Coast Football Ramble Podcast

[Ozhammer]

Would be more entertaining

There would be more heart too.

Would be more entertaining

There would be more heart too!

 

[Big Al]

If you do get Shaun again this week can you ask who is involved in resigning players when we haven’t resigned Paul?

Who decided to renew McGing? I have no problems in the resigning in the sense he has improved alot this year and i was definitely in the McGing sucks camp. He is still not an attacking RB but that’s ok as it’s working defensively but what if a new coach wants a different type of RB? Yes McGing has versatility but he is not good enough as a CB or a Mid imo.

However if Paul doesn’t resign himself for what ever reason shouldn’t a new coach have a say over these things.

Is there a comity?

We have a large amount of players out of contract including the new signings. Are negotiations on hold as per Paul or are we signing players if they accept our offers without a coach in place?

Also if Paul leaves do we have a plan for that?

 

[Big Al]

I’ve mentioned in the game thread that Paul has the same feeling of Roy last year.

Interest from another club while coming to the end of contract and performance has gone down noticeably especially in effort.

Paul’s sideline demeanor has changed noticeably and there was no response to being dominated by 10 men. They were abusing Roux down his side and the mids were loosing the battle and there where no outlets. Where did DDS go. He should have been available as an outlet to lead a break in transition but it was hit and hope stuff.

Do you guys agree or have any thoughts?

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

This week Mariners fitness coach Balder Beckmans talks to us.
We discuss the 2-2 draw with 10 man Adelaide and we rush through everything else to give Morrow time to lace up his vintage shin pads.

 

[Wombat]

I'm scared to listen to it......what did u make of the Adelaide fiasco?

 

[pjennings]

I don't know what game you guys were watching. Gulum's red was a definite red. Trent did not look for contact - Gulum went across him. You could say Trent went down easily if it had only been the arm across - but his foot got clipped as well. When you are going at pace and you get clipped you will go down every time - it is simple bio-mechanics.

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

I don't know what game you guys were watching. Gulum's red was a definite red. Trent did not look for contact - Gulum went across him. You could say Trent went down easily if it had only been the arm across - but his foot got clipped as well. When you are going at pace and you get clipped you will go down every time - it is simple bio-mechanics.

Hey Jennings, You just reminded me that I didn't get to finish what I was going to say on the show.

Going at pace, yes, you get a little knock and down you go, I'm fine with that, It's just from every experience I've been involved in (I used to be very quick) I tended to stumble (from a clip or push) a bit first instead of going straight down.
It looked to me that Trent went straight down without even trying to stay up.
I know players look to go down as soon as they're touched, it might just be a a case of this.

I think you can argue both ways as to whether it was a red or not, I'm happy with either way as I think it's a rather gray area.
Sounds stupid I know, but this is where football is at the moment.
Last defender and all, but I think for it to be a definite red Trent needed to be in the position to have as close to 100% scoring that as possible.
As it was, the ball was still bouncing quite a bit and he didn't have 100% control yet.
It's a foul foul and yellow minimum, red would seem a bit fairer to me if Trent was more secure with the ball and ready to shoot, I might have to watch it again, but he didn't look settled and ready.

 

[Gratis]

Point is I've seen them given again and again, against us too, so I have no problem getting the rub of the green on this one

 

[bikinigirl]

. the other thing is, we have all seen TBT get pushed off the ball ... so there is no chance of him holding his balance at pull pace when he gets a nudge

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Last defender and all, but I think for it to be a definite red Trent needed to be in the position to have as close to 100% scoring that as possible.
As it was, the ball was still bouncing quite a bit and he didn't have 100% control yet.
.

No, this was a completely textbook red card. The ball was on the ground not 'bouncing' (unless you call skimming an inch off the ground bouncing). He had tapped the ball ahead to run onto, but he would clearly have gotten to it well before the keeper so that isn't an issue (you don't need to have control of the ball - or even to have touched the ball - the ref just needs to judge the opportunity for control and whether there would have been an OGSO when controlled. Not an issue here as the ball is just a couple of yards ahead and a rolling ball he played to himself).
Take the defender away, he has a 1 on 1 with the keeper.
Your comment on as close to 100% to score as possible is correct - it's only an OBVIOUS goalscoring OPPORTUNITY that's required. And you can give a red card 50 for this 50 yards back up the pitch if the attacker wouldn't have been challenged by anybody else (other than the keeper) by the time he got into shooting range. Here, he was already well into shooting range, would have had a 1 on 1 with the keeper, and running onto an easy to control ball directly in front of goal. Nothing yellow here.

As to comments about him 'milking it' (to put it softly) - some people online are saying it was a dive, but that's because the push doesn't look enough to bring him down. But I'm pretty sure he got a solid knock to the legs as well. Sometimes when that happens you can sort of keep your footing enough to stumble for a few steps (as a ref I hate those ones because that's when people go ballistic over 'DIVE!!!'....no, numbnuts, he just tried to stay on his feet and couldn't), sometimes it just knocks you off your footing immediately.

I don't really see any reason to suggest he wasn't honestly taken out here. And it would be stupid for any attacker to choose to go down here. Wow, a FK outside the box, big deal. Red card, sure, but half the time I think losing a player helps the team that lost the player. If you wanted to milk it, you'd stay on your feet until you got in the box then hoping for the foul there.

Never known him to go down questionably either. If it was the push alone, yeah, that's questionable, but he copped a push to the back at the same moment he got knocked in the legs. So if you're wondering how he went down straight away (and I bet you've had plenty of knocks that have sent you flat on your face immediately), that would explain it.

anyway, listening to the podcast, nobody mentioned any contact to the legs so I suspect the podcast lads are only seeing it as a push to the shoulder. I'm not even 100% certain there was contact on the legs, it's not quite clear but I'm pretty sure it's there.

 

[Shaun Mielekamp]

I'm half way through Shaun's interview on the pod, enjoying it as ever – except for that French nonsense – but I'm pretty confused by Shaun's statement re the justification of not spending the cap as had been stated for this year...

Shaun you said you would come on here to clear up any further questions, so would be grateful if you could address the following:

You said do the math on I think was it 3000 less fans @ average profit of 20$ each x 3 games so 180K? Do I have this right? maybe I need to re listen to what you said. Can someone confirm for me?

If so, then 180K was the differential on us actually spending the cap this year? If not what will our actual shortfall of the salary cap be this year?

I'm also wondering how much the Kubi sale and the dismissal of Adsrubal's might have offset that?

That aside, as flat and stale as the league clearly is now, with a lot less WSW fans obviously travelling, I still also agree with Erin (and people like Bikin Girl and others on here) in that there's no way if we hadn't been performing better (ie had a couple of additional desperately needed quality players) our crowds would not have been better and those losses at least somewhat mitigated? I just personally know and have seen too many people being strongly affected by our continued struggles this year. And also most people on here would have to be full of it. It's been straw and camel stuff that I'm seeing/hearing from people.

And now for the remaining 3 home games, you'd have to expect we'll probably be down a couple of thousand per game (Might be a deal more if we were having a great run instead of a poor one) so that's 120K revenue lost based on the seemingly avoidable downturn of our fortunes? Then of course there's surely the longer term damage being done by perpetually not performing?

After so long awaiting improvement on field while we pay our money, game after game, year after year, to mostly watch loss after loss... I believed (and advocated for) Mike and the club when you apologised for the austerity measures but stated why it was necessary and how it would be turned around and understood how hard it had been in the interim etc... But seeing now that no matter what the club may have said or planned and how badly the supporters/paying customers may need a bit of silver lining with their 4 years of cloud, that as soon as the budget lags once again the player wages will do all the heavy lifting to balance it... and what that means is that everyone is consigned to another season of heartache and those who have bought memberships and or persuaded others that "no this year will be different" are made to look and feel very foolish and disheartened.

I can only assume our ownership, investors and sponsors were unable or unwilling to respond to this budget challenge? Which is an enormous shame when it was so apparent to I think anyone who knows football, that we just needed a little more of a leg up to get over that tipping point and finally become worth the price of admission again. It's been a body blow to a very long and patiently suffering supporter base and I'd like to know Shaun why people should keep the faith? And I'm not trying to be a prick here. Help me out please. Because I've fought bloody hard to create ongoing good will and belief in this club with all the people I know in the community, and I support it year after year, but I'm truly out of answers. And others are clearly out of patience, and out of love...

Hi Forum Phoenix
Thanks for the questions and also thanks for listening to the Podcast. Just to elaborate on some of this for you and everyone else reading I can only be honest and talk you through the last 12 months. When Mike made the comments at the fan forum over a year ago it was just before we were making a big play for the stadium management rights and there was a real sense of optimism that FFA would come good with the grant following the broadcast deal increase. So everything pre-season was planned around a season of growth as we aimed to move from a sustainability strategy to a growth strategy across the board. As the grant from FFA was then delivered at the end of the season far below expectations the tensions between A-League Clubs and the FFA dramatically escalated and I am sure we have all heard to much about this we started to get concerned

Even still the initial budgeting was around projections that showed we could be sustainable even if we spent the cap but the risks were increasing that it may not be as likely as we thought. The decision was made to then make sure we had money to spend in January, this is normal practice and to do this it is obvious that we cannot spend the full cap, many clubs do this. Whilst we did bring in a couple players in January they were balanced against the departing players.

We made a big play for Giannou who we really hoped would make a huge difference to our season. Had we been able to secure Giannou then I don't think we would be having this discussion as more than the cap would have been spent and if we were correct perhaps we would have had a couple more points available. We even put feelers out if we had enough for some Vi$ion and had a good conversation going but this was short lived when the UK called.

This was also coupled with a serious downturn in business across the A-League and our tickets sales are a clear indicator of us being behind budget. So yes your math is correct on those three matches were are $180k short of the projected figures plus many more matches and associated revenue streams are down as well.

It became obvious in November that we needed to be smart and not risk crisis point at the club and I wont deny having to hold my breath on the 15th of every month but touch wood we are hanging in there. Of course none of this is what any fans or members want to hear and there isn't a day or minute that the entire staff here aren't doing everything they possibly can do to "earn our stripes".

Even the marketing campaign of "Time to earn our stripes" shows the expectations that we had for ourselves and for the club. We are is not were we planned to be and not where we plan to be in the future - but no one ever said it was going to be easy.

In Mikes recent visit he directed us to play to our strengths and has put a huge focus on the clubs Academy set up and resources. This will take a few months of strategic work but the expectation here is that we must be the best development club in the country. Over the next few months this strategic position will become clearer to us and we will work on rolling out the plan as we head towards next season.

We still don't know where FIFA will land but this is a huge factor in the approach to the club will take moving forward.

The season isn't over and no one has given up yet - right now we are all focused on the remaining 6 matches and like every season a full review and plan will be put in for next season.

 

[moomoo]

Just wondering when the next podcasts will be out. We are missing you guys to brighten up our Wednesday

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

Just wondering when the next podcasts will be out. We are missing you guys to brighten up our Wednesday

It'll be next week at this stage.
I've had quite a lot going on away from the pod unfortunately so I've not been able to prioritise it very high.

Thankyou to everyone that listens. We really do appreciate it.
-Jimmy

 

[scottmac]

It'll be next week at this stage.
I've had quite a lot going on away from the pod unfortunately so I've not been able to prioritise it very high.

Thankyou to everyone that listens. We really do appreciate it.
-Jimmy

It’s got to be close to the highlight in another dismal season.

 

[Big Al]

It'll be next week at this stage.
I've had quite a lot going on away from the pod unfortunately so I've not been able to prioritise it very high.

Thankyou to everyone that listens. We really do appreciate it.
-Jimmy

You can’t miss a winning podcast they are so rare. Not that anyone cares anymore. The season has gone to shit

 

[Coast Football Ramble]

You can’t miss a winning podcast they are so rare. Not that anyone cares anymore. The season has gone to shit

The general sentiment in the bay and it's surroundings after the win was one of "Meh"; to me, it didn't even feel like a win, I didn't even celebrate the goal, just stood there out of sheer boredom.

In a normal season, winning whilst playing poorly would be a thing to be celebrated.
Showing the comp even though we're not at our best we can still grab 3 points.

But the game was so poor from both teams, we just happened to be less shit than the worst team in the comp that night.

Mariners do claim another coaching scalp though (last game an opposition manager has before sacking/ leaving). We must have some sort of record for that.

This has been the hardest season to do a podcast on, hard to imagine, but it was easier to get motivated to do it whilst Walmsley was in charge.
We we're rubbish, the players weren't good enough, but at least the players would put a shift in most of the time.
This season, every Tuesday since the holidays, before we record, I ask myself if I could be bothered.

 

[Coastalraider]

The general sentiment in the bay and it's surroundings after the win was one of "Meh"; to me, it didn't even feel like a win, I didn't even celebrate the goal, just stood there out of sheer boredom.

In a normal season, winning whilst playing poorly would be a thing to be celebrated.
Showing the comp even though we're not at our best we can still grab 3 points.

But the game was so poor from both teams, we just happened to be less shit than the worst team in the comp that night.

Mariners do claim another coaching scalp though (last game an opposition manager has before sacking/ leaving). We must have some sort of record for that.

This has been the hardest season to do a podcast on, hard to imagine, but it was easier to get motivated to do it whilst Walmsley was in charge.
We we're rubbish, the players weren't good enough, but at least the players would put a shift in most of the time.
This season, every Tuesday since the holidays before we record, I ask myself if I could be bothered.

And that post right there is why I am very concerned about the direction we are headed.

I agree completely. I have young kids and struggle to get the family to later games, so I bought a 6 gamer membership this year. I have only had the motivation to go to 3, and am unlikely to use up the rest. Just cant be arsed making the effort if the team dont.

 

[nebakke]

And that post right there is why I am very concerned about the direction we are headed.

I agree completely. I have young kids and struggle to get the family to later games, so I bought a 6 gamer membership this year. I have only had the motivation to go to 3, and am unlikely to use up the rest. Just cant be arsed making the effort if the team dont.

This - the mate that I primarily go with informed me yesterday that he's not planning on renewing at this point - he has a long drive to get to the game and he's just not enjoying it anymore, so what's the point - and I have to admit, I don't entirely disagree with him.
I want to support the club, I want it to survive and I would dearly love to get back to the days when I enjoyed going to games both as a bit of entertainment and as an outlet... But if I just find myself increasingly frustrated and disappointed, what would be the point? It'd be cheaper to stay at home and look in a mirror and at least that way I get to spend it with my family.
I understand that teams like the Jest have had it even worse, but I don't really buy into the concept of the long-suffering fan... There's a breaking point somewhere, once you're past that, you start travelling away from being a committed fan and closer towards being wasteful with your time.
I'm fairly certain that I'll be renewing next year, but if I have to be honest - I'm not dead certain that'll happen if we don't see any improvement for the last couple of games or over the off-season.

 

[Gratis]

The general sentiment in the bay and it's surroundings after the win was one of "Meh"; to me, it didn't even feel like a win, I didn't even celebrate the goal, just stood there out of sheer boredom.

In a normal season, winning whilst playing poorly would be a thing to be celebrated.
Showing the comp even though we're not at our best we can still grab 3 points.

But the game was so poor from both teams, we just happened to be less shit than the worst team in the comp that night.

Mariners do claim another coaching scalp though (last game an opposition manager has before sacking/ leaving). We must have some sort of record for that.

This has been the hardest season to do a podcast on, hard to imagine, but it was easier to get motivated to do it whilst Walmsley was in charge.
We we're rubbish, the players weren't good enough, but at least the players would put a shift in most of the time.
This season, every Tuesday since the holidays, before we record, I ask myself if I could be bothered.

I hear you. Didn't feel good about that win at all.
I'm generally addicted to all things Mariners, read every article, check the forum many times a day etc. Have been pretty much since the beginning (came to the forum a bit later though). My every weekend is designed around when games are on. My wife asks when the game is on before even considering plans.

I genuinely feel the last straw is close before I totally bow out for the season now. Each new disheartening thing I find myself thinking, wow, close, but I guess that wasn't it yet.
Don't get me wrong I'll be back with hope next season, but I am SO close to straight up disengaging until then. All I'm asking for is a fighting spirit in the team for 95 mins a game. I can take poor results. Yet somehow that welly win actually brought me closer to disengaging. Just at a slower rate than a loss would have.
My concern is - if I'M like this - and I'm clearly not alone even on here, then what of the less enthusiastic fans...?

 

[Big Al]

The general sentiment in the bay and it's surroundings after the win was one of "Meh"; to me, it didn't even feel like a win, I didn't even celebrate the goal, just stood there out of sheer boredom.

In a normal season, winning whilst playing poorly would be a thing to be celebrated.
Showing the comp even though we're not at our best we can still grab 3 points.

But the game was so poor from both teams, we just happened to be less shit than the worst team in the comp that night.

Mariners do claim another coaching scalp though (last game an opposition manager has before sacking/ leaving). We must have some sort of record for that.

This has been the hardest season to do a podcast on, hard to imagine, but it was easier to get motivated to do it whilst Walmsley was in charge.
We we're rubbish, the players weren't good enough, but at least the players would put a shift in most of the time.
This season, every Tuesday since the holidays, before we record, I ask myself if I could be bothered.

Yeah I’ve gone from angry about conceding stupid goals to just flat meh. My wife can’t can’t come to alot of games and the few she did angered her and she won’t come anymore, she used to like just the event of going out to the club and the game and was interested in a sport she had no connection to but now is flat out i’m not going and I won’t waste my money next year. Now i sit there bored and waiting for the loss without anger.

The joy has gone and i love sport but I’m just not inspired atm