rass

Good point. I've always thought Grant is a 'cheat' type of player. I.e. would rather go forward, defend narrow and no respect for his opponent. When he eas younger, he could get back and those last ditch tackles look heroic. Now he's older and he can't do that as effectively and is getting way more exposed.

I have no problem with the slower second half or the 'back passing'. I notice people on here and at the ground are so focused on moving the ball quickly forward at all times, they lose perspective of where the game is actually at. The first half was really entertaining, especially for the fans with 4 goals and quick play up and down the pitch. Whilst it looked great, i thought Sydney were just as capable as scoring as we were. I'm certainly not privy to what goes on in the sheds, but I'm sure Rado's message at half time would have been to slow the game down and play some tempo football, especially as we were sitting on a 2 goal lead. Sure it didn't look as pretty but it absolutely helped nullify Sydney too. No way they were as dangerous in the second half. So pretty comfortable for me and well managed in the end.

Agree.

I noticed on Saturday and in the media coverage, several lads were wearing black t-shirts with 'Riverside' printed on them. Including the boys at the centre of the trouble. What's that all about? New terrace?

Sorry, was being cheeky. But really don't rate Ikonomides. Reckon he's had his time and doesn't offer much. Wouldn't surprise if the scum offload him next season. Spent a lot of that giving professional fouls and was lucky not to see a card. Bos on the other hand has the world in front of him.

Was that a contest?

Ticketek servers down.

Wtf has happened to my Ticketek tickets....

It's been a privilege watching Bos play tonight. He's the only shining light out there. Awful slow pitch and even more awful Teo babbling away making this a real hard watch atm.

Without knowing any details obviously, i assume CFG are very good at placing their people on posts where key decisions are made. If they don't get the decision they want, then they'll assess the cost viability to appeal and if it is beneficial to them, they'll go higher till they get the decision they want. How it works with the new Newcastle owners in play now, not sure. Maybe they'll get their peeps in too which might make CFG's reign come to an end.

Does Macarthur have a midfield? Haven't seen it yet...

I personally think it's a bit of an overreaction to suggest Berisha has not given us that return. I reckon his workrate and smarts have made him an important member of a midfield that is really balanced and humming atm. Perhaps he's guilty of trying too hard at times, but his passion can't be argued. I reckon he's doing exactly what the coaches have asked from him.

When you become the hunted, opposition teams will put in more effort trying to work you out. To Adelaide's credit yesterday, i thought they setup well to defend that wide, triangle passing we do to try and work into the box. They generally had an extra man going out wide to stop our overlap, which then slowed us up and forced us backwards. We're so good though that we still managed to get through that, especially towards the end there when Bos moved onto the wing to expose a visibly emotionally shaken Lopez. Our challenge is to change up ourselves. There were times yesterday the centre channels opened up, so we could have utilised that area more effectively. Overall though, despite Adelaide setting up well, we still should have won purely on the chances created. Adelaide had what, 1 chance?.. and still managed to score 3!

Very flat night and as others have pointed, Jamo and Galloway didn't offer the same attacking threat Bos and Talbot do. Perhaps it was the cameras, but i thought the pitch looked really slow. Can't remember the last time we missed so many easy passes, many were short or behind the player. It just didn't look right.

Leckie, in particular in this league, can play anywhere in the front half. He's probably our best #10 when he moves into that position. Can easily play as a hold up #9 (strong and technical), fast enough as an off the shoulder #9 and can out jump most defenders and is a great header. Great asset.

Probably the best I've seen us play without taking all 3 points. For a team sitting 3rd or whatever and at home, i thought WSW were pathetic. Guess the result is the only thing that matters in the end but they were totally shithouse, as the stats prove. And contrary to the commentary, their defence was woeful. No structure or skill; just a bunch of big blokes sitting deep and trying to fill up space. Then hopefully get a long ball out and pray Borello outsprints his opponent. If people think Rudan is a good coach, they're clueless. Any other day and we could have put 6 past them.

So with that logic you'd therefore be ok with most of the OSM/NT, etc to be still allowed at games if they didn't jump the fence or throw a flare?

Oh c'mon. They threw multiple flares onto the pitch, burning a hole in the net which put a stop to the game. That's just straight out vandalism. What do you expect the club to do, congratulate them? Just because Victory fukd up more doesn't mean we're excluded from any punishment.

Also, whilst the majority of those fukwits are just straight out thugs, sadly there are a few kids in there too, most probably quite impressionable at that. For humanity's sake, you'd like to believe they're regretting their actions and might actually learn from this. For these kids, who a few probably play for clubs, you'd think that being banned from playing and being involved would be a massive punishment. Playing and registering for a club would be much easier to police.

Yep. Sounds great but how do you police it? Fine if you're playing at a high tech stadium that uses advanced facial recognition. But how do you keep them out of a suburban NPL game or at Fed Square as part of a bumper crowd? Because they're just as good at causing trouble there as they are at an A League derby. They need criminal records and some jail time. Might be unrealistic with the way our justice system works, but it's the only way to deter them.

Does it matter though? They were part of the Victory active group. Victory have had a long time to get it right and ultimately haven't been able to control their fans. In the end, the club has to take the responsibility, members or not.

I think that's fair enough tbh. Victory only responded yesterday morning and FA have been busy handing out bans to those people identified and police continue to find more people everyday. They've identified over 50 now and charged about 13. It will happen, perhaps tomorrow we'll start hearing what the sanctions will be for victory as they're due to play Monday and probably need answers by then.

38 degrees expected. Surely that's too hot for the 2pm game at least.

I reckon that's a long bow you're drawing there... And a bit off trying to get others to agree he knew exactly where and how far he had to throw it. Only Glover himself will know the answer... And tbf, he may himself even not know, it may have been totally reactive to the continued shit coming his way. Stupid thing to do and he'll probably get some sort of sanction from it. But this idea of him deliberately inciting them is total bullshit.

Quite brilliant. Victory pressed hard early and made those first 10 minutes or so uncomfortable. But the moment their press softened, we took control and started playing through them confidently. It was a derby, but reckon we could have scored a few more had it gone the distance.