Tommykins

A real shame to see Joe Palatsides turn up at Victory as Head of Academy. He was superb for us in this role.

10 play, I believe. https://10play.com.au/ffa-cup/articles/2021-ffa-cup-fixtures/tpa210805qknps

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/de-vanna-embroiled-in-football-australia-intimidation-row-20211101-p5951l.html It's going to be rather messy between now and when the current Matilda's drama comes to an end.

Ah the joys of attempting to use any website to get tickets. https://tickets.melbournesportscentres.com.au/event/ffa-cup-south-melbourne-fc-vs-melbourne-city-fc/listing

Yep! 6pm, with an email before hand to but up to 5 tickets.

Tickets to be released at 3pm* *With the knowledge that 3pm has come and gone and tickets haven't been released yet.

Watching some stuff from the Euro's that happened in Hungary with openly homophobic banners from the crowd, or some of the nonsense still spouted off from different top leagues around Europe probably indicates we're not quite there yet with this being an issue. It's superb we live in a society where this isn't a big of a deal as it once was, but football still has an issue with this.

Neil Young has left the club with Jeff Olver replacing him as GK coach for the next bit.

Another win this morning - next weeks game against Japan is looking hugely important, if we can get a victory in that game we'd be very close to qualified, I'd suggest.

My goodness there will be so little running on that team this year.

I think the thing is a lot of us are football supporters who also support teams overseas so we're used to the concept of team ownership - this isn't a universal model for all sports, particularly Australian ones where it's very rare to have a team actually owned by someone without it being directly tied to the league. P.S - I appreciate that in our case, we both have a foreign owner and could have our license yoinked by the league when they wanted too.

https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/a-league-of-their-own/13554656 If you're after a bit more information on it.

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/football/news/vigorously-oppose-south-melbourne-hit-out-at-western-uniteds-stadium-plan-for-new-a-league-season/17ts3npil7dvk17y9sne9lzcp1 For a fun update on Lakeside.

Winning the Grand Final with no Good, Macca, Noone and Nabbout not starting will go down as one of my favourite memories, although it certainly suffers from recency bias. I think the two that probably stand out the most for me are 1 . The Bruno bicycle kick to win our first ever final against Perth. 2. The Bart header to win the game at the death against WSW, we had so many bloody chances that day, and Schenkeveld rose like a magnificent salmon to put that ball in.

I do think this is likely why we haven't finished our recruitment yet.

I think the bigger danger in our group is for Japan, they have looked decidedly average in their first two outings.

I'd say he's the interim player between Stokes + Mills who weren't able to be as effective as we probably would have liked when promoted to the first team.

In terms of who've we've got 'waiting in the wings' in the youth team. GK : Sutton + Ahmad Taleb, I think Sutton is a capable back-up for the A-League currently, is he a long term replacement for Glover if he decided to leave? Unsure. Left Back : Jordan Bos - played very well in the previous pre-season and always looks a stand out at youth level. Entirely untried at Senior Level. Centre Back : Mills + Stokes - always look very capable at youth level, but neither have grabbed their chance at a senior level and have been given a few shots each, it's a position that rarely favours younger players, so probably worth addressing, I'd say. Attacking Midfielder : I think we had one of the better youngsters in Australia at this position (Bernardo Oliveira), but we're well served with Borges Rodrigues and Tilio at this spot - I'd really like to see Tilio given first shot at this position.

http://pfa.net.au/news/2021-pfa-players-awards-nominees-revealed/ Tilio, Metcalfe, Good and Macca all got nominations for the PFA player awards.

I believe (and this is very second hand), that he stepped away from football to focus on his dedication to faith - happy to be corrected on this.

Looks like he's chosen to represent Macedonia at a senior level!

I mean, I did, but I'm pathetic and have nothing better to do. Max Caputo has absolutely no right to be this good at 15.

There's only two blokes who have a higher expected assists through a season (ever) in the A-League and one of them is Mooy in his last season for us, thoroughly deserves his place, so does everyone else, I definitely though Jamo was a cooked goose this year and Garrucio would take his spot.

Melbourne City with 5 players in the PFA team of the year - though there's a chance only one of them will be starting for us in the Grand Final.

Sydney having 10 cases today might scupper the whole thing - Sydney or Melbourne might not be able to have crowds at this rate.