Soo....figured I'd post. And I did that think again where I wound up with a stupid long post. But hey, not like you have anything else to read in this thread
Was good to put a few faces to forum names at the game.
@Josho Howe,
@NoDiggity,
@priorpeter, couple of others that were there - great having a beer with all of you that were there!. Started off at the Y&J (of course), made our way over. Was good to see Shaun Mielekamp make an appearance to look after us as well.
Haven't been to a game down here for quite a long time - I tend to be either interstate or overseas when the game is on - man, I completely forgot what a terrible, terrible view it is from the corner at AAMI. Really can't see a thing there.
I don't know what the crowd figure was, but I'd have a had time believing anything more than 5k, and that's being generous. Just dismal - and the first time we heard ANYBODY sing from the home team was after the first goal. Their support is just dead. And really - your team is in the finals, it's a guaranteed win, it's a Friday night late enough to go after dinner after work - what's the excuse?
As for the game...we kept our spirits up through the first half. Had some fun singing/laughing at the MCY subs warming up in front of us, they were getting a good laugh out of it too - and really, isn't that what it's all about? Teasing opposition bench, all taken in good humour, just great.
Understandably, we struggled to keep that up in the 2nd half. By half time were were all hurting badly. We didn't really talk too much about expectations, but I think the worst case scenario was maybe 2 down, competitively. And like I said before - MCY have never really dominated us through this whole dark period. In fact, we usually have pretty even games they just finish where we don't.
So to lose the way we did...yeah, that hurt. It really did. I think that finishing in a high would have mattered - both with the members, and potentially even with signings (though really, only if Staj is signed). As it so happens, we played a couple of good games and got smashed....to some it may look like nothing's changed.
I think we just have to remember that coming in late season as a coach is extremely difficult - especially in a team which started off poor on paper and got worse with the players that left (although we now have Jem....
pleeeeeeeeeease stay!) - but also because of the mental effect; our confidence has been zero for much of the season, which is why we kept blowing leads and we'd get destroyed once we start conceding. It's ALL confidence. And that probably screwed us this game. I don't know if we put pressure on ourselves again or what happened.
I had some concerns, because our structure was a disaster. No surprises that the structure we had didn't work - players were simply in the wrong position. So, is that a tactical failing of Staj, or is that simply the effect of a coach coming in, late in the season, and not really knowing the players well enough - that is to say, had he been here longer he wouldn't have made the same position decisions? Part of me worries it's the former (and given our run of coaches, who can blame me? Especially as Mulvey seemed to have no idea where some of our players were supposed to play) but then I remember his history with the Matildas. So, I figure it HAS to be the latter.
I don't think we had a single shot on target all game, which takes us all the way back to Okonball. That's a worry.
Our defence and mid....lot of errors. That first goal, players got turned inside out...embarrassing to watch. And that one where Wales absolutely schooled Hiariej - players unmarked in the middle. Lot of that happening. I don't know - how much of those individual errors (losing your player) are attributable to being out of position? I don't feel like playing in the middle when you're normally on the left, or something like that, justifies that sort of thing - after all, as a defender you're going to be marking and shutting down anywhere across the line. So, it wasn't just the structure. For whatever reason, we were making bad individual errors, and a lot of them. Structure along with the confidence? Who knows. The corner is such a poor view that it's kind of hard to really tell what went wrong.
It's a shame, of course, that the last game of the season looked a little like the last game of last season that didn't actually happen. Maybe it hurt more because we've started to play well and we won last week and we had hope? Maybe it just hurt because a game that bad SHOULD hurt. Heck, if it hurt it shows we still give a damn.
I know a lot of people on here are probably avoiding bothering with a post-mortem on that game, which is understandable. I know despite a lot of pain, a lot of anger, a lot of hurt - probably even a few tears - the people that really drive this forum will be back. We'll still have a lot of people that try to make noise every week, that try to keep the support going. And I know that, despite our better judgement, we're going to be excited when the new season comes around. We're all going to be dying to get out of this slump. It might take a couple of seasons to be a force to be reckoned with again, but I think if we were even just out of the top 6 next year, that will start to restore the faith. But, lot of things need to happen before then. We've all discussed what we want next year, many times.
To everyone that takes the time and effort to post on here, to discuss and promote the team in casual conversation - thank you. To the admins - thank you.
To everybody that puts in additional time and effort to any of the active support or getting any game-day events running - thank you.
Everyone that is completely unknown to any of us, that will never see this, but keep turning up week in, week out - thank you. Heck, if you've only been able to make it to 1 game this season - thank you. to those that have gone to the tremendous effort and expense of an away trip - thank you.
To the loyal members who haven't forgotten mariners 'til I die - thank you
To the players who have suffered deeply through the season (and who often aren't getting much support on here either) - thank you.
To the club and all the staff that keep driving everything forwards - thank you.
Of course, I can't forget @Coast Football Ramble - thank you for the podcast. Honestly, even though it's Mariners I wouldn't listen to it if you guys were crap but you guys do a killer job, and don't do a lot of the crap things too many other podcasts do that piss me off.
Basically, to everybody who has anything at all to do with promoting or supporting the club and team - thank you, and we'll see you all next season!!!
(and also - thanks to anybody who is still actually reading at this point!)
And for the real passionate supporters in particular, the ones that keep things driving on here and on facebook - we also have the ability to make a difference to how people perceive the club and team, how engaged they are, how willing they are to keep the faith. We may all have criticisms over individual elements within the club/team, even sustained elements, but we all still passionately follow the yellow and navy. So let's all support each other through the offseason - and anybody else that is aching to see the success come back.
Because it will be back.
MARINERS WILL BE BACK
You better bloody believe it.
