We need a moratorium on football cliches

Is it just me or does anybody else wince at the overuse of certain words in football? For me it’s ‘character’ and ‘game plan’. I’m tearing my hair out at every utterance – Lyall Gorman must schedule an FFA-enforced moratorium on coaches, players and commentators using the terms, even if only for a week.

Kosmina has almost worn out the word ‘character’ since taking over the Reds.

He has variously told us that he believed the players always had character; they hid their character earlier this year, now they show their character and every interview he has given mentions the word character including the one I have just watched, as he prepares for the game against CCM.

He tends to talk about the ‘good character’ or ‘great character’ they display; thankfully they don’t seem to have any bad characters in the squad – or he isn’t saying.

Sometimes he tells us they showed “real character”. I’m not sure what this latter one is, as the opposite is an “unreal” character and that doesn’t make sense.

I’ve noted that this character label seems to work whether you win, lose or draw which might be why it’s used so often. At the 80-something minute mark Simon Hill tells us the Reds in losing have shown great character – surprise, surprise.

And post match Bozza’s first comment is on their great character. Argh! Kosmina is vindicated and I’m losing more hair.

Occasionally it’s not all “great”. One should note that there has been some doubting the character of Pascal Bosschaart this past week but Vitislav Lavicka has been somewhat surprisingly quiet on the matter. Thanks Vit.

We also know the Reds had no “game plan” under Rini, or perhaps Rini just stuck to his preferred game plan that the players couldn’t follow regardless of their character.

Now Kossie has a new game plan that lets the players do what they do best and reflects their character and it’s been paying dividends (notwithstanding tonight’s loss to CCM). That’s what I’ve gleaned from the past few weeks’ interviews.

Last week Jim Magilton was asked how his first game plan differed from Durakovic’s game plan – it didn’t much. But he told us he was pleased with the character shown by all his players.

In interview after Perth’s last game Ian Ferguson was pleased with the character of his side too. We knew before the two team’s clash last night that there was bound to be a lot of ‘character’ on display and they were certain out with a ‘game plan’ too.

No doubt that Perth Glory won after “sticking to the game plan”, while Melbourne Victory “came with a game plan but didn’t stick to it.”

Unfortunately it’s not just commentators and coaches in pre and post match interviews. This character/game plan disease has rubbed off on the players too.

On Friday night Phoenix pulled off their first ever back-to-back away win and Manny Muscat scored his first ever A-League goal in 85 matches.

That’s something to celebrate and boast about you might think but in the post match interview when asked about his goal Manny initially replied with some banality about how the Nix had just been ‘sticking to the game plan.’ No, no, no Manny. Celebrate a little. Don’t fall for the standard line.

I’ll bet my remaining hair that the game plan on Herbert’s white board did not have a little triangle representation of Manny receiving a ball out wide with arrows indicating he should cut inside and a curved trajectory line where he should slot the ball wide of the diving keeper.

Tell us the truth Manny, how you hit a beauty and scored a ripper despite a game plan that assumed Ifill, Greenacre or perhaps Daniel were supposed to score the goals.

Now I realise I’ve digressed slightly to truth in sport where I just know I’m expecting too much. But never mind; Manny may not want to boast the truth of a great goal that wasn’t quite according to the game plan but at least we know Manny is a player with great character.