Beware The Mariners

[clarence]

Well I guess we are all going to have to enjoy the juicy odds given for Mariners wins and draws for now, until the betting folks wake up.

Given the equality within the squad, I'd even suggest folks look at the 'Minor Premiership' odds. If the way to winning 'first past the post' is to have a solid team of equal or near equal players, then I think we've come pretty close to it with this squad.

People like Foster and Slater can go f**k themselves for all I care.

 

[FFC Mariner]

100% spot on, we had a much stronger bench than MV and Adelaide had 4 kids on theirs. Our squad overall is as deep if not deeper than anyone elses and as suspensions/injuries kick in, its the best squad NOT the best 1st XI.

Shows that none of the journo's have bothered to study the sides in depth, they just rehash the same lazy cliches every pre season.

 

[northernspirit]

100% spot on, we had a much stronger bench than MV and Adelaide had 4 kids on theirs. Our squad overall is as deep if not deeper than anyone elses and as suspensions/injuries kick in, its the best squad NOT the best 1st XI.

Shows that none of the journo's have bothered to study the sides in depth, they just rehash the same lazy cliches every pre season.

judging first XI v's first XI true we would struggle but EVERY team will have injury problems and if it hits their stars i.e Hernandez Melbourne, Dodd Adelaide, Miller Brisbane etc... who is going to replace them.

The other thing is we havent seen much of our new boys yet and noone in the media seems to have considered their influence, for mine Doig was a huge influence on Thursday night and it seems McGlinchley and Travis have the ability to perform similarly themselves.

 

[Jazzie]

A cautionary note however

Nope.

I disagree.We should gloat and give out heaps while we can..........it might only last a week you know!

If we go another six months without winning you'll have missed out on the week of fun!

my thoughts exactly Arab. make hay while the sun shines. sort of releasing the valve.

 

[Wombat]

We were excellent and extremely well drilled and showed great discipline for a change.  I thought Hutcho had a very solid game.  It was a bit of a smash and grab and i hope we don't play only one striker again.  Having said that..... hats off to LM.

 

[Kareem]

ok
good points guys...
so does this mean we will have a crap finals campaign?
I dont see any way of us winning a GF...
we are definately looking like we will play better in league rather than finals IMO
thoughts ?

 

[Jazzie]

ok
good points guys...
so does this mean we will have a crap finals campaign?
I dont see any way of us winning a GF...
we are definately looking like we will play better in league rather than finals IMO
thoughts ?

No disrespect Kareem ... you know more about football than I, but you can tell all that from one game?

 

[promdi442]

whatever happens when we make the grand final it will be an away game for us. So if the boys can play with that discipline in the cauldron of a grand final then it doesnt matter if you dont play pretty so long as the result is the correct one.
1-0 against victory at the sfs (after we qualify first) in exactly the same style as last Thursday  . . . i would be happy with that.

 

[Kareem]

ok
good points guys...
so does this mean we will have a crap finals campaign?
I dont see any way of us winning a GF...
we are definately looking like we will play better in league rather than finals IMO
thoughts ?

No disrespect Kareem ... you know more about football than I, but you can tell all that from one game?

i meant in the way of we are going to be consistent...but on a oneoff game especially against a team like Victory in a GF- you got back them IMHO

maybe against GC...we could feel confident- we are more experienced...

My views are conservative...i said 5th place finish for us...we could sneak into top 4 even, but I would rather be modest with my predictions...

happy to be proven wrong in 8 months time...
but it's hard to go from no win in first half fo 2009, to winning the league. But I have to say McKinna has defied the odds...and has recruited extremely well in such a short period of time!

 

[Forum Phoenix]

ok
good points guys...
so does this mean we will have a crap finals campaign?
I dont see any way of us winning a GF...
we are definately looking like we will play better in league rather than finals IMO
thoughts ?

Why? I completely disagree Kareem...

We did not struggle to score goals for the bulk of last year, yet our attacking line up is stronger than last years and now we just demonstrated that we finally have a new level of defensive steel that we haven been clearly missing. One off? It wasn't just great defence last night, what I think is even more important here, is who we did it against and WHERE. You don't beat MV at home with a clean sheet unless your defence is doing a HELL off a lot right.

As to winning a GF, a performance like this is exactly how the majority of GF's I've seen are played out. Rarely free flowing goals fests. More often hard fought gritty team games, with the team with the best defence generally prevailing.

To win the league, we do need to be able to create and dominate in attack. But this was not the game plan at Etihad, nor should it have been.

We won't play what was essentially 4 5 1 at home, or every time away. But it was a well deserved and necessary mark of respect to do this against MV. But make no mistake, we beat them and beat them well. Not because of creativity, no, but because we executed a perfect away game against a strong side. That takes heart, skill and above all 90 minutes of VERY HIGH mental intensity. No one I have seen play in this round has shown the ability to play 90 minutes at the level of mental intensity that we produced on Thursday night. Imo this above all is what consistently wins games. It's a difficult thing to acquire, and I think its no coincidence that the players left out of the squad or not starting, were Caceres, Nik and Ahmad, they go missing, (Hoping they will rectify this a they all have great quality) It looks that Lawrie knows exactly what he wants form his squad, 90 minutes of heart and balls and i looks like the squad know it to. Imo if we maintain this intensity, we can certainly win the lot this year.

Honestly, name an area where we are deficient? Defence? Mids? Attack? Squad depth? Intensity? Best fans?

It's all good baby... its all good.

verhead: verhead: verhead:

 

[FFC Mariner]

Kareem, have you seen anyone to scare us? Apart from needing to keep an eye on GCU, we have seen nothing so far that should cause us any concern whatsoever.

As to a GF, personally, I couldnt give a flying. League champs matters, winning a made for tv post season cup doesnt.

Yes, its only 1 game in and yes, I am pissed but we may well give this comp a hell of a f**king shake

 

[David Votoupal]

It's early days and anything can happen, and teams can more easily turn their season around than previously. But the Mariners possess the weapon to cause fear in opponents in Matt Simon, even during the winless streak he was still a constant danger.

There isn't going to be as much to separate most teams as pre-season predictions foresaw, especially as most seem to be nothing special defensively.

 

[FFC Mariner]

As we are well set after 1 round,.............LM will f**kin  pwn this comp

 

[serious14]

As we are well set after 1 round,.............LM will f**kin  pwn this comp

You need to drink and post a lot more often.  ;D

 

[Roy Law]

Wow! This A League is already buzzin'. Two great local derbies coming up then a long spell on the road perfecting our 4-2-3-1 (thinly disguised 4-5-1 but hey, if Pim can call it 4-3-3 so can we) and I'm already looking forward to the home game against the Gold Coast and a couple of weeks later Robbie Fowler comes to town. This is all good verhead:

 

[Arabmariner]

As we are well set after 1 round,.............LM will f**kin  pwn this comp

You need to drink and post a lot more often.  ;D

+1

;D

 

[midfielder]

As we are well set after 1 round,.............LM will f**kin  pwn this comp

You need to drink and post a lot more often.  ;D

+1

;D

You mean some people don't  .. Mods we should have a drinking smilie

 

[Kareem]

Kareem, have you seen anyone to scare us? Apart from needing to keep an eye on GCU, we have seen nothing so far that should cause us any concern whatsoever.

As to a GF, personally, I couldnt give a flying. League champs matters, winning a made for tv post season cup doesnt.

Yes, its only 1 game in and yes, I am pissed but we may well give this comp a hell of a f**king shake

I think GC are a big worry...
i also think MV, Brisbane are prospects. And yes I am aware we owned MV. But the thing is can we keep up this performance week in week out?

I just think its too early to start the v3 hype all over again.

 

[dub]

I thought Hutch was magnificent;embodied what the club and the team is about - unselfish, never stopped running, bite in every tackle, up for the fight and put his heart, soul, blood, bone and body on the line without question. Pure team player in a pure team performance.
and BTW - on Bosnich, from Olympic site "But this was a Bosnich diminished by age and extra pounds, and despite a few magnificent saves, his performances were tinged with embarrassment...not least when he was caught a mile off his line by Sydney United's Peter Markovic in a crucial game late in the season, thus conceding a horror goal." ...I don't think we need him, the Jests can have him.

Roy I was there to see this horror goal as described and he was off his line but that was only one count how many times have you seen Danny in the last 4 years off his line and get even worst goals and sent off.

I certainly don't wont him against us with the Scum as Ben is easier to score against?

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Kareem, have you seen anyone to scare us? Apart from needing to keep an eye on GCU, we have seen nothing so far that should cause us any concern whatsoever.

As to a GF, personally, I couldnt give a flying. League champs matters, winning a made for tv post season cup doesnt.

Yes, its only 1 game in and yes, I am pissed but we may well give this comp a hell of a f**king shake

I think GC are a big worry...
i also think MV, Brisbane are prospects. And yes I am aware we owned MV. But the thing is can we keep up this performance week in week out?

I just think its too early to start the v3 hype all over again.

Right, then Kareem I seriously recommend saying something like...

We did well but as it's only one game in... blah blah blah...

As opposed to saying what you actually said...

" I don't see ANY WAY of us winning a grand final"
after we've just beaten last years dominant champs at home, something rarely done by any team.
  ??? :

And if you want to talk about it being too early to make calls... I can't see there's any way of us winning the GF - after one round is surely almost as ludicrous as someone saying they cant see how we can fail to win this years GF. In fairness, at least they would be responding to what they just saw. But you see a good performance by your team, away against last years champs and somehow that computes to you can't seeing us winning a grand final this year? And this is before any of the other 8 teams have even kicked a ball! Have you considered a job on fox sports Kareem?

Oh and while we are here, the its only 1 game in and lets not get too carried away stuff... every one knows this. But after a cold hard run, when we've just seen our new signing coming good, and some decent light at the end of the tunnel, I think Arabs enjoy the sun while its shining philosophy is a much more realistic and enjoyable football philosophy than talking pointless negative crap without any supporting arguments about GF projections based on round 1 match 1.