media avenues. So while there are very strong social media metrics - which is more news oriented - when it comes to the website itself, people tend to use that for resources - fixtures, documentation, regulations, etc.

Within that revelation will be a bit of a blow to those of us who value such things as match reports, previews and news associated with the NPL especially, but the reality is that these things do not drive hits to FFV's website, much like artefact pieces do little to drive interest here. (for the record, what you people like on South of the Border the most tends to fall into what one would broadly call 'controversy'.)

Now a blog like this or others like it don't need to worry about metrics, because metrics aren't our game. But FFV clearly needs to listen to its audience, and as much as someone like me will go through things like previews and match reports, it's not so important to most of the people who use FFV's media outlets. (more on what we lose on that front later though).

Regarding the NPL itself, in the video FFV/Teo are at pains to emphasise the need to present a quality or premium product. In using the pejorative term 'park soccer', a challenge is set out to the NPL clubs as well as FFV itself: we can't expect others to take us and our premier competition seriously, if we ourselves do not take it seriously.

(Though of course, one can easily point to clubs such as Nunawading, who in their own quest to do whatever it is they are doing, devalue the competition, albeit at a level of lower consequence than if they were in NPL 1.)

In that sense, the framing of the competition as a package and an idea, and not just 26 rounds with 7 fixtures a week is worth noting. Being in the NPL means, whether licensees like it or not, being part of something bigger than themselves - after the A-League, they're the next step in promoting soccer as a whole in Victoria.

Now we all know the difficulties of trying to overcome our deficiencies, many of them inherited from previous generations and soccer's place as a marginalised sport in this state. First among these factors is that some (many) venues aren't up to scratch. That's improving, but it will never get to the point we need or want it to be.

We're also at the disadvantage, as noted repeatedly here, of being second tier, where spectator interest is very difficult to generate, competing as we are against so many other sports, but also against the limited amounts of leisure time available at people's disposal.

But that doesn't mean clubs should go half-arsed in their bid to be more professional. Yes, FFV is responsible for promoting the product, but so are the clubs. If clubs take a half-arsed approach to match day presentation, they harm the competition as a whole, not just themselves.

And that goes as much for the way the clubs present themselves to the wider public as anything else - and what's more, this is an area where clubs have some level of agency in the matter. Do they perform their media duties/requirements with the genuine sense that it's a worthwhile enterprise? Or do they do the bare minimum, because it's just another box to tick?

Mark Boric noted in his own summary of this matter that the NPL structure threatens the validity and ability of NPL clubs to get volunteers, and that's true enough. It has become more difficult to establish a club culture at the higher levels of Victorian soccer, as opposed to one where people outside of the senior wing of a club feel like they're only paying to use the resources of an NPL club for their own child's benefit, and the rest of the club be damned.

That kind of attitude obviously hurts the volunteer tradition, and with NPL clubs now being asked to have social media, and camera people, and all the rest of the media stuff, we end up in the situation where NPL clubs are just about obliged to pay for the services of people to run their media operations.

And while that's sad on one front, there's a part of me which says, why shouldn't they hire someone to do these things? If these clubs can afford to be in the NPL, and pay the still large salaries of their squads (vis a vis the economic value they bring to the club and competition through the gate), they can afford to hire someone to film and edit video, maybe run and update a basic website and social media service.

We can collectively choose to be run of the mill, and complain about everyone else ignoring us as a competition and as a sport - but the reality is that opportunities to get into the mainstream press are diminishing, as the mainstream press, especially print, has itself been backed into a corner. Relying even on suburban papers is a notion driven by nostalgia. I can't remember the last time I received a local paper, either here in Sunshine or where my folks have their shop in Altona North.

(and I maintain also that community television is also a looming dead end, in the first place because Channel 31 is on its last legs, and in the second because the pay television model where the Aurora channel exists is also on borrowed time in my honest opinion)

So what we do on the media front, we have to do better and, as importantly, with a measure of sincerity. Standards have to be raised every year. That has been happening of its own accord from some clubs, either from the noble sense of improving oneself for the simple sake of it, or from the less outwardly noble (but still emotionally effective) notion of jealousy - if 'that/rival' club is doing that kind of media, why aren't we, or why can't we?

And on that front, I am glad to see FFV setting out higher standards for the filming of games. Better cameras, better positioning, better camera work. Actually following the play, and not being zoomed out a mile away. And no stupid doof doof music, with the emphasis instead being on the ambient crowd noise (though that can present its own problems).

It is obviously difficult for some clubs, because their grounds are not ideal for filming, but complaints about who is going to pay for it miss the point. As I've noted earlier, if you want to act like boondocks clubs, go to the boondocks leagues. And as Pellizzeri noted in his video, what is being asked of as a minimum of NPL clubs in terms of their filming obligations still falls well short of what some NPL clubs are doing - thus we have the problem of sometimes significantly varying degrees of effort and quality. The fact that FFV is willing to provide advice and basic training means that there is one less excuse for clubs.

None of this will be a panacea to poor crowds, especially deep in winter, but sometimes you've got to play the long game and set yourself up for the day when the opportunity actually arises. Thus FFV is putting the emphasis on 'big events' and opportunities to create high impact interest. That means live video streaming certain FFA Cup qualifiers, and important finals. It doesn't mean live video streaming an NPL match every week, which while noble in intent, does little more than provide a service to overseas gamblers. Tuning in to a weekly video stream has never been a phenomenon that's proven popular for Victorian soccer, nor does it really encourage people to go to games.

And in the end, consistently entertaining and high quality footage will probably do more to engage audiences than some of the alternatives. For example, some people want a full fledged 25 minute programme ala the NSW premier league, but that's not generally how people watch videos online. You've really got to go full Big Bash League when putting video packages online - in our case, its got to be wall to wall goals and incident - and if people want to see all the bad moments where players sky one over the bar and into Albert Lake, they can come to a game and see it for themselves.

So what one hopes to see come out of this is for starters, better quality footage, from every NPL club, every week. We need to see the media duties asked of clubs, even in their limited form, approached with sincerity rather than grudging obligation, And on the media front, an acknowledgment from FFV and its NPL clubs, that the independent soccer media which exists in this state wants nothing more than to pull in the same direction as everyone one else - and that is the benefit of the game as a whole.

At the same time however
Some of the tone of FFV's recent engagements on social media have been, shall we say, leaning a bit more towards the 'banter' side of the ledger. That's all well and good when everyone's having a laugh, but i can quickly come undone when someone stops laughing. Tα πολλά γέλια τελειώνουν στα κλάματα, as they say in the old country.

You can also see Teo Pellizzeri's call to arms for FFV media types on the Corner Flag.

Rise and fall of MFootball
It looks like MFootball is on the brink of folding. Even though my preference was always for Corner Flag's style and content, that's still sad news because there's few enough media outlets covering Victorian soccer as it is. MFootball tried its hand at radio and video broadcasting in 2016, adding a much appreciated point of difference to its nominal competitors, but that's expensive stuff. They're trying to get a kickstarter fund going, but at a target of $55,000, it seems to my mind too ambitious - especially when most people are happy just to get stuff for free these days.

It will be interesting to see how FFV seeks to work with independent media outlets. In the past, when a new media person came into FFV and decided that the token donation that FFV made to Goal Weekly was in vain - 'because all they do is hammer us' - that essentially ended Goal Weekly's ability to run during the winter season (though blame must also be apportioned to the clubs themselves, few enough of whom bothered to assist).

What we lost when Goal Weekly retreated to summer was not only an independent news outlet dedicated to the game, but also a paper of record so far as Victorian soccer is concerned. We still haven't figured out as a soccer community how we're going preserve all those things that are now online, and only online. FFV record keeping in terms of even the most basic statistics is atrocious (and again, some of the blame must go to the clubs, who show little interest in performing their allocated task of providing team lists and other info).

We also don't want a situation where only FFV or the clubs themselves provide news and information about Victorian soccer. Losing MFootball means losing another centralised and legit seeming avenue for ambitious soccer writers to get a start in this state. I think here also of the combination of amateurs, veterans and budding professionals we lost when the Goal Weekly print edition stopped. Victorian soccer has been historically resilient at creating its own independent media - if one group fails, something usually comes up to replace it - but at what point does that well of entrepreneurship dry up?

Questions of history
One thing that often gets sidelined in discussions of media and promotion are questions to do with history, Dealing with history in this case means contending with the twin problems of accuracy and preservation.

Accuracy has been a persistent problem. FFV expects clubs to do a lot of the legwork on this, and yet we find that beyond recording scores, we get little more information. I know I've made the comparison with local cricket before, and it's not an entirely fair one to make - after all, cricket's scoring proclivities are tied to that game's ability to attract a certain kind of anorak, as well as being a game whose pace is suited to the task of collecting statistics.

But for soccer, why is it so hard to input the starting lineups of both sides, and the scorers with minute scored? Substitutes? Red and yellow cards? You'd think in this modern age of computers and such, it should be easy and quick enough to do so. A junior cricketer in this state can trace his playing statistics across the age groups, across clubs, across representative tournaments. Meanwhile in Victorian soccer, we get bogged down in arcane arguments about where players played their junior football at, in order to be able to claim the point bonuses for a player points system that ends up with myriad errors anyway.

Preservation is a harder beast to deal with. As much as the web has allowed us easier (and cheaper) access to information, the drawbacks in terms of durability are often ignored. While it was a sad day when Goal Weekly ceased publishing its print edition, at least its archive of print editions have survived, and they could conceivably in future be sent to the State Library of Victoria or the Melbourne Cricket Club Library, for perusal by future generations.

If MFootball is seemingly on its last legs, how will its repository of photos and stories survive? It's a problem also shared by FFV. After myriad website changes and switches between different fixture and results packages (often out of FFV's control, because they are compelled to buy into national systems), the proper treatment of archival material tends to be the first thing that gets thrown on the scrapheap.

It then falls down to groups like OzFootball and its volunteers, which do as good a job as they can, but they work with antiquated technology (html) with which it is nightmarish to compile data, let alone update it - and forget about easy-ish cross-referencing ala Wikipedia.

It's a problem that's going to persist, because for many clubs, history is the last thing they think to invest in, relying instead on oral histories. FFV itself is hardly in a better position to make a difference here, unfortunately.

On the blogging front
Of course South of the Border keeps doing it what it does, but West of the Quarry seems to have variously re-booted and stalled - even its Twitter feed of late seems to be more interested in South Melbourne than Knights news. Related to that however is the argument that blogging is now long past its heyday, and looking around the traps, that certainly seems to be the case.

With the onset of the A-League and the associated 'boom' in interest in Australian soccer, there was a burst of activity of people creating blogs. Not many lasted very long, because that's the nature of blogging, but there were others that did manage to stick it out for a bit but which have also fallen by the wayside.

Then I suppose people moved into writing for The Roar website, or trying to come up with more legit looking websites with their own domain names. But even there, one wonders if there are more people writing for websites or forums (what's left of those) or social media than people actually interesting in reading.

Even if they only exist to serve the interests of a very niche audience, the existence - and persistence - of supporter blogs and forums is indicative of the health of the competition they cover, in the sense that if the most die hard fans don't care to write and read about their clubs and the competition they compete in, what hope for getting anybody new on board to do so?

Football Chaos and the lower leagues
Outside of the NPL, there are some clubs and different groups attempting to maintain a Youtube presence, either by doing it themselves or using the services by private videographers such as NMS Media. Of course the lower down you go the more niche this gets, as I think everyone involved with Victorian soccer media is well aware of by now.

And yet the best of the Victorian lower league action - indeed, of any grassroots soccer in Australia - of course continues to come from Steven Gray and Football Chaos. Covering games off his own bat where others fear to tread - including non-NPL women's games, non-FFV sanctioned tournaments, as well as the odd regional game - the interest levels are still niche, but the quality of Football Chaos' work has rightly earned it its own cult audience.

I've lost track of how many games I've watched courtesy of Football Chaos. Since Football Chaos is not the kind of organisation to go out there soliciting funds, often times it feels like you're sponging off someone's tireless efforts, but if you did want to donate something visit their PayPal page.

Number 1 artefact Wednesday - Theo Marmaras' VSF life membership card

During a meeting last week of FFV's Historical Committee - of which I am a member - one item which came up pertained to merchandise ideas for FFV life members. That discussion deviated at one point to the problems of potentially numbering life member cards, especially considering the importation of life members from other footballing bodies when they amalgamated into FFV.

To that end I was reminded of this artefact, which I had mistakenly believed I had already uploaded to this blog. But here it is anyway, better late than never - founding South Melbourne Hellas president, and giant of Victorian and Australian soccer, Theor Marmaras, Victorian Soccer Federation Life Member No. 001.

I don't know what, if anything, was on the back of this card. If I had a photo of it, I can't find it now. Probably should have been a smidgen more thorough when going through the old social's stuff.

Bruno told us so! South Melbourne 3 Oakleigh Cannons 2

Thank goodness we won because otherwise doing stuff all work during the week (except for reading the first essay in Josef Pieper's 1948 book Leisure, the Basis of Culture) would have been considered a tremendous waste of time.

Sleep was hard to come by the night before the game, but the nerves only really kicked in about 11:30 on Sunday morning as I was on the train on my way to the Limerick Arms for the pre-match drinks session. It took a while for people to filter towards the pub - the late start maybe dissuaded people from getting there at noon - but soon enough there was a good turnout there, with plebs and civic leaders paying due homage if you know what I mean. 

There was some good chanting from those who felt like chanting before a game, politeness shown towards the elderly couple who had to make their way through the crowd outside the pub, and hilarious gags such as,

'Hey, we should change our name to Social Media FC - we'd still be able to use the SMFC acronym.'

And one other heinous joke about making a movie about South's overcoming adversity in 2016 that's probably not fit for print.

What's the hubbub? Did Taylor finally get the sack?

Walking up Clarendon Street with Gains (earlier than everyone else, because who knew when they were going to leave the pub) we saw Richmond ruck/forward and St Albans Dinamo president Ivan Maric and some other St Albans people, seemingly ready to go home rather than watch the main event. Even getting to the ground an hour before the game you could tell there was going to be bigger crowd than last year's final, but more on that later.

Apart from several moments of skill and close combination play by the usual suspects, I don't think it was the highest standard match - last year's contest had a lot more quality I felt - but it will be remembered within Victorian soccer circles as a classic in its own right for the non-stop entertainment it provided. Both sides hit the woodwork on multiple occasions, forced good saves, had shots cleared off the line and were prone to the kinds of mistakes which made fans of the two sides and neutrals alike feel like a goal was never far away. Otherwise, there was a nervousness to much of the ball control, with players preferring to clear the ball rather than take control of possession in situations where they probably could have done so. Even defensively, South especially looked cautious, and unwilling to go hard at Oakleigh's attacking players, which was concerning at the time - one realises now, with the benefit of hindsight, that probably only part of that was due to the skill and size of Oakleigh's attackers, and that we were being cautious not to give away fouls anywhere near the edge of the box.

Whoo! South rule!

It was a game that embodied the idea held by armchair pundits that both sides had top line attacks but suspect defenses. South started the game better, pressing well and earning a number of corners, but Oakleigh soon wrested control of the game. Leigh Minopoulos' goal to open the scoring against the run of play highlighted two things; first, Chris Taylor's maxim that games are won in 'moments' (or at least Taylor conditions his team in that way), but also that desperate defending and super saves can all be undone by slacking off in defense. Minopoulos finding himself with no one in front of him on the left flank from a throw in, and strolling towards goal before executing a calm finish, is exactly the kind of thing that kills coaches and supporters; indeed, it's the kind of thing that killed South during the increasingly barren years after the 2006 championship.

Getting that goal could have served to settle our nerves, but instead Oakleigh managed to pull the goal back soon afterwards, after another one of those 'moments'. An out of position Brad Norton, way upfield, instead of holding his ground went in for an all or nothing challenge and came out of that with nothing - less than nothing in fact as Oakleigh exploited the space Norton had left behind to score the equalising goal. At that point - midway through the first half - I was hoping that we could somehow get to halftime level and reboot from there. Credit to the team however that they managed to work their way back into the contest in the final five minutes of the half.

No one thought we'd score from the free kick - we've barely got close over the past five years - but Schroen managed to get closer than I'd anticipated, hitting the top of the crossbar. His curling shot right on halftime also smacked into the post, and should have been at least attempted to be hit back at goal instead of (and I'm not sure who it was of our players) being responded to by turning around in anguish or disappointment.

I thought that we would carry that momentum into the second half, but Oakleigh again were the better team. Yet we took the lead again, thanks to a pinpoint cross by the People's Champ to Marcus Schroen, who nodded home from close range. Schroen will justifiably get the plaudits for the goal, and he did end up winning the Jimmy Rooney medal for his performance as our most important player going forward, but it was a great maneuver from Nick Epifano, exploiting the lack of speed of the Oakleigh defender (and perhaps his belief that the People's Champ would cut in on his right?) crossing on his non-preferred left foot into just the right spot.

Nikola Roganovic was then forced to make two clutch saves, one from long range from Dean Piemonte tipped wide for a corner, and one from a medium range Goran Zoric effort which Roganovic tipped onto the crossbar. The bloke who had almost singlehandedly kept us within touching distance of the minor premiership for far longer than we had any right to stepped up big time when it counted. If it is to be his last game for us - some have hinted he may hang up the gloves - than I am glad that he's been able to secure a championship while playing for us.

Our third goal was from another throw in, although this had a little bit of a sense of a set play about it. Minopoulos' superior game sense - the mere fact of his being on the field lifts the collective soccer IQ of our team by a significant margin - saw him nod the ball down to Schroen who smashed home his own volley. After that we should have absolutely hammered them. One sequence of play which saw at least three attempts from more or less point blank range rebuffed was the height of madness; at the other end, Oakleigh kept plugging away, while we were at times camped in our own half, unable to clear the ball on occasion except in the most comical of fashions. And as much stick as we've all given stick to Tim Mala for his downturn in form this season, thank goodness he was on the line to clear that shot which could have turned things on their head once again.

In this season of red cards in South games it was fitting that the game ended the way it did, with a red card to Oakleigh's Adrian Chiapetta, followed by a late Oakleigh goal which had us squirming for another thirty seconds. Once again, we were scored against by a team with a numerical disadvantage, even in this case where there were just moments left in between the dismissal and the end of the game.

The final whistle for some was the time to celebrate, but for me it was a chance to feel some relief. It has been a chaotic, sometimes exhilarating but mostly frustrating season. There were huge wins, especially early in the season which gave us a sense of false hope; theheavy losses, some of them absolutely devastating - Richmond away, Heidelberg away, Bentleigh away twice, Avondale at home where we looked desultory; the three point deduction, no FFA Cup run, the fact that we had not beaten a top six side for the whole second half of the year until we beat Gully in the last round.

Added to that was the fact that we were playing awful, ugly football, which we had accepted two years ago because it by and large worked and because we had been starved of success, but which we were now over because it was slightly less successful and we wanted to be entertained and to have two up front as a minimum. To his credit Chris Taylor made the necessary adjustments, managed the interferences and the egos and got the team clicking at the right time of the season. Beating the Knights and Pascoe Vale, then knocking off four finalists in a row, and snaring the title could only have realistically come about with a change in mindset, or as Nicholas Tsiaras said, Taylor embracing his inner gambler.

So apart from the satisfaction of winning the title, Taylor gets the joy of knowing he has overcome his detractors, some of whom clearly had no idea what they're were talking about. Although to be fair to people who can't remember all the way back to July 2016, I did hint at the possibility that things could get better, and that a more attacking, risky approach would pay dividends in a season where finals would be the final (ahem) arbiter of the 2016 champion.

While we can enjoy the anarchic spectacle of a Chris Taylor side actually playing attacking football (and try to convince ourselves that maybe this approach will pay off in the finals)

Which just goes to show that if you hold every opinion possible at one stage or another, even though you'll always be wrong, you'll always be right, too. All of which keeps the universe in balance.

Post-match celebrations
Apparently not quite as many managed to get into the change rooms for the celebrations as in 2014 - probably for the best to be honest, as things got very claustrophobic that night.

Suitably blurry photograph of the post-match celebrations.
Photo: Paul Mavroudis. But seriously, why would anyone else want to claim it?

As for myself, I was just happy to stay outside in the grandstand and on the causeway in front of the grandstand, just letting it all sink in, and having a final catch up with South folk who I won't see - their attendance at an AGM notwithstanding - until next year.

No social club and a late finish meant that once again celebrations after the game at the Limerick Arms were fairly low key, before I assume many of the players, coaches, board members and support headed out to a nightspot or two.

Speaking of a lack of a social club, even our replacement social club the Limerick Arms almost failed us, when a dishwasher caught fire, forcing the temporary evacuation of the premises.

.@smfc just no luck with even makeshift social clubs - Limerick Arms dishwasher is on fire #ambivalent #ps4nplvic pic.twitter.com/EfI14VzfXv

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) September 11, 2016

Firefighters dousing a dishwasher outside the Limerick Arms #SMvOC #PS4NPLVIC pic.twitter.com/AEX6yNr1YM

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) September 11, 2016

Although the fact that the harebrained rumour that managed to take hold, that someone had thrown a flare into the dishwasher, causing said fire, doesn't say much for the gullibility of some people. To be honest, the less said about how staff members allegedly tried to put out the fire, the better. Drink service resumed, though the kitchen was out of action. A trip down the road to a local Greek restaurant and sponsor of the club for a takeaway souv also saw us come up short. At least one could find comfort in having won a record tenth Victorian title.

Match day operations fail / Neutral venue chat
Once the venue for the grand final had been announced, and especially once it was known that South would be one of the two competing teams, most people without a rampant hatred of South Melbourne or who sought to play down the significance of the grand final as Victorian soccer's 'showpiece event' (blecch) were begging FFV to open up the northern stand to spectators. They didn't listen, they didn't organise with the State Sports Centres Trust to do so, and didn't that make them look like fools on the day.

But even before that there were massive issues outside the gate with long lines and the return of the tedious Ticketmaster ticket sales process, who were reportedly printing off tickets one by one instead of having a whole stack of them pre-printed and ready to go. That dire process as well as having too few ticket booths open meant that there were scores of people who didn't get into the ground until 20 minutes after kickoff.

Of course, one can note the advice given to pre-purchase tickets

Worth the $5 booking fee? I think so. pic.twitter.com/reall7L451

— Est1959 (@Est1959) September 11, 2016

but the reality is that not everyone reads this blog (hard to believe, I know), and most of those in attendance yesterday only visit Lakeside when a big crowd is expected, which is seldom the case these days.

Credit to FFV president Kimon Taliadoros for fronting up and apologising, and throwing the gates open, but it makes one wonder how we even got to this point. Were they going off last year's crowd of about 3,500, when Bentleigh Greens brought almost no fans to the game? Did they not take seriously the idea that Oakleigh may try and bring some support of their own to this game, or that there may be a lot of neutrals, especially leftover from the curtain raiser?

Amazing crowd at @nplvictoria GF tonight. 👏🏻 to all who attended & to many more who watched online. #PS4NPLVIC pic.twitter.com/lx5oWDvrGg

— Anthony Grima (@anthonygrima) September 11, 2016

So, far too many people were squeezed into one stand - and in front of the stand - when there was a perfectly good stand on the other side waiting to be used. Eventually they let patrons use the concrete terracing behind the goals at the scoreboard end, and finally during the second half managed to get organised enough to open the other stand.

Sense prevails as other side is opened! #FANSGRATEFUL @KimonTaliadoros @footballliam! #ps4nplvic #aleague #SMvOC pic.twitter.com/OcYYJhJuAu

— Mike (@smfcmike) September 11, 2016

That didn't make up for the absurd lines for food and drink (again, greatly underestimating the crowd, and to make matters worse, the loukoumades people didn't turn up either like they said they would). As noted by the Heidelberg supporting 'redboots' on soccer forum:

Surely at an event like this you invite people to either bid or tender for the placement of their food vans... For fuck's sake, Melbourne is the King of man bun wearing food vendors and even one other van would've made a world of difference.... A spit going with gyro would've made a difference...

Apart from FFV losing a huge chunk of cash - the 'official' crowd of 4,211 would have been nowhere the real crowd number (perhaps only 80%) considering how many people were let in for free - but also a lot of goodwill, too. The large crowd - which included a fair amount of neutrals - at least put those in their place who, however jokingly, suggested that Kingston Heath or Broadmeadows would have been a more appropriate venue.

Now whether the match should have been played at a neutral venue is another matter - and Gus Tsolakis let FFV board members and staff know his opinion after the game - but underselling the importance of the grand final by playing it at second and third tier venues, with limited shelter, limited seating and poor viewing angles is the last thing we need.

But with most suitable venues - and there really are only three suitable venues, being AAMI Park, Lakeside and at a pinch Knights Stadium - needing to be booked in advance, what happens if they do step up and host the game at AAMI Park, and we have another game with two minnow teams in terms of support? People will be lining up to kick FFV for wasting everyone's money. And what if they played the game at Knights Stadium and the surface was stuffed?

Short of a marquee fixture like a combination of Knights-South-Heidelberg, Lakeside is on most occasions the most appropriate place to hold the NPL grand final. Seeing as that is the case, the point is then to not skimp on the extras when using the venue. Designed for crowds up to 10,000, it can comfortably hold 5,000+ plus patrons as long as you don't try to squeeze them into the space of 3,500.

Finally, the game is not played in the stands, or on paper, it is played on grass - and in Lakeside's case, a regulation sized field - which to be fair, may be alienating for sides that don't have grass or a regulation sized field. Quite where the advantage for South is supposed to come into it, I don't know. It's also true that Oakleigh has beaten us just once in our designated home games in the league and cup since 2006, including venues as disparate as Bob Jane Stadium, Lakeside Stadium, Northcote and Kingston Heath; but let's not forget, this is the club that once forfeited a game against us for spurious reasons.

Some brief thoughts on the atmosphere
Felt better last year, probably because last year's crowd was almost entirely South fans, whereas this year was much more mixed, with a healthy neutral attendance. I didn't like the fact that some people kept trying to start anti-Oakleigh chants - they were the underdog in this game, so why the reference to them choking? - and besides which, isn't it better if we try and support and pay attention to our team? There was a decent cheer for the Oakleigh goal, and the chanting from Clarendon Corner often had a disjointed, nervous quality to it, probably in reaction to the nature of the contest and the context of the season. But I prefer that compared to non-reactive monotonous chants that seem to have no connection to the game as it's being played out. Best chant was 'thanks for beating Bentleigh', which probably contradicts a point I made earlier within this paragraph, but at least it had a self-referential honesty to it.

There were the usual array of banners, including a couple of small throw over ones, but I liked this Super Mario one best, even if I think a Sonic the Hedgehog who is naturally blue would work better.

Nintendo inspired fence banners @ Clarendon Corner #PS4NPLVIC pic.twitter.com/CnmDJzPSVf

— Steven Chang (@Gixibyte) September 11, 2016

Next year Cacophonix!

Lucky me though
I had forgotten my media pass at home, but luckily Tony came by the pub with some complimentary tickets courtesy of his connection to St Albans Dinamo.

Post-game flare

A bit of colour at the final whistle at Lakeside Stadium. #PS4NPLVIC #SMvOC pic.twitter.com/2ct27lridZ

— Les Street (@official_lesdog) September 11, 2016

Some folk were concerned that perhaps we could get fined for the flare that was ripped late in the affair in the north west corner of the ground (possibly thrown over the fence?), but my sources say that won't be the case.

Media coverage - it was actually good!
In times past when our club mattered beyond the feelings of its own supporters, one of the great joys of winning a match was digesting the post-match news feeds. Of course over the past decade we have been starved of this joy, even following championship wins. This grand final however had what was for Victorian soccer some pretty decent mainstream coverage, especially after the fact. The oft-maligned (not least by South of the Border) Michael Lynch got in three pieces in The Age - one on the game itself, one on Jimmy Rooney medalist Marcus Schroen, and one with Chris Taylor about the staleness of the A-League and its recruiting. The Herald Sun's David Davutovic also got a report in on the game.

As for Neos Kosmos, their traditional early deadlines have seen them so far only put up a perfunctory summary in Greek online - one would expect more material in the Thursday print edition. I don't have a copy of the Neos Kosmos edition which reportedly had a photo of Clarendon Corner/South fans away at Oakleigh from earlier this season, which reportedly had the caption claiming they were Oakleigh fans.

There was also a live stream provided by FFV on Facebook, which managed to get about 1,000 viewers apparently. I don't know what the quality of the stream was like, but one complaint was it should have been in Youtube, like the NPL NSW grand final, which would have made it more accessible. A fair point, I reckon.

Gold Medal night round up
Last week we managed to pick up some awards. Matt Millar won the young player of the year award, Milos Lujic was officially presented with his golden boot prize, while Jimmy Armstrong was inducted into the FFV Hall of Fame. Nikola Roganovic missed out on goalkeeper of the year to Chris Oldfield, which I'm a bit surprised by.

Off-season schedule
That concludes South of the Border's usual in-season programming for 2016. Coming up is the now usual South of the Border off-season blog mode which will include:

• pointless awards post
• monthly digests
• occasional match reports from assorted quasi-random sporting fixtures
• hopefully an AGM
• news, if it exists, on the construction of the social club (starting 'soon', apparently)
• maybe an artefact segment here or there
• the odd book review (Alex Duric has a book out!)
• breaking news if it's important enough to consider as such.

Of course if anyone wants to submit something in the meantime, you're more than welcome to do so. For those who drop off at this time of year, thanks for stopping by. For those who like to visit us during the off-season, you pretty much know what you're in for.

Around the grounds
For whom the bell tolls
Headed out to Paisley Park for the final round of the state league season, and a relegation deciding match between Altona East and Cairnlea. East had the advantage in terms of ladder position and goal difference - Cairnlea would need to win by three goals to overtake East - and so this was if not quite a dead rubber, than one where the odds were heavily stacked in one team's favour. Unlike the usual state league procedure of people trying to scam their way into the ground for free, or pretend they're a concession holder or pensioner, or demand change back to the cent, most people seemed to be in a generous mood, happy to leave change behind as a donation to the club. Small South contingent in attendance as well, getting some 'inconsequential' football out of the way before our grand final, but also there to see ex-South junior and friend Anthony Giannopoulos strutting his stuff for East. The first half was pretty 'meh' to be honest, neither team able to offer much. In the second half a Giannopoulos pass inside set up East's first goal, and safety from relegation was secured. A second goal was merely icing on the cake. Long serving (albeit across multiple stints) Cairnlea captain Mustafa Mustafa (and let's not forget one time fringe South player) was chaired off the ground in his final game with a guard of honour, a nice gesture.

All Class! Guard of honour for our loyal captain @Musti_Mus. What a career. We will miss you #CairnleaArmy pic.twitter.com/1AfmMhQypp

— Cairnlea FC (@CairnleaFC) September 10, 2016

Relegation brings with it its own heartache, as does retirement. Avoiding relegation on the final day brings relief, but pretty soon leaves you wondering how you got yourself so deep into the mess in the first place.

The next to last final thought
Happy birthday to Tony Margaritis for yesterday. I think he got what he wanted.

Final thought
How much better are finals than first past the post?