Round 9, 2007 – taking a detour – Williamstown 5 Yarraville 0

First time venturing out to JT Gray reserve. A bit spartan but welcoming nonetheless, though the ground wasn't in great nick, and the ball was bound to bobble around. Willy heading to the social club end in the first half.

Four minutes in, cross to the back post squandered by Willy. About 11 minutes in, Willy player on the right strolls between two defenders, beats a third, shoots and scores, 1-0. Yarraville have a good header from a cross saved on about 15 minutes, and a shot from moderate range saved in the 17th, but Willy grab their 2nd on about 23 minutes. Ball/cross/corner can't remember from the left, goalmouth scramble, shot, goal, 2-0. Yarraville tried and occasionally put something good together, but 2-0 it was at the break.

2nd half, at about 53 minutes, long ball dealt with poorly by the Yarraville defence, 3-0. Not long after, a corner from the right headed in at the near post, 4-0. At about the 75th (?), free kick over the keeper's head, 5-0. Willy wasted numerous golden/unmissable chances and could have well doubled their tally by the end, but sent most of them over the bar. Yarraville for their part got worse as the game went, but still had some ok chances, a couple of shots/crosses across the face which could fallen well for them but didn't.

Willy are slowish, but reasonably skilful and very efficient. Yarraville are energetic, sort of, but generally barely competent. The Yarraville coach is a nutcase, resembling a 1970s VFL coach, from back in the days when yelling and belittling players was considered the height of technical thinking. Many on the sidelines wondering why Nick Tsaltas is still getting a game. Surely the boys who recruited him would have seen him play last year?

Round 8, 2007 – Altona East 0 Yarraville 0

Entertaining game, shame it was goalless, but I'm starting to expect East not to score goals so not as disappointed as i perhaps should be. First half was quite willing, and a good even contest. Both sides looked to attack, Yarraville looked to tee up shots from the edge of the box, and that yielded perhaps their best genuine chance of the first half, a shot gone wide. They also scored a goal called back for offside, and a had a couple of dipping freekicks go just over the crossbar. East tended to piss fart around with it outside the area, but also set up some good chances, and perhaps deserved better from some of the corners they got, one which flashed across the face of goal.

Second half, East got on top, controlling the midfield, and limiting Yarraville mostly to counter attacks. East's pace on occasions was fantastic, plenty of good runs, and some good chances too, but no goal. Best chance was a spilled/saved shot by the Yarraville keeper which really should've been blasted home but was alas only half-chipped back into his arms.

Decent crowd which was good to see, tore my pants coming back over the fence after having a kick on the ground at half time, my fellow Hellas following mate was pleased at recognising Ryan Dinse playing for Doxa. Overall, while there were certainly scrappy elements of the game, the standard was quite pleasing, and some of the individual skill shown by the PAOK players in particular was very good. Should have got the win though, story of our season perhaps.

Round 7, 2007 – Altona East 0 Lalor United 1

This is the kind of game that if you're on the losing side makes you want to give up football and take up knitting, except for the fact that you probably won't see another one like it for a long time. Altona East absolutely dominated this game from almost beginning to end, but have nothing to show for it except yellow cards, a broken nose, a very angry coach and a lot of effort wasted. Sunny conditions, half moon visible in the eastern sky, golfers and the miniature train audible in the background, moderate slightly chilly wind towards the refinery end, and East went towards that direction in the first half.

East started off well, and within minutes already had numerous chances, despite being down a man for a little while, while a player got attended for a bloody/broken nose. The best of the early chances was a free header from a corner sent over the crossbar. Lalor tried to get into the game, and when they got the ball they weren't totally useless with it, but they got so little of it that it was a moot point. East thought they had scored on twenty minutes when a cross from the left went across the face to the right, back across again and in, only to be called back for offside. East continued to press while the Lalor keeper tried to marshal his beleaguered defence as best he could. East peppered the left, right and over part of the goals, and occasionally got one on target, Lalor's best was having a shot blocked, half-time, 0-0.

Second half, if possible, East dominated even more. Shots were getting on target, being blocked, crosses flew across the face of the goal, plenty of free kicks in various positions, but no dice. One East player even knocked himself out on one of the uprights, quickly came to, asked what happened, the Ref replying, “You ran into the post mate”. The game went on, surely East would score? Er, no. On about 70 minutes or so, Lalor took the ball up and scored. I can't even remember the passage of play, except that it started from a throw in from the left hand side of defence. East desperately tried to pull the goal back, and Lalor had more room and opportunity to grab another, but neither side could add another, and with the ground covered in a cold shadow it finished 0-1 to Lalor.

Credit must got to the Lalor keeper. Had a very good game, especially in the 2nd half when he was obliged to make a few good saves and cross intercepts. But perhaps most enjoyable was his upbeat demeanour, his instruction and encouragement to his defenders was something a lot of keepers could learn from I reckon. The officials were actually pretty good today i thought, though the epidemic nature of FFV refs steadfastly refusing to almost ever give a handball call continues. The reserves game finished 1-0 to Altona East. I caught the last 25 minutes of this very scrappy affair, the goal being pretty much the sole ray of sunshine, a lovely lob over the keeper from an acute angle.

South Melbourne 6 Springvale White Eagles 0 (soccer-forum artefact)

Three goals in each half. Only time Springvale really did anything was from the 30-45 minute mark where we took the foot off the pedal, but by then it was already too late. SWE aren't very good, however today was one of those days for us where we scored some ripping goals as well, when against Fawkner for example we missed two from a metre out. Go figure. The back half is a little suss, but the front half when it clicks is good to watch. Havuibng Baser back makes a noticeable difference, we're keeping our shape better and there is much more fluency is our forward movements

Round 5, 2007 – Altona East 2 Altona City 3

A bit late, but what the hey... Entertaining, but nevertheless very average game standard wise. East were horrible in the first half, City at least put a lot off effort into their defending, and created a few chances as opposed to their hosts who could only manage one underhit shot for the first half. City went ahead about 13 minutes in I think, very slack marking from East, City player had about 5 years to put it away and he did. After about 20 minutes, 2-0, bizarre mix up in the East defence, players including the keeper all out of position, and the ball eventually went in.

East coach chucked a wobbly at half time, but City got the goal on about 55 minutes, a nice counter attacking move with a good finish to boot. Game over one would have thought, but City fell away as the game went on, and East pulled a goal back in controversial circumstances with the incoming cross appearing to be knocked out of the keeper's hands for a headed goal, but i was too far away to make that judgement, maybe he hadn't hadn't caught it cleanly? Later what some said was a foul about metre inside the box was given as a free kick which East hit into the wall. City player got sent off late for a second yellow card. Goal for East with about five to play, and all of a sudden it was on, but City held on for a deserved win. East improved markedly in the 2nd half, but one shouldn't expect miracles once you're 3-0 down, but at least they've broken their goal drought. City are the hardest working side I've seen so far in VPL or State 2, but can they run out games? Finally, refereeing was shocking for both sides more so for City, some perplexing decisions and non-decisions.

Round 3, 2007 – Altona East 0 Williamstown 1

Decent game, with the better team not taking the points but that's football i suppose. First 5 minutes or so Willy better team, until the East coach sorted out the situation on Willy's left hand side which was where they initially seemed quite dangerous. For about 25 minutes thereafter, game became a bit of a midfield battle, both sides willing but unable to penetrate, both some crappy passing at times but also good defending contributing. Only real chance of this period fell to Willy who sent a header wide from about the six yard box after 15 minutes.

A minor push and shove melee eventuated on the half hour mark, and after that East clearly the better team for most of the game. A couple of underhit shots, numerous crosses which no one went for and a skied ball from a good deep cross (when it should have been centred/cut back perhaps) were the only things to show for it, 0-0 half time.

Second half, Willy recovered somewhat, but East still looking more likely, but on about 55 minutes the whole East team seemed to go to sleep, and with quick movement down the right hand wing all the way to the byline, cut back goal, Willy 1-0. East rang the changes, but couldn't get the goal. Missed opportunities included an almost own goal, a powerfully struck free kick which the Willy keeper parried well in front of him with no follow up in sight, and a great sliding effort to knock the ball out for a corner from a shot. Willy perhaps should have had another goal late, though this was on the counter as East were looking for the equaliser.

Willy are an ok team (love the retro looking longsleeve tops), they can hold the ball and pass it, but again as with East's game against Sunbury, the pace that East have will worry a few teams, especially once they start using it defensively to shut down the opposition, as they did for most of the match except for that sequence of play where they conceded the goal.

Protest detail missing - Fawkner 0 South Melbourne 0 (soccer forum artefact)

Game was shit. Fawkner had the best chance of the first half, but the shot from a poor clearance went wide. Second half South improved, but still lacked fluency, and the crossing was very poor, but they got better as the game wore on and as Fawkner were more willing to settle for the point. Diaco got to the byline well a couple of times, but on both occasions South failed to capitalise. Tilovski made a good save from another shot, and Caldwell at the death following a stuff up between the keeper and the defence failed to put away a gimme goal. First time seeing Fawkner this year, not a finals side, will be happy to avoid relegation. As for South, a better team on the park then last year, but the difference between their best and their worst has also opened up a bit, last year much more even i felt. Need Baser back asap.

Round 1, 2007 – Altona East 4 Sunbury United 0

Funny old game to start the season. One relegated team, one promoted. East got off to a blinder with a goal in the first minute, Sunbury giving the ball away cheaply in midfield, and East putting away the chance well. Sunbury started to get into the game a bit, put on about 5 minutes of extended pressure with some scrambly defending from East. Then about 13 minutes in, a quick counter attack from Altona, 2-0. Sunbury had a couple of good chances they should have put away, one shot over the bar from very close range i think. I believe one of their blokes got sent off about half an hour in, can't remember. East had a shot across goal, another disallowed for offside by Tolli, but went into the break 3-0 up with Tex completing his hat-trick while i was getting a souvlaki. Fairly even first half apart from the score-line.

Second half pretty much all East, another goal disallowed for offside again by Tolli, a few one on ones missed (including a bizarre one where Tolli hit it into the keeper, came up ok but only managed to hit the post with an open goal), but late in the game, he got his reward when he rose above the pack from a corner to send his header over the keeper and into the net, even the ref gave him a pat on the back for it. East's pace and fitness troubled Sunbury more and more as the game wore on, to the point where they were almost strolling through the defence, could have been 8 or more if not for better finishing. Not that I'm an expert or whatnot, but Sunbury look like they'll struggle this year. East defensively aren't great, but have some pace to play with up front.

Hellenic Cup semi final - South Melbourne 2 Western Suburbs 0

South beat Suburbs 2-0, both goals in the 2nd half from De Vito and Baser.

Bah

This post was first published in the Park Life blog by Supermercado/Adam 1.0.

Frankly I can't be fucked.

If you want this URL let me know and it's yours.

Footballing With The Stars

This post was originally published on the Park Life blog by Supermercado/Adam 1.0.


Sure, it's Glenn Manton as a Goalkeeper part two - but tell me you didn't yelp when you flipped over the Herald-Sun and saw the back page with a massive picture of a South home jersey?

And wouldn't Rocket Batteries be dancing around in celebration at their investment paying off for the first time?

STROKE victim Angelo Lekkas is threatening to sue his former club Hawthorn for more than $1 million while contemplating an audacious career switch to soccer.

Lekkas, 29, has been training with Victorian Premier League club South Melbourne for the past two weeks and has not missed a session.

While Lekkas and South are suggesting his appearances at the Albert Park ground are "just for fitness", it is believed club is hopeful he can succeed.

The 180-game AFL on-baller played soccer as a junior and has not looked out of place at training.

Meanwhile, Lekkas is embroiled in a bitter battle for compensation for his career-ending stroke, sustained in a practice match in Western Australia in 2005.

Lekkas said last year his neurosurge on had warned risk of another stroke had increased.

Originally Lekkas was believed to be seeking about $150,000 compensation, with the Hawks offering only 10 per cent of that.

But negotiations soured after a meeting with Hawthorn officials last week.

Lekkas' manager, Jacques Khouri, said yesterday the officials asked Lekkas to sign a waiver, absolving the club and its doctors from any blame if a he accepted the payout.

But when Lekkas refused, Khouri said he was told he was no longer welcome at the club.

"Initially they promised Ange he would be welcome there, either way, whether he pursued a claim or not," Khouri said.

"The boy's got 30 per cent damage to his brain and will be on medication for the rest of his life, and any further head injuries could cause death."

Khouri said he had been approached by a legal firm to take on the case for free and it was looking at the exact nature of Lekkas' injuries.

When asked if Lekkas could seek damages of $1 million, Khouri said the claim could exceed that figure.

"Brain injuries can be life threatening and the brain doesn't recover," Khouri said.

"It's an absolute insult to be told he is no longer wanted around the club.

"What if it was Shane Crawford who suffered a similar injury or the chief executive (Ian Robson)? How would they deal with it then?"

Robson said last night he was not prepared to respond to specific claims made by Khouri, given that the matter could be subject to litigation.

"What I will say is that we have always shown an on-going commitment and interest in Angelo's welfare," Robson said.

"Given that the journey with Angelo is almost 12 months since he suffered the stroke, I believe the club has been respectful of its obligations to his welfare at all times."

Robson said Lekkas was encouraged in his recovery, firstly with Box Hill in the VFL, and then in the AFL.

"He was placed on the list in 2006 and a contract offer was made to him, but he chose to retire," Robson said.

"We then offered him part-time employment while he assessed what he wanted to do next in his life."

Khouri also stressed that Hawthorn would receive a summons for compensation within the next three weeks if any further offer was not forthcoming.

Khouri also wasn't prepared to confirm Lekkas' South Melbourne association as any more serious than keeping fit.

"A lot of his mates play soccer and he has been doing a bit of jogging with them," Khouri said. "I don't think he has any intention of taking up the game."

Lekkas is a friend of a South director and South coach John Anastasiadis was happy to include him in the senior squad's pre-season training program when Lekkas indicated he was looking at ways to stay in condition.

Pre-season training is more about fitness than ball skills and match practice and that has presented Lekkas with an easier way to blend into the surrounds.

He would be unlikely to walk straight into the first team if he decided to register with the club but his touch on the ball is reasonable and he is a natural athlete who would not find it hard to adapt if he stuck with the task.

South has reserve and junior teams which would be a more reasonable vehicle if Lekkas was just looking for fitness.

It's believed South hopes Lekkas succeeds at the club he followed as a junior before turning to Australian rules.

Lekkas' long-standing association with South Melbourne included a substantial donation when the club was trying to buy its way out of administration two years ago.


Nice to get a mention in the press but don't expect him to line up at the Village in Round One and smash home the winner against Heidelberg. The bit about how blows to the head could kill him is hardly compatible with a sport that consists largely of knocking a heavy object around with your head. But, let's milk that publicity while we can.

Pre-Season Madness

This post was originally published on the Park Life blog by Supermercado/Adam 1.0.

Note: This site does not go in for match analysis and rating. In fact we don't know what the fuck is going on half the time. Until somebody else writes a match report that we can beg to print it'll be half arsed observation and farce all around.

The South pre-season world tour continued at Oakleigh's Jack Edwards Reserve on Sunday in front of a relatively large crowd. Bigger than what we got in the last round of 2005 at home to Bentleigh anyway. SMFC took the lead in the first half through new signing Kevin Nelson and were unlucky to go into half-time at one apiece after a scramble in the sandpit goalmouth at the city end of the alternative pitch resulted in the ball being kicked out of Dean Anastasiadis' hands and into the goal.

The makeshift defence, consisting of a triallist from the Ivory Coast (!) on the right and a guy who was a 100% dead ringer for Thomas Gravesen on the right held up well in the 2nd half under almost constant pressure, and only cracked in the 90+ minute when former NSL player Esala Masi scored the winner for the Cannons and sent a group of watching Fijians into rapture. One in particular completely lost the plot. Standing up on a chair and yelling like they'd just won the World Cup. Maybe somebody told him it was the A-League and he was enjoying football but not as he knew it?

Next stop - Springvale White Eagles in the Crazy John's Cup @ BJS next Sunday.

A disappointing debut. Must try harder 3/10

This post was originally published on the Park Life blog by Supermercado/Adam 1.0.

Welcome to Park Life. Inconsistently posted news, rumor, undue speculation and outright slander about events surrounding the four time Australian national champion South Melbourne Football Club. That's football in the world game sense of course. If you've come looking for wild Sydney Swans post-Premiership celebrations you'll go home empty handed. Face facts, they ditched you and moved north. We've flogged the name now. Cop it.

What we've missed posting in the last couple of years,

* South Melbourne plays in the NSL.
* The NSL is abolished.
* A new league is created.
* The new league declares that each city will have only team.
* Everyone realises that we're no chance of making it.
* The VPL refuses to admit South and the Melbourne Knights for the 2004 season because the Whittlesea Stallions would have been forced to reprint thousands of fridge magnets with fixtures on them.
* With no money coming in South go into administration and come ludicrously close to going out of business. Extinction is only avoided due to big donations and creditors accepting insultingly low payouts on what they were owed. Thanks for that.
* The Whittlesea Stallions were relegated and forced to merge with Fawkner to avoid dying in the arse. They were then invited to stick their fridge magnets fair up their arse.
* South finally admitted to the 2005 Victorian Premier League, along with the Knights.
* 13000+ show up to the first game of the new season against Heidelberg and everyone wonders why we didn't do this years ago
* 5000 show up to the next game and we realised why
* The world came to Bob Jane to punch on against Preston. Result = we lost, people knocked down a fence and the next two days were spent with frenzied media reports about the evil nature of football in this country.
* By the last home and away game of the season there were 600 people there.
* South were defeated by Heidelberg in the preliminary final.
* Australia qualified for the World Cup and suddenly football wasn't evil anymore and everyone loved the World Game.
* Another season rolled around and left us right at this spot.

This page has been created as a way of dissecting all the important things covered on the SMFCboard forum but without having to go through two hundred "OMG! ROFL! LOL!" posts to get to it. Thanks to Adam 2.0 for our logo. I think the picture of Albert Park looks a bit like a giant cock and balls but he assures me that's it's stylistically off the charts and worthy of any number of design awards so I'm sticking by it.

Stay tuned. There's at least a couple of months of this to be had before I lose it and give up. If you want to contribute to Park Life please contact me via the forum (username: Supermercado) and you'll be firing off lengthy slanderous diatribes against Neos Kosmos journalists before you know it.

Victoria Bitter

This post was originally published on The Supermercado Project by Supermercado/Adam1.0

Sports fans will recall that despite being a massive soccer football fan for the last fifteen years, and having been sledged as a “wog” more than once for it, I’ve got no love for the new Australian national competition. For the last year we’ve had the same debate again and again - why South Melbourne should have been in it, why they shouldn’t have been etc.. Now on the verge of the new Victorian Premier League season, and our attractive clashes against world class sides like Richmond and Sunshine George Cross, the arguments have come up again. I’d like to say I’m over it, but sadly that would be a complete lie.

I think we’d be slightly less paranoid about it if the New Zealand and Central Coast teams weren’t in it. Everyone knows the NSL was a farce, and even if we don’t say it openly most of us will admit that the major markets needed a “broadbased” team to get people interested. The problem is that there’s only five major markets in Australia - and you can’t have a competition that’s just Melbourne vs Sydney vs Perth vs Adelaide vs Brisbane every week. So they forced a few experimental sides in there and are being rewarded with pathetic crowds for those teams. Relatively speaking the “big five” are doing well in crowd numbers (despite drops in Adelaide and Perth they’re still thrashing most of the NSL averages) but what are they going to do for the other three? Hang in and hope that some miracle is going to occur and suddenly all of New Zealand are going to start following their team? Their last gate was 1500. And what else can you do in a city like Newcastle? Either these people are going to go for it or they’re not. And at the moment they’re seriously lukewarm about the process. They pulled off 10k for a top of the table clash last night, but their crowd has been hovering around 5k all season.

The Brisbane Strikers of the NSL weren’t even close to an ‘ethnic’ team, and by the last days of the competition they found themselves with a thousand fans and rapidly losing money. All that says to me is that there was nothing you could do for the game in this country without decent coverage and media attention. Replace the Strikers with “Queensland Roar” this year and suddenly they’ve got 15000 fans from nowhere. Maybe South/Knights/Sydney Olympic/Marconi etc.. wouldn’t have grown to be the huge powerhouse clubs of a properly marketed and run competition but we sure as fuck would have contributed to it’s overall strength.

Personally I think that by pissing off Parramatta, Northern Spirit, Auckland, Brisbane, Wollongong and one of Marconi/Olympic/Syd U and introducing Victory, Sydney FC and Qld Roar it would have created a perfect balance. 3 teams in Sydney, 3 in Melbourne, one in the next three biggest markets and a relatively well established country side for a ten team competition. The people with a hard-on for “mainstream” teams get their wish, and the established “ethnic” clubs survive to play in a league where there’s no danger of any of the violence that everyone is so scared of.

But instead we get to watch a team from Gosford (current population, lest we forget, of 154,654) run around a stadium owned by a board member of the FFA in front of a couple of thousand people and are somehow expected to stand up and applaud this new leap forward? Fuck that for a joke. It’s painful to see it. To paraphrase the Timmy O’Toole charity song from the Simpsons

Well there’s a hole in my heart
As deep as a well
For another summer with no NSL
We can’t get in the A-League
So we’ll do the next best thing
Go on the net and WHINGE! WHINGE! WHINGE!

Still.. I’d rather stand with 750 people watching a club that I love than 10000 in front of a heartless corporate machine chanting “[team name] CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!” for 90 minute

Loving you is easy ‘cos you’re beautiful

This post was originally published on The Supermercado Project by Supermercado/Adam 1.0

Ten months ago I stood in Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Stadium and saw a penalty hit the net that should, for all intents and purposes, have been the death of the South Melbourne Football (nee ‘Soccer’) Club. With no prospects of playing in the pumped up, corporate fantasy world of the new Australian national league the years of financial mismanagement and general apathy that surrounded the place collapsed in on top of the club and they ran very, VERY close to going out of business forever. It wasn’t until September/October last year that we knew for absolute certain that the club had been saved. The world’s greatest chairman was appointed and the task of rebuilding started. And today we saw the first step to regaining the glories of the past.

We stashed the official Reg Reagan “Bring Back The Biff” Holden whetever-the-fuck-it-is in my work carpark, unzipped my jacket so the t-shirt that was last worn on that fateful day in Adelaide was visible to all and set off for the now traditional Cricketers Club Hotel. Upon arrival it was clear that a star-studded cavalcade of the who’s who of South fans were in attendance. Just like old days. Almost enough to bring a tear to the eye. But not close enough. I was wearing the official Boutsianis Balaclava in dedication to our former midfielder, and armed robbery getaway driver, who turned his back on our club for roughly the 5th time and joined Heidelberg instead. It wouldn’t have been appropriate to shed a tear in such a fearsome disguise.

I did, however, see this redundant sign on the way,

The poor bastards only changed it from “Ericson Cup matchdays” a year ago, presumably after somebody had rolled them in a challenge, and now the NSL gets killed as well. I predict they won’t know what to do. I also predict a riot when somebody gets booked for parking there during a Victorian Premier League game.

The pub action was awesome. It reminded me of why before every AFL season I start to think South are barging their way to the front of my sporting priorities. I’ve never met one person ever at a Melbourne game, I just don’t give a fuck. But here I was outside a pub with 30 people who I only knew because of South. That’s ace. The balaclava came off lest the people run that pub think I’m trying to knock-off their takings, Boutsianis style, but made a reappearance when the Heidelberg team bus got stuck in traffic right in front of us. What can you do? I danced around a bit. From on bus it was probably reminiscent of the dwarf doing a jig around Stonehenge in This Is Spinal Tap.

Eventually we got to the ground. South won the reserves/U21’s 2-1 in an encouraging sign. Even though I came in with ten minutes left and missed the winning goal. As the minutes before the game ticked on it because clear that there was a fucking huge crowd there. I mean huge. For Australian domestic soccer huge anyway.The official tally was 12000ish. Absolutely remarkable for a state league game. I don’t give a fuck if it’s an all-Greek derby, or if it’s the first game of a new season it was an amazing crowd anyway. It’s fair to say that I thought I’d never see anything like it at Bob Jane again. Especially in the days of June/July 2004 where the old trophies and memorabilia were being loaded into storage lest we fold and they get ransacked. Let’s hope that at least half of this crowd bother to come back for South vs St. Albans next week.

The game itself? If you’d offered me 0-0 pre-game I would have not only taken it but humped your leg at the same time - our pre-season form was so bad that even against a side promoted from the State League I was terrified of a first up loss. Looking back now, having just seen the game end 0-0 I want the three points. I feel robbed. The most experienced outfield player in our entire side, NZ international, Vaughan Coveny missed two sitters and we were all over the Bergers from the word go. Only for a few brief minutes did the opposition threaten to break the game open with a goal. Our elderly goalkeeper, and brother of coach, pulled out a couple of cracker saves that I honestly didn’t think he had left in him to deny them their best chances. I’m encouraged. Very encouraged.

Still shocked at the crowd. If that doesn’t get some positive press I will fucking go ape. Of course there’s more chance of the Herald Sun and Peter “F’ing” Desira taking a picture of the two of us in black balaclavas and writing a front page rant about 12000 right-wing Combat 18 fanatics hijacking the game in this country. And if they did that.. Insert random threats here. Of course there was a picture taken of us by one of the Greek newspaper photographers. It was only after he’d snapped off a couple of pix that I realised my t-shirt was in full view during the shots. If they just print those without even thinking - and god knows why they would because if you didn’t get the Boutsianis-related comedy aspect of it you’d think we were total lunatix or actual Neo Nazi’s - and I open Neos Kosmos to see a shot of myself in a black ski-mask with the word CUNT prominently displayed it will officially be the greatest day of my life. I’ll have it framed and put it on my wall.

Click here to see the power and force of the fence run when Boutsianis was taking a corner right in front of us. I was too nervous at 0-0 to join in sadly. And the steering wheel I planned on bringing didn’t eventuate so there was really no point when so many young and enthusiastic practioners of the art.

So,

South Melbourne 0
Heidelberg Utd 0

Not the best 0-0 draw I’ve ever seen (vs Perth, Australia Day 2004. Another huge crowd) but certainly the most emotional. I was so tense during that second half I could barely stand up, I fear that if we’d scored I may have just broken down on the spot.

I realised something the other day as I looked through my diary. Given that the ancient gods of scheduling have come together to ensure that work/South/Melbourne AFL don’t clash more than a few times during the next few months it means that I’m going to be at one sporting event or another one pretty much every weekend day I’ve got off until September. And then I go to England in October to watch more soccer. I think it’s fair to say that next cricket season I won’t even turn the TV on. I will start to understand why people hate sports.

Top night. Football is back. I still don’t get that sick feeling in my stomach for the whole game that I do when watching Melbourne play but the post-match tension is still there. I won’t sleep all night now.

If this game isn’t given massive coverage in the papers tomorrow then I’m going to ballistic. Fuck the A-League. South forever! Get all your asses down to Bob Jane next Sunday night against St. Albans.

Con Harismidis fragment no. 1

Stolen from some long dead Berger forum

Good see Con Boutsianis is here

There is Boutsianis and he play or he play for national leage but now he is here.

Well done Con Boutsianis. You are very good and best player.

Con Harismidis fragment no. 2

Nicked from a long dead Berger forum.

Con Boutsianis is the best player

You know John Anastasiadis is best player from your team.

I follow Boutsianis as he is best player to play now.

Fragment No.7

South is playing their second leg match tonight, could be their last ever in Australian top flight competition, so I’m quite disappointed at not being able to go.

Fragment no.6

Went and saw South Melbourne defeat Parramatta last week, my first game in awhile.

Fragment no. 13

Sunday I hope to go to see the Australian under somethings play against Fiji at Bob Jane Stadium.