There’s daylight between Melbourne Victory and the rest

Columnist

By Adrian Musolino, 21 May 2009 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: A-League, Carlos Hernandez, football, Melbourne Victory, Surat Sukha

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Melbourne Victory's Billy Celeski challenges Adelaide United's Sasa Ognenovski in the A-League football final match, at the Telstra Dome, in Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009. AAP Image/Martin Philbey

The publication of the A-League team’s ins and outs combined with Melbourne Victory securing the signing of Costa Rican Carlos Hernandez and Thailand international defender Surat Sukha confirms Melbourne Victory as the raging hot favourites for the 2009/10 season.

In an off-season that has seen enormous movement across the league not to mention the increasing player movement to Asia, the Victory has been left relatively untouched.

This is key.

They have stability and should the protracted discussions between the club and Kevin Muscat come to the expected conclusion with the captain agreeing terms then there appears no reason why, based on the squad alone, the Victory shouldn’t walk the A-League season.

But the Muscat signing is critical as the only significant loss for the Victory side is in defence with both Michael Thwaite, Gold Coast United bound, and the controversial Sebastian Ryall who had left for Sydney FC before his alleged sexual misdemeanor came to public light, departing.

It’s credit to the Victory for not only having the bravery to complete what they describe as a ‘significant’ deal for Hernandez but also doing what other A-League clubs should have done long ago, looking to the depth available in Asia and signing a player in the mold of Sukha, 26 years old with international and ACL experience and with the flexibility to play as a defensive midfielder or on the wing.

It is a significant signing to an already grounded squad while the Hernandez deal retains much of the core premiership winning attacking stock.

The irony is the two teams who last season proved to be the biggest threat to the Victory are both in a perilous financial state.

The financial malaise they have found themselves in has impacted Adelaide United and Brisbane Roar, both in the hands of the FFA and on the look out for new owners, and this is reflected in their conservative signings.

Neither has been able to substantially splash out on improving the squad and both will rely on the same core group as last season, the same group who in both cases were unable to contain the Victory on numerous occasions.

Adelaide, for example, looks set to start the season with a squad of just twenty, a questionable decision considering they will embark on another Asian campaign and with the loss of Sasa Ognenovski, much is needed from Iain Fyfe to shore up the back while the Roar will be relying on the continued growth of their promising youth.

Even if the Victory loses Michael Theoklitos to Europe, they had the foresight to nab Glen Moss from the Wellington Phoenix.

It is decisions like that which have marked out the Victory as the best run and operated A-League side by a farmer’s mile.

There is much movement and other change at the rest of the competition, not to mention a cultural change at Sydney FC, and so stability, something they have been renowned for, means Melbourne Victory look handily placed.

With their new stadium taking shape and a new shirt sponsor to boot they are getting all the fundamentals right.

The benchmark of the A-League remains so.

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The Crowd Says (40) | Page 1 of Comments

MVDave said | May 21st 2009 @ 7:05am | Report comment

Adrian

Agree with all that…Melbourne Victory the Manchester United of the HAL

Also just received their membership package details. Although there will be an extra 3 home games (14 in total) the basic membership has gone from about $186 up to $195 for next season…brilliant, only $3 extra per game. Its works out to under $14 per home game and also can be paid off on a monthly basis. Further more than have given loyalty benefits to supporters who re sign as l will now be a Silver Member (meaning the club give me a scarf) for 5 years of being a member.
Will be interesting to see how many members they can get for next season.
Should be pointed out again MVs attendances are excellent considering they dont have any local derbies to boost the crowd and usually the visiting team may bring only a couple of hundred supporters. For a club that is only now in its 5th year of existence and will be moving to a brand new stadium and playing in the ACL next year things are looking up. Viva Victory!

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whiskeymac said | May 21st 2009 @ 8:39am | Report comment

SFC is now desperately playing catch up…does this make SFC the Man City of the HAL (they wear sky blue)?
Hopefully the other pretenders ,GCU etc, will follow suit and there will be a an arms race like inspired improvement in transfers, promotions and players (ie footy culture) established.

Interesting that the two most stable clubs, MV and CCM, have had success, profit and plaudits (for differing aspects of their game and approach) but where MV leaves CCM for dead has been their scottish manager has recruited a lot more wisely in the last 2 years.

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Towser said | May 21st 2009 @ 9:24am | Report comment

Agree with whiskeymac, MV is the “bar raiser” for the A-League. Would GCU & NF have recruited Jason Culina & Robbie Fowler respectively if not for the success of MV both on & off the field. Lets face it if MV had been run like SFC on & off the field or their close rivals in QLD,my club the Roar financially ,the bar for the expansion clubs would be lower. Whilst the ACL provides a measuring stick for our clubs(particulary J-League clubs),it is only for the 2 clubs that qualify(would Lawrie be clearing out now?) for the week to week reality check ,MV is the club to see where the fans get a bit of caviar on their toast rather than drippin.

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whiskeymac said | May 21st 2009 @ 9:35am | Report comment

Despite Lawries recent struggles, and Ernie had a bad season once also remember, as did sir Alex way back when (it’s a Scottish thing obviously), the self shackling Jets – wooden spooners to last 16 – are still flying the flag reasonably well for the HAL in the ACL.
I look forward to seeing the progress of MV in their second bite at Asia. I hope they make it past the group stages this time – and if they won it wouldnt they be even bigger than the insufferable villains they are onlyshowing potential glimpses of now for the rest of us. [Adelaides run was one of those Aussie Battler Stories but MVs would be Muscat's Malicious March... great for the game!]

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Robbos said | May 21st 2009 @ 9:44am | Report comment

Oh No, watch out for Pippin’s bragging.

This hurts to say, no I can’t even say it, ok, yes I think you’re right Adrian. They, MV, (spit) keep raising the bar, setting the standard for the A-League. The signing of the Thai player is something all clubs should look into signing a player from Asean.
In Henandez, they have the best player in the A-League to open up defences.

Well done MV #%@7&.

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Ryan Steele said | May 21st 2009 @ 9:47am | Report comment

“Adelaide, for example, looks set to start the season with a squad of just twenty, a questionable decision considering they will embark on another Asian campaign…”

Adelaide will be using various youth stock throughout the season (much like they did with the likes of Michael Marrone last year), and Vidmar claims a 20-man squad will be easier to manage, in terms of training exercises and finding the right squad balance (formation and teamwork-wise). I’m not 100% sure on the plan, but it’s definitely a good idea to work with a “more manageable squad”, considering so many new players have been brought in to fill the void left after the most recent mass exodus.

The Asian Champions League point is relatively moot, though, as there are still two transfer windows before the 2010 season, and the club can get some players on loan for the campaign (we’ve already being done with Newcastle and the Mariners), and they can, again, use youth players, where needed. They didn’t have their full squad available for last year’s campaign, so I can’t see the next one having too many hiccups, squad-wise.

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Towser said | May 21st 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment

Robbos

Heres the bowl. Make it quick,theres a few more lining up.

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Andrew said | May 21st 2009 @ 9:59am | Report comment

I don’t agree that MVFC is a shoe in for this season.. We all know what can happen when you change a coach. Sydney FC and the Gold Coast will be pushing for the top 3 places this season.

On paper sydney is far stronger than MVFC, imo, of course.

Brosque is way better than thompson, corica is arguably the best midfielder in the league and although Culina will probably lay claim to that this season… We also have Musialik, aloisi, bridge, colosimo and Kisel.

Show me a better team on paper than Syd fC?

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Bill said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:17am | Report comment

Adrian,

While I agree that Victory would have to be seen as favourites this season, the logic to your argument seems a bit strange. You use the fact that “In an off-season that has seen enormous movement across the league … the Victory has been left relatively untouched” as am argument for Melbourne’s credentials, yet criticise Brisbane and Adelaide because “both will rely on the same core group as last season”. Not sure how that works, given how tight the league was last season (you won on goal difference in the end).

And, of course, that discounts the new kids on the block Gold Coast and North Queensland, as well as Perth Glory who look to be building a very strong squad.

Don’t count your chickens just yet!

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Millster said | May 21st 2009 @ 10:26am | Report comment

I also don’t think that MV is a shoe-in. I think a bunch of clubs will be very competitive. Sydney, Gold Coast, Newcastle and Perth (yes I said it first) I think will be very competitive and hungry.

But where I agree 100% with Adrian is that more broadly we have a lot to learn from MV and they set a lot of benchmarks including stability, loyalty, community support, ambition in signings and investment, etc. Hats off to the club for being undeniably the leader in these very important aspects in Australian domestic football.

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