Derby marred by heartless moment

Yes - Muscat's behavious immediately after the tackle shows poor sportsmanship. But that doesn't mean that he didn't initally go in after a 50/50 ball that he only missed by an inch.

Keep going MLF, everyone knows it was a Muscat "brain burst". Even Muscat, himself when he reflects on it. You'll need to change your name again Pip ;)

Anthony No attempt was made for the ball... this is where I disagree withi pretty much everyone, and why this is a clear case of hyperbole. Muscat got to the ball first, ball he was quite entitled to go for, he's missed the ball, gone over the top of it, and unsurprisingly, if you go over the ball, you going to end up high up the leg on your opponent. But he did attempt to go the ball - he missed - he's probably played one season too many, he's not up to it anymore, that's the full extent of what we're talking about. Next time Zahra might try and jump over the prostrate player - we can all jump knee high. As a professional footballer, you're going to come across this every now and then - no biggie.

quoting Panta as a source - now that's funny!

This is the problem, we have some good matches on the weekend & interesting results, even some good crowds for a change, plus the socceroos into the semi finals of Asia & we are talking about this thug. Nothing more, nothing less.

An interesting response. I'm not sure I agree with all of it, surprise, surprise. However, you are right that the game gets a lot more coverage than in the past. Especially thanks to the arrival of pay tv.

RM Having lived through the 70s, 80s & 90s ... I can assure you football in this country has progressed further than I could ever have dreamed. Thanks to the globalisation of the media, Aussies football lovers are no longer restricted to blinkered, biased and unsophisticated analysis of our Game that is served up on commercial TV (OneHD is the exception and provides excellent football coverage and analysis) and in the Fairfax & News Ltd daily newspapers. Football fans now have access to intelligent football analysis, "boisterous"(!) football discussion, and up-to-date football news 24x7x 365 with just the click of a button. I, for one, no longer care what the non-football media say about our Game. Whilst in the past I had to rely on the non-football media and commercial TV stations for any news about football, l now find these potential sources of information antiquated, unsophisticated and totally irrelevant. The Kevin Muscat issue is getting a lot of airplay b/c it happened less than 48 hours ago but, a few days after the FFA hands down its sanction, it will become yesterday's news and something fresh will emerge to capture the attention of the football fraternity: e.g. the Asian Cup Semis & Final; the HAL final rounds and then the HAL finals; the various Leagues in Europe & various domestic Cup competitions; the UCL knock-out stage will resume; then the ACL Group matches will commence, etc. etc. The Kevin Muscat story is just a non-event ... I reckon I could name 4 players who, this season, have had their legs broken by vicious or just poor tackles in the EPL. The English tabloids run with stories of "outrage" for about 24 hours and then something else grabs the headlines. Very ho hum indeed ... but, I want to stress, I'm very very happy the lad, Adrian Zahra seems to have been cleared of any serious injury ... now, my biggest concern is how do I replace him in my FoxSports Fantasy team? Zahra was THE best value midfielder in the HAL. :-)

Fussball, as a football purist and someone who wants to see the game progress in Australia, I would have thought you'd despise this sort of attention. I thought you'd wish for it to be left for the non-footballing media, who are always circling like ravenous sharks for a negative story about the game you love, and the oh so many reporters who have no knowledge of the game to report upon it, revealing their intellectual inadequacies in regards to the game. You know, the sort of media which exists just to run vision of rioters at games in South America to discredit the game. I wouldn't have thought that you would see this as good publicity for football in Australia.

I'll also add that players have been sued for bad tackles before SO there is certain precedent for bad tackles to be consider a case of civil negligence

Should make for a very lively night of football analysis tonight on TWG (SBS2 @ 930 & SBS1 at 1130) and WFN (OneHD @ 830) ... and, who said the A-leauge isn't getting attention in the media?

That is not true. Do you really think that the manager of the team wants their players getting sent off in the match for an awful tackle Defenders job is to judge when to tackle and when not to. The fact that Muscat midjudge the tackle and injured a player makes it negligence and reckless whether he was intentional or not. Now of course every defenders is guilty of misjudging tackles now and then. Even the likes of Lucas Neill broke Carraghers leg once. However Muscat is a repeat offender which makes him a liability to the game and his team.

Finally, we all can agree on a common enemy ... Steve Pantelidis take a bow! :-) To be clear, I never said it was a good tackle, or a fair tackle, or a hard tackle. It was a bad tackle, a mistimed tackle, a poorly-executed tackle and, because the tackle resulted in a serious foul Muscat got a straight red card ... the ref got it right and we now let the FFA's Disciplinary Committee sanction the player. That's how the rule of law operates in sophisticated and advanced societies ... some of the reactions I've read, takes us back to "the law of the jungle".

You're having a laugh right MLF? Just because it wasn't from behind doesn't mean it wasn't an atrocious tackle. He was off the ground and his legs made sole contact with Zahra's knee!!! Commenthing that it was a mistimed tackle and Zahra should have seen it coming is possibly the stupidiest comment since Hitler said the Jews were the root of the world's problems. Sure his reputation precedes him, hence a lot of people's disgust for the man. But quite simply, that was a tackle not only to stop an attack, but to leave a mark on the player. No attempt was made for the ball, as if that was the case, he would have been on the ground at the point of contact with Zahra. It's physics, and its indisputable.

When Steve Pantelidis says it's a bad tackle you know it's a bad tackle. He's an expert :)

dasilva said: ... If you can’t get the ball fairly then you have to pull out of the tackle. Yes, if you're playing "mates' rules" in the park ... but, no professional footballer would pull out of a tackle, unless he's inside his penalty box. And, as Uruguyan striker, Luis Suarez showed in the 1/4 finals of the WC2010, sometimes you get rewarded for committing a foul in the penalty box, since there's still a chance the opponent will miss! Simply, in professional sport ... the end always justifies the means.

I'm quoting someone who knows Muscat quite well. It's worth posting. SBS reports "Hardman Steve Pantelidis, the enforcer schooled in the dark arts by under-fire Melbourne Victory skipper Kevin Muscat" :)

For heaven's sake ... you're quoting Steve Pantelidis - one of the most technically inept and thuggish footballers in the HAL? Pantelidis, a guy discarded by MVFC b/c he is rubbish, and, who waited behind play, and, when the Robbie K wasn't watching, punched Robbie K in the throat and then ran away like a coward? Pantelidis's on-field thuggery was described by the FFA's Disciplinary Committee as: "an intentional violent strike and one of the most aggressive acts ever to come before the committee" before upholding a 5-week suspension for Pantelidis.

According to Steve Pantelidis its nothing to do with technique and everything to do with not being able to control your emotions. "I have known Muscy for six years and while he doesn't go out to hurt anybody, you could see in the incident with Zahra that he was angry at the Heart equalising beforehand and he looked to have lashed out a bit. "While we are great mates, and will remain so, there is really no excuse for a tackle like that and I will be very surprised if he plays again in the A-League this season. I think he'll be banned from now on right through the finals."

RM - that's exactly what I've been trying to say: Muscat's body reacts too slowly to be able to play in the HAL. The tackling technique is all about timing and angles. If you time your tackle perfectly the ball is won and no foul is committed - check out Sasa Ognenovski's tackle, inside the Australian penalty box, that dispossessed the opponent of the ball ... but did not even graze the foot of the opponent. If Sasa had been a yard slower or his technique had been poor, he would have missed the ball brought down the opponent, given away a penalty and since Sasa was the last man he would have been sent off. Oh, yeah ... and Bahrain would have been 1-0 and the Aussie team would probably be home by now. It's all about timing and angles. And, as your body ages so does your ability to perfectly get the timing and angles right (fatigue also plays a part - e.g. at the end of the game tackles are more likely to be poorly executed).

I guess I need to stray away from comparisons with other leagues I see where you’re coming from though, I remember watching the Wollongong Wolves against Perth in 2000. As good as that game was, the quality in the football was lacking and I can defiantly see improvement in the now A-League.