Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

Sign Up Now!

Official South Melbourne Hellas thread 🔵⚪

I still remain positive that the U23s can get a result against CS George Cross, or a draw at the very least. They will be physical and try to intimidate the young players, but the U23s have shown decent patches against the likes of Heidelberg and Oakleigh. We just need to get a goal early and then hold them out. It would have been much better if we had the likes of Lackay, O'Sullivan, Pope, Coveny, and Singh available for this match.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Yeah I dont think we will get any assistance from FV.. Season is just thrown away now... Totally disregarded all week to week rusted on fans to pursue this dash for cash... lets see what our excuse for tanking the season is next year.
Click to expand...
Loving the optimism....Teething.. both were easily doable this year with a few more signings... thats what i expect as a minimum for next season.
 
Hellenic_blue&white said:
Loving the optimism....Teething.. both were easily doable this year with a few more signings... thats what i expect as a minimum for next season.
Click to expand...
We have two full squads of players sitting in a hotel room in Acapulco cliff diving with Elvis to handle two more matches.... Weve already reached our minimum for next season.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
We have two full squads of players sitting in a hotel room in Acapulco cliff diving with Elvis to handle two more matches.... Weve already reached our minimum for next season.
Click to expand...
Quality not quantity my friend is whats needed.. not huge squad but quality to handle NPL thats what the difference was... remember its 12 months football and you will need depth for championship also not just NPL.
 
Hellenic_blue&white said:
Quality not quantity my friend is whats needed.. not huge squad but quality to handle NPL thats what the difference was... remember its 12 months football and you will need depth for championship also not just NPL.
Click to expand...
Lets hope some more board members have relatives looking for a contract then? :cool: :cool:
 
Last edited:
I am going to give the SMFC Football Department the benefit of the doubt. Its their first year juggling so many competitions, and there was bound to be things they get right and wrong.

The thing that we have learned is that they needed to sign 5 better quality players, and rely far less on the U23s. The player signings of Singh and Shalamanov-Trenkov were utter failures. I believe the added reliance on signing younger players such as Coveny and Lackay was a risky move and upon reflection should have been avoided.

We are all experts after the event, so if the SMFC Football Department is reading this post, then I would suggest the following changes for the 2027 season:
  • Do not play NPL Victoria matches with a full U20s/U23s composite team. Yes it may be great experience for the young players, but we are dropping valuable competition points unnecessarily.
  • Sign an additional 5 quality players that can share the workload between OFC Pro League, Dockerty Cup, NPL Victoria, Australia Cup, Australian Championship.
  • Designating 3-5 players that will effectively focus only on OFC Pro League, and a similar arrangement of 3-5 players focusing on NPL Victoria and Dockerty Cup fixtures. In that way, you avoid playing U20s/U23s teams that are guaranteed to lose, and you have dedicated resources for both domestic and international competitions. It also ensures match time for players.
  • The depth of quality in the team cannot be 15-16 players and then its a dramatic drop off with kids. We require a strong squad of 18-19 players who can be rotated across all competitions. There is plenty of football to be played to justify that size of squad. Plus you can make 5 substitutions that means 16 players can get match time in any fixture.
  • Liaise with Football Victoria to seek fixture relief or try to move fixtures around to provide sufficient space to avoid playing full U20s/U23s starting lineups.
 
SMFC1959 said:
I am going to give the SMFC Football Department the benefit of the doubt. Its their first year juggling so many competitions, and there was bound to be things they get right and incorrect.

The thing that we have learned is that they needed to sign 5 better quality players, and rely far less on the U23s. The player signings of Singh and Shalamanov-Trenkov were utterly failures. I believe the added reliance on signing younger players such as Coveny and Lackay was a risky move and upon reflection, should have been avoided.

We are all experts after the event, so if the Football Department is reading this post, then I would suggest the following changes to the 2027 season:
  • Do not play NPL Victoria matches with a full U20s/U23s composite team. Yes it may be great experience for the young players, but we are dropping valuable competition points unnecessarily.
  • Sign an additional 5 quality players that can share the workload between OFC Pro League, Dockerty Cup, NPL Victoria, Australia Cup, Australian Championship.
  • Designating 3-5 players that will effectively focus only on OFC Pro League, and a similar arrangement of 3-5 players focusing on NPL Victoria and Dockerty Cup fixtures. In that way, you avoid playing U20s/U23s teams that are guaranteed to lose, and you have dedicated resources for both domestic and international competitions.
  • The depth of quality in the team cannot be 15-16 players and then its a dramatic drop off with kids. We require a strong squad of 18-19 players who can be rotated across all competitions. There is plenty of football to be played to justify that size of squad. Plus you can make 5 substitutions that means 16 players can get match time in any fixture.
  • Liaise with Football Victoria to seek fixture relief or work with Football Victoria in order to move fixtures around to provide sufficient space to avoid playing full U20s/U23s starting lineups.
Click to expand...
Absolutely superb post.. Im sorry I agree with you and think the football department and board have done a tremendous job this season, and last, bouncing us back from the brink of disaster. I applaud both the blooding of our own youth as well as giving younger outside talent a chance to play senior minutes... I think the "experiment" may yet prove successful...

I just can't help the nagging "Hellatzi" supporter bubbling out to the surface sometimes.. Its in the DNA. ;)
 
In terms of the upcoming transfer window in late June, we should be looking at signing the best players from the OFC Pro League at a minimum. They will be fit and match hardened. Plus we can try and possibly hold on to them for the Australian Championship later in the year as well. This allows us to identify recruitment pathways from the Oceania Confederation, add value to our association with the region, and develop their players which in turn helps the region. Its a win win situation.
 
SMFC1959 said:
In terms of the upcoming transfer window in late June, we should be looking at signing the best players from the OFC Pro League at a minimum. They will be fit and match hardened. Plus we can try and possibly hold on to them for the Australian Championship later in the year as well. This allows us to identify recruitment pathways from the Oceania Confederation, add value to our association with the region, and develop their players which in turn helps the region. Its a win win situation.
Click to expand...
we already have two visa players...
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
I applaud both the blooding of our own youth as well as giving younger outside talent a chance to play senior minutes... I think the "experiment" may yet prove successful...
Click to expand...
We have seen the young keeper Van Riet and outfield players such as O'Sullivan, Papadimitriou, Saristavros, Angelatos brothers all make positive contributions. There is definitely a role for these kids to play next year. My only thinking is that it should be more controlled and with senior players around them to better support them.
 
To overcome visa issues, we should look at Aussies playing in the OFC Pro League that have performed well and would add value to the squad.
 
southmelb said:
Singh out, Feutz in if we cant get Manny back. In fact Feutz and Manny together would be ideal.

CB, Mid, 1-2 forwards
Click to expand...
Absolutely spot on. We need a minimum of 3-4 signings. We need to make sure we have the depth and quality to go on an extended run to finish at least third on the NPL Victoria ladder.

Swapping Feutz in to replace Singh would be a dramatic improvement in our forward line fire power. Feutz is a similar player to Lavale, so that would make a great deal of sense.
 
One of things the club should have done is looked to sign the best 22 and under year old around Victoria to put on the ressie roster. At the same time the club also let go 2 perfectly good 20 year old in spink and khaddour who would have been perfect players for the u23 squad. I don't know their circumstances on why they left but being under 23 we could have had them in the ressies roster. Preston for example have Peios on the u23 list.

Van riet, osullivan papadimitriou dovison skapoulas saristavros all have showed they're good enough senior members but the drop off in the next tier with the agelatos etc is too big to fill a senior side.

We should look to sign lofthouse and acton to replace Singh and trenkov mourdaktis from auckland would be good defensive depth also. Javi is getting older so if he retired then Acton could take the reigns next season. Sprinkle in manny and you've got a winning team.
 
Spink and Khaddour would be in Auckland now if we still had them.

Spink 100% should have been retained.

Mourdakoutis would be good, i mean whats he gonna do after the ofc? Same goes for Acton and Lofthouse.

Problem is these guys will probably want to be starting 11 players week in week out and thats not going to happen.

Where as a Manny or Feutz drops Swibel to the bench straight away.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top