Round 1 Away @ WSW

[FFC Mariner]

Best performance by us for ages and thats 3 points dropped, we had that game as WSW were dreadful except that they have a striker and we dont.
Dukey plays for us and we win by a few.
Their 1st was defendable and hopefully something they work on - Dukey got between 2 of them FFS
Our full backs were both poor and we need to sort that out
We simply dont have an AL quality striker. Its been said to death but if the club think Blackwood is the answer they are kidding themselves
Geogevski gets the red card he deserved and the game changes. Ref was more concerned with getting Staj to sit down that the truly awful challenge. Peak A League
I thought Oar was immense. Brilliant performance.
Glad we werent embarrassed, angry we let 3 points slip.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Disappointing result, definitely thought we were the better team. But that was 3 points we definitely missed out on.
Deej has summed up the game excellently above.
I liked the way the ref let a lot go and kept his cards in his pocket. I thought he only missed one studs up against us. We need more marquee refs and a few marque commentators would not go amiss. Fox ratings would improve overnight without Speed or Harper.

Oar was my MOM.
I would prefer to see Duric stay in the AM position rather than having to drop back to cover DM. Hopefully we will have at least 2 of Stensness, Galifuoco or Kim available in future. If a midfield replacement is needed in a game I would prefer to look to the future and use Nissy in preference to Wee Mac.

I will be satisfied if we finish the season somewhere in the middle. Still a lot of improvement needed before we challenge at the top. As Staj has often said miracles do not happen overnight. However we will upset more teams than people expect. As long as we continue on improve this season.

As to the money for a new striker. Staj has said money is not the issue it is about spending it wisely.

I am confident we will have that money next year. How?

How much money is being spent on Simon, McGlinchey and Melling. In total they must take up more than $1/2m in cap. Money that can be spent wisely next year.

I hope Staj persists longer with Muzz leading the line. I think confidence in front of goal is a big part of his problem. Hopefully he will get a good one and others will follow.

This season is all about building for the long term, no quick fixes.

 

[Wombat]

Stensness aside from a couple average passes looks so much more experienced than his age suggests. Looks very good. Great timing in the tackle.
Tommy continuing his very solid pre season form.

Great prospect. Passing is poor but will improve with confidence.

Ask our powers to be. Again operating below the cap

Pikey Out. Pikey Out.

 

[Wombat]

Happy with what I saw today. I thought Murray and Clisby were our worst, but were still reasonable.

We were the better side. Much to like and some quality to come back into the side.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

That penalty was bullshit. Yes, his arm was out from the side of his body and making his body bigger - but only because he was both stopping, and didn't expect the ball to be deflected:

There are 2 competing clauses in the new laws here:

It is usually an offence if a player:

• touches the ball with their hand/arm when:
  
  • the hand/arm has made their body unnaturally bigger
  • The above offences apply even if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm directly from the head or body (including the foot) of another player who is close.
• Except for the above offences, it is not usually an offence if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm:

• • directly from the player’s own head or body (including the foot)
    
  • directly from the head or body (including the foot) of another player who is close

So, that's just a terrible decision for me.
And given those competing clauses, there's absolutely no way it was a 'clear and obvious' error.

 

[true believer]

Big agree here. Fantastic turnout. WSW fans didn't seem to show up though. Thought "they built that stadium for the Wanderers" but 17k for their first home game there (even allowing for weather) is poor considering the Eels averaged far more in the NRL and WSW fans seemed to consider them a 'secondary tenant'

Im thinking about 14k at best

 

[shipwreck]

Wow they literally contradict each other word for word... What a terrible set of laws

 

[FFC Mariner]

Im thinking about 14k at best

Was 17 something.

 

[true believer]

That penalty was bullshit. Yes, his arm was out from the side of his body and making his body bigger - but only because he was both stopping, and didn't expect the ball to be deflected:

There are 2 competing clauses in the new laws here:

It is usually an offence if a player:

• touches the ball with their hand/arm when:
  • the hand/arm has made their body unnaturally bigger
  • The above offences apply even if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm directly from the head or body (including the foot) of another player who is close.
• Except for the above offences, it is not usually an offence if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm:

• • directly from the player’s own head or body (including the foot)
  • directly from the head or body (including the foot) of another player who is close

So, that's just a terrible decision for me.
And given those competing clauses, there's absolutely no way it was a 'clear and obvious' error.

The pen is a shit and would only have been given against ccm .
I certianly want to see tommies shout for hand ball at the death .
On the farce given against us .
Its dam close

 

[shipwreck]

Anyone got a replay of that at the end?

 

[Wombat]

Was a bullshit penalty but FFA and Fox were cheering.

 

[turbo]

Adelaide copped a similar level of bullshit handball last night. If the rule is applied evenly going forward it’ll work out. And the way it’s being applied now if it isn’t applied evenly it will be very obvious.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

You win games one of two ways - you either score more goals than the opponents, or you concede fewer goals than the opponents.
We have no goalscorers. None. We know this. Murray might become somebody who is able to complement a goalscorer, but unless we somehow turn half a dozen players into players who will score a goal every 3 -4 games, we have no way of scoring goals.
Look at tonight - most of our attack was to hoof it into Tommy's corner. Not at him - not where he could run onto it - but in the corner. I've always hated this as an attack. Because every time we had the numbers on a counter, but by the time Oar gets it, all the movement has stopped and we're now outnumbered. So, he usually has no options.
I mean, sure, that also comes back to who is feeding him those balls. If any of those balls went in front of him instead of well past him, he's got a 1-on-1 with the keeper. I don't think he did great but his off-the-ball movement is the best we've had for years. Our mids need to work on that.
I watched all but the last 15min (had to get on a plane). I thought we were mostly better. I actually think our midfield could well become one of the best in the league.....but that means squat if nobody is scoring goals.
It just seems like we'll keep attacking somewhat ineffectually and occasionally somebody might strike gold. I feel like we can expect maybe 1 goal a game, 2 would be if planets are aligning, and 3 will be almost impossible.
So, we're not going to out-attack our opponents.
Our defence is okay. Not great, but okay. Which means we're not going to out-defend our opponents. Fox....I like him less than most. He's prone to losing focus at key moments, and every time he does, they score. We saw this in the FFA Cup. He's going to keep leaking goals unless he gets his focus sorted. That corner - he lost focus. It's a corner that didn't need to be given. Of course, the free header was inexcusable, and I thought Biri would have gotten to it too - he's usually pretty quick, and it's never good for the keeper to be beaten near post like that.
So, our mids are key. And we somehow have to turn them into goalscorers.
And if we have players on a counter who have lost their defender, we need to get the ball to them and not for them to retrieve near the touch line 20 yards away.
Our fitness was great, and our midfield will have a great impact on games. Our defence is probably adequate. Room for improvement, of course.
The question is whether we can avoid the spoon when we don't know where any of our goals are coming from.

And I swear to god, it Staj puts Simon as captain again I'm going to start losing faith in him.
Thing is, if Simon could put a header on target, the attacks we set up tonight would have been perfect for him.

 

[midfielder]

The pen is a shit and would only have been given against ccm .
I certianly want to see tommies shout for hand ball at the death .
On the farce given against us .
Its dam close

Full replay from the ABC's Iview

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/football-a-league

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Unless Muzz bagged a few I’m certain Staj would revert to Matty. As it is, I think that’s a given now.

I’m not advocating for Matty. That’s precisely our bloody dilemma. Muzz still has promise imo but he’s also clearly not ready to be our leading striker yet. And in such a vital season for us, it’s already proving a costly decision.

Quality none could have won us both our last games. I’ve been patient, and I’m still willing to be patient, but murray needs to develop off the bench, playing upfront and not on the bloody wing, until he’s either ready or he isn’t.

There is just no money for a nine. Staj wanted Berisha and told there. Is no funds.

Nothing has changed. We have underinvested again and will not make the six.

We will churn out another coach and he doesn’t deserve it.

Right. Then thats a pretty rational fear.

Because personally I’m not at all optimistic any of our strikers can do the job we need this year. And it won’t take very long before a talented midfield starts losing confidence and no longer plays like a talented midfield if you don’t convert chances and win games that are there for the taking like tonight’s.

I’m sure Muzz will learn from it and would love those chances again. But we have no time for these kind of learning curves.

As to Matty, I understand Turbo, I’m not even convinced he will get that many shots off this year, let alone goals.

And I’m no longer able to talk of Majok like he’s a serious option at present. He needs more time than Murray. And we don’t have time.

Welcome to striker crisis.con

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Adelaide copped a similar level of bullshit handball last night. If the rule is applied evenly going forward it’ll work out. And the way it’s being applied now if it isn’t applied evenly it will be very obvious.

I think there's a key difference - I'd argue the reason the law states (paraphrased) that it's not usually a foul if it comes off another player unless you're making your body bigger with your arms is because if it didn't have that exception, then it would leave defenders free to stick their arms out everytime they shut down an attacker. I believe that's the purpose of the clause. So, the AU one...well, one argument may be that the defender there shouldn't be jumping right in front of where an attacker is about to kick the ball with arms out at 90 degrees.
I don't think the law was really intended to penalise players who had their arms up because they were changing momentum and weren't expecting a ball to get deflected up at high speed and close range from a teammate.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Majok showed when he came on that he is in the Bolt class of footballers - his 1st touch would put a 5 year old to shame

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

The pen is a shit and would only have been given against ccm .
I certianly want to see tommies shout for hand ball at the death .
On the farce given against us .
Its dam close

I hate it when they don't show a proper replay of incidents like that, but I think it hit the leg.

 

[midfielder]

Was a bullshit penalty but FFA and Fox were cheering.

yep....

Think we would get similar ...

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

There is just no money for a nine. Staj wanted Berisha and told there. Is no funds.

Nothing has changed. We have underinvested again and will not make the six.

We will churn out another coach and he doesn’t deserve it.

With our lack of goalscoring power, i think we need to seriously consider that avoiding the spoon is far, far from a given.
And if we get the spoon again, this club is done for.
And if that's because MC has, again, wanted to rebuild a club on the cheap......then...............

Maybe I'm being too harsh in my commentary tonight. WSW scored from a penalty and a corner. They certainly didn't create anything.
But on the other hand, they were also spoon contenders last season....