SF33

Just a pass. The boys had a crack, but it's about consistent effort, week-in/week-out. Not more false dawns. Realistically, a point means little if we don't take something home from Perth as well. I wonder if some of the personnel decisions and non-decisions were made with the trip across the Nullabor and five-day turnaround in mind. Players like Kisnorbo and Migliorini have seen little-to-no action over the past three weeks and should probably get a start against the Glory. I'm far from convinced with Migliorini, but seriously, Ramsay has barely shown a thing since he joined the club. A professional being afraid to shoot from that distance with his opposite foot (or shooting it and putting it four metres high) is practically a cry for help. Hoffman really solid again and Gerhardt rewarded the faith. Kudos to Redmayne for putting his body on the line, though he wasn't really called to make an actual save otherwise. Behich with some terribly lazy work in the second half nearly cost us...I get a bit tired of his wounded warrior routine as well, if he's limping around, get him the hell off the pitch. The endeavour is there with Mifsud (and he had a solid second half), but it's about six weeks beyond '...the endeavour is there...' platitudes for him. It's not the ideal set-up, without an Engelaar type to work off, but he's had more than enough opportunities. He needs to put it in the net, end of story. He should have seven goals against his name by this stage of the season, as an absolute minimum. And how many more points would that be for us? He's about a Kewell-esque penalty away from missing in every conceivable way this season.

At the moment, I agree with both points. He seems like a nice fella, but Adelaide aside, Migliorini hasn't set the league on fire. And I'm assuming most of us weren't writing the season off in September. There's some decent talent at the Heart. But it's a massive list of players who need to prove their worth to stay on for 2014/15. Finding some guys who believe in themselves would be an excellent start. Agreed. It's simply too early to make a call on a lot of our players. If Engelaar comes back and is able to get 10 or so games into him, it's quite possible that Mifsud could look like a completely different player. And if Kewell is happy to stay on the minimum (which, to me, seems improbable), or even if he's not breaking the bank with a pretty standard veteran's salary, I'd be happy to keep him. It's a tough position, because I'm not sure we can afford to just write the season off. The hit to our membership numbers if we finish below 15 points for the season could be catastrophic. We should be aiming for something like 20 points from the remaining games (5W, 5D/6W, 2D), to give our long-suffering members a bit of hope that the club is on the right track (or, perhaps more accurately, that it isn't on completely the wrong track).

If taking someone like Kennedy now with a view to signing him next season is possible then I believe we should do it. The A-League is not the first choice destination for most players and if someone of quality comes up we should pounce when able. Consider the players we have taken on when they have been rejected by all others. Apart from our three marquee positions, there are only so many "class" players we can fit under the salary cap. Yeah, I'd be all for getting someone of Kennedy's calibre for the remainder of the season, if there's any chance of us pulling it off. Firstly, because he'd seem like at least a decent chance of sticking round on an ongoing basis beyond this season (I think the number of probable 2014 World Cup players who fill a dire need that we could say that about is few and far between). Secondly, because he is exactly what the team is screaming out for. The team ets the ball in dangerous positions enough, but it then they find themselves in the corner, looking to cross the ball in and there's nothing there. Add Kennedy and Engelaar to the mix and there'd be some serious firepower any time the ball goes high in the box, with Mifsud hanging around for any crumbs. And thirdly, because if the season continues in the current fashion and the team finishes on 15-odd points, the membership tally will probably drop by a couple of thousand for next season. But if the can finish the season as one of the form teams (say, something like 21 points from the remaining 15 games), there will be some momentum for the following season and a reason for current members to keep the faith into next season, whether Kennedy (or someone of his ilk) stays or not. If we finish on less than 15 points, I'm probably not signing on next season. That's just the way it is. I've got better things to do with my weekends in the summer.

... In fairness, that's just something that's been cooked up by a sub-editor. Aloisi's actual quotes are far more reasonable.

Due to the hole that the team has dug for itself, I think we have to look at the rest of the season in blocks. Probably should have been expecting seven points from the Sydney/Newcastle/Adelaide games and ended up with one. For the bit of cheer that the second half against Adelaide brought us, if we'd knocked them off, we'd be even with them on points. A draw at home against a team in Adelaide's position should never be viewed as anything more than it was: glimpses of promise. Cause for a small smile that we'd finally registered a point in a game that we'd trailed. And then again last week, when for the second week in a row, the team showed a bit of resolve to cling on for a point (last year's outfit would have given that one away, without a doubt). From the Adelaide game, we went on to the last three-game block before Christmas. West Sydney (a), Sydney (a), Melb Victory (h). As tough a three-game stretch as you can find for us this season. Three draws would have been a major improvement over anything we'd seen in the previous games. But if they're serious about doing anything more than making up the numbers this year, five points was the minimum they needed from WSW/Syd/MV. And it still should be. It might sound funny for a team that hasn't won since February, but just getting a win isn't enough; there needs to be a consistency in output, a bit of backbone, turning zero points into one and one into three (like teams have a knack of doing against us). Stop being an easy team to play against. So, to cut a long story short, we need four points from the two games before Christmas. Get that and we're right back in the mix for top six at the end of the year. Take 0-3 points from the next fortnight into Christmas and it's back to square one. I just don't want people to get blinded by a potential win against Sydney, or even Victory. Coming from where we find ourselves, one win is not enough. Let's go into Christmas on eight points and with a bit of that infamous 'B' word. The first two games of 2014 are going to be tough, but hopefully by that stage, the confidence has been restored and the team will not accept throwing points away on the road. Because after that, the fixture looks extremely friendly to the Heart.

If anyone has signed up with Melbourne Heart in an attempt to 'jump on the bandwagon', I'd suggest that they're useless at bandwagon jumping. At this point in the club's history, I don't see how anyone could possibly be a Heart member and a bandwagon jumper. They're mutually exclusive. If someone from Melbourne wanted to get into the A-League and sign on with a consistently successful/competitive club, they would have gone to the other mob.

This is my second year as a Heart member. I went to a few Heart games before that and also a few Victory games (all my friends that care about the A-League are Victory members), but I really didn't have more than a passing interest in the A-League before that. Now... The issue with that and the whole 'Keep turning up; stand by the club etc.' and the comparisons with where MH is now to the Melbourne FC is that, besides my money and too many ruined weekends (the big positive with these Friday night fixtures by the way), I haven't invested enough in the club to be heartbroken if they die. A lot of Melbourne FC supporters have seen their club not only win a premiership, but dominate the league for several years (theres is a very old supporter base). As a minimum, they can remember their club making it through to 1-2 grand finals. But, if Heart was to die, I'd be pretty ambivalent, because there's practically no good memories to be lost. The bad moments outnumber the good at least 10-1, since I've signed up. Don't worry, I'll still go to the home games. But if the person sitting next to me was in an identical position, I wouldn't blame them for pulling the pin. That's the thing that kind of concerns me right now, and that should definitely concern the club: that if the 2013/14 season continues to follow this path, at the moment I don't really care where they are five years from now. If they go out of existence, well, maybe they deserve to.