fensaddler

So did I.

Yes, that's where I was looking. I commute daily on the Belgrave line so I'm regularly checking out what's up. Saw this just checking whether there were any disruptions to my journey home. And yes, it is completely ambiguous. Maybe my note to PTV will get it sorted....

Pretty simple. It would be a judgement by the ref and if necessary the MRP whether the reaction was proportionate.

Good on them, he needs seeing to. I'm British, football has always been my game. I hated simulation in the UK and I hate it here. However, I suspect there are many countries where the expected and accepted norms are different. Australia does have a choice, at this point, about the culture it wants to adopt on this. There is no universal norm.

Amongst all the crap spouted by Aloisi about North, I seem to recall he actually said it was wrong, even followed by a big but. I'm not sure we're even getting that half hearted condemnation. I really don't like it, and it's bringing the game into disrepute. Ideally I want it dealt with by referees and the match review panel, and backed up by the clubs with internal discipline. But, JVS is right on this, referees must do more to protect creative players, and deal with the subtler forms of simulation, such as the dive that won Sydney's penalty.

I do hope you're right. Close reading of the PTV site provides replacement bus timetables for the whole weekend, but then there is some unfathomable sub clause suggesting that the replacements only apply to night buses. Since everything else seemed to point to complete replacement I took the majority decision. For now, all is noise and confusion, like our defence on a bad day.

You learn something new every day. Thank you BT50...

I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting TBH. If my City Blue reserved seat isn't occupied by me, no one else gets to buy it, because until I physically turn up and sit in it, no one knows whether it will be occupied or vacant. Same for any reserved seat membership. On a different note, some Muppet has decided to close all the rail lines to the eastern suburbs this weekend between Parliament and Camberwell, so it is going to be absolute freaking chaos outside Richmond station where thousands of fans from both teams will be trying to get on three knackered buses.

And JVS needs to tell him clearly, rather than making public excuses for him. In the end he is endangering his team mates and undermining the potential success of the team. The frustration is that he doesn't need to do it, he's already a brilliant player. The footwork that preceded the dive was wonderful, and exactly what makes sexy football.

The other consequence is that the story in the media this morning is Brandan's simulation, not Bobo's crude challenge, and the fact that he should not have been on the pitch to win and score a soft penalty. And the Brandan story should have been his goal, not his dive.

And there are two consequences beyond this. Our best players, particularly Bruno, will get little or no protection and will struggle to perform as a result. And serious fouls and resulting injuries will be more likely, and will be missed or go unpunished. Would Bobo have been sent off if simulation hadn't been in the minds of officials?

Didn't see the second half live but just watching now. Bobo should have been off and Matt Simon ought to have been close too. We were the better side, but Brandan needs to cut out the diving.

Fotmob or official City app on your phone. Both free.

Looks it. Someone did some great scouting. Have we found a gun centre back? Liked him pre-season at Ballarat.

Brandan, absolute screamer. One for the mixtape.

I think you might be right. what a screamer.

He has a cunning plan to confuse the opposition...

He certainly hasn't been great since he copped that crack on the head.

Colazo or rat boy on the left? I'd be thinking Colazo? That's why I couldn't work out the formation, because we appear to have two left sided players in the front three, and have left both of our right wingers out of the starting Eleven? I know, JVS...

Well we will find out how good he is tonight! Baptism of fire...

Very odd selection tonight with several usuals missing. Trying to work out the formation. Back four it looks like, but beyond that not sure.

They are always sad to watch in football. Talent to burn, talent most of us ordinary mortals would beg for, and thrown away because of their own demons. We had one at Walsall called Ishmel Demontagnac, one of the best players you'd ever see when it all came together, but a thoroughly troubled and often dangerous human being.

Well good on him, but he was only doing what he'd been told to do. But those who gave him those instructions are nowhere near apologising. Petard. Own. Hoisted. By. Excellent post.

I think it's like this. There are those of us sad obsessives who post on discussion boards who make every match they can. Then there are members like my missus who admitted that after three games in a week, she was a bit over live football. She came to the match because I was going, but I'd imagine that if we'd had a competing commitment, or it had been up to her, she'd have given it a miss. I suspect many of our members and others felt that three games in a week was too much, and they wanted or needed, for all sorts of reasons, to do something else.

The man is beyond contempt and has no self awareness. They're sledging you sunshine because you've spent weeks dragging their reputation through the mud, not least Bruno. JVS needs to put it out there next time that he reckons Brisbane players and their manager are trying to get our players penalised through simulation. We need to get into the ref's head before Aloisi does.