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Official South Melbourne Hellas thread 🔵⚪

southmelb said:
Athletics have had the ground booked from Fridays to Sundays for a while, you can watch most of the meets on youtube, hence the 2 Monday night games played and a 3rd at the end of March.

I almost stopped supporting the club after the Avondale debacle a few years back, last night is not far off tipping me over the edge, im regretting purchasing a membership, im regretting my attendance last night, and im seriously considering going to watch Brunswick City instead on Friday night.

Im sick of the club glossing over this, what happened last night was not ok, a statement issuing an apology to the supporters should be made, 300 odd ppl rocked up last night hoping to see Souths best team put in a serious shift to win a game of football, instead we got a disjointed team thrown together like it was a January pre season hitout.
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Im with you... I havent left a match so sad (and we've had 3 grand final losses in a row!!!) for a very long time.. Last night, thinking about the game (I refuse to watch the replay Im too upset) I was angry at certain players but in the cold light of day this is 100% a club mistake ...

Ive been frothing over Preston away for the past 3-4 months and now don't even really feel like going... Its not the loss, we've copped heavy ones before to even shitter opponents (thats football right?) , its the disdain with which the club treated us last night I agree... They want us there, loud and proud for the "all eyes on us and Preston shiny plastic extravaganza pty ltd" and they fail us 300 odd dopey, stupid, loyal, die hards who rock up on Monday to be insulted.....

I might go and watch Aleague on friday instead..... at least there I know Im expected to be treated like a customer....
 
Look, if they want to a pull a stunt like that fine, but communicate with the supporters before hand that the plan is to leave 7 senior players out. At least then we can decide not to turn up.

Literally minutes before kick off my phone was blowing up with texts from ppl not at the game being in disbelief at that lineup.

Its true, its not about the defeat, my threshold for losses is quite high, 3 straight grand final loses, regular defeats to the likes of Avondale and Oakleigh where we cant touch the ball etc. I can handle us being shit. What i refuse to accept is that famous heavy shirt being reduced to nothing like it was last night.
 
southoftheyarra said:
Do we know what kinda of Injury Lopez has? Hamstring i'm guessing? Praying for a Grade 1 but knowing our luck he will be out for months....
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I thought it was his knee he was clutching but not 100% sure.... The big lad did ok, 3rd goal wasnt anything he could do, but he is gonna have to go to BT Connor for his first full debut meters away from a very hostile crowd... hope the big man is up to it.
 
southmelb said:
Look, if they want to a pull a stunt like that fine, but communicate with the supporters before hand that the plan is to leave 7 senior players out. At least then we can decide not to turn up.

Literally minutes before kick off my phone was blowing up with texts from ppl not at the game being in disbelief at that lineup.

Its true, its not about the defeat, my threshold for losses is quite high, 3 straight grand final loses, regular defeats to the likes of Avondale and Oakleigh where we cant touch the ball etc. I can handle us being shit. What i refuse to accept is that famous heavy shirt being reduced to nothing like it was last night.
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Your first sentence explains the second.... Like you said, if they announced the "plan" earlier in the day

a) nobody would rock up and
b) Dinamo would have time to prepare - not that they would have needed to.

I hope this football big brains trust master plan works on Friday, a heavy loss and we will be playing in front of 20 people the following weeks.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Your first sentence explains the second.... Like you said, if they announced the "plan" earlier in the day

a) nobody would rock up and
b) Dinamo would have time to prepare - not that they would have needed to.

I hope this football big brains trust master plan works on Friday, a heavy loss and we will be playing in front of 20 people the following weeks.
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Even if we win on Friday, all it is in the context of the season is 3 points, the same 3 points we binned last night. Essentially playing to break even now lol. I cant get my head around the stupidity of it all.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Last night we just threw the whole season away .... nothing more nothing less.... It was either the board or the coaching staff that made an arrogant, stupid, misguided (you pick) decision that backfired spectacularly... I
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Any serious coach wouldve apologised and if it goes pear shaped on Friday puts his offer of resignation to the board... up to them to accept it or not!
Monoethnic Social Club said:
As for us not having depth in the squad, sorry I tend to disagree... 7 starting players sitting in the corporate box enjoying themselves and laughing at the shit we served up... 7 !!!!!!!!! Take 7 players out of the matchday squad of all but the top 3 EPL sides and they too will suffer the same fate ..... that was a club mistake and WE deserve an explanation.
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we have players yes, we dont have depth of talent, to come on hungry off the bench! Yes the team had 7 regular players out, pillars of the side, but you need players hungry to dislodge the regulars in most positions, especially the middle of park that want to take opportunities by the horns when presented.. Can anyone honestly tell me we had anything even an incling of the running the mvfc boys did last week against us? Or bergers have shown under Anastasiadis?

Our goal shouldve been to enhance/strengethen our middfield for this season, we did with Mells but to take the next step and take the AU championship we shouldve also grabbed Lesiotis (imagine that duo as holders/feeders) with our existing middlefield... the pressure would be off defence and we wouldve had the luxury to see prior to that comp who falls off aleague (Sawyer) as a striker to fill that hole!

Too much analysis and other factors i know but we had the base for it in place, little tweaks only needed... now we may need an overhaul from the head down in the absolute wrong year to need one!
 
Hellenic_blue&white said:
Any serious coach wouldve apologised and if it goes pear shaped on Friday puts his offer of resignation to the board... up to them to accept it or not!

we have players yes, we dont have depth of talent, to come on hungry off the bench! Yes the team had 7 regular players out, pillars of the side, but you need players hungry to dislodge the regulars in most positions, especially the middle of park that want to take opportunities by the horns when presented.. Can anyone honestly tell me we had anything even an incling of the running the mvfc boys did last week against us? Or bergers have shown under Anastasiadis?

Our goal shouldve been to enhance/strengethen our middfield for this season, we did with Mells but to take the next step and take the AU championship we shouldve also grabbed Lesiotis (imagine that duo as holders/feeders) with our existing middlefield... the pressure would be off defence and we wouldve had the luxury to see prior to that comp who falls off aleague (Sawyer) as a striker to fill that hole!

Too much analysis and other factors i know but we had the base for it in place, little tweaks only needed... now we may need an overhaul from the head down in the absolute wrong year to need one!
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tough but fair.
 
The club needs to go all out for Anastasiadis, enough mucking around, watching his team play is like watching a different sport, he is an important part of the clubs history and i trully believe he will bring excitement to a club that clearly now feels stale.

As for current issues, what a horrible recruitment drive in the off season. Dovison and Durso would struggle to get a game in state 1. We kept the 2 players we signed in the transfer window last season in Pope and Harding who are rubbish, yet lost Peios to Preston.

All this goes back to last night, we are in no position to make crazy wholesale changes, our best team couldnt get over Victory youth, yes integrate 1-2 players into the team gradually but not this nonsense. Even our experienced players looked crap last night because it was a disjointed mess.

The worst part is a coaching change does nothing now, this team has been taught to play football one way, a new coach genuinely needs 5 months to turn this team from a long throw/long ball/set piece team into something worth watching.

As for the club saying they need our support on Friday night to bounce back from a tough loss. Wrong, what you need above all is to pick the strongest possible team, a couple hundred South fans behind the goals isnt beating Preston. Start taking responsibility for your fcuk ups.
 
Dont think Peios got a fair crack at it. I remember him being best on ground early season last year then getting dropped for no reason, Gerrie often suffered the same fate. No real room for technical ball players in the system, even Mells has adapted to a more direct knock it long to space type of player.

I think JA is still in play if the NST gets up, but the club needs to realise that it cant have national ambitions with this style of play.
 
southoftheyarra said:
The Anastasiadis ship has sailed unless you are talking about Dean...

To early to judge our new "talent", however we are banking off these young guys developing into something which at an NPL level is a gamble. Pope is a good young prospect who actually plays like he want's to win games, wasn't invisible like some of the other young guys during that game. Harding is fine for now, hasn't been overwhelmingly good or overwhelmingly bad. We can stand to loose Peios because we got Mells, the issue is we didn't replace Barcia...

We have almost 0 experience coming off the bench its all young players, a player who has played serious minutes in NPL VIC would be handy coming off the bench or even putting in a starting shift against 'lower tier' teams. Peios is a fine NPL talent, but always seemed to disappear against less technical more physical teams. Sure he has flashes of brilliance but he doesn't really suit Quintas's playing style, reminds me of a Gerrie Syladios 2.0, at least it seems like Peios is playing half decent for Preston.
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Peios has been pulling the strings in that Preston midfield. Everything seems to go through him...
 
Spartan Warrior said:
Peios has been pulling the strings in that Preston midfield. Everything seems to go through him...
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Yes he played in a deep lying midfield role last week and was very effective, spraying passes to both flanks, running with the ball etc. He made 1 bad turnover but was otherwise effective.

At South midfielders are not allowed to "run the show", the job they have is to get it and launch it long to space for the forward to chase.

Esteban would have a heart attack if any of his players tried to be creative.
 
Given the opportunity with the allure of the AU championship Anastasiadis wouldnt say NO i dont think, if he was offered time and budget! The exposure alone would be enticing enough.

Would love to be at that first training session, when he runs their lungs out, to teach them a pressing game, or the first time they decide to bomb it over the top for no reason other than conditioning... 🤣🤣🤣
 
We played Peios as a winger last year off the bench when at City he was a defensive midfielder. He’s gone to Preston and he’s running the show and been one of there best players.

We had a shocking off season for signings apart from Mells of course no one else we signed made us better. Even with Charlie Leech he scored 4 goals and 3 assists in 2 seasons. Is that good enough to be your starting attacking midfielder at South? I don’t know so. I’m still spewing we let Cian Cuba go.

Kokotis as football director nearly got us relegated when he was last in the job so not holding my breath that things will improve. He just brought back a heap of youngsters who used to play for the club in the juniors but none of them are really good enough to push our current starters for spots
 
Just a horrible night all round.

There are so many layers to this outrageous result. But it also shines a light on our inadequacies and incompetence.

Why do we continue to hold matches at Lakeside early in the season when the weekends are booked by Athletics and the surrounding area is largely a construction site for the F1 Australian Grand Prix? Play the first round match on a Thursday night as a stand alone event to sell membership and merchandise, and then play 3-5 matches away from Lakeside during that disrupted period.

By playing on that Monday night, we effectively restricted our playing squad to a short turn around period between the St Albans and Preston matches. Is there no forward thinking on how to best utilise the calendar to provide the squad with sufficient recovery time between rounds?

This draws us to the main driver of the debacle we saw on Monday night. Whoever thought it would be wise to rest 7 key players against St Albans clearly lacks any logic and common sense. Why would you jeopardise 3 relatively straightforward points at home for the off chance of 3 points at the ‘NST showpiece’???

A bunch of inexperienced kids were thrown together with the hope they could grind out a 1-0 win. We disrespected our opponents by thinking they were beneath us and they duly punished our hubris and arrogance. We made St Albans look like they were Real Madrid. We were slow and disjointed. No real game plan. Just kick it long and try and get a throw in. On the hand, St Albans were hungry, quick and real dogged fighters that did not stop pushing for the win all night. Good on them as they deserved to win and the 3 points.

What we saw from South was a bunch of young kids that were clearly out of their depth and at best NPL2 playing standard. This match highlighted we have very little quality in our squad depth, and with a couple of injuries, this could expose us to some tough times ahead. Serious questions have to be asked about our preseason recruitment strategies. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but we signed a bunch of kids to remain under the PPS, and to save some cash. Poor recruitment.

What a normal coach would do is field his strongest squad, try and score a few goals in the first half, and then bring on substitutes for the last 30-35 mins to start resting players ahead of the Preston match. Every point you accumulate is so important. Why throw away easy points???

The club not only disrespected the opposition team but also its members and supporters. I have not felt this annoyed since the Avondale cup fixture where we deliberately fielded a weakened side.

If we lose on Friday night, then we would Monday’s antics will come back to haunt us later in the season.
 
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I think if we fall off a cliff we will look back to Monday night as the catalyst. The reason this team has been able to finish in the top 2 the past 3 seasons is because it wins the games it should win, we put our best team in and always beat the likes of st albans, altona etc. Our record against the big guns (oaks, avondale, heidelberg) has been dodgy at best with our rare wins over them generally being flukes over this period, often though we get smashed.

This was up there with the Avondale game, the difference was 3 years ago the crowd was not far off storming the pitch, 3 years on and our fanbase could barely be bothered kicking up a stink on the night. Its amazing that we've had 3 relatively good seasons yet they've been painfully exhausting to watch. We are tired fan base and the staleness of the club has a lot to do with it.

Also lets not forget throwing the cup tie against Kingston in 2023 with an embarassing 4-3 loss at home. Esteban has form when it comes to this stuff.

I feel like Monday night was the worst though cos it happened at Lakeside. It really felt like the South shirt meant nothing. Seeing a few old men sitting in front of me getting up and leaving in the 75th minute made my blood boil. Lets not forget this is a fan base whose supporters dont live 5-10 minutes from the ground. It actually takes a lot of effort for our fans to get to lakeside on a weeknight, to cop that in return is disgusting.

The fact we are 2 days away from Preston and i still cant look past Monday says it all. Early March and they're killing our interest already.
 
Christ you guys throwing out the dummy just 4games in.
Don't take me wrong I'm just viewing from the outside up here in Syd.
I get the fixture angst but thats how it goes.
Your comp is looking bit similar to ours at this early stage myself and Berreta agree its looking like the most open comp is ages where the usual suspects have started off slowly and the mid table clubs have recruited well and grabbing the points at this stage.
I have stirred MSC in the passed your SMH have had a great run for years lacking out and out competition imo, well its arrived it seems.
Maybe the last few seasons have brought in complacency ie not recruiting well in depth by reading posts above.

Early March and killing the interest already, christ isn't it the time to stand together and turn up.
Again just for conversation from outside perspective.
 
southmelb said:
The club needs to go all out for Anastasiadis, enough mucking around, watching his team play is like watching a different sport, he is an important part of the clubs history and i trully believe he will bring excitement to a club that clearly now feels stale.

As for current issues, what a horrible recruitment drive in the off season. Dovison and Durso would struggle to get a game in state 1. We kept the 2 players we signed in the transfer window last season in Pope and Harding who are rubbish, yet lost Peios to Preston.

All this goes back to last night, we are in no position to make crazy wholesale changes, our best team couldnt get over Victory youth, yes integrate 1-2 players into the team gradually but not this nonsense. Even our experienced players looked crap last night because it was a disjointed mess.

The worst part is a coaching change does nothing now, this team has been taught to play football one way, a new coach genuinely needs 5 months to turn this team from a long throw/long ball/set piece team into something worth watching.

As for the club saying they need our support on Friday night to bounce back from a tough loss. Wrong, what you need above all is to pick the strongest possible team, a couple hundred South fans behind the goals isnt beating Preston. Start taking responsibility for your fcuk ups.
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I was told that JA said NO to our approach last year ... the diff was 20k more at the Bergers.....
 
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