There is no doubt Jeronimo has class. I think that is what makes the ‘dive’ all the more annoying to see for the majority of us who have railed against it. If it was a Sunday hack who fell over and simulated a major tumble we would all be saying ‘go home you mug’. The fact is we want to see ball play and class that players like Jeronimo can deliver and that is why it is doubly disappointing when he does such a thing that we DONT want to see from anyone, let alone potential stars.

Chowder, I think you are slightly optimistic about AU’s performance and chances for the year. Adelaide have had the advantage of starting the season much earlier than the other teams and are probably a month or more better off in terms of match fitness and preparation. Of the teams they have played, only Newcastle have been in form. WSW are just finding their feet, Wellington don’t travel very well, Victory are a bit of a rabble (and yet they beat AU). Au have yet to face the stiffer challenges of CCM, Roar and Perth who are clearly the three teams to beat in the comp. I recon, come season’s end, they will be hanging around mid-table assuming they all stay fit. If Vidosic goes missing they may even struggle with mid-table standing.

I accept your comments, Fuss, sure the ref could have got it wrong. But I’m staggered the match review couldnt see that a mistake had been made.

Agree 100% Nathan. Yellow to Sigmond, yellow to Jeronimo, free kick to Adelaide for the initial foul.

The crucial words here are, “If the ref thinks the foul also resulted in denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.” Blind freddy could see there was no goal scoring opportunity. The ball was running through to Patson and there was no way Jeronimo would have reached it. As there was no goal scoring opportunity, there should have been no red card at all.

I cant believe my eyes that anyone would defend Jeronimo’s apparent right to take a dive (accentuate the foul, as some politely say) if he has been touched. Imagine how utterly stupid the game would look if everyone who was fouled threw themselves to the ground like Jeronimo did. Do we want to see 20 or 30 incidents a match where players throw themselves to the floor two or three meters after the foul has been committed. Foul, maybe, and if a foul then a free kick, but Jeronimo should be warned or sanctioned for his simulated fall.

Among many things to like about the Wanderer’s game last night was the fact that in the last few minutes when they had the ball in attack they didnt head for the corner flag to waste time. They kept playing inside, pushing on goal and had faith in their football.

Bris may have been poor but Wanderer’s looked impressive with their ball movement, constant chasing and willingness to have a shot on goal when opportunity presented. The only thing they need to concern themselves with was their actual inability to score a second goal given so many chances. I hope the win adds many thousands of supporters to their next home game crowd.

There is no doubt Sigmond touched Jeronimo’s arm, but Jeronimo threw himself in the opposite direct to the contact, and two yards further on. It was a blatant dive and the guy is an out and out cheat and should have been booked for simulation. I hope Kossie rips shreds of him because it is not what we want to see.

We’ll just have to cop this gentle ribbing from the UK and take it on the chin. They don’t see the irony of saying on one hand, Heskey is rubbish, when they know on the other hand he played 62 times for England so he couldn’t have been all that bad after all.

Heskey’s goals here have proved one thing – if you give him a yard of space inside the six yard box he is going to score.

The fact that Melb stopped him getting a kick anywhere on the park but somehow managed to give him two kicks from six yards out was one of the major frustrations I had watching last nights game.

Griffo, as a general rule I like the home team to win as it keeps home fans coming back – with the exception of the team playing MVFC who I’d like to see win every week.

Bru for Finkler is a loss for Victory as Bru is not as mobile or creative and FInkler also has a great free kick/corner kick at his disposal. That will push Celeski forward more to cover for Finkler’s loss. Celeski’s is still working on match fitness and his passing last week was a bit off but he should be better for the run against Adelaide.

There’s much more I could say about Victory’s structure and personnel but let’s just say that they still have plenty of work to do in order to succeed with Ange’s high possession game. However, I hope MV come away with a win, or at least a point, as it would put some enthusiasm back into the Victory faithful that the team is moving in the right direction.

For those that dont believe in tactics their argument implies that you can put 11 players on the park, give them no instructions on where to go or what to do, and they will do just fine. Clearly this is a nonsense. I was watching MV closely last week and in simple terms, when they defended they set up in a 5-2-3 formation and as soon as they got the ball they switched to a 3-4-3 formation (and there were other variations at times), but it was clear as day that under different circumstances the players had different positioning and roles to play (you just have to stop ball watching occasionally and watch player movement instead and it’s usually not possible to see on TV because the camera is too focused on the ball). Of course the game is fluid, but there is structure to it as well. And while individual runs, shots, dubious penalties, etc may be what you remember as being the reason a team won or lost a game, it is the tactical set-up that probably kept the winning team in the game in the first place.

Thanks Griffo, looks like a heap of data there. Pity Guiherme isn’t playing this week, Some one is going to have to pick up a heap of work. Cheers, Philip

BTW, the ball actually hit the crossbar twice. Deflected off defender onto crossbar, rebound was headed by Rojas onto upright (or crossbar, cant be sure right now) and then that rebound kicked into goal by Rojas

Griffo, where did you get your stats on the passes made last week. I havent been able to find them anywhere. Cheers, Philip

Trojan, I dont like diving at all regardless of the team and I’ll call it as I see it. For what it’s worth i don’t think Berisha dived in the GF but I do think he and Broich regularly push the boundaries and have conned the ref on numerous occasions. Harry was the biggest whinger to wear Victory colours and yes, he dived. I also agree Flores has a habit of throwing himself a little too easily (like Berisha and Broich) and I don’t like it. I’m not sure Flores’ fall last week deserved a penalty but i do think there was contact. Contact can happen all over the field and isnt an automatic free kick or yelllow card if you fall, sometime it’s just play on and that is what I think should have happened in the Flores case.

In my opinion the goalkeeper who really set the standards at Victory was Mitch Langerak. Theo and Glakovic were/are great goalies and Theo was a MV favorite who set the initial standard for performance though he had the advantage of keeping goal behind MV’s best teams so far. Then we got Moss who never looked comfortable and didn’t really control his area at all. Enter Mitch and as an 18/19 year old he really owned the box. He would yell and direct traffic and make sure people knew what was going on, and that included yelling at Musky playing central defence. I believe that was what endeared him to Victory fans – he was in charge and he meant business and his age or (in)experience were totally put aside – and he was a good goalie as well. To compare that to Petkovic, who panicked every time the ball came across his goal from a corner or free, was like chalk and cheese.

Velaphi and Thomas may be ok goalies but neither of them command their area, marshal the defence and really stand up like they are in charge when they take the field. Let’s hope Coe is more positive and commanding when he takes the field because a strong goalkeeper gives the defenders an enormous amount of confidence.

If the player retires he is not drawing a wage so it definitely gives the club money to spend elsewhere. If he un-retired then his wage would go back on the payroll and he’d be part of the wages bill.

Melb still have one spot to fill so i guess they haven’t maxed out their cap yet. Don’t forget that Flores is the International marquee (replacing Kewell) and Thompson is the Aust marquee so neither of their wages are in the salary cap. This year they no longer have Hernandez who would have been the next highest paid player and they have not replaced him with anyone who would draw similar wages so they could still have some room to maneuver.

The herocamsters have both been on loosing sides so far so it looks like bad luck for the Jets in this match!

Yesterday they were still waiting for his clearance to come through apparently, but if the paperwork is sorted I can only think he would be a certain starter. He wasn’t brought in on a three year deal to act as back up to Thomas or Velaphi and he’s been training with the team this week so he knows what is expected.

I suspect Leijer will try and match up on Heskey wherever possible and in all aerial duels or at stoppages leaving Milligan free to clean up and distribute the ball.

I though the tackle on Sterjovski deserved a red when i saw it happen.

As for Flores, he may have dragged his leg a little to draw the foul, but I thought he did draw the trip and there was contact. In those circumstances I think the ref should say, ‘Flores, you weren’t attempting to play the ball and as such you were responsible for your own the trip up, no foul.” but he didn’t ‘dive’ either so no yellow card.

If Zadkovich and Flores are both on the referee’s watch list, he’ll have a hard time if Zadkovich tries to crunch Flores and Flores jumps out of the way and falls over. Which one will he book? Zad for the tackle or Flores for the dive? Roll on Friday night!

Ah, some common sense coming through. I thought the ref made a good call on the McBreen incident. For me, if McBreen had stood still and allowed Rose to run on goal unassisted I would have allowed play on as Rose clearly beat the off-side trap with his run. But, the moment McBreen joins the play and makes it a two man attack, CCM have achieved an advantage by McBreen starting in an offside position. That is what happened and McBreen was correctly ruled offside.

You are technically correct about Berisha also, although he’s not the only one. When the defence moves up and a forward lags behind and there is a turnover or quick change of play which results in the lagging forward being in a goal scoring position, then he has clearly gained an advantage but this is tricky to police and some would argue that the defenders need to be aware of his positioning and be ready to respond.

I’d like to see a forward just hang around ten yard outside of the penalty box, clearly in an “off-side position” but just preparing himself and waiting for the play to catch up with his positioning. His positioning would stop the goalie coming out to collect back-passes and change the direction of play, but would the forward get called for offside when his team attacked (assuming they didn’t pass to him until play had caught up)? Probably not and yet he was clearly having an impact (creating an advantage) by being in the off-side position. Such a tactic might create a rethink of what it means to “gain an advantage”.

Mid, you are right about Zadkovich. He’s going to break someones leg one day or send them home with a nasty gash. After a couple of bad tackles last week he might be watched a bit closer by the refs in coming weeks.

Griffo, there wasn’t a lot of switching play. Victory seemed to either attack down the right with Rojas until a shot or turnover, or attack down the left with Traore/Thompson until a shot or turnover, but they didn’t move the ball from left to right or vice versa. Flores and Finkler did the attacking through the middle when Melb chose that route usually fed with a direct ball by Milligan into the midfield. The jury is out on Finkler. I think he’s got talent but is perhaps finding the physical nature of the game a bit hard going at the moment. His free kicks are pretty darn good though. Flores didn’t seem to be match fit to me and he was having trouble chasing in the second half. I wasn’t surprised when he came off although the Fox commentators seemed surprised when I watched the replay.

Judging by recent matches I’d say this will be a battle with a lot of play on the left flanks for both teams. Jets will want to give the ball to Goodwin, who has tons of talent, and I’d expect him to cause Fochini at right back a lot of grief. Fochin had his best game last week with good coverage by Petar Franjic, and with Milligan in the centre, Melb played a five man back line when defending. I’d expect Victory to use the same structure this week.

At the same time, Melb will use Traore making attacking runs down their left and he’ll link up with Archie who these days is playing out wide to free up the centre for Flores and Finkler. I dont think Griffiths chases back enough so I expect the Jets right fullback Zadkovich/Kantarovsji to come under a lot of pressure.

Heskey’s fitness will get tested if he is asked to pressure the Melb defense and disrupt their play across the back line.

Jet’s have been a bogey team for Victory over the years and I’m looking forward to seeing how this match unfolds. Jets have been more consistent with their play overall and should start favorites. Victory will be watched to see if they take a few steps forward after some periods of quality play last week, or will they slip back to old habits still unsure of what they are trying to achieve. Time will tell.

Don’t know enough about Coe to offer a direct comment but obviously he’s not coming in on a three year deal to be back-up to Thomas or Velaphi. We can only assume then that Ange thinks/knows he can play with his feet and he’ll provide more confidence to the defense than the two keepers who had a chance but failed to impress in the first few weeks. I expect he’ll get a start at the first opportunity. Another piece in Ange’s MV jigsaw puzzle.