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Official South Melbourne Hellas thread 🔵⚪

One of the rumours is that Sinisa himself is happy to do away with the ofc travel and just be a locally based coach. If that was the case it would make sense. Some of the stuff that went on this yr is nuts, Sinisa leaving games in the 80th minute to go to the airport etc.

Few coaches would be up for the currenr day South schedule.
 
southmelb said:
One of the rumours is that Sinisa himself is happy to do away with the ofc travel and just be a locally based coach. If that was the case it would make sense. Some of the stuff that went on this yr is nuts, Sinisa leaving games in the 80th minute to go to the airport etc.

Few coaches would be up for the currenr day South schedule.
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So the man who has spoken openly more than once about his unbridled desire for professionalism, the man who was involved in the Filipino womens national team and who took to representing Australia on the national stage like a duck to water wants to give it up and stay home after one season?? I dont buy it mate.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
So the man who has spoken openly more than once about his unbridled desire for professionalism, the man who was involved in the Filipino womens national team and who took to representing Australia on the national stage like a duck to water wants to give it up and stay home after one season?? I dont buy it mate.
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Maybe the stuff that went on over there was a turnoff. Who knows. That said if it really was a problem they could just do split duties and have the assistant go over for the less important hubs.

At the end of the day the npl + championship pretty much makes it a full calender year.
 
southmelb said:
You could argue all the loses at home have been compromised in one way or another. The only 2 we went super strong in and still lost were the altona and gully games but that was still the fallout from the Sinisa sacking and return. Every other Lakeside defeat we've either fielded under 23s due to ofc or did what we did yesterday (over half the team out)

As a member its been frustrating going to Lakeside time and time again this season and seeing this. Now if we lose our next 2 games we are done at Lakeside until the Aus championship.
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That's correct about the majority of our home matches have been compromised in one way or another. Whether it be the OFC Pro League,. sacking of Sinisa, and now Australia Cup. It does prove to be problematic on how you promote home matches given we need to boost crowd and membership numbers.

I cannot remember a season that we have compromised our season in such a way over an extended period.
 
Back in Melbourne. Surprised this games not behind closed doors.

Expecting some sort of trouble. They won’t be well behaved, no chance they can’t keep their mouth shut.

Wonder what the turnout will be. Lot of people talking in GCs about showing up.
 
Wont be any trouble inside the ground.

Problem is pre and post game, suburban back streets and no real opposing entrances to stop people from either team crossing paths.

The last encounter was really weird, we won 3-0 and exited accorsingly, kept a lid on it outside the ground but we were weaving through Preston supporters the whole time, the message from the PA telling Preston supporters to wait 15 minutes was ignored. This was also a rainy Easter Saturday game so it was far from packed, will be a lot bigger on Wednesday.

Now we also know that they will either come to us or we will go back there in 2 weeks time. Thats even worse because under the fv banner so any misbehaviour will have serious ramifications.
 
We are on the eve of one of the biggest matches of the season.

Predicted Starting XI

Lopez
Lampard
Ramazani
Jankovic
Painter-Andrews
Retre
Pasquali
Giannakopoulos
Yoo
Uchida
Juach

Bench - Charlston, Mikkola, Cocks, Menelaou, Swibel, Nkwomo, Skapoulas, Lackay, Mesorouni

That is the strongest starting XI and bench we have had in a long time.

Our midfield had the week off to rest. This match will be won or lost in the middle of the park.

So much is riding on this match. Get through this and the players will not feel tired on Saturday. The positivity generated from potentially progressing to the semi finals will see the team enter the finals series buzzing.
 
SMFC1959 said:
We are on the eve of one of the biggest matches of the season.

Predicted Starting XI

Lopez
Lampard
Ramazani
Jankovic
Painter-Andrews
Retre
Pasquali
Giannakopoulos
Yoo
Uchida
Juach

Bench - Charlston, Mikkola, Cocks, Menelaou, Swibel, Nkwomo, Skapoulas, Lackay, Mesorouni

That is the strongest starting XI and bench we have had in a long time.

Our midfield had the week off to rest. This match will be won or lost in the middle of the park.

So much is riding on this match. Get through this and the players will not feel tired on Saturday. The positivity generated from potentially progressing to the semi finals will see the team enter the finals series buzzing.
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What i wouldnt give for a fit mikkola right about now!! Even more importantly Eliop even just on the bench and able to go on at death if need be...
 
SMFC1959 said:
We are on the eve of one of the biggest matches of the season.

Predicted Starting XI

Lopez
Lampard
Ramazani
Jankovic
Painter-Andrews
Retre
Pasquali
Giannakopoulos
Yoo
Uchida
Juach

Bench - Charlston, Mikkola, Cocks, Menelaou, Swibel, Nkwomo, Skapoulas, Lackay, Mesorouni

That is the strongest starting XI and bench we have had in a long time.

Our midfield had the week off to rest. This match will be won or lost in the middle of the park.

So much is riding on this match. Get through this and the players will not feel tired on Saturday. The positivity generated from potentially progressing to the semi finals will see the team enter the finals series buzzing.
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No excuses ... Its time to pay off for all the misery these past 4-5 seasons. I wont sleep tonight... tomorrow is going to be a loooooonnnnngggg day as well.
 
Hellenic_blue&white said:
What i wouldnt give for a fit mikkola right about now!! Even more importantly Eliop even just on the bench and able to go on at death if need be...
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I think we will leave everything on the park tomorrow. Not sure how much Sisi will manage to squeeze out of the money bags at Avondale (if the deal is still fluid) but I would assume he could get a pretty penny if he is an Australian cup semi or finalist.
 
I just hope our lads havent become less battle hardened from essentially having 2 weeks off. Keeping in mind we took the mickey the week before against City kids some of our guys havent been involved in a "real" match since Fremantle.
 
southmelb said:
I just hope our lads havent become less battle hardened from essentially having 2 weeks off. Keeping in mind we took the mickey the week before against City kids some of our guys havent been involved in a "real" match since Fremantle.
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No dice, they have played nearly 2 Aleague seasons worth of matches so far this year.....
 
southmelb said:
They have but you still want them sharp. Thats why i would have preffered we had a senior bench on the weekend and everyone got a decent 30 minutes in at least.

Im not convinced Lampard will return to the starting 11.
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I think he might and then throw on Cocks to run at tired legs... Lampard looked rusty on the weekend but after 15-20 mins settled into the match and seemed to be moving OK (despite an uncharacteristically weak shot) , I reckon he was subbed off just as load precaution.
 
Must admit Prestons speed and ball movement worries me, Cianci is quick, Bonada is quick, Tevere opens the game up for them.

When we smashed them in April and keeping in mind Bryce didnt play i just remember them being painfully slow all over the field. They are a different proposition now.
 
But we are not the same team either.

Look at the quality across the field for us. We’ve strengthened with Ramazani who is a massive addition in the backline, improved our midfield by adding Retre who can control the midfield, and also add Yoo and Juach who have delivered real quality in attack.

We’ve still got Cocks and Mikkola on the bench !

This is going to be a really even contest. It will come down to the basics - who converts their chances and makes the fewest errors.
 
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southmelb said:
Must admit Prestons speed and ball movement worries me, Cianci is quick, Bonada is quick, Tevere opens the game up for them.

When we smashed them in April and keeping in mind Bryce didnt play i just remember them being painfully slow all over the field. They are a different proposition now.
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Tever and Cianci have changed the way Preston attacks.. Boanda v Janvokic doesn't scare me.
 
I just wish we were more of a set piece threat. It was our biggest strength just 24 months ago and now its a horror show. I rememeber the 5-2 cup game there a couple years ago i think 4 of our 5 goals were set pieces.
 
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