Can't complain - Port Melbourne 0 South Melbourne 2

Puts pretend tactical hat on
Pretty good first half, pretty meh second half, but who could tell what was happening all the way on the other side of the ground with poor depth perception and a black net in the way. First half tactics seemed interesting to me. Press them high up the field, because with no Kamal Ibrahim this season, who was going to be able to take it through the midfield for them? No one, and we could even afford to let them give off the first pass because all it did was hit a brick wall of South midfielders.

Even better was when the Port defence just coughed up the ball under little to no pressure from us. Even Gal's goal kicks were slicing off his boot with unerring regularity. The main instigator of harassing tactic was Iqi Jawadi, who was having a blinder. His goal from absurdly long range was hit as much in anger at being fouled as intention to score, but they all count the same.

A pity then that he had to come off after getting injured before the half was even out. Still, by that stage we were 2-0 up thanks to Luke Adams finding himself unmarked at the back post from a set piece at this ground for the second year running. Eric Vasiliadis apparently tore shreds off his players at half time, and sure they came out looking better, but did they look dangerous? Probably not.

Were we able to be more clinical with some of our chances on the counter, we could have won this more comfortably, but all in all that part of our game looked out of synch. The runs forward from the forwards were usually all over the shop, and Lujic looked a little out of sorts too, as well as frustrated. It's not a new frustration for him to be the sole target man, nor to have that much close attention paid to him, but there were moments where he clearly seemed to be expecting a pass played through or a cross sent in, and it didn't work out the way he wanted it to.

And as much as we could all say that Andy Brennan would have provided the required delivery, he's gone and he's not coming back*, so we all need to move on, and appreciate those who are still with us now†. Besides which, we're three from three, 12 goals for and zero against. There'll be plenty of time for complaining as the season drags on.

* He may well come back one day, but it doesn't look like that will be any time soon.
† The decision to appreciate or despise the 'People's Champ' is at entirely your own discretion.

More importantly (takes ridiculous pretend tactical hat off)
What are we going to do with Port Melbourne's ground? Already accustomed to having the outer side blocked off - you know, the side with the best view of the game - yesterday saw even more of the ground blocked off, this time including the end behind the Plummer Streets fenced off. Pretty soon (recycles joke from yesterday), they'll be putting everyone that doesn't want to sit under their social club roof into a Polish style hooligan cage.

Now far be it for a South fan to talk about restricted areas of a venue, but at least at Lakeside you have the option of being in any one of the 2900 odd seats of 'our' grandstand, standing at the back of the stand or along the fence, or if you have money to throw around sit with the corporates. Shoving everyone at Port into increasingly smaller spaces for goodness knows what reason just makes the whole thing more and more frustrating for those who choose to go to that ground.

Next match
Bulleen Lions away on Labour Day, with at this stage the customary 8:30PM kick off still in place. Could they somehow find it in their hearts to move the game to an earlier timeslot? Oh, I know some people love Mondays at the Veneto Club, but I... no, let's save that for the next match report.

Speaking of which...
I've finally come around to the issue of night game kick off times. For Friday night and Monday night games, surely it's time to banish the reserves to a Saturday or Sunday afternoon slot alongside the other junior sides. 8:30PM kickoffs are absurd. Moving the reserves to the weekend means you can start a senior match at the more reasonable time of 7:30PM, seeing a 9:30 finish and an earlier arrival home. Readers of this blog will already know I think Monday games are daft enough as it is. But even on Friday nights, for those clubs that have social clubs attached, wouldn't it be better to have a game finish at 9:30, and have people stick around for an hour or so afterwards, rather than just go home straight away? And there's the issue of those who want to bring their children with them to games.

Specious thinking (on the live streaming of NPL games)
MFootball were conducting a live video stream of this game. I don't know where I stand in this to be honest. When the FFV did much the same operation a few years ago, I was one of the few people that regularly watched their one live game a week. I don't think it greatly lessened my overall attendance at matches, and was especially useful when the matches being covered were a long way from my former abode in Altona North.

Regardless of whether it's being done by a federation or private media organisation though, live video streaming has to answer the questions of who's watching and why. Leaving aside the gambling demographic for a moment, is there that much of an audience for this competition? Why are neutrals, especially those from interstate, watching this game when there is A-League, and soon to be rugby league, union and AFL matches on at the same time?

The concern that live video streaming will hurt attendance at games seems to stretch credulity. Being realistic, for most games I don't think there'd be much of a negative impact. The NPL is the kind of competition where either you go to games, or you don't - it's not really the kind of league for people that want to hedge their bets on attending. And on any of the regulation match days - Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays - there are already so many competing fixtures across a plethora of sports, that your potential audience already seems to exist very much on the margins.

This must go for the radio productions as well, though to a far lesser extent. At least for traditional broadcast radio (restricted to the Greek language 3XY Radio Hellas these days),e there is a very specific target market. For the internet radio broadcasts, while theoretically aiming for anyone within the FFV/NPL social media sphere (the only way potential audiences will find out about it) seems so broad and aimless that again, you wonder who's tuning in? The online radio broadcasts also have the dilemma of if you're listening to the commentary of a match you're actually at, the commentary may be so delayed that it's a pointless exercise.

The trickiest aspect to deal with though may be the issue of important matches. Matches between two leading sides or an FFA Cup qualifier between traditional rivals, or hypothetically a match between Melbourne Victory's NPL side and South or the Knights. The temptation would clearly be there to believe that the setting would be right to take advantage (whatever the hell that means) of the atmosphere or feeling in a match.

But in these cases, could it be that the appeal of those kinds of games played at our level (and probably of the FFA Cup scam as well) is the act of being there in person, looking cool, being a bandwagoner, while knowing full well you won't be seen at "insert venue of relevant peasant club" until the next 'event' game? In other words, shouldn't most of the effort be put into getting people through the gates?

I suppose as long as the host clubs get a say on whether or not people can live stream their games, each club can choose it's own course of action, they can do whatever they like. It's not like anyone's paying us broadcasting money for the rights to do so.

I joined NUGAS, again
The National Union of Greek Australian Students - aka, NUGAS - have been around for a very long time. Not usually giving a damn about 'tavern nights', I have taken very little interest in their affairs during my career as a tertiary student, and lord knows I've had enough opportunities to do so over a uni stint spanning two different institutions, three or so degrees and I don't know something like eleven years or so hanging around.

That, and there was a stupid incident involving right wing front ticket student union election bollocks involving NUGAS back at Melbourne Uni in 2003. Someone made a documentary about it, go watch that if you can some somehow find it. Mind you, the documentary maker probably left out the bit where someone piffed an ashtray from the balcony of the UBar down at some arsehole Young Liberals. Not that I'm endorsing that kind of behaviour mind you, and luckily no one got hurt, but it was a very tense moment in the lives of some mostly over privileged people (from both sides of that political divide) in their early 20s who mostly ended up who knows where. (I think one ended up co-authoring a book on why Australia's cities are broken, but the writing style was too much of an ordeal to persist in reading it).

All of which is a very long winded way of saying that whoever at South was responsible for lining up the deal with NUGAS to get them to offer three game passes, would be moderately pleased that they did in fact mention that deal to me as part of their membership pitch. It did help that I was wearing one of my South hats though. Less successful was the attempt to get one of the adjacent non-Greeks to join up with the offer of a South Melbourne three game pass.

Me, I'll be surprised if they even manage to send me an email this year, considering they didn't manage to do it last year.

Match programmes
Starting to clear the little bit of a backlog that's accumulated here. Most updates from this week are of away games from 1993-1994, but there have also been some items from other seasons scattered around. More to come from these batches next week.

Final thought

It's finally here, the new @smfc social club. #pmvsm #ps4nplvic pic.twitter.com/L3btckXmBI

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) March 4, 2016

Thank goodness for Google Translate

Port 3 South 3
Out at Port Melbourne last Friday, those present saw a match of two halves, which I prefer to a game of three thirds. Being 3-0 down and then bringing it back to 3-3 says something and nothing at the same time. I have not seen enough of the team during this pre-season to make too many sweeping judgements, Michael Eagar looks good, Milos Lujic is doing his usual thing, and the rest of the usual first teamers have looked neither better nor worse - though Norton's cross for one of our goals suggests that his good form from last season will be taken into this season. I'm not sold though on this centre back they have trialling at the moment - Milos Tosic, I think his name is, probably from South Australia - he's a massive unit, which will be good for defending at set pieces, but his size comes with a severe lack of pace.

The search for strike partner or Milos Lujic continues. To that end we have apparently signed Congolese - that's Republic of Congo for all you geographers out there - striker or midfielder Philtzgerald Mbaka. Mbaka, a 23 year old left sided player, most recently played at Getafe B, the lower tier outfit of Getafe. The news article rightly mentions that this is a risky move for Mbaka - should he perform poorly, he will lose visibility for selection to the Republic of Congo's national team - and for all you promotion-relegation enthusiasts, the article also mentions the lack of promotion-relegation to and from the A-League, not just for its own sake, but in the way it hinders players at lower levels here. Mbaka didn't do anything special in his time against Port (nor against Comets), but then again neither did pretty much anyone else. All our goals conceded seemed to come from defensive mistakes.

For their part, Port will be competitive once again in 2016, and will be pissed off if they don't make the finals, but it's hard to see them pushing all the way unless they get a good run in terms of injuries and the like. This game was watched from the now normally closed off outer side of SS Anderson Reserve - here's hoping that continues in the 2016 season proper - in part perhaps because they've dug a large trench of sorts where the hill adjacent to the Laurie Schwab press box stands. Whether that's where the planned electronic scoreboard will be installed, I don't know, but I reckon that trench would be too deep for that, and on the wrong side of the ground for most spectators. It looks like local Greek-Australian soccer stalwart Jim Massis is also back in charge of the canteen there.

Some of you may have seen the video of triallist Velibor Mitrovic's excellent free kick against Port doing the rounds of the internet, but those of you who are a little too obsessed with the work of Football Chaos may also be familiar with this player from this stunner during Mitrovic's time with Kingston City.



Sure the defence gives him too much room, but anyone that can crack a shot like that should be worth a look, no?

In less good news, word on the street seems to be that young midfielder Cody Martindale, who missed the majority of the 2015 season after getting injured away against Heidelberg, has re-injured the same leg and may miss the entire season once more. Leigh Minopoulos was a non-starter for ??? but will hopefully be right for the start of the season.

Youngster Spiros Stamoulis seems to have been signed by Spanish side Alaves on a two year deal.

L'Alavés ha fitxat al davanter del South Melbourne, Spiros Stamoulis (18). Firma per 2 temporades. #fitxatges pic.twitter.com/IEExg4ONVA

— Mercat de fitxatges (@Mercafitxatges) January 17, 2016

It's possibly only an academy thing, but good luck to him anyway.

South 1 Comets 1

A photograph of people of taking a photograph. Yes, yes, it's all very meta. Photo: Paul Mavroudis.

In front of a crowd of 80 people (not counting those people running around the track) some sub par finishing kept the goals in this game to a more modest level than they perhaps should have been. Comets had been beaten 5-0 by Heidelberg last Friday, although according to some people that had been a weaker team than was on evidence here. Both sides switched players around and in and out as tends to happen at this time of year. Missing for us were Leigh Minopoulos (moon boot), Matthew Foschini (honeymoon), and Tim Mala (partying).

On the plus side, Matthew Theodore looks a like a bundle of energy during this pre-season. Injuries and work commitments have hampered Theodore in recent times, but there's obviously still a lot of love out there for player with his work ethic, style and ability to quickly thread a through ball to Milos Lujic. Still, you wonder if he will be able to overcome the obstacles of combining a hectic career as a corporate lawyer, being the wife of a bitter and broken entrepreneurial consultant and the mother of two teenage girls growing up in the cynical and angst ridden 1990s - and still find the time to play semi-professional soccer.

A pennant from Adelaide Comets
marking the occasion of their visit to
Melbourne. Photo: Paul Mavroudis.

Having deleted Twitter off my phone - ostensibly because it was interfering with my work and/or not allowing me to be 'in the moment' at games - I was surprised to find out later that I had received two notifications from gamblers looking for score updates from this game (which was also played in three thirty minute thirds). Of all the things to gamble on, why this fixture? OK, I get that some might get a laugh out of it because of the sheer obscurity of the affair, but beyond that?

Oh well, I suppose people need to entertain themselves with something while we wait for resolution to the lease and social club issues.

Bendigo calling
Seems like we're booked in to play a sort of match against NPL2 franchise Bendigo City on Saturday night up in Bendigo. Kickoff would be at 7pm at Epsom Huntly Reserve, which is on the outskirts of Bendigo. I don't think I'll be able to go to this one, which is a shame, but that's what happens when you play these games in the middle of nowhere. Check the South website for more details in case they bother to put any up.

Takis Mantarakis passes away
Multiple championship winner, captain, South team of the century team member and all round club icon Takis Mantarakis passed away at the age of 81 last Saturday. The obituary on smfc.com.au is well written, and has some excellent photos to boot. Looking at the reaction on Facebook to Mantarakis' death, what comes through is not so much his undoubtedly massive contribution to South over many years, but especially his human decency. Those understand Greek may also choose to listen to this piece from SBS Greeks' 'Athletes who we loved' series.

Rain, Hail, Shine, Wind, More Rain, And That's Us Done For 2013 - Northcote City 5 South Melbourne 0

You Get An Inkling It's Not Your Day When...
You cop a goal in the first five minutes. The one thing we'd managed to avoid letting Northcote do in our previous encounter, and we'd botched it nice and early. And to make matters worse, it was from a set piece. Still, it was only one goal, and there was time to pull it back...

You Really Know It's Not Your Day When...
Your keeper catches the ball, gets shoved over the line, and the ref awards a goal. The shoulder charge on goalkeepers hasn't been seen in Australia since about the early 1950s, and we've all become used to goalies now being classified as a protected species. And yet we found ourselves 2-0 down due to the non-decision of the referee, who otherwise punished every push, no matter how inconsequential.

We really needed to have pulled back a goal before half time, for psychological as well as scoreboard reasons. Instead we fluffed our two good opportunities. One shot was palmed away by the off balance Northcote keeper. The second saw a cutback delayed after some good work on the byline, and Northcote's defence managed to scramble the ball away, much as we did last week.

We had several crosses, corners and free kicks in dangerous areas, but for the most part we couldn't get them into the really dangerous areas around the six yard box, where Northcote's defence would be most vulnerable. Their early goal allowed them to sit back and hit us on the counter.

Then the weather turned nasty, the rain hurtled down and the wind decided that it wanted to barrack for Northcote in the second half, as it blew hard towards the Plummer Street goals. Then Northcote scored their third, and we were done like a dinner.

Junk Time Blues
The last 40 odd minutes was an exercise in futility. At 3-0 down, Soolsma sliced his volley, and that was about it for us. Rixon picked up a stupid yellow card for a challenge on the Northcote keeper, which would have ruled him out of the grand final had we somehow made it that far. Heads dropped, the wind blew back every ball of a certain height, and Northcote picked us off for a couple more goals. There's little doubt that they were the better team on the day and over the course of the year, but a five goal difference between the two sides? That's a little harder to stomach.

End Of Season Stupidity (or Why Pitch Invasions, No Matter How Well Intentioned, Are Never A Good Idea)
Well, at the end of the game about 30 odd Northcote supporters jumped the fence yesterday and even went up the players race to celebrate with their team. Of course this lead to stupid scenes in the players race (not helped by some of the Northcote players deciding to turn their focus towards the South fans instead of just making their way into the changerooms).

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this, as it was actually rather hard to tell what the hell was happening there at the end, except that a large green plastic bin lid was thrown towards the players race. Like that was ever going to do any damage. There are allegations of spitting by both sides, which is just great. Still, considering the punishment we got (in my mind, justified) for our pitch invasion against the Bergers all those years ago now, what will happen to Northcote will be worth watching. Also, it was well noted by one of our forum peoples that Blue Thunder Security really dropped the ball on this one, by having all their attention focused on Clarendon Corner, with none on the equivalent Northcote group.

Peter Tsolakis, Luke Byles
Were happy that we lost. Good for them. Whatever helps them sleep at night.

Chants
A couple of late contenders for chant of the year

Our social club
Does not exist
Our social club does not exist
It's got no door, and no window
Our social club does not exist

Where this chant falls over though is that, when we did have a social club, most of the people who were chanting this ditty preferred to drink away from the ground before a game. Still, some marks have to be awarded for the cleverness of the lyrics, which is more than can be said about the sharing our ground with Victory chant. Newsflash, we did that even before the reconfiguration of Lakeside.

There was also the 'your nose is bigger than your dick chant' directed to the Northcote player who had also been re-christened 'Gonzo The Great' (he had a large protective covering on his schnoz, after having broken it against in our previous meeting; he even managed to cop another blow to his nose during yesterday's game).

The 'What Were They Thinking' Department
Now I have nothing against Port Melbourne as a venue (if I did, I wouldn't go and watch games as a neutral there), but once a match attendance reaches a certain point, it is clearly not a suitable venue for a game.

Quite why the FFV decided to use this ground for a game of this stature is anyone's guess. There was one ticket booth, meaning that even 10-15 minutes into the game, there was a still a significant line waiting outside the ground.

The ground also has limited shelter and poor sight-lines. The latter was not helped by only opening up a small portion of the outer side - apparently due to some incident two or three years ago which no one can remember - which would have improved the viewing experience considerably.

Of course the weather, which had been wavering between comfortable and slightly unpleasant, turned to absolute crap at the start of the second half, and Port's limited shelter was unable to cope with the demand. Others, seeing no way back for South and not wanting to deal with the wind and rain, just upped and left. The fans who braved those conditions deserved better.

There were surely more suitable options available. Knights Stadium, Kingston Heath, even Epping Stadium or Olympic Village. Hell, I would have happily allowed Northcote to host this match.

Next Year
Who knows what's going to happen there. NPL Victoria? State League 1 South? If there is a VPL, we can be safe in saying that Heidelberg United and Werribee City will come up, but who will go down? What will happen to Southern Stars? I know that the only constant is change, but this is getting out of hand.

Around The Grounds
Got there early enough to watch the second half of the Sandringham - Heidelberg WVPL preliminary final. Sandy were up 1-0 at halftime, went 2-0 up after a nice cut in and strike, before the Bergers pulled it back to 2-1. There it stayed, with the Bergers probably unlucky not to pull it back to 2-2. Very tough conditions, and not a particularly impressive game.

As For The Blog
Our usual winding down process begins. At some point a season wrap and awards. In December, our usual birthday/thank you spectacular. Some news as it trickles through. Which players will stick around? Who'll be out the door? New faces?

We have the prospect of elections - will a rival ticket finally emerge? Will the entire current committee stick around? We also still have the protracted social club and lease issues to sort out. After two seasons back at Lakeside, it's gone beyond a joke.

I'll also provide as much NPL Victoria news as I can stomach. It's already been a draining experience covering that issue, not just for its complexity, not just for cutting through the competing narratives, but especially in the way it has infected everything that's happened this season.

And maybe the odd book review here and there to inject of bit of culture.

Final Thought
Now what do I do with my weekends? Join my brother's Dungeons and Dragons group?

The Good Kind of Anti-Climax - Port Melbourne 0 South Melbourne 4

Two things. The first is that Port will feel stooged by the week's events for a very long time to come. Considering that they themselves had done nothing wrong, and that they had earned enough points to apparently secure a finals berth with a week to spare, only to be brought back into the finals mire in such a manner, would be pretty hard to take.

But there's also the other thing. From the little I've seen of them this season, Port have been a very ordinary side. Defensively sound perhaps, but woeful going forward, to the point where they were barely scoring more than a goal a game. That alone doesn't mean they should have missed out on the finals, but in my imagination it did make it easier for me to want to see them eliminated from the finals race.

Indeed, all Port needed was a draw from yesterday's match to make it through to the finals. Yet they were cut open repeatedly by a fired up South, while the home team put in what I would consider one of their standard 'meh' performances.

The first surprise of the day was that captain Brad Norton was dropped for Alan Kearney. A risky move perhaps, but initially there didn't seem to be any issues, except for Gully typically taking the lead at home to Dandenong Thunder, which neither Norton nor Kearney could have done anything about. Tyson Holmes' met Nick Epifano's cross with his head to make it 1-0 to South soon after that news, so while things were on a knife edge, at least we trying to hold up our end of the bargain.

Port started to get into the game towards the end of the half, and had one or two chances, but it all comes down to probabilities. Sure, you could score two goals from three chances (and how many times has that happened against us in recent times), but can you seriously go through a whole season of doing that? After a bit of a surge after halftime, Port were basically done and dusted for this game.

Still, we needed a little bit of luck to make things work. That came after Port's keeper made a save which ended up deflecting onto the outstretched arm of one of the defenders on the goal line, with the ref awarding a penalty. Port's keeper tried to argue the point, but even he eventually had to acknowledge that it was a penalty. Trent Rixon ripped the ball from Luke Hopper's grasp, and put the ball underneath the diving Port keeper to make it 2-0.

"What happens when a journo covers the local game properly."
 Photo: Ian Syson

Soon after, key Port man Lambros Honos was sent off, and when Rixon nabbed his second from a spilled shot, we were through to the finals. The celebration, pointing to our very own stats man and telling him to put that down on the records was pretty clever. For good measure, late on Rixon sent in a wonderful cross to substitute Brad Norton at the back post, who headed home emphatically, adding to his impressive goal scoring tally this season.

So, four goals, a first clean sheet under Chris Taylor - and our first since about round 8 - and a bit of miracle escape from that mid season madness that threatened to tear apart the fabric of the club. Now it all starts again.

Not Steve From Broady's Under 21s Report
Steve decided to go drinking before the game at one of the local pubs, so it was left to me to watch this game. Port had their keeper sent off in unusual and unfortunate circumstances. After a mistake in the home team's defence, a South player collected the ball outside the area and faced a one on one situation with the keeper. Unfortunately, he hit it straight into the keeper. Fortunately for South however, the keeper caught the ball outside his area, and was duly sent off.

Port decided to use and outfield player as a keeper, and South didn't make the most of this until the second half. Indeed they found themselves 1-0 down at halftime. In due time however, South eventually ran over the top of the 10 man Port Melbourne and their inexperienced replacement goalkeeper to win 4-1.

Much of the first half was spent listening to Oakleigh Harismidis. Man, that guy has a complicated home life, but all the best to him anyway. The second half was spent eating jellybeans and some sort boiled kiwi fruit and manuka honey lollies that Gains brought back from a recent trip to New Zealand.

Steve From Broady's Canteen Report
Sunday was the last day of the season in the Victorian Premier League canteen championship, and Port was the last canteen left to rate. Expectations were high at SS Anderson Reserve with the Port souv having some serious potential. The souv was in pita which is always a good start. There wasn't much lettuce in the souv and the meat was good but also not much of it. I give the Port souv an 8 out of 10. With Port missing out on the 10 that means that Pascoe Vale have been crowned the inaugural Victorian Premier League Canteen Champions. I would like to thank all canteens involved this season and can't wait for next seasons championship.

1. Pascoe Vale 10/10
2. Melbourne Knights 9.9/10
3. Oakleigh Cannons 9.5/10
4. Hume City 8/10
5. Port Melbourne 8/10
6. Bentleigh Greens 7/10
7. Richmond 6.5/10
8. Northcote City 3.5/10
9. Southern Stars 2/10
10. Green Gully 1/10
11. Dandenong DQ 

South food truck

• Week 1 - 4.5/10
• Week 2 - 7/10
• Week 3 - 8.5/10
• Week 4 - 5/10
• Week 5 - 5.5/10
• Week 6 - 9/10
• Week 7 - 6/10
• Week 8 - 7.5/10
• Week 9 - 8/10
• Week 10 - 9/10
• Week 11 - 8/10

Final Average Score

• 7/10

90 Minute Celebrities
Even though the view is shithouse, there's something about being behind the goals that makes a game a lot more enjoyable, and part of that something is when the fans decide to pay attention to one or two of the players from the opposing team. The keeper is always a prime target of course, especially in yesterday's case where he wouldn't take his own goal kicks.

But the real star yesterday was Port's rightback Peter Roberts, who took a lot of those goal kicks. You may recall that a few weeks ago Roberts was involved with a nasty spat with some Knights fans. For whatever reason, he responded much better to the heckling of the South fans, which varied from several 'fat cunt' chants to songs about how South should sign him up.

30 Second Celebrities
Now the last time I visited Port Melbourne (see the link immediately above), I was given some rather minor grief for not paying at the gate by one of the security peeps, even though I had a valid FFV season pass. This time there were no such issues with security. However, I did cop grief from some Port Melbourne - well, I'd call him an official, but he had no identifying clothing or marking - who I assume thought I had managed to elude the crack security squad at the front gate and got in for free (this actually happened to Steve from Broady at Olympic Village a couple of years ago, by complete accident).

Rather than cause a a fuss, I showed him my card, and he looked at it in wonder and confusion. I moved on, annoyed that I have to cop this kind of attitude which doesn't even happen at Altona East anymore. Lift your fucken game, Port.

MVP Night
Good old Beachcomber, my favourite eatery in the known universe, after the vending machines at Spencer Street Station, of course. The pizza was good, even if it was necessary to eat from the couches because there weren't enough proper tables set up.

For the record, Rixon scored the most goals, Brian Bran won the media team's award, and Peter Gavalas was awarded the Theo Marmaras medal for best player. Steve From Broady also spoke about the VPL Canteen Championship. No mention of a certain blog in that presentation, which considering how hard I tried to save his life by telling him NOT TO EAT THE DAMN HOT DOG at Green Gully in round 1, and having him apparently 'this' close to spewing in my car, is what I consider a small oversight. It's a good thing I'm not bitter by nature and don't hold grudges easily.

In that regard, it was interesting to hear Chris Taylor pay tribute to the work done in assembling the squad to Peter Tsolakis.

Next Week
Green Gully at Lakeside on Sunday evening.

Around the Grounds
I had been roped in to play for a team competing in the SMFC Corporate Challenge. I was told that the starting time was 'around 12', but then that got changed to 9am, and I had to politely decline the invitation. So it was off to Burnley Oval to watch the last round of the State League 2 N/W home and away season. The championship, playoff and relegation spots had already been sorted out, so the match between Fitzroy City and Altona East was really nothing more than a chance for some late season glory (and win bonus).

Altona East's reserves won the opening match 2-1. It was nice to see their regular goalkeeper Nathan Debattista get a go playing outfield, and he even managed to provide an assist for one of Altona East's goals. The seniors finished 1-0 to East, probably the right result after a pretty crappy game on a low key Saturday afternoon.

Pave Jusup vs Football Federation Victoria
Being no legal expert, I will try and keep this as short and simple as possible, with as little ephemeral comment as I can manage.

The mediation session last week having failed to sort out the issues between the two sides, we found ourselves today at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, as the sort of main bout after an under-card of mostly cut and dried taxation cases. The main issue at hand was about the plaintiffs' attempt to try and get this case heard in the Supreme Court rather than in the Magistrates Court.

As I understood it, there were essentially two arguments being made simultaneously by both sides. The first was the legal argument, that is, which part of the law should take precedence in this matter; hence lots of quoting of 'subsection so and so' and arguing about which words and which interpretations of those words should take precedence. I think the main part of the law being dealt with was the Corporations Act, with the plaintiffs trying to argue the point of oppression, and the matter of there being no provision for members of the FFV to call a general meeting under the current constitution.

The second aspect of the arguments was more rhetorical in nature, in the attempts by both sides to frame the issue to their liking. In this case, it was mainly centred around how big this issue between the two sides is. The plaintiffs argued that the dispute encompassed and had ramifications for the whole of Victorian soccer, while those representing the FFV sought to portray it as a spat between the FFV and the VPL clubs, and therefore not worthy of being taken to the Supreme Court.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs spoke at length, while the lawyer representing the FFV spoke for a relatively brief amount of time. The plaintiffs argued that there was a possibility of seeking to wind up the FFV (as part of the remedies one could ask for or have offered in such a situation, and which can only happen in the Supreme Court), as well as to possibly gain access to the very large amounts of information on NPL Victoria held internally at the FFV. The FFV argued that while they did not outrightly oppose the matter heading to the Supreme Court, the oppression case could be held in the Magistrates Court.

The interim result is that the magistrate will hand down his decision on whether the matter will go on to the Supreme Court, on the morning of October 7th, via fax.

Finally, there has been some talk around the traps that these court proceedings will prevent the FFV from announcing the successful licensees for next year's NPL on this coming Monday - I do not know if this is true or not though.

Final Thought
Happy Third Birthday To Football Anarchy!

PODCAST - 3 Years of FA Part 1 hosted by @muzza_85 with special guest @ecpkoko , @TedMulder1 gets a shout out too http://t.co/k5SsAF9M2u
— Football Anarchy (@FutballAnarchy) September 23, 2013

Friendly against Port tomorrow

A chance for South fans to see the favourites for the 2013 VPL title on their own turf, in a game that probably won't provide the embarrasment of our meetings over the previous two seasons - we're hopefully saving that up for the season proper. Game is on at 7:30PM tomorrow at Port Melbourne. Be there and be square.

3-3 vs Port; Another keeper; Another friendly;

Last night, Port Melbourne 3, South Melbourne 3. Decent half arsed game I guess. Some tidy work up front by Rixon and the Trifiros. Were 2-0 up, then 3-2 down, and equalised later. One ripper goal from Port from Zeus knows how far out. Steve from Broady is at Bible Camp, so I'm enjoying three days of peace and quiet.

Jason Saldaris
The Perth keeper who's been doing the pre-season with us is signed up. Apart from his name, his vague origins, and rumours that he's a male model, I don't know much about him. Expectations are that he will fight with Gavalas for the number one spot.

Of course this means that George Malliaras, long time under 21s keeper, is now on loan to Springvale White Eagles. They're apparently a young side, and expected to struggle in state league 1. Has a player ever come back from a loan period since we've been in VPL? 


Final Friendly
Our last friendly before the season starts will be on this Saturday, 17th March, away at Dandenong Thunder at 6:00PM. Undecided about this game - may opt for statewide knockout cup match instead.

The Great Escape - South Melbourne 3 Northcote City 3

Before we get to the dramatic senior match, it's only fitting that we talk a bit about the under 21s.

Despite the substantial turnover in personnel during the season, they managed to work their way to the top of the table. But they needed a win in today's final round to seal back to back titles. Despite being well out of title contention, Northcote weren't keen on giving us the points, and they fought and kicked their way throughout the contest.

We took the lead in the first half, after a great dummy run in an offside position opened up the space for the young man to dribble through and pass to his teammate to score. Northcote leveled early in the second half, but our boys weren't going to rely on the other results going their way.

Nick Niagoran belted home a spectacular goal, right into the top right corner, to make it 2-1 - and that was the score at the end of the game. It was something straight out of a Boys Own Annual. Congratulations to coach Gus Caminos and all the boys who pulled on a blue and white shirt this year, for a title well earned.

Congratulations to the under 21s on achieving back to back titles. Photo: Peter Psarros.

The main event
When watching the first of last year's AFL grand finals, my arms went numb during the last three minutes of the game. Today, at Port Melbourne, I started losing the feeling in my hands about halfway through the second half. It was that tense.

Not much room under the social club roof. Photo: Peter Psarros.

The game had been hyped up considerably. The so called sister club relationship. The fact that it had been moved from John Cain to SS Anderson Reserve. The minimum five goals scored in each of the past three meetings. The possibility of Gianni De Nittis coming on late and providing a dose of karma.

Somehow, this game lived up to every expectation. The rain held off, the crowd wasn't too bad, and they didn't have to wait long for a goal, with Jesse Krncevic beating the offside trap and managing to slot it home on a tight angle to make it 1-0 after just three minutes.

But Northcote are nothing if not proficient in front of goals, and within a minute they had leveled, breezing through our right hand side for an easy finish. Soon after, they were 2-1 up, when Steven Topalovic gave the ball away cheaply on the last line of defence, exposing Zaim Zeneli. Topalovic had a poor game it must be said, and if Rhodri Payne is fit for next week there'd be serious doubts over him getting a starting spot.

When Trent Rixon scored his second to make it 3-1 after 33 minutes, after being unmarked but brilliantly controlling a long pass, it looked like it was just about out of reach for us. Defensively we were all over the shop, and we were being punished mercilessly for it. And when Stephen Weir met Daniel Dragicevic's cross, only to stub the shot straight at Northcote's goalkeeper, Charles Treacey, from a mere six yards out, the hope that we might come back just sank a little further.

Celebrations as Krncevic's second goal floats in just under the crossbar.
Photo: Peter Psarros.

But then Jesse Krncevic scored one of the goals of the season, and somehow we were still in with a chance. A ball was played wide out to the right into space, and Treacey came way off his line to try, possibly in a moment of madness, cut off Krncevic's angle. But the striker had a different idea, lobbing the ball over Treacey's head, and just underneath the crossbar. It was a more spectacular effort than last week's attempt to chip Stuart Webster, but it came off and at 3-2 we were back in the game.

Practice makes perfect - Weir celebrates after scoring from a free kick.
Photo: Peter Psarros.

And then we got a free kick just outside the box, in the same territory that Stephen Weir has been attempting to score from since he crossed over from Hume City halfway through the season. Most of his efforts from similar situations thus far had hit the wall - including against his former side Hume just a couple of weeks agao, which saw Krncevic pounce on the crumb. This time, the shot was perfectly placed into the bottom corner, and somehow the team went into halftime at 3-3.

Surely there would be more goals in the second half? Somehow, all the scoring dried up, though not without some desperate defending and alert goalkeeping on both sides of the ground. Either side could have taken the win, but even with an injured Zeneli, and Gianni De Nittis coming towards the end of the game as Northcote desperately searched for the winning goal - only all three points being good enough to see them in the finals at our expense - neither side were able to break the deadlock.

Jesse Krncevic had the best chance of the closing minutes, but even he couldn't add to his two goals. Yianni Galanos, coming off the bench late in the game to make his official South debut after almost an entire season laid off with a pre-season injury, provided the inch perfect cross. Perhaps there was too much time for Jesse to think about it, as his angled header went wide, and the opportunity to finish third and grab a double chance was lost

But it would be harsh to put all the blame on our fourth placed finish on that moment. There were too many other times during the season where we shot ourselves in the foot, and now we will have to do it the hard way, needing to win through four consecutive rounds. It's not impossible, but the room for error is just about non-existent.

And first cab off the rank is Heidelberg, who threw away their chance at getting at least a double chance courtesy of a shock loss to Springvale White Eagles. For some reason Heidelberg Harismidis was at our game rather then his own team's - probably too hard to get to for him. Spying he claimed.

No point in looking beyond the coming week however. Real one week at a time stuff, until we take the title or we bow out. It's a hell of a hoodoo to have to overcome, but we'll see how we go.

Seemingly inevitable - South Melbourne 1 Port Melbourne 2

Might as well keep this short and sweet.

I don't care how many coaching licences one has, nor what the technical pedigree of the players is.

Superstars who only hold that title at training sessions are useless. I'm tired of hearing how sharp they are at training.

I know players don't go out to lose a match. But maybe sometimes they don't really go out to win as hard as they should.

Before one masters the more difficult aspects of the game, one must do the mundane and basic things over and over again.

Correct passing. Correct decision making. Winning the first ball. Failing that, winning the second ball. Filling the spaces, cutting out the angles.

Suffice to say that football isn't much fun at the moment, and I'm not sure that it has been for some time.

Questions that need to be asked

A suitable image stolen from a Lutheran site. 

Just kicking back today, trying to keep it real, but as always, against my will, also thinking about the big questions dealing with our existence. This was prompted in part by my bumping into an old bloke called Thanasi, a Heidelberg fan who I see at Altona East PAOK on occasion, and who loves to get me riled up about South's fortunes - apparently having two players sent off doesn't make copping five goals acceptable, or even plausible. Amazingly, he only seems to surface when South is on a lean run. Still, browsing the forums and thinking back to what's happened over the season thus far, several other questions have also come up. Here's a sample.

• Is Joe Keenan still at South Melbourne? If he is, is he ever going to come back?
• Galanos (rinse repeat)?
• What kind of idiot declares themselves both an ardent monarchist and a fan of Celtic?
• When we are we going to relocate permanently to SS Anderson Reserve?
• When are we going to finally get conned out of our forty year lease at Lakeside?
• Who is really the coach at South? Is it Eddie? Is it Joe? Is it Ange? Whose hand am I supposed to shake first in the event we win the title? Whose head do I call for in the event of a disastrous second half of the season?
• Was Simon Colosimo protesting outside John Cain Memorial Park with the Dandenong Thunder fans last week?
• Does Peter Zois still love this club? If not, which club does he love now, and are they treating him better? 
• Under which circumstances is it appropriate to throw a glass bottle at your brother's head?
• If you come from Glenroy and have a Dickie Knee hairstyle, is it appropriate for you to pay out on someone from Dandenong for having a rattail?
• Did a dingo really take Rama's baby?
• What's the difference between Harriet Tubman and the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Last night's score - South 2 VTC 3

Another Glorious Day in the History of South Melbourne Hellas!

Talk about the game? Why would I do a stupid thing like that?

I want to talk about other things.

Sure I live in Altona North, but as self-appointed South Melbourne FC public transport guru and informal tour operator I decided against taking my car to the ground and instead chose to help a couple of friends make their way to this irregular location.

With one of those being my mate Steve from Broady, a young man with a hearty appetite, we ended up at the McDonalds on the corner of Lonsdale and Swanston Streets. Me, I didn't want anything, so I just stood back and waited for his large Quarter Pounder Meal to get ready.

While waiting in that line, some guy with an obviously shaky grip on reality walks past me, then turns around and asks 'what did you say to me?', when I hadn't said anything at all. After an attempt to break me down psychologically by looking at me with a mean shifty stare, he decided that maybe I hadn't said anything after all and walked off.

In any event, I reckon I could have taken him down if necessary, which isn't saying much, and besides, Steve from Broady would have given me a hand if anything happened that required his intervention. We decided to go upstairs because 'it's mad', but being a fast food restaurant in the city, it's full of sparrows which is totally hygienic of course, which didn't seem bother Steve from Broady as much as the initial spot being messy.

After his finishes up, we head out to the bus top to meet Gains. Except for some reason the bus stop is not where it usually is and we have to walk back in the opposite direction. The bus before the one I had scheduled us to use is actually waiting there and we get on. As the bus winds its way through the thoroughfares and avenues of Port Melbourne, Steve from Broady brings up his usual complaint, 'oh, look, Paul's got us lost again', which only happened that one time, and soon enough the parklands were in view and we got off the bus.

I hadn't been to Port Melbourne's SS Anderson Reserve since early 2006 where we lost the Hellenic Cup final to Oakleigh in extra time. Nothing much has changed. The lights are still good, the field is still immaculate by Victorian standards, but I was confused by two things. Firstly, in addition to the usual beverage fare, they also had Magners. That's right, Port Melbourne is turning into a hipster club.

Secondly, where were the souvlakia? They had hamburgers, steak and sausage rolls, but no souvs! I made do with an (overcooked) steak roll and king size Mars bar, but it just wasn't the same. The rest of the evening, with its twists and turns, injuries, quick starts, fightbacks and unnecessary answers to rhetorical questions, just wasn't as interesting.

Port Melbourne move a done deal?

Our roving correspondent (ok, just a habitual eavesdropper) reckons that they recently overheard a board director or two talking about this, and the move to Port's SS Anderson Reserve, rather thna Olympic Park, is a done deal. Only time will tell if their information is true.