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Official South Melbourne Hellas thread 🔵⚪

It use to be that only Oakleigh, Avondale and at times Heidelberg could pants us. The rest of the league we would bully with our set pieces and win.

We've copped such a huge reality check from our last 3 opponents, the speed and ball movement is just too much for us.

It seems like we just assumed the league would continue to be shit. We capitalised on clubs tightening their belts post Covid but now clubs are splashing the cash and looking to excite.

I just dont understand how we train 4 days a week at 7am and cant produce anything more than what we show.

Dumping Esteban now is as much about preparing for the championship as what it is salvaging the season, lets be honest the guy doesnt belong anywhere near a national comp, our title window is slammed shut as well. Literally no reason to keep him on.

The purpose of the rest of the season needs to be to improve our style of play and fresh ideas, pull the trigger now. Even if we finish mid to bottom half it doesnt matter.
 
Last night showed that most clubs have improved and strengthened their squads. We have either remained stagnant or gone backwards.

The only way we will score is either through a set piece or a throw in. That’s it.

Preston played well and they were the better team in the first half but we valiantly tried to hold on and stay in the contest.

Goalkeeper brain fade turned everything around. But to be honest, it was a matter of not if, but when Preston would open the scoring. It just happened through a goalkeeper blunder. As for his antics when he was walking off the park - the less said the better.

Preston put on a great event. They had portable toilets for the South fans and security along the perimeter. There was a spot for the South fans to buy food and drinks. We were well behaved and good to see they held back the Preston fans for 10 minutes to let us out and depart the surrounding area quickly.

There will be excuses on injuries and the goalkeeping error, but the way we have been playing lately, it is very concerning.

What a stupid decision of resting 7 players on Monday it was. We got outplayed against Preston. Monday’s match was a good chance to get 3 points. We now have 1 from a maximum of 9 points from last 3 games.

The question is this - what do we do over the next week to put on a competitive effort against Dandy Thunder away?
 
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SMFC1959 said:
The question is this - what do we do over the next week to put on a competitive effort against Dandy Thunder away.?
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What we do hear, hopefully, in the next few days is that Esteban has apologised and offered his resignation!! If not, then his sacking after a loss to Thunder!

Everything else falls short!
 
I dont see us getting a point in the next 2 weeks (thunder and hume away)

Was randomly thinking earlier about season 2021, when we topped the league for the first 10 rounds, then Sawyer missed 3 months with a broken toe and we went winless dropping all the way to 9th until Covid prematurely ended the season.

Esteban cant coach without that tall mobile forward wins everything in the air and runs his ass off, he was blessed with Sawyer, and even Riak wad fantastic in that role in 2023, one trick pony has nothing now, Moller has the height but cant really run.

I seriously think we are fucked and destined to be bottom 6.
 
southmelb said:
I dont see us getting a point in the next 2 weeks (thunder and hume away)

Was randomly thinking earlier about season 2021, when we topped the league for the first 10 rounds, then Sawyer missed 3 months with a broken toe and we went winless dropping all the way to 9th until Covid prematurely ended the season.

Esteban cant coach without that tall mobile forward wins everything in the air and runs his ass off, he was blessed with Sawyer, and even Riak wad fantastic in that role in 2023, one trick pony has nothing now, Moller has the height but cant really run.

I seriously think we are fucked and destined to be bottom 6.
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Moller cant stay on his feet let alone run. I watched the replay and cant believe how many times he fell over...
 
southoftheyarra said:
As long as he can score more tap ins and headers off the bench Il save my judgement.
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Not currently looking that way, but cant do anything atm, other than give him time and hope he can somewhat pan out! It would be good to judge him based on a system other than Estebans anti football ideally.

It feels as if this was a choice made purely on height criteria alone,so i do wonder if there was a change in style of play (to more orthological football) perhaps he will fit that system better.
 
The fact we went to Denmark to find someone from the 6th tier is so comical.

5 months to try change our style of play and nothing was done. Between recruitment and tactics its a horror show. Nobody wants to take responsibility either, the football manager claims he got the role after we signed all those kids that arent up to it, so who signed them? Disorganised rabble.

Its simply not worth my time so i'll be youtubing from here on. Heidelberg x 2, Victory at home and preston at home are the only games i will attend for the rest of the year, might throw in Oakleigh at home or a juicy cup tie, but thats where it ends until Esteban goes. Wont get full value for membership but i just put it down as a donation.
 
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We almost all agree that Estaban needs to go.....we also agree it has to be sooner rather than later.... we also all can see the need for a change in playing style yesterday!!!

Question is who do we bring in??
Given our desire for JA at this point in time is an impossible feat.

*Although couldnt think of anything more fitting than grabbing JA as a package wirh Lesiotis from the Burgers for a serious push at everything!
 
Its very difficult because the squad needs a bit of a reset as well. We are a very slow team that cant move the ball between the lines, we are also too tall i think, we are playing the Sawyer system despite the fact he is gone.
 
southmelb said:
Its very difficult because the squad needs a bit of a reset as well. We are a very slow team that cant move the ball between the lines, we are also too tall i think, we are playing the Sawyer system despite the fact he is gone.
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We agree on the reset, its paramount, but we wont know where we are problematic unless someone with an adaptable/shifting playing style comes in to work with the current squad (which talent wise, remains top notch at full strength to be fair) and we have shown glimpses of speed moving forward in transition (the few times the players had a brain freeze) so i dont really know if we are as slow as we look, i honestly believe its simply a byproduct of tactics rather than individual playing talents. Whether these players, after all these years, can play a different system without major changes is a real question we cant answer until they are forced into having to.. .. perhaps the current system is holding the players that came in back rather than the other way around could be a reql truth also!!

Surely 2 losses away in the next 2 will be the end of the one trick pony!
 
southmelb said:
The fact we went to Denmark to find someone from the 6th tier is so comical.

5 months to try change our style of play and nothing was done. Between recruitment and tactics its a horror show. Nobody wants to take responsibility either, the football manager claims he got the role after we signed all those kids that arent up to it, so who signed them? Disorganised rabble.

Its simply not worth my time so i'll be youtubing from here on. Heidelberg x 2, Victory at home and preston at home are the only games i will attend for the rest of the year, might throw in Oakleigh at home or a juicy cup tie, but thats where it ends until Esteban goes. Wont get full value for membership but i just put it down as a donation.
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FFS the football director dosen’t want to take responsibility.

Who signed these players then? Tyson Holmes? Kokotis surely knew these players we were bringing back since he was the junior football director with most of these signings having played juniors for the club.

What a mess!
 
smfc_hellas59 said:
FFS the football director dosen’t want to take responsibility.

Who signed these players then? Tyson Holmes? Kokotis surely knew these players we were bringing back since he was the junior football director with most of these signings having played juniors for the club.

What a mess!
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No point assigning blame to any one individual when we dont know.

All we know is the off season was botched and we have a coach thats out of his depth.

Just want to club to admit they stuffed it and start trying to fix this now, begining with the coach.
 
can someone give me some history regarding the preston lions match with south.

Was this the first league meeting against each other in how long?
and was the the first victory for preston over south since the 80s?
 
As we are bearing witness instead of being the natural leader we suddenly find ourselves in a followers position without knowing how we got here!

Call it complacency or what you will but every aspect of our club needs to step it up immediately or we risk falling further behind than we find ouselves atm. .... and im not just referring to the on field aspect...
 
The club got a general manager in the lead up for the Championship. Would be interesting to know what he has done in the last 4-5 months in the role?

I noticed he had some good initiatives with community football programs in the 6 months prior to getting the general manager role.

Are we just waiting to play Preston at home and for the Championship to start and hope for the best that crowds come back?
 
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