Friendly Result - West Adelaide 0 South Melbourne 2

So, everyone happy now? A first clean sheet during this pre-season since our very first hit out against Moreland City late last year.

Look, I don't know anything about what happened last night except for what few snippets have been reported, which is basically, 0-0 at halftime, 2-0 to us at full time, and Manny Aguek scored both goals late. No details about starting elevens, quality of the opposition, etc.

So, on to round 1 this Friday at Kingston Heath, against a Bentleigh Greens side which a few days ago in the Community Shield reportedly easily took care of an overweight and unfit Heidelberg side seemingly still recovering from its championship.

If you want to talk about brushing off the cobwebs, take a look at that long, unwieldy sentence, bloody hell.

Friendly result - South Melbourne 3 Manningham United Blues 3

Rain to the left...

A smooth trip into the city from the western suburbs and outwards again towards Albert Park on the tram, albeit not the first packed tram, but one arriving soon after that was a bit roomier. I hear that some people had hassles coming in via Punt Road, but that's another story.

Inside the social club, a small gathering of South members and members-to-be gathered to collect and pay for memberships. Some of us also try the food on offer in the social club, which now that I've sampled a couple of things on the menu, can justifiably say that the offerings are certainly more than a mere a cut above what was on offer last year. Whether the crew operating the social club space can adjust to the different demands of a match day - where punters will demand speed and probably a lower price line - remains to be seen; but as a more traditional bistro space, I haven't got any complaints yet.

... and rain to the right. Photos: Paul Mavroudis.

Outside, fortune of fortune, there was a friendly on. What magnificent serendipity. And soon the good guys were 2-0 up, and looking sharp, well, at least sharpish. Then our esteemed merged, de-merged, and merged guests, who have been through at least three of the four stomachs of the ruminant and much famed Victorian Italian club merger flowchart, pulled a goal back, thanks to some sloppy marking.

So it has been from what little I have from this pre-season, where whatever adequate play has been manufactured going forward, just as much inadequacy has been found going toward the other, less desirable direction. Manningham pulled it back to 2-2, Will Orford scored a belter of a goal to make it 3-2 - he dispossessed an opponent in midfield, and curled a shot in from distance over an out of position goalkeeper - before the visitors made it 3-3, after which the scoring ended.

The members of the crowd who were there to support Manningham - recently promoted from State League 1 to NPL2 - got very excited with their goalscoring exploits, perhaps unduly so for pre-season; but since I spontaneously rose from my seat in excitement after Orford scored his goal, I guess there's limits to how much I can chide them for their enthusiasm.

The rain bucketed down, the ground became sloshed, players lost their footing and their positioning, and made frequent errors in passing the ball. I'm not sure what anyone would have learned from the exercise to be honest, and well before the end of the contest, the benches of both sides were cleared, and those still playing were left to duke it out in the pouring rain.

Need More Greeks! / 2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 7/02/2019
You People™ asked for an unapologetically big, gnarly, traditional centre-forward, and you've got your wish. And bonus points, he's Greek, which fits in with one of the themes of our off-season recruitment strategy, that being "need more Greeks" - not that there's anything wrong with that.

As the official site's blurb says, Billy Konstantinidis is a Melbourne centre-forward (no visa spot required) who has spent the better part of the last decade and a bit playing for several lower league teams in Greece. Though if you trust Wikipedia, and who doesn't, Billy hasn't been playing or scoring much in recent seasons.

And here's some bonus trivia - Billy, who turns 33 in April, played in East Richmond's last season of senior football in 2004, which is a hell of a long time ago on a number of fronts.

Now I don't know how fit Billy is and whether he's ready to go from round 1. Much the same however can be said about some of other players who have had injuries, but especially Marcus Schroen who has missed a good chunk of this pre-season with trips to Cambodia (late last year), and apparently now Sri Lanka.

Combined with that, there has been that much rotation of squads during the practice games that I honestly have no idea what Con Tangalakis' best starting eleven is. Chances are that whatever lineup Tangalakis chooses to field against West Adelaide on Saturday will probably be close to the starting eleven which will take the field against Bentleigh in round 1.

But back to Billy Konstantinidis, who has been touted by the club as the team's last signing before the start of the season. That statement means the categories I've used to keep track of who's in, who's out, and who's been hanging around, have had to be reshuffled. One wants to trust the announcements about players signed, and players gone, but the great mass of those in the middle remain problematic. So I've decided to sort them into two groups one being players who were at Lakeside last year and at pre-season this year and thus likely signed up, and a handful of others whose status is more tenuous.

There's more than 20 players in the list, so I'm assuming at least a few will end up in the 20s.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Ethan Gage (Bentleigh Greens)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Kostas Stratomitros (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 
• Billy Konstantinidis 

Seen hanging around pre-season training and I assume signed for us because they played for us last year

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard 
• Amir Jashari
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Will Orford
• Nikola Roganovic
• Marcus Schroen 
• Giorgi Zarbos

Seen hanging around pre-season training and buggered if I know what their signing status is.

• Melbourne Heart Ball Hog
• Zack/ch Bates?
• "Calvin"

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Oakleigh) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (FK Palanka, Lithuania) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (Canada) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA) 
• Tim Mala (North Sunshine)

At last, my love has come along / My lonely days are over / etc
I'm not going to say that I don't even care if we get relegated now, but let us all appreciate this moment.

The biggest @smfc news this preseason? We finally have pompom beanies. More than a decade's worth of campaigning has finally paid off. It was easier to get @footballvic to bring the Dockerty Cup name and trophy back. pic.twitter.com/xU2jPeQorv

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) February 6, 2019

For years I have argued that we need these as opposed to the bland, pompom-less beanies, and finally after many years of griping, it's happened. Kids will love 'em, they look good, and they have character goddammit. Why other tinpot local clubs could have these things and we couldn't I never found out, and now I don't even want to find out. They cost $25, and five of those dollarydoos end up going to the South Melbourne Powerchair team. It's several levels of win.

Don't you know who I am? 2019 edition
Yet another marker of a season that's almost here.

Back for another year. Thanks to @teopellizzeri for continuing to legitimise my reign of blogging terror. pic.twitter.com/o7sXmncwYj

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) February 6, 2019

It's all standard procedure these days, a long way from the days of being told that what I did was entertaining, but not important enough to have a media pass. I never take it for granted though.

Public Transport guide
I added details for Paisley Park and Frank Holohan Soccer Complex to the guide, not that anyone cares, and not that anyone will bother, possibly not even me for Frank Holohan because it is such an insane trip.

Friendly result - Brunswick City 2 South Melbourne 5

I trundled out to Brunswick West today. Bloody hot. Not sure of the sensibleness of playing matches in the middle of the day with such heat. Anyway, defensively very messy again, but going forward we were a lot better. Brunswick City missed a ton of very gettable chances throughout the game.

I suspect that the teams being out on Wednesday nights are a little stronger than the ones on Saturday afternoons, if for no other reason than the fact that Nikola Roganovic is in goals in the midweek games. There's not a lot of time left for Con Tangalakis to sort out his preferred starting eleven and formation.

I was asked a few times today to put forward what my starting eleven would be, and I don't know if it's fair to do so based on me seeing so few games during this pre-season... but I'm thinking some variant of 

Roganovic / Norton - Adams - Marshall - Djiba / Gage, Schroen, Sylaidos / Pep Marafioti, Krousoratis, Gio Marafioti

might be we close to what we end up with. Minopoulos will be off the bench, and that's fine. Konstantindis hasn't been fully involved with this pre-season, I'm not sold on Lambropoulos, and who knows what the coaches will decide in terms of how they'll use Bereveskos and Stratomitros, let alone George Howard who played in central defence today.

Members night this Wednesday
This coming Wednesday it looks like there will be a members/membership night in the social club, where our supporters have been invited to come down to the club to purchase and collect memberships. Not sure if there will be any merch available, but here's hoping. 

Apart from coming down and collecting a membership before our first home game, it's also a good chance to road test the food on offer in the social club as well - I had a burger the other night, and while no world beater, it was more than passable, and a definite step up from last year's offering.

Keep an eye on the club's social media for more on this.

Everyone is off to Adelaide
Or so it seems - senior men, senior women, and all of our NPL junior teams are apparently travelling to Adelaide to play against various opponents as part of pre-season. The senior men will be taking on West Adelaide, the senior women I think Adelaide City and another team. This seems like a very interesting enterprise to send basically the whole club interstate, in some ways echoing the intent of AAFC's interstate junior tournament proposal from last year.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 2/02/2019
Thank you to my Twitter friends for letting me know where Christos Intzidis ended up. I've seen Iqi Jawadi's name attached to Dandy City in some form. Whoever the English striker was who trialled with us in late 2018, he's almost certainly gone.

So what we have then, barring some massive surprise in the next two weeks, is basically what you see below. with most if not all of the players listed under the "seen hanging around pre-season training" list likely to be made senior South players.

It is also possible that the injured Alastair Bray could be ready by round one based on stuff I heard today, but we'll have to see on that.

As to why the club hasn't announced official signings with a bit more frequency... I'm not too sure. Apparently we'll be well under our player points-cap, even without using points from Matthew Millar's move to Central Coast, so there's room to move if we do decide on a surprise late notice marquee type signing. 

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Ethan Gage (Bentleigh Greens)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Kostas Stratomitros (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard 
• Amir Jashari
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Will Orford
• Nikola Roganovic
• Marcus Schroen 
• Melbourne Heart Ball Hog
• Zack/ch Bates?
• "Calvin"

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (FK Palanka, Lithuania) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (Canada) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA) 
• Tim Mala (North Sunshine)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Giorgi Zarbos

Friendly vs Brunswick City tomorrow

At Brunswick City's Dunstan Reserve, under 20s kickoff at 11am, seniors at 1pm. Make sure to wear sunscreen.

Friendly result - South Melbourne 1 Port Melbourne 1

From Wednesday evening.

VIDEO | Gerrie Sylaidos and Giuseppe Marafioti combined to give South an early lead, before former South junior Maker Maker equalised for @PMSCSharks as last night's friendly ended in a 1-1 draw.#SMFC pic.twitter.com/vNNOFjkmN8

— South Melbourne FC (@smfc) January 30, 2019

Keep away from the asbestos trench - South Melbourne 5 Northcote City 3

What to report from this game? Hard to say really. There was a lot of chopping and changing around of the team. Quite a few of the young ones getting a run, but at some point very soon Con Tangalakis is going to have to sort the wheat from the chaff. 

Started off like a house on fire, scoring a goal within the first minute with a move that was so beautiful that we surely won't be able to replicate it for the season proper. Defence iffy - I think Amir Jashari is handling Saturday keeping duties because Nikola Roganovic has work commitments. Northcote could've scored a few more in the first half, and Jashari saved a second half penalty.

Look, the score isn't the important thing here, it's about working out who's likely to start, who's worth keeping around, and hopefully working all of that out soon.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 27/01/2019
Added a couple of youth/triallists. I did learn Melbourne Heart Ball Hog's name yesterday, but then I forgot it.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Ethan Gage (Bentleigh Greens)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Kostas Stratomitros (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard 
• Amir Jashari
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Will Orford
• Nikola Roganovic
• Marcus Schroen 
• Melbourne Heart Ball Hog
• "Zack"
• "Calvin"

Rumours which seem to have gone cold

• English striker in visa slot 

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (who knows) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (Canada) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA) 
• Tim Mala (North Sunshine)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Iqi Jawadi 
• Giorgi Zarbos

Friendly tomorrow at Darebin vs Northcote City

Tomorrow, at Darebin International Sports Centre, we have a friendly against Northcote. Seniors kickoff at 1:00pm, under 20s at 11:00am.

Take me out to the ball game - South Melbourne 4 Whittlesea Ranges 2

I was not there. I was not there because I was not officially aware that this game was happening. While I assumed something was happening, it'll take more than mere assumptions to get me to commit to something which may not be happening.

Instead I went to the baseball, which was happening, but which the Melbourne Aces perhaps wish had not happened, after they managed more errors (3) than hits (2) in their heavy loss to the Canberra Cavalry.

Anyway, something did happen at Lakeside yesterday, and some people were there to witness it. One of these witnesses said that we were 2-0 down, and that we only made our way back into the game once Ranges started rotating in their secondary players.

Meanwhile
The 1959 Bar and/or Grill - aka, the social club - has been roused out of its slumber and announced that it is under new management, and that it will be open on Australia Day - aka, this Saturday. Does this mean that there is a game scheduled game to accompany this opening, or are they just expecting us to turn up for the thrill of being in the social club?

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 24/01/2019
Not much has changed here. It's possible that George Howard is actually contracted for 2019, but I don't know for sure. There's also an ex-Melbourne Heart youth player who's trialling with us, who the above mentioned match witness claimed was a massive ball hog.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Ethan Gage (Bentleigh Greens)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Kostas Stratomitros (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard 
• Amir Jashari
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Will Orford
• Nikola Roganovic
• Marcus Schroen 
• Melbourne Heart Ball Hog

Rumours which seem to have gone cold

• English striker in visa slot 

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (who knows) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (Canada) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA) 
• Tim Mala (North Sunshine)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Iqi Jawadi 
• Giorgi Zarbos

Friendly result - South Melbourne 3 Green Gilly 3

Another day, another mystery pre-season friendly.

Lakeside @GreenGullySC v @smfc   Nice day for it ⚽️😎 pic.twitter.com/3hk7sqFlVM

— Cotsy (@Cotsy_) January 19, 2019

As for what actually happened during the game, to quote soccer-forum.net's "Hellas4eva":

Another good performance from South today 3-3 with Gully, backup keeper made 2 ridiculous howlers but outfield players did well again.

One other report I've seen is much more alarmist about the situation, singling out particular players in our defensive structures as being liabilities, but it's just friendlies, right? There's going to be a very long season of actual games that actually matter, so angst about seems almost redundant. But what do I know? I wasn't there and even when I am, I'm not sure my opinions are worth much.

Eventually the club's official social media arm deigned to regale us with some details on the match:

As we continue preparation ahead of our Round 1 clash away to Bentleigh Greens, we were held to an entertaining 3-3 draw today against Green Gully SC.

Both Marafioti brothers would find the back of the net, as well as Leigh Minopoulos. pic.twitter.com/7LVXIxmJoL

— South Melbourne FC (@smfc) January 19, 2019

Anyway, the reason for the ongoing clandestine nature of these fixtures is that our lord and master, the State Sport Centres Trust, has become much more clearcut (and/or punitive) about what is considered a "training session" and what is considered a "match", especially when it concerns sessions taking place outside our allocated priority period.

In other words, if we want to play what may be considered a "match" at Lakeside during pre-season, we have to pay the Trust extra simoleons so they can hire more staff, mark the lines, etc. Instead, to save a bit of coin, we've been hosting other teams in what you'd call "training sessions".

These are not advertised by the club, because if they were and all of a sudden a whole bunch of people turn up to watch - which was a common occurrence in recent seasons, because the weather was nice, etc - the Trust will put its bureaucratic foot down and claim that this was a match, and not a training session.

This is the reason why only friends and family, trusted insiders, and the few willing to try their luck at the side gate are allowed in, and why even our opponents on the day are asked not to promote these fixtures. Perhaps if we had a functioning social club, we could in theory open that up and make some money, but what are ya gonna do?

At least the taekwondo people are still making good use of our facilities. Someone has to, I suppose.

Warm up at @AustralianTKD High Performance Training Hub, supported by the @AISCombatCentre in Melbourne at @smfc and @VicInstSport for our categorised athletes from around the country @sportaustralia pic.twitter.com/P3vwALV32d

— Nick Sanders (@nickjsanders) January 19, 2019

Times are tough, and we've got to squeeze every penny. I hope the players aren't being asked to hitchhike to Adelaide next month or whenever it is they're meant to be going.

Meanwhile, at Middle Park
While we're celebrating our 60th anniversary, our neighbours Middle Park Soccer Club are celebrating their 50th, not a bad achievement for a club that started off as a railway workers kickabout.

And they'll be hosting some festivities at Lakeside Stadium on Saturday February 9th, and its open doors! As per the note on their Facebook events page:

To literally kick off the 50th Anniversary celebrations, the Parkers are hosting a Festival of Football at Lakeside Stadium on Saturday 9 February 2019. 

Opening proceedings will be some legends from esteryear.  

Dibbsy's Dynamos are going to be taking on Strati's Strikers in what is guaranteed to be match full of skill, pulled hammys and expletives. 

Following the old boys will be a tournament involving MPFC Seniors, South Melbourne U20s, Albert Park and Barnstoneworth United. 

Food and drinks will be available all day from the stadium canteen, so please come down for all or part of the day and have a drink, chew the fat with the old boys and cheer on the Seniors. 

Festival of Football @ Lakeside Stadium
Saturday 9 February 2019
10:30am - 11:30am Dibbsy's Dynamos vs Strati's Strikers
11:30am - 4:30pm MPFC Seniors Tournament

Might be worth a trundle down to Lakeside to check out our 20s play, among other reasons. You know, in a few weeks.

Another day, another match program
I recently managed to secure a physical copy of Green Gully vs South Melbourne 2005, from the regular season. And here is the digital copy for your perusal, back in the days when Gully was expecting 3,000 people to turn up to that fixture.

Fansvoice piece
I was recently asked to contribute something to a new site, focused on Australian soccer social media personalities. Not much new for people who are familiar with what I do.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 19/01/2019
Canadian midfielder Ethan Gage has joined from Bentleigh.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Ethan Gage (Bentleigh Greens)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Kostas Stratomitros (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard 
• Amir Jashari
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Will Orford
• Nikola Roganovic
• Marcus Schroen 

Rumours which seem to have gone cold

• English striker in visa slot 

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (who knows) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (Canada) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA) 
• Tim Mala (North Sunshine)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Iqi Jawadi 
• Giorgi Zarbos

Friendly result - South Melbourne 2 St Albans 3

Another mystery quasi-closed doors game held at Lakeside last night. Apparently the defence is a shambles.

Friendly result - South Melbourne 4 Box Hill United 3

Here are some typically careless observations and prognostications based on the first pre-season game I've seen during this campaign.

It was not the most awe-inspiring performance, but it doesn't have to be, yet. As usual, quite a healthy attendance from South and non-South people out for this friendly out at Darebin International Sports Centre's synthetic pitches, including my old mate George Katsakis. If I'd known there'd have been an under 20s game beforehand, I would've arrived earlier than I did.

It was a warm day, our players looking a bit out of sorts effort wise - the calls by coach Tangalakis to press not always being heeded - and players were slipping over on the synthetic surface. Box Hill put in considerable effort in the early stages, and in addition to that they exposed a disturbing lack of speed in our defenders.

We fell 2-0 behind early, took a 3-2 lead early in the second half, and eked out a 4-3 win in the end. Results don't matter now of course, but for some reason you'd still rather be on the right side of the ledger even this early in the season. It was certainly not a full strength line-up on our end - no Schroen, Roganovic, Minopoulos, nor rumoured visa signing Canadian midfielder Ethan Gage. There was a bit of rotation as you'd expect. Will Orford got a bit of a run, as did Manny Aguek.

It looks like they're trying Gerrie Sylaidos as an attacking mid as opposed to his more customary wing position. Counter-attacking will probably be the name of the game in 2019, in part to protect what looks like an iffy defence. Seeing as how we've recruited a swathe of defensive mids, expect them to be utilised extensively in any formation we deploy. I'm thinking the midfield will generally be a good group, not world-beaters, but hard-working nevertheless; but apart from Sylaidos, perhaps lacking in craftsmanship. George Howard has apparently injured himself again, but you wonder where he'd fit in to this team in any case. 

In attack, there are a plethora of options, but there'll always be doubts about the pedigree of said options until such time as they prove otherwise. I'm a fan of both Pep and Giordano Marafioti, but Pep is perhaps too one sided and too cute with his finishing. His brother is more clinical and much more genuinely an out and out striker, and I foresee good things there. If nothing else, we should at least be less predictable going forward.

Not that predictability was a huge issue when Milos Lujic was banging in 20 goals a year, but that's over now, and it's time to turn over a new leaf. It'd be great to have someone score 20 goals this year, but I'd be happy if two of our forwards could score ten each, and the mids chip in with their fair share. Still, we could end up regretting not being more decisive in the early part of the off-season and recruiting Peter Skapetis.

From here on in, we're probably looking at friendlies every Wednesday and Saturday, but whether that's true or not, and just how accessible they'll "officially" be to the general South supporter base, I wouldn't have the foggiest.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 13/01/2019
Defensive midfielder Kostas Stratomitros has joined from Oakleigh. I think the rumoured English striker is gone, but who knows. The signing of Canadian midfielder Ethan Gage is likely to be announced soon. Tim Mala has "retired", but may end up turning out for North Sunshine.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully) 
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Kostas Stratomitros (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Alistair Bray 
• Ben Djiba 
• George Howard 
• Amir Jashari
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Will Orford
• Nikola Roganovic
• Marcus Schroen 

Rumoured

• Visa player no. 1 (English striker) 
• Visa player no. 2 (Canadian midfielder Ethan Gage) 

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (who knows) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (who knows) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA?) 
• Tim Mala (retired)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Iqi Jawadi 
• Giorgi Zarbos

Friendly tomorrow against Box Hill at DISC

First friendly for 2019, tomorrow at Darebin International Sports Centre (next to Northcote's ground, if you're not familiar), against Box Hill United at 2:00PM.

Oh my goodness, it's 2019

2018 Annual General Meeting announced
Late as per usual. The club put a notice up on its website. You may have received an email. I'm not sure if the club sends out letters anymore for this kind of thing. If you haven't received due notification and you think that you should have, I'd get on to the club pretty quickly if I were you.

Anyway, both the South Melbourne Hellas and South Melbourne FC AGMs have been set down for Thursday January 31st, in the social club. The SMH one starts at 6:00PM, and the SMFC one at 8:00PM.

As screen-capped from the club's Instagram page.

Club launches 60th anniversary logo
As they did in 2009 for the club's 50th anniversary, the club has launched a special logo for the club's 60th anniversary, And as was the case back then, so too this time have the calls been made for this logo to replace our current effort.

For whatever it's worth, I agree with those sentiments, not least because the current logo looks dated, but more so for the fact that it doesn't really say anything. Of course those hoping to make a variant of this logo our new logo must understand that its very clear references to our Greek heritage make that idea very difficult to pursue at this time.

As with the example of the 50th anniversary commemorative logo (see right), this logo is probably a) a co-logo, not a replacement one and b) almost certainly done with the cooperation of Football Victoria to get around certain 'issues' to do with the National Club Identity Policy - issues which would likely be more difficult to deal with were we to decide
to make it our permanent logo.

Still, let's be happy that it looks good, and let's hope too that it won't be the only thing done by the club to commemorate our 60th anniversary.

Oh yes, how careless of me, I forgot to mention...
...that at least year's Christmas party, I met the bloke to whom the club has outsourced the operation of the social club and futsal court, the big news of which is that the club has outsourced the operation of the social club and futsal court in its entirety. Now, it could be that in the two weeks since I found that detail out that the club or the presumptive operator have changed their minds, but I haven't heard anything like that.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 05/01/2019
There was a rumour that Ndumba Makeche had joined Penang in Malaysia. Wherever he ends up, it's pretty certain that he won't be at South this year.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles) 
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019) 
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully) 
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne) 
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019) 
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote) 

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams 
• Manny Aguek 
• Alistair Bray 
• Ben Djiba 
• George Howard 
• Tim Mala 
• Giordano Marafioti 
• Giuseppe Marafioti 
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos 
• Nikola Roganovic 
• Marcus Schroen 

Rumoured

• Visa player no. 1 (English striker) 
• Visa player no. 2 (Canadian midfielder) 

Injured

• Alastair Bray 

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston) 
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh) 
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?) 
• Christos Intzidis (who knows) 
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh) 
• Oliver Minatel (who knows) 
• Ndumba Makeche (Penang FA?) 

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Iqi Jawadi 
• Will Orford

Pre-Christmas break squad update

After some pre-season sessions and friendlies, the senior men's squad will be mothballed during the Christmas and New Year break, re-emerging in early January. The news since the last roster update includes:

• Young fullback Josh Hodes has moved on, possibly to Oakleigh.
• Goalkeeper Alistair Bray has injured himself again, and will be out for a few months. 
• Marcus Schroen is back from his holidays and training with the squad.
• The English striker trialling with us? Reviews from interested onlookers seem to be mixed at best.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 24/12/2018
Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019)
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne)
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote)

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams
• Manny Aguek
• Alistair Bray
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard
• Tim Mala
• Giordano Marafioti
• Giuseppe Marafioti
• Jake Marshall
• Andrew Mesorouni
• Leigh Minopoulos
• Nikola Roganovic
• Marcus Schroen 

Rumoured

• Visa player no. 1 (English striker)
• Visa player no. 2 (Canadian midfielder)

Injured

• Alastair Bray

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston)
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh)
• Josh Hodes (Oakleigh?)
• Christos Intzidis (who knows)
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh)
• Oliver Minatel (who knows)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Iqi Jawadi
• Ndumba Makeche
• Will Orford

2019 memberships available / it's not plagiarism, it's a reprise

Like last year, they're out quite early, and this time via a no-frills, easy to use website. I've already bought mine - naturally it was the full voting rights membership.

So what do you get this year when you sign up? If it's anything other then the voting rights membership, all you get access to is entry to however many home league matches you've paid for. Voting rights members however get access to all home games, including home finals and home FFA Cup matches.

‎Created: Today, ‎21 ‎December ‎2018, ‏‎6 minutes ago.

On that point I made sure to screenshot that bit of the membership offering so the next time someone makes an attempt to say that it wasn't written down anywhere, or that we members misinterpreted what the brochure says, it'll be there in digital print, not that it will make any difference, because it certainly didn't in 2017, and it didn't make a difference in 2018 when it came up in conversation with a club employee, but moral grandstanding is fun to do.

Voting rights members also get a 60th anniversary scarf, a set of postcards, and two complimentary tickets to bring a friend to a game, which is a good idea provided you a) have any friends, b) they don't come to South games, and c) they would want to come a South game for some reason. One thing noticeably absent is the 10% members discount in the social club which while I'm sad to see the discount go (if indeed it does go), it won't make much difference to me and I imagine a few others, because the system was incredibly erratic when it came to actually deciding to recognise cards.

As for merch, my mail is that there will be pompom beanies, but I've been waiting for a long time for these, so I'm not going to celebrate just yet.

According to the club's social media outlets, life members, family memberships, and corporate memberships are being sorted out this weekend.

As for the moral/heartstrings arguments for buying a membership some have tried to apostate and lapsed followers alike after our most recent failed A-League bid, rather than write something new, I'm just going to copy and paste something from 2016

• Economics - if you plan to attend a lot of South Melbourne games at Lakeside, it probably makes sense to buy a membership.
• Stickin' it to the New Dawn - pretty self-explanatory this one.
• Supporting grass roots football - weird notion that I can't really get my head around.
• Malice - you need to buy a membership in order to abuse someone on the board. I can understand that feeling.
• Self-loathing - probably a little bit of that for everyone.
• Misplaced hope - mistaken belief that your purchase of a membership in some way helps us with our top-flight ambitions.
• Sense of civic duty - whatever floats your boat I suppose.
• Force of habit - the money seems to just leap out of your bank account at the same time each year.
• Warms the cockles of your heart - that's that just a metaphor or something. It won't work in actually protecting you from the cold during the winter. Better off with a jacket, scarf or beanie kind of deal for that.
• Guilt - you feel you haven't been good to the club over the past few years.
• Hellenisation - You want to take the club back to 1966.
• Broadbased and compelling - You want to take the club to 2066.
• Hellenistic - Like Alexander the Great (the Macedonian general, not that mob on Catalina Street), you want to spread Hellenism to all parts of the world, and see it influence and be influenced by all it comes into contact with.
• Philhellene - You love Byron, but since neither the romantic movement nor poetry have much cultural cachet in Australia, you've ended up with the next best thing. 
• Lack of suitable connections - you like soccer, but you also happen to be one of the five people in Victorian soccer who don't have a media pass or season pass allowing you free entry into every ground.

Bus interchange informant - Heidelberg United 1 South Melbourne 4

Some people depend upon Twitter for pre-season match info, others depend on data scout services, and in the past some may have even gone by what was on this blog - but these days I might as well rely upon quasi-random encounters at the local bus interchange.

Not being there in person at Broadmeadows for our friendly last night, I'll trust the club's official Twitter account story that the senior men beat the Bergers 4-1, with goals to Gerrie Sylaidos, Manny Aguek, Dean Bereveskos, and 'a trialist'.

My accidental informant, who happened to attend the game, tells me that Bereveskos' goal was a cracker, and the trialist who scored was the Englishman we've signed/are looking to sign who has played in the Spanish second division.

Score lines mean little in these kinds of things, especially when it comes at this time, with Heidelberg resting some players and being a little behind where we are in terms of their pre-season preparations.

For what's it's, our friend says that apart from the scorers noted above that our lineup included at various times Norton, Adams, Konstantinidis, Howard, Schroen, Krousoratis, Lambropoulos, Roganovic (Bray on the bench?), Pep and Gio Marafioti. No sign of Minopoulos or Mala.

I think there might be one more pre-season friendly to close out the year on Saturday, but I'm not on top of those details; as usual, I'd check more reputable sources for details/

Friendly tonight against Bergers, in Broadmeadows

As per the club's tweet below. At least this one has been made known to the public, as opposed to some more recent friendlies, which have been both closed and open at the same time. I probably won't be there - because it's in bloody Broadmeadows on a weeknight - so if someone attends and wants to post a summary here, let me know.

FRIENDLY | We're back in action this Wednesday night as we take on Heidelberg United at ABD Stadium in Broadmeadows.

Kick off is at 7.30pm, with free entry for all those wishing to attend. pic.twitter.com/ewUOg6oPDN

— South Melbourne FC (@smfc) December 17, 2018

Also, the club is also doing its annual informal Christmas get-together this Friday in the social club, with festivities kicking off at 7:00PM.

Also, the last episode of If You Know Your History for 2018 is available here, where we talk about a Peter Fitzsimons style anti-soccer article from 100 years ago, have a chat with Tasmanian soccer writer Walter Pless, and take a look at the online history offerings of the various state federations.

There are doors that open by themselves / There are sliding doors / And there are secret doors

I was going to talk expansion, South Radio, expansion, South Radio going overtime, and perhaps also ponder when the AGM might be, because once again it looks like it will be on the 12th of never, but I can't be bothered, mostly; except to say that on Tuesday one bit of South Radio stuck out like the proverbial dog's balls - this was when the hosts were chatting (and I'm paraphrasing here) about how great a facility Lakeside was, and that there was a social club, and if you were free you should all come down to Lakeside tomorrow night for the pre-season hit-out against Moreland City.

Then all of a sudden, there was a very hasty reversal to that whole-hearted invitation, as it was noted that they had been informed by 'someone' that the game was in fact not an open-door affair. I'm sure they have their reasons for this, though I don't know what they are. Now I, being a very good boy, did not attend the pre-season game, but others are less virtuous, as one could see from Facebook and Twitter posts.

Thankfully, one of those people who did enter via a poorly manned entrance, was kind of enough to write up a short review of what he saw, and we thank him for that.

South Melbourne 4 Moreland City 0 (goalscorers: P. Marafioti, A. Mesourouni, M. Aguek, K. Konstantinidis) - guest post by Josh McKenzie.
This game was, as pre-season so often is, a bit hard on the eye, but not as bad as you can get in these kinds of things.

There was a decent turnout last night, and even a bit of passion for pre-season - the chanting and drumming provided by two young blokes I hadn't seen before was quite impressive (less impressive was their Zorba dancing performance)

We looked OK I guess, though who can know for sure? Moreland looked fairly rubbish, having apparently lost their best players over the off-season, and we seemed to be pretty coherent.
Our new lads all looked pretty promising, with Sylaidos and Lambropolous providing a decent combination down the left flank, as well as the Canadian DM we've allegedly signed who looked solid enough. The English trialist striker seemed to be a quick, off-the-shoulder type, who had a couple of good moments where he broke away from the defence.

The only three senior players not seen were Schroen, Adams and Howard- whilst our finishing let us down, it was nice to have those chances available.

Reassuringly, our set pieces are still rubbish.

I mention that last fact just in case someone, whether of any particular importance or not, wants to know what's wrong with the team, based in some part on what I remember annoying me the most, or rather perhaps the last thing I remember annoying me.


On the whole, a solid first hit out for the mighty white and blue!

Cruising

FIXTURE THIS!
The 2019 NPL senior men's fixture came out some time last week. There was some good news for South fans: we're guaranteed* 3.5 home league matches in the first half of the season, an increase of half a home game on 2018's offering. The uncertainty factor comes from South being unable to say exactly when or where its round seven home against Green Gully will be played. 

But at least we get a home game early on this time around, a round two affair against Dandenong City. Not sure why a round one home game couldn't have also been fixtured considering our traditional grand prix and athletics affiliated home ground access issues, but I'm sure there's a really good reason for it not happening; there always is. 

In terms of what the other clubs are doing, it's more of the same for the most part. Kingston are sticking with Monday nights. Most other clubs are going for Friday or Saturday nights, while Gully seem to have considered their Friday night experiment a bust, and are going back to Saturday afternoons. The recently promoted Dandenong City and Altona Magic are doing Friday nights and Saturday nights respectively. By comparison, our club's persistence with Sunday afternoon kickoff is the height of civilised quaintness.

As usual, I've written up our fixture on the blog. It's probably chock full of mistakes, but what are you going to do about it? Go to another website there and get the info from there? You think by doing that you'll be both better informed, and crash the blog's advertising yield? Well you'd be wrong on both counts, but whatever, it's your life.

*not a guarantee

No friendly - Maybe friendly - Future friendly
An article posted to the Greek section of the Neos Kosmos website said that we were due to play a pre-season friendly at Lakeside last Saturday afternoon against Geelong. Lucky for me I asked the club on Twitter whether this was actually happening (in a manner of speaking), and they quickly replied with no; my subsequent mail is that Geelong cancelled some days before the friendly was due, and that for whatever reason that info didn't make it to the person responsible for the article. These things happen.

The same article says we're going to play Moreland City at Lakeside on Wednesday evening, but geez, you'd want to check your local guides for confirmation of such, because you might want to go check out the Shaft/Super Fly double feature at the Astor instead.

In a different Neos Kosmos article, also in Greek, we have what may be considered confirmation that we'll be visiting West Adelaide in February as part of our pre-season preparations. The game will also be the official opening of West Adelaide's new facility, which looks pretty snazzy.

I listened to the new iteration of South Radio so you didn't have to even though you probably did anyway
Keep in mind that this is me commenting on this matter as a long time listener of many kinds of radio, including being a reasonably dedicated listener of the previous version of South Radio, and certainly not me commentating as a radio industry veteran of four episodes of my own show co-hosted on the same network. In summary:

• It's slicker than the previous version of South Radio, which was to be expected, especially when you have George Donikian dominating or directing proceedings.
• Related to this, the show had the kind of awkward banter that comes with making a show that's basically a pilot episode going out to a much larger potential audience than the old show would have done. Thus the 'banter' was affected by no longer being informed by the pre-existing friendships that the former South Radio cast had - and that includes this audience member being 'in' on many of the in-jokes - and which was also a way for members of the then South media team to let their professional guards down.
• There was quite a bit of content dedicated to the A-League bid, but nothing new. After having been promised at a members' meeting during the season itself that there would be more information revealed to the public as the various deadlines approached, nothing happened. Bill Papastergiadis suggested again during this show that they would release more information. I'll believe it when I see it, not that any of that matters.
• There was quite a bit on the culture and history of the club and how great it is.
• There was a little bit on the powerchair team, which I would like to hear more of in future. 
• There was nothing that I can recall on new signings or any such things.
• There was an obligatory shout out to South of the Border. I thank David Henning for recognising this blog's ongoing importance to... something. Shall we call it sublime-pettiness? Arch-contrarianism? You-can't-handle-the-truth-ism? But I must admit, it was nice to reminisce about the social club's official opening in 2017, and the geekiest cutting of a ceremonial ribbon anyone could think of, back when I was still if not friends with certain people, than at least on friendly terms. Ah, that's where this blog's importance lies: adolescent woe-is-me-ism! 

Over time I expect the show to become less stilted, and even if the shadow of the club's oversight will always be there, I imagine I'll be listening in most weeks. Someone close to these things suggested to me that I call in during a show, to which I demonstrated the likely outcome should I choose to do so.

Speaking of South and FNR, tomorrow night from around 6:30 there'll be an A-League bid special. 

Join us from 6.30pm on Monday night for an FNR #ALeague Expansion Special!

Representatives from Team11 and South Melbourne will be in studio, while the interstate bids will join us over the phone.

Call on (03) 9944 9999 or send us a tweet with questions to any of our bidders. pic.twitter.com/FY0PJEZzDP

— Football Nation Radio (@FNR_Radio) December 2, 2018

The Western Melbourne/Region/Universe bid people won't be there, but it might be worth a listen anyway, just in case someone says something mildly interesting. It could happen.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 2/12/2018
Not much news this week on the signings front. Backup keeper Rory Brian has signed at Preston in State League 1 North-West.

Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019)
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne)
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote)

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams
• Manny Aguek
• Alistair Bray
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard
• Giordano Marafioti
• Giuseppe Marafioti
• Jake Marshall
• Leigh Minopoulos
• Nikola Roganovic
• Tim Mala

Holiday in Cambodia (It's tough, kid, but it's life)

• Marcus Schroen 

Rumoured

• Visa player no. 1 (English striker)
• Visa player no. 2 (Canadian midfielder)

Out

• Rory Brian (Preston)
• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh)
• Christos Intzidis (who knows)
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh)
• Oliver Minatel (who knows)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Josh Hodes
• Iqi Jawadi
• Ndumba Makeche
• Andrew Mesourouni
• Will Orford

Coasting

I worked in something resembling an office environment for the past couple of weeks for the first time in my life, and I have no idea how You People manage to do deal with the assorted nutjobs who seem to populate these places.

Anyway, the only important news on the signings front is that striker Nick Krousoratis has signed from Green Gully. The talk of the visa player slots is that an English striker who's played in the second division in Spain will take one, and that a Canadian midfielder named Ethan Wesley/Gage or something, who had played at Bentleigh this year, will take the other spot.

Unless of course one of those two also counts as a permanent resident, thus creating the possibility that another player could take up one of the visa slots. In other news, it seems likely that Marcus Schroen will return to South, though at the moment he's on an overseas holiday. Defenders Tim Mala and Jake Marshall, as well as youngsters Manny Aguek and Ben Djiba have been seen around the club, so I've moved them around to the appropriate categories.

2019 SMFC senior squad roster as of 26/11/2018
Signed

• Dean Bereveskos (Bonnyrigg White Eagles)
• Kristian Konstantinidis (signed until end of 2019)
• Nick Krousoratis (Green Gully)
• Perry Lambropoulos (Port Melbourne)
• Brad Norton (signed until end of 2019)
• Gerrie Sylaidos (Northcote)

Seen hanging around pre-season training

• Luke Adams
• Manny Aguek
• Alistair Bray
• Ben Djiba
• George Howard
• Giordano Marafioti
• Giuseppe Marafioti
• Jake Marshall
• Leigh Minopoulos
• Nikola Roganovic
• Tim Mala

Holiday in Cambodia (It's tough, kid, but it's life)

• Marcus Schroen 

Rumoured

• Visa player no. 1 (English striker)
• Visa player no. 2 (Canadian midfielder)

Out

• Matthew Foschini (Oakleigh)
• Christos Intzidis (who knows)
• Milos Lujic (Oakleigh)
• Oliver Minatel (who knows)

Unknown / MIA / Assumed dead from 2018

• Rory Brian
• Josh Hodes
• Iqi Jawadi
• Ndumba Makeche
• Andrew Mesourouni
• Will Orford

We're gonna read a book, and Boutsi's gonna write it

Could it actually be coming out? Fair Play Publishing has the following item listed in its "titles being planned" section:

The Truth Behind My Boots by Con Boutsianis with Ben Hudson (2019)

South of the Border knows that Hudson and Boutsi had been working on a book some years ago, based upon a thread that was posted on smfcboard (RIP). But that forum thread had gone moribund, and there was no outward indication that  Boutsi's biography was an ongoing concern.. yet there seems to be life in this project yet. It probably helps explain Ben Hudson's contribution to this post. 

Return of South Radio

South Radio is back, in a slightly different form. It'll be on Football Nation Radio on Tuesdays at 8:00PM, hosted by David Henning and, er, George Donikian.

The rumours are correct, South Radio will return this Tuesday night with a huge first episode focussed on our #aleague bid. Join hosts @GeorgeDonikian and @DavidHenning86 for our the one hour show on @FNR_Radio #SMFC pic.twitter.com/AgBqV7IPyR

— South Melbourne FC (@smfc) November 25, 2018

It'll probably be the first in a series of club affiliated shows to take up residence on FNR, as the station tries to fill out its schedule and broaden its listener base. I'll be listening with an open mind, though I have the feeling that ye old ramshackle days of South Radio are probably a thing of the past.

If You Know Your History episode three
Meanwhile mine and Ian's FNR show trundles on. In episode three, we talk Brisbane's missing trophies, teachers, schools and soccer, and a weird bit where we segue from The Heartbreak Kid to Prahran High School as a sacred soccer site.