November 2017 Digest

I hope you'll all forgive the very slow pace of the blog during the off-season. Even though there's so much I could talk about, being at the pointy end of the thesis project means that by the end of the day I'm pretty burnt out from staring at screens and trying to write. And where usually this would be my space for chilling out, for the first time in ten years I just don't have the mental space for it. One way or another it'll be over in the next two or three weeks, so keep patient and things will be back to normal soon enough.

Or you could submit something of your own to keep things ticking over...

AGM news
No date set yet. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

2018 season schedule...
Starting in the last week of February, which is a week or two later than what happened for the 2017 season. 

In the meantime, if like me you're waiting for pre-season friendlies to start to alleviate your boredom, don't expect anything this side of Christmas. My sources tell me that the team might reconvene for some training sessions before 2017 is out, but there almost certainly won't be any scratch matches held until January.

On the same token
Some of our current (and maybe current) players have been sighted participating in Knox City's longstanding All Nations Cup tournament. Nick Epifano is playing for Italy, while Andy Kecojevic is playing for Serbia. Milos Lujic, who has played for Serbia at this tournament in the past, also looks like he fronted up again this year.

Hashtag news
Sony will no longer sponsor the NPL concept. It's farewell to #ps4nplvic, and hello to... well, no one knows yet.

Arrivals and departures
Still pretty quiet on this front, but things are picking up ever so slowly. The big news was the signing of English striker Sam Smith from Gold Coast City. We had been keen on him, then it looked like he'd re-signed for Gold Coast, but it seems the mess Gold Coast is in off the field has titled things back our way. Nick Epifano has signed on for 2018, while skipper Brad Norton has signed on for another two years.

Some 'outs' have also cropped up. Reserve goalkeeper Zaim Zeneli has left South, joining North Sunshine Eagles in State League 1, while Stefan Zinni has signed with Avondale.

For whatever it's worth, the following players are assumed to be contracted for next season.

• Matthew Foschini (signed until the end of 2018)

• Milos Lujic (signed until end of 2018)

• Jesse Daley (signed until end of 2018)
• Jake Marshall (signed until the end of 2018)
• Nick Epifano (signed until the end of 2018)
• Brad Norton (signed until the end of 2019)

Out

• Stefan Zinni (Avondale)
• Zaim Zeneli (North Sunshine Eagles)

November 2015 digest

Social club and Lakeside lease saga
Unresolved. And what's worse, none of the important people I tweeted yesterday asking what's going on have seen fit to respond.

So @LAthanasakis, @MartinFoleyMP, @tom_kalas, @sthmel, @johnerenmp, @rwynnemp, any news on the @smfc Lakeside lease issue?

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) November 29, 2015

Look, I know it's a slightly informal way of going about things, but I thought I'd save myself the postage and make use of the wonderful internet we have in Australia. Have I been blacklisted like the Kiss of Death? I hope not - I thought we were all friends. Maybe big news is just around the corner? Or are they looking for a way to tell us we're only going to get 21 years and not 40?

Season 2016 start date
NPL Victoria's 2016 season will begin on the weekend February 19th/20th/21st/22nd.

Trip to Sydney in 2016?
There has been talk from both South Melbourne and Sydney Olympic folk that South will be making a trip to Sydney in either late January or early February to play Sydney Olympic in some pre-season fixtures. 

I've also come across a rumour that Olympic may also head down to Melbourne for some pre-season fixtures, but that has not been corroborated yet.

South Melbourne in the National Youth League?
An article by Mike Cockerill on the revamped and cut down NYL seemed to slip under the radar somewhat, at least as far as it concerns South Melbourne. To a degree, that's understandable - having being split into two five team conferences, it's merely another step in the process where youth football is done as cheaply as possible by most of the franchises, by dumping them in the state NPL systems. The best playing the best? Hardly. 

But more to the point, Cockerill makes this observation about where such a two conference, cost cutting summer NYL system may end up:

According to the grapevine, NPL clubs like South Melbourne, Blacktown City, Perth SC, Gold Coast City (replacing Palm Beach Sharks) and Wollongong Wolves, as well as state federation-funded entities Tasmania United and Canberra United, are also exploring their NYL options.

So, does Cockerill's rumour have any validity? I don't know, but if it does, it will be a situation which will no doubt serve to spread division and hatred throughout our membership. Which, to be fair, is as things should be at our club, but you have to wonder if too much self-loathing can be fattening and therefore dangerous to your health. Anyway, if there was a chance for our boys to take part in the NYL as South Melbourne, for me it'd be a good thing - you'd hope that at the very least it would help attract and keep talented youth players at our club instead of having piss off to other teams. That, and it'd be just going back to what we had in the NSL anyways, except this time we'd be the state league club with delusions of grandeur.

The (re-)construction of Ange Postecoglou
I don't know why Australian Story has introductions to their episodes. Unless you're adding genuinely adding something to the experience, in the manner of the legendary Des Mangan, I don't really see the point. As for Santo Cilauro's comment on the game in Australia being called 'soccer' by the unconverted, there's about 50 million things wrong with the question is where would you start?

I did have to laugh at the mention of 'lead, follow, or get out of the way', but you would too if you had seen Idiocracy; the use of Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk' by comparison for the intro music is just confusing, unless they only wanted for its tribal rhythm. And then there's Les Murray, talking about the reason for the existence of ethnic soccer clubs in Australia - first and foremost, they are used as a refuge by people in a strange land. A refuge is one thing, but surely there were also people at these clubs who maybe liked soccer? Because soccer is not the only avenue for safely expressing Greekness, or Italianess or whatever the case may be?

But at least Les has the right to make that judgement by virtue of once upon a time spending much of his spare and working time in around ethnic soccer clubs. In contrast, I'm less sold on the notion that Francis Leach knows squat about Greek football, let alone the squalid third division cesspool that Panachaiki were in at the time and the circumstances in which Ange found himself there, and then found himself leaving.

The main thing that I took out of this show was how Ange's character was portrayed as some sort of lone wolf; a pioneer who, if not quite coming out of nowhere, had few antecedents or direct influences. Anything that may have influenced him was almost limited to the environment he was in, and even that took a secondary role compared to his own drive to succeed. It's hard to know if the show took the direction it did because of Ange himself, or perhaps more likely, the production team generally had not very much knowledge of Australian soccer and thus skewed the final edit in that direction.

At the beginning, there is Ange's father and his love for his son and the sport; but there are no mentions of Ferenc Puskas, or Len McKendry, or Frank Arok, or even George Vasilopoulos, the bloke who gave him the South job because he was the least expensive of the suitable candidates available for the job. Ange claims, quite fairly, that his own interest in the game is to see attacking football - but how did he come to that conclusion? Was it not influenced in some part by the expectations that South Melbourne Hellas fans had of South Melbourne Hellas teams? Was not a huge part of the joy of the 1984 and 1991 teams their free-wheeling, free scoring manner? In Joe Gorman's article on South Melbourne and Middle Park, Ange doesn't shy away from acknowledging the impact of playing under Puskas (as well as being his interpreter).

The second, post-Australian youth teams era of Ange Postecoglou is remarkable in terms of succeeding to a large degree on his own terms, but also for having now no (obvious) mentors, and no patronage. But that question of soccer lineage remains frustratingly out of reach. Here's one of the chief links between old soccer and new football, and yet there's nothing made of that. Instead the image is of a sort of compulsive loner, sitting at a computer for hours looking for obscure Australian talent; a man who once read everything to do with soccer because of his love of the game, but who now is interested if not more so by books or management - something which you would not learn from this doco, but rather the first edition of Leopold Method.

Player movements and contract statuses
Confirmation this month that forward David Stirton is on his way to Port Melbourne. Meanwhile, back up goalie Fraser MacLaren has joined Dandenong Thunder. He has been replaced by Thunder keeper Zaim Zeneli, back for his second stint at the club. Hume City midfielder and former South junior (and two game senior player) Marcus Schroen has also joined South. Never did quite find out how that happened when Hume were supposed to have signed him for next year.

@CornerFlagOz @NPLVic_Football @smfc What happened to Schroen re-signing with @FCHumeCity? https://t.co/XyvJ1E1ANb pic.twitter.com/X6VRFteBgq

— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) November 11, 2015

We've also signed former Wellington Phoenix midfielder Jason Hicks, and utility Matthew Foschini, most recently of Oakleigh Cannons. South fans with razor sharp memories will recall that Foschini was listed as part of the 2009 squad, but disappeared soon thereafter. No word on any potential forward recruits. By the time of the next monthly update, the squad will have begun its pre-season regime.

• Kristian Konstantinidis (reportedly signed up for 2016)
• Luke Adams (reportedly signed up for 2016)
• Cody Martindale (reportedly signed up for 2016)
• Nick Epifano is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Iqi Jawadi is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Michael Eagar is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Milos Lujic is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Leigh Minopoulos is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Tim Mala is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Chris Irwin has a two year contract with the club; it is unclear whether that contract finishes at the end of 2016, or 2017.
• Stephen Hatzikostas is contracted until the end of 2017.
• Brad Norton is contracted until the end of 2017.
• Luke Eyles been signed until the end of the 2017 season.
• Chris Taylor has a long term contract with the club, believed to be five years.

Players signed until the end of the 2015 season.

• Matty Theodore
• Nikola Roganovic
• Andy Kecojevic

Players with unknown contract statuses

• Jake Barker-Daish

Gone

• Andy Bevin (Team Wellington)
• Thomas Lakic (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Fraser MacLaren (Dandenong Thunder)
• Dane Milovanovic (Hong Kong Pegasus)
• Nick Morton (returned to South Hobart)
• David Stirton (Port Melbourne)

In

• Zaim Zeneli
• Marcus Shroen
• Jason Hicks
• Matthew Foschini

Meanwhile, in 'Internet is Serious Business'...

Ah yeah ! Achievement unlocked ! Ole ! @PaveJusup @PaulMavroudis pic.twitter.com/i8mrs6RGC2

— KissOfDeathFootball (@KODFootball) November 26, 2015

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.

Highlights from 2011 Ataturk Appreciation/Anzac Day Cup

Ljubo! Classy Drinking! Crunchalor! Oakleigh 1 South Melbourne 2

What an eventful evening that was. You know it's going to be one of those nights when you're walking down a city laneway and some drunk with a drink in each hand stumbles out of some hole in the walling singing Billy Joel's Piano Man - for some reason Steve from Broady looked quite confused by the spectacle. Probably too young to be a connoisseur of drunken classics of yore.

After killing an hour or so at the Charles Dickens Tavern, the Public Transport Faction was joined by some interlopers for the trip out to Huntingdale. Except we never got that far, because we got off at Oakleigh instead so the interlopers could buy some more booze to drink by the railway tracks. And isn't it always great to see some runt with a rat tail try to heap abuse at you from 50 metres away? Stay classy Oakleigh.

Getting into the ground, it was obvious there was a bit of a buzz about the game. Later we find out that Ljubo Milicevic's papers have come through after the FFV was allegedly bombarded with media inquiries about why he hadn't been allowed to register. Add to that a near brawl when he tried to get into the ground, and a top three clash which has a bit of added spite to it, got even more an edge.

And three minutes in, we scored, a wonderful volley by Marinos Gasparis who is having a pretty good season so far. But not too long after we're penalised with the first of several mystifying free kicks around the area - Ricky Diaco putting away a low drive which got through or around the defensive wall far too easily.

The game then settled down into the following pattern - South would try attack with quick short passing, both through the middle and out wide with overlapping players, while Oakleigh mostly went wide, trying in particular to exploit Steven Topalovic on their left hand side. Milicevic's inclusion was pivotal - while not completely negating the defensive frailties of this season, at least Oakleigh were unable to win a ball in the air, nor were they able to get behind the defence.

Some may have been disappointed with the spectacle, but I felt that the first hour or so was excellent to watch. Oakleigh almost took the lead towards the end of the first half with a deflected shot which hit the post. 1-1 at half time was a fair outcome. The second half started off much the same way, but once we got ahead, with a Steven O'Dor header from the six yard box, the game deteriorated, as both teams resorted to long balls along the wings.

Peter Zois apparently lost his cool at being called a traitor by fans behind the goals, and was probably at fault when they conceded their second. If there's one area of the game where Zois struggles, it's in commanding his six yard box on high crosses, and much like the equaliser we conceded against Bentleigh early last season, he let rip into the defense rather than take responsibility. Perhaps the video footage will vindicate him though.

Gasparis should have wrapped the game up after he faced an empty net, but succumbing to a rush of blood to the head, he blasted it over. The ceaseless free kicks around the box, often for reasons I couldn't fathom, had us all on edge, but for the most they were harmless. Zaim Zeneli had an adequate game in goals, but wasn't tested too often. Jesse Krncevic came through the middle late, but delayed taking a shot, with Zois smothering the ball, but we still got the win, and after several years of struggling to win at Oakleigh, that's now two in a row.

Still no cleansheet, and one wonders what might happen once Ljubo goes. But going forward we look good. Sebastian Petrovic has started passing the ball sideways and backwards too often, and just doesn't have the pace need to win balls even in his preferred middle of the park position. Rama had a quiet game, rarely noticed him out there.

There was one bitter individual standing to the side of Clarendon Corner (who had an excellent game by the way), heaping abuse on Ljubo - it was all sour grapes though, as Oakleigh had tried desperately to sign him before he'd put pen to paper with us. And during the second half I somehow ended up in a conversation which involved comparing NBA and NBL players of bygone eras. Mark Price or Sam McKinnon? Michael Jordan or Andrew Gaze? Clyde Drexler or Shane Heal?

Anyway, that difficult two week stretch is over, and we're back at our home away from next round against the Melbourne Knights. Could we possibly get a clean sheet? Will we be as switched on as we were last night? What random conversation will sprout up this time? And what's going to be for dinner? So many questions and too much time to think about them.

Now that's what a derby is all about - Bergers 2 South 2

Still five years and counting. We got there early as per usual, but the reserves were called off due to the rain. I had nothing to do for an hour and a half except the usual chit chat and marveling at how Steve from Broady managed to just walk through the gates without paying - his argument about Maccas overs souvlakia with one of the gate attendants seemed to mesmerise everyone and no one realised he'd managed to walk through even going up to the ticket booth.

The match went on its predictable path of us spurning chances and having the misfortune of every save off McMaster landing in exactly the wrong spot - except for Topalovic's shot which was goal bound but headed off the line. Having said that, once again we gifted the opposition some goals with comical defending - the second goal will go down in history as one of the worst goals South Melbourne has ever conceded.

After letting Osagie walk through the defence and letting him have a shot, Sardelic at least managed to save it, only for the entire defence to then just ball watch for an eternity and let him follow up with another shot to put them 2-1 up. Still, we managed to fight out the game and earned a well deserved point after Fernando's pinpoint cross met either the head of Gasparis or Krncevic - I'm not sure if it's been decided who got the final touch on it - and Heidelberg Harismidis who was doing his usual thing of running up and down the line in his guise as a field marshal.

Stefaan Sardelic, who apart from getting in the way of shots had a poor game - his kicking proficiency at an all time low, so much so that goalkicks eventually started being taken by one of the defenders. That didn't last long because Sardelic soon got injured in a nasty clash in the six yard box and had to make way for Zaim Zeneli to make his South Melbourne debut. Didn't have much to do, as by that stage the home side had started parking the bus, but everything he did oozed confidence. Or perhaps we were unaccustomed as to what an adequate keeping performance was supposed to look like.

Afterwards, in an attempt to get to the bus stop in Northlands without going around the long way, we took a hitherto uncharted route through shops, down a ramp, through the underground car park and back up again only to find out that we still had to wait like ten minutes. Then back in the city I had the worst Chinese food ever, and corrected some group coming home on the train from FutureSounds music festival about the title and artist of Father and Son - oh yeah, and one of them was wearing a penguin suit for some reason.

All in all, it could have been worse. At least we managed to score again. Maybe one day we'll even get a clean sheet.

Albanian Adventure Playground Experience - Dandy 2 South 1

Game played at fairly casual pace. Started off with quite a few senior players, fell behind 2-0, gradually took off most of the seniors and replaced them with 21s. The 21s did better, but the pace of the game died in the arse even more so. Pulled one back late when Joryeff slotted home a ball across the face of goal. Both Stefaan Sardelic and new signing from Sydney Olympic Zaim Zenelli had a half each in goals - too early to tell who if either of them is the frontrunner. Only one player in the game who got out of second gear really impressed - some 16 year old called Rob Naumovski or some such, who was at Altona Magic (and hence why when I asked equipment manager Frank Piccione who he was, he replied 'Rob Altona'). Anyway, the highlight of a day spent in the rain and cold for no apparent good reason, was the playground adjacent to the field, decked out patriotically in Albanian red and black.