kiko

Very enjoyable game, 8 goals, fluent play, heaps of parking by the river, so easy to get in and out of the city, small crowd but good atmosphere, Brisbane could have had 4 of their own so this affair was never dull, just a good solid professional outing by a team that wants to get better and better. Well done City boys tonight you go into the history books!

This was a terrific contest, fantastic atmosphere, with two teams driven to deliver and not concede, it made for wonderful theatre and the game as it was played was far better than it was projected on television, which for some reason had the audio muted down so poorly as if to convey otherwise. Top top effort by the team, we are tough mentally and we don't mind playing in close and don't look likely to turn it over, it's that City pedigree continuing which gives the team and supporters considerable confidence. I think this is an interesting team we have this year, flawed but with some amazing qualities, a little short in squad depth but our top end is okay, we have to stick with them I don't think there will be too many games where they will let us down, just enjoy it and get to a game when you can.

Glad I went to this, it was a very entertaining contest, decent atmosphere too, well done to the small band of active guys who found some voice. Mariners are still a very good team, have a very tenacious pressing game and love being a thorn in our side, so to get the equaliser late in the game was a testament to the boys who continued to play 'til the end. Aziz was a beast, the real heart and soul of the team today, Jakolis had a very good game, very clever skills but tried a bit too hard at times and let Farrell back into their duel. He got the late assist which meant overall he had the honours and I noted how spent he was at games end, a bit annoyed too, he sets the bar pretty high which is fantastic. Ugarkovic dominated Nisbett in the first half but that little guy found space unchallenged and got a lot of easy drives forward, we didn't have the legs to mark him, his last 20 min he did too much damage, we were very naive in how we handled him, not enough leg power as well after SU went off. Our back 4 are a worry, we lack pace and that Colombian guy exposed us bad, Talbott making too many over commitments even though his overall game was okay, just left us vulnerable, Souprayen as well. Mariners looked a bit fresher in the legs, they milked that 'water break' nicely like it was preplanned whilst our guys were very slow to get their drinks in and 3 of them opted for no water at all, I know this sounds trivial but in the heat that little bit of edge needed to be taken. Arslan had some really high level touches today and he's getting a lot better understanding with the likes of Jakolis and Natel. Tullio for them was excellent in patches too but boy he's an annoying character on the field, he's very much their X factor and you could tell they wanted this game bad too, so overall a very high level point earned at home, some clumsy lapses and a lack of leg power gave the opposition a sniff unfortunately, but I'm positive moving forward even though Victory will be a tough contest, I think we played the game out and this holds us in good stead.

I know it's all doom and gloom in here but until that 2nd penalty after which I turned out (garbage time) we had some very bright patches, we had a couple of moments where we sliced them up; in fact in hindsight that Leckie ball on the break would have been the turning point for me, a different ball game, that was a certain goal 3 on 1. As it was the whole affair felt scripted for a CCM fairy tale. I take on board the comments that CFG backed this failed experiment in capitalistic opportunism and an AAMI Park home would have been a very different grand final. We had the quality to win it apart from some hopeless defending. Their first goal, simple poke home after Good couldn't clear it twice, same thing for the second in mf couldn't clear it away from Cummings feet who layed off the pass to Silvera, goals 3 and 4 a debacle blah blah who cares after that.

It was their day, everything fell for them, that Nabbout penalty changed it. Just gotta bury this result from the memory banks, the football Gods farted on us today.

As long as we go out there and show everyone what we're capable of we'll be just fine.

It's more of a question about their coach doesn't think you deserved the last 4 points you earned against them, so let's go out and show how wrong he is.

He questioned Rado's pick of Adelaide after CCM had a combined 12-1 against them this year (fair enough but to Rado's defence I think he wanted a showdown with Adelaide as they have been quite good against us recently) but he then went on to claim we only beat them in 45 degree heat with 4 drinks breaks after an error from them, and then said they deserved to win the recent 1-1 draw they were the better team. He was about to really mouth off you could sense it and as a coach he is known to play the man a fair bit so I think it's up to Rado to show the clip to the boys and see how they feel about it. On a side note I thought we beat them 3-2 recently too but it turns out that was in Feb '22, so overall the 2 teams are fairly evenly matched this season, but all said I'd want to show that clip of Montgomery's challenge to the validity of recent results to really spur our players on.

Okay so we got the Mariners and their coach has started the sledging against our coach. I hope Rado plays the clip to the players, they'll want to say something about it on the pitch.

I'm pretty sure if we got the Sat night fixture it would have been 13-15K

On the whole everyone did their job, we were composed, professional, willing to control the ball, move it around and deny the opposition, overall we did exactly what was needed, we killed off any chance Sydney could get back into it. Our confidence in close was noticeable, we're the best at it in the competition, so only having to play against 9 outfielders played completely into our hands. On a night where only one mistake could decide the contest we took full advantage.

Very good turn out, despite no active support the crowd was into the game which made it fun. Very professional performance from Rado and the boys, 11 vs 10 for 70 minutes handled with aplomb apart from a bad moment here and there. Very proud of the club, we have made history, the first to make it to 4 consecutive GFs.

This felt like a 6 point game, seriously, the 3 we got and 3 they didn't, I rate Sydney, they have the ability to go on a run but in that first half hour we exposed them with some excellent, sharp work. The crowd was low but everyone was into the game and we have a nice family vibe to our club. I do agree it's difficult to get to the game, for me it's a 3 hour round car trip plus there's at 20 minute walk into the stadium

Don't know if anyone went to this but my first match in a while, terrific hard fought win, gritty, a real contest today, Sydney worthy opponent, a real game of football. Never seen Rado so emotional he looked drained by game's end. A real good day for the club, the boys did well. Don't undersell today.

Good teams win those games and we got the job done despite being down to 10 men all night ( I hardly sighted J Mac) + a typical egregious Glover error and one luckily not given against him as well. Mixed bag of a game but we move on. Overall well done lads!