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.