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Melbourne Victory's Matthew Foschini in action against Newcastle Jets' Ljubo Milicevic during round 5 of the A-League Season, played at the Ethihad stadium in Melbourne, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. The Jets drew against Victory 1-1 after full time. AAP Image/Joe Castro
I have to start with the big news about Danny Allsopp’s no-show. Word from the Fox crew is he refused to show up because his club road blocked a big money move to Qatar.
Merrick claimed before and after the game he wasn’t playing due to hamstring injury and that the club doesn’t comment on transfer speculation.
Merrick did confirm Allsopp wasn’t at the ground, claiming he had given him the night off. If it’s true there was a big money offer available, it’s only fair Melbourne should demand a health transfer fee, and we don’t know what was offered and rejected.
2. One of the few good things about the small crowds in the past few weeks is that we can now hear all the on field chatter through on-ground microphones.
One noise we didn’t want to hear was the scream which came from Celeski when he landed after competing for a header early in the match. The image of his left knee buckling was awful, and one feared the worst.
Alas, the early reports from the Melbourne medicos are more encouraging, more likely a medial than a cruciate, good news for Celeski, Melbourne and the league.
3. The Etihad surface may not have contributed to the Celeski injury, but it’s not, for now, matching the standards elsewhere.
There has been a marked improvement in the quality of surfaces across the board (and about time), but this was one of the worst of the season, and made the football less easy on the eye.
4. In light of points one and two, and the average start to the season, this was a character filled display for much of the game for the Victory.
The experienced guys, Vargas, Thompson, Pondeljak, Leijer and Kemp stood up. Vargas and Leijer were especially superb in the air, the skipper bandaged and all.
5. Equally, the Jets showed some great character in the final quarter of the game, spurred on by some Culina re-shuffling. Thompson, D’Apuzzo, Song, Rooney, Haliti, Elrich, Topor-Stanley and Milicevic all finished strongly.
6. Further good signs from Surat Sukha, who not only showed good defensive work, but looked very subtle coming forward.
On one occasion he was involved in a lovely give and go and then dummy on the edge of the box.
7. For Newcastle, an interesting omission was that of Petrovski. Culina’s reasoning was a slight injury, and, given his 34 years and the four day turn around from their round four win, he wasn’t about to risk him.
Good man management, or did Culina get fortunate?
8. Still on the Jets, there have been some great signs in the first four rounds that Song is coming to terms with the physicality of the league. Last season he was battered, and simply couldn’t cope.
This season, and again last night, he is competing beautifully in the air, holding off men on the dribble, and coming back for more physical duels.
Great to see him adapting, yet still able to demonstrate his obvious on-the-ball talent.
9. The other Jet starting to compete physically is Patafa, who won his fair share of disputed ball and had some neat touches. Culina certainly appears keen to nurture him.
10. Speaking of physicality, what a remarkable performance from Tarek Elrich, currently fasting during the holy month on Ramadan.
It didn’t seem to affect his performance. He was dynamite, sprinting back to make a couple of crucial first half interceptions, and then getting forward in the final moments to get the better of Kemp.
11. Looks like a few years in Poland have polished Haliti’s technical game just nicely. Know for his pace in the inaugural season, he provided some nice work down the left as a second half sub, and then popped up in the middle when Elrich got around Kemp and teed him up with a beauty.
His bright hold up play after the equaliser was another sign of maturity and awareness. Might be a sound piece of business.
12. Did Fabiano dive? A slight touch, but, for mine, soft stuff from Fabiano.
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