Have’nt heard anything but new owner can always appoint their own coach. Wonder if Pelligra is a fan of Popa and looking to going back to Perth? Story also going around that City may approach Popa if they do not continue with Viddy. Personally I’d like them to stay in house if they’re replacing Viddy and consider Dario Vidovic who’s done a great job with the girls this season

If City beat WU that will be three on the trot and I’ll start being a believer. That sets up what I think will be a very juicy Melbourne Derby (the big one) for the final and that could be anything.

Mark Boucher as keeper too is a very decent keeper and one I did’nt think of originally until I started looking up names. Mark Vermeulen the Zimbabwean seems to have had a hectic career. Charged with Arson and snet to jail for burning down cricket change rooms due to a dispute with Zimbabwean cricket officials I believe.

Seeing I’m a Mark myself, I checked out what you could do with the Mark XI and here’s my team

Mark Taylor Aus lh opener
Mark Richardson NZ lh opener
Mark Butcher Eng lh batsman lh mdm/off spin
Mark Waugh Aus rh batsman ra off spin
Mark Greatbatch NZ lh batsman la mdm pace
Mark Ramprakash Eng rh batsman
Mark Boucher SA Keeper
Mark Ealham Eng rh batsman rh mdm fast
Mark Craig NZ ra off spin and rh batsman
Mark Gillespie NZ ra fast mdm
Mark Wood Eng ra fast

Emergencies
Mark Burgess NZ rh batsman ra off spin
Mark Dekker Zim la mdm
Mark Stoneman Eng lh opening bat
Mark Vermeulen Zim rh batsman
Mark Priest NZ lh slow orthodox

Not a bad batting lineup and would bat very deep as both Ealham and Craig were all rounders, Burgess could conceivably provide better bowling than Craig though but worse batting and Ealham is better bowling average than both but worse batting. I’m not sure they could bowl a team out quickly only Wood the really recognised bowler

Why is Victoria not bidding? Probably because they’re $100b in debt, had to ask the feds to pay their GST component early to pay the interest nil and a few months ago had to hand back the Commonwealth Games.
But nah, stupid Vics will vote in ALP again because, hey look down here, we’re a progressive state.

You know what, this is another article about the problems of A-Leagues, we hardly see that on the AFL part of the Roar but seems to be a focus of the football section. Instead how about we start focusing on the clubs, as they do in the AFL area, and the league can take care of itself.

There’s plenty of stories here; such as WSW continuing to fail despite purportedly a big club, City’s massive fall from last few years and their inconsistency problems, Aloisi’s coaching of WU, PG’s parlous state and what can be done there, NJ continuing non-ownership, Sydney’s renewal with Ufuk installed, and Popa’s improvement with Victory etc etc. No one wants to know about the league, they want to know about their own clubs and what the ‘experts’ think and to debate their opinions.

Gee would’nt you think you’d do your homework before you commented and make yourself look like a dill. Jack Ross is also out now, 8 weeks with fractured foot, and whilst not guaranteed in the 22 is on the verge their and has been handy this year.

Tunisia is actually a good side, regularly competing high up in Africa. Ranked 41 in FIFA standing whilst New Zealand is 103. Sort of shows why Australia needed to leave Oceania group if the highest is ranked 103.

I think you nailed it on the head, the reduced pre-season after playing through to the Grand Final is a big part of it. It’s not only that they get reduced time, it also gives less time for those playing injured during the finals to get in to a surgeon and have an operation and then recover and then pre-season. Another thing affecting performance is that a significant amount of the older players you need to win a grand final decide either that it’s the perfect time to retire, David Astbury from Richmond comes to mind who retired perhaps a year or two early in 2020, or that their older bodies just can’t pick up after such a long season to the grand final, Pendlebury and Sidebottom seem to indicate this at this stage. There is of course no solution to this and it’s just something that a premier and indeed the runners-up have to negotiate.

And on the other side of the University was the old Melbourne City headquarters with two very good pitches and a decent sports performance centre which was paid by City. I understand that it’s now been bulldozed. I really don’t understand the way soccer is run. It’s like a whole lot of morons exist within FA

Horne-Francis is so far mirroring Nathan Buckley’s career. Buckley was always booed because primarily because he went from what he saw as a basket-case in Brisbane to what he thought was going to be grand-final winners in Collingwood. Did’nt eventuate and the kicker being Brisbane became a dynasty, so he’s always thought of as a bit of a dunce with that move. I would be inclined to see the same happening with Horne-Francis, it would be peak AFL if North pull off a flag over his career and Port continue to be almost thereabouts. But that’s why he will be booed and it’s not an embarrassment, it is understandable as no one likes a guy who deserts as soon as it looks like times might be tough. Horne-Francis made his decision, decisions have consequences, those consequences are you live with and you deal with those as best you can.

What I can’t understand is why can’t the socceroos share the fields with the Matildas at La Trobe University in Melbourne. Can someone explain to me why this can’t be done? Is it because it’s in Melbourne and not Sydney? Is it because the socceroos or the matildas have to be so prestigiuous that they have to have their own ground despite only meeting up and training a few weeks each year? I’m genuinely puzzled by this.

Understand that Nisbet has signed or is close to signing with City for next year and also same with Kai Trewin. SS can you confirm?
Also wonder if Delianov comes back to City where he played youth. Not sure if Young will be there agin next year or if they start using Beach. Beach has gone off with the Olyroos but we have’nt seen him this year so not sure if Beach or Delianov is the better keeper.

You’re right we have’nt had enough first round picks over the last six years since 2017 to get these stars under 24 years apart from Gibcus who is now injured again. It was a mistake to get Hopper and lose Draft picks for him. Taranto more a 50:50 decision. Yes there’s some kids in the twos but I would say a good two thirds of them won’t make it as 10 year players. We have a good Draft hand this year I understand one first rounder, two second rounders, three third and three fourths and that gives you a deal to play with especially for Academy and Father-sons to get an even better hand. So that’s the well you have to go back to and cop a few years in the wilderness. Meanwhile play as well as you can with what you have. Blood kids but put them with veterans who can show them the way. Case in point was Dow, who looked pretty awful against Gold Coast but much better against Carlton.

Antonis has started in a couple of games. Last one was started against Perth Glory and we got beat 4-2.
Vidmar is using two DMs at the moment in Jeggo and Ugarkovic. Antonis is a little more attacking and in that position you’re going to take Arslan starting. Last two games Vidmar has been then replacing either Ugar or Jeggo with Antonis and Arslan with Lopane in mid-field which has ben working fine.

5 goals for the season of 18 games for Terry. Stoked for him and he’s become very useful off the bench. Stoked also for Viddy, he’s come for some criticism this year because of City’s indifferent form, however I feel a lot of this is because of an unsettled side with injury and players leaving and coming in, and arslan’s suspension affecting it. Got a nice run of home games coming up so hopefully can make in-roads in the six and get to finals and then it’s anyone’s game

I understand Brimmer is already signed. Speculation is that MacLaren is going as well for mega bucks which City is not prepared to provide on this season’s output and he is close to taking it up as a last ‘pay’ day for him and his family. I doubt they’d take both Fornaroli and Maclaren. Brattan I have’nt heard anything about. Woud is signed he’s a goalkeeper on loan from another Japanese side to Ventforet Kofu and we saw him play in the AFC against City. He was decent.

So you have now espoused your bias to the league so we can therefore take your negative comments as part of that bias and hence of minimal value. I think SS is taking a complex problem with the Derby walk-on and trying to make it simple by blaming Glover. If you want to go looking for blame then why not the APL for having the grand final in Sydney which was the catalyst behind the angst in the stands. We also have to have a look at the particular thrower of the bucket who is a known miscreant and had been previously banned from MV games, the issue here is why was he able to get through security to the game. My son’s mate was one of those who walked onto the ground. His explanation all the other MV supporters were on there why not me. Monkey see monkey do.

I’m a bit more optimistic. I think we saw a bit more resilience in the Derby. I think Leckie, Jakolis, Souprayen will have been better for the run after coming back from injury and Tilio and Jeggo from playing after really not playing a lot of competitive games for a while. I’d like to see Antonis start in the middle replacing Ugarkovic, Jakolis and Tilio on the wings, Lecks as AM. Galloway is injured so the new Chilean guy Fernandez will probably start. If him or Talbot are not working out might be time to consider 3 CBS.

Agree with this, the Australian cricket teams I most enjoyed supporting were those in the late 1970s/early 1980s which were decimated by players playing WSC and going to South Africa. Wins were few and hard to come by and the players left who played, whilst not champions, seemed to be more heroic by being the next level down. And it was good to see a changing of names/faces in the side rather than the same old names. The current cricket team and for many years before has seemed to be a closed shop; despite poor form some players are carried until eventually number of matches they play sees them eke out a century or a good bowling return, and then they can get carried for another year or two until the same happens ad nauseum. added to the fact that the team(s) quite often represents intakes from one specific state in Australia, it’s difficult for me to embrace that team as representative of me. That’s one of the reasons why I was supporting both Pakistan and the Windies, although I’ve always more or less supported the underdog.

Would not be surprised Stevo if he ends up at Melbourne City as a coach much likely Diamante is now

I forgot about that freekick. Yeah that was very poor too, I thought if you had Fornaroli or Goodwin on one of them should have taken that and made a better fist of it. I notice that the Foxsports team have given him a 7 which was the highest rating of all the Australians. So obviously i know nothing

I was a little disappointed with McGree which no one is talking about. That ball from Yengi which ended up being a dubious penalty was put on a platter for McGree to goal and was a woeful shot. He also had a number of other chances near the box where he seemed to lose the ball or over-run it or lose it under his feet. Probably because he has been out injured but you have to put players on the park who are playing regularly.
I think both full backs were poor but in the sense that they were not taking on players but rather recycling just about every ball played to them. That’s probably Arnold’s instructions though so it could be just the way they were told to play, who really knows because Arnie can make a player look poor just from his game play.

City are interested. As I said above Reis and Good and Hall come off contract at end of season. Only CB we will have signed up so far is Souprayen. I can’t see Hall getting another contract as has not been used. Good maybe but may be looking for that one last chance overseas. Reis is pretty much washed up and can’t see him being offered another contract as a Visa. City already have three Visas signed up for next season in Arslan, Sakhi, and Souprayen. Natel is likely to return to Corinthians when loan is up. Of course they could sign a second Visa CB but I’m thinking they might like the way Natta can play with the ball and Souprayen provides the height that Natta lacks.

There is some talk City will release Natel from his loan and pick up Tilio to replace. I’m not convinced and think it’s just rumours