Sturm und Drang - South Melbourne 3 Hume City 1

After everything that has happened this week, let alone this season, it was nice to see the under 21s again. And they didn't disappoint, taking top spot from Hume by beating them 1-0, after holding out against a strong wind in the first half. That a certain former South youth player with red hair, who crossed over to Hume halfway through the season missed a sitter to level the scores must have made the win just that little bit sweeter.

Somehow, we're second on the table. Of course it helps when other teams drop points, as Oakleigh did today against Richmond, where Ricky Diaco had a penalty saved in the second half with his side trailing 2-1; and it also helps when sides have games in hand to play, such as Oakleigh, Heidelberg and Northcote.

2-0 and down to 10 men as Lou Acevksi gets sent off. Photo: Cindy Nitsos

But you can also make your own luck. When Stephen Weir's free kick deflected off the wall into the space in front of Hume City substitute goalkeeper Kenny Gerohristodoulou, it was Jesse Krncevic, back today after a long spell on the sidelines with suspension, who reacted fastest and swung the ball into the corner. That was 3-0, and more or less the game wrapped up.

It wasn't a good day for the Hume goalkeepers in general, as first Daniel Dragicevic slid the ball past Lou Acevski from a tight angle, into basically the only space available to him; and then when Sebastian Petrovic headed home South's second soon after, Acevski was given a straight red card for kicking a ball into a South player.

Five different ways to stand in a wall. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

Later, Gerohristodoulou, whose choice of shorts left little to the freeballin' imagination, pushed a South fan who was giving him back the ball for a goal kick, which fired up the crowd behind his goal. Hume City had a bad day at the office, but handled their emotions poorly. South by contrast had its best performance for some months now, without Tom Matthews, Steven O'Dor and even Joe Montemurro on the bench.

Discounting the most recent VTC match, it was the first time we had scored two goals in a match since the round 13 loss against Green Gully, and the first time we'd scored three since that fabulous 15 minute spell against Melbourne Knights all the way back in round six. We had several chances to add to our tally, before taking the foot off the pedal in the last 20 minutes or so and allowing Richie Cardozo to net a consolation goal for Hume.

Daniel Dragicevic leads the celebrations after scoring the opener. Photo: Cindy Nitsos.

After the first goal, someone ripped a flare at a South league game for the first time in about four years. There goes $500, or $1500, or whatever it is now, and another reason for the FFV to get on our back, like we needed one. I wonder if the perpetrator realised that the FFV were filming the game for their live stream? Somewhere at South there must be a communal self-destruct button that I haven't found yet. When I do find it, I'll either rip the bloody thing out, or press it with such conviction that the earth opens up and swallows us whole, leaving scant trace of our existence.

And then there  was the moment when myself and Ian Syson were discussing getting someone like Southpole to provide a guest lecture for Victoria University's 'Poetry and Poetics' class, to discuss the process of oral compositions, non-literary working class adaptations and such. Clarendon Corner's rewording of Frozen Tears 'South Melbourne', was just tremendous, bitter, resentful and yet full of wit.

Did I mention that we're second on the ladder? Heinous, isn't it.

Zois signs with the Cannons - Out of Singapore Cup squad

All the way back in December 2009, when I posted this clip of South's new recruits introducing or re-introducing themselves to the South family, I told you it was not for the squeamish. I readily admit that I was holding back somewhat - I could have easily said not for the diabetic, the credulous, the incredulous and people who are quick to joy and then anger caused by their own relentless and relentlessly undermined optimism. And so Peter Zois has packed his bags, the latest in a long line of exits down the freeway to the railway track and industrial estate of Jack Edwards Reserve: Ricky Diaco, Robbie Wynne, Trent Waterson, Yusuf Yusuf, Scot MacNicol. I suppose the one sobering thing that we as South fans can take from this is that none of those players went on to bigger and better things - indeed many of them went backwards.

The ancient Cynics might have had a chuckle at the foolhardy exclamations made by Zois and the fans over the course of 2010, mostly to do with loyalty and the South cause. The manner of the exit leaves something to be desired, mind you - so close to the deadline for finalising details for the Singapore Cup quarter finals, and as a traitor in any sense of the word, he deserves to cop hell - hey, it's an emotional game. But I'm reminded also of this rambling post I made in October 2008, about what factors other than money might and can have an influence. And part of the reason I wrote that is because money is seldom the reason that clubs and players will openly say is 90% of a decision depends on. Last December, in reply to the question, why did you sign with South Melbourne, Zois answered 'great history, great culture, biggest club outside the A-League', and continued with 'buzz, club moving forward, out of the box thinking'. When asked who he was looking forward to playing with the most, he said 'everyone'.

So all of a sudden, the buzz is gone, the forward movement has hit reverse and all our thinking is now firmly back inside boxes sealed with that crappy brown tape that's always manages to twist itself into stupid knots. And not only that - our history, our culture and our status as biggest club outside the A-League - all gone - and 'everyone' is no fun to play with anymore. I don't know whether or not any of these things have really changed that much in the ten months that Pete has spent at Lakeside. It'd be a pity if it they had, but somehow I doubt it.

Ten South rumours I'm starting just for the hell of it

1. Ricky Diaco did not eat all the pies.
2. There are still Peter Buljan/General Diagnostic Laboratories mousepads in existence.
3. Neos Kosmos does not require secret cash payments in order to boost the coverage of your club in its pages.
4. There are not dozens and perhaps even hundreds of South trophies and other artefacts in people's houses across the country, which were allegedly looted at various stages of the club's history.
5. The overwhelming majority of South fans would be happy to pay $2 for a copy of a matchday programme.
6. Old Greek guys drinking coffees at cafes in Oakleigh/Northcote/Yarraville/insert own proximate centre of local Hellenism are the best source of information about the inner workings of South Melbourne Hellas, especially if they haven't stepped inside the place since 1998.
7. People would like Jimmy Armstrong more if he was Greek.
8. You cannot make another search so soon after your last.
9. Hulk Hogan got to be the way he was by doing his exercises, taking his vitamins and saying his prayers
   
10. South Melbourne Hellas is the biggest soccer club in Australia.

Diaco leaves South for Cannons

Yes, it's true. After a solid 2007 and injury plagued 2008, one of the nice guys of the VPL has decided to jump ship and cross over to the dark side in more ways than one perhaps.

Dollars and Sense, or what kind of price can you put on abstract concepts?

Stick with me as best you can because this might go all over the place or even nowhere. I was thinking recently about how much players might get paid in this league, and what influences other than money might have an impact on where players choose to spend their playing time.

A few years back on smfcboard, someone claiming to be Sam Poutakidis made what seemed to be an outrageous claim at the time, that someone might choose a club like Oakleigh not for the money but for its facilities. We all had a good laugh (and whinge)... but no one thought to start putting dollar signs or devising some kind of method. Now that's perfectly ok; the players themselves probably don't go through and list every detail and put a price on it, and it may even be that money is 90% of the deal.

But looking back on certain cases... Hamlet Armenian allegedly coming to South to cut down on travel time... Diaco enjoying having some sort of fandom to play in front of... a Billy Nats playing for the club he grew up supporting... a Scotty MacNicol coming back perhaps because of a lack of opportunities despite what he may have been getting... players coming to South perhaps in the belief that their A-League ambitions would be better suited at Lakeside than say Chaplin or Monterey Reserve... liking or disliking one coach over another... and never forgetting the lure of a championship, where rogue players and their clubs tolerate each other for as long as possible as long as glory is within sight... all of this to be considered within a framework where the next paycheque might never come in.

I don't know what the average VPL player gets for certain, let alone our boys. But for simplicity's sake let's say our boys get about $350-500 on average. The better players a little more, the younger fringe players a little less. If they were to be offered more money at other clubs, or perhaps less money to play for a geographically more suitable team, or any of the myriad options possible, how much would it take to tip them over the edge one way or another? If a player came out and said, 'I'm mostly about the money', would we all break out in shock, or applaud their honesty? Would other players follow suit? I'm not holding my breath for it to happen, nor do I suggest that a thought process is that rational... but players, coaches and clubs all make financial decisions which are not exclusively decided by money, and only hindsight, such as every payment cleared or a new trophy in the cabinet, gives us perhaps any clue if it was the right choice.

Like tenpins

More players added to the season ending injury list. Already with Yusef, Diaco, Curtis, Natsioulas, and Kelly out for the year, now Andy Bourakis and Tony La Verde are also out with serious knee injuries. While all the injured players would no doubt be disappointed, for La Verde it comes at an especially inopportune time, as he was on the verge of being selected for Melbourne Victory's youth team. South of the Border wishes all of them all the best in their recovery.

Ricky Diaco - on how to take and how not take a penalty

Thanks to Cliff for the footage.

Yay!





Nay.

One last bit of 2007 clearing out

At around about this time every year, people and pundits all over the place start making predictions they will never go back and have a look at. Most say it's all in good fun, but really it's just a dreadful waste of time. Therefore South of the Border will buck the trend and avoid making any list predictions for the coming season whatsoever. It's a hard habit to kick, and South of the Border stands in solidarity with all those who suffer from this disease. What I will do however is hand out way overdue awards for last season. Seeing as this blog did start last year, and the new season hasn't started yet and we're still catching up and all, it's totally allowed.

• Player of the year: Ricky Diaco. The bloke sadly lacked consistent support, but even then he showed he was a class above most of the year. His free kick against Oakleigh is already legendary, but his in-close work was a joy to watch, particularly his skinning of defenders on the byline.

• Youth player of the year: Mitchell Langerak. Young keeper, came in with an unsettled defence, and did a more than decent job. While he still has problems with low balls and coming off his line, his aerial work and his ability in marshaling the defence were very impressive.

• Goal of the year: Ramazan Tavsancioglu against Whittlesea Zebras. Yes we lost this one 3-2, but I cannot do enough justice to the brilliance that was Rama's goal, so I'll let George Kouroumalis' poetry do the rest:

South equalised moments later, with what can be described as a contender for goal of the season by Ramazan. He produced a strong defensive tackle, reclaimed possession of the ball and began to dash up the right hand touch line. After stepping past one defender and spinning past another, he hit a speculative and intentional 35 yard rocket towards the goal, with the ball swinging and dipping into the top right hand corner and over the fully-stretched Gerohristodoulou, sending the South fans into blue delirium.

• Best performance over a whole match: The home win against Oakleigh 5-2. The 2^nd half in particular was an absolute joy to watch. These two teams have turned it on repeatedly in recent times, but that game will be hard to top. Diaco's free kick was merely the cherry on top of a great contest. Sadly South never reached that level of play for the rest of the season.

• Best period of play during the season: The first 20 minutes or so against Heidelberg at home in round 1. Despite the goalkeeping fuck-ups, the team was that shit hot that even the most boring and relentless cynics proclaimed it as an excellent NSL-era standard. Perhaps if we'd won that game things would have gone differently.

• Best away game: Sunshine George Cross. It was rainy, windy, cold, slippery but the dedication of the fans that day (and the win of course) made it totally worth it.

• Best call on the terraces: After we re-took the lead against Oakleigh one wit said, "Hey Turnbull, you didn't even get to finish your smile". Concise, precise, and understated.

• Chant of the year: Colombo's chant at the game against Preston. The police were doing nothing to move the Preston fans from outside the perimeter fence, as they have the power to do so, much to the annoyance of the South faithful. Can't remember the exact way it went, something like "I thought we were major events, why are the skops behind the fence..." there was more to it, of course, but it had this ramshackle rhythm to it that was just off this planet.

Don't forget, Family Day on tomorrow. Jersey Presentation night on Friday. Round 1 away to the Bergers on Sunday week. All which of which hopefully mean the end for now of these time killing pieces.