South's winning streak continues - South Melbourne 5 Dandenong Thunder 0

After a month of mostly flat, grinding performances, including a draining 120 minute skin of our teeth win against Thunder midweek, it was going to be interesting to see how we would front up in this game - let alone which version of Thunder would turn up tonight.

Slaven Vranesevic made way for Matthew Theodore, who came back into the side after missing the midweek cup match - apparently due to attending his university graduation ceremony - while Michael Eagar was once again partnered in central defence by Andrew Mullet, with James Musa on the bench following his stint at international duty.

To my relief, it was a more assertive South in this game, so even as Thunder pressed forward and moved the ball well out wide, we weren't without our chances at the other end. We had to withstand some dangerous balls into the area, and even conceded some headers from set pieces, but more often than not we kept doing enough to make the Thunder play the extra pass which saw them come undone, extinguishing the space that they momentarily had but could not make the most of.

Without warning, a flock of seagulls decided to take
 flight early during the first half. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

At the other end, Jamie Reed had the best of our early chances, but he could only send his shot across the face of goal - he also hit a freekick on to the top of the crossbar. Nevertheless, up front we kept the ball well, and moved it quickly, more often than not making the right decisions even if the execution sometimes left a little to be desired.

The one-two combo which knocked Thunder onto the ropes came late in the first half. Milos Lujic opened the scoring, running on to a through ball and then quickly making space and shooting out of Zaim Zeneli's reach. Then just three minutes later a cross to the back post saw Nick Epifano's header saved by Zeneli, only for Theodore to finish it off.

The referee keeps a close eye on the push and shove.
Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

Thus South went into the break 2-0 up, a score which we deserved for being clinical rather than dominating a match which had been quite even, as well as very entertaining. The only concern was the lack of discipline which saw a push and shove fest erupt on the halfway line between the benches.

The second half started with a chance to each side, but soon devolved into a 15 minute mess of slow and mistake riddled football. Thunder had one shot hit straight at Jason Saldaris, but thereafter could muster little of note, as tiredness took over and the enormity of the task ahead of them kept getting bigger.

James Musa salutes the crowd after scoring his goal.
Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

Jamie Reed's free kick was saved by Zeneli, but Tyson Holmes was on hand to mop up the scraps, netting his first goal of 2014. The game was as good as over - everything else after that was a bonus as James Musa, who came off the bench late in the game, netted his first goal in a South shirt for 4-0. Reed, too, managed to get on the score sheet for the first time since scrambling a goal over the line at Ballarat a month ago, after being fouled in the penalty area and taking the resulting penalty, which he smashed into the back of the net.

As happens with big scores at Lakeside, the scoreboard ran out of room for the names, and the chant went up noting this fact. It seems almost trite to say this of a team that's won 14 games from 14 starts, but it's been a lot of fun watching this team so far this year. The gallows humour of so many barren and inconsistent seasons has taken a backseat to joy and enthusiasm - and it's not in the context of a frenzied run to sneak into the finals either.

But there's still a long way to go, of course. Today's win keeps us nine points ahead of Oakleigh, who beat Werribee 2-0 on Saturday. Heidelberg, who had been level with Oakleigh, fell to eleven points behind us after drawing 1-1 with Northcote.

Next week
Oakleigh away on Friday night, in what is probably the most anticipated match of the season so far. A win is most desirable, but even a draw would be do us little harm in the greater context.

If you can't make it to the game, Teo Pellizzeri has popped up on various social media sites to post this, so have a gander and listen in:

I normally don't promote the broadcast game on here but given its importance to the season no harm in hyping it up.

8.25pm Friday Night - Oakleigh Cannons v South Melbourne www.livecast.com.au & Live Cast channel on TuneIn Radio app

Dockerty Cup news
We've been drawn to play against the winner of Tuesday's match between Melbourne Knights and Green Gully. For the first time in this year's competition, we'll be hosting a tie - which apart from progression to the semi-finals, also counts as the final stage of FFA Cup qualification.

James Musa makes All Whites debut
James Musa made his debut for the All Whites the other day against South Africa. He came on as a substitute, and ended up both saving a goal bound shot with his arse, and getting an elbow in the face.

SMFCMike on SoundCloud
I think I probably should have mentioned this earlier. SMFCMike, who some Twitter folk will know from his rather, how should I put this... 'partisan' persona on there, has been doing his own thing on SoundCloud. Frankly, I'm too afraid to listen in to any of Mike's antics, but in the interests of 'promoting independent South Melbourne Hellas perspectives', a link to his channel has been added to the links on the right hand side.

Chris Taylor interviewed by Craig MacKenzie
Quite an interesting little interview with the current South manager. He says some outrageous things about South, mostly about our bigness, that cynics like me are always wary of when they come from people who have arrived here recently and might soon be gone again - taking all the players they brought with them, naturally.

But who knows, maybe he actually means it? Just as interesting though is the discussion of his approach to coaching, and for someone who's been around the block a few times, who his biggest influence is - though one of the people on smfcboard wasn't particularly happy that Taylor has modeled his managerial approach on John Gardiner - if I was to guess, probably something to do with a dour British style footballer, as opposed to the traditional Hellas 'score lots of goals' approach. On the the other hand, it's refreshing to see someone taking aim at buzzword coaching.

Where's the food truck?
Though it had zero hipster credibility - no tacos, Thai food, bánh mì, or burgers on a brioche bun - the disappearance of the food truck/caravan at Lakeside was not pleasant news, as it still had better food than the kiosk opposite it. The main function of said food truck - to provide expensive but usually edible souvs, and sausages of varying and random degrees of spiciness - has been absorbed into the kiosk's menu. What this means is no more 'gourmet' sausages, and a very ordinary, yet still expensive souvlaki.

Still, the kiosk had chicken flavoured Twisties and instant cup noodles(!) which is a point of difference to most places - though unfortunately the noodle brand is Fantastic. Not that goalkeeping coach Bojo Jevdevic seemed to mind.

Hay and Murray's 'A History of Australian Football'
We mentioned this book last week, including its recommended retail price of $45 - but one of our readers has spotted it for $29 at Kmart, which is outstanding value for a hardback. Here's proof if you need it (photo taken at Kmart Altona Gate):

Hay and Murray's 'A History of Australian Football', just $29 at KMart, incredible bargain! pic.twitter.com/VBmlcWGYF4
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 28, 2014

St Albans return serve to departing FFV CEO Mitchell Murphy
Remember the bit we did about St Albans being docked three points for not fielding an under 13s team in some fixture or other? Well, they're not letting go of it, and what's more they're even digging themselves in for a bit of internet trench warfare with this frankly, amazing article on their website. For mine, there are two interesting aspects to this article:

1. The refrain that people working in soccer and for soccer people, should themselves be soccer people.
2. That since Murphy is going soon anyway, what's the end game of this approach?

The first point gets us back into the debate about who are the most ideal candidates to run an organisation like the FFV - those who have been born and bred within the game, or those from outside of it. For the former, the advantage is an understanding of the culture and operating environments clubs exist in. But that too, has its drawbacks, which have we have seen pop up repeatedly.

Victoria's soccer culture is not of a piece - it is made up of several still fragmented groups, such as those from strong men's teams, those from women's soccer, and especially those from junior soccer, each of whose involvement takes on a different shape, and does not necessarily lend itself to understanding the needs of the other groups.

We've also had soccer people running the game before before, and yet that always eventually seemed to end up at the point of self-interested cabals running the sport - and limiting the talent pool available to those who have spent their whole lives in the sport only makes these sorts of cabals easier to form.

So, let's get people from outside the game to run the sport, without fear of favour, for the best interests of everyone. But the problem then becomes that not only does the relevant FFV employee not understand or perhaps even care about the local soccer culture, but that they may well put the needs of the FFV - their employer - above those of its constituents when competing interests clash.

It's a problem compounded by the modern corporate trend of white collar workers frequently changing employers. And while that may not be as much of an issue for a lot of these companies, for an organisation like FFV, which has so many different constituencies, many of which have people with a lifetime attachment to the game and their particular roles within it, it causes massive disruption every time someone leaves FFV and a new start has to be created almost from scratch.

It's not a problem that will ever be solved, because one way or another, anyone who works for an organisation like FFV will be compromised in some way - which makes the second point I mentioned earlier all the more interesting. The previous CEOs, long termer Mark Rendell and interim replacement Peter Gome, were both castigated by elements of the local soccer community for not being football people - and to be fair, that perception was probably a fair one.

For his part, Mitchell Murphy has tried to cultivate the perception that he is in his own way, a part of the soccer scene, even if he wasn't a local to begin with. But that attempt hasn't quite washed with some of the more conservative elements of the Victorian soccer public, who are wary of those whose interest seems mainly focused on junior soccer (though to be fair to St Albans, their approach to soccer has been much more holistic over the journey, in the way that leading Australian-Croatian clubs so often are.)

But the dig at Murphy's rugby league background only serves to highlight the difficulty of a non-soccer person coming in to run the game, and especially the struggle for credibility they have to face - and one could take that problem even further. As anyone who has attended a South Melbourne (or Westfield) AGM can tell you, even when you have what you think are the best interests of the game or club at heart, combined with reason, logic and facts, there's always going to be some grumpier, older and usually male person who will always tell you that you are too young, too new, too experienced to know what you're talking about.

Though just where we'll find soccer people with a lifelong enmeshment in the game across all sectors, yet with no enemies, with the business nous to run a fiscally responsible enterprise, all while keeping the game moving forward, is anyone's guess.

Final thought(s)
Ghost trams are awesome.

RIP dodgy carpark across the road from Spotswood Station.

IKEA Galvin Park - Werribee City 0 South Melbourne 1

First, let's get the game out of the way. Leigh Minopoulos started the match ahead of Nick Epifano, who replaced him late in the match, and as with last week Michael Eagar also didn't start, although he was apparently on the bench.

In a slog of a match we cleared one off the line in the first half - apparently it was Brad Norton - had Milos Lujic score a one on one in first half injury time after a great offside breaking pass by Iqi Jawadi, stuffed up a second to seal the game, and the side overall produced another gritty defensive performance to keep up the perfect start to 2014, now out to ten consecutive league wins.

The officiating was... well, it wasn't great, but what can you do? For their part, the home side's defenders are probably still complaining about the goal they conceded, but it looked onside to me from the worst possible place to make that call from. And the three minutes wasted in the first half while a Werribee player tried to put his shoe back on was a particular highlight.

What this all means is that after Oakleigh lost its first game of the season on Friday night against Pascoe Vale, we now lead by nine points from both Oakleigh and the in form Heidelberg.

But the real story was, as is so often the case, to do with scaffolding. Five years ago I got stuck on a scissor lift at the old Bob Jane Stadium, but I never thought that we'd rock up to a ground and be asked to put up scaffolding.

I tell you what, @footballvic's #nplvic facility audit can't come fast enough #ikeaeatyourheartout pic.twitter.com/dDowtO4M9J
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 25, 2014

What that photo shows is the mid-point of a quite farcical situation. With Galvin Park being basically flat all the way around the outer, the South Melbourne media team arrived expecting some sort of scaffolding to be available. And that was true enough, except for the fact the visiting side had to put it up themselves, from the apparent odds and ends available on the other side of the fence outside the ground, without any apparent instructions about how to put it together (let alone an Allen key), or whether we should even bother to do so.

Well, the decision was made to at least try, and we (by which I mean mostly other people) ended up getting off to a false start, as we proceeded to try and put it together without any real idea of what we were doing - and then we found the instructions, which were on the part of the base, and that the colour coded poles actually had specific place they were mean to go, and then he real breakthrough when we started thinking in three dimensions. Two dimensions are hard enough. Anyway, eventually we figured out what the hell we had to do, and it was done, and SMFCTV cameraman Tim Dovas got up there to do his thing.

@nicholastsiaras @smfc pretty good! pic.twitter.com/UXSUVDwi26
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 25, 2014

The home side's photographer partly explained the situation, that they had a grandstand (costing $6.8 million, and funded by the social club pokie joint next door that funds Werribee City) planned for the outer side, and I'm sure it'll be a nice feature once it's actually built. But for the time being Galvin Park is one of the crappier NPL grounds.

Also, quite why the game was played on the field adjacent to the field which was located next to the clubrooms, canteen and toilets, I'm not sure. The fields looked more or less identical to me, and it's not like the condition of the field that was used was much good.

Still, they had an electronic scoreboard with a count-up clock, which was a nice feature. It wasn't as nice as the colour scoreboard being used by footy club Werribee Centrals next door - and which was visible from the soccer field - but it's better than what most clubs have on offer.

Next week
Double dose of Dandenong Thunder. First up, a Dockerty Cup match at George Andrews Reserve on Wednesday, followed by a home match against the same side on Sunday. Some interesting decisions to be made on the squads and approach to both games - I think if people were forced to make a decision, the Dockerty Cup match, with its reward of taking us to within one game of FFA Cup qualification - will take priority.

James Musa called up to All Whites squad
We've speculated about how our depth would cope with injuries and suspensions, but national team call-ups? It looks as if central defender James Musa has been called up to the All Whites squad to face South Africa on Friday after some of the better known players dropped out.

Hello...
Apparently we have signed some bloke called Dion Kirk, a midfielder from Adelaide United's youth squad. But who'll make way from the 20 man squad once the transfer window opens? Probably assistant coach Graham Hockless.

...and goodbye
Well, it looks like under 20s coach Matthew Maslak has been shown the door, to be replaced by Sasa Kolman. Results are one thing I suppose, but the word around Lakeside for a good while now was that he wasn't exactly the most liked person either. Messy to say the least.

Hay and Murray finally release their book!
Last Tuesday at the MCC Library, historians Roy Hay and Bill Murray finally launched their long awaited book on the history of Australian soccer, A History Of Football In Australia. Something like ten years in the making (probably more), it was officially launched by Les Murray in front of one of the most bizarre seating arrangements I've even seen.

Book launches are a strange old business, and I say that as someone who's been on both the audience and publishing sides. The audience is made up of several often very different groups - friends and family are often there, but often for reasons other than interest in the book itself - and then you have those industry types who are there not just to buy the book, or because they have an interest in the book, but because there will be an expectation that in future the people publishing today's book will turn up to their own book launch.

This was different though, for the warmth and affection in the room for the two scholars. In addition to the various sports historians, academics and FFV functionaries, and even members of the footy press - but quite notably few, if any, soccer journos from Melbourne's mainstream press - several South Melbourne personalities were also in attendance: Jimmy Armstrong, Ted Smith, Kimon Taliadoros, David Clarkson, Oscar Crino and even current South manager Chris Taylor.

Wonderful afternoon of football history @MCG with two former @smfc legends @KimonTaliadoros & Oscar Crino. pic.twitter.com/2yYo013C4S
— David Clarkson (@David8Clarkson) May 20, 2014

The library itself is rather small, and so the seating arrangement was less than ideal. The two writers and Les Murray were at the front, but in front of them the audience was cleaved in two by a book shelf.

As noted earlier, Les Murray provided the main speech for the launch. He went through his personal history with Bill Murray and Roy Hay which dates back to the mid 1980s, including their shared collaborations - although Les was on much weaker ground when he spoke on the origins of football/soccer and the names of the organising bodies and games.

Bill Murray then provided a rambling, digression filled speech on the history of the book itself, the different ideas of which methodology to use, and a million references to the Scots. The main ideological differences were in their approaches as historians with regards to how to tell the story - Murray is more interested in themes, Hay apparently more interested in narrative (I probably cocked that analysis up), and also about how to view Australian soccer history. Hay thinks that the game is much more than migrants, and that it has had a longer and more nuanced existence within Australia than is often given credit for - which leads to his idea that the most recent soccer boom is the first which is not dependent on migration for its success. Murray on the other hand thinks migration is still the primary lens by which the game should be understood in the Australian context.

Roy Hay thanked those involved with assisting in the book's production, including FFA and SBS, as well as discussing the Hay-Desira collection that was also being launched. Hay also took a shot at Penguin and the general idea that soccer supporters in Australia don't buy books. Hay also subtly passed the baton on to the next generation of Australian soccer historians. While this book will not be the last work on the game that Hay or Bill Murray will contribute to, it is in many ways the grand opus, a defining even if not quite definitive statement which future generations will have to rely on, contend with and hopefully also challenge.

Questions and comments were then raised from the floor - the ones I can remember off the top of my head were Frances Hay's (Roy's wife and editor of the book), asking about why no mention had been made about the women's section of the book, which ended up in an elaboration about the process of including it - whether to integrate it into the main narrative or give it its own chapter.

The other notable comment came from FFV president Nick Monteleone, who seemed keen to latch on to next year's Anzac centenary and finding a way of asserting soccer's place within that. The problem with that approach - aside from my already stated discomfort with Anzac, and combining militarism with sport - is how to create a link without coming across as being opportunistic, jingoistic or prone to me-too ism. The code was there, the code contributed in its way (perhaps disproportionately), but the commemoration of those events must focus first and foremost on the experiences and sacrifices of the service people involved.

While this was the official launch - there are also plans for a Sydney based event - the book has already been out since the beginning of May. The book is retailing for about $45 for a hardback, though it also seems to be available online for a lot less that, perhaps as low as $35, which is outstanding value for a book of this kind. There's also an e-book version available for apparently a third of the price. The book looks terrific, with plenty of photos. I'll try and get a review up here sometime late next month.

The book launch was held at the MCC Library in order to coincide with the opening of the the Roy Hay and Peter Desira Research Collection. These additions - books, magazines, newspapers and other archival materials - have significantly boosted soccer's presence at the library. While the library is not open to the public in the same way that the State Library is, any serious researcher whether professional or amateur, is able to use the library as well as access those materials - all they need to do is contact the library and let them know ahead of time that they'll be coming.

Finally, in addition to this book, Hay and Murray have expanded their bibliography of Australian soccer materials, covering academic articles and theses, newspapers and magazines, coaching manuals, books, novels, plays and films.

Player points cap - what has FFV got to hide?
Fellow Victorian soccer blogger Mark Boric has recently thrown out this piece on the lack of transparency at FFV. I'm linking to it not only because I've thrown my two cents in the comments section, or because South of the Border got a mention, but because he's right. The player points cap is a core element of the NCR reforms - to have them shrouded in mystery seems entirely pointless, even counter-productive.

It also got me thinking about the facilities audit which the FFV has just started - will the results of that be made public? I wouldn't hold my breath, but I'd love to know what the state of Victorian soccer infrastructure is, at least at the 28 odd NPL licensees.

I'll outlast them all at this rate
Well, the tenure of FFV CEO Mitchell Murphy has ended (or rather, will end at the end of June), apparently due to family reasons. Murphy was in the job for about eleven months, following the interim term of Peter Gome, and the five and a half year stint of Mark 'Lawn Bowls' Rendell. Twitter and the forums are rife with speculation as to the 'real' reasons behind Murphy's resignation, which have been followed by the resignations of FFV board members Kimon Taliadoros and Aldrin De Zilva.

According to the forums De Zilva, who had recently been charged with abusing a young referee at a junior game, had apparently been dissatisfied with the financial reporting at FFV and initiated proceedings with ASIC. There's surely more to come out of this.

Around the Grounds
with new contributor Skip Fulton (@Football_Vic)
Bentleigh Greens vs Heidelberg United
NPL Seniors, Friday 23rd May at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex

They say the Burgers are better at Hungry Jacks. Well the Bergers we certainly better at Kingston Heath on Friday night. Heidelberg made the drive south sitting in third position and having won their last four games. They were the favourites against Bentleigh Greens who are out of form with only four wins from nine matches this season. The Greens have had recent losses to Green Gully and South Melbourne and last week delivered Goulburn Valley their first draw in the NPL with a 1-1 result in Shepparton.

Bentleigh started the match the stronger of the two teams and controlled the ball for most of the first twenty minutes. They had a number of chances but it was Brent McGrath with a low strike from the top of the box that sailed past the keepers stretched right hand and into the net to opening the scoring.

If you happened to be at Green Gully in early April you may recall the South Melbourne match when a Kieran Gonzales clearance hit Milos Lujic straight in the back and rebounded into the net. Well around the thirty minute mark in this game you would have been having flash backs because the exact same thing happened to Bentleigh Greens keeper Stuart Webster and suddenly against the momentum of the game Heidelberg were back in it at 1-1 thanks to a rebound off Heffernan’s butt!

The second half saw some tough action often going from end to end with wide play down both flanks. Bentleigh was solid in the mid-field however a tight Heidelberg defence combined with a number of missed opportunities meant the Greens couldn’t add to their earlier goal. On the counter attack it was Kaine Sheppard who put Heidelberg in front in the sixty fifth minute. The remainder of the game proved uneventful with Bentleigh showing desperation at times pushing forward but then easily giving the ball away. Extra time and a marvellous strike from James Goulopoulos sealed the deal and once again triggered the chants from the travelling Heidelberg supporters.

Overall it could be said Bentleigh had the stronger game but individual mistakes and their inability to capitalise on opportunities in front of goal meant they hit the rooms without a result. The Greens with just one point from their last four matches and they sit in fifth on the ladder with five teams within two points of them. Heidelberg continue to be one of the surprise packages this season. They are now seven wins from ten and thanks to an upset win by Pascoe Vale over Oakleigh in the other game on Friday night, the Bergers are only three goals off second place on the ladder.

Next week Heidelberg return home to Olympic Village on Sunday for their fourth home game in five weeks to take on Northcote City. The Greens hit the road and travel to JL Murphy Reserve on Friday night to take on Port Melbourne.

Final thought
If you're not going to put out Kraš napolitanke, don't bother serving wafers.

Springvale White Eagles 0 South Melbourne 2 (and much, much more)

A pretty comfortable win, even though it took until midway through the second half for us to score. I can't get a handle on this team. We've played against mostly mug NPL1 sides. We've looked half arsed doing it, so I'm not sure if we have 2-3 extra gears in reserve when we need them. Every now and again we've pulled together a nice move, but what we're going to produce in the 2014 season proper, no idea. I've liked Minopoulos though, he has some nice poacher's instincts.

Tough times at Springvale White Eagles
The grass looked like crap. The players were wearing shirts with no numbers on the back. One of the reserve substitutes didn't have shin guards. The canteen ran out of chili flakes halfway through the reserves game. Lucky there was a backup bottle of Tabasco sauce for the cevapi roll, which was very good.

Also, their grandstand is a funny old thing. Strange benches, odd positioning of poles. Friendly folks though.

Next game
Dunno. Maybe we won't see our boys again in the open until round one. Well, at least that means the possibility of heading to a Dockerty Cup match on the weekend.

The mystery striker mystery...
... is not so mysterious any more, which is tough luck for the SMFC media team when they eventually get around to announcing it. The mystery striker is apparently this bloke. Lot of people excited about this bloke. There goes one visa spot.

We're getting very close to having to name our roster of 20 - no more, no less - for the upcoming season. So far off the top of my head, I'm thinking we have the following as a likely squad.

1. Jason Saldaris
2. Chris Maynard
3. Michael Eagar
4. Brad Norton
5. Tim Mala
6. "mystery centre back replacement for Shaun Kelly"
7. Tyson Holmes
8. Nick Epifano
9. Iqi Jawadi
10. Matthew Theodore
11. Leigh Minopoulos
12. Jamie Reed
13. Milos Lujic
14. Dimi Tsiaras
15. Seb Petrovich (well, he's still been playing trial matches even up to this point)
16. Kobbie Boaheme - likely young signing
17. Andrew Kecojevic - likely young signing
18. Empty slot that will need to be filled (Any Dandy or Northcote players leftover?)
19. Another empty slot that will need to be filled
20. The last empty slot that will need to be filled

You know who's weird?
These new fangled junior parents. I mean, I'm sure they've existed for a while now, but the NPL is going to bring them closer in proximity to me and you. And to be blunt, they're not like me and you. Sure they want the team their kid is playing in to win, but that seems to be a secondary concern a lot of the time, in part because the team their kid is playing for could be a different one to the one they played for last year, or will play for next year. They cheer differently. They talk differently. Can we get along? I don't know. Does that me sound too distrustful? I don't mean to be. It's just kinda weird to always feel like we're only borrowing them.

The ins and outs of social media 
Not that I was there, but FFV had a bit of a get together with the NPL clubs for a workshop session on Saturday - for those that bothered to turn up, which is most of them. Apart from some reportedly very delicious muffins (which were apparently wolfed down by one notoriously rotund Victorian soccer mover and shaker), the main thing that filtered down to me was talk about how the FFV was trying to teach the clubs about social media. Isn't social media just a platform for nobodies with no power to make their ineffectual voices heard, while people with real jobs and qualifications get on with the business of pretending to know what they're doing?

Anyway, even if using social media does turn out to be a completely pointless exercise, it must be said that most clubs can improve the way they use their social media platforms. Here are my tips:

• Update them very now and again - you know, scores, fixtures, news. This goes for your website as well. Yes, it's great that you won a game back in round 5, 2012, but we've all moved on from then.
• Try and aboid having them become a default supporters forum, like Heidelberg's is wont to do on occasion.
• Don't pretend they don't exist when things go tits up, like Surf Coast and their recent NPL induced implosion.

All those tips are of course very basic, and beholden to a more corporate notion of how these things should run. If you prefer a more anarchic system, you can disregard these suggestions, and let nature take its course. Also, FFV could also learn to be more effective with its social media platforms:

• They could get their Facebook match reporters to do more frequent updates during matches. Even if it's a boring game, I appreciate some more frequent updates telling me its a boring game - and which sides might be playing less boring.
• Set up a clear set of guidelines about what questions you will and won't answer on your social media platforms - if you won't answer them on there, provide clear directions as to who one should ask.
• Try to avoid being beaten to following me on Twitter by the Melbourne Renegades.

Good to hear that FFV got around to telling the clubs to use #NPLVIC instead of #NPLV as their twitter hashtag. Big issue I know, but it matters to me. We all want to be on the same page, right? Should start promoting the #DockertyCup hashtag as well, get people to update scores on that really quickly and easily.

The vibe from that workshop
Actually. mostly positive. It's going to be a steep learning curve for all concerned, and the short and crazy amount of time to get prepared for 2014 makes it harder for everyone. And apparently, whatever the outward commentary that things will be refined down to the FFA's NPL ideal, it may not end up happening that way - we're specifically talking about the reductions of the points cap here. So good luck to all the clubs trying to make this work, and good luck to Liam Bentley, the head of NPL Victoria.

Did you know I once escorted Liam off the field at Paisley Park, in my role as a marshal for an Altona East reserves game, for which he was the referee? Nothing untoward happened or anything, it's just part of the standard half time and full time drill for marshals to do that. Seemed like a good bloke, and it's always good to see FFV staff mixing it with the plebs, or even becoming one of them on a weekend. More of it, I say.

Bad Paul, naughty Paul
It appears that FFV CEO Mitchell Murphy was not happy with my most recent article in Goal Weekly, on the latest developments on the NPL Victoria saga, judging by his letter to the editor in the most recent edition. Looks like I have some bridges to build, fences to mend and a game to lift.

This is how you develop players
Recently, my home grown forward prodigy Brad Payne made his debut for the Oceanian National Team. He started off in my youth team, he played in the reserves outfits and is now a core member of Juniper Hill's senior squad. There's a lesson there for the NPL dreamers of dreams, even if Hattrick, Brad Payne and Juniper Hill aren't exactly real.

Let's see, what else?
They tell me that not one, but two of John Markosvki's sons are in the South junior system. Yes, that John Markovski. If true, then as someone once said, 'the times, they are becoming quite different'.