A 20 year victory (guest post)

This poem originally appeared on Manny's blog

A cold and still night

A traffic filled journey

The crowds arrived late

And then South scored early

The first half a flurry

Aggressive direct

South wanted to score

Not simply protect

The half time break welcomed

By both of the teams

As the Nix clicked into gear

And South ran out of steam

They held the possession

For forty five more

The Nix with the ball

But not with much more

South held their breath

For fifty more minutes

Their small early lead

Pushed the team to their limits

And just as South’s dam

Felt destined to burst

The whistle was blown

And rewarded their work

The players collapsed

The fans on their feet

The scenes of success

Of mission complete

No more can they say

It had never been done

South played an A-League team

And somehow they won

Third time’s the charm for South Melbourne vs A-League opposition (guest post)

South Melbourne vs Wellington Phoenix. It was a game that I had been looking forward to since it was announced, and one that was scheduled just a few days after my return from holiday. In terms of cultural whiplash, I’m not sure the experience could have been any more surreal.

Instead of relaxing on a Greek beach (as I was just a week ago), my day consisted of a return to the office, a deluge of emails and then a mid-week football game between South and an A-League opponent. The whole thing felt like a dream, and considering the final result, I’m still not entirely sure that the experience was reality.

Getting to the game

I made my way down to Southern Cross after work where I grabbed a pregame meal and caught up with a mate. From there, we grabbed a tram destined for Lakeside, where the first signs of the game’s significance were present. Blue South Melbourne beanies and Yellow Wellington scarves adorned other passengers on the trams. Many of which were undoubtedly first time visitors to Lakeside, as they were noticeably tracking their journeys on Google Maps.

Although tonight was surely going to be bigger than a usual Lakeside escapade, I was still pessimistic about the game and experience to come. As we approached the stadium, the grandstand only appeared sparsely occupied, and as we entered through Gate Two my heart sunk as I realised that most of the ground was in fact closed up… yes, despite playing A-League opposition, only one stand was open.

Before the game

We made our way to the packed Social Club to kill some time in the merch store, before heading back out to snag seats next to Clarendon Corner. Pleasingly the atmosphere was picking up at an accelerating pace. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Most people tend to arrive just before kick-off especially on a cold weeknight, but even then, I was surprised as to how large the crowd eventually became.

Amongst the many South fans were a strong contingent of Wellington faithful, as well as a good showing from associate clubs – I noticed quite a few Yarraville and Malvern scarves sprinkled throughout the ground. The grandstand felt warm, both thanks to our undercover seats and also thanks to the excited pre-game chatter around us. Lakeside was looking picturesque and despite the cold, the minimal wind and beautifully lit stadium had me looking forward to a wonderful night of football.

The first half

Fireworks blasting at the end of the player tunnel were a novel way to usher the players onto the field, but the most pleasant surprise was South’s aggressive opening play. After just five minutes a beautiful through ball from Zak Spiteri was wonderfully hit into the back of the net by Harrison Sawyer. The goal put South in the lead and made the crowd go wild.

Just moments later though, South narrowly avoided a quick retaliation. Wellington managed to carve out a one on one opportunity, only to hit the final shot over the bar. This wasn’t their only chance of the half but it was certainly their best. For the remainder of the half Wellington held possession and seemed particularly dangerous down the right wing, however despite numerous plays into the box the Nix lacked the strike power to equalise.

South defended well and defended aggressively to the delight of the fans. South frequently pressured Wellington into losing the ball up the field and prevented the Nix from establishing much fluidity in their possession. The crowd cheered every major slide tackle and clearance, more so when they realised each turnover could quickly be turned into an attacking opportunity.

South were content on playing a quick and direct style with Sawyer offering the main target up front. Midfield turnovers were quickly taken by sprinting South wingers but despite the frantic attacking play at the end of the half the score remained 1-0. It was a near perfect half for the club, and the players enjoyed a standing ovation as they returned to the change rooms.

However as is always the case with unusually large games at Lakeside minor issues can on occasion pop up. This time round was a farcical attempt from security to remove the trumpet from Clarendon Corner. Thankfully the issue was laughed away by the fans and security allowed reason to prevail, but having seen this before I can’t help but wonder how this isn’t mentioned in the pre-game security briefings. Clarendon Corner should not have to argue for their right to support the team as they have been for decades!

The second half

The second half was a different beast. Save for a couple of counter attacking chances and an inexplicably impressive run from Sawyer, South were largely on the back foot. It was clear from the onset that the team was rapidly fatiguing, and would not be able to approach the game as aggressively as they had in the first half.

South responded to the changing dynamic by subbing off Harry Sawyer for Andy Brennan. It was a clever move which allowed South to concentrate on their defensive structure whilst retaining an attacking threat through Brennan’s pace, which kept Wellington on their toes. Despite the isolated role and team fatigue, Brennan even managed to carve out a few chances behind the high Wellington defensive line.

Wellington on the other hand looked energised and composed. The Nix comfortably retained the lion’s share of possession but failed to break the South defence with their young strike force. Eventually the team was forced to introduce some attacking experience, subbing on both Barbarousness and Rojas later in the game.

During the second half I decided to go for a quick walk and soak in the atmosphere. Although only one stand was open for the game it should be noted that the grandstand in question is huge and it is no surprised that over 4,000 people were in attendance on the night. The corporate areas were packed and there was barely any room along the fence line for those looking to get close to the action.

On the far end I was surprised to find a couple of hundred Wellington fans in attendance. After chatting to a few of them it turns out they have a very established presence in Melbourne and generally fill out their away allocations in their A-League games here. They were understandably impressed by the Lakeside set up, particularly the views of the city and the Albert Park surrounds.

Injury time

Meanwhile at the social club end, Clarendon Corner managed to create a noisy atmosphere throughout the whole game. As they do for most big games, flags, drums and tickertape featured and on more than one occasion the surrounding crowds got involved in chants. As the game slowly reached its conclusion though, the noise and anxiety of the crowd palpably grew.

In injury time, the whistles from the crowd were ear piercing, every South tackle was cheered and every Wellington attack received the scorn of the masses. When the actual final whistle finally arrived the players fell to the floor exhausted and the crowds rose in jubilation. South had done it.

The PA system pumped ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ to farewell the Kiwi opponents and Clarendon Corner led the crowd with chants for the team. The overall experience was equal parts pride and surprise that the team, the club, had actually managed to defeat an A-League team.

One final note

I’m grateful for nights like this. Nights where over 4,000 people come to a mid-week match to watch South win in a National Competition. This upcoming weekend South face Avondale in a park by a freeway. The contrast in some ways is sad but it also reveals something quite important. Despite the many years in the football wilderness South, and many other clubs, have not given up on their ambition for something bigger.

The big nights can only happen after many nights of hard work. South has worked hard to remain successful in football at the highest level it has been allowed to reach. It has worked hard to maintain a strong fan base, it has worked hard to retain a strong team, it has worked hard to occupy a world class facility, and it will continue to work hard to excel elsewhere – whether that be the junior program, women’s program, powerchair football, community work, or helping to deliver a second division.

This weekend’s game might be played in front of fewer people but it also could deliver South a Premiership. No matter the level, doing your best matters, and for as long as I’ve known South, that’s what they’ve tried to do themselves, and inspire others to do to. Sometimes your best isn’t enough, thankfully for South against Wellington, it was.

Highway to Hell - South Melbourne 0 Green Gully 3

Someone at last Sunday's game compared the season so far to a car crash, which I thought was an incredibly morbid idea.

It's also an incredibly wrong one. After all, the car hasn't crashed yet. All that's happened is that someone's kicked the driver out of the car, taken his keys, and started careening down the freeway weaving in and out of traffic. Now it's starting to get wet, which means the tyres on the car haven't had time to adjust to the newfound slickness of the road. Oh, and as we're getting closer to winter, daylight is getting in shorter supply, and because we play home games which finish up close to dusk, visibility is becoming an issue. But we haven't decided yet to drive on the wrong side of the road and climbing over the median strip, and we're still some way (and a willing partner) short of initiating a drag race which will see us plunge off Dead Man's Curve into the ravine below culminating in our fiery deaths.

So, to say that this is a car crash of a season is wrong. It's a car crash waiting to happen, and we're doing our best to make it happen, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy the ride - wherever it ends up.

The reasonable question that has been asked is with Milos Lujic suspended and soon to go on holidays, and Leigh Minopoulos and Giordano Marafioti injured, where are the goals going to come from until such time as we can get a striker in during the transfer window? The same people ask - perhaps genuinely, perhaps mischievously - why doesn't the club just use the next available 20s striker? It's almost comically ironic that the player in question just happens to be the progeny of the director of which so much potentially libellous innuendo has been spread. Even funnier that on Sunday in the 20s game, that the player scored a couple of goals.

But as it was, we continued to rely on the three pronged attack of Oliver Minatel, Andy Brennan, and Matthew Millar. OK, we know Minatel isn't a forward, and we know that cruel as it may sound, everyone at the ground has given up on Millar scoring goals - though we'll be overjoyed for him and for the club if he does. But Brennan is a different prospect. For whatever reason, he hasn't been able to put it together this season. There's fitness issues to be sure. But clearly there's also mental stuff. How else to explain the four or so clear-cut, harder-to-miss-than-score chances that he wasted in the first half?

Rather than going in to half time a solid and very fair three goals up, we went into halftime at 0-0, and the signs and premonitions were ominous. We'd likely have a couple of good chances early in the second half, probably fail to take them, than concede some stupid goal which consign us to defeat. And that's exactly what happened. Those first half misses by Millar and Brennan kept Gully in the game, a game we weren't playing particularly well in, but which we were nevertheless doing better than our higher ranked opposition.

Having failed to take our chances, the eventual mistake came in the form of a careless penalty. Jake Marshall fouled his opponent in a part of the 18 yard box and in such a situation where it didn't seem like there would be much danger or need to tackle his opponent. But he did, Gully scored the penalty, and though we persisted in trying to get back into the game, the game was done. The second and third goals conceded were icing on the cake, one of them infuriating and demoralising in equal measure because the low cross to the unmarked player at the back post was so simple, and yet something that we ourselves have botched time and time again.

Of course it got worse than the final 3-0 scoreline. Brad Norton got a yellow card for being injured in a tackle by an opponent; well, I don't see what else it could've been for. Oh, and coach Sasa Kolman got himself sent into the stands for the second time this season. At least in that he's been able to match one of the feats of his predecessor, who was sent to the stands twice in 2016. Prior to his dismissal Kolman could be seen desperately trying to motivate our players, probably trying to remind them to pick up their energy levels and to "pass and move" as per what I saw at their Wednesday training session before the senior women's cup game.

The greatest proof of our hopelessness was a corner we received in the second half. First of all, it clearly wasn't a corner; the ball probably didn't even reach the byline. Then we took it short, which never works for us, but here it almost did, except that despite executing it as best as we have for a long time, it still didn't work. And thus we're in the early 2013 phase, where we're going to comfort ourselves with the Gus Tsolakis mantra of that era "that one of these weeks we're going to absolutely batter a team".

It was little comfort then, and less comfort now, but there's still a transfer window coming up, and time to turn things around. But that's just my view, that of the perennial optimist.

New things
Another week, and more novel things to distract us from whats happening on the field. First up, it looks like there's new people in the kitchen. I'm giving them time to get themselves in order, but I reckon avoid the spanakopita, which lacks any semblance of salt or saltiness, which is absolutely essential to a good spanakopita. Anyone doubting my credentials on these matters, I'm happy to relay them in excruciating detail at a game near you.

Strangely, one beer in the social not available on tap was Carlton Draught, but I'm sure that'll get rectified. There was also no ice cream truck, but there was a loukoumades truck, which sadly because it took so damn long to set up I was not able to make use of.

In the stand there were new people, which rather than something we as South fans will celebrate we will find a way to be suspicious of. Not without good reason, mind you. These were young guys, dressed in casual gear, Melbourne City supporters invited over by the remnants of the Enosi group. Described like that, is it any wonder people were having flashbacks to when the Victory affiliated kids hung around and then caused all sorts of shit?

I don't want to tar these guys with the same brush, and on Sunday they livened the atmosphere a bit - even their rendition of the "schizophrenia" mosh was too rigorous for security - without causing any problems. But their mates who've invited them should make sure to remind them of a few things. First, no flares. Second, to ditch the casual "clobber". Third, that Clarendon Corner is casual in only one sense, in that it is incredibly slack about chanting, banners, organisation, and sometimes even paying attention to the game.

So to the boys who joined us last week and may or may not choose to continue coming to South games, remember that the goal is to take the game seriously, but not take ourselves seriously. Or something. One of the Clarendon Corner's elder statesmen relayed to me his wife's thoughts on what CC is: basically the soccer equivalent of the Lost Dogs Home. In other words, a bunch of scruffy, sad, yappy individuals who aren't looking for any trouble.

Next game
Kingston away on Monday night.

Rescheduling of abandoned Heidelberg fixture
The round 9 match - which was abandoned due to Heidelberg player Harry Noon's corner flag induced injury - will be replayed in full on Sunday August 19th.

Taylor to Oakleigh, at last
After apparently helping out at Green Gully for a bit, Chris Taylor has ended up at Oakleigh as their new coach. Gus Tsolakis must be sick of losing his job to CT by now. Taylor's been joined by his assistant Chris Marshall, and the third part of that former South coaching contingent, goalkeeping coach Bojo Jevdevic.

These things happen. *shrugs shoulders*

But just like the last time Taylor got a job at Tsolakis' expense, there's rumours of movement at the station, this time at our fine establishment, with three or four of players apparently looking to move across to Oakleigh. Some people are also claiming that there could be some players heading the other way if this happens, which makes the upcoming transfer window even more important than it already was.

Still, if this happens, I'm looking forward to how all this is handled given that we have players under contract, and indeed went to great lengths to get all our players (or at the least those considered worthwhile) under contract before we ditched Taylor.

Anyway, back to Oakleigh for a minute. Given that our results this season have been much closer to ratshit than glorious, it's probably not worth taking the time to take the piss out of Oakleigh's current predicament. Besides which, they're two from two under Taylor, so compared to us they're flying. Still, when they post stuff like this:

The club has utmost faith that the new coaching staff will succeed in attaining results commensurate with the clubs history and expectations

— Oakleigh Cannons FC (@oakcannonsfc) April 27, 2018

Even a non-betting man like myself is thinking about putting a cheeky tenner on Oakleigh finishing as runner up, bridesmaid finishes being that club's speciality.

Scent of blood
The other week came the revelation that South Melbourne was one of a number A-League aspirants which had approached Wellington Phoenix to buy out the Phoenix's A-League licence. From our end, it seems that about a year ago the club had negotiated with Phoenix for purchasing a 25% stake, providing women's and youth teams, and playing some games in Melbourne. The two parties however failed to proceed further than those early discussions, and the matter came to an end.

Following that news however, there has been a renewal of interest in the current state of the Phoenix licence, and to a lesser degree South Melbourne's designs to acquire it. That renewal of general interest in Wellington's ultimate fate as an A-League location is tied to longer term issues: should there be an New Zealand team in Australian soccer? What will the A-League look like when its make up is finally "complete"? What will even be the structure of Australian soccer as a whole once the necessary FIFA reforms are applied?

For Wellington's part, none of this is being helped by delayed and then unconvincing denials by their owners that their licence is for sale. And even if one were to believe them, remember this: in August 2013, Melbourne Heart's then Director of Football, John Didulica, claimed on radio that Heart were not for sale; just a few months later, Melbourne Heart were bought out by the City group.

Another article in The Age on the Wellington matter this week noted that South was again seeking to talk to Phoenix about a deal. This was followed up by a piece on The World Game (ostensibly about Brisbane Strikers' interest in buying Phoenix), which included some information on the nature of the negotiations between ourselves and Phoenix. This includes the fact that Wellington originally approached South to try and offload 25% of its licence for $1.5 million, with board member and head of the South Melbourne for A-League bid team Bill Papastergiadis noting that:

"The enticement for us was to play the youth league and women’s league in Melbourne full-time with our colours, but still having some form of the Wellington brand."

More broadly however, there remains an infuriating vagueness about even elementary details of what a South Melbourne team in the A-League would look like. For example, while Papastergiadis said this in the The Age article:

"South Melbourne and our blue strip is our name, our history and our brand, and that's what we are going to be wherever we play."

It's not much different to what was said a couple of years ago when we kicked off this latest attempt at getting into the A-League. Still, when Papastergiadis says:

"we have not only past examples of record crowds but also recent evidence from our FFA semi-final against Sydney which rated 56,000 on Fox Football"

it's reassuring that Michael Lynch pushes back even just a bit on these kinds of claims by noting:

Whether fans tuned in to watch South or the A-League champions that night is a matter for debate

Of course in the grand scheme of things, it's still a far cry from the rigorous examination that every Australian soccer journalist should be applying to every A-League bid. But it's a start.

What we can say with some certainty as outside observers is that the market rate for the Phoenix licence seems to be $6 million, which is well below the over $10 million recently paid for the Adelaide United franchise by mystery overseas investors. Less certain is how any team seeking to buy out the Phoenix outright would get around the issue of the apparent geographical clauses in the Phoenix licence which ties that licence to New Zealand, though one can easily posit that that if FFA were amenable to it, that they could change the rules pretty easily.

Less certain, also, is whether Wellington's owners want to sell their team outright, or work on a finding a partnership solution. There's also no clarity on whether a team taking out the Wellington licence and transferring it to Australia would be guaranteed the Phoenix's share of the television rights; this is important, because talk is that the two expansion sides for A-League season 2019/20 will have to survive - at least in the short term - without such funding.

Further uncertainty was caused by Wellington Phoenix eventually issuing a passionate/ranting press release, more or less accusing a lot of people of lying, and of wanting to feed on the not-quite-yet existent Phoenix corpse. Which, to be fair, is their right to do so, I suppose, but I will say this: days of silence, followed by mealy-mouthed media mumblings, followed by backs-to-the-wall bravado a whole week after all this started, is hardly a clever PR game. Not that any of that matters, of course.

Winning and losing, in that order
Last Wednesday night the senior women strutted their stuff in the TeamApp Cup against Bulleen. They'd beaten Bulleen at Lakeside in the league the previous Saturday, and fielded a strong side in this one. Maybe too strong, as we'll soon see. There was also a members/dine with the players night, though I think only a handful of the saddest cases turned up for that; otherwise, the crowd was mostly made up of members of the junior girls teams, and their parents.

There were no corner flags on kickoff, but the game progressed anyway, and you kinda wondered why we bother with them. If we need to have a corner marker, might we better off switching to rugby league style short padded posts? Anyway, eventually some corner flags turned up, and no one thought about corner flags again for the rest of the evening, and hopefully ever again.

There was no Lisa De Vanna - she sat on the bench - but we didn't need her. We were the dominant team, and cruised to a 3-0 victory and into the next round against Greater Geelong Galaxy. Except that we didn't! We played an ineligble player - probably someone that was already cup tied - and had the result reversed. For a tournament that we didn't apparently care that much about, we sure when tout of oru way to do well and then completely botch it.

As disappointing as it was for all who were genuinely concerned by this shambles of bookkeeping practice, it was bizarre that some people who don't even care about women's soccer, nay, are just as likely to be actively hostile to women's soccer, saw this as an opportunity to feign indignation about the forfeit. Probably no accident that there's some crossover in that demographic of people who are caning the board for Chris Taylor's sacking when they spent the last few years wanting Taylor sacked.

More genuinely disappointing is the news that women's coach Socrates Nicolaides will be resigning from his post and heading back to the United States for family reasons. Soc was not only successful, but he also seemed to really care about the welfare of the players under his command, and seemed like one of the better people at the club. Oh well, an opportunity for someone else to carry on his good work.

Launch of Andrew Howe's Socceroos encyclopaedia 
Australian soccer statistician and historian Andrew Howe will soon be travelling around the country to launch his new Socceroos encyclopaedia. The venue for his Melbourne event? Our very own South Melbourne Hellas social club. The launch will be on Tuesday May 29th, from 5:30-7:00, and you can register here to attend.

Don't forget also that the PFA history conference is on Tuesday May 15th, also in the social club.

Around the grounds
Mucho delusions of grandeur
Last Saturday I ventured, alone, by car(!), to Scovell Reserve in Maidstone for Maidstone United vs Kensington City. Parts of the Liberal Party are debating bringing back corporal punishment for crimes; I reckon they could save themselves a lot of money and a lot of time battling civil rights lawyers in court by revising their plan and making them watch State League 5 - extra punishment is to stand behind the goals and focus on the goalkeeping. Three times from set pieces Maidstone dumped the ball into the six yard box, and the Kensington keeper just watched it get cleaned up by an opponent for a goal. Then there's the players who take the ball from their own teammates. Best of all was when the visitors had a free kick, and all of a sudden there was much frantic yelling of instructors from the bench and the few supporters present like they were audience members of a Spanish language Price is Right. Here's where it gets really stupid though: I was informed afterwards that some of the Kensington people thought I was a spy, because I was by myself and on my phone a lot. Now, in the unlikely event those boys are reading this post, I'm going to lay it out very clearly:

1. I was on my phone doing occasional Twitter updates, and keeping tabs on footy scores.
2. You're going to have to play much better than you do right now to be worth spying on.

Oh, Maidstone won the game 5-2, in a canter.

Final thought
Think of it this way: if Sasa Kolman's South Melbourne coaching stint ends badly, based on Oakleigh's recent coach hiring history, Kolman's still at worst a 50/50 chance of eventually getting the gig at Oakleigh.

Temporary gratitude - Hume City 0 South Melbourne 1

If we must thank anyone for the win, let's thank Darby Dexter. The defender had signed for us during the off-season, but was let go in mysterious circumstances before a ball had been kicked in anger, his only contribution to the club seemingly being sharing some of the finger food on offer at the 2017 South Melbourne Christmas party.

Ending up at Hume, even those few who had paid attention to him during his time at South would have forgotten all about him. But it was two of his interventions in this match which more than anything else helped us get over the line for just our second win of the season. First, his poor pass into the middle of the field resulted in a turnover, which lead to our goal.

Later, he fouled Matthew Millar from behind as Millar was running in on goal, and Dexter got himself sent off. At least some South fans would've asked themselves of that play, knowing Millar's shooting to be notoriously poor, was it worth Dexter fouling him, instead of just letting him shoot and miss?

The beneficiaries of those decisions were South Melbourne as a whole - except perhaps the directors who had to fork out a win bonus to the players for the first time in months - and Oliver Minatel in particular. Minatel has been worse than underwhelming in his time at South, and that's when he hasn't been sidelined by injury. Still, he has two goals now for the season, and the match winner here was a tad more legitimate than his rushed behind attempt against Oakleigh.

Following Dexter's turnover, the team sped up the field to make the most of the chance, On the byline, the ball was played back a bit behind Minatel, who lunged desperately with an outstretched boot which on replay looked like it would have at best snuck in at the far post. In the real world and in real time though, it struck a Hume defender and wrong-footed Hume keeper Michael Weier, and proved to be the fittingly decisive moment in a game which lacked much in the way of quality.

Both teams came into this match in rubbish form, just one win apiece in the league, sitting uncomfortably close to the relegation zone. The win means South gets a little bit of breathing space from the relegation scrap, and finds itself in seventh place, two points behind sixth placed Port Melbourne. The loss for Hume means they sink down to the automatic relegation slots.

So if Minatel's goal celebration was a bit over the top for a deflected goal, it was excusable on the grounds that the team has been having a rough trot in form and results in 2018, the players as frustrated as much as anyone else at the club. Ugly as the game was at times, and as much as some would wish we had an ounce of Minatel's luck with the goal in our earlier FFA Cup fixture against Hume, sometimes you've got to be grateful for the things you have.

This is especially so considering we had no strikers within cooee of Broadmeadows on Saturday night, and might not have one for several weeks to come. As we've noted before, under 20s striker Giordano Marafioti is out for the season; Leigh Minopoulos was out injured, and could miss at least another couple of games; and Milos Lujic has four more weeks of his five game suspension to serve, and that's not counting the talk around the internet terraces that he's going overseas for the World Cup in June.

You've got to be grateful as well when we lost Brad Norton to concussion within the first two minutes, and later had to endure bad foul after bad foul for most of the rest of the game. And you've to be grateful for the three points when despite being a goal up and a man up, the team tried to commit footballing seppuku by giving away half a dozen fouls in the defensive half of the ground in the last five minutes. Thankfully nothing came of any of those chances, mostly because of unusually poor delivery by Nick Hegarty, and once because of the crossbar.

Other than the win, the best thing about the night was no repeat of the hired goons nonsense from the FFA Cup game.

Next game
Heidelberg away on Saturday night.

Paywall Paradise
From this Herald Sun piece about Wellington Phoenix's woes - which even I can't access now, because it's been pay-walled - I have to say the following bit of info just leapt off the screen.

South Melbourne also made a play to buy Wellington 11 months ago before talks broke down with the former NSL champions reluctant to pursue a hybrid model. 

Negotiations centred on buying a 25 per cent stake for $1.5 million with games split between Wellington and Lakeside Stadium while South would have fielded W-League and youth teams.

“We had preliminary, forthright discussions with Wellington about what South Melbourne could offer, especially regards to bringing a W-League and youth league component,’’ bid chairman Bill Papastergiadis said.

This is not the first time South Melbourne has considered both a buyout of an A-League team and a hybrid ownership-dual location model. Apart from a couple of attempts to buy out the then Melbourne Heart licence, there was also the noted attempt to purchase at least some of the Central Coast Mariners, a deal which would have involved the mind-boggling arrangement of splitting games between Gosford and Lakeside.

The attempted purchase some of the Phoenix licence looks to be an attempt to get our foot in the A-League door via getting women's and youth teams in first, while at the same time trying to get a foothold into the competition via the most vulnerable of the extant A-League licences. I have my doubts that FFA would've allowed something like this to take place, and I also have doubts about exactly what it is that actually took place in these meetings, because I don't really trust anything that Bill Papastergiadis has to say about anything to do with our attempts to get into the A-League.

This is even more the case when the ordinary South Melbourne Hellas member is the last to find out about such shenanigans; but then again, aren't we the last to know about lots of things these days? Even if nothing came of the attempt, it would have been nice to know that an attempt had been made. It would also have been nice to know who was going to stump up the $1.5 million to purchase the 25% state in Phoenix.

Anyway, though the relevant article is pay-walled, it appears that we weren't the only parties currently bidding for an A-League licence to have a stab at the Phoenix licence, with the Southern Expansion bid exploring options on that front. I suppose it's all a bit moot for the time being anyway, as there is now actually a really real bidding process under way, which even if we don't succeed at, will still give us the chance to get our hands on some materials that will make it clearer what it is that FFA expects of its A-League licence holders. Not that any of that matters.

For the benefit of the skips/Football Federation South Melbourne Hellas
While I was watching a state league game yesterday, my attention was drawn to this tweet:

@PerthGloryFC CEO, Peter Filopolous to take up new position as head of FFV? Translations for us skips please? pic.twitter.com/XaE3rKQbYN

— The Far Post Perth (@Farpostperth) April 21, 2018

The gist of this small article by Elias Donoudis is that according to "strong sources", current Perth Glory CEO Peter Filopoulos is going to become CEO (or possibly general manager) of FFV. The rest of the article just says that Peter is pictured with his mate Manny Kotis, that Peter was formerly general manager at South Melbourne, and that there'll be more in this story in the next edition of Neos Kosmos.

Of course, considering that Filopoulos was general manager at South Melbourne during the 1990s, a period of time in which Donoudis still cared about Hellas, "strong sources" could very well mean Filopoulos told Donoudis himself about this latest career change. In any event, the rumour mill didn;t even get a chance to go into overdrive, and FFV announced Filopoulos' appointment as FFV CEO this morning.

Not that one doubts Filopoulos' professionalism and qualifications, but it's funny amid the hand-wringing from some South fans about alleged back room politics at FFV by other clubs, that we now have the roles of FFV president and CEO occupied by persons once involved as front office staff at South Melbourne.

Then again, as Donoudis will tell you, that was a different South Melbourne to the one that exists now, and so any possibility of conflicts of interest or future examples of favouritism can be batted away with that fact.

Puskas film
I was pleased to see that the official South Twitter account finally got around to promoting this project's call for photos and footage.

Photos & video wanted! A documentary is being made about Ferenc Puskas’ @smfc years and the producers are chasing photos, home video & favourite stories of the legend. They are also after general @smfc photos/video from Middle Park, esp. 1991 era. Contact @byTonyWilson pic.twitter.com/p8x0nMYeIW

— South Melbourne FC (@smfc) April 20, 2018

That tweet seems to have already paid dividends, with one Andrew Pirchan noting that he has materials which could be useful. Now for the club to put the call-out for stuff onto the Facebook page...

Around the grounds
Really slumming it
On Friday night I dithered - twice! - as to whether to go Knights Stadium, and finally decided to stay in instead and watch Batman. Put up the question early on Saturday to Gains as to whether to go Newmarket Reserve before the Hume game, and got the answer in the affirmative, rationalised on my part by the fact that the ground was only 600 metres or so from Newmarket station on the Cragieburn line, and this convenient enough to get from Point B to Point C. The game was the State League 5 West fixture between Kensington City and Keilor Wolves, the kind of game one attends as a neutral because either a mate is involved or the food is good; in this case, both being true. Thank goodness for the $6 chorizo rolls, because the football (and the beer) was pretty ordinary. I wasn't expecting miracles from Kensington, but Keilor I thought would put up a better show. At least there were plenty of goals. Kensington took the lead early, conceded the equaliser within 30 seconds, and coughed one up just before halftime to trail at the break. After the break Keilor came out a bit more switched on, Kensington a bit less, and three quick goals later it was 5-1 and the game was dead in the water. Goal of the day was the last kick of the game, a Kensington player launching a shot from halfway, over the Wolves goalkeeper who'd got himself stranded after a poor clearing kick. The shot bounced and rose, threatening to go over the crossbar, but ending up tucked just underneath. Then it was off to Broadmeadows.

Final thought
Google changed the Blogger dashboard's default date format to that nonsensical mm/dd/yyyy format and I lost my mind for several hours afterwards.

Vaughan Coveny talks about All Whites qualification chances

A nice interview with Vaughan Coveny by Daniel Phan on Goal.com yesterday, talking about the All Whites' world cup qualification campaign, his coaching ambitions and New Zealand football and the AFC. Needed to be proofread though. I ain't doing it. Here it is in its entirety, but click on the link anyway, there might be other good articles on there too.



New Zealand is in pole position to defeat Bahrain in the second leg of their 2010 World Cup play-off on November 14 in Wellington, claims former All Whites striker Vaughan Coveny.

Speaking exclusively with Goal.com, the Kiwis’ all-time record scorer expressed cautious confidence ahead of his nation’s clash with Bahrain in the return leg.

The first leg ended goalless last month.

“The guys did really well to get a great result to take back to New Zealand. As long as everybody involved stays fit. I believe we are in pole position to qualify,” Coveny told Goal.com.

“Firstly, we are playing at home in what will be a packed stadium and we’ve got the players capable of scoring a goal at home.”

“However, I don’t want to say we have one foot in the door already.”

The first leg in Manama ended 0-0 – with Bahrain enjoying the bulk of possession in front of their rapturous home crowd, however, the South Melbourne player-turned-manager expects the tide to turn come next month’s reverse fixture.

“It was always going to be tough. These games played over 180 minutes – your just two games away from the World Cup with not many scoring chances,” he began. “The home team will always have the crowd behind them and it was tough for our boys given the hostile environment.

He added, “We did well not to concede – and even had a couple of half-chances ourselves.

“I’m looking forward to our home leg as I believe we got the players in Rory Fallon [of Plymouth Argyle], Chris Wood [of West Bromwich Albion], Shane Smeltz [of Gold Coast United] and Chris Killen [of Celtic] – all goal scorers that are in form.”

Long-Term Asian Test?

With Australia defecting to the AFC (Asian Football Confederation), much has been said about New Zealand potentially following its trans-Tasman rivals into FIFA’s largest confederation.

Coveny is in favour of a potential link-up with Australia in the AFC, although concedes the unlikelihood of such a move eventuating.

“New Zealand would love to move into Asia if they gave us the chance to do so.”

“It will improve us as a nation and football side. “We’re in Oceania and that is the way it is at the moment so have to do everything by the rules.

“I agree it’s not a strong federation but others can come up with suggestions to make it more make it more difficult.”

But with New Zealand 90 minutes away from a place in the World Cup finals, Coveny has no complaints of the qualification pathway handed by FIFA.

“At the moment Asia is where we have to go qualify through, and it’s an easier pathway we must admit rather than playing the fifth placed South American team.”

Wellington Phoenix

Before returning to South Melbourne, Coveny spent two years at A-league club Wellington Phoenix.

There are lingering doubts surrounding the club’s long term future – with less than two years remaining on its A-league licence, and Coveny insists that the FFA (Football Federation Australia) should continue with the New Zealand franchise beyond the two years remaining on its license.

“I would love to see Wellington [Phoenix] continue [in the A-league],” he started.

“It’s good for the game in New Zealand. I know there’s a little bit of rivalry where I don’t think a lot of Aussies like them being in the A-league.”

Despite competing in an AFC registered competition, Wellington are unable to qualify for the Asian Champions League given its geographic representation being outside of AFC territory.

However, the All Whites legend wants the AFC to compromise its stance against Wellington Phoenix due to the fact it is New Zealand’s sole professional club.

“In terms of the Asian Champions League issue – that’s a tough one. I accept that we’re not part of Asia,” admits Coveny.

“But it’s the only professional team in New Zealand so why not give them a little bit of flexibility and allow them to compete in the ACL?

“I just hope people can sit down and sort it out. It’s a funny one because we’re part of Oceania and they are part of Asia – it’s a real sticky point.”

Coaching ambitions

When asked if coaching in the A-league or international arena with New Zealand was on his radar, Coveny nodded in affirmation.

“Definitely,” he said. “I do have ambitions to coach at the highest level.

“I’ve always been involved in the professional environment working with elite athletes and I’d love to give back something back to New Zealand – even if it was at the youth level; get involved in some capacity,” he continued.

“We’ll see what happens after this World Cup game [against Bahrain] – some doors may open.”

Daniel Phan, Goal.com