South exit Hellenic Cup; two new signings; FourFourTwo shenanigans; Beachcombing

It was a farcical evening of football last night at The Grange. For the second time this pre-season South has come up short against state league one outfit Western Suburbs, this time bowing out in a penalty shootout, after both regular and extra time yielded no goals.

After all five penalties were scored by both teams in the shoot out, Suburbs went ahead 6-5 in sudden death - and they won the tie when Steve O'Dor hit his penalty too close to the Suburbs keeper who easily kept the ball out. This will be the first time since 2008 that South has not made the tournament final.

The game was open, with chances ate both ends, though the shooting of both sides left a lot to be desired - in South's case this was worsened by the apparent fear of shooting from anything other the six yard box.

Suburbs played a counter attacking game, clogging up the middle of the field, pushing South wide, and attacking on the counter. Their speedy players were able to race up the field and place the defense under serious pressure - especially considering the apparent disconnect between O'Dor and Gavalas.

After being nursed through the pre-season, Trent Rixon came on late, though Gus Tsolakis appears to be a coach who is wary of using his bench. Crosses that were in the right spot were not met by players being in the right spot. Players that were in the right spot saw crosses fly over them.

It's hardly end of the world stuff though - and it goes to show how the alignment of the state league and VPL pre-seasons have enabled a more closely fought tournament - however this has been overshadowed by even more ludicrous actions from the organising committee.

The original kickoff time for the game was 6:30PM. Of course most, if not all of our players are semi-professionals, who work day jobs. Some even work as late as 6:00 PM. The time would have been even worse for the Western Suburbs, whose players would have likely had to have journeyed an even longer distance than most of our players.

I can't even recall what time the game eventually started. To my surprise, the game also went the full 90 minutes, instead of the hitherto usual 70 - if my recollection is accurate, in previous tournaments 90 minute matches were reserved for the final.

The most ridiculous portion of the evening though, was when news filtered in from the other semi-final, being played by Heidelberg and Northcote. Remarkably, it was being played at Ralph Reserve, whose surface, by all accounts, has been ripped to shreds, and had whole days of action cancelled on it, and matches relocated.

That match, too, failed to yield a winner, but rather than going into extra time, the match went straight into penalties. The lack of suitable lighting was given as the reason for this occurrence. One wonders of they were finishing their match in the dark, and why we had to play extra time.

As it is, our involvement in this tournament is now over, except for the wearisome 3rd/4th place playoff. If last year's match between Oakleigh and Bentleigh is any guide - the single worst game I have ever seen - there will be no point in attending this match. I would feel confident in predicting a largely under 21s squad will take the field on behalf of the club.

Tournament highlights next week.

Need More Greeks!
Boy, hasn't this angle being worked to death lately. Two more officially on board - goalkeeper Peter Gavalas signed over from Bentleigh Greens - confirmed as both a Greek speaker and of the Orthodox faith; and Dimi Hatzimouratis, a pacy forward type who has been at a few clubs around Melbourne but has also spent some time in the Cypriot leagues. Gavalas' signing means the exit of Zaim Zeneli, most likely to Dandenong Thunder. Probably part of their 'need more Albanians' push. Hatzimouratis' signing means that Nicky Jacobs and Gianni De Nittis will probably be fighting over a bench position - unless Jacobs can somehow win a spot out wide.


South sides with the FFA
In the latest and perhaps most pointless chapter of the Clive Palmer - FFA feud, FourFourTwo is reporting that we're not saying that much at all about the matter. Word on the street is to expect more hot air blather in the coming months from us or about us in FourFourTwo


South at the Beach
Finally, in a revolutionary move, this year's version of South in the suburbs/aka membership fun day is actually taking place somewhere within rock throwing distance of South Melbourne! Well, more so rock throwing distance with a mortar launcher, but still better than requiring an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver your payload.


It's on next Sunday, March 17th, from 11am to 1pm, at (new sponsor) Beachcomber Cafe, 10-18 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda. I think I'll give this one a miss. They seem like nice people over there, and the beach soccer volleyball to be played by South people sounds interesting (even it's no sepak takraw), but I think I should spend some time at home. Or maybe even at a Statewide Knockout Cup match.

Please do noit ask me how South in the Suburbs went today...

...though one person said it was enjoyable. I was at home, playing Gauntlet on my xbox 360 in order to get 'the reach level 100' achievement. I'm not sure I should be publicising this fact. But then again, Gauntlet is awesome.

South in the Suburbs on Sunday

1pm-4pm at Vanilla, Eaton Mall, Oakleigh. Was reasonable fun last year, and I expect it to be so again this year. Not sure if South of the Border will be present, yet.

It's possible he'd had a drop or two of something

So boardmember George Triantos was on 3xy last night, from an undisclosed location - which I don't know the whereabouts of because I wasn't invited - having a bit of a natter about certain things, most particularly how well pleased he was with how South in the Suburbs went. Apparently we even got more sponsors on the day because of it. Any lingering doubts that I may have had about the worthwhility of the operation seem to have disappeared then. Because while it always looked good to have the blue and white on display with pride, it kinda, possibly, almost defeated the purpose if only regular South members signed up, because they were probably going to do that anyway. But if reports be true, there were some people who had renewed their fealty after some years away, but the sponsorship thing impresses me most. Great work by the team.

South in the Suburbs quite good; South Melbourne wins game, also good

Ok, so I didn't have to work today, so I was able to go and spend all my money buying memberships and shit in Oakleigh. I got me my usual South Gold membership (with voting rights and and keyrings and shit), and I also paid for a jersey and for my spot at the jersey presentation night. Wow. I'm awesome. That was $345 dollars straight to the South kitty; it could've ended up in a worse place to be honest.

On my shirt I've asked if we can get numbers, and they said they'll get back to me on that. It's all a bit of a blur now, but for some reason if it were to happen I'd be getting Shane Nunes' number 2. I didn't ask about names, but if they were available as well, one would have to go the whole hog. Either that or break Shane's heart, but do the right and pay due homage to the great James Spanos. Anyway, quite a few South peeps turned out for the occasion, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Below: Everyone else will be posting photos of the entire team in a nice shot and smiling and shit. I'm going to be different and give you a photo of them getting ready for that shot.



So it was then on Kingston Heath, where the search for Spanos continued in vain. The consoloation prize was seeing a pretty decent South line up clean up Panserraikos (formerly South Springvale Serres, who we played last year), but seriously, the souvlaki was pretty ordinary, dry as fuck turkish bread, no cacique, and they didn't even put salt on the cucumbers in the salad. For fuck's sake.

Below: Fernando and friends celebrate scoring a penalty against their fearsome opposition.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the quite nice 'Large Yoyo' I had from Nikos Quality Cakes, nor of the Nestle peach flavoured iced tea. Good luck to Jim and Raf on their wedding tomorrow.

South in a Suburb called Oakleigh

You may, or may not have heard about this, but apparently South is going to wage guerrilla warfare of sorts by entering Chokeleigh territory and setting up a stall in front of a cake shop sponsor of this club and selling memberships and such. You can download the flyer for it here. Anyway, while it's nice that memberships are finally available, the whole operation does raise interesting questions about the club's status. Are we a club for the Greeks of the city? Are we a club for the South Melbourne area?

Here are some guesses of what could go down this Saturday.

1. People will be laughed at.
2. There might be some cussing.
3. Still current South supporters will buy memberships, giving the illusion that people are still interested.
4. There will be no memberships to buy, or at best, a table and a price list.
5. People will be so blown away they'll buy a membership for the first time ever or in years, and recommend the club to their friends and family.
   
6. People will stop and stare and seem confused? South Melbourne? What's that?
7. People will buy cake.
8. South of the Border will not be there, because they will be too busy working in order to earn money to pay for their membership and extravagant 50th anniversary related purchases.
9. It might actually go spectacularly well, with interest regenerated in the club.
10. No one will bring South of the Border back any cake after it's all done.

I don't want it to sound like sour grapes of bitterness, but we should give the club some credit. They're trying to reach as many relevant people (what the marketing types call 'receptive audiences'), and it's not like they're forgetting the local area they now represent - indeed the usual family day will be on next month - but because of what has happened to the club and the way people jumped off so quickly, you fret and worry about what having to almost beg for supporters means. Or maybe it's the kind of humility that was too long absent from the club, and it's better late than never to ask people to come and support this great club, rather than expect them to.

And just in case anyone asks, this is not because they're not doing it on Altona North that it may appear I'm being a little (maybe a lot for some people) down on the idea. That kind of thinking applies mostly to trains and why eastern suburbs people get new ones first while we still had to ride the old Hitachis with their spacious legroom, windows you could open, and oldskool rattle and shake. As you were.