Lost South Melbourne Interviews part 1 - Peter Buljan

ON THE COUCH WITH PETER BULJAN

Goalscoring hero Peter Buljan shares his feelings “On the Couch”

Peter this is your second year with the club after a fairly difficult first season. This season you are currently one of the clubs leading goal scorers. What has been the difference?

After having a difficult season last year, l have mentally changed the way I am going to approach playing this season, and when I scored my first goal of the season in my first start it gave me extra confidence and things have progressed from there.


Peter when you joined South Melbourne the team was in fulltime training. This season they have reverted back to part-time. As a player does this make much of a difference in terms of fitness and playing levels?

I think it does because it means less time to work on your game, but in turn it is very hard for clubs these days to pay players to be fulltime. But in saying that Wollongong won two Championships with a team that was part-time, so it may not make that much of a difference.


Peter, sport in general in Australia seems to be going through a roller coaster ride, with some Sporting clubs asking there players to take pay cuts. What do you think the general public wants and needs to create interest in the sport?

It’s very hard to say, soccer has been trying to work this out since the National League began, but I do think it needs to be advertised and sold on mainstream television a lot more. If the game isn’t televised or even publicised in the mainstream media then it makes it a lot harder to attract corporate dollars (sponsors) and therefore the game itself struggles.


Peter, you have had two opportunities to trial overseas at clubs in Germany and in Belgium. What differences and experiences have you brought home to help you with your Soccer career?

When you train and play it has to be at 100% and that there are no friends in the clubs, it is very ruthless and very competitive, so you must stay strong at all times. I’m a true believer in the fact that you play the way you train. The main difference between Soccer here in Australia and overseas is that the game of Soccer in Europe and South America is professional. Even the lower leagues are full time and that is there full time job. You can’t compare it to a part time competition.


Peter, as in sport and in life, there are always highs and lows. What have been your highs and lows with your time in the National Soccer League?

One of my biggest highlights was being voted the leading goal scorer and player of the year for two consecutive seasons at the Canberra Cosmos. Being given the opportunity to further my career with the South Melbourne Soccer Club has also been a highlight for me. The lowest point of my NSL career would be when I joined Perth Glory and I suffered two bad injuries to my quadricep and ankle, which kept me out of the game for 7 months.

South Melbourne TV is here!

Do you remember last year, when I lamented the lack of coverage of the real local game, yet more so the lack of using what we had at our disposal to do it ourselves? If you don't, follow this link for a reminder. Anyway, it's way overdue. No one knows how long it will last or how often it'll come out. The match footage is a little creaky at the moment. And we so desperately need a tripod and/or microphone. But it's here. It's farken here! SMFCTV! Interviews with fans, players, match footage, done by ourselves. No more waiting for others to pick up the slack! Great work by all involved.

Jesus Christ on a crumpet

The Pumpkin Seed Eaters are back. Fuck. Me. Dead. The link is on the sidebar somewhere down there. They're doing it on a monthly basis now. You should know by now if you like their thing or not. I still think they miss the point somewhat. Not sold on the use of Kenny Rogers either. It will be interesting to see how they avoid controversy and legal action this time around.

Oh yeah, the major sponsor...

... was also announced at the season launch. Miroamer has stumped up the cash for another season, making them the first company to go for the major sponsorhips in consecutive years since... well, I'm not sure, but it's been a while. Good to have them on board for another year, after it looked like it probably wasn't going to be thus at the AGM last year. George Parthimos, who was on hand to represent the company, made a quip about some of the complaints they've been getting from their German customers, that the signal drops out when they're driving at over 180 kph. Those crazy Germans.

The suit faction is in there somewhere

Yes, your correspondant dressed up for the occasion. Photo by Pavlaki.

Holy mass of dead insects

Or, I guess I just wasn't made for these times, again,

Or, a slightly jaded version of what went down at the season launch, with the order of events probably messed up bigtime.


What a night! It was the most awesomest, magical, drunken... hold on, that's actually someone else's story. Let me start again.

I'm being driven to the ground in a board member's car. He's got recent AC/DC playing at a decent volume, and though my fingers gently mimic their dinosaur rhythm section, that music's not really my forte. Neither is the Greek music put on, but it's his car, he can play what he wants. And it's not like everyone can get pumped up by listening to Manic Street Preachers 'Mausoleum'. So us people with a more defiantly miserable taste in music sometimes just have to make do. But it's more about the company than anything, which was as usual was quite enjoyable. Especially in regards to a phone call made which we can't elaborate on sadly, for fear of alienating and offending one of our regular readers with its delightful wickedness.

So we get to Lakeside, and we park the car through the side gate, making us like bigshots. After repeatedly being called "Proedre" (president) by South's groundskeeper Argiri over recent months - which was added to in its bizarre backhanded compliment fashion by certain alleged South of the Border fanboys, but that's a story for another day, maybe when I figure out where sincerity ends and irony begins - but it does make you feel like someone important. But by doing it that way, I missed out on walking along the candle lit path in the social club... the right way at least.

After some squandered time which I'll never get back standing around doing not much, I went into the office where people were putting the finishing touches on slides and rundowns... but it was probably best that I leave that area, and so I did. Eventually people start arriving and we chit chat and eat finger food. There's certain stunners there you'll know you'll never see during the season, and the same old diehards who are pretty much always there. And then we get called finally to go in, an hour after we're supposed to have started. Greeks. Go figure.

Seating for 300, with apparently 296 of those spots filled. Walking through the spaces between tables is tough, but manageable. The television screen is at one of the rectangular complex, near the players tables, and the majority of the Clarendon Corner crew here tonight as well those who might be considered mere associates of said crew were at the extreme opposite end of the marquee. Not sure which cake eating boffin came up with that arrangement or why. I pop the sticker in my pocket... more than one person makes the mistake of sitting on their programme and membership brochure.

Speeches are made, and videos are played, choc full of corn which has its fans but not everyone can survive on a diet of pure polenta. And so we were served what I suppose they called the first course, the appetizers, a selection of dips and antipasto on which there was little room to place on our overly crowded tables, and therefore nigh to impossible to fully enjoy. No matter. Soon it was time to tug at the heartstrings some more, by asking people to buy a membership. While I can admit the fact that there were plenty of wives and girlfriends there last night there who wouldn't necessarily turn up to a game, surely everyone else would have or would soon purchase one anyway. But you probably can't take anything for granted anymore... a lesson learned the hard way.

Rama, Horsey and probably Stevie O'Dor were called up to don the three heritage strips we'll apparently be wearing this year. The thinking behind it was that we were celebrating or acknowledging the triumvirate which made South Melbourne Hellas... and everyone lapped it up. Except me, because I'm a trainspotter and I know the truth, or about 95% of it anyway. Hellenic were represented by a striped jersey, United by their amnesiac red 'V', and Yarra Park by ostensibly the main strip we'll be wearing this year which is copy of a 1983/4 Buffalo Cup jersey. So what did happen to the Yarra Park Aias jersey? I'm betting they just didn't know what it actually looked like. Hell, apart from the alleged colours, I don't know either. What were those colours? Yellow and black. Probably best to move on right now.

Time to auction off the players. The auction was split into two parts, with defenders and goalies first and the midfielders and forwards second. Smfcboard purchased Shane Nunes for a lazy gorilla, and bumped up the prize probably on a few players. After a bit of a break - was that when we had the main course? I'd been hanging out for that since lunchtime, and unfortunately I didn't get the chicken. I got veal , which was ok, but the question on every hungry person's lips was, where was all the food? The serving sizes were that modest, and sure the food was good, but seriously, where was it all? And don't get me started on the deserts. How was I supposed to eat my pannacotta without a spoon? It took about 15 minutes to get one, while I sat and watched my little chilled delicacy slowly warm up.

Now where were we? Oh yeah, the auction. The second part saw higher prices, with Fernando winning the title for highest pricetag, somewhat surprisingly perhaps with Horsey back at the club. Every player was given their shirt by a former player, who was asked to say a few words, but usually declined. Jimmy Armstrong told a Scottish joke, Jim Pyrgolios had a spiel in Greek (pretty much the only Greek spoken in an official capacity on the night - interpret that as you wish), and Ulysses Kokkinos was introduced as the Hugh Hefner of Australian football. The hearty welcome for him made me feel uneasy. How is it possible that a convicted cocaine trafficker and shameless user of women can be so loved, but Con Boutsianis be so reviled?

Former President George Donikian got his chance to hold court once more. Seeing him previously outside the tent, I was struck by how much less he looked like George Donikian in person than on television, if that makes sense. His speech inspired most, but I thought he rambled on too long without really any distinguishing remarks. His groupies didn't seem to mind though, one telling me how much she loved that man. It's about the closest we came to celebrity on the night. One wonders which semi-famous people will crawl out from their rocks when the anticipated really big 50th anniversary bash happens. And with the raffle, silent auctions, and constant and infuriating noise of people talking over the speakers, that was pretty much it.

The highlight for me was. Rama getting named as captain. It's a deserved accolade, which also showed to all those people who have already made their minds up about this issues, that perhaps we're not the ethnic enclave they think we are. In the programme provided his ambition was not to play A-League, improve as a player or go overseas; it was to earn the respect and admiration at South that player like Trimmers are held in. While the eras are different, and he doesn't have the skill, the fact that he wants to achieve his goals here, that he wants the responsibility of being captain is tremendous.

I got to hold the Hellenic Cup trophy, which is nice and heavy. There's a photo of me and one of the local larrikins somewhere out there in the digital realm. What is it with people acting like dickheads in the city these days? In the cab on the way home some dickhead deliberately struck the driver side mirror. You could see him lining up the shot. What was the point of that? Maybe I need to be like everyone else and drink more, than it'll all make sense. I had one glass of wine and people's heads turned. You may be surprised to learn that I had a good time overall. And this morning I had a 25 minute spell on my $5 exercise bike, while everyone else was fucked up. So there.

Women's Hellenic Cup Result - South 0 Bergers 4

Missed this game so dont know what happened to see such a reversal in the scoreline from their previous meeting where South won 1-0. Disappointing for the girls I'm sure.

South crush Bergers 3-0 to claim first silverware of the season

I got there at what I thought would be 15 minutes late, only to see the Lalor-Oakleigh game for third place still being played out. Lalor Florina won that game on penalties, and showed a fair bit for a state 3 team. Apart from the first 20 minutes or so, where Heidelberg did better with the benefit of a squally breeze, South dominated the game at the times it mattered. Zoric's turning inside out of his opponent on the left lead to first goal, with Coveny coming and putting away what last year would have been another wasted opportunity. So 1-0 at halftime.
Second half all over them when we needed to be basically. A Heidelberg freekick hit almost timidly into the wall let to a lightning counter attack, with a two on one situation be being put away with no fuss by De Nittis. After that the game lost much of its edge. South took off some of its key players, and Heidelberg had little clue about how to break down South's defence, but also looked quite disinterested, like being 2-0 down didn't matter at all. Some people were concerned about getting players off with so much time left - truth be told, if we couldn't hold a 2-0 lead with all the momentum and 25 minutes to play, we probably didn't deserve to win it. Heidelberg did end up with one good chance at this stage of pulling one back, but Vassiliadis, who was given far too much time and space on this occasion, had his dipping shot saved onto the post by Tommich. Icing on the cake was Fernando hitting a curling 25-30 metre shot after a slightly comical bit of play where the Bergers keeper was left temporarily stranded outside his area, only for his defence to eventually clear, but a vintage Nando shot ended the contest as we knew it. Or something.

Zoric was man of the match, while Petrovic was subbed early due to obviously not being up to it on this occasion. We kept possession quite well, generally made good overlapping runs, and controlled the tempo of the game. Whoever said Coveny was finished might want to re-think their comments after this game. Heidelberg looked uncreative and flat for most of the game. They have a decent team, but maybe they've been overhyped by a few people. Clarendon Corner was in fine voice for much of the game, even storming the changerooms for a bit. There was no chanting from the Alexander side, and the infamous snake charmer only managed to blast away once on his clarinet. All in all, a good day.

Great Moments In Scaffolding

So I was out at the club yesterday, to help move some chairs from the top of the grandstand down to the marquee on the field - a pretty tiring and boring task which had to be done sometime - but before that I was given the chance to take a ride in the scissor lift being used to repair the scoreboard. Now I'm scared of heights amongst multiple other things so I initially politely declined, but eventually I caved into peer pressure and we went for a little ride, first up, then around from the back of the scoreboard to the front in order to measure the perspex panels in case we decided to replace them. By then a fourth person wanted to come up in the scissor lift, so we went down, picked him up, and went up again. When we wanted to go down again however, the machine decided there was just too much weight on board. Manuals were read, weight redistributed and buttons pressed, all to no avail.

So while trying to figure out what to do, we watched the lads train on the other side of the marquee... and waited some more. Eventually someone decided to give Niki from the office a buzz, to come and work on the manual controls - I'm not sure why, but that didn't seem to do the trick either. Eventually a combination of Niki and boardmember George Triantos managed to make the manual controls work, and we were able to dismount. Except for the fact that I got to go on a scissor lift joyride around the BJS outer. Of all the things that I thought I could experience as South fan, anything involving scissor lifts didn't seem to the enter the equation.

Oh and the scoreboard? It's in its best shape since like, forever man.

Hellas sells out to multiple enemies in the name of solvency

Well as most of you are aware, recently South's been making a tidy sum - at least we hope so - in hiring out the ground to both our real and imagined enemies, including such worthwhile organisations as the FFV (summer league and VPL finals), the Victory (their youth team) and the FFA (W-League). Now we've apparently gone one step further, by accepting moolah from our oldest and most shameless competitor, the AFL. Add to that there being an ad for financial services company Colonial First State also incorporating footage of rugby training and running up the terrace steps and you start wondering why didn't we make the most of this asset until so very recently? It does your head in.

 

Sneak peek reveals gridiron theme to new AFL promo

Chris de Kretser

February 17, 2009 12:00am


THE AFL's promotional ad this season includes an American football theme and is filmed in a soccer stadium.

Brisbane Lions strongman Jonathan Brown will run through a team of linebackers in full regalia, with refs wearing black and white stripes ready to call the shots. 

Bob Jane Stadium was taken over for the shoot yesterday by a convoy of trucks carrying props and film gear. 

Brown looked on as his stuntman stand-in bowled over a field of burly gridiron tacklers. 

In the morning, Hawthorn star Lance Franklin, St Kilda big man Justin Koschitzke, and North Melbourne's Daniel Wells also filmed segments. 

"It's a closed shoot," declared AFL brand manager Jane Ballantyne. 

She suggested yesterday's filming was only one part of the ad and that the league preferred to release it in its entirety to the media.

Hellenic Cup final this Saturday against the Bergers

A reminder that trhe Hellenic Cup final against Heidelberg is on this Saturday at the revised time of 4pm (changed from 6pm to accommodate our season launch, which starts at 7:30). That game, and all the other finals including the women's team final also against the Bergers, is at Northcote City's John Cain Memorial Park. This reporter doesn't know yet if he'll be there, but we'll see I guess.

Andrew Bourakis joins Perth SC

Former South midfielder Andy Bourakis - who through no fault of his own will be forever remembered at the guy that got hit by a flare against the Victory - has joined WA side Perth SC (aka Perth Italia). Thanks to Mildura Vasili for that info.

South stroll past Northcote in friendly

There was another Northcote vs South friendly last night, South won 5-0.

Get to know Sebastian Petrovic

As we fast approach the start of the 2001/02 NSL campaign, (can you feel the excitement people!) we here at South of the Border thought it'd be great to get to know one of the youngsters set to make their mark in the famous Blue and White this season.

Full Name: Sebastian Petrovic
Nickname: Saba
Date of Birth: 05/10/1982
Age: 18
City & Country of birth: Melbourne, Australia
Marital Status: Single
Children: None
Positions Played: Midfield
Left or right footed: Right
Eye colour: Blue
Hair colour: Blonde
Height: 180cm
Weight: 74kg
Do you wear glasses/contacts: No
Representative Honours: -
Medals/Trophies won: -
No. of seasons with South: 1st
Clubs played for: Port Melbourne SC, South Melbourne Youth
Overseas experience/trials: -
At what age & how did you get involved in soccer: 6 years old - older brother played
Junior clubs: Springvale United, Caulfield United, Altona City
Career Highlight to date: Playing Melbourne Knights in Charity Cup at Bob Jane
Ambitions: To be the best
Favourite actor: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton
Favourite actress: Halle Berry, Julia Roberts
Best movie ever made: Titanic
If you could be a character from a movie, who would you be?: Batman
Favourite comedian: Jim Carrey
Favourite magazine: World Soccer
Favourite band/singer: Tony Braxton
CD you couldn't live without: -
Favourite food: Asian, Indian
Favourite drink: Lassi
Favourite alcoholic drink: -
Favourite TV show: Soccer Scene
Favourite TV Character: Jerry Seinfeld
Favourite cartoon character: Homer Simpson
Most watched sports program: Fox Sports News
Favourite overseas player: Sylvan Wiltord (France)
Favourite overseas team: Red Star Belgrade
Most admired Australian (local): Lleyton Hewitt (Tennis)
Most admired Australian (OS): Mark Viduka
Hardest opponent (player): -
Hardest opponent (team): -
Most admired sportsperson: Michael Jordan
Major influences: Diego Maradona
What is the best advice you've received - and from whom: Work hard, harder, even harder - Sam Myer
Do you like to cook? Garden? Paint? any hobbies? Gamble, golf, horse riding
What is your dream car: Ferrari
What do you eat before a game? Pasta
What do you eat after a game? Pizza
If you could invite anybody to dinner - living, dead, fact or fiction - who would it be? Nelly Furtado (singer)
What is your worst habit? Drinking coffee
Do you have any phobias? -
Soccer superstitions: No.13 jumper is bad luck
What do you do when you're not training/competing? Relaxing, eating
What is your most prized possession? -
Funniest team-mate: Chris Jones
What do you wish you could do, but are bad at? Golf, tennis
Describe yourself in 3 words: Motivated, funny, serious
As a child, did you play any other sports? Athletics, football, basketball, tennis
Did you ever consider a career in anything else/sport? Actor
Do you follow any other sport? Athletics, Washington Wizards

Oakleigh 3 South Melbourne 2 Hellenic Cup Youth game

A bit of poor form on my part, but one of our readers posted some videos hidden away in the comments of an earlier entry, when really the site could do with some more colourful things aside from text. The footage below is from a Hellenic Cup youth game between our boys and Oakleigh's.

Con Boutsianis talks about taking free kicks

Con Boutsianis was on SBS last Sunday, on the Lakeside Stadium it self, talking about various free kick techniques, with a touch of the proto-scientific to make even more interesting. Features some great freekicks and freekick takers from around the world, including one of his own gems, and South's 50th annivesary gets a mention as well.  Watch here.

I'm going to the Jersey Presentation night. Are you?

Iy's on this Saturday, 21st February on the Lakeside surface underneath the marquee. I mean, are tickets even available anymore? This sold out last year, and one would expect it to do so again., Call the club and book your place I reckon. And bring cameras so you can be in photos with players and spare time supermodels and shit.

Family Day 2009 - The Good, The Bad and The Raspado

So where to start? Well, I'm sure the club would wihs it to be otherwise, but once again the lack of new merchandise to show the people wasn't great... neither was the inability to pick up membership packs. Now, not that there were not quite a few people signing up for memberships, especially the kids (that free ball is a hit once again this year) but imagine how much more merch we could have moved, if only we had even just some samples to show off? Equally disappointing was the lack of kids sizes and no hats at all, which was a bummer on such a sunny day, as they would have sold like, well, hats on a really sunny day.

Anyway, enough whingeing from me, because on the whole it was a great day. There were plenty of kids and plenty for them to do, there was a steady stream of people buying memberships, but of course, the most popular item was sno cones (which are apparently called raspado in Spanish). Me and Cindy's little popcorn stand did quite well considering the kind of day it was, but that little sno cone machine went through something like 15 bags of ice. Once again I didn't win the raffle - this time for one of two grocery hampers - but that was to be expected really. Word is that numbers for the season launch on this Saturday are looking pretty good too. Equally pleasing was the fact that people are taking advantage of the ability to purchase memberships online this year. So while it can be self-righteously satisfying to harp on all the bad things, it does pay to remember that the club is steadily making progress in a number of areas.

South Women also through to Hellenic Cup final

I've been a little negligent in this regard but the South Melbourne Women's team have also booked their place in next week's final, after wins against Brunswick City (13-0) and Heidelberg (1-0). In a neat double header of sorts, they'll be playing Heidelberg next week, as will the men's team as well. While the finals matches are slated for next Saturday, there may be a change in the time or even possibly the day (to Sunday) to accomodate us because of our season launch/jersey presentation night which is also on next Saturday. News at it comes to hand.

South through to Hellenic Cup final after bruising win over Oakleigh

South Melbourne is through to the Hellenic Cup final next week after outlasting Oakleigh Cannons with a 3-2 extra time win. South were up 2-0, before Oakleigh leveled the game. Scorers for South were Fernando with one and Coveny two, including the last minute winner. The joy will be tempered though to what appears to be a serious and potentially season ending knee injury to Nathan Caldwell, after he was crudely tackled by former South defender Robbie Wynne.

Vaughan Coveny lobs the ball over the Oakleigh keeper to give South a 2-0 lead. Photo by Pavlaki.

Hellenic Cup semi tomorrow against Oakleigh

Details finally confirmed by someone, thanks Tony. Game is against Oakleigh at 3:30pm at Bentleigh Greens once more.

Come on you 'Roos!

One of our fellow South fans was over in Japan for this match, but I don't think he's responsible for this banner, which admitedly made me :smileyfase: but also explains perhaps why the Australian supporters didn't get on tv much.

Hellenic Cup Q/F - South Melbourne 1 Bentleigh Greens 0

Once again I was not there, but apparently Steve O'Dor got the goal for the good guys. Don't know who were up against next or where, but as usual will inform everyone out there in the real world as soon as possible.

Family Day on Sunday

Family Day is on this Sunday, 11am-3pm. Will there be memberships and merch to pick up? I certianly hope so, but going on our past track record I doubt it for the latter. The club will also be collecting donations for the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal.

ZOMG! South Melbourne in the press! Not riot related!

Well, maybe not the press exactly, but certyainly at least on the screen. Not sure where they bgot the highest ever goalscorer information from though. Trimmers has nearly 30 more goals. But hey, it's a start.

Vaughan Coveny returns to South Melbourne

February 10, 2009 12:00am

VAUGHAN Coveny, South Melbourne's highest ever goalscorer, has returned to the State League club after four seasons in the A-League.

New Zealand international Coveny spent nine years at the club in both the NSL and State League. 

He scored 88 goals in his 247 matches before moving on to A-League clubs Newcastle Jets and Wellington Phoenix. 

Coveny was a member of the South Melbourne team at the FIFA World Club Championships in Brazil in 2000.

Hellenic Cup Quarter Final Tomorrow

After some confusion - which is not my fault because they had the fixtures all wrong, and I was merely seeking clarification - South Melbourne will be taking on Bentleigh Greens at Bentleigh Greens at 6:30pm, Thursday 12th. Let's hope it goes a bit better than last year's attempt, where we were knocked out at 1-0 at this stage by the same team.

2009 squad announced

This is the 2009 squad... as announced on the official website. Sfetkopoulos is a goalkeeper, signed from Altona East and is quite solid, having seen him numerous times out at Paisley Park. Foschini is a youngster from from Oakleigh/Victory youth, and a signing confirmed from a while back. I'm not quite sure who Torrens and Payne are, but Radojicic has been impressing in trial games apparently. Some number changes as well with De Nittis going to no. 10 from no. 9, Tommich to 1 as you'd expect, Petrovic(h) loses his no.8 to Horsey, and a probably a few others I've missed. The number 16 vacated by Tansel Baser is still vacant, and the question of who's going to be captain is still up in the air. Will Coveny or Rama get it? You'd think Vaughan would have to be the favourite at this stage, and that Rama will have to wait another season at least for the honour. 

1. Tomi Tommich 
2. Shane Nunes 
3. Rhodri Payne 
4. Steven O’Dor 
5. Con Blatsis 
6. Eddie Cetkin 
7. Nic Curtis 
8. Vaughan Coveny 
9. Joseph Youseff 
10. Gianni De Nittis 
11. Yusef Yusef 
12. Sam Torrens 
13. Francesco Stella 
14. Ramazan Tavsancioglu 
15. Fernando De Moraes 
17. Stiven Mrkela 
18. Danni Radojicic 
19. Goran Zoric 
20. Nathan Caldwell 
21. Stefan Sardellic 
22. Matthew Foschini 
23. Sebastian Petrovich 
24. Andrew Sfetkopoulos

Will wonders never cease

Das Libero... it's back. With new stuff. Yeah, I can't believe it either.  Maybe I'll write something for it. 

The blog entry that will hopefully single-handedly destroy any credibiltiy I may have

You clowns have been reading and not reading the blog for a touch over a year now. And what have you ever gotten? Not much to be honest. Let's do a quick stocktake. Staggeringly self-important haiku written in hospital waiting rooms and university tutorial downtime. Nonsense rants about Bordeaux Monkeys and assorted other genetic monstrosities. Rumours and the occasional fact thrown in for good measure, but not anything you wouldn't have learnt from somewhere else anyway. Writing proficiency which has steadily gone down the toilet. Varying degrees of shit presentation, with abominable and lazy colour schemes, and logos that despite their best intentions were classic examples of carpet not matching the drapes. A few photos here and there, with the only good ones being stolen from other people. The erratic and sometimes straightout just plain uninformative match reports from myself and Cliff. And to top it all off, a chief writer who has been  toyed with by the powerful and lay person with personal vendettas and nefarious agendas alike, which therefore gets passed on to you, almost all done with the anonymity I grant people as encouragement to post delicate yet powerful pieces of wisdom. And can you believe that I even attached my name to this? What was I thinking? I didn't even get a media pass out of this to avoid paying the other gyppo clubs in this league. Seeing as I was so desperate to start this enterprise, why couldn't I at least do it quietly, anonymously, with no fanfare, and maybe even simple one line entries, aiming for some sort of zen like quality. And it's not like I have any tactical nous either, to give you some entries with even adequate analysis of positions, tactics and all that jazz. And those match previews, the most lazy arse pieces of crap. And what was even worse is that writers for the official even picked up my 'last time they played' gimmick, which I stole from The Age, making me feel all "if this is anyone but Steve Allen, you're stealing my bit". And now my internet speed has been shaped until Sunday. Just awesome.

What I guess I'm trying to say is that rather than quit and stop providing this obviously grand service free of charge, ad free, and with no comment restrictions, is that there's going to be a few changes. First, comments will now be verified by me before being posted, and you will need a legit email account of some sort to post. If you're a dickhead with a hidden agenda looking only to hurt people who are well known in the South community while you cower in your thatched mud and twig internet hermit shack, your time is up. I should have done it a long time ago, and I'm sorry to you Cindy especially, no matter how much I disagree with you on some or many things, that I did not take this action earlier. Already I have started re-organising some of the categories on right hand side. As seen in the last few weeks, there will be more effort put in to the presentation. Where possible, and within my obviously limited web skills, photos will not hang like a cow's udder in nothingness. There'll be some new segments which will last only a few weeks, but dammit at least they'll be new. I'll upload more videos from days gone by. There might be a crappy South of the Border t-shirt made up, for me only (unless Cliff wants one that badly), to further paint a massive target on me wherever I go. And while some changes will be made, rest assured, some things will stay the same. There'll still be a distinct lack of contributions from people that aren't me, despite me wishing that it would happen that people would become inspired to love this club just that little bit more to get their creative juices flowing. Half of you will still watch the A-League on a regular basis, either on tv or in person, and then claim that you don't or at best, are not obsessed. despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Happy 50th year everyone. How about getting some more Greek players into the team so we can get all those fans that went to watch a team with a mangled Scottish heritage at the first sign of South heading trouble to come back. 2009 is going to kick fucking arse. 

Distant relative of Bamboo Harvester signs for South

There goes the youth policy. And the balanced budgets. Oh well, if he bangs in the goals like he's supposed to, then who am I to complain. Actually the entry title reminds me of a Maurie Fields joke. I didn't care too much for Maurie Fields' style of humour to be honest. I'm prepared to weather any and all hatemail that I get for having that opinion. 

South Melbourne 12 Moorabbin 0

South now through to the quarter finals, against who I don't know, but probably on Thursday at the same location. Since I wasn't there today, let's do something else to pass the time. According to the wikipedia entry, the word Moorabbin is believed to have come from the Wurundjeri Aboriginal word for resting place. There used to be a fully fledged Moorabbin soccer club called Moorabbin City, but they sadly went broke several years ago. There also used to be a Moorabbin Football Club, whose death can directly be linked to its ground being taken over by the St Kilda Football Club. Man, when they had cake in the boardroom that day I was there, the smell was just unreal. I should have asked where they got it from, because it looked so good. Just when you think you're entertainment spending is set to take a break, Elbow announces a sideshow. There goes another $60, when I eventually purchase a ticket. At least it doesn't interfere with soccer this time.

I love chocolate cake

After several months of speculation, South of the Border has been informed by a distant relative of William Felt, that Vaughan Coveny, 247 game South veteran and member of the back-to-back and World Club Championship sides, is coming back to Lakeside for the club's 50th year. A fan favourite, Vaughan is also just 12 goals shy of completing his league ton for Hellas. With the defensive line being shored up and a plethora of injured midfielders coming back, Coveny's signing would be the icing on the cake, providing valuable experience and firepower up front. Time to break out the Horsey plakat again? Well, not until the brainstrust in the rich chocolate cake with fresh cream boardroom at South say it's true. Any minute now... 

Left: Vaughan Coveny in happier times for the club, donned in the heritage strip adopted for a game or two in 2004. Below: A cake likely resembling the one that South Melbourne boardmembers enjoy during important club meeting. Not pictured is the fresh cream which can be doled out at a diner's pleasure, nor the sweet, intoxicating aroma of high quality cocoa. 

Ancient Hellenic history

"Hellenic: The first roots". Year and location of photo unknown. This version of this image is a replacement for an earlier (inferior) one which was taken down by the third party site which posted the image. I found this version - which is a laminated poster - in a drawer in the old social club.
Back row: Con Papapantos, Con Papas, Chris Picoulas, Alecos Nanos, Tony Karagiannis  (listed here as Carayiannis), Bill Gizoris, Charlie Moshakis, Costas Zinis/Tzinis.
Front row: Fotis Antipas, ??? Paleogiannidis, John Tsarouchas.

Petkovic hero for Sivasspor, saves three penalties

Last time we checked in with Michael Petkovic, he was scoring a near length of the pitch goal. This time he's in more familiar territory for a goalkeeper, saving three penalties in a cup shootout for Sivasspor against Galatasaray. Sivasspor also lead the Turkish Super Lig halfway through the season

Sivasspor topple Galatasaray in Turkish Cup

Sivasspor became the first side to book a place in the Turkish Cup semi-finals with the league leaders beating Galatasaray AŞ 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the 4 Eylül Stadium.

Late dismissal
Having drawn 1-1 at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium in the first leg, Bülent Uygun's side lost their theoretical advantage within eight minutes of kick-off when Arda Turan scored for Galatasaray after robbing İbrahim Dağaşan. However, the Anatolian side responded on 30 minutes through a brilliant long-range strike from Yannick Kamanan. Sivasspor's Mehmet Yıldız was sent off deep into extra time but there was to be no winning goal.

'Cruel victory'
Australian goalkeeper Michael Petkovic then saved shoot-out penalties from Arda, Ümit Karan and Yaser Yıldız, with Hakan Balta the only scorer for Galatasasary, while Mamadou Diallo, Pini Balili and Kamanan scored for Sivasspor after Ali Kurtuluş missed their first effort. "Today there was good competition on the pitch throughout the 120 minutes, and although it is a cruel victory for us – as it always is with penalties – we are happy to be in the semi-finals," said Bülent Uygun.

Result from last night's Hellenic Cup game

South Melbourne 1 Kingston City 0, Caldwell goalscorer.

South Melbourne 7 South Hobart 0

Pretty average performance overall. South Hobart strated off ok, fighting well, but fell away more and more as the game went on. Kati wildscenes at the scoreboard end, plenty of chants and stupidity. We're going to miss you Southpole you kreas!

Hot rumour! South set to make major player announcement!

Stop whingeing about being hot for a second and listen up. This has just come through on the wire. A source known only as 'deepthroat' has told South of the Border that South Melbourne Hellas is expected to make a major player announcement by this weekend. While I can't reveal my source(s), I assure you they are very reliable, so hold on to your hats people, something big might be about to happen.

South Melbourne vs South Hobart on Saturday

Dont' forget that South will be having a friendly match against Tasmanian champs South Hobart this Saturday at Lakeside, 4pm. Hopefully the weather cools down enough so they can actually play the game, and hopefully the South Hobart lads aren't too exhausted by playing the night before against Oakleigh 'Nikos Quality Cakes is a valued sponsor' Cannons.

I did it before I was hot and bored

Yes I know I did it a few days ago. Anyway, started to feel as if the powderblue look was confusing, cluttered and just plain old shithouse. I reckon this one will last a fair while. I've also dispensed with the use of a logo, unless someone makes me an absolutely awesome one. Thanks to Cliff and Cuddles for giving me logos to use over the past whatever period of time. I'm sticking with moderately witty subtitles for the forseeable future. If someone out there has a moderately witty subtitle they'd like to see on the header, let me know and I'll consider it.

Tuesday night Hellenic Cup result

A 6-0 win over amatuers Braeside Lemnos. 

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

2009 Memberships out, yay!

Just go buy one already farken! You can even do it online!

Stiven Mrkela signed up!

As revealed to me by the late William Mark Felt, Snr, in a major coup for the club, they've completed the signing of Stiven Mrkela, the former Altona Magic skipper and highly experienced player at this level. Kudos to the club!

Hellenic Cup 2009

Bloody hell, we're in the south east section again, and this time out even further away from my part of civilisation, Bentleigh Greens. This sucks balls because I can't drive nor catch public transport out to Kingston Heath, and therefore no only will I not be able to see the team and catch up with people, I won't be able to give you any half-arsed eyewitness reports. Anyway, the women's and youth teams are also in it once more, with the former playing at Northcote City. Is it worth trudging up all the way just for that? I dunno, we'll see I guess. Here are the fixtures for the men and women.

Men's draw (at Bentleigh Greens)

Saturday January 24th 5:00pm vs Panserraikos
Tuesday January 27th 7:45pm vs Braeside Lemnos
Tuesday February 3rd 7:45pm vs Kingston City
Sunday February 8th 5:00pm vs Moorabbin

Women's draw (at Northcote City)

Saturday 7th February 12:30pm vs Springvale City
Tuesday 10th February 6:15pm vs Brunswick City
Saturday 14th February 12:30pm vs Heidelberg

I care dammit

Our friend Conya trundled over to watch this game on behalf of everyone who cares. Good stuff. Below is his report, edited for clarity of some player names.

3 - 0 for those who care. 

Ground is a dust bowl and rock hard. 

Zoric scored the first and i'm not sure on the others. 

Good to see Rama, O'Dor and Caldwell get some game time. 

Number 18 looked good (Danny) and Joseph Yousseff did a good job in the middle.

South in a Suburb called Oakleigh

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

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

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

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

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

Hume City vs South

If you can be arsed heading out all the way to Broadmeadows for midweek pre-season friendly football action, then here's an opportunity to do it twice in two days. I'm going to give both a miss, but only because it's like, in Broadmeadows/Meadow Park/Coolaroo, and that's too far for a sexy single girl to be travelling via public transport unaccompanied, and at night.

Seniors

Wednesday 21st Jan - Hume City vs South Melbourne, Valley Park, 6:30

Under 21s

Thursday 22nd Jan - Hume City vs South Melbourne, Valley Park 7pm

By the way, to get to Valley Park, please  heed these directions, as with pretty much all of this entry's information, ripped off soccer-forum. And if you're wondering who the fuck Hume City are, that's the new name that (North) Coburg United have given themselves.

Braodmeadows Valley Park / Crazy John’s Memorial Park:
Near the Corner of Intersections Pascoe Vale Road & Barry Road (Could be listed either as Coolaroo or Meadow Heights). Enter via Barry Road. 
(Melway Reference: Map 6 G3)

50th anniversary jersey, combines old and new into stunning design.

In a South of the Border exclusive, we can reveal to you dear readers a prototype of the jersey we'll be wearing in this, our 50th anniversary year. The crack design team from Cartoon Stock, who were commisioned for the project, issued the following explanation of some the design's elements.

"Owing to the mass amnesia of the involvement of South Melbourne United in the creation of South Melbourne Hellas, it was a no brainer to not even consider using the original red 'v' design. The thing to do then was to use the traditional blue motif, but instil some new and old meanings into the design; we wanted it to tell a story. So while maintaining blue as the pricniple colour, we've gone with a more faded blue, in homage to the Jim Marinis-not-washing-the-shirts-as- punishment-for-playing-like-shit-and-with-no-heart in 2007 era. We've also gone for a very, well what we thought was a cutting edge move, in putting a whole potato, to symbolise, well, the literal potato on the shoulder of the club. It also quietly pays due respect to South's place in Australia, the land from the which potato came, specifically the old Middle Park and its immediate surrounds, and the club's role in cultivating the crop which has been crucial in alleviating world hunger."

Cartoon Stock's fee for the design has been the subject of much speculation, with rumours even circulating that they have received monies from South Melbourne's 2012 World Club Championship money, which the club will receoive once they receive entry into the A-League and win the title at it's first attempt.

South of the Border congratulates under 21s team

Before I get to them, the seniors also had a hit out against Northcote, drawing 1-1. Some senior players played, Nick Curtis was in and did ok, James Spanos was absent for some reason, we missed a penalty, generally looked half-baked, but I'll let it slide through to the keeper this time, since it is their first game of the year.

Now to the under 21s. Why am I sending my congratulations to them when they haven't even kicked a ball in anger? Because they have already surpassed their finishing position of last year, which was 13th, which itself was an improvement on their 2007 placing of 15th. Nevermind that each season has seen less teams in the competition, or that the side is playing like shit and barely one player looks likely to break into the senior squad. Why care about style, competency, even results when we have a keeper who tries to dribble around players only to lose the ball, then kick the post hard in disgust after he cops a goal; maybe if he'd used that remarkable leg strength on the ball he wouldn't have the need to kick the woodwork. Maybe if the players could hit short passes, maybe even the occasional decent cross. Ah forget it. If I get to games early this year, I'll be in the social club, avoiding the bloodbath.

Coveny retires from top-flight football

From FourFourTwo Magazine, thanks to Simon for alerting us to its release.

Coveny said the highlights of his career were his 300 games for South Melbourne, including going to the World Club Championships, and his 64 games for his country, for which he is also the highest scorer with 28 goals.

Oprah's Favourite Things

This is what I love about smfcboard. If you bring up in the boredom of the off-season a still topical thread, ostensibly to clean up your incorrect Dr Katz reference from three years ago, you get a yellow card. Ok, so maybe it was like the 5th or 6th time that I'd done that, but here's what gets up my goat. I'll happily take the yellow card. It's not like there are that many actual rules on the forum, but common sense dictates that you probably shouldn't push your luck to much, no matter how awesome you are.

But of course, this being the parallel universe of smfcboard, common sense doesn't quite obey the same laws of forum warning physics as other more 'politically correct' places do. So if you feel like proclaiming that Hitler was correct in wanting to turn the Jews into soap, go for your life. You'll get nothing. Even better, follow it up with a comment about how the A-League is racist for not letting you in, red carpet, 20 point headstart and all the trimmings.

Even more disappointing was that in the relevant yellow card worthy thread, everyone missed my other Dr Katz reference.

Friendly on Saturday - South vs Northcote at Lakeside

Information shamelessly ripped from Zidan's Magic on soccer-forum, who seems to know a hell of s lot more than we do for some reason.


Interesting practise game between these two clubs, will be Pouta's first game against his former teammates and club.

Reserves k.o. @ 4pm
Seniors k.o. @ 6pm

Venue: Bob Jane Stadium on Saturday the 17th of January

Not that I was aiming for one, but it's about freaken time!

On September 14th, 2005, I joined smfcboard. I was a nobody then; no job, no school, no friends, no life. Thanks to that forum, and because of my getting re-connected to South, whom I'd lost touch with since the end of the NSL, I was able to put myself back together again; I made heaps of friends, or least acquaintances; got involved with the club; got back to school; in essence got my life back after years of self pity and stagnation.

But something was missing. Sure I got myself a reputation amongst some forumites was waffling on and getting on my high horse far too often, and amongst others for clarity, objectivity and cutting through the krap. But today, the missing piece was finally filled in. And all it took was the resuscitation of a three year old thread about mainstreaming the club, and a prompt from a fellow fan to correct a mistake I had made in reference a Dr Katz episode, to finally get me that yellow sticker above my avatar, which signified that I am just a little bit badass after all.

Hello, a secret history

You account on smfcboard.com has received a warning.
You have now a total of 1 warnings, if you somehow receive more than 5 your account will be blocked.

The reasons for this are numerous, this warning is received because of this post:
http://www.smfcboard.com//viewtopic.php?p=437944#437944
that you made.

Here are a reminder of some of the terms you accepted when you registered, we kindly ask you to respect them in the future

Quote:
"You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned"

If you don't see why you've received this warning you could try contact thrylos7, who gave the warning, explaining your post,
and that you don't understand why this warning is given.


--
Thanks, The Management


But maybe it wasn't the unnecessary dredging up of the thread for mine and Southpole's amusement that finally made moderator Thigh Rolls crack. After all, we'd been doing it to amuse ourselves all summer, and while Southpole got banned outright for it, that wasn't such an irregular occurrence. No, maybe what did it was the bringing up of that particular topic, containing replies, opinions and persons which are unfashionable now but were safer to admit to liking and agreeing with back then. When the fury was stronger and more evident, and there was still a misguided ambition of a kind to revive what had, in it's own way, failed.

Those who argued against mainstreaming most fervently, because of their nationalist bent which would come to fruition in the Hellas Fan Club and its various adventures, are largely long gone. The argument itself about mainstreaming is mostly dead... certain agitators persist with trying to reverse the trends of time and assimilation, but those things will don't care about feelings, as in the riddle in The Hobbit;


This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers,
Moulds iron, bites steel,
Grinds hard stones to mill,
Slays king, destroys town,
And beats the highest mountain down.


And yet the argument, or perhaps more accurately one of the things that fueled it, is still unresolved. What should South do now? The knee jerk reaction has always been to go back, or hold on to what the club has now; which while holding the club back from whatever possibilitites may exist in trying something new, is preferable because it is familiar, and at the same time reassuring because it allows people to believe that they are being loyal to the cause. The point here being that not that change or no change are good or bad within themselves; but the attittudes attached to taking either of those stances, and what they say about loyalties and views of the club are important. While we like to think that we're all one happy family, each of us has had a differenct experience of the club, which in turn gives us a dufferent idea of South, and different ideas of where we want it to go; forward, back, upwards, sideways, nowhere.

Anyway, the thread that was dredged was not utterly useless; it contained one of the most clear and concise arguments on the matter, from someone deeply involved with the club, who could see its potential, but like most of us, unable to do much about it, because the receptive and half receptive audiences, as small as they were in comparison to these days of plenty for soccer, are gone for us. We had our great chance, and we didn't take it. Now we scrape and struggle for piecemeal gain. Such is life.


By Kartsi

To be Greek or not be Greek, that has been the question for as long as I can remember. It has sparked as much debate as any other issue over the last 10 years or so and at times, I have been dragged into it.

One thing people seem to forget is that the club will always be known as a club of Greek migrant origins. No matter what you do in the future, you can never take away the clubs history and the core of the support base will inevitably come from the Greek-Australian community. So what do many feel so sensitive about it?

What I see as mainstreaming, is about marketing the club as a football club, with passionate supporters, with great history that plays attractive football and makes people of all races feel welcome. This feeling that somehow the club will lose its traditions, history and identity by doing as such, is nothing short of nonsense. And I honestly feel this strange insecurity has held the club back for years and is continuing to do as such.

Let’s build on what we have and build in all directions. Do you honestly think going back to the days of the past will keep the club afloat and take the club forward? Dare I say it, people’s perceptions of the ‘good old days’ are nothing short of perceptions. I can remember many a days at Middle Park where there were a handful of people at the games, but people only seem to remember the 1 or 2 big gates we had against teams like Heidelberg or Olympic. If you look at the stats, I’m sure you’ll find our best period of crowd attendances have been at BJS, during periods of marketing (limited as they have been). Our Greek community has let the club down over the years, if the 300,000 Greeks in Melbourne haven’t got behind the club in the last 46 years, why will they suddenly do as such by somehow making the club more Greek. In any case, how do you make the club ‘more Greek’?

Note: more Greeks are probably members of Carlton, Richmond or Collingwood than they are of South!

The club must look to the future and most will agree there really is no long term future in the VPL, quite frankly the thought of spending the next 50 odd years following SMFC in the VPL makes me feel sick. Every club’s ambition is to play at the highest level and winning National Championships. Plain and simple SMFC is a football club 1st and foremost. If it is a Greek social club, then I have been grossly mistaken for the last 26 years.

Do you honestly think investors will get behind a club that markets itself to 5-10 % of Melbourne’s population? Do you think the FFA will look at us twice if we are not being proactive in marketing the club to the wider community whilst we are in the VPL? What strange thoughts do people have that suddenly we’ll change our spots if the FFA come calling? We need the A-League more than the A-League needs us and we should be doing everything to get in!

At the end of the day, what better way to preserve the clubs traditions, than to be playing at the highest level in front of the masses. I’ll use the usual line about the Boston Celtics, A massive club for all Bostonians with Irish background.

Keep the existing fans, keep the souvlakia, keep the passion and history. But build on it, as our great club deserves nothing less.


Of course, one of the usual subjects couldn't be bothered reading it. So mods, go ahead and hand out your yellow cards; they can only stifle your guilt for so long; the ghost of South Melbourne Hellas past lingers on. The damage has been done; only thing to do now is get your shovel out so we can try and dig our way out of this mess. Happy 50th anniversary everyone.

James Spanos found alive! At least, 'a' James Spanos, if not the real one.

Within hours of the call being made in the hopes of locating the mysterious and reclusive South Melbourne legend James Spanos, an anonymnous tipoff to South of the Border came up with a facebook photo of this particular individual, named James Spanos. As we here in the office don't know what James Spanos superstar is supposed to actually look like, we're just going to roll with this one until something better comes along.

What's a James Spanos?

There is allegedly a superstar mystery South player out there with the name James Spanos. Not a reserve, not a triallist, not some schmo from the under 21s, but a senior player. If you know the whereabouts of this man, who I have no idea who the fuck he is despite my stats work, please contact South of the Border or your local police station as soon as possible. Thank you.

Triallist hitout review

A lovely day; players stroll back to the middle after South score.

The under 21s won 1-0 witb one of the dodgiest goals you're likely to ever see. A near post corner, mucked up by three Magic defenders and eventually slammed in. The 'senior' triallist came back from 2-0 down to finish 2-2. Francesco Stella and Sebastian Petrovich were the only ones who stood out, but it's not like I was paying that much attention.

South vs South! Family Day! Jersey Night! Event Overload!

Did you get the latest edition of the club's brandspanking new newsletter? If you didn't you probably should sign up for it via the wesbsite. It kicks arse, so hopefully it's something that can be kept up throughout the entire season. Now there's stuff in there about the Family Day, the Jersey Presentation Night, and an interesting friendly game against Tasmanian champion South Hobart. Now since I wrote the bloody part about that game, I feel it's kinda my right to just dump that bit here for youir edification.

South Melbourne FC is pleased to announce that as part of its preparations for the 2009 VPL season, and its 50th anniversary, the club will be hosting a friendly match against 2008 Tasmanian champions South Hobart on Saturday January 31st.

Founded in 1910, making them the Apple Isle's oldest club, South Hobart swept all before them in 2008, winning the Premier League as well the State, Steve Hudson and Launceston City Cups. Coached by the experienced Ken Morton, South Hobart also contributed 8 players to the Tasmanian squad in the A-League Youth competition.

Rock and/or Roll

Amidst much of the speculation for the coming season - our 50th anniversary don't you know - not much attention has been paid to who the possible candidates might be for the coveted - perhaps - major sponsor position on the commerative jersey. At last year's AGM, the question was asked if last year's sponsor Miroamer would be stumping up again; the answer was cautiously hopeful, but equally non-committal.

A random visit however The Age website showed that the company's internet car radio techonology is finally close to making its debut on the market. You can read about their technology, including quotes and stuff from South board member and Miroamer CEO George Parthimos in here. Who knows, maybe one day you could be driving to work and listening to the game all the way from Greece; or maybe some enterprising type could set up streaming broadcasts of VPL games to listen to when you're out on the road, maybe late for the game?

Con Harismidis gold from 2004, as dug up by Southpole

Welcome To Melbourne Rush 

We welcome all who are here. Melbounre Rush Soccer Club is for all fan we want here. Only if you are from commuhnist party or from asia or africa or you are from our homeland of Rushia then you are here. 



Statment from supreme leader of APl Jono Neal. 
' I am happy to have Rush club in my league. In our multi culture political corect time it is great to see aclub that can cobine the turk way of violence and steeling with the communist way of hatred of other people. I left rugby and i am paid many million dollar for this. if you go you can go and if you do not go then do not go for I get all the money any way. i would like to finsih by laugh in the face of the Hellas fan and the Melbourne Croatia fan and the Sydeny Olympic fan and the Carlton SC fan and the Morwell gippsland falcon fan and the brunswick juve black and white horse fan a nd even Macoroni Italliano fan and Sydeny Croatia fan and all the fan of all club who made the sport in the country." 


The Melbourne Rush Club 

Welcome and thank you to our sponsor. 
Unino of miscellanueos Union of Australia 
Worker Union of miscelaneuoas worker of australia 
The ABC and SBS and we thank there unbias report of Palestinain and Lebanon. 
Crzay Joan phone sell. 
The people who have sale at Saint Kilder Town Hall and sell there rug and carpet for 95 persent off. 
The Asutralian communist parrty. 
Iran Air. 
Dandenong city council. 
Coburg shopkeeper group. 
Lakember tourist holiday travel agent. 
Village cinema new movie release called The Mosk, starring Jim Carrey. 
The premire of victoria and the mayor of melbourne. 
TVT, Tv Turko. Host Mr Al-Rosh Al-atdula. Chanel 13 every friday. 
Every single school teacher in the state of victoria. 


To sing the anthem of Turkey and Russia and China we have Paula Abdula. She sing anthem of our country and then will sing song of our club. The song for our club is called Rush Rush by Paula Abdula. 


Rule for attending the game of Melbourne Rush club for ASA APL. 

Number A. 
People who are from this country background will not attend. These country are Anglo background, Greek heritage, all 510 diffrent former Jugoslavia country except Bosnian Kosovon, all USA people, all democartic tradition people, all Christian poeple, all people from Country that won the world cup before, all Israel people, all fan who care for the sport, all polite people with real family value, all Scandinavia people, all Italiano people except follower of Mussolini or Ferrari, no Kurd too. There is exception if you can show membership of communist party or if you have a criminal record. If you do not have your criminal record with you we can accept for identificaton your rugby league membership or your passport from Pakistan or Turkey, 

Number B. 
You have to pay the club membership. You then have to buy the per game ticket from the ticketekmaster. After you do this please line up outside ground with your credit card to reserve your seat for the game. We then ask you present cash to go past the gate. 

Number C. 
There are only two type of ticket alocate for the game. The $55dollar ticket is for the grandstand seating. The other ticket is for general admition and is reasonbly priced for you at $55dollar. 

Number D. 
In general ticket puchase there are two option to have. These are chanting or nonchanting. Singing to support the team is not allowed. All chanting must be in Arabic or Swahili. 

Number E. 
We welcome all women and female to the club. You have all privlage of the normal member but there are some thing you must do. You may buy ticket for the game but please do not come to game. You must stay at home and wear a big sheet with two hole for your eye cut out and you must make our donkey and camle meal and then finish making mud brick for our house. 

Number F. 
As is tradition of aour people. If you are from Turkey, India, Syria, China, Lebanon, Niger, Tunisia, Iran, Sudden, Chad, Pakistan, Mexico, Luxemborg, Germany, Bolivia, France Bulgaria, Russia , Austrio-Hungry, Botswana or Vietnam you can buy Family Ticket. Family Ticket is for 2 adult, 58 children and as many other relative you can get in a on family reunion scam. 

Number H. 
It is not weather the club win or lose. It is how much money Club Rush can get before the league fold. Thios money will then be sent to a numbered secret acount in Istanbul. 



The Melbourne Rush club have many supporter group so yoiu can be with your friend. 

Rush Club Tram Driver club - Welcome our poeple who drive the tram. 
Sponsored by Pakistan Air 

Rush club Train Driver Club - Welcome our train driver and the two station attender they have. 
Sponsor by Air India 
(For unspoken reason these two club will sit at opposite end of stadium) 

Rush Club Student Club - Welcome all student union student who give up there time from protesting to go to the game. 

Rush Club Palestinain Peace Group Club - Curently no member. 

Rush Club Camel owner of victoria supporter group club - The animal not the tobaco. 

Rush Club Taxi Driver club - All member here recieve a free map of the city. Soap too. 

Rush Club North Cypriot Not in Europe Club - To join this group please invade oir sneek in. 

Rush Club Pretend refugee Club - Lie about where you from and be given free lawyer. Feel free to overstay your club time too. 

Rsuh Club antiHellas club - AFl cricket rugby people. Victorian government too. Some room left for former member of board at Hellas. Nearly all medai of tv asn newsaper of here are member of this club. Peter Desri is member nu,mber 2. Member of VSF management are given lifetime embership to this group. 




Please welcome the many valued people who make Rush club what it is. 

Owner/dictator/warlord. Crazey Joan. 

Stadium Announcer. Shake Abdul-Abduala-Abdula-al-Abdula-Abdula. 

Ground maintenencer. Mustapha and his son Fatima. 

Team coach. John Kosmina. 

Assitant coach. Burnd Stanker. 

Assistant coach. World Cup coach of Saudi Arabia. 

Television announcer crew. Lesbanon Murray and Anthony Mudine. Special comment by Mark Viduka. 

Fair unbiased refere crew. Micafel Lennie and shield. 



Offical Team colour. 

Home unifrom. Green. 
Away unifrom. Green. 
Home headwear. White towl with red srting. 
Away headwear. White towl with green string. 



MatchDay activities. 

At 5:30 in morning we will announce the team lineup by loud speaker. 

From then to 3 in afternoon you may line to buy your ticket. 

3:30 the game is on. 

5:30 you must go. 

6:00 to late we will complain spit and abuse people on our way back to the house or car we live in. 


Plenty for the member and fan to do at the stadium. 
We have picture of all Australia and USA and England president or Prime mInister and we offer the fan to hit he picture with there shoe. 
A selection of muli culture food for your enjoyment. Camel Pie. Camel Dog. Camel Roll. Even some Camelakia. Plenty of meat from the eye and the groin of the animal will be in these delcacy. 
If any of you want to do crime then please do them. SBS camera crew is waiting to make you look like the victim so do the crime and do the airtime. 
Activity for children too. They can learn how to throw the rock and how to make a flamethrower from normal hairspray can. 



Many game will have special guest and special theme day. 

Week 3. AFL fan is here to teach people to get good spit at other peopel. 

Week 5. Fenerbache fan is here to explain why you celebrate if you win UEFA cup which is for the team that are not good enough to play Champion League. 

Week 6. Multi culture rugby aFL cricket day. Please order your kilo of illegal substence 3 business day before. Player from AFl cricket and rugby will try to sign there name for autograph for the fan. Player will charge $100dollar for the autograph. 

Week 8. Illegal crime fundraising day. 

Week 9. UN day. Join the United Nation with Russia and France in there Oil for food bribe. Would you like Coffee Anan. Boutros Boutros Gali will travel from Wagga Wagga and eat Kous Kous with Mustafa Mustafa. 

Week 10. Leadrer of tyhe england EPL. Will explain how to make a league where all player are from Africa or france or iceland and no player is from home country of league. 

Week 11. Midnight Oil and Celine Dion concert. Hosted by Eddie Magure. Same as week 8 really. 

Week 14. Melbourne CXroatia trator day. Welcome Zoran and Vladislav but only if they be communist. 

Week 15. Hellas trator day. Nobody expected to attend. 

Week 17. APL will be bankruped day. VSF will allow player from Club Rush to transfer to Heidelberg. 



The Melbourne Rush SC Club have many opening for job opening. 
Please now we will only hire minority people who are related to us. Other may appliy but we will laugh in there face and throw there aplication in gargabe. Please no Greek or Anglo or Italiano or Estonier or Scotland or Latvian or people who behave and have moral and manner. Exception if you are bad person and from these place thouhg. 

Ticket Seller. Minimum 4 year experince at extortiion or previous AFL job. 
Food seller. Maximum wash hand 1 time per month. Previous job at Morwell ground is good to have. 
Security. Pentrige qualificaton needed of at least 2 guilty or 1 guilty and 1 plee bargain. is good if worked similar role at Bob Jane or Sunshine. 
Cleaner. Greek , Norwagian or English language must not be used. Club Rush will provide flag of those country for you to clean floor. 

The Meblourne Rush also want qualification and experience for the aplicant. If you have worked for Nazi party, Soccer Australia, Microsoft, AFL, Milosevic or OJ Simpson or Chowchesskoo or the Labor PArty then that is good for aplicant. If you are communist from Rushia then go to front of the line. If you are police wanted person from Asia then go ahead of the communist in line. 


Moscow Moscow see the Rush club everywhere 
play soccer in our underwear 
hahahahaha 
hay 
Moscow Moscow we are Turk and we dont care 
We take your land and do not share 
hahahahaha

When you're at Lakeside in 2009...

Don't forget to follow these simple rules, or else you could find yourself unable to ever watch Ericsson Cup fixtures in future, and who knows, you just might end up being forced to watch the VPL. Crikey, half the rules are mostly related to flares. Hail Satan we have the A-League.

Slow news week

Mike Valkanis retired from Adelaide United... rumours have inevitably circulated that he's going to play out his career with South, but it's just rumours as far as I know. Brisbane Olympic is holding a Hellenic Cup tournament including several interstate Greek clubs - South isn't one of them, but whether that was due to not being invited or us rejecting it is sorta up in the air... though if we did reject the offer, it was probably because the paltry prizemoney on offer (in a cost/reward analysis) wasn't really worth it. Rockem Sockem Poutakidis will be captaining Northcote City next year. I also got food poisoining and was hooked up to a saline solution drip in hospital for a couple of hours yesterday, not very fun. Hopefully more interesting things to report on soon.

And now for something completely different

Apparently yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the great smfcboard. Of course, there were other South related fora, but none has had the longevity of smfcboard. Maybe one day registrations will be free and opne some day. I doubt it though. But anyway, happy 10th birthday to smfcboard!

Making room for something new, maybe

Cleaned out some of the pointless links on the side. So if by chance you happen to hit on an article which says refer to the side panel, and you can't find, use your imagination.

Ange resigns as Panachaki coach

Despite keeping Panachaiki well within contention for promotion - they'd been in the top three for most of the season - a falling out with the people running the club has seen Ange end his Panachaiki adventure. His plans for the immediate future are unknown at this stage.

Robbie Wynne also gone to the Chokers

Was in yesterday's Greek paper (Nea Ellada) apparently. Haven't seen it myself, as I haven't touched that paper in something like a decade. 

South Melbourne Hellas can cure cancer?

Probably not. But I was channel surfing just then and stumbled across the tail end of a news story talking about cancer, some dentistry college or school, and for some reason the reporter was standing at scoreboard end (roughly near where I could be found throughout 2008) with her back towards the far end of the stand and saying something about 'enough to fill this stadium'. Anyone else see it? What was all that about?

What ever happened to Kevin Nelson?

Well, after his acrimonious departure from the club, from all reports he went back to the Canadian leagues and he's now retired and begun working for this mob. I have no hard feelings towards him, even though he may have some towards South and some people from South obviously didn't like him. Still, he scored 7 goals in half a championship winning season, and for that we should be grateful. 

3XY Last Night

George Triantos and Leo Athanasakis were on air last night. Now I didn't get to listen to it, but apparently the following things were covered, with thanks to Cuddles for filling us in.

 

• We're waiting for the government to get back to us on matters regarding the Lakeside redevelopment
• We'll be wearing a commemorative strip next year, based on an old strip from the past
• Potential signings weren't mentioned because 'Aki might be listening', lol
• Apparently the host was rather impressed by the passion and direction the club is going in

All very low key at this point in time

It's rather strange... only intra-club matches being played, nothing against fellow VPL opposition... even other VPL clubs haven't, as far as I know, stuck their heads out the door to have a think about having a game against someone. This lead up into Christmas and the New Year is unusually cautious.... are we scared of perhaps failing in our 5oth year... or is it just a lack of excitement?

Jim Marinis doesn't get FFV spot

As reported earlier, former South director and football operations dude Jim Marinis - now doing the same thing basically at Melbourne Knights - was in the running for a spot on the FFV board. As it turns out he didn't get it, with two of the three spots being won by people seeking re-election and, on face value at least, his tactic of not putting up a statement for the public to read not working in his favour. I guess we'll see him in round four then, maybe.

Spawning Salmon

While performing my thrice a day minimum check of who's reading this thing and how they get here, I noticed a link from an unusual place - some blog called The Spawning Salmon - some sort of Adelaide United blog, fairly new, pretty well written, which has added us to their blog order of merit (ie linked us) without our knowning. So in the traditions of our forefathers, we - or rather me - at South of the Border add them too.

About last night

Neither Manny Poulakakis nor Peter Laumets nor Takis Mantarakis could get me a prize last night in the raffle. Good to some familiar faces there last night, disappointing to, as in the case of the AGM, not see some regular faces. Oh well.

Diaco leaves South for Cannons

Yes, it's true. After a solid 2007 and injury plagued 2008, one of the nice guys of the VPL has decided to jump ship and cross over to the dark side in more ways than one perhaps.

Sad news... even if a little late

Last week former Federal Labor Treasurer Frank Crean passed away aged 92. What most of the obituaries will omit and most South fans wouldn't have a clue about is that Frank Crean was also a former South Melbourne United president. What further involvement in the game he had is unknown to me, but our condolences go out to his friends and family nonetheless.

Christmas Party this Friday

Did you make your booking? I should be down there. Last year's was ok, nothing spectacular.

New South website now online... even if you can't see it yet

The new site is now officially online.  It looked great in pre-production whern I had a look, but at the moment you may not be able to see it in all its glory because of some DNS thing or whatever/ Even myself and one of the creators of the site, oru good frined can't see it yet because of the way the internet works. Anyway check it out, great effort by everyone.

Best first year of this blog ever

Kind of like the Festivus 'airing of the grievances'. this entry will look at where South of the Border failed to make an impact, and also did ok. Suggestions and additions welcome. More important stuff tomorrow.

A look back at what worked or went well this year.

• International exposure achieved very early on Bolosepako. Thanks Po Hui.
• Stood up for what is right in regards to the Pumpkins Seed Eaters thing, irrespective of what happened afterwards.
• Lasted for more than a few weeks. Followed by having something new almost everyday during the season.
• Got stuff printed in Das Libero and Neos Kosmos English Weekly, and the official site.
• Kept people in touch with stuff that is largely ignored by the mainstream side of the club's media wing.
• Getting on radio, in another state/territory mind you.
• Got a book of sorts done up. Here's to the future

And what didn't go so good

• Failure to get the point across effectively to the Pumpkin Seed Eaters. You know what I'm talking about. But they're dead now, or in hiding. Or something. I dunno.  But I'm not laughing because it may happen here too.  Apparently there a few sensitive souls out there who don't like people taking the mickey out of them, or heaven forbid, disagreeing with them verbosely, just being twats. Go figure.
• The lack of a link on The Supermercado Project. Sure, link to Atlanta Falcons malakies, but not to the blog that was inspired by your other blog. Disappointing.
• The lack of almost any outside contributions. I wanted this site to be for all the creative, angry, multi thousand dollar camera wielding South fans to put forward their story; as well those with no talent but far too much time on their hands. This is a chance to put forward their point of view, on their club, in a place where people outisde of smfcboard will see it... maybe they want to complain about the lack of coverage and freedom of speech? Or maybe they're too busy using their free (see sponsor derived via contra deals) Victory tickets. The offer is still there people.
• No ongoing column on Das Libero. The land where associate editorships mean not much and where promises of glory go to die. But then again, the whole shebang seemed to die in the arse, but that wasn't really my fault.
• The semi-disastrous Nearpost radio interview. It could have gone better to be honest, in terems of the what the final product ended up as. Still, nice to have the opportunity.

Thankyou to Ian, Cliff, Paul, Jim, Nats, Neil, Guido, Po Hui, Eamonn, Cuddles, Psile, Tony, John,  Michal, whoever the mysterious women's team person was who fed us info, anyone who said 'this doesn't go on the blog', everyone who left a comment, and all those people who got us to 20,000 page views.

Of course we weren't the only ones to hold an AGM recently

The Melbourne Knights also had a little laid back Friday night session of Q and/or A.

For those who can't be bothered reading about monkeys and Jack Daniels Stadium, and who also believe both things they read on the internet and Knights fans (so I guess just me and Cuddles then) the main points are thus.

• They have a large debt (or rather the Social Club does), but made a small profit.
• Coburg owes them heaps for their tenancy at Knights Stadium
• MCF was unhappy with the club being turned away from its Croatian roots/purpose.
• Something about Yugos and Jews.
• Average attendance of 580
• As reported here before, Jim Marinis joining their board
• And perhaps most importantly and interestingly, not one cent has yet been seen from their deal with Dinamo Zagreb. Makes ya think.

All in all, I'd still rather support South Melbourne Hellas. But then again, I'm probably some sort of cigan to them anyway.

Damn post-agm angst

So some you want more detail. Seems like initiating helpless infants into fringe Medditerrean cults is more important than turning up to super cereal meetings.

Anyway, we have a new football ops due. Ange Dallas is his name, been arpund the club for like, years man, and we've gone about signing up and re-signing players. Most of our squad seems to have be re-signed or has agreed to terms. This is where we say goodbye however, to Sam 'Rockem Sockem' Poutakidis, whose second stint at the club has come to an end, as he has been released.

Venue management was the big ticket talking point, with an increase on venue hire being made, as well as the prospect of future increases next year. Greg Kaias was also the recipient of some negative feedback, for his Melbourne Hearts thing. And the Lakeside thing is still being negotiated. Chances are we won't play out the entire season at Lakeside.