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Redemption, of a sort - South Melbourne 3 Oakleigh Cannons 0

August 2, 2015, 9:40 pm
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South coach Chris Taylor and captain Michael Eagar lift the Dockerty Cup
trophy, as the rain pours down. Photo credit: South Melbourne FC/unknown.
There was an obvious fear that no matter how well we played yesterday, that we'd nevertheless fall short. This fear wasn't just based on the 120 minutes we'd played on Wednesday, but also on the mentality of the players and whether they'd be able to get up for the game following the FFA Cup disappointment. Instead the team put in a solid 90 minute performance and took home a third trophy in 12 months, and our first Dockerty Cup in 20 years. The win, in front of about 1200 people braving wind, rain and cold, also showed that the club needs to be and can be about more than the odd spell in the mainstream limelight.

I'm struggling to recall a South game with a more even performance from every player that took the field. While we weren't faultless, I'd argue that every South player contributed to the win yesterday, and that they were superior to everyone in their opposite position. Even with Oakleigh's relative abortion of a 2015 season, they'd still managed to get this far and were still a side comprised of several quality players - yet they struggled to penetrate the 18 yard box, and were left scrambling to defend our attacks on multiple occasions.

Even with the aid of a strong wind in the first half, Oakleigh weren't able to conjure up much to trouble Nikola Roganovic in the South goal. One long clearance from defence (actually a clever chip from midfield) saw Oakleigh beat the high offside trap, but Roganovic was quickly off his line and dealt with the oncoming attacker brilliantly (Lambros Honos hit it straight at him). For the rest of the game, the back four of Tim Mala, Brad Norton, Luke Adams and Michael Eagar were superb. Eagar in particular had an outstanding game,

The midfield, which this time included Matthew Theodore (replacing Jake Barker-Daish) and a start for Leigh Minopoulos (replacing David Stirton out wide on the right) never stopped running. Rather than the one dimensional, predominantly left wing attacking side we'd been for several weeks, we were a team that looked dangerous from whichever direction we attacked from. While we had the better of a relatively even first half, the main concern from an attacking sense was how isolated Milos Lujic was once again. All this was rectified in the second half, as the early goal was symptomatic of the way we'd run the game out, with numbers running into the box to support our star striker. Scoring goals from a corner also helps, but to be honest we could have won this game by a lot more. Some of our finishing once the game was settled could have been better, but at least we were well in front as opposed to having to play catch up as we'd had to do in some of the cup games leading up to the final.

In the room after the game, Roganovic still felt the need to apologise to supporters. What I would say to him is that his service in his brief time at the club has been exemplary as both a player and someone who feels part of the club, and that there are many, many former players and people involved with the club over the years who'd need to apologise before he does. And while it clearly sucks not having a social club, I'd like to say a big thank you to the players for allowing the supporters to share the win in the locker room after the game.

Speaking on behalf of myself, on a personal level...
I was pleased that we'd won the Dockerty Cup rather than some no name trophy or that light bulb trophy. Having been one of the people that fought for the return of the Dockerty Cup name and trophy - albeit this season in its stupidly truncated semi-final onwards only format - it was great to be able to lift the trophy in the change rooms as a supporter rather than as a historian during my sojourns to FFV HQ as part of the Historical Committee. It was even better to be able to share that experience not just with the players, but with other long serving supporters of the club. A pity that South's habit of breaking trophies was once again on display; having broken last year's NPL trophy, and the 1998 NSL trophy, yesterday this happened:
Time to break out the Tarzan Super Grip I think.

Update:


The questions that keep you up at night, and then follow you into the next day
After the consistent appeal for an answer to Chris Taylor's questionable substitution decisions on Wednesday night, did Taylor make no subs in yesterday's game out of spite? Was there a great overarching plan somewhere in there that we just can not perceive, nor be trusted to comprehend?

Five years!
If the rumours are to be believed, when our board had claimed that we'd signed Chris Taylor for a 'long time', they weren't kidding. Five years?! That's almost as long as we've been waiting for a social club! Of course this could turn out to be either a masterstroke or disaster. Not wishing to judge (five years, what the hell?), I reckon we should all agree to meet at this spot in about five years time and see how it all worked out.

Next game
Back to league action, with a game against Port Melbourne at home on Friday night.

Nick Epifano, born charmer
Nick Epifano was interviewed last week on the Sydney based Soccer Stoppage Time show, in what turned out to be a brief interview. The main presenter of the show appears to be a huge fan of Epifano, and is flabbergasted by the fact that he's not in the A-League yet. When he asks Nick that question, Nick replies with I don't know, guess I have to work harder, etc. Nick goes on to say that he owes a lot to Chris Taylor; that the Dundee United experience, although truncated due to personal reasons, was an eye opener in terms of what kind of professionalism is required to play at that level; some guff about the club's FFA Cup preparations (this was recorded prior to our loss to Palm Beach); and there being interest from Adelaide United and Perth Glory. Epifano doesn't make a very good interview subject; his answers are short, nervous and provide little prospect for elaboration. After the interview ended, the main presenter once again praised Epifano's footballing ability, took aim at the struggling A-League franchises that hadn't done their homework, and while acknowledging that there were some concerns about behavioural issues, brushed them aside.

Film review - El Cinco
The Melbourne International Film Festival has made a habit of showing some really interesting soccer films. Two years ago it was the North Korean film 'Centre Forward', while last year it was Romanian experimental doco 'The Second Game' (which I really regret not reviewing for this blog). This year it's 'El Cinco', an Argentine film about a professional footballer who has made the decision to retire. It's a low key and poignant film, but which also has several hilarious moments.

This is a film about the end of what director Adrian Biniez portrays as the extended childhood of life as a professional footballer. Defensive midfielder Paton (Esteban Lamothe) - a sort of man child who spends his spare time on video games, booze, pot and annoying his wife -  is 35 years old when he receives an eight match ban following a red card; the ban rules him out of all but the final matches of the season. Locked away in the change rooms by himself and sitting out the rest of the game in what resembles a prison cell, Paton clearly feels the hand of football's Father Time resting on his shoulder. At home later on, he calmly announces to his partner Ale (Julieta Zylberberg) that this will be his last season - and the rest of the film follows what will be the final portion of his career, as Paton struggles to find what his purpose in life will be after his career is finished, including several schemes for his post-footballing life, as well as attempting to get his high school diploma.

The portrayal of Argentine professional soccer in this film is almost unrelenting in its working class aesthetics. Paton's side, Talleres, plays in a dilapidated stadium; but then again, so do most of their opponents. Money is short, and wages are often delayed. His team mates are mostly, if not all, working class boys like himself, who seem to have few other prospects apart from being professional footballers. Playing in a match is at best a reward for the repetitive exercises and training sessions that have to be undertaken; at worst, they are a frustrating and unfulfilling experience. Adulation is there for the players, but more often than not they are employed as a way for the club's supporters to be able to vent the frustrations of their own lives.

As Paton dithers about telling his family and his team mates the news, he learns about the fate of those from his junior soccer days who never quite made the grade, and tries to fight a battle against anxiety and boredom that threatens to derail his post-football life before it begins - because as much as playing football is the chief means of his employment, it also makes up almost his entire identity as a person. Football is not only a job for Paton, but also his vocation - he knows little else of the world. The pending loss of the companionship and camaraderie of the change rooms are heightened by Paton's impending retirement.

If that sounds like all too much po-faced seriousness, then it should be clear that there are a lot of funny moments in this film as well. While Paton is usually quick witted, he can be undone by his own determination to get even with those who have slighted him (at one point a radio talkback segment goes very, very wrong). The supporters and club directors are always there to make a nuisance of themselves. The most comedic (and tragic) lines in the film though go to the team's coach, a slob of a man with little obvious football nous, who sometimes sleeps in his car and is always at a loss as to how to inspire his troops in their quest to escape mid-table mediocrity.

And as much as this is a film about soccer and the life of a professional athlete, it is also a film about marriage. As another review of this film has noted, the marriage portrayed in El Cinco is not a typical film affair. We are shown a relationship that is in the middle, not at its beginning or end; we are not shown a relationship in strife, but one that has its protagonists constantly renegotiating the terms of its existence. Paton's partner Ale is neither harridan nor long suffering saint, and this portrayal is aided by the excellent acting chemistry between Lamothe and Zylberberg.

The only two gripes I had with the film? The on field soccer scenes are pretty lame, but then again they almost always are; and the subtitles are a little wonky at times, which only makes you appreciate the quality of subtitling we get on SBS. There will be those, too, who will feel that this film doesn't really go anywhere, and that would be a valid complaint, if only that was not the purpose of the film - to portray working class life in all its low key mundaneness.

It's showing again this Saturday, and it's definitely worth a look for fans of good football films, and of course Latin American cinema.

Sic semper tyrannis
If the moderation of smfcboard is going to be more active, in terms of banning people and deleting their posts, the least we could do is have some clear rules set out for what the mods consider acceptable posting. It was bad enough when posts were being deleted because someone from the board demanded it, but the moment it becomes about posts being deleted because of an arbitrary matter of taste, then we've crossed into really dangerous territory.

I have received my share of criticism for my own vague comments publishing policy on this blog, because I've more or less allowed just about every nutbag to have their say over the years. This is based on my belief that the vast majority of my readers are sensible enough to post thoughtful commentary, even stuff that I disagree with and even items where I myself am the target of the post. I also trust my readers to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff for themselves, and that stupid posts reflect badly not just on their own authors but also the cause they seek to promote.

There are few more powerful tools of rebuttal against a person's arguments than their own words and the passage of time. I hope the moderators keep this in mind before pulling the trigger in future.

Does Mornington count as being in Melbourne?
Remember this? Well, Mark Bosnich was in town on Saturday for Mornington's 50th anniversary, but I still had to pay for own crepes yesterday, and complain to people who've already heard all my complaints.

Around the grounds
Mummy, where does daddy go on Saturdays?
A trip to Bendigo was reluctantly knocked back; an opportunity to watch a tanking Collingwood was considered only briefly; so it was off to Paisley Park for the State League One North West Greek Derby between Altona East and Western Suburbs. And what a game it was! At least for the first 50 odd minutes anyway. East looked better than the ladder leaders, and took the lead when Gomer Pyle was given too much room to unleash a curling left foot shot from the edge of the box into the opposite corner. Then the little Japanese fellow blasted his shot miles wide on the goal line, and that's where things stopped going well for East. After a passage of play where East cleared desperately off the line, the keeper got up dazed and confused but continued. Suburbs equalised with a great free kick from out wide to go into the break level. The early parts of the second half saw East go down to ten men after a handball on the goal line. After the penalty was scored, East's keeper also got subbed off suffering from the concussion he got in the first half, and Suburbs made sure of it soon after with their third. Goals four and five were icing on the cake.

Final thought
I'm a worrier, it's true; but you'd worry, too, if you had people come up to you after reading last week's post after our FFA Cup loss and ask you to write something positive for once.
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Greek studs and disco kings artefact Wednesday - Heartbreak Kid mementos

August 4, 2015, 11:30 pm
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In the old Lakeside social club, there were many memorable framed jerseys, as well as many of less worthwhile calibre. And yet the two frames included in this week's artefact segment were found not on a wall in the social club, but hidden away in a drawer. The two frames are signed mementos from the Australian film The Heartbreak Kid, which starred Alex Dimitriades and Claudia Karvan. The film is fondly remembered by sections of the Greek-Australian community, if for no other reason that it included Dimitriades in the role of a young Greek Australian stud (as opposed to Dimitriades' turn as the hedonist bisexual Ari in Head On, sometimes derisively called 'that poofter film') as well as for its soccer scenes based out of South Melbourne Hellas, which was one of the film's key sub plots.
'Thanks for the use of your soccer field. Claudia Karvan'
'To everyone at Hellas, thanks! Alex. D.'
The Heartbreak Kid was of course not the first bit of Australian film or television to feature South Melbourne Hellas. The still popular sitcom Acropolis Now would occasionally feature references to South Melbourne Hellas and soccer, including a whole episode centred on a Hellas player played by Russell Crowe. West Adelaide Hellas and Adelaide City Juventus also featured briefly in the now long forgotten Garry McDonald film Struck by Lightning.

For those who recall The Heartbreak Kid (and to a much lesser extent its soapy spinoff Heartbreak High) many would be surprised to learn that the film was originally a play set in a Sydney high school, covering much the same territory, albeit in a far more chaste manner. In the play there's desire, but no sex; there are class issues, but they play second fiddle to the puppy love of a student for his teacher. The movie in that sense has a harder edge. Without wanting to wax philosophical (because the film deserves its own thorough analysis) the migrant issues are portrayed in a much more brutal manner, along with the working class aspect as one of the results of moving the film's setting from Sydney (where the main Greek characters were Sydney Olympic fans) to working class Brunswick and Coburg, where Dimitriades' character is a talented player whose ambition is to play for South Melbourne Hellas, as well as (notably) Australia.

The film had several soccer scenes, including extensive filming of Middle Park. Sydneysider Dimitrides is a fine actor, but he ain't no soccer player, and thus for those scenes where his character is required to perform some soccer sequences - especially one memorable late night scene after breaking into Middle Park - Con Boutsianis was hired to be the stunt double, which explains the framed photo below.

'To all the players and members of 'Hellas', thanks for all the help and support!
Special thanks to Barry and of course, the Disco King himself, Con Boutsianis!
Thanks once again, and good luck this season. From a friend. Alex D.'
All of which is, as usual, a very long winded way of saying when we do get the social club up and running, these would be a couple of very nice items to put on display.
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Happy, but not all the time - South Melbourne 4 Port Melbourne 2

August 9, 2015, 5:40 am
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I really don't know what to make of this game. We scored lots of goals, and could have had more, but how good was the opponent really? On the other hand, we kept them to few chances at the other end, and still managed to cop two goals. But there was also great resilience from the team to keep pushing and pressuring, and that created its own momentum and sense of purpose.

The team was unchanged from the Dockerty Cup win against Oakleigh, and so was the style. More numbers forward to help a formerly isolated Milos Lujic, who seems to have his mojo going again despite missing a sitter for his hat trick. Quite how he managed to get to the header from a cross that was in the air for an eternity, let alone manage to loop into the back of the net only the video will be able to say. His finish to put us in front for the third time, once again from one of many superb Brad Norton crosses, was excellent, but it was the cross that should be put on display for all the kids out there to learn and imitate.

By the end of the game Norton was so in tune with his crossing that it looked he was playing snooker and putting 'English' onto his crosses. There was one moment late in the game where you actually see the concentration on his face as he was about to hit a cross, angling his boot in such a way to get exactly the kind of spin he wanted.

How odd that Brad Norton of all players may become a cult hero, perhaps even future legend of the VPL era South? Yes there's a long to go on that front, but think of it this way: throughout all the tumultuous years during his South stint (2012-2015) he's the only one left. From derided and unappreciated, he has worked his way through form issues, and even the challenge of Shaun Timmins being brought into the side mid last year to essentially replace him (when other players would have perhaps thrown a hissy fit, and is probably playing the best soccer of his South career. He also seems to enjoy being around South, and seems to have plenty of time for the supporters. I'm still trying to get my head around it.

Nick Epifano managed to get on the score sheet twice, once via a penalty (earned by Leigh Minopoulos) and once via a through ball delivered by Minopoulos, which had a very Phil Kessel to Clarke MacArthur kind of vibe to it, when they both still at the Maple Leafs. It's great to see Leigh not just playing, but also contributing. I like to think that I can get some of the credit for his turnaround in fortune:
Defensively the two goals we conceded, apart from coming from limited opportunities, were also irritating for the manner we conceded them. The first was almost a carbon copy of the goal we should have conceded against Oakleigh the week before, while the second saw Nikola Roganovic parry the ball straight back into play two times, and by the third time Port got sick of that particular game and decided they may as well score

Anyway this week Chris Taylor did make some substitutions, but he still found some way to fuck with people's heads. In fact, in an atypical occurrence of paranoia, I wondered if he was directly trying to get into my head, when with the game more or less sewn up with 15 minutes to go, by making subs in the 88th and 89th minutes.

Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the game was the way we handled the wet conditions. The second best part of the evening was Bentleigh drawing 1-1 at home to Avondale Heights, meaning that we've drawn to within three points of the Greens, while having played one fewer game - and then on Sunday Heidelberg drew 3-3 with North Geelong, giving us the edge in the run home for what used to be called the minor premiership.

Next game + the run home
We have Avondale Heights away on Saturday, our last away trip for the home and away season. It won't be an easy game, not just because of the doggedness of the opponent, but also because the ground is small and not usually in the best of conditions, which will mean we'll likely have a result to grind out here rather than something pretty.

Bentleigh, whose poor run of form recently has seen them drop several games and look much more vulnerable, have two games left, against Northcote and Oakleigh. It's hard to know how well either of those two sides will go or how much motivation they'll have considering neither can make the finals.

Should Bentleigh win both of those games, we'll need to win all three of our remaining games. We play Avondale away, Hume City midweek and Northcote in the final round. Not an easy sequence of games, but two non-finals sides and an erratic Hume City are better than many of the alternatives.

Heidelberg also has three games to play, but dropping points today to North Geelong has set them back a fair bit. They've got Hume, who still need a point or two to make absolutely sure of a finals spot, Green Gully midweek who are still trying to make the dash for an unlikely sixth placed finish, and Dandenong Thunder who will be looking to do anything possible to get themselves into 12th spot and thus into a playoff for relegation rather than automatically go down. The Bergers will need to win all three games and hope results seriously go their way.

While Melbourne Knights are equal on points with Heidelberg, they have only two games left to play and would need to do a Bradbury to finish on top.

Some thoughts on the people that were there, and those that weren't, and I promise not to talk about the social media numbers at all, OK?
If there were 1,200 people at the Dockerty Cup final last week (some say 2,000 but that's being generous) then a crowd of 370 for this fixture just a few days later is a touch disappointing, albeit par for the course for the 2015 season.

Of course one should take into account the fact that Port's home crowds are even worse, often struggling to reach 100, so the chances that they'd bring anything resembling numbers across the 4.5 kilometres from SS Anderson Reserve to Lakeside were slim, especially considering that they hadn't brought numbers to the City of Port Philip 'derby' in any of our previous meetings at Lakeside.

But back to us and what is really troubling about such a low attendance. Now we may all recall that the club performed a survey asking the supporters what day and time they preferred for their home kickoffs to be, with an apparent majority stating a preference for Sundays at 3PM, or 5PM. The board looked at the survey, scratched its collective head, and decided to go with Friday night fixtures because they thought that:
  • The coaching staff and players would benefit.
  • We would attract better corporate support
  • It would allow the juniors to come to games after Friday training sessions
I'm not going to say that the decision had already been made, but it's hard not to be cynical about these things. Here were some of my thoughts at the time the survey was announced, all the way back at the 2014 AGM (so really, January 2015).
To that end, the club also stated the decision to play most of our home games on Fridays - though some of our games will be moved to Sundays - was in part motivated by the coaching staff's desire to optimise the recovery and training schedules of the players. This is despite 60% (a sketchily provided number) of our supporters responding in an online survey that their preference was for Sunday games. The hope that we would better attract corporate sponsors to attend on Friday nights was also expressed. Overall there was a lot of doubt in the room about the decision, but we'll see how it goes. In this writer's opinion, without the social club Friday nights just won't be a success, but they may as well try something different. Hopefully the games don't clash with Melbourne based Friday night AFL matches.
As you can see, I had my doubts about the success of the Friday night venture from an attendance perspective (especially without a social club), but I was willing to give it a go and see how it would all play out. The move does not seem to have worked, at least not from the perspective of attendances. Not being the type to go around counting the number of children at games, I can't say whether we have attracted more of our juniors to attend, but one of our informants reckons that the corporate attendance was poor.

There should also be concerns for the following reason. Last Sunday for the Dockerty Cup final, more people turned up than did on Friday night when they had to pay entry at the gate as opposed to using their membership cards. The team, despite some traditional slowdown in the middle portion of the season, is also doing well. It won a championship last season lest we forget, has just come off a Dockerty Cup win, and is still well in the running for the NPL national playoffs and seemingly starting to find form at the right part of the year heading into the finals.

There was also no footy on in Melbourne on Friday night, so where was everyone? Or maybe that was everyone, at least from the point of view of the people who will turn up every week no matter what. If that's the case, then why not cater to those fans and play our home games on Sundays? Either that or just say 'look, we think that playing on Fridays gives us that much more of an edge of winning a championship, so with all due respect, since most of you are going to turn up no matter when we play, we've decided to play Friday night games'.

One and one makes two; two and one makes three; it was destiny
I am hearing things from all sorts of crazy different sources and I am starting to put two and two together. There has been some angst about the name 'South Melbourne United' being re-booted, in case it got used as a means to get a South Melbourne affiliate of sorts (so not really South Melbourne) into the A-League playing with a red vee jersey. But then there is also talk that there have been negotiations with the South Melbourne Women - and if you thought like I did that, 'wait, I thought we had established that were in a de facto relationship' - then that certainly might come as a surprise.

But what if instead of registering South Melbourne United as an A-League front, it was designed to go the other way? Several NPL clubs have set up 'community clubs' in order to maintain a broader junior base that's more participatory in outlook. Now one of the concerns for South Melbourne Women, should they apply for the Women's NPL which is due to start next year, is that like a men's NPL side they would lose many of their juniors. While women's soccer in Victoria has a track record of often being more about 'teams' as opposed to 'clubs', as an outsider, South Melbourne Women seem to be more at the 'club' end of the spectrum, and thus would lose something culturally important in the transition. Does a scenario where South Melbourne FC becomes the dual licence holder for NPL men's and women's football, while establishing South Melbourne United as a community club outpost overcome those problems to the satisfaction of all the parties involved (mainly the women not getting treated like garbage)? Are there enough facilities to cater for everyone adequately whether they play for a mens' or boys', womens' or girls', NPL or community club? What kind of impact will this have on other clubs in our local area?

The other danger of this of course is if the 'community club' decides at some point to go its own way, as appears to be the case with at least one version (I think the Sunshine George Cross affiliated community club). How our South Melbourne would manage to keep a relatively short leash on such an organisation remains to be seen. All of that of course supposes that my rank speculation has even the faintest whiff of truth to it. I may be just pissing into the wind.

Of course, all this speculation flies in the face of this comment (seriously, read it, it's interesting), which puts forward a fairly detailed idea of how South Melbourne United will be the front for getting back into the A-League.

Attention Lakeside Stadium maintenance people
The public address system is struggling during bits where music is being played, with the music fading in and out. It's been happening for a few weeks, and it's really starting to get annoying. Bad enough having crap music being played, worse when the speakers are playing up as well.

Things could be worse! - new segment
This segment in a nod towards the desire among some people for more positivity. Each week I'll be trying to find a way in which things 'could be worse!', to make us appreciate what we have. Suggestions are welcome, come see me at a game and let me know what you're thankful for as a South fan.
Final thought
Great, that overseas football nonsense has started again. There goes my Twitter feed and my Facebook news feed.
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'Before the unpleasantness' artefact Wednesday - Tynan-Eyre Cup certificate of appreciation

August 11, 2015, 10:00 pm
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The Tynan-Eyre Cup was an annual tournament played between Victoria's NSL clubs and occasionally some of the leading teams in the Victorian Premier League, with the goal of raising funds for the Blue Ribbon Foundation. After a riot by Preston fans at Lakeside during the 2002 Tynan-Eyre Cup final, I'm not sure this trophy was ever played for again, at least not by soccer clubs - there appears to be some sort of footy competition with this trophy name nowadays.

Anyway, this certificate of appreciation comes from before 2002, specifically the year 2000, when South Melbourne beat Melbourne Knights 3-1 at the Veneto Club in the competition's final. South had earlier beaten Eastern Pride (2-1 at Green Gully) and Carlton (3-1 at Kingston Heath), and drawn against Melbourne Knights (1-1 at Knights Stadium)
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Bobble - Avondale Heights 0 South Melbourne 7

August 16, 2015, 4:01 am
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The bus arrived at the bus stop on Hopkins Street two doors down from Melbourne's best cannoli already about ten minutes late, and it didn't get much better from there, traffic circumstances making us lose more and more time. The driver tried to rectify this by flooring it on the open spaces of Military Road which took me by surprise, meaning that Gains and I ended up alighting a stop further down the road than we would have liked. Never mind, a short walk never did anyone any harm.

For those who haven't been here before: Doyle Street Reserve is the most Spartan of the current day NPL grounds, though at least they've fixed up a few issues this season. They've added what looks like a 100 seat temporary stand, a miniature green tool shed for a media box, and temporary fencing around the ground in order to be able to more effectively charge admission. They've also removed the (puts on A Current Affair voice) death trap goal posts, which were a source of much angst last year.

The surface though was still an unresolved issue. Forget what the typically aloof and sneering South fan might say, but there were others there who were shocked that this was an NPL venue. One was in awe because he had umpired cricket here during the summer, another because (and I could be getting this wildly wrong) he could remember a game against Western Eagles Polonia here just a few short years ago. Sometimes the pace of on-field progress outstrips that of of off-field progress

The bumpy surface on a small field was always likely to prevent an attractive brand of soccer being played. That Avondale had recruited (probably great expense) good ball players and ex-South men Francesco Stella and Massimo Murdocca given that their strengths would be limited on that surface always struck me as odd. In other years, South would struggle to play on these kinds of surface, but a more practical approach in recent years has done wonders.

So while Avondale tried to play the prettier football and aim their shots high at Nikola Roganovic, South was happy to play dinky little balls over the top to the forwards, and with a bit of help from the bumpy service managed to take a 2-0 lead into half time. While we looked good things to take the three points, I had a sense that we could be one piece of bad luck away from having the game open up again.

As it happened, it was Avondale which completely lost its nerve, conceding three goals in almost as many minutes, with a series of mistakes from former South goalkeeper Chris Maynard and his defence gifting easy chances to South. Andy Kecojevic's goal, finishing off a cross from former Avondale man Chris Irwin made it six late on, and provided a welcome addition to the goal difference tally.

With the result long sewn up, attention was being paid to the Northcote - Bentleigh game, then still at 0-0. When the news had come in via the Futbol24 app that Northcote had scored, the 'I-I-Irakli' chants came out from Clarendon Corner, only for the goal to be retracted second later; though it took some time for news to reach the raucous away support, who had made use of the playground at the western end of Doyle Reserve.

It was funny watching and waiting for them to realise that the goal had been a mistake (reminiscent of the final round of the home and away season in 2006 out at Green Gully Reserve, where someone mistook Altona Magic doubling their lead for Heidelberg equalising - I guess you had to be there). The situation became less funny when Bentleigh took the lead moments later, but what can you do?

The game finished when substitute David Stirton was brought down from behind in the box, and Epifano having been subbed off, Lujic slotting it home for his hattrick and the further erasure of one more nagging penalty taking demon. Not that we've played the crème de la crème of opposition in recent weeks, but we sure as hell could have played a lot worse. The team is starting to find its groove again, and at the right time of the season, too.

Next game + the run home
Hume City on Wednesday night at Lakeside. Hume beat Heidelberg 2-0 this afternoon to secure their finals place. Whether that makes them more or less dangerous in the run in to the finals I don't know.

Jockeying for position. The race for top spot is down to two teams, while Knights and the Bergers will still be looking to finish top two to earn a week off and get home ground advantage.


Bentleigh are three points ahead of us, but with only one game left, against Oakleigh. Will Oakleigh use this game as a means of tuning up for their FFA Cup fixture against MetroStars, or will they go easy and save themselves any unnecessary grief? Strange things have happened in this fixture in the past. We now have the advantage when it comes to goal difference, and the chance to take top spot if we win both games no matter what Bentleigh does on Sunday. But Bentleigh have the tangible benefit of having won that extra game that we still need to win.

Heidelberg has two games to play, a midweek game against Green Gully, and a home game against the relegated Dandenong Thunder. Gully were eliminated from the finals race due to Hume's win today, but I wouldn't expect them to roll over. Meanwhile Melbourne Knights can't finish top, but they can still finish in second if we can't manage to even squeeze out a draw from our remaining two games, and they win their remaining fixture.

What's really amazing is this is exactly what Steve from Broady said would happen!


Apropos of almost nothing, a paragraph on what 1984 title winning coach Len McKendry thought of soccer supporters and what they knew about the game.
Excerpt from Paul Wade's autobiography, detailing one of the differences between Jimmy Rooney and Len McKendry.
Damnatio memoriae
Brad Norton has signed on for another two years, but the best bit of the relevant South Melbourne press release was undoubtedly the 'he who shall not be named' shenanigans:
Norton was appointed as Vice Captain in 2013 but captained the side for most of the second half of the season following the exit of South’s captain that year. (italics added by South of the Border)
Take that, dude, bloke, guy, whoever happened to be captain in the first half of 2013. Pretty childish if you ask me.

Speaking of exile to barren lands
Jake Barker-Daish has not even been on the bench for the past couple of weeks. Makes you think.

Sport in Victoria: A History
A new book was launched last Tuesday in one of the rooms at the Melbourne Cricket Club, though I forget which one (for the record, I deliberately avoided wearing a collar. Also, the jam tarts were shithouse). Sport in Victoria: A History, edited by Dave Nadel and Graeme Ryan (who is also the publisher) contains 180 odd contributions from 80 odd contributors on many sports played in Victoria, as well as some sporting bodies, venues and events. I have three contributions in this book: men's soccer (written with Ian Syson), women's soccer soccer and a short section on South Melbourne Hellas. It's a bit pricey - close to $80 for the paperback edition, and a bit more for the hardback - so it's the kind of thing that unless you were an obsessive, would best serve perhaps a Fathers Day or Christmas present, or you could perhaps try and get your local library to order in a copy. The book's format is sort of encylopaedic, giving overviews of the different themes, and hopefully prompting further study and exploration for those readers so inclined. The book does have some nice images in it, and does a reasonable job of covering most of what you would expect to be covered in such a tome, though the omission of something like roller derby when rogaining and petanque have been included seems a bit odd - maybe in a second edition?

Things could be worse!
Didn't like Chris Maynard as a goalkeeper? Be thankful I'll never be selected for South.
My excuse is that the sun was in my eyes. If it was good enough for Peter Gavalas...

Final thought
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Home town points decision - South Melbourne 5 Hume City 2

August 20, 2015, 5:31 am
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The result of this match I think flatters us a little bit. Much of the early play from both sides was sloppy and borderline panic strewn. The final scoreline does not also provide a proper indication of how hotly contested much of this match was, and that Hume had blown at least a couple of very good chances to score when the scoreline was tighter, and also conceded some atrocious and atypical defensive errors to gift us a couple of goals.

Once again, an unchanged starting eleven, though it looks like we can call off the search party for Jake Barker-Daish, as he was back on the bench after mysteriously disappearing for a couple of weeks there. Milos Lujic's pass to Nick Epifano for the opening goal was very good, though it's a distant second for the sheer comedic theatrics of Michael Eagar's goal - his first for the club - which may or may not have involved a backheel which somehow crept over the line following a shambles of a goalmouth scramble.

The goal that Hume pulled back was not undeserved, though the fact that we once again hit back pretty quickly (via Lujic) was quite reassuring. Less reassuring was Nikola Roganovic's kicking which was quite wonky, though it was still better than the moment where he left a shot go seemingly out for a goal kick only to have it clatter onto the post. It was those moments of good fortune that while not guaranteeing us the win, made us look more dominant than we perhaps were.

Epifano's second for the night finished the game off for good, and it was an absolute pearler, the equal of his go ahead goal against the Knights in the Dockerty Cup earlier this year. Iqi Jawadi's goal for 5-1 was another case of 'what were they actually trying to achieve there' for the Hume defense, as Jawadi's relatively tame shot was seemingly saved only for it to end up crossing the line somehow, or at least enough to convince the officials to award the goal.The last portion of the game saw Hume dominate possession as we backed off, and Marcus Schroen scored with an excellent long range shot to beat Roganovic in goal.

While not wishing to piss on anyone's parade - it was a good win, and it was a lot of fun to watch, like many of our recent matches - much of the general play from our end could be tightened up, and I expect that Hume will improve on that performance come finals time. Still, it was mainly good signs, but as far as the minor premiership race goes, a job only half done.

Next game/Copperoos/doing the sums
Northcote City Hercules at home on Sunday afternoon in the final round of the season. Rather than the under 20s being the usual curtain raiser, as per last year the Victorian Police Soccer Club's Copperoos will be taking on a team of former Socceroos (including several former South players) for the Tony Clarke Memorial Shield.

As for the sums for the main game, it's pretty straightforward. The win over Hume has seen us take top spot from Bentleigh on goal difference - in fact we have a ten goal advantage over Bentleigh, who play Oakleigh this week. Unless Oakleigh completely capitulate, all we'll need to do to finish first and clinch the Victorian NPL national playoffs spot is match Bentleigh's result, though winning our game will almost certainly do the trick.

We can't finish lower than second on the ladder, so we will be having a week off in the first week of the finals regardless of the result on Sunday - but of course you'd rather finish first to get that national NPL playoff spot, and succeed in winning it so you can book your automatic FFA Cup spot. You know, for those who care about that sort of thing.

Epifano silliness (let's pick on someone completely at random)
Now the task of winning the minor premiership has been made a little more difficult because Nick Epifano did a very silly thing and retaliated with a sort of stamping/kicking out motion when provoked(?) by an opponent after a foul during the first half. While he was very fortunate not to get more than the yellow card that he received from the referee, the yellow card he did collect has apparently seen him rack up five yellow tickets, and thus he will miss the round 26 game against Northcote.

But lest that be the end of that stupidity, we also read this pearler of a post on smfcboard.


buffalo cup
Warnings : 1



Joined: 10 Jun 2008
Posts: 2574
Location: Everywhere, Somewhere and Nowhere
 PostPosted: Today at 4:20 am    Post subject:Reply with quote  Back to top
Karma

I am happy epifano wont be on the team sheet when history records our championship winning team if we win the game

Fuck him

Now South of the Border is hardly Nick Epifano's biggest fan, nor admittedly his most forthright enemy, but I'd like to think that if nothing else this site has acknowledged that whatever the divergent opinions are among the supporter base on this matter, his actions have cast a pall of sorts over the season. However in their haste to make political mileage of the situation, some people, like our friend above, have committed such rank overreach when there's absolutely no need to do so. Whether anyone likes it or not, despite his cuntery Epifano has actually been in the best form of his South stint. He's scoring regularly, he has scored important goals, and he's working harder than ever on the defensive side of his game. None of which excuses any of his prior behaviour, but let's not start inventing shit for the sake of it. There's also the following things to consider.
  • We haven't actually won the minor premiership yet.
  • Even if we do, it's not a fully fledged title, unless you've started using A-League classifications.
  • Whether we win or lose the title in the long run, his fingerprints (good and bad) will be all over this season anyway.
Anyway, quite how Chris Taylor will set up the team in Epifano's absence will be interesting to see - will Chris Irwin get an unlikely start, or will David Stirton get a much needed run? Will they swap Leigh Minopoulos onto Epifano's side in order to make room for either of Irwin or Stirton?

Heritage for sale
Replicas of the modernised red vee heritage jerseys designed by BLK which were used for our regrettably brief FFA Cup run were on sale last night at the merchandise stall, sans the FFA Cup badge. I bought one, which set me back $90, and I assume that those that weren't snapped up last night will still be available for purchase on Sunday - though you may want to contact the club just to be sure. Next step, to get replica versions of our 1960s Bristol Rovers style kit done up, with long sleeves of course.

Incendiary devices
I don't know what exactly we're paying Blue Thunder Security to do at Lakeside. I went to the game more or less straight after work, so I had my bag with me, but did they actually bother checking it at the gate? Nope. If they had, they would have come across some incendiary materials far more dangerous than your run of the mill firecracker or nautical flare. Emile Zola's Germinal (one of the greatest novels of all time) may seem to be on the face of it a very long and detailed novel about a miners' strike in northern France during the Second Empire period, but within its pages lie the seeds of revolution, even if some theorists will claim that Zola's depictions of the various competing socialist ideologies in the novel are beholden to hostile contemporary bourgeois attitudes. One wonders how many of the other 329 patrons at the ground on Wednesday night managed to smuggle in contraband materials? Also, I'd like to think that if Souvarine was involved in Australian soccer, he would see that just because you've blown the present to pieces, it doesn't necessarily follow that what comes after will be better than what exists now - it might force him to reconsider his political theorising.

Let's solve two problems at once (hey kid, you want some candy?)
Yesterday there were many futile attempts to convince a couple of the youngest members of Clarendon Corner to start a chant. At the same time, there were several people throwing around lollies at each other, which is an incredible waste of sugar and food colouring. Why not instead use those lollies to convince the children to start a chant?

Bugle blues
The toumbeleki man is better off sticking to the toumbeleki, which is he quite proficient at, rather than struggling to play his bugle.

Boxing
I was fortunate enough to be offered two free tickets to a big night of boxing last Friday - big in the sense that this is an attempt by the sport to get back into the mainstream, with consistent and continuing free to air coverage for the first time in 30 years. In that sense, I could only feel that, as a boxing novice, that it was if not quite a disaster, then it was at least a familiar reminder of why boxing has fallen away as a mainstream television sport in Australia.
Homer: I miss my couch.
Joe Frasier: I know how you feel. You lost the couch. I lost the heavyweight championship.
Homer: Heavyweight championship.There's three of those. That couch was one of a kind. 
- The Simpsons, "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"
Everyone knows boxing's problems, and what's more, that they will never be solved. The fact that in the time since Homer Simpson noted that there were three heavyweight champion belts - 23 years ago, if you can believe it - that even more have been added is just the tip of a very large iceberg.

It was an unusual set up for a fight night. The venue was the Melbourne Pavilion, a tarted up reception centre in Kensington. Outside the crowd waited to be let in from across the street, almost all men, most of them wearing black suits, neat casual or t-shirts sporting the logos of various gyms, many of them with tattoos, and more than enough with shaved heads. My instinct was to try to avoid direct eye contact, and even the appearance that I was trying to eavesdrop.

Once inside, I noticed the ring near the entrance and table seating being the norm, or perhaps even only option on offer - I didn't notice anything resembling general admission, unless there was standing room near the bar. It's an interesting slant, trying to go upmarket the way the promoters did, providing three course meals (all very good quality), and a steady supply of booze. The problem with that approach though is that it may work for those who are ringside - and who have paid the highest ticket prices - but those at the back of the room don't get quite the same value for money. Not that I was complaining, I mean how can you when your ticket is free, but the impeded views due to the room's pylons made it a less than stellar viewing experience. And while there were plenty of television screens to view the action on when the fighters moved into the unsighted areas of the ring, it felt like being at a rugby league game - more attention paid to screens as opposed to the real action being performed by real people in front of you. The never-ending flurry of service staff also diminished the viewing experience.

That second ticket I had been given? It was supposed to be used by an actual boxing fan, but he couldn't make it. Offers to take up the ticket on Twitter and Facebook were either ignored, or used as a source of mirth, and the ticket went unclaimed. I'd like to think that it was purely boxing's loss of cultural cachet that was at fault, but I can't rule out the daunting task of being seated next to me for five or six hours. It was hard to tell which was the greater dissuading factor.

On my table at the back of the room are the most obvious examples of boxing's working class. The Smith family from Newcastke, mum, dad and sister, were there to support Richard. Later, from the Central Coast, Jai Opetaia's girlfriend, along with his sister, arrived on to our table. Also on my table was a fighter from Port Macquarie named Will, along with his trainer whose name escapes me. Will was meant to fight on the night, but two days previously his opponent had apparently broken his hand doing pad work - one wonders how hard his opponent was hitting those pads. Though a professional boxer, Will's main line of work is in building highways, while his trainer is a butcher. They train around their work schedules, in the great Australian working class boxing tradition of tin sheds, back yards and training around punishing six day a week work schedules. Will was enjoying being in Melbourne, but you could tell he was restless, that he wanted to be in among the action. During the fights, his trainer positioned himself so that he could talk through each bout with Will. They'd both taken time off work and not getting appearance money because of the cancelled fight, so they try to make the most of the hospitality on offer and the chance to learn from those on display. I didn't ask, but I suspect that Will is Indigenous, and throughout the evening I wished that Joe Gorman was here instead of me, because he could write this story better than me, and some of the others, too, because there was a rural and regional New South Wales state of mind at my table that he'd better understand than me.

The outcome of the first fight, between heavyweights Haysem Abdallah and Ace Tarau - allegedly both debutants, though I could have sworn I'd heard that Abdallah had a 16-0 record; maybe as an amateur? - was predictable. Tarau came out and looked lively early on, but it was clear he didn't have the tank to last the four rounds, and he didn't last two. The second fight between light heavyweights Trent Broadhurst and Affif Belghecham from New Caledonia, was I think, meant to be something that Broadhurst would win and win well, but after a wonky start his opponent held his own and lasted until the end of the six round fight. I couldn't help but feel that Broadhurst would be disappointed with not being able to look more effective against his journeyman opponent.

The third fight was interrupted by the dinner service and it was too hard to concentrate on both eating and trying to watch the fight. The fourth fight was between Richard Smith and local boy Joel Camilleri. This was a good, even battle though Camilleri, who sported a large Maltese/George Cross tattoo on his back, gave Smith too many of the early rounds, and Smith held out well enough in the second half of the bout to win the fight. He's now apparently looking at a title fight, hopefully in Newcastle. His parents were chanting and cheering throughout the bout - it's the most atmosphere that there will be in the venue all night. Smith's father will thank me repeatedly, but when I tried to congratulate him, he waves it away, saying it was all Richard, who'd given up an electrician's apprenticeship in order to give boxing a proper go, to see how far he could take it, to make sure years down the track that he had no regrets about wondering 'what if?'. The thing about clichés is that it's easy to scoff at them until they're right there in front of you.

The first of the televised bouts was Jai Opetaia vs Rob Manual, a 39 year old former rugby league player who has lost all his previous bouts. This one, too, went the same way. I thought to myself that this is not a good look for the televised product, but worse is yet to come. More heavyweights follow them, Lucas Browne who had 21 wins and no losses to his name, taking on Julius Long who was 16-17-0. Long is a tall man - over seven foot tall - but from the outset his main goal is to try to frustrate his opponent, who performance perhaps betrays his record, as the fight looks sloppy and uncoordinated. The derision comes not only from the crowd in the room, but from the internet as well. Though Long has a brief moment in the third or fourth round where he rattles Browne, he's soon back to retreating, and Browne finally knocks him out in the dying stages of the ninth round.

In trying to get a bit of background on Will Tomlinson, it appears that earlier this year he was found to be found out of his depth when taking on a Mexican fighter, being mauled on the way to a bad loss. This then was an attempt to bounce back against an opponent I assume was brought in to provide a challenge for him, someone which would make Tomlinson earn his win and look good doing it, but otherwise not expected to beat him.

In the first round, Filipino Adones Aguelo played cautious, and neither fighter makes inroads. But frm then on, it's Aguelo who surprises everyone, cutting Tomlinson repeatedly, and chasing him around the ering, being the more aggressive boxer. Tomlinson looks out of sorts, and though he manages to get back into the bout later on, Ageulo is still holding his own and putting together the better moves. Even though I thought Ageulo had clearly been the better fighter throughout almost the entire fight, I had a feeling that he'd get dudded on the decision. I know that my opinion certainly comes from a novice position, but there were more than enough Australian boxing fans across the internet both dismayed at the result, but also for the fact that it reinforced boxing's bad reputation for dodgy results. The crowd at the venue, too, seemingly knew the result which was going to be handed down. There was little celebration or acknowledgement of the judges' decision, and most beat a hasty exit. If this was meant to be boxing's plea to the Australian sporting public to once more be seen as a credible sport

Things could be worse!
You could be John Frusciante during the mid 1990s.

Final thought
Did you know the NPL1 trophy is bigger than then NPL trophy?
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Moral premiers - South Melbourne 3 Northcote City 0

August 24, 2015, 3:12 am
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It would have been fitting had this match been played for the real league title, but this is 2015, not 2014, and this is Australia, where by and large we are compelled to acknowledge that due to strange and muddled concepts of tradition - and the necessity of keeping the other teams interested - this is not the true championship, not even a minor premiership (the PC New Football police won't tolerate that sort of language), but instead the 'premiership' as opposed to the 'championship'.

We did however get a shiny plate for our troubles, the Victorian slot for the NPL playoffs for the second successive year, as well as the right to claim some sort of moral premiership tag, having ground our way through injuries, suspensions, player departures and some would say a catastrophic FFA Cup appearance, to finish the season scoring bucketloads of goals and thus finishing on top of the table.

And while minor premiers have bombed out or been sunk by the near enough lottery of finals in soccer, in more recent seasons there's at least been the habit of teams finishing on top managing to go all the way and win the grand final as well, so for those who like omens, that's something for you to hold on to in the weeks to come. Me, being an allegedly staunch rationalist, I take no truck with such things.

We were a bit sketchy to start with - whether that was to do with nerves, or three games in eight days, or Northcote actually taking the game seriously, I don't know - but apart from one clear cut chance (a free header in the six yard box), and the odd mistimed run called back for offside, we were the better team. Soon Milos Lujic gave us the lead, and his second goal, a well aimed shot from a deep David Stirton cross saw us more or less seal the game. The biggest concern at that time was whether Tim Mala's yellow card would see him rubbed out for the next game.

If there was any doubt about the final result, Brad Norton put that to bed with his amazing goal from what looked like a mishit cross. Me, I choose to be positive about it and reckon that Norton meant to hit it that way, in line with his recent mostly excellent placement of the ball. A few weeks ago I likened his crossing form to snooker, and yesterday's goal was very much a case of eight ball in the corner pocket.

But then possible disaster struck. The game and the minor premiership wrapped up, Milos Lujic hurt his knee badly with about ten minutes of game time left. He spent most of the rest of the game getting treated behind the byline, and while the punters were duly stoked with the win, there was also concern about Milos, our finals chances, as well as our NPL playoff chances. South Melbourne Hellas may not be a one man band in 2015, but it's not easy to find, let alone replace strikers who score 20 goals a year.

That he limped off the ground rather than being carried off with a stretcher, well, that's the kind of thing we'd all love to think of as being a 'good sign', but almost none of us in the stands are doctors, and for the purposes of this example of speculative ignorance, those with doctorates in economics or knowing how to mix industrial chemicals, or literature (some day, maybe) don't count as doctors.

On the other hand, should Lujic miss some or the rest of the season, it will provide an opportunity to someone else to stand up, in the way that Leigh Minopoulos has stood up since being given a belated starting berth in order to solve the problem of what to do after Andy Brennan's departure. The man who will be tasked with filling that gap will probably be David Stirton, whose year has been affected by injuries and being played in positions which I don't think suit him - namely out wide - instead of up front.

The issue then becomes one of having to adjust to having a forward (whether that's Stirton or Minopoulos) who do not share the physical attributes of Lujic, including perhaps a change of formation. Would you play both Leigh and Stirts up front, and play Chris Irwin on the right wing? Or would you keep the crux of what we've been doing intact, and just tinker on the edges? Would the set piece arrangements need to change should Lujic, one of our three tall timber players along with Michael Eagar and Luke Adams, not play?

Update on Milos Lujic's knee, at this moment the most important ligament in Australia
Here's the latest goss on the state of Milos' knee from one of the more reputable people on smfcboard.
Initial prognoses (without a scan) on Milos was a strained MCL. He's getting scans on Tuesday to clarify.

Highly doubt he'll play again this season if he's done a grade 1 or 2 medial. Fingers crossed its just jarred and when the swelling goes down he'll be ok!
Next game
In two weeks time, at home against one of Melbourne Knights, Hume City or Pascoe Vale.

Crowd watch
How good was it having a game at 3:00PM on a Sunday afternoon? The sun was out, more families were in attendance, and there were even more young people in Clarendon Corner, as well as a good turnout by the usual assortment of people in that area.

Mind you, there was disagreement in the ranks about how many people actually did attend. My regular supplier of the realist crowd count said 600, while another reputable source said about 700. That seemed about right to me, though others said something closer to 1,200 would be more accurate. That's a hell of a discrepancy, but since they never release the numbers, let alone complex breakdowns of the demographics attending (that's a trade secret I suppose) it's really up to you, the reader, to decide which number you feel more comfortable with.

Nick Epifano to Perth Glory?
No confirmation on whether this is true or not, but current Glory CEO Peter Filopoulos (you may remember him from such posts as 'just who is the biggest South fan around?') was pretty coy when asked directly. No indication either on when exactly Epifano would leave South for Glory in the even that Glory did sign him up. After the finals? After the NPL national finals?

Good luck to...
South junior Andrew Mesorouni (wait, does he have the same name as his dad?), who has signed up with Getafe in La Liga. Interestingly this was done with the cooperation or assistance of Genova International Soccer School and Morris Pagniello - is this a hint towards whatever that 'partnership' or 'relationship' with Real Madrid is meant to be? And where's the player training compo?

Congratulations to...
Olympia Warriors on securing their first senior league title since 1996. The team includes former South defender Jake Vandermey, and future South player Luke Eyles (who won the Tassie league's rising star award). We'll be playing them in the week after the grand final in Melbourne.

The nanny state strikes again

Things could be worse!
Win, lose or draw, we get to see South most weeks of the year. What about those people who want to see Manowar tour Australia?
Another 12 months without the chance to burn a viking ship on these shores.

Final thought
After all that angst, we didn't need to worry about the Bentleigh vs Oakleigh result at all. Thought processes need to change need to change when your team becomes competent.
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'Don't use it for styling your hair' artefact Wednesday - South Melbourne Hellas mirror

August 26, 2015, 2:30 am
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I searched my archives, I checked my email correspondence, but I just can't remember where I got this photo from, so if it's yours, please just send word and I'll add due acknowledgement.
Otherwise, this is an item I can only guess the year or the provenance of. OK, so it's a mirror with a 'Hellas S.C.' logo printed on it, a variation of our logo which I'm not sure I've seen before, or if I have I don't recall the wheres and whens. Were or are there more of these? Were they custom made? Who made them? What year did they come out? Any help in providing some more information on this artefact would be most welcome.
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Update on Milos Lujic's knee, from Milos Lujic

August 26, 2015, 4:02 pm
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One match away from the grand final...

August 31, 2015, 3:19 pm
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We'll be playing Pascoe Vale for a spot in the grand final, after they disposed of Heidelberg via a penalty shoot out. The match is scheduled to be played at Lakeside this Friday, with kickoff at 7:30. Unusually perhaps, I don't have any great moral objection to this, though I am typically troubled by the fact that Bentleigh Greens have managed to also have their semi-final on Friday, despite Hume City playing last Friday as well as having a midweek FFA Cup match on Tuesday. Anyway, your South membership will get you entry into this game - how's that for value? Pretty sweet if you ask me. If you're not a South member, there's always the ticket booth I suppose.

Without wishing to overrate them, Pascoe Vale are a good team, with some good attacking options at their disposal, as well as being a persistent threat at set pieces. Will Milos Lujic actually play in this match? Is Timmy Mala suspended for this game? If so, who will replace him? The tension is almost unbearable.

No (read, some) rest for the wicked
In preparation for this week's game, last Friday our boys had a very low key and probably meant to be closed doors game against North Geelong at Lakeside. North Geelong have to wait something like 4-6 weeks to find out who their opponent will be in the promotion/relegation playoff; meanwhile they have to keep busy somehow. Despite being a closed door game, one of South of the Border's many eyes and ears in the real world managed to get into Lakeside to watch the game. Our agent reckons that we fielded a largely second string squad, and that we won the game 2-1 - provided that there were no goals scored before our agent managed to get to the ground. No idea who scored. Also apparently Dane Milovanovic was spotted having dinner on Clarendon Street afterwards. All other information gleaned on the night will remain in Dyson Heydon's inbox.

Around the grounds
Believe. Fight. Lose.
Given the choice of going to watch Geelong vs Collingwood or heading to Somers Street for Knights vs Hume, I decided that due to South probably being likely to play one of these two teams the following week, I made my way to Knights Stadium. The first half was some of the most awful football I have ever seen, but where was Mark Rudan to see and appreciate any of it? Knights would have been happy to have the game play out this way, especially since they had a 1-0 lead and Hume looked like they were having an off night - the sitter they missed to level the score just before half time being proof positive of that, to the relief of those people who had gone to the canteen early to avoid the half time queue (and in turn becoming the genesis of the halftime line). The second half was much better, because Hume turned up to play, and they duly took the lead after some typical Melbourne Knights 2015 clusterfuck defending at the back and some tidy finishing. Theo Markellis was targeted by one Knights fan, who had moderate success in getting Theo to bite back in response to comments like 'Valencia reject cunt', which while not very creative, at least summed up in three short words how low Markellis has fallen. Knights, looking as if they would bow out in a similar manner to the 2013 finals - a season built in part on a formidable home record, only to cough it up with home losses when it really mattered - managed to get back on level terms, thanks in part to some uncoordinated defending from the Hume defence. But sensing that their chance to self-implode was still there for the taking, they got one of their number sent off and Hume, not willing to put everyone out of their misery as the cold came in during a turgid extra time period, forced everyone to go through the lottery of a penalty shoot out; lottery being the operative word here, as Knights had about as much chance of winning a penalty shoot out as of winning a division 1 jackpot. They managed to have all four of their penalties saved, which I thought was hilarious, with the necessary caveat of 'be careful what you mock, lest you become it'.
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On to the grand final - South Melbourne 3 Pascoe Vale 2

September 6, 2015, 1:21 am
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This match swung back and forth so many times that there was little time to be jubilant before feeling sick to my stomach, only to then go back to being jubilant again. Speaking to a fellow South fan the day after this match (we both found ourselves at North Port watching Collingwood's magoos), we ended up agreeing on this one point - that before the game we perhaps felt we wouldn't have been devastated to lose this game, what with the national NPL playoffs still to play for, but as the game wore on we found ourselves sucked into the occasion beyond our control. Even if it would require us winning ten successive games (we're currently on a six game winning streak), we want to and justifiably feel that we can win both trophies left on offer.

The crowd's mood reflected that emotional roller coaster, excitement mixed with nervousness mixed with despair mixed with relief. Relief because while we could be happy with having won the game, we know that it's not the ultimate prize, for which we play this week. Relief, because while doing reasonably well going forward, we could not make the most of those opportunities that we did have from open play, with our crossing in particular being at its worst for months. Relief because defensively we were often all over the shop, being torn apart on the wings in particular. And while it would be easy to take aim at Chris Irwin, who struggled at right back in place of the suspended Tim Mala (who'll be back this week), neither did Brad Norton have a particularly good game going forward or back. Relief, too, that Milos Lujic not only started the game (even if that caused its own 'is he/isn't he right?' apprehension), but proved useful as well, and managed to last the full 120 minutes despite one moment where he fell and one wondered whether he would be able to shake off his limp.

Hell, just relief that we managed to pull through despite putting our flattest performance for several weeks and still finding a way to get the job done. Credit to Pascoe Vale. They threw everything at us and often dominated periods of a game that ebbed and flowed throughout the night. They played good, attacking football (as has been the case for many years now, even going back to their state league 2 days), and were in no way reliant solely on counter attacking play. What I will say though is whatever their team's and supporters' thoughts on having played 'the better football', the reality is that every goal, whether sloppy or stirling counts exactly the same, and that the most wonderfully worked maneuver that ends with a shot being cleared off the line always counts for less than a sloppy goal bundled in by accident by a centre back who probably didn't even know what he was doing.

That we scored off three set pieces was to me a remarkable feat, even more so for the following reasons.
  1. Even disregarding the horror of the corner that lead to our first goal. I'm not sure how much Luke Adams knew about the shot he deflected into the goal.
  2. Geez, not that Pascoe Vale's Pavlidis is the most highly rated of goalkeepers in the competition, but he really didn't with that free kick for our equaliser well at all - what's more, we actually had multiple players running in for the crumb and not just the eventual scorer Andy Kecojevic, who was pivotal in extricating us from the deficit.
  3. Not only did Michael Eagar score the winning goal, and just weeks after his first goal, but like that other goal once again not actually looking at goal before having a go.
Pascoe Vale also brought a decent sized and noisy group of support along with them. Sadly not all of their fans managed to behave themselves.
The lighting of the flare was a surprise in and of itself - as it always is when it happens to come from fans of 'smaller' teams - but it was the throwing of the flare on to the running track (luckily it bounced onto the grass) that could have really been dangerous, as it probably only narrowly missed some of Pascoe Vale's own supporters who were standing along the fence. Nevertheless, we as South fans keep complaining that other clubs don't have fans, so we shouldn't get too upset when teams do start bringing them along to Lakeside.

Indeed, since we have the best stadium in the competition, we have a golden opportunity to market the ground as the away fixture to attend for opposition supporters (easier to do once we get our social club up and running...) in a similar way as what Brighton and Hove Albion have done in England. That doesn't mean forfeiting the right to make your home ground feel like a fortress, but more games like this one, with the excitement on the field and the atmosphere off it can only be good for the league as a whole. And I get that it's easy to be magnanimous after a win like that, but if Pascoe Vale are a sign of what some of the smaller teams can bring to the table when it comes to generating a bit of interest in this competition, then maybe this league isn't quite as moribund as we (I?) make it out to be.

But now on to more serious business.

2015 NPL VICTORIA GRAND FINAL DETAILS
I'll probably end up re-posting this later in the week as a standalone post when more details become finalised

Time, date and location
The grand final will be played at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday 13th September, with kickoff at 3:00PM. I am not aware if there will be a curtain raiser of any sort.

Ticketing and admission
Your South Melbourne membership will not get you into this match, and neither will your FFV season pass; media pass holders will be OK.

Though the ticket booths seemed to work reasonably well on Friday night (boy, I could not have been wrong about this, thank goodness other people paid more attention), at this stage I do not know if tickets will be available for purchase online, nor whether both sides of the ground will be opened. If the online option does become available, I will post the details on the blog.

Those hoping for a relatively large crowd may want to keep the following in mind - apart from the AFL scheduling the Richmond-North Melbourne elimination final on at the same time, NPL junior matches - including those involving South Melbourne's teams - are also at this stage still fixtured for Sunday.

Final training session
As of yet there are no details from the club about the team's final practice session before the grand final. As per the online ticketing, should the club announce something, I will post the details here.

Live stream
While of course I would love to see all South fans at the ground, for those who can't be there FFV will be providing a live video stream of the game. Visit this link for details about how that will all work.

Our opponent
Bentleigh Greens took advantage of Hume City having only a three day break, beating them 2-0 on Friday night. Despite a recent downturn in form, they are still a quality team with a chip on its shoulder from having finished second to us on goal difference (despite us not beating them in our two league meetings in 2015), as well having lost a grand final two seasons ago (incidentally against some of the players they'll be playing against on Sunday, who were then at Northcote). Whether it makes any difference to them playing against us at Lakeside as opposed to some neutral venue I don't know. Did it make any difference in the old VFL when most grand finals were played at the MCG, while most of that competition's teams still played most of their games at their suburban venues? Nevertheless, good luck ascertaining a favourite for this game, which is about as even money a game as you could possibly get this season.

OTHER STUFF
Crowd counting makes people angry
I get it. Why obsess over this detail, especially as the focus should be on the team, which has managed to reach a grand final? Well, I sympathise, but the thing is that it is of some considrable interest to the club's health as a whole and for shining a light on the kinds of people and how many are turning up to South these days after we've spent eleven years in Australian soccer oblivion. Now we could hope that the club would be bold enough to provide genuine crowd numbers, even if that would undermine the social media number angle, but that's not going to happen. The estimates for this game varied considerably. My 'realist' crowd counter provided a wide range of 800-1000, with the 800 to me seeing quite a low estimate. The FFV's report said about 2500, which is jumping off the deep end. Many fans thought about 1200, possibly up to 1500, and I think somewhere within that range is the right number.

South Melbourne Women miss out on WNPL licence
The following was posted on the South Melbourne Women's Facebook page after the eight consortia selected for the WNPL were announced.

WNPL Announcement
Earlier today the FFV announced the eight teams which will form the Womens National Premier League in Victoria from 2016. We are shocked and disappointed that South Melbourne Women's Football Club has not been selected by FFV.
The club has alerted FFV to concerns it had with the procedure adopted by FFV in assessing its WNPL application. FFV has offered to mediate the club's complaint by appointing an eminent QC to conduct the mediation within the next two weeks.
The club is considering whether to accept this proposal or to exercise its other rights, including taking legal action, as the best means to have its concerns properly addressed.
An announcement about next steps will follow in the next few days. In the meantime, the club would like to acknowledge all those who have already expressed their support and solidarity.

The successful WNPL applicants were FC Bulleen Lions, Galaxy United (Geelong), Heidelberg United, Melbourne United (Ashburton), Box Hill United, Keilor United, Bayside United, Southern United (Greater Frankston area). Southern United are a Mornington Peninsula based consortium using the resources of a number of local clubs, including Casey Comets. Bayside United apparently involves longstanding WPL club Sandringham. Ashburton will be continuing to run a community club with that name while also operating the Melbourne United licence.

Without knowing the ins and outs of the selection process, on the face of it it does seem a bit odd that South Melbourne Women, not just one of more the successful women's teams on field but also one of its more stable clubs off field - with access to Lakeside Stadium, mind you - has missed out. Now I'm not a lawyer, but I don't like their chances of finding a way into the competition via the courts. It will be interesting to see how this plays out both in the short and long term, and not just at South - already Melbourne Knights have sent a letter to FFV and Ashburton about the use of the name 'Melbourne United', which as some of you may recall was the name of the A-League bid which had some affiliation with the Knights (though the requirement to come up with three different names in the application should see that issue be resolved fairly quickly).

If one doesn't particularly care for the fate of SMWFC, the following press release indicates the relevance of SMWFC's failure to acquire an WNPL licence.
On Tuesday evening the FFV announced the eight teams which will form the Womens National Premier League in Victoria from 2016. South Melbourne Womens Football Club applied for a licence but was not selected. 
South Melbourne FC is shocked by this outcome. SMWFC has been at the forefront of Women’s football in Victoria for almost four decades and in the eyes of most is one of the leading women’s clubs in the State. SMFC did not apply for a licence in its own right, having agreed that SMWFC would do so on behalf of the South Melbourne football family with the intention the clubs would operate their NPL teams as one club. 
Prior to the announcement by FFV of the successful applicants, SMWFC and SMFC alerted the FFV of serious concerns they had about the process adopted by FFV in receiving and assessing SMWFC’s application and related matters. 
FFV has offered to mediate the complaint, proposing the appointment of a senior QC as mediator. SMWFC is considering whether to accept this proposal or pursue its other legal rights. We expect SMFWFC will make an announcement shortly. SMFC fully supports SMWFC and will continue to do so through this process.
The co-operative nature of the bid implies that we have invested some time and effort into this process, and that a level of reunification of the two groups was to take place. I wonder what the ramifications will be for that process should this bid for WNPL status ultimately fail?

Little Susie's growing up
All the way back in July 2014, I made note of the talk that some Melbourne Knights fans would start a blog of their own, called West of the Quarry. Instead, we got a Twitter account using that name, and an account on the now defunct mkfcboard.com on which to post blog like posts. The forum fell over, but out of those ashes West of the Quarry has finally made it to true blog form. As with the Sydney Olympic blog, South of the Border wishes them all the best.

Things could be worse!
This coming Sunday will also see the final of the NSW NPL take place, possibly with two teams from western Sydney taking part - so why wouldn't the Western Sydney Wanderers schedule a friendly against Wellington Phoenix for that day?

Well if we aren't going to have a social club...
Could we at least get Martin Foley to pay for an ad board at the ground? He does it for Port Melbourne in the VFL..

Final thought (dedicated to Ian Syson)
You know you're in Melbourne when you can be at a soccer final, but someone still brings along
a portable TV so they can watch the footy during half time. Photo: Paul Mavroudis.

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2015 NPL Victoria Grand Final details

September 9, 2015, 6:08 pm
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This is how it is at the moment. If things change, or new information is released I will update this post.

Time, date and location
The grand final will be played at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday 13th September, with kickoff at 3:00PM, with the gates opening at 2:00PM (ticket booths at 1:30PM). There will not be a curtain raiser.

Ticketing and admission
The cost of admission to the grand final is $20 for adults, $10 for concession, and free for children 13 and under.

Your South Melbourne membership will not get you into this match, and neither will your FFV season pass. FFV media pass holders will be OK.

Tickets are available for purchase online via Ticketmaster. Despite the booking fees attached, it will provide the least problematic way of getting into the ground.

Keep in mind that purchasing tickets at the gate at Lakeside can be a very slow affair, so if you are planning to buy your tickets on the day, allow yourself ample time to purchase a ticket by arriving early. Hopefully FFV, having now had ample prior experience with this venue in its current incarnation, will have instructed the venue operator to pre-print tickets.

FFV has stated that only the one grandstand will be open on the day, but don't let that dissuade you from coming - hopefully more than enough people turn up that they will be compelled to open the opposite side. 

Live stream
For those who can't be there, FFV will be providing a live video stream of the game. Visit this link for further details.

Final training session
The final training session will not be open to the general public.

Before the game
As per usual some South fans will be gathering at the Limerick Arms on Clarendon Street. We'll be there from 12:00 until 2:00, and all South fans are welcome to join the regulars.
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Bummer - South Melbourne 1 Bentleigh Greens 3

September 15, 2015, 1:15 am
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It doesn't usually take me two days to get a post up after a game, especially if I don't have many other pressing issues to deal with, but what do you make of a game like that? The whole experience has actually left me somewhat bewildered. Not exhausted, not even angry, just bewildered. Rather than feeling absolutely gutted, I felt flat, especially knowing that despite losing it was not yet the end of our season. Maybe it's because we've had so much success these past couple of seasons. Maybe it's because Bentleigh so thoroughly deserved the win. Whatever the reason is, I just haven't been able to put my finger on it.

In the end it was one step too far. Having dragged ourselves off the metaphorical canvas after the FFA Cup loss to win the minor premiership, and then beat Pascoe Vale deep in extra time after trailing, it was probably too much to expect that we could muster the ten straight wins it would take to win both the NPL Victoria grand final and the national NPL playoffs. Maybe we won't win the latter either, but it would have been a Herculean task to win both.

Bentleigh were the superior team from almost beginning to end. Only their woeful finishing - apart from the screamer to give them the lead during regular time - kept us in the game for as long as we did. Granted, many of those shots came from range, as we stepped off and let them have space up the field, but they still looked the most likely team to score. Our chances came at random rather than at regular intervals, and while we had some glorious chances - especially that early chance in extra time which would have given us the lead - it would have been one of the more brazen heists even by our standards.

Would we have had more success if we stepped up and tried to pressure Bentleigh, as opposed to playing a sort of rope-a-dope kind of game? Who knows. What that approach did do however was allow Bentleigh time on the ball, with no one near enough to provide pressure when they slipped up. It meant Milos Lujic was isolated up front, as we pitched long ball after long ball at him in the vain hope he could create something out of nothing.

We were also beaten physically. While we tried to give as good as we got, Bentleigh took advantage of the lax refereeing in a way that we could not. Their attacks on our goalkeepers went unpunished, and in that regard their approach reminded me a lot of our semi final loss to Oakleigh in 2011. Losing Roganovic to injury made things harder for us not because he had making several great saves (he'd hardly had to make any), nor because Fraser McLaren was poor (he was as good as could be expected having not played for ages, and was not at fault for any of the goals), but because it robbed us of the chance to make our full quota of outfield substitutions. Iqi Jawadi's red card in regular time more or less sealed the deal. With no subs left to make and one player down on a warm day, and already being outplayed, it was Bentleigh's game to win.

Afterwards at the Limerick Arms, among the players, coaches, board members, families and those supporters who could muster up the time and courage to not go home straight away, the mood was relaxed but sombre. The feeling seemed to be that while an opportunity had been missed, on the day we had been beaten by the better team, a team that perhaps had been better than us all season. Indeed, they were the only Victorian team we had failed to beat all season.

You can point to the table which saw us finish top on goal difference, all while remembering that Johnny A pointed to the head to head record. Ideally, neither goal difference nor head to head should count, and there should be no finals. If two teams finish equal on points, have a playoff match, ideally at a neutral venue to decide the champion. In the end, we found ourselves close enough to those circumstances, and on the day were found wanting. We can complain about refereeing and injuries and such, but on the day, we were the inferior team, and we lost. Maybe if we played under Sheffield Shield rules, and finished at 1-1 after a regulation 90 minutes, things could have been different, but we didn't, so here we are.

For the high standards many South fans have of their team, this loss means that the season in a sense is almost a bust. The FFA Cup run was botched, we failed to rise up to the challenge of Bentleigh in the final, and the Dockerty Cup is little consolation to many. A winning end to the season with regards to the NPL national playoffs will probably rescue the season in that respect, especially for those whose self-esteem is (somewhat understandably) wedded to the FFA Cup and national limelight.

On the other hand, it's worth remembering where we are now compared to where we were. Two and a half years ago, we were at our absolutely rudderless worst. In mid 2013, we not only hadn't won anything since 2006, we had scarcely looked like doing so. Within half a season, we were one game away from a grand final appearance; the next season we won the title; and this season in the state we collected almost every trophy at our disposal, despite injuries, player departures and the ongoing problem of what to do with Nick Epifano.

That's not me trying to find a way of saying losing the grand final is acceptable, but a reminder that not so very long ago, on the field things were a lot worse than this. I'd much rather be hurting over losing a grand final than sitting at home during the finals because we were stuck in mid table mediocrity. While the end result is the same - no title - I'd rather be in there with a shot.

Necessary brickbats
The promotion, coverage and presentation of the grand final was often poor. Bentleigh has limited resources on that front and realistically limited support despite their FFA Cup bandwagon from last year. South tried to promote the event as much as it could, and was rewarded with an excellent turnout from its supporters.

The FFV however dropped the ball. There was little vigour or feeling in their promotion of the game. I did not see any attempt to offer prizes of free tickets to the game, as many organisations would do for similar events to drum up interest. The fact that the contest also clashed with scores of junior games - both NPL junior and community league junior finals - was a disgrace, and would have been a disgrace no matter which two teams were playing in the final. The $20 entry fee for adults (plus $4 Ticketmaster fee) was also absurd. The equivalent game in New South Wales was only $15 for adults.

Having everyone in the one stand may have looked good for the cameras, but to a certain extent it compromised spectator comfort. Instead of using the whole stadium (which would have provided more shaded areas for spectators, on what was a very warm day), everyone was forced to use the amenities available only on one side of the ground, where there was only one food outlet.

The live stream, too, was in many ways a bust. While understanding that FFV had a sponsorship arrangement which compelled them to use a particular video streaming service instead of Youtube, the lack of complete instructions as to how get access to the stream of the grand final saw at least some viewers wait until almost halftime to get their service working. Who knows how many just stopped bothering after a couple of futile attempts?

While I did not expect any mainstream media coverage, because we've been over and over that disappointment before, I was still disappointed that the only coverage we seemed to be able to get was digital coverage (preview and match report) in the Herald Sun (please let us know if anything got into print). In The Age, nothing. The World Game? It seems their interests in Aussie soccer shuts down between A-League seasons. Not enough interest said one of their writers. He meant readers, but I think the lack of interest could easily be his own, which he has projected onto the supposed audience. There were enough angles to pursue in this fixture in terms of the ambitions of the two clubs and many and varied stories of the players and coaches involved, but in the end sheer laziness has reared its head for most of our soccer media.

On the other hand, credit must go to the Corner Flag people, who provided both informed and irreverent commentary on the fixture. Still, if it all falls down to them and other low level soccer media, as well as complete minnows like myself and SMFCMike to promote the game, to the point where we're recognised as doing far more than the organisation which stood to benefit the most from a bigger crowd, then we're in bigger trouble than I thought.

Hobart Olympia, 2015 NPL Tasmania champions. Former South Melbourne
defender Jake Vandermey is the third from left in the back row. 2016 South
recruit Luke Eyles is the furthest right in the front row. Photo: Walter Pless
Next game
At home against on Saturday afternoon against Hobart Olympia in the NPL national playoffs. Should we win this game, we'll play the winner of the West Adelaide - Bayswater match.

Because this is an FFA, not FFV event your South membership will not get you access to this game. 

This will no doubt upset those who recall that the 2015 South membership originally included these games as part of the membership package, and the club should be castigated for making a promise that it has failed to deliver upon. Nevertheless, you can pre-purchase tickets at this link.

There is some talk that Iqi Jawadi's red card in the grand final will see him suspended for this game. I'm not sure about that, but if Jawadi is suspended, it will be interesting to see with whom he'd be replaced as I believe (and I'm willing to be corrected) he has played every game this season. Would Dane Milovanovic, who has been playing some games in the under 20s as he works his way back to full fitness, be risked in this game? There's also of course the question of whether Nikola Roganovic will be able to recover from his injury last Sunday. Fraser McLaren seemed to play the game out well enough despite copping his own knock.

After many years of under achievement, Hobart Olympia (or Olympia Warriors as they are also known) won their first senior title since 1996, back when the Tassie league was split into northern and southern competitions. Despite stumbling late in the season with losses against South Hobart and Hobart Zebras, Olympia was able to take advantage of an unexpected South Hobart loss to win the league title. They also put the doubters to rest - especially from their biggest rivals, the Zebras - by also winning the end of season finals series, which unlike our arrangement did not count as the senior title. Olympia's league win ended seven years of South Hobart domination.

While we will be expected to win, and probably to win comfortably, we must be wary of being complacent. While we have played Tasmanian opposition, including Olympia, on several occasion over the past fives years and never lost, this is of course not a friendly fixture but a ridgy didge game. We only have to go back to last year's game against South Hobart to know that a flat performance from our end can give the opposition. Still, we have the cattle on the field and the home ground advantage to be considered overwhelming favourites. However with nothing to lose, and the wide open spaces of Lakeside to play on, Olympia may just come into the game with a the mentality that they have nothing to lose.

Hobart Zebras' Dwayne Walsh about to launch himself into a tackle on
Olympia's Luke Eyles. Photo: Walter Pless.
South fans will perhaps be most interested in Jake Vandermey and Luke Eyles. Vandermey of course was a former South junior who played three matches for us back in mid 2011, before being loaned out to Hobart Olympia. Later he would play for Pascoe Vale, before relocating to Tasmania to continue his teaching studies, and while there resume his Olympia career. Last year he won Olympia's best and fairest award and finished third in the league best and fairest award behind South Hobart's Brayden Mann and Andy Brennan. Vandermey, having completed his teaching degree, will be retuning to Melbourne next year and will be keen to impress whatever onlookers are out there for next season. For his part Eyles is a promising midfielder who has become an established part of the Olympia starting eleven.

A South player evades a tackle.
Photo credit: unknown/South Melbourne Women FC.
Around the grounds
Oblivion delayed for at least one more week
On Saturday I decided to break my habit of having nothing to do with the South Melbourne Women's team, and I attended their semi final fixture against Heidelberg United at Lakeside. My absences from SMWFC fixtures had nothing to do with antipathy towards women's sport, or women's soccer, but rather the fact that since they decided (as was their right) to no longer have anything to do with us, that my time could be spent more productively, by watching mediocre men's state league football instead, or worse, NPL juniors. I was drawn back to seeing SMWFC by two things - one, needing to fill in some time before Sunday's game and two, being there perhaps on the occasion of SMWFC's final top flight match for at least the immediate future; South Women having had their WNPL bid rejected, and thus seeing them banished to we're not quite sure what kind of league yet. Entry to Lakeside was free, but strangely the venue operators had decided that the entire grandstand to the left of and including the players' race was to be out of bounds to spectators. I couldn't really see the point of the decision, but it was made the two small supporter groups ended up sitting in two adjacent bays; the Bergers with flags and and a drum, the South folk with the odd pompom. Also George Katsakis, Bill Papastergiadis and Leo Athanasakis were there. The game wasn't great, but South dominated the first half creating several chances, ands finally took the lead right on half time. The Bergers controlled the second half, but couldn't create any clearcut chances until they found space to lob the ball over the keeper. I was dreading extra time as I wanted to be able to get home for dinner, so it was a good thing that South ended up pinching the win at the end; a long range shot hit the crossbar, and rebounded off the diving keeper into the back of the net. So, the Bergers were out, though they'll be back in the equivalent competition next year; South survived another week, though think of it a stay of execution more than anything else. A pity that their next game is scheduled for Saturday at Kingston Heath.

Final thought
Despite the loss, that flare aside I did enjoy the colourful displays of the South Melbourne faithful, including these efforts from outside the usual crew.
More of it I say.
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Live broadcast of NPL national playoff against Olympia

September 18, 2015, 3:28 pm
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Σκέτο Ρεζιλι - South Melbourne 1 Hobart Olympia 2

September 20, 2015, 3:10 pm
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If people have been wondering if I am still in shock, well, yes I am. I think many of us are. After the game I went out for a beer. Then I went home and fell asleep watching the Davis Cup. Yesterday I went to my first Williamstown footy match since they lost the grand final to Port Melbourne in 2011. Those three things I think are indicative of where my head is at the moment.

Congratulations to Olympia, in particular Jake Vandermey and family, Shae Hickey (even though he got himself sent off) and president George Mamacas. Olympia has come a very long way from the pre-season mauling we gave you back in 2011, and even last year. While we were far from our best on Saturday, the fact that Olympia played with no fear was a treat to witness, even if my appreciation of it is necessarily muted because of the fact that they played against my club, which put in a such a sub par performance.

No Roganovic (failed to recover from last week), no Iqi (suspension) and losing Eagar to some fucked up ankle injury in the pre-game warm up would by necessity make things harder, but surely not when it came to being switched on and hungry to win. OK, I get that it's been a long season, that the loss to Bentleigh in the grand final was a colossal drainer, but at some point you've got to shake yourself out of it, or at least be shaken out of it once Olympia took the lead.

But no, with a couple of notable exceptions (Chris Irwin ran himself ragged), we decided to rock up only after half time and even then only really once Olympia were down to ten men. Our defending was comical (that second goal, oh my), our midfield (especially David Stirton) a mess, and the forwards apart from Milos Lujic (cracking header for our goal) so out of sorts one wondered why they'd bothered to show up at all.

Nevertheless, despite putting in an abysmal performance by our standards, we sill had bucket loads of chances. We must have had 15-20 corners, plenty of free kicks around the 18 yard box, a couple of shots off the woodwork and one cleared off the line; but it was those moments when all someone needed to do was to be at the right spot at the right and take a damn shot that was on target that were the most dispiriting. Panic set in, and somehow the numerous comeback wins we'd achieved in 2015 were all forgotten.

I'll leave it to the readers to decide if it was a wasted season. We won some trophies, played some great football at times, scored many memorable wins; but we also fell short when we thought we could, nay, should have done better. Grand final, FFA Cup, NPL playoffs. The one saving grace is that Saturday showed up a few players, and while we know that most of them are not as bad as their performance against Olympia, that it provides the board and coaching staff the justification needed to look for replacements or competition for those spots next year.

Andy Bevin's already gone, I can't see how Jake Barker-Daish will survive, and Stirton must be on the thinnest of ice. Then there's also the players who are perhaps likely to leave. Nick Epifano signed on for 2016, but there are rumours he will be trialling for Perth Glory this week. The board will be hoping like hell he'll get signed. One wonders whether Iqi Jawadi will finally be given a chance on an A-League roster, if not immediately than perhaps during the January transfer window when those teams need depth players. Will Fraser MacLaren stick around if he's only going to be no.2? There are also players to come back - Kristian Konstantinidis' return will necessitate the movement of someone out of the back four (Tim Mala?), while a fully fit Dane Milovanovic, should he stay (and I only say that because by his own admission he's had a very peripatetic career) will shove out someone from midfield. Andy Kecojevic will be given more game time next season. I like Matty Theodore, but has he done enough this season to cement a starting eleven spot? And will his work commitments continue to get in the way?

As for the off-field guff - we have a whole off-season to discuss that, and I look forward to doing so. As per usual with the end of a season, the blog will slow down a bit. There will be some artefacts for the history heads, there may be book reviews if I can bother reading a book worth reviewing for the site, and there will be news and updates collated into monthly digests. Within the next fortnight I'll put up my annual awards, and I'll probably end up going to the women's grand final this week just for the simple fact that SMWFC are in it, and it will be their last time there for at least a few years. At some point later in the year I could up end up boarding a Greyhound bus and ending up in Canberra, which will have drastic consequences for no one, but could be fun anyway.

And while I thank you all anyway at the end of the year, let me finish by saying thanks for sharing the season with me, and that I hope that you will continue reading through the off-season.
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What does VIP stand for? artefact Wednesday - 2006 grand final field passes

September 22, 2015, 7:30 am
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This Friday marks nine years since South won the 2006 VPL grand final against Altona Magic. It had been seven years since we'd won our last league title - and eight more years would have to pass before we would win our next one, though who knew the travails we'd have to deal with then? - and though it was no national league championship, it still meant a lot to those who were there. My feeling of the day was that, give or take the odd person on board for the bandwagon, this was a title that was best shared with people who'd done the hard yards during the season, who'd stuck by the club in its most desperate hour of need. But back to the artefacts. In the lead up to the game, a group of South fans had made a run through banner for the occasion, South fans had of course had an old irregular habit of creating run through banners for games - 1991 grand final, last game at Middle Park - so this was something of a revival of that habit.

Unfortunately, years of know how as to how to make these banners had disappeared, and so our run through banner was less than impressive in both size and construction. The elements, too, didn't help our cause, as the strong winds on grand final day threatened to rip apart the expression of our love before the players themselves could even get to it. Thankfully, they made it there just in time, tearing apart the banner if not in an expression of fearsome hostility, nor even respect for the effort, than at the very least out of pity. Now to be allowed on the field in the first place to hold the banner, one needed a special pass granted by the FFV. Having volunteered to be one of the banner holding up people, I was lucky enough to be one of the people allowed on to the field, and thus become the recipient of one of these passes. And while certainly the memories of the day, and the camaraderie of those that were there are precious in their own right, a little bit of memorabilia is also a nice thing to have.

The funny thing is, I don't even remember what the banner said.
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September 2015 digest

September 29, 2015, 4:38 pm
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Maybe posting this a bit early in the day, but if something interesting happens between now and midnight, let's just all agree to look the other way while I sneak an edit in somewhere.

Social club and Lakeside lease saga
Unresolved.

Presentation night
A combination senior/junior event, this will be held on Friday October 16th at Grand Star Receptions in Altona North. $70 adults, $30 children. I won't be there, as I have another event that I have already agreed to attend.

Player movements and contract statuses
It looks like the peripatetic career path of midfielder Dane Milovanovic is set to continue. Milovanovic, who missed much of the season with a knee injury sustained against Oakleigh away mid-season, has joined Hong Kong Premier League side Hong Kong Pegasus.
With Pegasus' season finishing in May, one would think that Milovanovic's time with South is at an end, unless he decided to come back to Australia during the 2016 mid-season transfer window. Meanwhile forward Andy Bevin has joined Team Wellington, and I assume this means he will no longer be at South Melbourne. As reported earlier, Nick Epifano has signed on for 2016, and although he has been rumoured to be trialling with Perth Glory, a transfer away from South looks uncertain. The (known/reported) contract statuses of some our other players and coaches are:
Players signed until the end of the 2015 season.
Players with unknown contract statuses
  • David Stirton (rumoured to be heading to Port Melbourne)
  • Fraser MacLaren
  • Kristian Konstantinidis (possibly until end of 2016)
  • Luke Adams
  • Thomas Lakic
  • Cody Martindale (assume until end 2015)
  • Jake Barker-Daish
  • Nick Morton
Considering that players have left before their contracts have finished - such as Tyson Holmes and James Musa - it's hard to know how are contracts work. In addition if people are aware of the contract statuses of any other players (many of whom I assume are only contracted on a season by season basis, such as Nick Morton), please add them into the comments.

There is also the issue of the player points cap being reduced from 225 to 200. Not that it's ever been policed properly, but you know, it's something to consider briefly.

What is the crowd capacity of Lakeside Stadium? (an ongoing project)
Over the years there has been much debate about the what the exact capacity of Lakeside Stadium is, whether that was the old Bob Jane Stadium (both when it was all open terracing and then had wooden seats installed) and once Lakeside was redeveloped with the athletics track.

Some of the debate has been motivated around our reputation of providing dodgy crowd figures, the seating capacity in the event that we somehow got into the A-League (snicker), or persistent dick measuring contests about who has a better stadium with Melbourne Knights supporters.

So as a beginning to figuring out what the seated capacity is of the stadium, a few weeks back
while back I was watching a South video on Youtube, I decided to do a count of the seats on the other side of the ground, and posted about it on smfcboard.
Not taking into account the empty spaces set aside for disabled seating, the 'new' stand's approximate seating capacity is 2420. This is made up of:
  • 10 bays of 14 rows with 14 seats each (1960) 
  • 2 bays at the ends with 7 rows with 14 seats each (196) 
  • 2 truncated bays with 6 full rows of 14 seats (168), and 8 rows of 6 seats (96), for a total of 264. 
Of course, since we very rarely use that stand, it's not at the heart of the capacity discussions surrounding Lakeside Stadium. At some point someone will have to do a detailed count of the stand that we use, though even then it will not quell all the controversy (such as it is) as the club never releases official crowd figures, and you also have people standing along the fence, at the back of the stand, and of course in the corporate boxes. But a little bit more certainty about certain inalienable facts couldn't hurt.

SMWFC win grand final
While I had intended on going to see the VFL grand final - go 'Towners! - I was offered a lift to the Veneto Club for this final match in the Women's Victorian Premier League, before the competition is replaced by the Women's NPL project. Neither of the two grand final contestants - the defending champions South Melbourne, and 2015's leading team Boroondara Eagles - had been accepted into the WNPL for 2016, so this was always going to be the end of an era as well as the end of the season. Now South Women may or may not appeal their exclusion - who knows for sure? - but in a situation where past or even recent on field performance is not the main criteria for the successful acquisition of a licence, it all comes down to the specifics of the licence application. And if that's not good enough, what can you do? Anyway, about 400-600 people were in attendance for this game, that was of a high standard for about 25 minutes then deteriorated significantly, but at least there were lots of goals, eh? South kept playing these delightful through balls to their forwards, but couldn't make the chances count. Eagles opened the scoring with a shot over the keeper, South equalised in the second half. Extra time saw Eagles take the lead with another long range shot, hit the crossbar twice and concede an own goal. The penalty shoot out saw South reach the stage, only to to have their goalkeeper take the decisive penalty shot and shoot it straight at the Eagles goalkeeper. Luckily Boroondara's next shot sailed over the crossbar and into the next suburb. South won the grand final with its next shot, farewelling the local top flight with its third championship.

Going up, going down
Well, we already knew that Dandenong Thunder and Werribee had been relegated. Now we know that North Geelong are also gone, having lost 2-0 to Melbourne Victory's NPL side in a playoff last week. Joining us therefore in NPL next season will be Richmond, Bulleen and, Melbourne Victory's NPL team. My immediate thoughts are that Friday nights at Richmond despite the limited cover ain't so bad; that the good food and atmosphere under the shed at the Veneto Club doesn't make up for abysmal public transport connections and likely Monday night games; and Victory's promotion to NPL may cause a dilemma for some of our younger friends from a certain supporting sub-faction and their potential allegiances.

Some quick thoughts on four hours spent at the MCC Library looking through the Soccer Action collection
After my first time using the research facilities there, I can say that the MCC Library is a very quiet, and very comfortable place to do research, and I highly recommend soccer researchers make use of the soccer collections housed there. As usual though, to avoid having an aimless session there, make sure you already know what it is you want to research, and avoid making digressions unless its related to your immediate research interest. I spent some time there looking at Soccer Action to the point where my head started hurting, but I did notice a few tropes.
  • The ethnic names vs mainstream names debate will end at some point, but like the iconoclasts vs the iconodules in the Byzantine Empire, it will take several generations to resolve itself.
  • The ethnic language segments - in Greek, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian - are interesting, although they can't possibly have been understood by everyone. The Spanish language stuff is interesting, as with its focus on West Melbourne, West Brunswick and Burnley, it provides a peek into Hispanic soccer before Laverton Park and Melbourne City.
  • Because the paper shut down every year between early November and late January, so much stuff has not been covered - transfer rumours, tours from overseas, etc.
  • The level of detail in match reports can vary wildly between editions and between years.
  • Minor soccer events, like a schools final, would sometimes get promotion but then no follow up match report.
  • While mergers were not an infrequent occurrence, I lost track of the amount of articles dealing with mergers involving Albion and Sunshine City.
  • Always a rumour about some team set to tour. Usually never happened.
  • Women's soccer got extremely short shrift. While the odd (usually earlier) years will include match results, in most years you're lucky if you can get the end of season table and a cup final result.
I went in there mostly with a plan to check up a couple of details, and look at the wider paper in a more scatter shot fashion. Next time I go, it will be with a focus on taking better notes and focusing on one year at a time. I'll have to find a way of getting Roy Hay or the MCC library to make a compile list of everything in the Hay-Desira collection.
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Best South Melbourne Hellas starting XI: 2005-2015

October 3, 2015, 7:30 am
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At some point during the 2015 season, one of our readers made the suggestion that we should (on here and/or smfcboard) start thinking about who would be in our best 11 from our first eleven VPL years. And really, 11 years for 11 players seems like a fairly neat sort of framework.

Criteria would of course be one of the hardest things to come up with - how many games and/or how many seasons should a player have had to play with us in order to be a legitimate candidate? How many bench spots? Should we take into account the NSL stints of players who were with us both in the VPL and NSL? To make it as easy as possible, I propose the following straightforward minimum criteria:
  • Eleven players only. Seeing as this is looking for a starting eleven, we'll have no bench players.
  • One coach, no assistant.
  • No minimum games required.
  • For those players who were with us in both the NSL and VPL, only the VPL tenure should be taken into account.
  • Any recognisable/legitimate formation - you could even make a claim for an early 20th century style 2-3-5 formation!
But if you think there's criteria that's missing I'm willing to be flexible, or you can use your own criteria to shape your team. And if you need help with how many games or goals a particular player has for South, I have access to that data and am happy to fish out the details for you.

You can email your suggestions to me (blackmissionary@hotmail.com), or leave them in the comments. Those starting XIs which seem to gather the most support across the commentariat, as well as an amalgam of the preferred players and formations, will be published in a separate post towards the end of the month. Those submissions offered with some justifications/explanations will probably be looked upon more favourably, but it's not mandatory.

Apart from a best starting XI, I'm also after more creative starting elevens - I myself will be providing my own Contrarians' XI. You could make an XI of players that went on to bigger and better things, or best XI made up of overseas players or players recruited from other clubs. Non-South fans are also more than welcome to contribute their ideas. I'm looking forward to what people come up with - the floor is yours people!




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Lakeside artefact Wednesday - Grandstand donation plaques

October 6, 2015, 6:30 am
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In the 'Hellas' grandstand at Lakeside Stadium, on the back of a seemingly random array of seats there are these little plaques. While not knowing the precise details of the arrangement, I assume they were placed there during the construction of the grandstand, which South Melbourne supporters and the wider Greek community contributed funding towards. Now with the removal of the blue seats in the lead up to the athletics track era of the stadium - and the unfortunate consignment of the 'SMH' lettering to history - I would hope that none of these plaques was dislodged and/or turfed out, even by accident. Whether those who donated money to the cause stayed on as South fans or not is beside the point; at the time, they made a contribution, and the club found a nice way of acknowledging that contribution. Some day perhaps we will have to go around and take photos of every single one of them, for posterity's sake if nothing else.
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South of the Border Awards 2015

October 11, 2015, 6:30 am
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Player of the year: Nikola Roganovic. I thought about this for awhile. Couldn't give it to Nick Epifano. Iqi Jawadi was good, but was he 'meaningless internet award' good? Brad Norton had some good games, Milos Lujic scored a ton of goals again. Andy Brennan wasn't there long enough. But one horror mistake aside, Roganovic earned us a lot of points this season, especially early on when we were not playing particularly well.

Under 21 player of the year: The Cliff Hussey Memorial Trophy goes to Iqi Jawadi, who I thought had a very consistent season, even adding goal scoring to his repertoire this year.

Goal of the year: Andy Brennan vs Dandenong Thunder, you know, the goal that no one saw.

Best performance: All things considered, the demolition of Oakleigh in the Dockerty Cup final was a real standout, especially after the disappointment of the FFA Cup a few days previously.

Best away game of the year: For those that went, I assume Palm Beach. For me, Green Gully away, for obvious reasons. Overall though it was a season where the atmosphere and excitement of the home games really came through a lot more than away fixtures.

Call of the year: Yes I could have gone with any number of Epifano related moments, but my favourite was still the call made at the 2014 AGM, by an unknown person at Tom Kalas: 'You're not going to try and get our hopes up again, are you?'

Chant of the year: Directed to Andy Brennan during the home game against North Geelong. 'Newcastle is broke, Newcastle is broke, stay with South, Newcastle is broke!'

Best pre-match/after match dinner location: There were crepes, pancakes and galettes, some pretty ordinary pub burgers, visits to two different places doing Korean fried chicken, and three trips to Mexican restaurants. The winner though has to be the day Gains and I did banh mi and cannoli on the same day while waiting for the bus to Avondale. If only there was a half decent team in Footscray so we could eat out of there more often...

Friends we lost along the way: My old laptop.

Barely related to anything stupidity highlight of the year: Steve from Broady convincing one of the barmaids at the Limerick to exchange two Heineken scratchies which had won him free hats, in exchange for a rugby ball. I guess you just had to be there.
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