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Official South Melbourne Hellas thread 🔵⚪

southmelb said:
We could have scored 8 at least. They themselves probably should have got 2. We got absolutely torched on a few counters from our own set pieces and you could see they have the raw speed to trouble us, but we are far technically superior and stronger and like South Island last week they can be easily torn apart at the back. Will be a very difficult game against them in Honiara shortly.

Im gonna say Mikkola played his best game for the club tonight since his early days back in 2022 until Esteban watered him down.

Swibel was average again up top, but the real concern is that you can only assume Siki is being forced to play Messourouni, the kid is dead set terrible and literally feels like we are a player short. Im surprised we didnt see Singh.

The usual suspects were great as always and Cocks with another good cameo off the bench.

You would think something similar to tonight will be our team on Saturday night.

A big F U to everyone involved in this matchday for making it an absolute chore being allowed up into the grandstand even though it was empty. Good support for the Soloman kings, not as much as what they had the previous match they played, thought ths crowd in general would have been bigger.

We need 1,000+ against Bentleigh on Saturday.
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Swibel did have 2 goals disallowed for offside, but I know what you mean - he's starting to frustrate me a little too. We need another striker to help with converting all these opportunities we are creating. This is where Aguek would have made an immediate difference.

Hardly anyone sat in their allocated seating last night in the grandstand. Not sure why they were so stringent on checking tickets on so many occasions.

You're right on Saturday's probably starting XI. Given half the team only played 65 minutes and the other half played about 30 minutes when they came on, the team should have sufficient time to recover in time for Saturday's match against Bentleigh. My only concerns are Swibel with the whack he copped from the keeper and whether he has any concussion, as well as Bonada who has run non-stop for 2 matches and may need a break this week.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Thought the keeper was hard done by until I watched the replay last night.. Grub act, straight red.... totally understand why the ref took .7 of a second to decide after VAR... They'll suffer for it during our next match their keeper was their best player...
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Once you watch it on replay, its a terrible act by the Solomon Kings goalkeeper. Easy decision for the referee to pull out the red card. He was Solomon Kings' best player to that point in the match.
 
SMFC1959 said:
Swibel did have 2 goals disallowed for offside, but I know what you mean - he's starting to frustrate me a little too. We need another striker to help with converting all these opportunities we are creating. This is where Aguek would have made an immediate difference.

Hardly anyone sat in their allocated seating last night in the grandstand. Not sure why they were so stringent on checking tickets on so many occasions.

You're right on Saturday's probably starting XI. Given half the team only played 65 minutes and the other half played about 30 minutes when they came on, the team should have sufficient time to recover in time for Saturday's match against Bentleigh. My only concerns are Swibel with the whack he copped from the keeper and whether he has any concussion, as well as Bonada who has run non-stop for 2 matches and may need a break this week.
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Swibel is OK, at least thats what he said after the match.. just a whack to the head, no concussion, he "milked it abit" Bonada spent the 15-20 mins after the team went into teh sheds at the end of the match running around the pitch playing kick to kick with a couple of young fans... he's good to go on Saturday. How can you not love the mad bastard?
 
The remaining fixtures until the end of the fifth hub in Fiji, including NPL Victoria matches:

1772670441533.png

We cannot manage both the OFC Pro League and NPL Victoria competitions together during the months of March and April. I think we will need to prioritise one of the two last hubs. My advice would be go out to the fourth hub in Honiara and win both matches (as well as the catch up match against Tahiti United), and then back off from the last Fiji hub by sending over the weakest squad possible and focus on the NPL Victoria competition. During the fifth hub in Fiji, we face Preston and Oakleigh in the NPL Victoria competition, which will require our strongest line ups to be competitive.

In the fifth hub with our weakest squad, we'll likely lose to Auckland, but we should be strong enough to defeat Bula and PNG Hekari. The aim is to finish second at least, and then we focus on the finals leaders group where we can make up any points over Auckland if required. There is no tangible benefit in finishing top.
 
SMFC1959 said:
The remaining fixtures until the end of the fifth hub in Fiji, including NPL Victoria matches:

View attachment 5771

We cannot manage both the OFC Pro League and NPL Victoria competitions together during the months of March and April. I think we will need to prioritise one of the two last hubs. My advice would be go out to the fourth hub in Honiara and win both matches (as well as the catch up match against Tahiti United), and then back off from the last Fiji hub by sending over the weakest squad possible and focus on the NPL Victoria competition. During the fifth hub in Fiji, we face Preston and Oakleigh in the NPL Victoria competition, which will require our strongest line ups to be competitive.

In the fifth hub with our weakest squad, we'll likely lose to Auckland, but we should be strong enough to defeat Bula and PNG Hekari. The aim is to finish second at least, and then we focus on the finals leaders group where we can make up any points over Auckland if required. There is no tangible benefit in finishing top.
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When do Dockerty Cup rounds start?
 
SMFC1959 said:
Exactly. If we claim the 3 points off Bentleigh and other favourable results could even see us top of the NPL Victoria ladder after 4 rounds.
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Im not too fussed with ladder positions so early in the season but if we can win it takes us to 9 points. Last season we were on 9 points at the halfway mark of the season!

Im just thinking could our bums go to Honiara and grind out a win? The idea of just losing to gully and thunder doesnt sit well with me considering what comes after that. With our GD we are effectively 4 games ahead of 4th place in the OFC, if the rumour is true that we will get Tahiti here in Melbourne we probably only need 2 wins.
 
southmelb said:
Im not too fussed with ladder positions so early in the season but if we can win it takes us to 9 points. Last season we were on 9 points at the halfway mark of the season!

Im just thinking could our bums go to Honiara and grind out a win? The idea of just losing to gully and thunder doesnt sit well with me considering what comes after that. With our GD we are effectively 4 games ahead of 4th place in the OFC, if the rumour is true that we will get Tahiti here in Melbourne we probably only need 2 wins.
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That doesnt make sens though, why would the make Tahiti travel again unnecessarily for one match when the are already going to Solomons', Fiji and the NZ... its NOT fair on them.
 
We cant go to both remaining OFC Pro League hubs with our best squads and balance NPL Victoria commitments. We'll need to sacrifice one of the hubs. If we choose to sacrifice the Honiara hub, then we go full strength to the final Suva hub but are exposed in the Preston and Oakleigh matches.

Given its Vanuatu United and Solomon Kings in next week's Honiara hub, we should hold back 5-6 first starting XI players in Melbourne. Its the only way to balance this hub and the Gully/Thunder matches. Half/Half squad approach can be risky but we may need to go with this approach over the next 2 weeks in order to pick up 6 points in Honiara and at least 4 points in the NPL.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
That doesnt make sens though, why would the make Tahiti travel again unnecessarily for one match when the are already going to Solomons', Fiji and the NZ... its NOT fair on them.
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Tahiti United only has the OFC Pro League to focus on as opposed to us. For them to come back to Melbourne would be less onerous.

However, I think the Tahiti United catch up match will likely be played in one of the remaining hubs.
 
SMFC1959 said:
We cant go to both remaining OFC Pro League hubs with our best squads and balance NPL Victoria commitments. We'll need to sacrifice one of the hubs. If we choose to sacrifice the Honiara hub, then we go full strength to the final Suva hub but are exposed in the Preston and Oakleigh matches.

Given its Vanuatu United and Solomon Kings in next week's Honiara hub, we should hold back 5-6 first starting XI players in Melbourne. Its the only way to balance this hub and the Gully/Thunder matches. Half/Half squad approach can be risky but we may need to go with this approach over the next 2 weeks in order to pick up 6 points in Honiara and at least 4 points in the NPL.
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I dont wanna lose to Preston and Oaks thats for sure...
 
This is the squad I would send to Honiara to take on Vanuatu United and Solomon Kings:

Charlston
Illia Shalamanov-Trenkov
Inglese
Jankovic
Painter-Andrews
Menelaou
Leech
Pope
Lackay
Mesorouni
Singh
Bonada
Dovison
Cocks

I would retain the following players in Melbourne to take on Gully and Thunder:

Lopez
Under 23s goalkeeper
Eliopoulos
Lampard
O'Sullivan
Gorr-Burchmore
Skapoulas
Pasquali
Giannakopoulos
Swibel
Uchida
Mikkola
Papadimitriou


To Honiara you send 4 Staring XI players (including decent subs like Leech, Menelaou, Inglese), and 8 Starting XI players in Melbourne with a blend of youth players on the bench. It is hardly perfect, and you could surmise different combinations and scenarios, but we are going to very stretched over the next 2 weeks.
 
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