The Season Continues

South Melbourne will face Macarthur in the Semi Finals of the Australia Cup. Although the timing is to be confirmed, the match will take place at Lakeside on Saturday the 21st of September. One would expect the game will be held in the early evening or even the afternoon to allow Network 10 to run a double header with the favoured Melbourne Victory vs Adelaide United clash to follow at prime time.

Onwards to the Semi Final

On Wednesday night we defeated Hume City – for the 5th time this season. Although I didn’t attend the game my mates who did go confirmed a few things. Firstly, it was bloody freezing. Secondly, the game could have gone either way. Once again South fans had to endure a rollercoaster match… this time involving a come from behind, a lost lead, and an extra time winner. Hume City will no doubt be seething to lose to South again, but this season in particular South have had to endure more then their fair share of pressure moments, and I think that experience made a difference on the night.

The win against Hume was especially impressive considering the tight turnaround from the grand final. It was also a great way to heal the fanbase after the grand final… the less said about that game the better… Oakleigh however weren’t able to recover from the game as quickly and lost to Macarthur in their Australian Cup clash despite dominating for large parts of the game. This result leaves South as the only NPL club left in the Australia Cup. I’m sure there were many fans out there hoping for Oakleigh to progress as they probably would have been easier opponents to face in the Semi-Final, however I for one am happy to avoid another potential loss to them this season especially after what I saw in the Grand Final. Ange would call this small club mentality and he is right, this is why I’m not playing or coaching for South at the moment.

See ya Harry!

Unfortunately for us, the match up against Macarthur will be even more difficult due to the loss of Harry Sawyer. The worst kept secret in the NPL was confirmed this week when it was announced that Macarthur themselves had signed Sawyer to a two year deal. Thankfully he won’t be able to play against us as he is cup tied, however I, and many other fans are pretty dirty about the timing of the transfer.

Unfortunately though the deal needed to be done this week ahead of the closure of the A-League transfer window. The club was pretty helpless to prevent the transfer. At this level it is unfair to deny players like Harry a chance to play in the A-League so his departure is a bittersweet reminder of our current place in Australian Football. We’re clearly still a club that produces and attracts talent, however for many players we’re still just a stepping stone to bigger things. Thanks for the massive season Harry, you will be greatly missed! Will you all the best at Macarthur, just try to avoid their yellow card culture!

The transfer did create a bit of discussion worth mentioning. Alongside South’s rise in the cup there were a lot of A-League fans who took notice of Sawyer and probed the improbability of NPL players to progress to the A-League. Sawyer was even listed in an analytical article as a target for Macarthur ahead of the official transfer. As already mentioned discussion after the transfer focused on the timing misalignment between the NPL, A-League and Australia Cup. In combination, these discussions remind us of the importance of the FA, in particular their alignment projects currently in the works. The implementation of a domestic transfer market, and the establishment of the NST will help avoid these conversations in the future, however regarding the actual implementation of these projects… I wouldn’t hold my breath…

Gold Medals

The recent Football Victoria Awards night saw South absolutely clean up with the following wins:

• Golden Boot: Harrison Sawyer (shared)
• Goalkeeper of the Year: Javier Lopez  
• Coach of the Year: Esteban Quintas 
• Goal of the Year: Mario Barcia 

Congrats to all the winners and to the club. The personal awards are deserved in all cases, in particular for Lopez, who has been instrumental these past seasons and saved more points for us than we have probably deserved.

Also happy to see Esteban rewarded, if he is to leave at season’s end as rumoured, I like that he’ll have something shiny to remember his time here. He has copped a lot of criticism over the years, much of it warranted regarding this frustrating style of play, but I think this year he showed more of an ability to adapt his game plan and ultimately brought silverware to the club, helping to re-establish our place near the top of the NPL Football World. He should also be commended for blooding so many youth players this season, a necessary and successful program which helped the club manage a crazy number of games this season.

Final Word

The Macarthur game will be tough. Should we win, we will face either old NSL foes Adelaide United, or an even bigger rival… Melbourne Victory in the final! AAMI Park is supposedly booked out on the Final date though, so there is a chance the game will be held at Lakeside… or even Geelong!