Geo400

I use to live in st kilda and south Melbourne was my local team in the NSL, I don't get to watch them much now because I moved away from the area but still try pop in a few times a year at home and will still go to the away games that are close to where I am now, I'm not Greek either. I still buy a membership to help the club out. I still love the club because that's where I met some of my closest mates, many Greek but also many non Greek, very few I knew from back then go anymore, but I still feel a sense of pride going there and seeing new faces and a new generation of supporters all be it on a smaller level. Even though my support isn't the same as those die hards that follow them week to week, I can definately understand why they wouldn't want to abandon the team they have followed their whole life, hell I get a membership out of guilt more then anything, but most important of all I know deep down its a good club, despite it's migrant creation one that puts football first and has a thirst for success and being the best. That's what got me returning to watch them every 2nd week in the old days. I'm not surprised the club is constantly kicking the door down to elevate itself, as it should, once you lose the appetite to better yourself you may as well give up, they won't and never will and good on them. The reason I never went for victory was because I despised their attitude from the get go, the chairman they had at the time Geoff lord would constantly go on radio and ridicule clubs like south, tell people to change teams and follow his franchise, many did, but to me it was a cheap shot, they were a bunch of cvnts, supporters were arrogant, the more people told me to support MV the less likely I became to cross over, despite the fact I was dying to follow a team in the top league I knew it would never be them. i liked heart from the beginning because the club felt more humble, tried to be less controversial and was a genuine underdog, I also believe the fan base is superior in every way, for eg our supporters would never try and belt SM fans the way victorys did in the npl this year...that I am assured of. Now if people can't respect that I followed another team before hand that's tough luck, it's simply not possible that every one magically appeared between 2005-2010. That doesn't make me any less of a city fan now, but telling the people who support the club I've followed since I was about 12 to fuck off and get over it is not on, many of them do follow the a league but on a casual level, and to me that's no problem.

Im not, even if we dominate them which we should because they're dreadful, if we don't take our chances we will cop what Adelaide did tonight, last week we had to keep the foot on the throat to finish them off, Rojas scored out of nowhere, they constantly get goals against the run of play so we need to be switched on and finishing everything.

No club is ever going to get 20k in a state league, we don't even get 20k lol. Telling them to move on is silly, it's there team and the ones that turn up care, they shouldn't be told to get fucked for not changing teams. If city ever folded/relegated/whatever and you told me to support MV I'd tell you to get fucked as well.

Most of those clubs are not in the same class as smfc, to give you an eg they would regularly get crowds of 10k+ against Perth in the NSL, we have only done that once in last years final, Hume, Heidelberg and to a lesser extent knights were never at that level, Hume not at that level period. But nothing should stop any club from being ambitious including the smaller clubs. the ones that haven't picked a club should not have to justify being loyal to the club they have always followed, telling them to get fucked is ridiculous, the people that go watch south, Heidelberg, Knights etc 25 times a year in the middle of winter are just as bigger supporters of the game as those that attend a dozen victory/city games.

1st goal - nobody tracks the run to the back post, players sitting in the middle for a tap in, can't blame bouzanis for that. 2nd goal - goal line clearance, failed to win the second header, conceeded from point blank range, stiff to blame bouzanis for not saving that Keogh was alone right in front. 3rd goal - should have stayed on his line but rose left him hung out to dry twice, it never should have reached that point, I attach very small blame to him for that. made 2 huge saves to deny Keogh, would have faced many more problems if Perth had chosen the right option with the final pass, IMO bouzanis is the least off our worries based on how easily we got sliced open at times last night.

I can't picture this man winning any silverware period, every time I get remotely excited about our prospects I remember that he is still coaching us and it all falls to crap.

Every time this club gains any momentum it gets p1ssed up the wall in shambolic fashion. Sure you can't win every match, but to start the season so well and then butcher the home opener is just classic heart/city since day dot, one step forward two steps back.

we could have easily been hit for 5-6 if Perth had taken the right options in the final third with the final pass, on top of bouzanis making 2 big saves, once our midfield gets bypassed we are a rabble. We will win a lot of games this season on pure talent alone but boy we can easily be ripped to shreds.

The consensus has been that the victory games up there have been mostly people travelling up from Melbourne. Geelong is an intriguing proposition, a lot would depend on who their backers are and the costs associated with running the team out of a very big venue like kardinia park.

3-1 wi very confident about this one. its absolutely bucketing down right now and looks like it will persist into tonight, I'm thinking 11-12k now.

Arent they south Melbourne football club as the title says? expansion will largely depend on what tv broadcasters want, if they tell the ffa we want a 3rd Melb and Sydney that's what we will get, derbies sell, regional teams not so much. personally I think a 3rd team built from scratch in this city or Geelong would represent major risk, this is a very city centric place anything outside the immediate cbd is doomed to fail. That's where south come into play. if they ever decide to go for south I'm of the opposite view to what many would say, don't make them change colours, don't force them to adopt a cheesy nickname, let them be smfc, let them be blue/white or red/white (original colours perhaps away strip like they used in ffa cup). Allow them to be sorta like the port Adelaide of the A league. i watched them play 3 times this season, one of them against victory and the grand final, you could clearly see their supporters are very much football orientated, whilst the scum were trying to kill them and only interested in punching up.

lol did anyone go last night? what a way for Archie to end his career, subbed out of the game in the 70th minute having done jack all, booed off the field by the Hellas fans and then South score 2 in 2 minutes to snatch the game, place went bonkers, goes out a loser and surely he won't embarrass himself by continuing on.

I watched a fair bit of that match on Souths Facebook page, great coverage btw, not surprisingly south smashed them 4-1 and now victory are officially relegated. I think most clubs in that division may breath a sigh of relief as victory fans have caused nothing but chaos this season, apparently they may be off to the tribunal again in relation to an incident at Oakleigh a fortnight ago where they entered the venue, watched 10 mins of the game, then exited the venue and started throwing flares and bottles from the outside over the fence into the ground, all the while demanding and receiving a refund upon exit..you could imagine the people manning the ticket booths would have been terrified, absolute lunatics.

Unlikely, they were actually in a good run of form going into this match and home crowds are always between 20-30k, if anything bad for us as the primary focus will almost certainly shift there with more debacles like this. its funny I remember watching ny red bulls when Cahill and Henry were there, Henry use to turn on the magic but the rest of the team was mostly unwatchable, now they're a quality outfit without any pop stars in the side.

We wouldn't lose many fans, even though I know A fair few city fans that follow south it pales in comparison to victory, when the NSL finished in 2004 most south fans made the transition to victory in 2005, they would lose heaps, however I don't think the current south fans want them back.

Awful team, awful venue, only thing they have going for them are the 20,000 odd hipster fans.

They still have the right to go watch their team play without being attacked by thugs. The ffa/ffv probably want this swept under the carpet. apparently one of the 21 attackers is the grandson of a south Melbourne ground Marshall in his 70s who was trying to stop the attack, that's messed up.

I think 11k is about par for a potential premiership decider in the last round, talk of opening the top tiers is fairy land stuff, we seem to be doing our absolute best at turning away potential fans by dishing up rubbish when it really counts, wasn't last night kids free entry as well? It could have been a special night for the club, instead it did about as much damage as the villa fiasco.

Individual displays of quality by mooy and Fornaroli have carried jvs all season, and even then it's likely to get him no better than 5th spot, it's been an entertaining year no doubt about it but it's always been individuals that have stepped up and dragged this team over the line, when it becomes an issue of tactics and trying to change the course of a game he has no idea, last night Adelaide were brilliant, extremely disciplined with an even contribution across the park, with mooy and Bruno shut down jvs may as well have gotten up and gone home because his superstars couldn't carry his sorry ass again. We need someone that's actually going to build a team of even contributors and motivate them to that point, guys like Bruno and mooy should be the icing on the cake, our entire hopes shouldn't just rest on them. This type of coach does not win premierships or championships, we are not battle hardened, jvs is solely responsible for that.

It was a brain explosion, could have either got out quickly to collect the ball or let it run out of play, demonstrated poor judgement and took out the man. despite that he has been very good this season, in the middle portion of the season some of his performances in goals kept the team from falling off a cliff, especially around the December period, the pre Christmas derby against victory comes to mind where he pulled off about 5 miracle saves in the 2nd half, if you weigh up his season overall it's been more good then bad.

I personally know about 20 people who went to that game and half of them arent greek who otherwise would have been at aami park. Its poor scheduling by the ffv as many people do follow both leagues. Similar situation on friday night with victory as well.

7,535 sounds about right. Dont forget 3,000+ were at the South Melbourne v Heidelberg game at the same time as well which probably didn't help.