Σκέτο Ρεζιλι - South Melbourne 1 Hobart Olympia 2

If people have been wondering if I am still in shock, well, yes I am. I think many of us are. After the game I went out for a beer. Then I went home and fell asleep watching the Davis Cup. Yesterday I went to my first Williamstown footy match since they lost the grand final to Port Melbourne in 2011. Those three things I think are indicative of where my head is at the moment.

Congratulations to Olympia, in particular Jake Vandermey and family, Shae Hickey (even though he got himself sent off) and president George Mamacas. Olympia has come a very long way from the pre-season mauling we gave you back in 2011, and even last year. While we were far from our best on Saturday, the fact that Olympia played with no fear was a treat to witness, even if my appreciation of it is necessarily muted because of the fact that they played against my club, which put in a such a sub par performance.

No Roganovic (failed to recover from last week), no Iqi (suspension) and losing Eagar to some fucked up ankle injury in the pre-game warm up would by necessity make things harder, but surely not when it came to being switched on and hungry to win. OK, I get that it's been a long season, that the loss to Bentleigh in the grand final was a colossal drainer, but at some point you've got to shake yourself out of it, or at least be shaken out of it once Olympia took the lead.

But no, with a couple of notable exceptions (Chris Irwin ran himself ragged), we decided to rock up only after half time and even then only really once Olympia were down to ten men. Our defending was comical (that second goal, oh my), our midfield (especially David Stirton) a mess, and the forwards apart from Milos Lujic (cracking header for our goal) so out of sorts one wondered why they'd bothered to show up at all.

Nevertheless, despite putting in an abysmal performance by our standards, we sill had bucket loads of chances. We must have had 15-20 corners, plenty of free kicks around the 18 yard box, a couple of shots off the woodwork and one cleared off the line; but it was those moments when all someone needed to do was to be at the right spot at the right and take a damn shot that was on target that were the most dispiriting. Panic set in, and somehow the numerous comeback wins we'd achieved in 2015 were all forgotten.

I'll leave it to the readers to decide if it was a wasted season. We won some trophies, played some great football at times, scored many memorable wins; but we also fell short when we thought we could, nay, should have done better. Grand final, FFA Cup, NPL playoffs. The one saving grace is that Saturday showed up a few players, and while we know that most of them are not as bad as their performance against Olympia, that it provides the board and coaching staff the justification needed to look for replacements or competition for those spots next year.

Andy Bevin's already gone, I can't see how Jake Barker-Daish will survive, and Stirton must be on the thinnest of ice. Then there's also the players who are perhaps likely to leave. Nick Epifano signed on for 2016, but there are rumours he will be trialling for Perth Glory this week. The board will be hoping like hell he'll get signed. One wonders whether Iqi Jawadi will finally be given a chance on an A-League roster, if not immediately than perhaps during the January transfer window when those teams need depth players. Will Fraser MacLaren stick around if he's only going to be no.2? There are also players to come back - Kristian Konstantinidis' return will necessitate the movement of someone out of the back four (Tim Mala?), while a fully fit Dane Milovanovic, should he stay (and I only say that because by his own admission he's had a very peripatetic career) will shove out someone from midfield. Andy Kecojevic will be given more game time next season. I like Matty Theodore, but has he done enough this season to cement a starting eleven spot? And will his work commitments continue to get in the way?

As for the off-field guff - we have a whole off-season to discuss that, and I look forward to doing so. As per usual with the end of a season, the blog will slow down a bit. There will be some artefacts for the history heads, there may be book reviews if I can bother reading a book worth reviewing for the site, and there will be news and updates collated into monthly digests. Within the next fortnight I'll put up my annual awards, and I'll probably end up going to the women's grand final this week just for the simple fact that SMWFC are in it, and it will be their last time there for at least a few years. At some point later in the year I could up end up boarding a Greyhound bus and ending up in Canberra, which will have drastic consequences for no one, but could be fun anyway.

And while I thank you all anyway at the end of the year, let me finish by saying thanks for sharing the season with me, and that I hope that you will continue reading through the off-season.

Bummer - South Melbourne 1 Bentleigh Greens 3

It doesn't usually take me two days to get a post up after a game, especially if I don't have many other pressing issues to deal with, but what do you make of a game like that? The whole experience has actually left me somewhat bewildered. Not exhausted, not even angry, just bewildered. Rather than feeling absolutely gutted, I felt flat, especially knowing that despite losing it was not yet the end of our season. Maybe it's because we've had so much success these past couple of seasons. Maybe it's because Bentleigh so thoroughly deserved the win. Whatever the reason is, I just haven't been able to put my finger on it.

In the end it was one step too far. Having dragged ourselves off the metaphorical canvas after the FFA Cup loss to win the minor premiership, and then beat Pascoe Vale deep in extra time after trailing, it was probably too much to expect that we could muster the ten straight wins it would take to win both the NPL Victoria grand final and the national NPL playoffs. Maybe we won't win the latter either, but it would have been a Herculean task to win both.

Bentleigh were the superior team from almost beginning to end. Only their woeful finishing - apart from the screamer to give them the lead during regular time - kept us in the game for as long as we did. Granted, many of those shots came from range, as we stepped off and let them have space up the field, but they still looked the most likely team to score. Our chances came at random rather than at regular intervals, and while we had some glorious chances - especially that early chance in extra time which would have given us the lead - it would have been one of the more brazen heists even by our standards.

Would we have had more success if we stepped up and tried to pressure Bentleigh, as opposed to playing a sort of rope-a-dope kind of game? Who knows. What that approach did do however was allow Bentleigh time on the ball, with no one near enough to provide pressure when they slipped up. It meant Milos Lujic was isolated up front, as we pitched long ball after long ball at him in the vain hope he could create something out of nothing.

We were also beaten physically. While we tried to give as good as we got, Bentleigh took advantage of the lax refereeing in a way that we could not. Their attacks on our goalkeepers went unpunished, and in that regard their approach reminded me a lot of our semi final loss to Oakleigh in 2011. Losing Roganovic to injury made things harder for us not because he had making several great saves (he'd hardly had to make any), nor because Fraser McLaren was poor (he was as good as could be expected having not played for ages, and was not at fault for any of the goals), but because it robbed us of the chance to make our full quota of outfield substitutions. Iqi Jawadi's red card in regular time more or less sealed the deal. With no subs left to make and one player down on a warm day, and already being outplayed, it was Bentleigh's game to win.

Afterwards at the Limerick Arms, among the players, coaches, board members, families and those supporters who could muster up the time and courage to not go home straight away, the mood was relaxed but sombre. The feeling seemed to be that while an opportunity had been missed, on the day we had been beaten by the better team, a team that perhaps had been better than us all season. Indeed, they were the only Victorian team we had failed to beat all season.

You can point to the table which saw us finish top on goal difference, all while remembering that Johnny A pointed to the head to head record. Ideally, neither goal difference nor head to head should count, and there should be no finals. If two teams finish equal on points, have a playoff match, ideally at a neutral venue to decide the champion. In the end, we found ourselves close enough to those circumstances, and on the day were found wanting. We can complain about refereeing and injuries and such, but on the day, we were the inferior team, and we lost. Maybe if we played under Sheffield Shield rules, and finished at 1-1 after a regulation 90 minutes, things could have been different, but we didn't, so here we are.

For the high standards many South fans have of their team, this loss means that the season in a sense is almost a bust. The FFA Cup run was botched, we failed to rise up to the challenge of Bentleigh in the final, and the Dockerty Cup is little consolation to many. A winning end to the season with regards to the NPL national playoffs will probably rescue the season in that respect, especially for those whose self-esteem is (somewhat understandably) wedded to the FFA Cup and national limelight.

On the other hand, it's worth remembering where we are now compared to where we were. Two and a half years ago, we were at our absolutely rudderless worst. In mid 2013, we not only hadn't won anything since 2006, we had scarcely looked like doing so. Within half a season, we were one game away from a grand final appearance; the next season we won the title; and this season in the state we collected almost every trophy at our disposal, despite injuries, player departures and the ongoing problem of what to do with Nick Epifano.

That's not me trying to find a way of saying losing the grand final is acceptable, but a reminder that not so very long ago, on the field things were a lot worse than this. I'd much rather be hurting over losing a grand final than sitting at home during the finals because we were stuck in mid table mediocrity. While the end result is the same - no title - I'd rather be in there with a shot.

Necessary brickbats
The promotion, coverage and presentation of the grand final was often poor. Bentleigh has limited resources on that front and realistically limited support despite their FFA Cup bandwagon from last year. South tried to promote the event as much as it could, and was rewarded with an excellent turnout from its supporters.

The FFV however dropped the ball. There was little vigour or feeling in their promotion of the game. I did not see any attempt to offer prizes of free tickets to the game, as many organisations would do for similar events to drum up interest. The fact that the contest also clashed with scores of junior games - both NPL junior and community league junior finals - was a disgrace, and would have been a disgrace no matter which two teams were playing in the final. The $20 entry fee for adults (plus $4 Ticketmaster fee) was also absurd. The equivalent game in New South Wales was only $15 for adults.

Having everyone in the one stand may have looked good for the cameras, but to a certain extent it compromised spectator comfort. Instead of using the whole stadium (which would have provided more shaded areas for spectators, on what was a very warm day), everyone was forced to use the amenities available only on one side of the ground, where there was only one food outlet.

The live stream, too, was in many ways a bust. While understanding that FFV had a sponsorship arrangement which compelled them to use a particular video streaming service instead of Youtube, the lack of complete instructions as to how get access to the stream of the grand final saw at least some viewers wait until almost halftime to get their service working. Who knows how many just stopped bothering after a couple of futile attempts?

While I did not expect any mainstream media coverage, because we've been over and over that disappointment before, I was still disappointed that the only coverage we seemed to be able to get was digital coverage (preview and match report) in the Herald Sun (please let us know if anything got into print). In The Age, nothing. The World Game? It seems their interests in Aussie soccer shuts down between A-League seasons. Not enough interest said one of their writers. He meant readers, but I think the lack of interest could easily be his own, which he has projected onto the supposed audience. There were enough angles to pursue in this fixture in terms of the ambitions of the two clubs and many and varied stories of the players and coaches involved, but in the end sheer laziness has reared its head for most of our soccer media.

On the other hand, credit must go to the Corner Flag people, who provided both informed and irreverent commentary on the fixture. Still, if it all falls down to them and other low level soccer media, as well as complete minnows like myself and SMFCMike to promote the game, to the point where we're recognised as doing far more than the organisation which stood to benefit the most from a bigger crowd, then we're in bigger trouble than I thought.

Hobart Olympia, 2015 NPL Tasmania champions. Former South Melbourne
defender Jake Vandermey is the third from left in the back row. 2016 South
recruit Luke Eyles is the furthest right in the front row. Photo: Walter Pless

Next game
At home against on Saturday afternoon against Hobart Olympia in the NPL national playoffs. Should we win this game, we'll play the winner of the West Adelaide - Bayswater match.

Because this is an FFA, not FFV event your South membership will not get you access to this game. 

This will no doubt upset those who recall that the 2015 South membership originally included these games as part of the membership package, and the club should be castigated for making a promise that it has failed to deliver upon. Nevertheless, you can pre-purchase tickets at this link.

There is some talk that Iqi Jawadi's red card in the grand final will see him suspended for this game. I'm not sure about that, but if Jawadi is suspended, it will be interesting to see with whom he'd be replaced as I believe (and I'm willing to be corrected) he has played every game this season. Would Dane Milovanovic, who has been playing some games in the under 20s as he works his way back to full fitness, be risked in this game? There's also of course the question of whether Nikola Roganovic will be able to recover from his injury last Sunday. Fraser McLaren seemed to play the game out well enough despite copping his own knock.

After many years of under achievement, Hobart Olympia (or Olympia Warriors as they are also known) won their first senior title since 1996, back when the Tassie league was split into northern and southern competitions. Despite stumbling late in the season with losses against South Hobart and Hobart Zebras, Olympia was able to take advantage of an unexpected South Hobart loss to win the league title. They also put the doubters to rest - especially from their biggest rivals, the Zebras - by also winning the end of season finals series, which unlike our arrangement did not count as the senior title. Olympia's league win ended seven years of South Hobart domination.

While we will be expected to win, and probably to win comfortably, we must be wary of being complacent. While we have played Tasmanian opposition, including Olympia, on several occasion over the past fives years and never lost, this is of course not a friendly fixture but a ridgy didge game. We only have to go back to last year's game against South Hobart to know that a flat performance from our end can give the opposition. Still, we have the cattle on the field and the home ground advantage to be considered overwhelming favourites. However with nothing to lose, and the wide open spaces of Lakeside to play on, Olympia may just come into the game with a the mentality that they have nothing to lose.

Hobart Zebras' Dwayne Walsh about to launch himself into a tackle on
Olympia's Luke Eyles. Photo: Walter Pless.

South fans will perhaps be most interested in Jake Vandermey and Luke Eyles. Vandermey of course was a former South junior who played three matches for us back in mid 2011, before being loaned out to Hobart Olympia. Later he would play for Pascoe Vale, before relocating to Tasmania to continue his teaching studies, and while there resume his Olympia career. Last year he won Olympia's best and fairest award and finished third in the league best and fairest award behind South Hobart's Brayden Mann and Andy Brennan. Vandermey, having completed his teaching degree, will be retuning to Melbourne next year and will be keen to impress whatever onlookers are out there for next season. For his part Eyles is a promising midfielder who has become an established part of the Olympia starting eleven.

A South player evades a tackle.
Photo credit: unknown/South Melbourne Women FC.

Around the grounds
Oblivion delayed for at least one more week
On Saturday I decided to break my habit of having nothing to do with the South Melbourne Women's team, and I attended their semi final fixture against Heidelberg United at Lakeside. My absences from SMWFC fixtures had nothing to do with antipathy towards women's sport, or women's soccer, but rather the fact that since they decided (as was their right) to no longer have anything to do with us, that my time could be spent more productively, by watching mediocre men's state league football instead, or worse, NPL juniors. I was drawn back to seeing SMWFC by two things - one, needing to fill in some time before Sunday's game and two, being there perhaps on the occasion of SMWFC's final top flight match for at least the immediate future; South Women having had their WNPL bid rejected, and thus seeing them banished to we're not quite sure what kind of league yet. Entry to Lakeside was free, but strangely the venue operators had decided that the entire grandstand to the left of and including the players' race was to be out of bounds to spectators. I couldn't really see the point of the decision, but it was made the two small supporter groups ended up sitting in two adjacent bays; the Bergers with flags and and a drum, the South folk with the odd pompom. Also George Katsakis, Bill Papastergiadis and Leo Athanasakis were there. The game wasn't great, but South dominated the first half creating several chances, ands finally took the lead right on half time. The Bergers controlled the second half, but couldn't create any clearcut chances until they found space to lob the ball over the keeper. I was dreading extra time as I wanted to be able to get home for dinner, so it was a good thing that South ended up pinching the win at the end; a long range shot hit the crossbar, and rebounded off the diving keeper into the back of the net. So, the Bergers were out, though they'll be back in the equivalent competition next year; South survived another week, though think of it a stay of execution more than anything else. A pity that their next game is scheduled for Saturday at Kingston Heath.

Final thought
Despite the loss, that flare aside I did enjoy the colourful displays of the South Melbourne faithful, including these efforts from outside the usual crew.

Couple of new home made banners from non Clarendon Corner folk. #ps4nplvic @smfc pic.twitter.com/BRNKc4AW7V

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) September 13, 2015

More of it I say.

Moral premiers - South Melbourne 3 Northcote City 0

It would have been fitting had this match been played for the real league title, but this is 2015, not 2014, and this is Australia, where by and large we are compelled to acknowledge that due to strange and muddled concepts of tradition - and the necessity of keeping the other teams interested - this is not the true championship, not even a minor premiership (the PC New Football police won't tolerate that sort of language), but instead the 'premiership' as opposed to the 'championship'.

We did however get a shiny plate for our troubles, the Victorian slot for the NPL playoffs for the second successive year, as well as the right to claim some sort of moral premiership tag, having ground our way through injuries, suspensions, player departures and some would say a catastrophic FFA Cup appearance, to finish the season scoring bucketloads of goals and thus finishing on top of the table.

And while minor premiers have bombed out or been sunk by the near enough lottery of finals in soccer, in more recent seasons there's at least been the habit of teams finishing on top managing to go all the way and win the grand final as well, so for those who like omens, that's something for you to hold on to in the weeks to come. Me, being an allegedly staunch rationalist, I take no truck with such things.

We were a bit sketchy to start with - whether that was to do with nerves, or three games in eight days, or Northcote actually taking the game seriously, I don't know - but apart from one clear cut chance (a free header in the six yard box), and the odd mistimed run called back for offside, we were the better team. Soon Milos Lujic gave us the lead, and his second goal, a well aimed shot from a deep David Stirton cross saw us more or less seal the game. The biggest concern at that time was whether Tim Mala's yellow card would see him rubbed out for the next game.

If there was any doubt about the final result, Brad Norton put that to bed with his amazing goal from what looked like a mishit cross. Me, I choose to be positive about it and reckon that Norton meant to hit it that way, in line with his recent mostly excellent placement of the ball. A few weeks ago I likened his crossing form to snooker, and yesterday's goal was very much a case of eight ball in the corner pocket.

But then possible disaster struck. The game and the minor premiership wrapped up, Milos Lujic hurt his knee badly with about ten minutes of game time left. He spent most of the rest of the game getting treated behind the byline, and while the punters were duly stoked with the win, there was also concern about Milos, our finals chances, as well as our NPL playoff chances. South Melbourne Hellas may not be a one man band in 2015, but it's not easy to find, let alone replace strikers who score 20 goals a year.

That he limped off the ground rather than being carried off with a stretcher, well, that's the kind of thing we'd all love to think of as being a 'good sign', but almost none of us in the stands are doctors, and for the purposes of this example of speculative ignorance, those with doctorates in economics or knowing how to mix industrial chemicals, or literature (some day, maybe) don't count as doctors.

On the other hand, should Lujic miss some or the rest of the season, it will provide an opportunity to someone else to stand up, in the way that Leigh Minopoulos has stood up since being given a belated starting berth in order to solve the problem of what to do after Andy Brennan's departure. The man who will be tasked with filling that gap will probably be David Stirton, whose year has been affected by injuries and being played in positions which I don't think suit him - namely out wide - instead of up front.

The issue then becomes one of having to adjust to having a forward (whether that's Stirton or Minopoulos) who do not share the physical attributes of Lujic, including perhaps a change of formation. Would you play both Leigh and Stirts up front, and play Chris Irwin on the right wing? Or would you keep the crux of what we've been doing intact, and just tinker on the edges? Would the set piece arrangements need to change should Lujic, one of our three tall timber players along with Michael Eagar and Luke Adams, not play?

Update on Milos Lujic's knee, at this moment the most important ligament in Australia
Here's the latest goss on the state of Milos' knee from one of the more reputable people on smfcboard.

Initial prognoses (without a scan) on Milos was a strained MCL. He's getting scans on Tuesday to clarify.

Highly doubt he'll play again this season if he's done a grade 1 or 2 medial. Fingers crossed its just jarred and when the swelling goes down he'll be ok!

Next game
In two weeks time, at home against one of Melbourne Knights, Hume City or Pascoe Vale.

Crowd watch
How good was it having a game at 3:00PM on a Sunday afternoon? The sun was out, more families were in attendance, and there were even more young people in Clarendon Corner, as well as a good turnout by the usual assortment of people in that area.

Mind you, there was disagreement in the ranks about how many people actually did attend. My regular supplier of the realist crowd count said 600, while another reputable source said about 700. That seemed about right to me, though others said something closer to 1,200 would be more accurate. That's a hell of a discrepancy, but since they never release the numbers, let alone complex breakdowns of the demographics attending (that's a trade secret I suppose) it's really up to you, the reader, to decide which number you feel more comfortable with.

Nick Epifano to Perth Glory?

Word is Epifano is close to a deal with Glory. Should go through this week

— Adam Howard (@adamOsaussies) August 23, 2015

No confirmation on whether this is true or not, but current Glory CEO Peter Filopoulos (you may remember him from such posts as 'just who is the biggest South fan around?') was pretty coy when asked directly. No indication either on when exactly Epifano would leave South for Glory in the even that Glory did sign him up. After the finals? After the NPL national finals?

Good luck to...
South junior Andrew Mesorouni (wait, does he have the same name as his dad?), who has signed up with Getafe in La Liga. Interestingly this was done with the cooperation or assistance of Genova International Soccer School and Morris Pagniello - is this a hint towards whatever that 'partnership' or 'relationship' with Real Madrid is meant to be? And where's the player training compo?

Congratulations to...
Olympia Warriors on securing their first senior league title since 1996. The team includes former South defender Jake Vandermey, and future South player Luke Eyles (who won the Tassie league's rising star award). We'll be playing them in the week after the grand final in Melbourne.

The nanny state strikes again

Lakeside security keeping us safe from. Umm drums. pic.twitter.com/BgREuIuxpO

— Ian Syson (@IanSyson) August 23, 2015

Things could be worse!
Win, lose or draw, we get to see South most weeks of the year. What about those people who want to see Manowar tour Australia?

@jamesbelias @iamnotshouting Furry jox and sword to stay sheathed for another year. #SW16

— Con Tsiolis (@HellasHeadbanga) August 20, 2015

Another 12 months without the chance to burn a viking ship on these shores.

Final thought
After all that angst, we didn't need to worry about the Bentleigh vs Oakleigh result at all. Thought processes need to change need to change when your team becomes competent.

Social Club Artefact Wednesdays - Hobart Olympia Mug from 1986

Well, last week we did a West Adelaide themed episode for this segment's official launch - because it was all topical, like - so now we're doing the other half of the recent interstate visitor double.

I'm also quickly disregarding my pledge to use half decent photos, because frankly this is a terrible photo of an otherwise very nice commemorative object. We could have used the much better photo of the wooden plaque of Tasmania from our 1993 tour, but we'll save that for some other time.

This silver (the colour, not the metal - I wouldn't have a clue if it was legit silver) mug was presented to us during our 1986 visit to Tasmania, which you can read about on Walter Pless' site. The match was played on March 1st 1986, at KGV Park, with South winning the game 3-0. I was under the impression (honestly not sure why now), that we also played against the Tasmanian state team on that tour as well, but I must be confusing it with the 1993 tour. One question Walter's article throws up though, is what are the whereabouts of the decent sized trophy that's in several of those 1986 photos?

I also wonder what similar objects we may have gotten off previous such tours (to anywhere really, not just Tasmania), as well as our most recent trip to the Apple Isle in 2011. Hopefully we reciprocated in our own way when Hobart Olympia visited us last week.

Gung Hay Fat Choy and all that - South Melbourne 5 Hobart Olympia 1

Firstly, a happy Lunar New Year to all our readers who observe that custom.

Well, after so far in 2014 putting out teams mostly made up of triallists and youth players, a good part of South's actual legit senior squad got a bit of a run yesterday, in a typically scratchy debut for pre-season 2014.

It was bloody hot yesterday. Both teams did their warm-ups in the limited shade in the back corners of SS Anderson Reserve. For the spectators, it was actually quite pleasant under the social club roof, though the lack of food was kind of a bummer.

Olympia came out a bit all guns blazing in the first 10 minutes, which seemed a bit foolhardy considering the conditions. They probably should have had a goal though during that early period, as the somewhat makeshift South defense was basically all over the shop.

Eventually though the tide turned, and South went into the break up 2-0 courtesy of Tyson Holmes and triallist striker Rodrigo Covarrubias. Milos Lujic hit the woodwork about 3-4 times in the first half and also had a penalty saved. There was another moment as well where a perfect cross should have been converted into an almost empty net but was headed straight at the keeper.

The second half was more of the same. As the game wore on South chucked on a few more triallists and youth players, several of whom have probably already played at least one game this week. Olympia's defensive line started getting out of shape quite badly, leading to some very poor defending and a cracker of an own goal (think Ljubo's from last season).

From what I can understand Olympia, a mid ranking team in Tasmania's NPL who had some cup successes in 2013, have lost a few key players. There were some occasional nice moves and counter attacks, and Olympia's late goal, when it came, was well deserved. Indeed they probably should have had a 2-3 more by the end of the day, but when they got into dangerous positions they more often than not looked a little bit clueless as to what to do next.

If this sounds like Olympia/Tasmanian soccer bashing, well it's not meant to be. Olympia haven't been one of the best Tasmanian soccer teams for some years now, but they put up a much better fight than when we visited them in 2011. It's just that the gulf in class was still evident. Tasmania's 2014 season should be interesting though, as a couple of their teams look to splash the cash a little bit in order to see if they can finally knock South Hobart off their perch. Judging by this performance (and should we even be doing that?), Olympia won't be one of those teams.

For South, Lujic looked good while still being obviously in cruise control. I'm not convinced yet by Covarrubias as a potential striking partner for Lujic, and was also surprised to see former South player Jason Ricciuti being out there, who got credited with one of the second half goals.

I still think we probably need a keeper (potential recruit Gonzalez from Gully ended up re-signing there), and a better striking partner for Lujic, but other than that, I think we're OK. The problem is, that if there's 14 teams in the league in 2014 (assuming we're in it, of course), that's already four extra games to take into account, plus maybe finals, Dockerty Cup, FFA Cup (?!) and NPL Champions League (are they still doing that?).

More games is good for us punters, and good for the players who I'm sure want to play as much as possible. But it obviously leads then to the fact that you then need more cover for injuries and suspensions, while also taking into account that under NPL rules, your match day squad has to come from the 20 players you've registered, or one of your youth team squads. And at the same time, you've got to plan for the future, for when the NPL player points cap get reduced from 275 to 200 in two or three years time.

In an interesting aside, it appears as if former 21s and 18s coach Gus Caminos has departed to take up the senior coaching position at Malvern - and he's taken some of the 21s players with him. Wish them all the best and all that, and wouldn't mind making a rare trip or two out to the south-eastern leagues to have a look at them this coming season.

Two games in two days - West Adelaide tonight, Hobart Olympia tomorrow

Tonight, we continue our 3XY Cup campaign with the second of our two group games, this time against West Adelaide Hellas. The match will once again be at Olympic Village. Kickoff is at 7:50.

Tomorrow, at Port Melbourne's SS Anderson Reserve, we play Hobart Olympia in a friendly game. Kickoff is at 5:00PM.

Entry to both matches is free.

2014 season getting closer! Hurrah!

I'm Bored, You're Bored
This week has seen the senior squad begin the long road to avoiding our longest league title drought - in other words, pre-season training has started. After missing out on the supposed seven year itch omen last year, our record of the eight years it took to win a title after leaving the state leagues in 1976 stands to fall if we don't pull our finger out this season.

Player Points System Is Here!
Well, well, well. Here we go. We get 275 points this season, fewer in subsequent seasons, unless the PFA pull their finger out and do something major. Once again, here's the gist. Everyone is worth 10 base points, and then gets points added or taken away based on a whole bunch of criteria. In a nutshell, here's what's 'good' and 'bad'.


Players you'll tend to want include:

• Those who came up through your junior system.
• Local players.
• Players who are 25 or under.
• Players you already have.

Players you don't want as much:

• Players brought up through the junior wings of other clubs.
• Foreign players.
• Players over 25.
• Players from other clubs.

Now, a very important addition to all this is the fact that you will now only be able to have two visa players. They'll cost you 20 points at a minimum. The FFV's explanatory PDF says:

Any player who is not an Australian Citizen, or does not have Permanent Residency status, is considered a Visa Player.

Which should make things easier and more lenient than I expected. There;s also scope for what they call a 'marquee' player, who is described as"

who was playing in a fully professional league the previous season, and subsequently signs for an NPL club.

Lastly, you also get bonus points in your cap for having players get promoted to the A-League or an Australian based pathway. It does not appear to count if your player gets sold overseas first.

So, Who's Gonna Save Us? (and will we come in under the points cap?)
Well, pinching a whole bunch of Northcote players didn't work. Pinching a whole bunch of Thunder players didn't work, though it did get us closer. How about getting players from both of those teams!

Re-signed/Apparently sticking around

• Dimi Tsiaras - despite getting increasingly limited game time, has re-signed. Will provide decent cover even if he's not in the starting eleven.
• Nick Epifano - fell away badly toward the end of last season, so will be interesting to see if he finds the form that initially made him one of the more valuable mid-season acquisitions.
• Tim Mala - probably the weakest of the Dandenong acquisitions in 2013, but beggars can't be choosers. 
• Tyson Holmes - signed a two year deal. Steve from Broady will be happy.
• Brad Norton - has been signed up for our 2014 plans.
• Iqi Jawadi - apart from being one of the Dandenong Thunder boys, played in the friendly the 21s played against Selangor late last year.
• Shaun Kelly - will need to adapt to a new partner. Did well again last season, but Bran going will mean that perhaps more attention will be paid again to his performances

New players/invited to train/rumoured

• Michael Eagar - defender from Northcote. Dual citizenship helps his and our cause when it comes to visa spots.
• Matthew Theodore - midfielder from Dandenong Thunder. This was apparently a done deal last season (or as much as deals can possibly be done back during that period of time, which resembles more the primordial ooze than anything concrete and stable). Young, lots of experience at this level.
• Anthony Giannopoulos - after having spent the second half of last year at Sunshine George Cross in state league one, where he apparently played well predominantly as a left back (as opposed to his usual under 21s forward position), he's apparently been training with the side. Whether he'll be able to make the step up is anyone's guess.
• More players of unknown provenance.
• Kieran Gonzalez - Green Gully's goalkeeper has been thrown up as a possible replacement for the retired Peter Gavalas.
• Milos Luic - Northcote's star forward had been thrown up as a possible acquisition, pending him not being picked up by an A-league team. While his initial attempt to get on Sydney FC's books didn't work out, it looks like he's got at least a temporary spot at Wellington Phoenix.

Who's gone so far? (and who else may be going?)
Remembering that it is pre-season, and that there are new rules to play by this season, it's a scenario that's been complicated beyond the usual 'can we afford him/does he want to play for us/is he under contract' shenanigans.

Now we also have to deal with a 275 player points cap (which will probably be reduced in the coming seasons), which penalises teams who recruit heavily, rely on visa players, and generally favour older, non-own club products to younger, crafted by your own hand players.

Definite outs

• Bryan Bran, supposedly to FC Chabab, an ethnic Moroccan team playing in the Dutch third division (which is a recent attempt to bridge the gap between amatuer and professional football there, or so Wikipedia says.
• Trent Rixon, gone back to Northcote. A shame, but not entirely unexpected.
• Alan Kearney - apparently to Dandenong Thunder. For whatever reason, looked like he was falling out of favour once the new signings came in during last year's mid-season transfer window. The limit of visa spots has not helped his claim I would think.
• Peter Gavalas, retired, a big hole to fill, whether you rated him or not.
• Fernando De Moraes, retired. Fare thee well, Nando.

In the maybe/likely/fucked if I know pile

• Luke Hopper - with only two visa spots available (and one of those being taken up by Shaun Kelly, the other probably to Nick Soolsma), he looks like the one that will miss out. Or will he? 
• Carl Recchia - supposedly going to Pascoe Vale - disappointing as he was allegedly paid throughout 2013 despite missing the entire season due to his knee injury. Though quite how much value he'll provide a season after a serious knee injury and at his age is anyone's guess.
• Renco Van Eeken - almost certainly gone back home. His chronic osteitis pubis problem is probably where our downward slide started in the first half of the season.
• Nicky Soolsma - the info on this keep changing, but the assumption at the moment is that he'll stay
• Chris Maynard  - I'm hearing disturbing things related to a shit attitude towards training. I hope this is not true, as a) we need a keeper b) I would rather have one of our youth products make the grade if he's good enough and c) I think it's fairly well known what Chris Taylor's attitudes to a slack attitude to training are.
• Rhys Meredith - Have heard he's gone back to Queensland. A pity, and a little bit of a surprise I think. At one point I thought that if either of the two Queenslanders was going to win a spot here, it would have been Rhys over Tyson, but the latter's late season form really turned a corner.
• James Karvelis - the young defender got a few games last season and actually did OK, but if he stays it looks like he'll be a back up player again.
• Nick Jacobs - despite my love of this player, have the gut feeling he's destined to be remembered as a future SMFC trivia question for his winning goal against Southern Stars in 2012. Still young though, so hopefully he's still deemed worthy of overcoming his injury problems and giving it a real crack.
• Matko Budimir - the big defender probably should have got more game time last year, but for whatever reasons didn't. Not sure what his future holds. Would like to see him given a chance, but I'm not sure it's in his best interests to stick around.
• Baggio Yousif - apparently left for Hume. Scored a ton of goals and seemed to take up a lot of the on field leadership slack after Giannopoulos left the 21s last year. While 21s football is not senior football by any stretch, I'm actually disappointed to see him go.
• Erdem Ozcagli - assume he will be staying.
• Andrew Cartanos - got more senior game time than most from the 21s last season, but I'm not personally convinced by him. Would love to be proven wrong.

So when do we get to start seeing them in action?
No firm dates for friendly or trial matches have come forth yet, though some other clubs are apparently getting into gear. But on that note. here's what one of the peoples on the old smfcboard posted recently:


George Katsakis interviewed by George Karandonis on Rythmos 1656 just before where he stated Heidelberg are conducting a tournament that starts on Sunday Jan 26th.

Confirmed teams:

• South
• Heidelberg
• Oakleigh
• Bentleigh
• Port
• Sydney Olympic
• West Adelaide 

 Nearly confirmed:

• Hobart Olympic 
  

Declined to participate:

•  Northcote City

Further to that information, my mail is that Hobart Olympia will not participate in this tournament, but will be heading down to Melbourne to play a couple of games against us. Another chance for Jake Vandermey to show his worth against his old mob?

It's a pity we don't get an interstate trip, as was mooted towards the end of last year, but since Melbourne is the centre of the Greek-Australian universe, it makes sense for everyone else to come to us.

Of course, this hasn't been confirmed as of yet beyond the radio broadcast, so expect some changes. One of the Football Anarchy Sydney Olympic fans has pointed out that the NSWPL pre-season cup starts in the first week of February.

Quite why they're proposing to start on Sunday 26th - instead of say, starting on the night of Friday 24th, taking advantage of the whole of the Australia Day long weekend is anyone's guess. The Groundskeeper Willie of smfcboard has also noted that Olympic Village's turf is not in good nick.

Our youth system is not working

So, the news coming out of Lakeside is that experienced VPL goalkeeper Peter Gavalas - most recently of Bentleigh Greens - is training and has probably signed with us for 2012. That he has been training with us is true, as I've seen him at one such session at Lakeside. It does raise issues from this correspondent's end, however.

Peter Gavalas would not move across to South, or any other VPL club for that matter, if he didn't think he was a shoe in for the first choice keeper's position. And that would entirely be his right, seeing as he has done the hard yards and built himself a solid reputation.

But where does that leave Zaim Zeneli, last year's eventual first choice goalkeeper? After winning the three way battle between himself, Stefaan Sardelic and Abdelhadi Deroune last year, including his double penalty save heroics against Heidelberg, the Sydney native looked to be a good thing to keep his place, with an opportunity for long time under 21s goalkeeper George Malliaras to get one step closer to fulfilling his dream of playing for the blue and white.

But this no longer appears to be the case. And logically then, one of Zeneli's and Malliaras' tenure must be close to an end. It brings into question the problems of bringing in players from interstate, but also of the fate of promising or what one may call 'project players' from the youth system. One could rattle off the names of several young players who, for whatever reason have departed the club in recent times.

In some cases it may be out down to impatience, lack of skill or family connections at other clubs. But for the sake of topicality, let's name two recent apparent departures: Jake Vandermey and Josh Colosimo. Unlike several of their under 21s teammates, they did not move on in mid last year, but rather spent a large portion of it playing with Hobart Olympia. They started every week, and were credited by  several southern Tasmanian observers with being integral to Olympia's turnaround in form.

As part of the deal for playing for Olympia, Vandermey and Colosimo would have been promised and expected to have been given a genuine shot at senior football in 2012. Now of course it's a coach's prerogative to select and seek to recruit players of his choosing, within the budget allocated to them by the football committee. But at the same time, let's not pretend that the football sub-committee does not have any influence in the general direction the club's recruiting may head.

After all, it's quite well known now that the football sub-committee ignored the preference of new senior coach Peter Tsolakis in the hiring of the new under 21s coach. Added to this, despite the shambles at the end of last year after the external academy affiliated personnel in our system upped and left, we're now involved with a partnership with another academy in our junior system, with a group and individual whose reputation at best could be described as controversial.

The football sub-committee, in its various forms, is also responsible for the selection of our senior coach. The previous two choices have been, well, catastrophic. Firstly in the way that they have destabilised and worn down the morale of the senior squad, and secondly with their ethos of playing favourites and ignoring other players, whomever they may be.

If one was to point to an on field ethic or raison d'etre at South, historically it would have been, ignore our own youth system, purchase quality veteran and/or up and coming players from other clubs, and play some decent football. It was arrogant, short term thinking, but it was at least consistent. Almost no player or coach was safe from being sacked, and while that created a lot of bitterness in the ranks of our ex-players - put Paul Wade's departure right at the top of that list - it was no secret how the club operated.

Now there's no longer any sense of a coherent on field direction. In contrast to the off field direction, which has been mostly people pulling in the same direction, and seemingly getting real close to securing the future of the club in a prosperous, self-sufficient state, on field it's a mess. And now that there's a bit more money floating around, the club can afford to splash out on some of the more 'professional' players running around the league.

Of course, like most players in this league, they do enjoy playing the game, but they seem to enjoy it more when and where they get more money for doing so. Most clubs with ambitions of success would rather deal with this sort of 'proven' talent then take even a reasonable risk on players they have in their own backyard, and have seen (if the coaching staff is even interested in watching the reserves, but that's another story) for a number of years.

This is not of course a problem that only South faces - Green Gully and Oakleigh are just two of the other VPL clubs that routinely cop a beating on the forums for the lack of players they source from their own ranks. But if young players are coming and then staying at South with the expectation or promise - sometimes explicit, sometimes not - that they are a genuine and realistic chance at being considered for senior football, and then continually find themselves on the scrapheap, then perhaps the club should be more honest about its senior football recruiting ethos, and make it so obvious that no one can be in any doubt as to what it is.

Of course, there are a legion of parents out there who think little Johnny is the next big thing. Sometimes it's the clubs that foster this belief, other times the parents are deluding themselves. And admittedly, the VPL's under 21s is not the greatest standard of competition. Neither is Tasmania's Southern Premier League. But in the case of our 21s competition, it is the most likely place a half-talented player of that age will get noticed by A-League scouts.

Certain people will tell you that it is better as an 18 year old, to ditch the VPL under 21s competition and play regular senior football - if they're good enough, they'll be back soon enough. And if they're not, well, it just goes to show that they weren't really all that good in the first place. It's a valid position to take, but it's not one that will work for all players. Danny Radojicic, often acknowledged as a promising midfielder with a powerful long range shot, dropped out to play for lower league teams, and has been through half the clubs in the state league system. A good striker or promising young defender saddled with a sub-par midfield can cause myriad issues.

While initially being in agreement with the concept of an under 21s competition for the VPL, I've since come around to the position that in the long run, this does not help young players. They would benefit more from playing in a high standard competition with older players, who know more tricks of the trade. In addition, there are only so many places on a senior list - how many players does one expect to graduate from a sub-par competition like the VPL under 21s? At best you may have one or two genuine prospects in a given year - the problem for South is, do we even see those one or two come through?

One wonders what the future is for young striker Nicky Jacobs. He is still training with the club, and may very well have to fight for his place in the pre-season February and March schedule - but reports are also that Gianni De Nittis has found his way back into the Lakeside fold. And what of all the other promising young players in our system? Is it worthwhile playing beyond a certain age in the South Melbourne youth system?

Interviews with Josh Colosimo and Jake Vandermey

Just to add to the previous entry, Walter Pless has recently put up two interviews he conducted with Jake Vandermey and Josh Colosimo, well worth a read.

Bit of a Hobart Olympia update

By the way, Hobart Olympia have survived relegation, after beating bottom team Beachside recently. Last Saturday night they played Clarence, and lost 3-2 in an epic encounter. Jake Vandermey scored, hit the post and gave away a penalty. Josh Colosimo got stretchered off late in the mate with a suspected rib injury.

Notes from an almost South-less weekend

Don't know about you, but for once it wasn't too hard to find things to do without the eight hours I usually spend on a Sunday in the cause of watching South, which involves public transport, the ressies, the main game and a quite dinner with Gains and Steve from Broady, preferably at somewhere good and cheap.

On Friday night I became the victim of public transport crapness but still managed to catch about 70 minutes of the game between Port Melbourne and Fawkner. Port dominated the match, but ex-South goalkeeper Stefaan Sardelic had an excellent game, making several vital saves, including some excellent double saves. Would have been nice to see him receive some more encouragement from his teammates. I also saw someone get clocked in the head by a falling branch while standing behind the Plummer Street goals, thankfully no damage done.

Also got a call asking if I could fill in again for writing the state league 2 and under report for Goal Weekly, and I said yes. Then after my driver stopped for fuel and a sandwich, I somehow ended up in Oakleigh for a gin and tonic. Maybe because it was my birthday and people just about begged me to go outside of the house.

On Saturday afternoon I trundled over to Paisley Park for the state league 2 north-west match between Altona East and Westgate. Had a great souvlaki and saw the reserves snap an eight game losing streak by managing a 1-1 draw, and joined by Ian Syson, watched the senior match which was OK I suppose, a lot of effort but not a lot of method, before East got on top in the second half and probably should have won by more than the 1-0 margin. Overheard someone going on about the World Club Championship money, again.

Fahrudin Mustafic volleys home Singapore's third goal. Photo: PoHui Ko.

Felt like the supporter of an unpopular club when I had to listen to the Pies on the radio instead of watching them on free to air television. Became satisfied that the game was done and decided to watch the Singapore vs Malaysia 'Causeway Derby' World Cup Qualifier, Asian Zone, Second Round 1st leg tie. Stream was choppy but worked well enough for me to see all eight goals. Spent Sunday morning writing the state league report and a match report for the Singapore match and round up of other related results, which you can read here.

Olympia's Joshua Colosimo clears ahead of Devonport's Brad Chilcott. Photo: Walter Pless.

Then I watched about five minutes of the season 1996, round 22 match between Hawthorn and Melbourne, then had some lunch. Checked Walter Pless' blog for discussion of Olympia's win over Devonport City, which sees them through to the state wide cup final against South Hobart. And then went to Aldi and bought a lot of junk and a couple of bottles of cider. Oh and courtesy of Oakleigh's win today, we slip down to third. Joe Montemurro apparently got the sack as well. And rumours are circling that James Spanos is due to fly in this week from Greece to resume his South career.

Josh Colosimo scores for Hobart Olympia.

Wondered how our two boys (Jake and Josh) have been going over on the Apple Isle? Well, apparently they're part of the reason why Olympia have turned their form around somewhat in the last few weeks, and who've even managed to knock out old foe Tilford Zebras (nee Hobart Juventus I'm guessing) in the state-wide cup competition called the Milan Lakoseljac Memorial Trophy, with Josh scoring the winning goal, which is nice to see, even if the defending leaves a lot to be desired on all fronts.

Josh Colosimo also heads to Olympia

Once again thanks to Walter Pless. Josh will be joining Jake Vandermey, who left a few weeks ago.


Olympia Warriors have signed 19-year-old defender Joshua Colosimo from South Melbourne Hellas.

Colosimo has been cleared and registered and will play against league-leaders South Hobart on Saturday.

He joins another South Melbourne player, Jake Van Der Mey, who was signed several weeks ago.

Both players will play at the back for Olympia and this will shore up a defence that is statistically the worst in the league.

Olympia have conceded 32 goals in 12 games, which is more than any other side.

Olympia moved off the foot of the ladder last weekend when they beat second-last Beachside 3-1 at home at Warriors Park to change places with the visitors.

The club is believed to be pursuing a third South Melbourne player to bolster their attack.

Jake Vandermey off to Hobart Olympia, and that's not the end of it!

From Walter Pless's blog. It looks like we're heading in the direction of building an actual sister club relationship with Olympia, by letting them sign a player a year and going over there on a yearly basis for pre-season training and matches, and even to play a home game. Can't say that I'm at all happy with playing a home game in Tasmania, and I'm not sure the team that will drawn to play us away there will be that stoked either unless they get their expenses paid.

Do we all of a sudden have more money than sense? Not that we ever had much sense as a club anyway I suppose. And do they think they'll be able to find one player a year to make the move? And really, Jake Vandermey should have been given more of a go ahead of the ring ins that we've bought ourselves. I suppose more senior football for the kid is a good thing, but why couldn't he get it at South?

Good luck to Jake anyway, hopefully it's a worthwhile stint and he comes back to South better for the experience, but I can't say I'm sold on the concept of sister club relationships as it is, and the way this whole thing seems to have been done. Just concerned that it's part of a trend to get rid of our young players. It's not Ange Dallas' motives that I'm worried about. Whether he's right or wrong, I believe he has the best interests of the club and players at heart. But as for Eddie - I don't have nearly the same confidence in him as I would like.

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Olympia Warriors have signed 19-year-old defender Jake Van der Mey from South Melbourne Hellas in the Victorian Premier League.

He was cleared by South Melbourne and signed by Olympia today in time for the club’s Forestry Tasmania Southern Premier League showdown with Glenorchy Knights at KGV Park on Friday at 8pm.

Van der Mey was a member of the South Melbourne squad that played South Hobart at South Hobart in January’s Hill Street/Thrifty Cup.

The signing comes following a visit to Melbourne this week by Olympia president George Mamacas and senior coach Franco Previdi, where they had discussions with South Melbourne’s coach, Eddie Krncevic, club president Leo Athanaskis and football director Ange Dallas.

“From watching him training, he’s a good player,” said Previdi this afternoon.

“I had some very good chats with Eddie [Krncevic] and he basically said he’s a good kid who has played three or four games in the seniors.

“He needs a little bit more development and playing in senior football. South Melbourne are obviously aiming to win the league and they’ve just signed three or four players aged about 24 with a bit more experience.

“He’s a really good player and a few of our players played against him when they went over there to train with South Melbourne. They remember him.

“He’s a good kid. He’s 19 years old and I’m sure he can stand on his own, but I don’t want to put him under any more pressure.

“He’ll most likely play in defence, but we’ll wait and see our resources.

“In the next few weeks, we’ll probably sign another one.”

Olympia president, George Mamacas, sees this signing as part of a developing relationship between the Warriors and South Melbourne Hellas.

“Our club’s vision is to set up a pathway for youth players of the Olympia FC Warriors to attain a higher level of football on the mainland,” Mamacas said today.

“The South Melbourne FC facility, Bob Jane Stadium, is currently under construction and there is a projected 90 million dollars of refurbishments.

“We are aiming to set up a pilot program whereby fringe Victorian Premier League players of South Melbourne FC would be identified and spend one season with the Olympia FC Warriors in Tasmania on a yearly basis.

“South Melbourne FC would also make an annual visit to Warrior Park for pre-season training with the Olympia FC Warriors, and this would also include practice games.

“There would also be a scheduling of a South Melbourne FC Premier League home game during the season proper here in Tasmania to coincide with an Olympia FC Warriors home game as the curtain-raiser.

“Our club is now ready to embrace what will be a fruitful and everlasting relationship with South Melbourne FC.

“We see many benefits for our club and the football community throughout Tasmania.

“South Melbourne FC coach and former Australian international Eddie Krncevic will come down in a few weeks’ time and take a training session and be a guest at one of our home games.

“It is worth noting that the club’s vision was always to talk to South Melbourne in regard to players on their list that may be available.

“We, as a club, believe having players within our squad who are playing at a higher level will advance the development of our youth and give the younger players aspirations to take the next step.

“Also, it will give them a perspective and an insight into what is required to make it to the next level.

“The player we have signed for the duration of season 2011 is 19-year-old Jake Van der Mey.

“Playing in the centre-back position, he has made appearances at senior level this year.

“Eddie Krncevic has a high opinion of him and wants him to play senior football before seeing him push for a permanent starting position in 2012 with South Melbourne FC in the Victorian Premier League.

“Olympia FC Warriors want to be seen to be raising the bar and improving football both on and off the field.

“The reality is that this is great news for football in general and Olympia FC Warriors are playing their part at helping the game grow in our island state of Tasmania.”

Hobart Trip 2011 - Superwow!

This is the less serious look back at this trip. It likely has no particular rhyme or reason.

Flying
I hadn't flown for 11 years, and that was in a four seater. Before that, I hadn't been in a commercial sized aircraft for 15 years. I thought I'd be more nervous, but to my relief I actually found it a lot of fun. Cloud cover on the way there meant I didn't get to see much except on the approach to Hobart; on the way back, nightfall meant that we got to see Launceston lit up, but that's about it. I was a bit worried about the bloke on the flight to Hobart who felt he needed to have a bourbon and coke before eight in the morning.

Driving
If you can afford it, and if you can drive, do hire a car. You will save money, time and effort in the long or short term. Cuddles and I did several Chap Laps around Hobart's CBD and other inner suburbs. Hobart is essentially a large country town. It has an adequate but utterly unremarkable airport – for a comparison, see my notes on Canberra's airport - and the distances between Points A, B and C are artificially extended only by the confusing road system, which especially in the CBD relies heavily on one way streets where left and right turns are severely restricted. I lost count of the amount of three point turns, multiple lane changes and illegal u-turns we made.  I wish I'd brought my ipod though - it would have made a nice change from the Greek music and the doof doof I had to sit through.

Cadbury Factory
When you go to Hobart, the one mandatory task that everyone seems to have to tick off is a visit to the Cadbury factory. Once upon a time this may have included an actual tour of the plant, but these days this experience is restricted to a half hour session in which you are given basic statistics and information about chocolate production via a presenter and a short film, and the opportunity to taste the lesser refined and unmixed ingredients that eventually end up as chocolate. Apart from that, you can waste some time and and money in the gift shop and on slightly discounted chocolate. The highlight of this part of the trip had more to do with running into South president Leo Athanasakis, who recognised my hat while we were driving in the area adjacent to the factory. We had a robust but friendly discussion about board politics and personalities.

Hobart Olympia
After picking up our two companions from the airport and returning to the hotel, with about 20 minutes until kickoff in our friendly against Hobart Olympia, we decide to head off to the KGV soccer field. We make it just in time, but on the same token, everything in Hobart seems on close proximity to most everything else. Both sides field youthful outfits – South only has two or three senior regulars on the ground, and despite some occasional sloppiness, dominates proceedings – another young prospect, one Nicky Jacobs, does the damage, with two first half goals, the first an elegant looping chip over the keeper. He made it a hattrick soon after play resumed for the second half, and as more senior players were given time, the result and the game degenerated even further for Olympia.

Olympia have struggled on field in recent seasons. They obviously gave this one a good go, at least in the initial stages, but their attempt to stand toe to toe with their opponents didn't work well. As the match progress, their mistakes became worse. The locals took it in their stride though. It was refereed by a bloke we dubbed Inzamam ul-Haq, whom I was a little disappointed to later learn had the surname Collins. How plain.

Good Morning, Sunshine
At 7am on a saturday, hobart is dead. This is perhaps a relief to some people, who don't believe that anything should be in motion at that time of the week, but after taking a quick walk around the block and finding myself amongst the few living, it was a little disconcerting. It didn't even have that old school ghost town feel – it was just more reflective of the malaise perhaps (an incorrect, but still somewhat appropriate word) that seems to infect the town.

Frappé Fury
It would be quite safe to suggest that the Greek iced coffee drink known as frappé is a cultural institution in its homeland, and has a legion of devotees here in Australia amongst the Greek diaspora. Now I'm hardly one of those people who can barely last a couple of days without this drink, but at least one of the people I happened to be traveling with is one of those types. What luck then that we found a Greek restaurant in Salamanca (called Mezethes). The menu located outside didn't list frappé, but we decided to ask anyway. Much to our horror, not only did they not have frappé, but Elia Donoudis' long lost son didn't even know what it was! For some reason I was almost as riled by this fact as everyone else, and I hardly touch the stuff. I mean, even in my dad's village of a couple of thousand mostly elderly people, grown men will sip this drink through their straws, and somehow this place didn't know about it? Qué horror!

Salamanca Markets
You might as well head down here when it's open on Saturday, especially if you like Tasmanian produce like honey, jam and whatever they can carve out of wood. Me, I bought a mixed set of ginger beer (regular, 'extra zing' and alcoholic), and a couple of bottles of cider (a sweet perry and a scrumpy). The bag the cider (which is chilling in my fridge) was in was faulty, and therefore the scrumpy bottle smashed onto the pavement. The lady at the next stall helped clean up the glass, and I was offered a replacement bottle by the stallholder I'd bought the cider from, and I managed to prevent it from tearing through the paper bag until we got back to the hotel.

Let's be honest - people love hype, and they love succumbing to the overriding public opinion to the extent that it clouds their judgment. That's the case with several food items at the Queen Victoria Market, most notably the hot jam donuts and the grilled bratwurst. While the former are criminally overrated by people who like their donuts undercooked and doughy, the bratwurst are at least edible. The pork bratwurst with garlic and herbs that one can buy at the Salamanca Market are on another level altogether. It's one of those instances where you are compelled to readjust your thinking about the world. Yes, it was tasty.

The Dutch fruit donut Oliebollen (literally 'oily balls') aren't anything special, and it was a good thing I had only bought one. One of the more confusing stalls was the Gypsy Rolls food stand. Turns out they were just Balkan skinless sausages (aka cevapi). Still, we got a laugh out of it, in part due to reminiscing about the Albanian marinated chicken rolls. The ice cream at the Salamanca Markets is amazing. I had a scoop of boysenberry which came in a crispy, sugary - but not too sugary - waffle cone.

The Hellenic Club 
We went to the Hellenic Club twice. The first time was after we'd played Olympia, where the team (and the rest of us) were treated to dinner - tender goat, OKish chicken, chips, salad and Mythos beer. We were on the same table as some of the Olympia officials, maybe a bloke allegedly banned from dozens of casinos for being a champion card counter, as well the local Greek Orthodox priest who preferred a traditional VB to the Greek lager. The hospitality was fantastic all night, but being involved in several simultaneous conversations we couldn't take too much notice of the surrounds.

Going back there on the Sunday after the South Hobart game, what with our last chance to have dinner in town as well as the only known provider of frappe in Hobart, we got to have a better look. Approaching the venue, we weren't really sure if it was open, but we saw the television on from outside.

You could hardly find a more different Hellenic Club to the one located in Canberra. The Canberran version is massive, full of pokies, garishly decorated, and lacking in any real identifier outside its name of actually being a Greek venue. The Hobart version was small and cosy, and decorated in every bit of naff Greek kitsch ephemera and they could lay their hands on. Posters with the heroes of '21 and Greek singers, a big scarf over the bar with the word 'Pontian' on there. I loved it. I felt like I was home.

That feeling though was encouraged by the presence of the locals, who lacked pretension. There was a sorta disheveled bloke outside the venue, having a bit of a sleep. After we had gone in, he came in a bit later, and had another nap at one of the tables. He had a drink, another nap, got up and said goodbye. The locals seemed to take it in their stride.

More fun were the blokes at the bar, two of whom spent a good half hour talking about good fishing spots and how to cook different fish. One of the blokes eventually came over and starting talking to us about the degradation of Tasmanian soccer and the bloke who was running it about 20 years ago, and the selfishness of the southern clubs who weren't willing to make the trip up to Launceston once a season. That was the cue for one of the blokes behind to let rip with 'Αν τον πιάσω τον πουστι, θα τον γαμισω τη μάνα!', which is not a nice thing to say about anyone really, but was still bloody funny. There were several other expletive laden sentences after that, but the laughter didn't end there. We found out that not only did he live in Melbourne in the late 1960s, and was self-confessed card-player seven days a week, but he turned out to be a cousin of Kris Kalifatidis, long time South player and member of our 1984 NSL championship team. That, and there was a sign which clearly stated that foul language and bad behaviour would not be tolerated. They probably should have had it in Greek as well.

The Hellenic Club doesn't appear to have either a set menu, nor a price list, but they did a sorta Gary Ablett lookalike who offered to makes us psarokeftedes (Greek fish croquettes), which took so long to make that I wondered if he'd gone to catch the fish himself - but they were pretty good, as were the two massive bowls of salad (although someone ate all the feta cheese), and the even the all important frappedes. And the price? All up, $60, just $15 a head. Amazing value, great hospitality, too many laughs.

Boat Trips
If you can, definitely take a trip out on one of the boats. We went up to North Bruny Island and back. Saw a lighthouse, penguins, an abandoned whaling settlement. I got sunburnt, someone lost a hat (that had just been bought that day - not mine though). There's a photo of me out there holding on to my hat, and I'm not ashamed of that.

Nightlife
Hobart's restaurants seem to turn in for the night at about 10pm even on weekends.

Some people in the group were curious to know whether we would need collars to get into the clubs. Turns out we didn't.

As for the nightclubs, once and for all I had my doubts wiped away about these places. I can and do listen to and tolerate all sorts of music, but the relentless and inhuman 'doof, doof, doof, doof' I find unbearable. I was in the Observatory Bar for about 30 minutes and for 28 of those of minutes felt like I was being beaten into submission by the music. As Kyle Reese once said of another relentless machine:

Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. 

Good thing I left the building, much to confusion of my friends. Apparently I missed much frivolity with members of the Glenorchy Knights women's team, but I'm OK with that. I preferred, strangely I know, to watch the AFC Cup.

Cascade Brewery
Is definitely worth a trip, but try and go during the working week so you can see the brewery in action. It lasts a good hour and a half or so, you learn some history which isn't solely brewery related, and you get three tokens to have drinks at the end of it. The Mercury Dry cider isn't up to scratch; it lacks that crispness and kick that a 'dry' should have. If you opt for the stout, get it last; you don't get as much and it has a robust but simple coffee flavour that will dominate your tastebuds for a while. I took a bottle home afterwards, and it's better to have an entire bottle than the small sample they give you. I also had a go at the raspberry cordial, also quite nice.

Darcy Street
The welcome at Darcy Street was terrific. It's one of the most scenic grounds you could ever hope to visit. I bought two copies of the South Hobart 100 year history book. They also had caps, but no scarves. Thanks to the ladies at the merchandise tent who put aside our items until the end of the match, and for giving us a $10 discount.

There was a little bloke playing for South Hobart trying to throw his weight around, whom we dubbed Craig David; far too much time and effort was spent telling to him to just 'walk away'. South Hobart's first choice goalie got injured in the second half, to be replaced by a barrel of a bloke called Mike McKenna - he actually did OK, got off the ground a couple of times as well. He didn't have a numbered top, and apparently he'd been out of the game for a year or two with injury, but he did better than either of Hobart Olympia's goalkeepers.

David Bartlett, Tasmania's Premier, was there, though apparently he didn't stay for the whole game. The bloke next to me, a former striker for Olympia back in the 1970s was good value, he taught me about the Hobart soccer scene, I let him know about some of our players and explained the term downhill skiing. Players haven't been paid here for about 15 years or so at least. One team, Caledonians, sent themselves broke to win a championship. It's a familiar story wherever you go in this country it seems.

It was a pleasure to meet Walter Pless, however briefly.

Ephemera
South of the Border is an unashamed fan of Hellas kitman Frank Piccione, but does not take it as far as some do. Hopefully I'll never be in the position one of the traveling fans was, hoping the pregnancy test came out negative.

It was difficult, but the pacifist in me won out, and I didn't belt the Perth Glory fan that was seemingly following us everywhere - OK, maybe not everywhere, but he was at both games we played and we saw him in Salamanca as well. At this rate I'll never be hardcore enough to reach the heights of Silesian football hooliganism.

If you ever go to a hotel with 'internet', and you're bringing your laptop or netbook with you, you should pack an ethernet cable. Don't bet on them having wireless, and don't bet on the wireless being much good. Thanks to the hotel for loaning me a cable for the duration of our stay.

Contrary to what I told him, I could have spared the teenage lout we bumped into on the Saturday night a couple of dollars to buy some goon. But really, it wouldn't have done him any good.

Eddie Krncevic will from here on in be known as the Green Hornet. Not my creation, but it's so appropriate, I'm going to run it into the ground.

Other buzzwords which got a thorough working over: superwow; tsibouklou; Ceca; mounopano.

Finally, thank you to the waiter at Ciuccio, who defended my decision to drink a normal sugar laden Coke as opposed to the wussy Coke Zeros that everyone else was having.

Hobart Trip 2011 - Long way to go for all concerned

This article will be purely about the football. For an article about the more touristy stuff and Hobart's eccentricities - and its eccentrics - there'll be something in another article about that.

Hobart Olympia 0 - South Melbourne 9

Our first match was against Hobart Olympia, at the Federation's home of KGV Park. It's an adequate set up - a small stand, beautiful surface, and pretty poor lighting that wasn't really needed for an evening game in the height of summer. After decades of wandering aimlessly from ground to ground, Olympia are busy building a new facility, in an attempt to stamp themselves on a locality and find a means to attract and keep the junior talent that exists in the Hobart area.

It fits into their plan to develop their own young players - an overall plan 20 years too late perhaps, but when you're left with no option after years of neglect, you might as well start from a position of humility and work your way up. It's apparently not necessarily a popular or unanimous decision amongst the Olympia faithful to go back to the drawing board and rely on youth, but the top brass there seem prepared at this early stage to stick out and see if it works.

To that end, in only their second match of their pre-season one could forgive a bit of rustiness from the hosts. Both sides fielded young sides - only two or three first choice players took the field in the first half for Hellas - the rest of the team being youngsters from the under 21s and below. Likewise for Olympia, a lot of young and inexperienced players. It''s worth remembering also that our under 21s won the VPL title last season, finishing streets ahead of the field.

With all that in mind, they made perhaps the unusual and gutsy decision to try and stand toe to toe against their more fancied opponents. They were competitive enough in the first half, winning a few corners and sending in a few crosses, and they also managed to put in a few good tackles, but the gulf in class was obvious for all to see. The South boys played the ball from the back, with quick short passes and tended to hold the ball until the right moment presented itself.

We were up 2-0 at halftime, courtesy of a double to the hitherto unknown - even to his teammates - Nicky Jacobs. His first goal was delightful, a delicate chip over the top of the keeper that floated into goal. The football department think he's a work in progress, and it's hard to gauge how good he really is against such poor opposition. James Riccobene also impressed - his decision making seems good, and he can put in a half decent corner as well.

The second half started off well for South, as Nicky Jacobs got his hattrick early on in the piece. From there on, the home side more or less disintegrates. While admittedly more senior players were brought over the course of the second half, and the home side tried various formations and players, there was an ineptitude that was troubling. Both of Olympia's goalkeepers could not accurately kick the ball, nor gain much distance. Rather kicking the ball long from defence from goalkicks, they attempted to play the ball out from the back with disastrous results.

Football is a possession game, but it's also a territorial game, and where the ball is located at any given moment is just as important. For a team seemingly destined to struggle at least in the short term, would it have been worthwhile to attempt to play conservatively? Would the players have learned anything from such an approach? I'm not sure. As it is, the Olympia coach suggested that at least one cause of the heavy defeat - it finished 9-0, with Jesse Krncevic bagging five goals in his 28 minutes on the ground - was due to a lack of ticker.

Now actually giving a stuff about the game you're playing is important, but singling that out - regardless of the fact that as far as I could tell, the Olympia boys did have a red hot go for the majority of the game - seems so anachronistic that one wonders what kind of hope there is for the players. To use a famous example from another sport:

While commentating during a match in which Pakistan was faring badly in all departments of the game, Bill Lawry, offering a solution said "I think Pakistan's problem is they've got to relax", to which Benaud replies nonchalantly, "I don't agree. I think Pakistan have got to learn how to bat, bowl and field. It's a simple game."

Meanwhile, South's assistant coach Joe Montemurro spent a great deal of time talking to his substitutes, giving them what appeared to be quite detailed instructions. Now this may just be me taking something of out of context and blowing it completely out of proportion, but it was a comment that stood out above all the others. For their part, the people watching the game appeared to be realistic about where the two sides and indeed the overall depth and quality of football between the two states, were at in relation to each other.

At the end of the game, Leo Athanasakis jumped the gun and said we'd be back next year to play them again, in all likelihood without consulting anyone else. If that is to be the case, it'll be interesting to see what difference a year would make. Having seen Olympia struggle in our Hellenic Cup a few years ago, I'm wary of how much improvement there might be - here's hoping though that they follow through on their plan to blood the young players and not flinch at the first sign of danger or failure.


South Hobart 0 - South Melbourne 5
The ground at Darcy Street is gorgeous - two stands side by side, spanning the length of the field, a perfect pitch, and on the other side, the mountains in full view. A good crowd of 700 turned up for the match, which was both tighter and of  a higher quality than the Friday game - Hellas fielded many more of its senior players right from the start, and South Hobart have been the dominant team in Hobart for the past few seasons - last season they did not lose a single game, and won the senior, reserve and under 19 competitions.

South Hobart's success (which has bucked the trend of their rather mediocre post-war history) has not been without its share of cynicism and controversy. Their coach is Ken Morton, the former NSL coach, who also sponsors the club via his private soccer academy, and whose partner happens to be the president of the club. While some locals have lauded the increased professionalism and style of play brought about by South Hobart in recent years, equally there are detractors who are waiting for the day when Morton leaves (for whatever reason) and the whole system falls apart.

While South Hobart put in a performance at several levels above that of Olympia, and should have scored at least a couple of goals, it's fair to say that once again the gulf in class was significant, especially considering that Hellas was far from its best. While missing three of our more skillful players in Joe Keenan, usual frontman Gianni De Nittis, captain and defender Ramazan Tavsancioglou and new recruit Yianni Galanos, we were still able to create several good chances at goal.

The home side's pressure did lead to several mistakes being made in defense however, and that will be of some concern - and playing the ball out of the back will not be so easy against better opposition and on fields of far inferior quality. It was good to see Kyle Joryeff play up front in both matches. His reputation as a 'downhill skier' won't have been helped by the opposition he faced, but he showed that he is a classy finisher, and that his close control is amongst the best in the side. I've been of the opinion for a while that the only position he could play is upfront - his lack of defensive mettle rules him out from playing on the wings.

Both Stefaan Sardelic and Zain Zenali had stints in the keeper's position. Sardelic was forced to scurry across goal to deal with several loose back passes, and his dealing with them wasn't always convincing. Neither was his field kicking, but his distribution by hand and most of his aerial work were very good. Zenali had less to do in the second half, and was penalised somewhat harshly for picking up a backpass that appeared to clearly to be the result of the South Hobart player being dispossessed.

Seb Petrovich, after being overlooked so much last season after having won our best and fairest in 2009, did reasonably well on a wing. He has grit and skill, but he lacks that bit of pace that would make him a threat in that position - he is far better suited to his usual central midfield role. Steven Topalovic at right back did some excellent and awful things. He gave away the ball in several dangerous situations, particularly in the first half, and looked a little lost with players running at him. On the other hand, he easily won several tests of strength when fighting for the ball, and could be a useful and intimidating physical force if played more centrally.

In the VPL, Hellas is not considered one of the more physical sides, and yet we were able to win most of the 50/50 balls and moments when physical strength were needed most, which only served to further emphasise the gulf in skill. For their part, South Hobart tried to keep the ball on the ground, and their effectiveness was hampered by several injuries during the course of the match, but there would still be little doubt that there is a long way to go for both South Hobart and Tasmanian football to catch up to even the lesser mainland states.


Some naive observations

Their isolation from the rest of Australian soccer, coupled with the internal divisions - despite several attempts at a unified state league, the north and south of the state still seem to conduct separate competitions - and the lack of funds from councils from improved facilities, the general apathy of the local public towards senior soccer, means that the game there will always have several obstacles to overcome. And while lopsided results against touring sides may reinforce their inferiority, we can't let Tasmanian soccer remain in isolation.

The more open-minded supporters certainly see it as an opportunity to showcase both the game's qualities as a spectacle, as well as a chance to show where improvement can be made and how much of it is needed to start bridging the gap. Whether the game there can find the unity of cause to stem the decline of standards both on field and off, is something that remains to be seen. Otherwise, Tasmanian soccer may very well end up like football in Mildura - effectively a place for a social kickabout, unable to retain juniors into their adult squads or even within the greater sphere of the game as a volunteer or spectator. The Melbourne Knights are heading down there this week to play the Glenorchy Knights. Short tours like this, especially by Victorian teams, are the bare minimum required to keep Tasmania connected to the rest of Australian soccer family.