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42 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Haha wow something must have been sour in his coffee this morning. His title card says "One of the most respected writers" but writing insults like that is something a 5th grader would do, plus the spelling doesn't even make sense?

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Australian football tearing itself apart despite A-League, W-League and Socceroos hypeArticle 
 
Article posted here.....
 
 
By Offsiders columnist Richard Hinds

 

Updated about an hour ago

What great times these should be for Australian football.

Sam Kerr officially opened the W-League season by doing what she does — scoring a goal when it was most expected.

Kerr's celebratory backflip might not yet have the iconic status of Tim Cahill's corner flag assault and battery, but such is Kerr's capacity to score on demand, surely even greater acclaim is only a World Cup away.

The Matildas will play China in Melbourne and Geelong this month. Lock up your daughters, AFLW acolytes.

On Friday night Melbourne $ity plays Sydney FC in a mouth-watering top of the table clash between the reigning champions and the early season pacesetters.

And no, that was not a typo. Some of us who wore our Melbourne Hearts on our sleeves prefer to spell the new entity with a dollar sign.

This is not a sly backhander aimed at the petro-chemical riches of the Abu Dhabi-based $ity Group. It is an earnest attempt to embrace Melbourne $ity's one true distinction.

 

After all, when you don't have a unique geographical zone, your ultra-successful cross-town rival Victory had a five-year head start recruiting fans and you've become renowned as an empty stadium underachiever, you need to stand for something.

Thus $ity should revel in its inherited wealth, its access to the $ity Groups vast data base of international talent and its fancy training facilities. If it is to increase its average crowds from the usual 8,000 diehards to a more respectable figure, it must show potential converts money can buy happiness.

Meanwhile, the Socceroos prepare for the away leg against Honduras in a bid to compete in the World Cup finals for a fourth consecutive time.

Yes, the World Cup finals! While the football media takes pot shots at coach Ange Postecoglou from a grassy knoll, the team is about to depart for the biggest challenge since the famous Uruguay triumph of 2005.

Postecoglou has brought the attention on himself. He would have been wiser to hold his tongue rather than confide that his future beyond this qualifying stage is uncertain (although not yet decided).

But too easily ignored by those in the media busy composing devilishly clever taunts or playing hurt because Postecoglou no longer appears on their TV programs is the real reason the coach will consider his future should the Socceroos qualify.

 

Postecoglou has been worn down in spirit, but not performance, by a job that has required a personal commitment beyond that expected of any other national coach.

The Socceroos' Asian Cup winning coach has never had the luxury of just moving witches hats at training. As the game's public figurehead — in the place of the increasingly unpopular chief executive David Gallop and the charisma-free chairman Stephen Lowy — he has been expected to appear at the opening of every FFA envelope.

 

As recruiting scout he has been forced to travel to Scottish second division games hoping to bolster a mediocre squad. And, in his spare time, he has tried to navigate his team through Asia.

The reward? Little support from the FFA and calls for his sacking from the media when he dared employ a formation that might make the post-golden era Socceroos something more than target practice for their opposition should they get to Russia.

So Postecoglou is now thinking he will take a couple of weeks after qualification to consider his future and weigh up his options? Quelle surprise!

Still, World Cup qualification remains a real possibility even as the Hondurans contrive to play the first leg in conditions so hot the Socceroos will return to Sydney medium-rare.

Which leaves Australian football with so much reason to be excited that, naturally, the game is tearing itself apart.

Actually, it hasn't even been able to manage that yet. The postponement of this week's scheduled FFA emergency general meeting means the intervention of FIFA's eerily Soviet-sounding ''normalisation committee'' is now a real possibility.

 

You might characterise this as just the latest example of the game's rare ability to shoot itself in the foot.

But — and this might be clutching at a straw that is about be lopped by a Whipper Snipper — the recent political machinations could yet help unlock the game's scandalously underexploited potential.

Before siding with the A-League clubs, the players union and the NSW federation against the FFA's reform proposals, Football Federation Victoria president Kimon Taliadoros did what the FFA seldom does. He listened.

Taliadoros sought a wide range of opinions from the game's various stakeholders and reached the conclusion that, for all the FFA's voluminous long-term plans, a game with endless possibilities has a two-word answer to growth and innovation: ''Not yet.''

Thus the FFV joined those championing a governance model the proponent feels will hold the FFA board to account and, ideally, give the organisations best equipped to energise Australian football a far greater say in how that is done.

The FFA mutters darkly that the states risk empowering self-interested A-League clubs and ''the grass roots will suffer''. But given the game's current stagnation it now seems a risk worth taking.

The threat of change has already forced the FFA to open its eyes to the possibilities of a national second division, just one measure that could, if executed properly, help build a much needed bridge between the game's club/participation base and its elite levels.

Somersaulting Sammy Kerr, the A-League showdown and the Socceroos' World Cup quest are exciting. But, as farfetched as it might seem, the most exhilarating thing for Australian football could yet take place in the board room.

Edited by n i k o
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  • 1 month later...

When it was announced the City Football Group had purchased a majority stake of the A-League's struggling Melbourne Heart for a reported $11.25 million in January, 2014, there was much chest-beating at Football Federation Australia.

The Abu Dhabi Sheikhs, owners of the English Premier League's Manchester City, were investing in Australia's domestic league.

Surely this was a sign of the A-League's growing global prestige.

Australian officials and journalists were flown to Manchester to dine in the chairman's lounge at The Etihad, take tours of the incredible training facilities, watch games from heated seats and see for themselves that money can buy happiness.

It was the ultimate win-win for the FFA.

A club drawing average crowds of around 6,000 would be self-sufficient at a time when only Melbourne Victory was turning a profit and others were haemorrhaging cash.

Or so it seemed.

Three-and-a-half years later, FFA officials and long-term powerbroker Frank Lowy are no longer basking in the City Group's reflected glory.

They are asking how the wolf got through the door.

Read all about it at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-04/hinds:-ffa-and-lowy-see-a-league-clubs-gaining-in-influence/9221702

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1 hour ago, Dylan said:

I read it, cant really see any snide comments in there? Happy to be corrected. Richard Hinds supports city btw.

I don't think the following can be read as anything other than snide.

"On Friday night Melbourne $ity plays Sydney FC in a mouth-watering top of the table clash between the reigning champions and the early season pacesetters. And no, that was not a typo. Some of us who wore our Melbourne Hearts on our sleeves prefer to spell the new entity with a dollar sign.This is not a sly backhander aimed at the petro-chemical riches of the Abu Dhabi-based $ity Group. It is an earnest attempt to embrace Melbourne $ity's one true distinction.

After all, when you don't have a unique geographical zone, your ultra-successful cross-town rival Victory had a five-year head start recruiting fans and you've become renowned as an empty stadium underachiever, you need to stand for something.

Thus $ity should revel in its inherited wealth, its access to the $ity Groups vast data base of international talent and its fancy training facilities. If it is to increase its average crowds from the usual 8,000 diehards to a more respectable figure, it must show potential converts money can buy happiness."

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11 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I don't think the following can be read as anything other than snide.

"On Friday night Melbourne $ity plays Sydney FC in a mouth-watering top of the table clash between the reigning champions and the early season pacesetters. And no, that was not a typo. Some of us who wore our Melbourne Hearts on our sleeves prefer to spell the new entity with a dollar sign.This is not a sly backhander aimed at the petro-chemical riches of the Abu Dhabi-based $ity Group. It is an earnest attempt to embrace Melbourne $ity's one true distinction.

After all, when you don't have a unique geographical zone, your ultra-successful cross-town rival Victory had a five-year head start recruiting fans and you've become renowned as an empty stadium underachiever, you need to stand for something.

Thus $ity should revel in its inherited wealth, its access to the $ity Groups vast data base of international talent and its fancy training facilities. If it is to increase its average crowds from the usual 8,000 diehards to a more respectable figure, it must show potential converts money can buy happiness."

Somehow I missed that whole section. Should have wrote skimmed rather than read.

Anyway another jaded heart supporter. Seems to be forgotten that Heart had all the same issues with crowds etc. Difference is that Heart was going nowhere in a hurry.

 

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2 hours ago, MXG said:

Stupid article, mixing A-League current state with attempt to defend Fat Angie's disastrous World Cup qualification campaign.

More like a rant rather than a piece of informative journalism.

Qualifying for the WC is never a disastrous campaign, especially with the current team

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The current team has much better players than most if not all of other teams in the group where Fat Angie failed. We just had terrible coach. 

In fact most likely Angie realised how lucky he was to escape this time and decided to run away and try to sell himself somewhere else.

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  • 1 month later...

EXCLUSIVE: Bristol City boss on his admiration for Australian players

Aidan Ormond

11 Jan 2018

 

Bristol City boss Lee Johnson says he admires the “winning” mentality of Australian players as he’s keeps a close eye on the best Aussie talent in the Hyundai A-League.

The City manager appointed Caltex Socceroo defender Bailey Wright as his captain this year, and his admiration for Australians goes back to his playing days with the club. 

“I’ve been fortunate to work with Australian players as a player and as a coach – Nick Carle and Bailey being just two," Johnson told www.a-league.com.au fresh from a  2-1 loss to Manchester City in Wednesday morning’s Carabao Cup first leg. 

Carle, a former Caltex Socceroo and Hyundai A-League player of the year, called City home in 2008, helping the club to a Championship play-off final at Wembley (only to lose to a Dean Windass goal).

 

“I’ve always got my eye on the Australian national market because of the society and culture they are brought up in; a winning environment,” Johnson added.

More recently, Johnson’s link with Manchester City – the club assisted his coaching development – has given him another window into the A-League.  

“Through links with Man City, at one time I was watching Melbourne City for most of their games.

“I know it’s a good standard of football and we’ve seen with the likes of Aaron Mooy coming over and doing well at Huddersfield Town, via Man City, that there’s bound to be more [Australians] coming over in the future.

“There are a couple of players in Australian national team who are really impressing at the moment.”

Bristol City's link with Australian footballers goes back to the mid-1990s when Australian U23s striker David Seal plied his trade at Ashton Gate.

And current Sydney FC right-back Luke Wilkshire forced his way into the 2006 Socceroos World Cup side on the back of over 100 appearances for the Ashton Gate club from 2003.

Johnson is effusive in his praise for Wright, who made his name in England at Preston before signing with City a year ago.

The defender having the armband has been part of a culture overhaul at Bristol City.  

And it’s working with City still in with an outside chance of making the Carabao Cup Final while they sit fifth in the Championship with a playoff spot for the Premier League very much in reach. 

“He’s been very important for us. We look to sign players who are great people and great footballers,” Johnson said of Wright.

“He’s proved to be just that; he’s an honourable man and a fantastic footballer – the type of person we like to entice to Bristol City and build the team around.

“We made him captain, which just shows how much we value his contribution, both on and off the pitch.”

Asked to describe his Australian captain in three words, Johnson said: “Genuine, tough, talented.”

 

Source: A-League website

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  • 5 months later...

https://www.a-league.com.au/news/paper-talk-melbourne-citys-novel-investment

Not quite sure what this means, but here it is.

Melbourne City has made a significant overhaul to the club’s off-field operations following investment in an overseas software company.

The Australian report that the Melbourne club has devoted their attention to improving back-end systems to ensure the City Football Group-owned outfit is the most technologically advanced club in the country.

A central part of the investment will see the club utilize San Francisco-based company SuccessFactors’ software in order to revamp administrational processes and advance their on-pitch analysis.

Melbourne City Chief Executive Officer Scott Munn said the investment is part of the club’s goal to become the most technologically advanced football group.

 “Our transformation over the past two to three years has been incredible,” he said.

“To see the integration we’ve got going on now at every level is something that not only is welcomed internally, but it’s a credit to all of our staff across the board.”

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42 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

https://www.a-league.com.au/news/paper-talk-melbourne-citys-novel-investment

Not quite sure what this means, but here it is.

Melbourne City has made a significant overhaul to the club’s off-field operations following investment in an overseas software company.

The Australian report that the Melbourne club has devoted their attention to improving back-end systems to ensure the City Football Group-owned outfit is the most technologically advanced club in the country.

A central part of the investment will see the club utilize San Francisco-based company SuccessFactors’ software in order to revamp administrational processes and advance their on-pitch analysis.

Melbourne City Chief Executive Officer Scott Munn said the investment is part of the club’s goal to become the most technologically advanced football group.

 “Our transformation over the past two to three years has been incredible,” he said.

“To see the integration we’ve got going on now at every level is something that not only is welcomed internally, but it’s a credit to all of our staff across the board.”

Improvements all around the club except on the (mens) field

 

From the Australian Article
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/aleague-clubs-hitech-pitch/news-story/44840bcc05de19a9bc6e927cf4c0a709

Quote

A-League club Melbourne City’s hi-tech pitch

Melbourne City CEO Scott Munn. Picture: Zak Simmonds Melbourne City CEO Scott Munn. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Melbourne City Football club is doubling down on its mission to be the A-League’s most tech-enabled football club, investing heavily in its back-end systems to give it a competitive advantage against the rest of the league.

“It’s one of the most important things for us,” the club’s boss, Scott Munn, told The Australian. “In the past four years we’ve [City Football Group] gone from having one club, Manchester City, and 350 employees to today where we have six clubs around the world and we have 1200 staff.”

Melbourne City is one of a number of clubs across the US, Australia, Japan, Spain, and Uruguay administered by City Football Group, which brings benefits but also challenges.

“We had all these different ways of managing talent, our admin processes were a mix of pen and paper and online systems,” Mr Munn said. “IT identified we needed a way to integrate all our employees globally, to bring in all these different platforms that were delivering different outcomes.”

The City Football Group, which is owned by Abu Dhabi United Group and part-owned by Chinese firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital, turned to SAP’s SuccessFactors software to tackle its complex human resources management.

According to Mr Munn, while fans often only celebrate the players on a field, the team behind the team are the unsung heroes. From coaches to dietitians and the IT team, everyone has a fundamental role in making sure players perform at their peak on the field. Melbourne City’s success also depends on their ability to tap into all of the company’s 1200-strong team across its 10 locations globally.

He said SuccessFactors was one of a number of tools the company uses globally to unify its processes. “The biggest one we’ve implemented here is a fixed- camera system,” Mr Munn said. “So every training session we have, we have the same camera system globally, whether that’s in Manchester, New York or anywhere. The footage is then downloaded by our technical analysts who can review them in line with what the players’ output is. It’s all stored in the cloud and overseen by our high-performance team.”

Melbourne City finished the 2017-18 season in third, and Mr Munn said the club’s mission to be the most technologically advanced football group would help it take the title in future.

“Our transformation over the past two to three years has been incredible,” he said. “To see the integration we’ve got going on now at every level is something that not only is welcomed internally, but it’s a credit to all of our staff across the board.”

 

Edited by haz
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That photograph is taken in Townsville.

What Munn is crapping on about there is what is now called "Human Capital Management." Old-timers like me used to call it "Human Resource Management" and before that it was something like "Personnel Department" and before that it was the sheila who did the payroll plus the "Employment Officer."

SAP SuccessFactors is "...integrated cloud-based HR software..." (put that in your buzzword generator). https://www.successfactors.com/en_us.html It makes sense to bring all the various CFG units under some sort of umbrella like that. But I think that the author of the article conflates a number of things that CFG have done and are doing across the Group and implies that SuccessFactors is behind them all, and IMO that's a bit of journalistic licence.

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22 hours ago, jw1739 said:

That photograph is taken in Townsville.

What Munn is crapping on about there is what is now called "Human Capital Management." Old-timers like me used to call it "Human Resource Management" and before that it was something like "Personnel Department" and before that it was the sheila who did the payroll plus the "Employment Officer."

SAP SuccessFactors is "...integrated cloud-based HR software..." (put that in your buzzword generator). https://www.successfactors.com/en_us.html It makes sense to bring all the various CFG units under some sort of umbrella like that. But I think that the author of the article conflates a number of things that CFG have done and are doing across the Group and implies that SuccessFactors is behind them all, and IMO that's a bit of journalistic licence.

Munn is just a massive spin doctor, always has been and needs to gtfo. I could go on but I won't, but I am just waiting for the feminist leaderiship crap with that evil bitch Gillard to start again so I can go off my nah nah once more.

For goodness sake all you need to do is get a team together and win, just do it, it's your job, 

 

JUST FOCUS

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27 minutes ago, playmaker said:

Munn is just a massive spin doctor, always has been and needs to gtfo. I could go on but I won't, but I am just waiting for the feminist leaderiship crap with that evil bitch Gillard to start again so I can go off my nah nah once more.

For goodness sake all you need to do is get a team together and win, just do it, it's your job, 

 

JUST FOCUS

Just when I had lost all hope for myself, you pop up to remind me that there's always someone out there more fukd up than me.

For that I thank you.

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30 minutes ago, playmaker said:

Munn is just a massive spin doctor, always has been and needs to gtfo. I could go on but I won't, but I am just waiting for the feminist leaderiship crap with that evil bitch Gillard to start again so I can go off my nah nah once more.

For goodness sake all you need to do is get a team together and win, just do it, it's your job, 

 

JUST FOCUS

Image result for old man yells gif

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33 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I think it's more that Playmaker is more overtly passionate about his football club than some other supporters are. I don't have a problem with that.

Neither do I. But let's not ignore the complete lack of perspective and humility, the silly linking of irrelevant political figures and issues or the flat out stupid notion that the football club is purely 11 blokes on the field and a coach.

The post was completely nonsensical, even if elements of it were intended as humorous, and as such I'm ridiculing it.

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On 6/14/2018 at 5:22 PM, bt50 said:

intended as humorous

No it wasn't, no humour intended at all, if this clubs decides to focus on winning rather than marketing self-proclaimed grandeur then maybe, just maybe we will have a football club that is focussed on Men's football. Maybe they should focus on 'how do Victory do it' year after year.

But Noooo let's do everything else 'world's best practice' and fail on the pitch.

 

On 6/14/2018 at 5:22 PM, bt50 said:

the silly linking of irrelevant political figures and issues

As for Kim's bird, if you really understand the history of the war in Cambodia and Korea then you will understand that the 'bird' is very relevant to the current political/humanitarian environment where he has just given the dark global forces the finger, and in a cryptic sort of way I am doing the same to the CFG's delusion that Munn is spinning.

As the great Shrek said;

 

 

On 6/14/2018 at 6:00 PM, fensaddler said:

It was the misogyny I had a problem with. 

Oh please.

Feminism today is worse than class wars, any REAL feminist will tell you today's movement is junk and just a socialist movement to destroy social unity, and that comes straight from my female manager who BTW is one of the best managers I have ever worked for. She got there through effort and talent not because of her gender and is repulsed by the thought that anyone would get preference because of their gender.

You really need to get out more and listen to real women rather than socialists big mouths in the mainstream media.

 

Edited by playmaker
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10 minutes ago, playmaker said:

No it wasn't, no humour intended at all, if this clubs decides to focus on winning rather than marketing self-proclaimed grandeur then maybe, just maybe we will have a football club that is focussed on Men's football. Maybe they should focus on 'how do Victory do it' year after year.

But Noooo let's do everything else 'world's best practice' and fail on the pitch.

 

As for Kim's bird, if you really understand the history of the war in Cambodia and Korea then you will understand that the 'bird' is very relevant to the current political/humanitarian environment where he has just given the dark global forces the finger, and in a cryptic sort of way I am doing the same to the CFG's delusion that Munn is spinning.

As the great Shrek said;

raw.gif.57374b2bfe6336a8f40153ae4beb7dd9.gif

 

Oh please.

Feminism today is worse than class wars, any REAL feminist will tell you today's movement is junk and just a socialist movement to destroy social unity, and that comes straight from my female manager who BTW is one of the best managers I have ever worked for. She got there through effort and talent not because of her gender and is repulsed by the thought that anyone would get preference because of their gender.

You really need to get out more and listen to real women rather than socialists big mouths in the mainstream media.

 

That's right wing culture wars bullshit.

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1 hour ago, playmaker said:

As for Kim's bird, if you really understand the history of the war in Cambodia and Korea then you will understand that the 'bird' is very relevant to the current political/humanitarian environment where he has just given the dark global forces the finger, and in a cryptic sort of way I am doing the same to the CFG's delusion that Munn is spinning.

 

Its still a picture of an actor

 

 

27 minutes ago, Embee said:

Image result for cancer patient

 

image.jpeg.426438e07743ddfb7c22cccedd0fa825.jpeg

Edited by haz
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  • 2 weeks later...
41 minutes ago, haz said:

Why the quotes JW? You discriminating against polygenders and pansgenders?

 

Cis white male!

Nothing to do with the trans, pans, polys, etc. I can't begin to go there. The trouble is, these days PC sees any reference by a male to a female - girl, woman, lady, female...whatever, as being derogatory, sexist, demeaning and so on. You can't win.

Anyway, good to see City putting their money where their mouth is and arranging something - not just ear-bashing everyone about equality etc.

Hope they get a really big turn-out.

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39 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Nothing to do with the trans, pans, polys, etc. I can't begin to go there. The trouble is, these days PC sees any reference by a male to a female - girl, woman, lady, female...whatever, as being derogatory, sexist, demeaning and so on. You can't win.

Dont worry mate, if I ever started talking like I replied to you before ^, please put a bullet in my head

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