Meandering thoughts on the 2017 Victorian soccer media landscape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donald Sutherland artefact Wednesday - 1954 South Melbourne United reserves

I was going to post this some time ago, but I wanted to get a few things checked out first. MFootball writer Donald Sutherland put this up on Twitter towards the start of the year. It's a photo of the 1954 South Melbourne United reserves team which, if nothing else, shows that youth development at South Melbourne was working a bit better back then. Donald's grandfather (also known as Donald Sutherland) is in this photo (see caption for more details).

1954 South Melbourne United reserves team, from left to right:
Back row: ???, ???, ???, ???, ???
Middle row: Des Hamilton, ???, ???, ???, Graeme James, ???, Peter Hathaway
Front row: ???, ???, ???, Macka(?), Donald Sutherland, ???,  ???.

Former South player Ted Smith was able to fill in some of the player details. Peter Hathaway went on to play for South Melbourne United's senior team, as did Graeme James. According to Smith, both these players also played in the Laidlaw Cup (the local mock world cup tournament of the time) representing Australia. Des Hamilton was of course one of the two founding vice-presidents of South Melbourne Hellas (the other was Floros Dimitriadis of Yarra Park), and reportedly was still coming to South games in the 1990s.

(as an aside, I believe the original South Melbourne Supporters Group may have even named an award after him, for the fans' player of the year. Maybe we should bring that back...)

While the official in the top row, second from left remains nameless, he has been equated by former South Melbourne United junior Graeme Hocking as being the same person as the man in the middle of the back row in the team photo in this entry, and I reckon it's a pretty certain thing. Of course, any help people can offer in filling in the gaps would greatly appreciated.

Like something out of that twilighty show about that zone - Green Gully 3 South Melbourne 5

It might be a strange thing to say - after all, just about every legitimate football match has two teams in it - but this game was as much about Green Gully as it was about South Melbourne. It was a game based on momentum, complacency, and a slight breeze going to the northern, downhill end, which maybe played more of a role than it should have, with seven of the eight goals being scored at that end.

It was also hands down, one of the most bizarre games I've ever seen. Bizarre for the ease with which we kept scoring during the first half. Bizarre for its seismic momentum shifts. Bizarre for it not being us with the most calamitous and costly goalkeeping performance at this ground, so often a grave for our keepers. Bizarre for a stunt attempted by Green Gully after their goalkeeper Kieran Gonzales was sent off, which I can't recall ever being attempted before.

It's fair to say that the game was just nuts. Gonzales was in part responsible for the first goal we scored, after he parried a low ball in front of Milos Lujic for 1-0. He was clearly responsible for the second goal, when in attempting to be smart - and even early on he'd be performing his goalkeeping duties with a sort of recklessness that would wouldn't even make sense if his side were 3-0 up - when he kicked his attempted clearance straight into Lujic, whence it deflected back into the net for 2-0.

Even the Dodgy Asian Betting
guy at the game thought Epifano
couldn't muck up that chance
from point blank range.

A deflected low cross or shot from Tyson Holmes ended up at the back post for Lujic to tap in for 3-0. Just 26 minutes had passed for Lujic to achieve his hattrick. But still more was to come. Nick Epifano released Jamie Reed into a ton of space, whereby the grey-haired striker easily lofted it over the oncoming but stranded Gonzales for 4-0.

After the retirement of Peter Gavalas at the end of last season, Gonzales had been targeted by South, and had reputedly actually been very close to signing. Yesterday's performance made a few of us think that we perhaps dodged a bullet on that front, as he put in a combination Peter Gavalas-Abdelhadi Deroune Green Gully Reserve 'Vortex of Goalkeeping death'

We went into halftime 4-0 up, but it should have been six or seven, without any exaggeration. The most glaring of the missed opportunities came a minute after Reed's goal, with Epifano hitting the right post from very close range - we all assumed it was in, even the Dodgy Asian Betting guy had already marked it down as a goal. Some South fans were half joking that it'd be a costly miss, not believing for a second that Gully could mount any sort of meaningful comeback. As we watched the planes fly behind us on the outer side, the talk even turned towards where flight MH370 was.

It's hard for me to recall ever seeing a Gully side so inept and so uncompetitive. Except for one late chance that hit the post in the first half, they offered almost no threat at all. Their defending was abysmal, their midfield little better. Their passing was a mess, with even simple passes mucked up. The guy in charge of the scoreboard, either because he couldn't be bothered climbing up and down to keep changing the score, or out of shame, stood in front of our scoreboard number.

Yet within minutes of the second half beginning, it was 4-2, and the old Gully we all love to hate was back; physical, aggressive, and very dirty. Matthew Sanders managed to find himself on the end of two easy opportunities, and he buried both of them, our defence all of a sudden becoming a sieve. Panic set in among the South faithful, and quite obviously among the players themselves, as their complacency became rank ineptitude.

Unfortunately for Gully, Gonzales took the home team's re-discovered aggression too far. As Lujic was called for offside while making a forward run, his momentum seeing him run past the Gully keeper, Gonzales kicked out at him, copping a straight red for his troubles. It was bizarre (there's that word again) and entirely unnecessary, and yet he saw fit to complain to the ref who had no intention of changing his mind.

Yet that wasn't the end of that incident. After Gonzales left the ground, a new keeper came on, but without any substitution actually being made. Chris Taylor was going crazy on the sidelines trying to make it clear to the officials that Gully still had eleven players on the field. Eventually they sorted it out, and South settled down a smidge. But even when Gully went down to nine men after Steven Stephen Downes was sent off for swearing at the ref - after which the officials seemed to perform a headcount - the home side still looked more likely to score.

And score another they did during the first minute of what would be a long injury time, via our old enemy Roddy Vargas - who popped up in the six yard box unmarked and headed home truly from a corner, as the South defence and Jason Saldaris went MIA. Even worse, we gifted Gully the ball from the ensuing kickoff, as panic mode well and truly took hold. Luckily substitute Leigh Minopoulos made it 5-3 from close range to end what was a pretty bizarre game.

So, three points is good especially at that ground, as is three wins from three starts all on the road, but it will be interesting to see how the team comes out on the other side of this match. Will their confidence take a knock, after playing so poorly in the second half, especially defensively? Or will they see this as a massive and necessary kick up the arse, showing that complacency and lack of concentration will see you get into trouble very quickly in this league?

Next Week
Hume City away on Sunday.

Around the grounds
Screw this, I'll make my own friends - on the internet!
I headed out to watch Port Melbourne host Oakleigh on Friday night. Since none of the Friends, Romans and Countrymen I alluded to on Twitter managed to make it out there, it was just me and my earphones listening to the FFV's radio broadcast which I'm really digging, especially for its interactivity. I had a go at them on Twitter for the abysmal pronunciation of several Greek names by Adem Barolli, their 'around the grounds' person, and I even got my name read out (poorly) with apologies. All in good fun. Too bad next week I'll be stuck at some function, otherwise I'd tune in again. Give it a go if you haven't yet, because questionable pronunciations of Greek names aside (and even the 'j' in Dusan Bosnjak's name went missing at one point on that front), they do a great job.

Anyway the match itself was kinda weird. The crowd was pretty much what you'd expect it to be, with the 'NPL, new ear hoorah' vibe already gone, and even most of the goals weren't greeted by much of a cheer. Port went ahead early after some very poor defending from a free kick out wide. Oaks gradually got on top, and equalised with a cross from the left to an unmarked player in the six yard box. The game swung back to a more even keel in the second half, and Port scored a cracker of a long range goal which went low through traffic and curled into the bottom corner. Then gradually Oaks got on top, and equalised with a cross from the left to an unmarked player in the six yard box.

Lastly, $4 for a chocolate bar? You're having a laugh Port Melbourne. Your ground ain't Docklands or the MCG.

Changing of the guard, change of attitudes?
I've been made aware that South Melbourne Women's FC have a new president, one Gabrielle Giuliano, the daughter of legendary of South Melbourne Hellas coach John Margaritis. Will this see a change of fortunes with regards to the re-uniting of the men's and women's teams? Who knows, but one can only hope so. I'm still of the opinion that together we would be stronger than what either of is right now, though SMWFC may disagree, seeing as they've had their most successful period off-field since breaking their ties with us.

Mountain of a molehill

It's probably not fair for this blog to be laying into Oakleigh two weeks in a row, but I would say two things on that:

1. Last week's Dockerty Cup shenanigans were an own goal as much as anything, thanks to Miron Bleiberg coming out and admitting their cock up on SEN.
2. Honestly, it's not just me who's noticed this week's apparent farce.

To elaborate on that second point. Last week it was pointed out to me by a South fan, as well as being noticed by several different people across the net, that Oakleigh's 2014 jersey seemed, well, a bit overwhelmed with sponsorship, somewhat akin to the infamous jersey South attempted to take to the World Club Championships in 2000.

Now while I'm sure the Oakleigh people are very happy that they have such great financial support - something which has been evident at Jack Edwards Reserve for several years now, judging by the plethora and variety of sponsor boards at that ground - but the question some people are asking is, have Oakleigh broken part of the NPL Victoria rules by having so many sponsors on the front of their shirt and on the front and back of their shorts?

2014 NPL front of kit guidelines. Click to enlarge the picture.

You see, in the licence agreement that NPL clubs have been obliged to sign to enter the competition - an agreement which, it must be remembered, was at the heart of last year's discontent - there are guidelines pertaining to a team's on field kit design, as can be seen on the image on the right hand side.

It gives you room for just one sponsor on the front of the jersey that's not related to the apparel sponsor and/or manufacturer. It also limits the amount of sleeve and short sponsorships you can sport. There has also been some talk that the rules may even become stricter next year. But by any reasonable estimation, Oakleigh's 2014 jersey
has clearly crossed the limitations every club is expected to adhere to for this season.

This is probably just making a mountain of a molehill, but if these rules are meant to establish a certain level of conformity, why should one club be able to flaunt those rules, or indeed any others it considers inconvenient? Already we have several NPL and NPL1 clubs with non-compliant venues. To some extent, that's understandable, if the ideology behind letting those sides in from the start is that they'll eventually get there within a well-established time frame (with hopefully severe consequences if the outcome is that they don't). Of course there is also the counter argument that they shouldn't be in the NPL in the first place if their facilities aren't up to scratch.

Oakleigh's sponsor filled jersey clearly stands out among
 the 2014 NPL pack. Image: MFootball/Don Sutherland.

But a jersey isn't a venue. While venues largely stay the same year in, year out, each year the jersey becomes reborn. Or so it would seem, because the Oakleigh kit in question seems to be the same one that Oakleigh sported last year, only this time with the NPL badge squeezed in there. So from that a number of questions arise: did anyone actually notice the aesthetic abomination that was this kit last year, or has the new season, new league and its supposed rules heightened awareness of all these compliance issues? Is Oakleigh planning to actually introduce a new jersey this year? If they don't, will the FFV pull them up on their breach of the guidelines? If they do, what will that cost Oakleigh both in terms of kit costs and sponsorship costs if the various sponsors were promised a place on the match day kit?

Back in 2000, when South's brains trust either arrogantly or ignorantly tried to flout the rules with their sponsor laden jersey, they were forced to change it. It was embarrassing and costly. This is a competition of much lesser importance in the grand scheme of things, but all cynicism aside for a moment, one of the key things the NPL was meant to usher in was a certain level of professionalism, conformity and standardisation.

Speaking of jerseys
South's 'Jersey night' is on this Friday night, at Beachcomber, $50. I'll be there. Other people will be there. Maybe you should be there, too?

Final thought

"You lost your NSL, huh?"
"Uh huh."
"It's not coming back, is it?"
"It might..."
"No, it's not."

Ten years with no NSL - where did the time go?

Friendly against Hume City tomorrow (and other stuff)

Out at the newly refurbished Broadmeadows Valley Park, kickoff at 3:00. It'll be our first hit out against NPL opposition this year, so it will interesting to see how we go, I guess.

Catching up to where every competent blogger was in 2011
If you scroll down, you may have noticed that I've installed another gimmick onto the site, a Twitter feed doohickey with #NPLVIC as the guide. I promise that eventually I will try to provide at best only 49% of the posts on there. You can help me reach that goal, by filling it up with your own posts.

Melbourne Knights raise the media bar
Watch out SMFC Digital Media Team! A new competitor has entered the fray, with the Melbourne Knights announcing that they've hired the services of a couple of MFootball's staff to take their media presence to the next level. It'll be very interesting to see where this goes.

Also, have you noticed that their Twitter account is verified? Why isn't ours verified? I demand answers! Lift your game SMFC Digital Media Team.

(In my haphazard way of typing coupled with a lax attitude towards proofreading, I typed 'Mead' instead of 'Media'. How cool would that be though? Mead seems like the perfect drink for away days in the various frozen tundras of the NPL. It'd be easier to get a mead movement started at South if we had some hipsters around. The problem would then be that we had hipsters, since we're probably too late in trying to get Ethiopians to come in numbers bringing their tej. And while I'm all for a broad church at South - I mean, we even let women come to games for Christ's sake - I think we have to draw the line somewhere. Still, maybe if we rationalise it as part of some sort of Wonderboy in Monsterland faction, we can get way with it...)

They're talking to us again! (for now...)
After a very long period of not responding to straight bat and totally sincere questions from me on their Facebook and Twitter accounts - which only a very cynical and insecure kind of person would construe as containing any sort of malicious intent - the FFV managed to respond to a query I posted on their Twitter feed yesterday. 


They then added this curious and quite open ended tweet.

@MarkBoric @PaulMavroudis we do read your tweets guys and will reply when appropriate
— Football Victoria (@footballvic) February 19, 2014

What they mean exactly by 'appropriate' I'm not sure. I can't imagine there'd be a rubric or algorithm they've developed beforehand for this scenario, at least not without conducting an exhaustive research project for finding out what's worlds best practise for responding to cranks on the internet.

But I prefer to look at it this way. First the Dockerty Cup name gets re-instated, then one of my questions gets answered. Surely after last year's heartbreak of not getting a media pass, I'm a shoe-in for one this season. Right?

Public transport guide updated
In:

• Heidelberg United (lame)
• Werribee City (west side!)
• Ballarat Red Devils (something, something Sovereign Hill raspberry drops; something, something Kryal Castle; something, something 200k mercenary), 
• Goulburn Valley Suns (they make fruit there, right?)

Out:

• Richmond (food sucks now, so good riddance)
• Southern Stars (still have to do one trip to Kingston Heath, bah)

Also, an updated Melbourne Knights guide, because they took the time to whinge to me. If you're unhappy with my guide and know a better route to particular venue, you can follow their example and also whinge to me, in which case I will weigh up your case.

Or you can just use this one. It's out of date and on a site that doesn't have the same homely feel as this place, but it also does its business with a lot more clarity and efficiency.

After dinner mint department
Here's a good one. South Melbourne are set to play Shepparton South for the Shepparton Cup on Sunday, out at Shepparton. More details here.

But did one of the brains trust at South Melbourne arrange this day out without consulting with senior coach Chris Taylor, or indeed pretty much anyone else before doing so?

We'll probably never know, but our sources seem to suggest that is the case. Stay classy South Melbourne.

One Step Closer - Melbourne Knights 0 South Melbourne 1

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kiss of Death, Under Duress - Knights vs South Preview

Off to Knights Stadium we go!

I have been requested to write something about this Friday's match. Not sure if any of you have noticed, but ever since I stopped writing, South has gone on a roll. If we lose on Friday, direct all mail/complaints to Paul. I write the below under duress.

After playing cat and mouse with Green Gully last weekend, Hellas was rewarded with a 1-0 win in the 90th minute courtesy of Tyson Holmes. HNK Melbourne Croatia on the other hand was drilled a new asshole by the Bentleigh Greens, in a 2-4 demolition. My sources tell me it could’ve/should’ve been more.

A brief version of events that unfolded on Sunday vs Gully. Firstly, pretty much every single Gully ‘ultra’ entered Lakeside with an FFV finals pass. This means that:

• a) they only have 20 or so fans, or
• b) they were passing them through the gates. I saw 'b' with my own eyes.

Secondly, they have to be the tightest ‘ultras’ going around. I counted four bags full of food and beverages coming through the gates. Absolutely tight, tight, tight. Thank fuck you are out of the finals. (for the back ground to this phenomenon, see this entry from August 2009 - Ed.)

Thirdly, Bradley Norton. *shakes head*. Woeful. You had about nine minutes on Sunday, and even that was too much. I expect you will warm the bench also on Sunday, and for fuck's sake, no more penalties for you my friend.

Fourthly, the goal was the cause of absolute pandemonium at Lakeside. Haven’t seen it like that since we won the grand final in 2006. Absolutely awol. Crazy shit.

Fifthly, there were many new heads at South. For those of you unaware of how the Greek community works, here is a short rundown. Pretty much they only support shit when it suits. A disgrace of the highest order. Blasphemous to say the least.

So off we trod to Knights Stadium on Friday night at 7.30pm. I like to call the place by what it should be called “Hrvatski Sportski Centar – HNK Melbourne Croatia”. They have the Croatian soccer tournament on this week as well, which means plenty of Croatians at the match hopefully. This match is worthy of an NSL atmosphere. Nothing beats the “Croatsia, Croatsia, Croatsia” chant on a Friday night. The bars should be stocked up with some pivo, the cevapi and raznjici should leave a waft in the air, the gulash and mixed grill should bring people to the social club, and the eye candy should be of export grade quality! (ooohhh yeahhhhh).

The Knights have been exceptional in their home and away games, but Bentleigh caned them last weekend. I sms’d a mate of mine down at the Knights and once again told him “the fish rots at the head, Marth's gotta go”. He replied with “LOL”.

Anyhoo, we are the form team of the finals series. Yes, Croatia should fear Hellas on Friday. HNK Melbourne Croatia 0 – South Melbourne Hellas 3.

I dunno what else to write. Looking forward to Friday night something vicious. Haven’t slept for days. Getting my tifo ready. Pfft, tifo. Thinking deck myself in South colors or go ‘casual’. Car pool, or park car in dark street nearby (public transport is non-existent)? Eat before I go, or eat there? Sit in grandstand or on the ‘Hellas’ wing? These are some of the dilemmas I have for Friday night. I’m hoping some of you can help me out.

Back To Paul With The Latest NPL Victoria Guff
Well. Today the judge presiding over the case of whether to grant the Anti-NPL group's injunction has been delayed until Monday, when the motion to love the case to the Supreme Court will also be made. In it's own way, that's a pretty common sense attitude to take.

While that all seems very straightforward, sadly I was unable to make it out to the courts today, so I'm in no position to be able to verify the very explosive claims being made around the Victorian soccer internet community, first put out by the people from the Locker Room on their Facebook page:

BREAKING NEWS THIS AFTERNOON (Wed 2/10/13):

Court update (with thanks to Tom Kalas):

The FFV has stated to the court today that it (the FFV) is "prepared to see the dissolution of all the traditional clubs" and is "in favour of zonal Consortia"

However, Donald Sutherland of MFootball, who was at the court proceedings, has hotly contested this version of events, claiming that no such comment was made. Neither is there any mention of it in his article on the day's proceedings, which also talks about the possibility of NPL Victoria being delayed until the 2015 season.

On the flipside, Nicholas Tsiaras, one of the spearheads of the Anti-NPL group, has backed up the comment attributed to Tom Kalas (while also acknowledging he was not in court today).

From the Court - FFV understands & is prepared to see the dissolution of all traditional clubs. Is in favour of Zonal Consurtiums #NPLV
— Nicholas Tsiaras (@nicholastsiaras) October 2, 2013

For its part, the FFV has put out its own statement discussing the status of the court proceedings and its announcement of the successful bidders - but it has made no comment on this claim.

Someone here is clearly not telling the truth. Either the FFV did say these things in court, or they did not. If they did, and MFootball did not report it, then that is incredibly negligent and unprofessional from their part.

If these comments were not made in court, then someone from the Anti-FFV group may have started something they wished they hadn't - and while it may please their own rusted on supporters, it may not play out well in the wider Victorian football community, who already have reservations about some of the conduct of the Anti-FFV group, as well as their motives.

By that stage the mud may have well stuck anyway - as these comments were also rumoured to have been made during the mediation process. It's a game of life and death between the two sides, and the notion that the ends justifies the means is well and truly alive.

I've seldom had the ethical stomach for that approach. All I can do is urge caution and restraint, even though that bird has flown.

Grand Final Venue and Time
While we're not quite there yet, the FFV have set the date and time for the final. As with last year, it will be part of a double header with a Melbourne Heart game, on October 19.

Unlike last year's final however, this time the game will be played as the curtain raiser to the A-League match. And here's where it gets absurd - the game will start at 1:00PM.

Who the hell starts their grand final at that time? Do the FFV have such little regard for the competition that they're willing to make it play second fiddle to another event? If we're going to have this absurd nonsense of trying to boost the Heart's crowds, can we at least put the VPL final on where it should be - as the main event?

Not that it effects me this year, but I wonder what kind of restrictions they'll have on media this time. Last time all media pass holders had to apply for limited tickets and space in the media box. Those who didn't gain accreditation were denied access to the event, and had to pay at the gate - even though most VPL media personnel are well capable of doing their match reports from out on hills and terraces of the VPL.

I'm Working On A Disclaimer Project At The Moment - South Melbourne 2 Southern Stars 2

Firstly, a confession. I had lined this slot up several weeks ago for a patented South of the Border self-satisfying stylistic splurge, in particular, writing this game up in the manner of a match report found on the online game Hattrick. However, due to the following reasons

• my atrocious handwriting
• my atrocious note-taking
• not really wanting to relive the game in the kind of blow by blow detail that writing in that manner would entail

it's not going to happen today. I'm still hoping to pull it off by the end of the season, because goodness knows I need something to distract me from this mess we're in, hopefully combining it with a Hattrick Press piece. But that doesn't concern the majority of our readership, so we'll move on to this week's match report.

Close your eyes. Clear your mind of all thought. Now think back to an early memory, perhaps round 2, 2013. What happened that night? Were you head and shoulders above your opposition? Could they even get out of their own half? What were your expectations for the rest of your season? Where do you think you went wrong?

I can see fingers being pointed everywhere, by everyone. This is a situation that will not be easily resolved. We are far removed from the cost-cutting era when the club was doomed, and thus there are fewer excuses for what has happened over the past one and a half seasons.

Brother Frog started the match much to the surprise and disdain of a lot of people. He did some nice things, but it was obvious he could barely move, and his confidence in front of goals is shot. He was subbed about a half hour into the game. With him or without him, the game plan seemed pretty clear: play on the wings at all costs. Houston got a lot of the ball out on the right, but the end product wasn't there. It didn't help that he kept slipping over as well. Wear the right boots, please!

To be fair, Stars looked about a billion times better than our first meeting with them in 2013, but considering they'd put in a performance close to soccer's absolute zero in that game, anything other than not leaving the warmth of the team bus would have been an improvement. As it was, they attacked and generally had a red hot go. Equally, it didn't help that our season has been like a four year old staying up for New Year's - a lot of promises at the beginning of the evening about seeing it through, only to get drowsy by 8:56PM before falling asleep on the couch.

We can't even use the excuse of 'if only we scored first', because we actually did. The opening goal was quite stupid. What looked like a fairly routine catch from a cross was instead punched out by the visitor's keeper, with the ball falling to the edge of the area at the feet of TWO of our players - believe it, because it's true - and just when you thought that we'd find a way to butcher that chance of a lifetime, Toffee For A Few Minutes took the initiative and scored the goal. OK then, I thought, not sure we deserved it, but we've got it, surely we should be OK now, at least until halftime.

And that is why I'm an idiot who knows nothing about football, and who rightly gets castigated for that pretense of knowledge by those who have the guts to call it as it is, even if I have a massive sook about it to my fellow internet warriors. Because instead of going into the halftime break with a narrow if not necessarily deserved lead, we went into the break 2-1 down.

Quite how it happened is anyone's guess. How does an opposition player beat two defenders by running in a straight line? The shot - if it was a shot, and as if that really matters anyway - was a cracker, right into where the spiders live. The second goal was the result of utter confusion as the Stars - who have not won a game all season - made the most of what passes for defending at South at the moment by scoring their second about a minute after scoring their first.

The Stars didn't back off in the second half, and only some good saves from the Princess kept us in the game, until Pops came on after about an hour and changed the course of the match. Aside from perhaps the Princess and The Kid at centre-back, Pops was our best player by some way. It's sad that a player that I watched come through the VPL ranks back in 1996 is our best player in 2013. Pops scored a tap in, and the last twenty minutes or so had the makings of this game, but alas, no such reward this time.

We all walked out disappointed, but the next game is not too far away. More signings have arrived. The Coach reportedly wants to turn our dressing room back into a dressing room instead of being a social club, and more power to him. Whatever works. It takes time.

Steve From Broady's Under 21's Match Report
South Melbourne's under 21s took on bottom of the league Southern Stars on Sunday afternoon. South looking to bounce back from the last three week's horror performances started off the first half in convincing fashion creating lots of opportunities. In the 33rd minute South finally took one of those chances when Anthony Giannopoulos in his new position of left back ran down the left channel, cut in and fired home to score South's first goal in a month. Seven minutes later Baggio Youssif was played an excellent through ball by the centre mid and he converted convincingly to give South a 2-0 lead.

The scoring was not done yet for the first half - in the last minute of the first half Lajos took a goal kick which flew down the other end of the ground and bounced in front of the keeper, and a lack of communication between the centre back and goal keeper saw the ball go over the keeper, and as the keeper turned he slipped as did the centre back, Baggio made the most of both players slipping and cracked the ball into the back of an empty net, 3-0 to South Melbourne was the score as the teams went in for half time.

Southern Stars come out strong at the start of the second half and were rewarded in the 66th minute when their front man headed home from a corner to get a goal back and make the score 3-1. Southern Stars heaped on the pressure for the next 20 minutes trying to salvage a draw from the game but their hopes were crushed when Baggio completed his hat-trick in the 83rd minute, having the ball played through to him by Solano and finishing nicely in the bottom corner to make it 4-1 South. Southern stars scored a consolation goal in the final minutes to make the final score 4-2 to South Melbourne.

South will have their work cut out for them next week playing the high flying Bentleigh Greens, until then cya next week.

Steve From Broady's Canteen Review
South Melbourne's food van was in the spotlight again this week trying to get some consistency with their souvs and they did with their best souv of the season. Beautiful meat and just the right amount of Tajikistan sauce, the meat was excellently portioned as was the salad and with the souv being in a pita a massive score was undeniable. I give this week's souv a 9, just falling short of perfection, until next week get around it.

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

South food truck

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

BIG NEWS IN TWO WEEKS!
The old 'big bombshell tomorrow' craziness has been supplanted by this thing doing the rounds at the moment. I even heard a variation of it at a christening a month ago. What is it exactly? Big A-League news? Are we South Melbourne Heart yet? Death of the FFV?

It's Going To Cost Me How Much?
Have a look at this MFootball article on how much some clubs think the NPLV will cost them. I like the fact that the relevant clubs are doing their homework on this, even if it has elicited more holier than thou grandstanding from North Sunshine.

Neos Kosmos
Neos Kosmos has stopped calling us Ελλας, instead referring to us as Σαουθ Μελμπουρν or some such, while still using the traditional names for teams like Northcote and Port Melbourne. Good for them. Good to see they still have a sense of humour. They'll need it when The Rapture comes.

Next Week
Bentleigh at home. Not expecting much from this game. Come on South, surprise me.

Quote Of The Day
There are ten players out there for South called 'cunt' and one called 'Andy'.

Final Thought
Let the record show that the witness made the 'drinky-drinky' motion.