SF33

Deliberate tactic by management to force the die hards to conform to the new colours! Perhaps. But I suspect it will backfire when 80% of the crowd isn't wearing any of the new range and more people are wearing Heart gear than City. I'm wearing Heart gear regardless, so they can delay it as long as they like, but it is pretty unprofessional. I'd love some evidence to this, that most people are going to wear heart gear, or as you say 80% of people. Which I'm guessing is a number plucked out of thin air? As far as I can tell the only people who say they will only wear heart gear are a few noisy people on here, which is hardly a broad part of the supporter base. Of course it is. Do you think I've conducted extensive research and surveys on this? Anyway, I'm basing it on a couple of things. To me, it seems that the supporter group/membership is now split three ways, with regards to attire: Group 1: 100% embracing the new wardrobe and happy to wear the new home shirt and/or sky blue to the home games. Group 2: Have accepted the new wardrobe, but have a natural preference for the red and white away kit, which is impossible to get, at this stage. May or may not also be slightly bemused (if not irritated) by the generic club merchandise being dominated by sky blue. Group 3: Will wear old Melbourne Heart gear at home games, regardless of their thoughts on the new kit (which is where I fit in and I've honestly got no problem with the new kit and will buy it). Right now, the club is not catering to Group 2 or Group 3 with the new range and it's even proving difficult for Group 1 to get what they want (e.g. hero printing)

Deliberate tactic by management to force the die hards to conform to the new colours! Perhaps. But I suspect it will backfire when 80% of the crowd isn't wearing any of the new range and more people are wearing Heart gear than City. I'm wearing Heart gear regardless, so they can delay it as long as they like, but it is pretty unprofessional.

In fairness to him, it's the Philippines. He' probably wouldn't feel any particular pride playing for that national side and it certainly wouldn't be much of an honour for him to be selected.

Victory are selling 3 game packages ! At least all our members are full season ones (so far) Pretty surprised that we're not, to be honest. I guess there's a balancing act for the administration: you absolutely want to capitalise on David Villa and get big crowds while he's here, but you don't want them to only be interested in Villa, creating tumbleweeds when he leaves. I think the current set-up lends itself to a bit of a 'come for Villa, stay for trophies' with regards to new members, so a 3-game home membership through to January and then a discounted GA membership offer for those sign-ups after they've used their three games could possibly have worked, if the club is as successful this season as (presumably) it intends to be.

You don't hear the actual question that Bresc was asked, but unless there was very misleading editing it does look like he was asked about returning to the A-League to play for a Melbourne club. Betting markets (for what they're worth) have Melbourne City at $2.20 odds to be Bresc's 1st A-League club, whereas victory are 2.75 and the next club is Sydney at 10.00 (http://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/soccer/australia/a-league-specials?LeftNav?CMP=SOM|SBT|TWITTER|ORGANIC|100). My money's still firmly on Josh Kennedy being signed as the marquee (we need a striker, not another mid. And Kennedy will remain 32 until mid-August next year, whereas Bresc turns 35 in Feb). But I reckon Bresc might be a possibility to sign for Melbourne City, perhaps inside the salary cap in the 2015/16 season (that is next season). There should be a new salary cap by then, which I'm tipping to have a significant increase, and I wouldn't put it past Melbourne City to do some more smart business with recruitment and to get Bresc to sign under the cap. Exactly what I was hoping for. Wouldn't want Bresciano instead of Kennedy (and I'm guessing it would be one or the other for 2014/15), but having both in 2015/16 would be sensational. Presumably got a bit more flexibility in the next offseason as well, as I assume practically all of the remaining players heading into 2015/16, would have had to be signings since the takeover (i.e. all dead wood should be cleared by then).

http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/socceroos/mark-bresciano-says-he-isnt-thinking-about-retirement-and-aleague-could-tempt-him-home/story-e6frf4l3-1227088500259 Promising vibes about Bresciano coming back to the A-League, presumably next season. Of course, the 'most likely a Melbourne club' seems to just be the author's opinion, but hopefully we'd be a good chance of getting him.

Hmmm...looks better on its own than on a player, in my opinion. As the shirts continue to make their way to supporters, is there any more info on the sizes and how they compare to our past manufacturers? Noticed the biggest shirt for the Nike offer was large last time I checked and unless they're pretty generous (6'6 and about 98kg) that will literally be a stretch. I'm 6"0 and a solid athletic build, large fits me perfectly. If your 6"6 I'd think you need an extra large Yeah, wouldn't risk it...smart money is on me being an XL. I guess I'll just try one on at Rebel.

Honest question: when has Koren been injury-prone? 273 games in his past eight years in England seems like reasonable going.

If Hoffman starts, then I think Ramsay needs to stay at left back as Archibald and Hoffman won't make overlapping runs and we'll be too stagnant going forward. What I'd really like is a genuine left back who can attack and defend. I agree with that Nate Personally I would leave the back four as they are, because they didn't do too much wrong. They were obviously helped with Paartalu sitting in front of them. It seemed to me in the last 15 minutes Paartalu tired a bit and that meant the back four came under more pressure, but they handled it very well. IMO Parts is the key recruit this season as he really screens that defense well and is able to pass out when he wins the ball back. He also flies the fucken flag for the lads in the middle of the park... something we have missed since Shroj. In a comp where u play sides so many times a season you don't want to be that side that is known as physically easy to initiate in the guts. NOTE: Some credit does go to Kewell for doing this verbally when he could limp on to the pitch. What a joke. The cunt came to the club with a shit attitude, got handed the captaincy and did nothing for us. Didn't want to work hard in games, did fuck all in training yet arguing with refs and getting lippy to opposition players means he was "verbally flying the flag", give me a spell. Everyone wants to kick Aloisi when he is down but Kewell's "leadership" was just as bad for our playing culture than anything Bad Luck Johnny did. Stats wise you're theory simply does not stack up... JA was involved during the first half of last season when we couldn't win a game while Kewell on the other hand was mainly involved in the team during the far more successful second half of the Season. (He also played a major role in the Derby win which was by far the Season's greatest highlight.) He came on in the 80th minute? rof Just did some research, he started 11 games for 3 wins (With one of those wins coming from a late Willo goal after Kewell was subbed off), hardly successful if you ask me. Wow...pretty blown away by the criticism of Kewell, to be honest. He came in, played for peanuts, was the obvious/only choice for captain (really, with the exodus after 2012/13, who else was there?) and had a pretty clear disadvantage (as did the team) in that he barely shared the park with Engelaar (invariably, if Harry was in, Orlando was out and vice versa). I have very fond memories of the Sydney FC game in January, where Engelaar was sent off and Kewell somehow controlled the airways for the rest of the game, getting his head on countless balls in the centre of the ground. I have a mate that worked for Victory when Kewell was there who thought that he carried himself like an absolute tosser during his stint there. And it's obviously tough from an outsider's perspective, but I thought his engagement with fans after the games he played for Heart was as good as could have been expected.

Felt like Bosnich was simultaneously reeling himself in, while subtly baiting JA in the wrap-up show, when Aloisi was speaking about the need for coaches to keep the post match press conferences positive and not throw the players under the bus. I guess he doesn't realise that, for me at least, I could have taken a fair bit more ineptitude. It was the whole 'treating the supporters as complete idiots' routine that infuriated me much more.

Absolutely love him. He's the whole package. Already dreaming of him continuing beyond this season.

Obviously Hoff and Mauk speak for themselves, but is there an official timeframe on any of the others?

The away strip looks so good, reminiscent of Atletico a few seasons back The white shorts make it look weird though, with a predominantly red shirt (at the back). Shorts really should be red.

Sydney is currently equal-third favourite to take out the league and on balance, I'd say we were at least as far off full-strength as they were. With the run of play, we should have done enough to get the win granted, but if we're at least banking away points against quality opposition, it will hold us in good stead. Of course, the other part of that is that we really need to get a win now at home on Sunday. I remember being pretty buoyant that we managed to hold Victory to a draw in the opening match last season, with a severely undermanned squad...little did I know that we'd get maximum points from a game for the first time in mid-January that year. Games like last night are ok, as long as they don't become a habit.

Agreed. Giving a class player like that such time and space in that spot, you can really just hope for the best. He did a fair few good things as well and looked better at making a decision and sticking to it, rather than constantly being caught in two minds. As an aside, I watched the game with two Victory converts and they are absolutely convinced that Velaphi would be the starting keeper for MV, if he was still there.

Hmmm...looks better on its own than on a player, in my opinion. As the shirts continue to make their way to supporters, is there any more info on the sizes and how they compare to our past manufacturers? Noticed the biggest shirt for the Nike offer was large last time I checked and unless they're pretty generous (6'6 and about 98kg) that will literally be a stretch.

Hang on, are you saying you would encourage buying merch of another club because of its colour? I couldn't wait for the new away kit so ended up buying an Adelaide red top to wear to our games Lol

I'm still pretty disappointed that a red stripe wasn't added to the home kit (either alongside the sky and navy stripes, or in place of the navy). Just seems like such a simple thing they could have done to make a statement about the presence of red on the kit for the foreseeable future.

The new apparel prices are quite steep for no-name brand.

yup Doesn't help when all these people who fought for 'Keep Melbourne Red and White' have gone out and bought the new home kit. As long as they also buy an away shirt (and, as a secondary consideration, never wear the home shirt at a home game), I don't think there's a problem. The issue I can see is that the red and white shirts will sell like hot cakes in year 1, but then who's going to buy one in year 2? Ultimately, it's going to be about wearing the red and white, especially at home. I'll probably buy both Nike shirts, but I intend to only ever wear Heart gear at home games. Has there been any news on the goalkeeper kits? I wouldn't buy one...just curious.

I'd give nike a call and talk to them about it first. I think the club will charge another $30 for the name and number printing, but give them a buzz Hey mate, let us know how you went.. I find it odd that there is no option on the club's store to add the number and name when ordering online. Come on Melb City, surely you want to capitalise on this seeing that David Villa is coming to play! Heck, I would even have ready made David Villa jersey to sell on the website for members... Geez.. Rang Nike, they said that they have no clue about it, maybe I just got a clueless staff.. Anyway.. It's pretty piss poor, honestly.

In regards to those comments from Murdocca and Hoffman: Whatever. No excuses anymore. If this team doesn't show significant improvement this year (from 26 points to 40+, as a minimum and being the best club in Melbourne), with the resources and players available, people will be jumping off next year as quickly as they jumped on this year.

Didn't like the black shorts/socks at all. It's like they're going out of their way to not use red.

I should have added Gerhardt to the above group as he (or an Australian equivalent, who wouldn't cost a visa spot) might have been pretty handy this year.

Speaking for myself, I think this is spot on. Don't know about other people, but I honestly would not have given most of the other teams in the league a second's thought at this stage of proceedings. I think we pretty clearly have a better squad than last year. We've lost Kewell and Engelaar (really more like one player, since they were barely on the park at the same time) and Behich. I think our inclusions have the 2013/14 production of those three covered comfortably and there's more to come. The other thing about the Heart in recent years is (sorry to come across as a bit too JA): we haven't been miles away, on a game-to-game basis. We've just consistently turned three points into one, or one point into zero. How many times were we blown off the park in the last two years? I'd say there weren't too many. Perhaps the biggest area in which this group needs to improve is mental toughness.