Signings, Fixtures, Media, Departures

Opa Rok Der Choc Der department
Another ex-Dandenong Thunder player has joined up, one Andrew Mullet, a defender. Also in that article, you can see we have signed one James Musa as a centreback (whose name has since been removed from article - see comments section). Gee, the parents and kids in our youth development programme must be feeling good right about now. Also, sucks to be Brad Norton it seems. Bah, we're here to win a title, not make friends, right?

Looks like we've also signed young players Kobbie Boahene and Andy Kecojevic, as well as Bojo Jevdjevic (one of the funnier opposition goalkeepers we've had in recent times) as keeper coach.

Fixture changes
There have been a number of adjustments. Here they are as they relate to South.

• Our round one clash against Heidelberg has been brought forward from an 8:30 to a 7:15 start.
• Our first home against Ballarat has been moved to a Thursday rather than the Wednesday.
• Our away match against Bentleigh has been moved back from the Wednesday to the Tuesday.
• Our Sunday home games will kick off at 5:00, not 3:00 - with the apparent exception of the game against Green Gully - though that, too, may be subject to change.
  

Well done Griffo!

Congratulations are in order for Steve From Broady, who managed to score FFV media accreditation for season 2014. A fair reward for the effort he put in during 2013 across the board, including 21s reports, canteen reviews, stats work and SMFC Radio.

Another board member departs
We've received confirmation that long serving boardmember George Triantos has resigned from the board, due to increased work commitments. He will however still be involved as a volunteer in the sponsorship, events and media areas.

Another link on the side there
Ever get sick of Victorian soccer? Then it's worth taking a look at Tasmanian soccer, courtesy of Walter Pless' site. We've talked about Walter's work before, so it seems kind of negligent not to have linked his site on here before in a permanent way. So there's one injustice rectified - it's a great site with an interesting community of mostly anonymous posters, and it affords a much needed dose of perspective.

South out of 2011 Singapore Cup - Albirex Niigata 3 South Melbourne 0

Everything I am relating is from the info gleaned via the radio broadcast.

South Melbourne fell at the first hurdle of their second Singapore Cup campaign, going down 3-0 to the S-League's Albirex Niigata.

Albirex seemed to control the tempo of the game, and were the better organised throughout the contest, as well as making fewer mistakes. Their superior fitness certainly came across as well.

Albirex took the lead in about the 24th minute, after South had apparently matched it with the White Swans up until that point. Thereafter Albirex seemed to dominate, and it was thanks to Zaim Zeneli in goal that the score didn't blow out earlier than it did.

Despite this, South still had its moments, in the early parts of the game and after withstanding a lengthy bout of pressure in the second half, where Stephen Weir and Jesse Krncevic in particular had chances to score - the latter hitting the post from a corner which would have made the score 1-1.

Eventually, needing to push numbers forward, South was left exposed, and conceded two late goals. It was perhaps no more than Albirex deserved however, and not being able to hurt the home side on the scoreboard meant that increasingly South would be on the backfoot.

For South, Daniel Vasilevski seemed to be controlling the early parts of the game, but then faded out; Jesse Krncevic had his share of chances but couldn't capitalise; Sebastian Petrovich continued his poor run of form; Junior de Carmago also seemed to struggle; Zaim Zeneli seemed to spare our blushes on quite a few occasions; Carl Recchia seemed to be involved in much of the play, though his effectiveness was unclear; while most of the other players seemed to not feature too much either negatively or positively.

After managing to impress last season in both the first round and quarter finals, this was a bad loss, and one that sadly felt inevitable. Partly this was due to our poor domestic form; partly due to being so ill-prepared squad wise; and partly due to running into a better opponent this time around.

Having not won a domestic title since 2006, one wonders if the entire concept of a Singapore trip will be looked at in a lesser light next year. Sure, there was and is a buzz in getting away from our own dead end league and playing in another dead end comp overseas, but if it's come at the expense of local trophies, people will rightly ask if it's worth it. No doubt something to ponder for all concerned.

The promise of a radio broadcast was fulfilled, however there were several issues with that service. It seemed that several people using the live streamed service had that cut out and were unable to regain it. More problematic for those who were able to maintain access was the difficulty in assigning commentary duties.

The press release made the claim that the commentary would be in English, with periodic Greek updates; what actually happened was that the commentary seemed to change every ten to fifteen minutes between an English language commentator (George Triantos), and a Greek language commentator (3XY's Kosta Paterakis).

This came across as just plain confusing to people who could understand both, such as myself, and utterly disorienting to those of our fans who don't understand Greek. Somehow I felt we would have solved these issues by now, but I now realise I've been kidding myself. It was better in the second half, as Triantos did more of the calling duties, but still, Pateraki performed extended bouts of commentary duties.

All in all, a disappointing night, capping off a disappointing week. A huge match coming up against the Oakleigh Cannons at 'home' on Sunday. Despite everything that has happened so far this season, we are somehow still not far behind the VPL leaders. If anything positive is to come out of this disappointing week, it'll be that we have no more distractions and nothing else to aim for but a VPL title.

Highlights from Altona game

A different commentator, a few goals, perhaps a little downhill skiing. Interviews with the usual suspects as well as debutant Jason Ricciuti.

It was rather appropriate really...

...that the more time I spent off the field, the better the mighty Clarendon Corner Whites did against those dastardly Clarendon Corner Blues. In a remarkable game, the Whites came from 3-1 down (3-2 at the break) and 5-4 with eight minutes to play, and in the face of some disgraceful refereeing to seal a famous 7-5 win. Can you believe that not once in the four times this game has been played, has the side leading at half time won? HavingLeo Athanasakis and Tom Kalas helped immensely - having George Triantos not so much. But it was a team effort that got us over the line after all looked lost. I am so sore today. Oh, and nobody cares what happened in the main game. Ole!

And speaking of righteous indignation

A portion of Les Murray's speech at the gala ball has been approved for released to the masses. And hey, there's a couple of interesting cameos too.

Trivia Night Shenanigans

The following is a hazy and at best only moderately accurate recollection of being a quizmaster for a night.

While killing some time on the interwebs yesterday arvo, a message pops up on msn.

(2:51:34 PM) Tony: oi
(2:51:35 PM) Tony: need your number
(2:51:41 PM) Tony: need to call you
(2:51:49 PM) Paul: 1234 5679

"Phone Rings"

Paul: Hello
Tony: Are you going to the trivia night?
Paul: Yep, will be there.
Tony: Do you mind hosting it? George Triantos is sick.
Paul: No problem mate, do we have the questions?
Tony: Nicki has them, I think it's six rounds of ten questions.
Paul: Do we have a prize?
Tony: Yeah, a signed ball. What time can you be there?
Paul: I can be there, by 7:00, 7:30 at the latest (senses this is not the best answer to give)... actually I could be there at 6:30, 7:00, not a problem...

Anyway, you can use your imagination for how the rest of this plays out. I rock up to the club at about 7:00 or so, after the South Melbourne Corporate Challenge is over (apparently a success). I've prepared some of my own ballbreaker questions in the few spare hours I had before showtime, and a gimmick round on Australian Prime Ministers, because I've been asked to stretch it out as much as possible. And it was a good thing I did too, because when I get my first look at the questions, there's only 52 of them, with no numbering. I spend some time doing that myself, breaking them up into five rounds, plus my gimmick round.

Heading back out to the social club, the turn out is not looking too flash. There's enough for about 5-6 teams, provided we make them no less than 3 and no more than 5. I manage to rustle up an assistant, we scrounge around for some more prizes - how they thought they were going to split a ball between several people is anyone's guess - Dangerous Dave gets a laptop to help us keep track of the scores, and with an internet connection to help deal with the inevitable challenges to the provided answers. We call for team names, some of them bland, two of them unmentionable in polite society, and one given some thought. And therefore All The President's Men got the bonus points for best name, and Chereka Boys and Shaven Balls pleased themselves with their childish antics.

After some initial microphone problems, the evening went rather well. The lead swapped a few times with the President's Men holding the lead for much of the contest, and the South Women's contingent doing ok until they had to answer questions about Australia. Then we get our our first challenges to questions. "What city is known as the 'pearl of the Adriatic'? Most teams had written Dubrovnik, but the answer provided was Venice. A quick check up of that on the net cleared up that situation in favour of several of the teams. The President's Men also got an additional point for having baseball down as a 1956 Olympics demonstration sport in addition to Australian Rules.

Just as everything seems to be going swimmingly, the cheating allegations start. Accusations are made that one team has too many players and is googling answers as well. The judging panel decides to delay any response until after the contest, hoping one of the other teams can win and save us some grief. After the fifth round, we hastily put together a 7th round of 15 South Melbourne related questions. The Chereka Boys do everyone a massive favour by coming out on top and not requiring us to make a difficult decision in regards to the cheating allegations. A good night had by all... I just wish more people had come. Thanks to Dave, Tony, Dubs, everyone that came and had a go, especially the winning Chereka Boys and the rather silly Shaven Balls crew.

Stay focused, please

In Sagan's name, I wish I could ignore this, but it appears we're obliged to offer some intellectual rigour to it. I suppose Carl wouldn't have wanted it any other way


NSL giants back second tier

FOOTBALL Federation Australia's decision to investigate a national second-tier competition has sparked intense interest among the game's traditional custodians after years of being frozen out by the game's governing body.

The FFA revealed last week that it was forming an eight-man taskforce to consider the practical and logistical implications of a proposed "second division", which would derive the majority - if not all - of its teams from the existing state leagues around the country.

Those teams most likely to be in the running are those who previously participated in the old National Soccer League, many of whom have returned to their state league roots with varying degrees of success.

Since the demolition of the NSL and subsequent creation of the A-League in 2003-04, relations between the powerbrokers of "old soccer" and "new football" have been frosty to say the least, with many feeling the FFA had unfairly distanced themselves from the game's somewhat rocky past.

Until now, little effort has been made to end the stand-off but the FFA has recently shown signs of wanting to reconnect with the storied clubs of yesteryear instead of continuing with its policy of isolating the A-League.

A national cup competition might have been postponed but will almost certainly take place in the next year, while alterations to the transfer system - including removing the $3000 transfer cap for players moving from a state league to the A-League - are being considered.

As arguably the nation's most successful club, boasting four national and eight state league titles, South Melbourne initially felt aggrieved at being overlooked for the A-League but said they would love the opportunity to return to the national stage.

"We're definitely interested in playing at a higher level and the ambition of South Melbourne will always be to compete on that kind of stage," said South Melbourne director George Triantos. "It would be a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our great club once again. We've been part of football in Australia for 50 years."

While many clubs remain bitter about the nature of the NSL's demise, South Melbourne have gradually moved on and have tried to position themselves not only as a Victorian power but as a club willing to work within the constraints of "new football".

"We've always wanted to stay relevant, and we understand that means embracing a new direction. After all, we host Socceroos training here when they're in town, the Melbourne Victory's women's team and youth teams, so we think we're a part of it," Triantos said. "Look at how we compare to other Victorian clubs in terms of the number of full-time staff we have, the training and stadium facilities, the way we present ourselves in a corporate sense, in the media, with our marketing and so on. Many other clubs don't have that.

"Are we too big for the state league? I wouldn't like to say. But you'll find that the bigger clubs are looking for either reform or something else altogether."

Should such a competition prove to be financially viable, the biggest stumbling block to bringing clubs in remains the delicate prospect of promotion and relegation and whether there was a possibility of winning a place in the A-League.

"Most clubs would look at having promotion and relegation as very important," Triantos said. "Would we enter that competition if we couldn't get in the A-League? I don't know. .. You'll find most clubs aspire to play in the top level."


First up, can I just say that George Triantos is obviously enjoying himself in this little article.

Are we too big for the state league? I wouldn't like to say.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. The things we can and can't say, and the things we choose not to say, fascinating stuff. How convenient also that we could list all those things that we've contributed to pitching in for the New Dawn revolution... despite the displeasure of some people out there.

But the most important thing to remember in this situation is that this is all highly speculative, and the really big thing to do, that is being done, and should be done until it is finished, is secure the future of this club with the Lakeside redevelopment project, so that whatever happens, this club is in the best possible position to meet those challenges, and take those opportunities. B, V, E and Z Leagues are all fine and dandy, but there's no point in getting distracted by them at the expense of the main game.

SMFCTV Double Feature!

This week a double feature of SMFCTV, with the first video being the goals from the Preston game, including Goran Zoric's early candidate for goal of the year.



The 2nd part of the double bill is the game against the Melbourne Knights. Didn't believe me that the first half was crud? Well this video includes only a very brief part of it. The 2nd half is soooo much better. The video also includes a bit of Antipodes stall action as well as a post match interview with Vaughan Coveny, who finally got off the mark for this season.

Great Moments In Scaffolding

So I was out at the club yesterday, to help move some chairs from the top of the grandstand down to the marquee on the field - a pretty tiring and boring task which had to be done sometime - but before that I was given the chance to take a ride in the scissor lift being used to repair the scoreboard. Now I'm scared of heights amongst multiple other things so I initially politely declined, but eventually I caved into peer pressure and we went for a little ride, first up, then around from the back of the scoreboard to the front in order to measure the perspex panels in case we decided to replace them. By then a fourth person wanted to come up in the scissor lift, so we went down, picked him up, and went up again. When we wanted to go down again however, the machine decided there was just too much weight on board. Manuals were read, weight redistributed and buttons pressed, all to no avail.

So while trying to figure out what to do, we watched the lads train on the other side of the marquee... and waited some more. Eventually someone decided to give Niki from the office a buzz, to come and work on the manual controls - I'm not sure why, but that didn't seem to do the trick either. Eventually a combination of Niki and boardmember George Triantos managed to make the manual controls work, and we were able to dismount. Except for the fact that I got to go on a scissor lift joyride around the BJS outer. Of all the things that I thought I could experience as South fan, anything involving scissor lifts didn't seem to the enter the equation.

Oh and the scoreboard? It's in its best shape since like, forever man.

It's possible he'd had a drop or two of something

So boardmember George Triantos was on 3xy last night, from an undisclosed location - which I don't know the whereabouts of because I wasn't invited - having a bit of a natter about certain things, most particularly how well pleased he was with how South in the Suburbs went. Apparently we even got more sponsors on the day because of it. Any lingering doubts that I may have had about the worthwhility of the operation seem to have disappeared then. Because while it always looked good to have the blue and white on display with pride, it kinda, possibly, almost defeated the purpose if only regular South members signed up, because they were probably going to do that anyway. But if reports be true, there were some people who had renewed their fealty after some years away, but the sponsorship thing impresses me most. Great work by the team.

3XY Last Night

George Triantos and Leo Athanasakis were on air last night. Now I didn't get to listen to it, but apparently the following things were covered, with thanks to Cuddles for filling us in.

 

• We're waiting for the government to get back to us on matters regarding the Lakeside redevelopment
• We'll be wearing a commemorative strip next year, based on an old strip from the past
• Potential signings weren't mentioned because 'Aki might be listening', lol
• Apparently the host was rather impressed by the passion and direction the club is going in

Farewell Deano, one more time.

Now Cliff already talked about it in his match report, but last Sunday was Deano's last game in the Blue and White. And what an emotional experience it was. The man himself had a blinder, saving us from a relegation dogfight in the last round. Quite a ways from the NSL glory days, or even two years ago where he lifted the premiership cup, but inspirational stuff nonetheless.


This is what's it's all about people. Later a small ceremony was held in the social club, where Deano got to have his say, and even brother Johnny got to share the limelight as well, with a lovely little video sequence was played on the big screen showing some of Deano's classic saves, scoring in a penalty shoot out in the old NSL can't have draws days, holding the VPL trophy aloft with his brother. Which leads me to my next point. Johnny A could have easily been left out, or felt marginalised, but two little acts showed that some in the club don't want to burn bridges. First was straight after the game, with our former coach waiting outside the changerooms entrance, almost seeming a little unsure... until one George Koukoulas invited him in... later on that same courtesy for a long time and magnificent servant of our club was initiated by George Triantos. Lovely, small gestures which say a lot.