Melbourne City crashed out of the A-League finals in a fashion befitting their underwhelming season, but not in the manner expected.
Editor’s note: This piece was written just prior to Joyce’s departure from Melbourne City. The headline has been modified to reflect this, but the body of the piece has been preserved to retain the author’s original voice.
Adelaide United stole the headlines courtesy of Ben Halloran’s late goal in extra time, but it was goalkeeper Paul Izzo’s brilliance at the other end which denied City the opportunity to travel to Perth for Friday’s semi-final.
City – so often characterised by a reactive, ponderous game style under maligned coach Warren Joyce – contributed fittingly to a thrilling finals contest.
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Sure, it wasn’t the open, fluid attacking style we saw the week prior – when Joyce’s boys thrashed fellow finalists Wellington Phoenix 5-0 – but it was certainly a more adventurous performance than many may have expected away from home in a cut-throat elimination final.
But was it enough to save Joyce’s job?
If the fans have their way, the answer will be a resounding ‘no’.
But as far as the club hierarchy seems to be concerned, close enough is almost certainly good enough.
This season, Joyce alienated his best and most reliable performer, but in doing so, established a clear and authoritative regime in Bundoora.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
The mercurial talents of Bruno Fornaroli would have made a crucial difference in the finals, but Joyce will feel that was a price worth paying to rid himself of a player he did not believe would buy into the culture he has worked so hard to establish.
The problem is that said culture is so devoid of personality and flair that it’s a wonder anyone still bothers to turn up.
Joyce’s teams work hard, but without the results to vindicate all that hard work, what’s the point?
In all seriousness, how many Melbourne City games from this season stand out in anyone’s memory?
The demolition of the Phoenix and a 4-3 thriller against Western Sydney are the obvious candidates for pure entertainment, while an early-season 3-0 win over battlers Newcastle demonstrated early promise.
The frustration for fans is that the high notes actually indicate that there is a quality team the coach is doing an excellent job of hiding.
(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Maybe there’s a good coach in there somewhere.
Joyce delivers on his mandate of providing consistent and quality opportunities to promising young Australian (and sometimes foreign) footballers.
Daniel Arzani remains the stand-out, but this season has seen solid improvement from the likes of Riley McGree, Nathaniel Atkinson and Ramy Najjarine.
Despite this, City has to make a decision about the sort of club they want to be at some point.
Will they continue to plod along as the competition’s nearly men? Or unleash their untapped potential on the rest of the competition?
Joyce does not seem overly keen on saturating his team with star power. Indeed, the majority of the foreign and marquee spots in his squads are often taken up by defenders.
Admittedly, Ritchie De Laet and Bart Schenkeveld are the sort of players that almost every other Aussie club would jump at the opportunity to sign.
(AAP Image/Daniel Pockett)
But the attacking signings – with the exception of Fornaroli – have been much more miss than hit.
Florin Berenguer failed to score a goal in his 18 appearances, and while Shayon Harrison arrived with a big reputation on loan from Tottenham, he is unlikely to be a long-term solution for the club – nor has he shown the consistency required to make a difference if the team is serious about turning from perennial finalists to premiers or even champions.
The club will hope a fit Jamie Maclaren will solve these woes, but Joyce has done little to convince anyone that he is the man to deliver more silverware to a club desperate to join the winner’s circle and make an impact in Asia.
It’s bizarre then that Joyce seems safe.
There is almost something to be respected about the club’s patience and willingness to support its head coach.
But surely even City’s patience must run thin sooner rather than later if they are serious about fulfilling the sizeable ambition flaunted when the City Football Group traded the red and white of Melbourne Heart to sky blue.
con
Guest
The only thing the city football group is interested in in finding young talent to bring back to the mother land U K and make MONEY ,they are not interested in fans, championships,or trophies they don't money like they have made in 20 million for Arron Moey plus more for D AZANI ,they are here to make money and poach talent from our shores . They have no mongrel in them and when they did have ,they got rid of him [fonarelli ] with him they may have given the title a massive shake but they are not interested, its like watching a team at training or playing friendly games ,
Mama
Guest
Dominic Bossi wrote in the Age/Sydney Herald that football received less Govt pledges than AFL. Because he was writing in the Owners newspaper that has the NRL TV rights he of course didn't mention NRL which has also received pledges to fund a Fijian RL team (can u believe it) in NSW Cup???? But the AFL has contributed $$$$$m to ground upgrades (SCG, Gabba, Adelaide, Perth etc) and football has contributed zero $$ to rectangular ground upgrades. Zero. And lets not forget the $45m that football was Govt granted to run an utterly fruitless bid for the World Cup that proabably went in the pockets of some banana republic football exec somewhere.
David V
Guest
Melbourne Victory got it right from the start in terms of drawing in fans even with a poor first season on the field. They are one of if not the best-run clubs in the country and have with only a few seasons' exception been pretty consistent in challenging on the park as well.
Nemesis
Guest
Victory had first mover advantage, for sure. They were spectacularly unsuccessful in the first season of ALeague. I'd need to check but I'm sure, in that first season, MVFC had a season that was more unsuccessful than any season in City's miserable existence. Yet, fans kept turning up to Olympic Park. Even the final home match that season - 2nd bottom MVFC vs bottom New Zealand Knights pulled a crowd of 10.1k, which is more than City manages in 2019 with all those billions of dollars oil money behind the club.
PB
Guest
Er, who did City beat 5-0? Not the Phoenix. It was some non-finalist.
Melange
Guest
From Brenton Speed on Joyce leaving... “Young players not getting an opportunity. Substitutions were during the Joyce era were perplexing. He brought very little the A-League, he wasn’t great media talent either, so happy to say goodbye.” Could tweak that a little. .. “Young commentators not getting an opportunity. Commentary during the Robbie Slater era was perplexing. He brought very little the A-League, he wasn’t great media talent either, so happy to say goodbye.” A quote I'd love to read one day!
Fadida
Roar Rookie
I tend to agree, but the idea has been floated on this site as a mitigating factor. For me there's no excuses. He may be a good youth coach he has no tactical acumen at all
Onside
Guest
I am a Brisbane Roar supporter but want to see a very competitive Melbourne City. I wonder if the club will show a more aggressive edge once the salary cap is either increased or abandoned. Melbourne City really are a sleeping giant.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
The ‘identity’ argument is somewhat spurious. Victory represents what?? Being the first Melbourne team in the HAL? Yes. Being successful? Yes. A particular region???? What Heart/City have failed to deliver in the mens team is on field success. That’s what drives interest, membership and attendance. It’s a simple formula.
Nephilim
Roar Rookie
I don't think any coach would except not being able to select his team, that's crazy talk.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
If you adopt that approach then Melbourne Victory doesn't stand for anything either, just momentum due to earlier establishment.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Money spent on a good coach and a couple of big name players delivering a good season would generate an identity pretty swiftly.
Griffo
Roar Guru
That’s progress :-p
Nick Symonds
Guest
The single biggest problem for Melbourne City is it's complete and utter lack of identity and no coach will ever change that. This will be further exacerbated once Western United enter next season. Melbourne has a market of only 5 million people with 27 professional sports teams along with the Formula 1, Australian Open, the Melbourne Cup, MotoGP and Sandown. When Melbourne City only have a small fan base to start with any movement of fans across to Western United will have an impact. I'm not sure about their logo, but at least Western United have a clear geographic identity. As for the logo itself it looks to me like an upside down Melbourne Heart logo. - NEW LOGO OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/revealed-does-this-logo-inspire-you-524803 - I think the Western Service Crew logo looks better myself: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156620298614442&set=g.2221163838102042&type=1&theater&ifg=1
Fadida
Roar Rookie
Phil Stubbins appointed. Walmsley his assistant
Fadida
Roar Rookie
He gets a tough run because he is a poor football coach, not because he is British. Being British is reflected in his style of football though
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
What's the betting that City approach Marco once Adelaide have won the title?
Franko
Guest
Looks like Adelaide have appointed Gertjan Verbeek. Hard to tell CV to CV if he is any better than Kurz but I suspect he will be given a youth first remit. A very experienced manager in Holland and Germany, we'll see.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
The re-build commences!!!
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Wenger next?