Victory in Melbourne 

In his latest diatribe for the Herald Sun, Eddie McGuire whilst taking aim at every football team in Melbourne that don’t play AFL makes the comment in reference to the Melbourne Storm that:

Its one remaining premiership trophy can be put into a cabinet at its purpose-built stadium, referred to alternately as the “Rectangular stadium”, “the Bubble” or “AAMI stadium”, but more than likely “the White Elephant. This new stadium will exist for either no Melbourne Storm or one that is a shadow of its former self, one barely established soccer team and a rugby union and soccer team that haven’t played a game yet. Most would be flat-out filling a phone box far, much less this magnificent stadium.

I would like to point out to Mr McGuire that unlike the AFL’s showcase Docklands Stadium it won’t be sitting empty for half the season and more than likely will have a surface that will be the envy of every stadium in Australia. So who’s sitting on a white elephant now?

Oh and by the way, it’s called AAMI Park and enjoy the view from the shithole that is the Lexus Centre.

With Kevin Muscat venting his frustration at the end of Wednesday night’s match against Beijing Guoan, taking aim at everything to do with the ACL it surely wasn’t long before we would get a comment from Ben Buckley. And again he showed why he starting to look out of his depth as the man in charge of Australian football.

Buckley went on to slam Melbourne’s attitude towards the ACL, suggesting if the Victory didn’t want to compete they would be better off forfeiting their place to another A-League side.

and

If Kevin’s comments reflect the attitude of the leadership of Melbourne Victory, then they should withdraw from the competition and let others who want to participate take part,” Buckley said. ”Such an attitude is clearly an impediment to success and Melbourne Victory’s performance in the tournament is reflective of that.

Of course we want to participate in the ACL tournament, why the hell do you think we tried our darndest to qualify for next year’s competition much to the detriment of this year’s ACL campaign. And as I have said before a little support from the FFA would not have gone astray instead of these cheap shots at a team who have had just had a tough run of results in the last month and a half. The comments from Buckley were ill-conceived and untimely and he should take some of his own advice and haul himself over some coals.

With much being made of the crowd numbers during Melbourne Victory’s disastrous 2010 ACL campaign surely some responsibility lays at the feet of both the FFA and the Melbourne Victory administration.

Knowing full well that there would be ACL campaign at the end of this season surely it wouldn’t haven’t been too hard for the Melbourne Victory administration to include the three group games as part of your membership package. Even having it has add-on to the membership should have been an option. Contrary to what Kevin Muscat had to say, Melbourne fans weren’t disuaded from attending due to the antics of opposition teams it probably had more to do with the tickets. With General Admin tickets starting at $27, when compared to $20 for a regular season game you can see why a number of fans stayed away especially after forking out significant amounts of money for finals tickets.

However, the FFA must foot some of the blame as well as they continued the trend of the regular A-League season by putting little or no effort into promoting the game to the general public. If the general public doesn’t know about it, how do you expect them to turn up to games.

With this in mind, when it all comes around next year let’s hope it’s handled better by all parties involved because as Melbourne Victory fans we do like to watch our team play.

I was originally going to submit this diatribe as part of my weekly blogs for 442, but circumstances got beyond me and I never got round to submitting it. It is tad out of date, but the argument is still relevant.

So with little else on his plate apart from choosing the pre-Grand Final entertainment, FFA CEO Ben Buckley obviously decided it was an opportune time to tell the Melbourne Victory hierarchy to quit its continual complaints about its current fixture pile-up.

So as the most unofficial No.1 Victory spokesperson out there I have seen it as my duty to rebut some of the arguments put forward by our esteemed leader in my own indomitable style.

First cab of the rank, is his comment that:

”We already moved the first leg of the A-League major semi-final for Victory, allowing them to play Sydney on the Thursday night [February 18] so they could travel to China for their first ACL game. That gave them a four-day break after playing Sydney on the previous Sunday in the last game of the home and away season. We would have given them a five-day break but their home ground [Etihad Stadium] was not available on the Friday.”

How accommodating of you Mr Buckley but I’ll think you find that the request for a final on the Thursday night came from Melbourne Victory officials even though it put them at a disadvantage in terms of preparation and crowd numbers.

You see Mr Buckley, teams in the ACL are required to be in the host city a minimum of two days before kick-off. Seeing that the stadium was already booked out of the Friday night that meant a match on Saturday night was out of the question as it takes approximately thirteen hours to fly to Beiljing from Melbourne. Therefore it was Thursday night by default, not by any of your grand benefaction.

Next up, is his comment that:

“There are 46 leagues in the AFC and things have to be done to accommodate all those leagues and all the participating clubs. They can’t make exceptions for one team.”

It must also be noted that Melbourne did put a request into the AFC to have the match switched from Beijing to Melbourne but our esteemed organisation deemed it an unreasonable request even though it would have had little impact on Beijing Guoan who at that stage were still in pre-season and thus had no league requirements.

See Mr Buckley, there is the possibility of making exceptions for one team, so stop towing the inflexible AFC line. In fact, you should be doing as much as you can to accommodate the teams from your own league. Look at how much positive press, Adelaide’s efforts of two years ago generated.

And finally, he states that:

”Teams from other countries seem to be able to juggle their timetables. We know it is difficult and not ideal, but that is the situation.”

Thanks, Captain Obvious. Of course it is not ideal having to play a game pretty much 48 hours after your last one. Also I’m pretty sure teams from other countries don’t juggle their timetables, their federations to do it for them in order to gain the best possible advantage in the competition for their teams.

And I am not alone in my criticism of Melbourne’s tight scheduling with PFA CEO Brendan Schwab weighing into the debate with his comment that:

“I think it’s unacceptable. The fact is that the players have been asked to travel on nine to 15-hour flights and play games with a 48-hour break. It’s inevitable that a player will be seriously injured in those circumstances, and it’s also inevitable that the quality of the competition will be compromised.”

Whilst I am not using this is as an excuse for our loss in the Grand Final or our poor performances in the ACL and the issue is probably compounded by the fact that the scheduling of the ACL has been brought forward to accommodate that thing called the World Cup. However, it highlights a serious issue that needs addressing before next year’s ACL campaign comes around in order for all A-League teams to have the best opportunity to make their mark on the region’s most important club competition.

I was very disappointed not to see Kevin Muscat’s name not appear under the Sport category of The Age’s Melbourne Magazine’s Melbourne’s Most Influential People.

For a player who is constantly accused of influencing referees and match officials; getting away murder on the field; having more power than Ernie Merrick; and is despised by every other opposition fan surely would get on the list.

On a more serious note, you would think that Geoff Lord should have been on the list, considering that he has taken the Melbourne Victory from nothing to be the A-League’s most successful team both on and off the field.

Instead we had five out of the eight people have some relationship to the AFL. Considering that the three of the members on the selection panel (Jake Niall, Bruce McAvaney and Peter Hanlon) of the Sports category have some sort of AFL affiliation it’s hardly surprising. Surely you would have Michael Lynch or someone of his ilk on there to balance things out.

With Etihad Stadium management showing their hand and siding with the AFL (who would have thought) is it now time for the FFA and Melbourne Victory to review their decision to play our biggest matches there from next season in protest. To be honest we don’t need to play matches against Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne Heart(?). A 30,000 seat stadium will do us just fine. Now whose stadium will sit empty during those summer months not for two or four months, without anyone purchasing a single slightly warm mid-strength beer.

And who would have thought Melbourne Victory fans would have needed extra incentive not to like Etihad Stadium.

Take note Etihad Stadium management. A good playing surface equals Melbourne playing attractive football and getting good results and thus bigger crowds. The Hindmarsh Stadium surface last night was brilliant and it allowed the Victory to play to their strengths. And it’s not like Adelaide has any more water to work with than Melbourne. Next home game, no excuses.

I would like to thank the following people for Melbourne winning the Premiership Plate and an automatic ACL berth:

• Danny Vukovic for making a number of crucial saves last night against Adelaide. That one with his face was certainly a classic
• Paul O’Grady for his stellar performance in the heart of the Mariners’ defence
• Aurelio Vidmar for choosing to start with Paul Agostino instead of Cristiano and always going with one striker
• The woodwork at both ends of Bluetongue Stadium for denying Adelaide on at least two occasions

For my thoughts on Friday night’s, check out my latest 442 blog post.

At the start of 2008 I wondered how many football matches that I would go and watch in a year. Matches included A-League, VPL, local league and international games. In the end I went to fifty-one matches as listed below:

Queensland Roar vs Melbourne Victory, Melbourne Victory vs Wellington Phoenix, Sydney FC vs Melbourne Victory, Australia vs Qatar, Richmond vs Preston , Richmond vs Green Gully, Richmond vs Melbourne Knights, South Melbourne vs Western Suburbs, Fawkner vs Richmond, Richmond vs Altona, South Melbourne vs AIS, Altona vs Whittlesea, Western Suburbs vs Richmond, Western Suburbs vs AIS, Melbourne Victory vs Gamba Osaka, Richmond vs Frankston, Fawkner vs Coburg, Green Gully vs AIS, Heidelberg vs Richmond, Richmond vs Coburg, Green Gully vs Western Suburbs, South Melbourne vs Richmond, Richmond vs Oakleigh, South Melbourne vs Frankston, Melbourne Victory vs Chonburi FC, Green Gully vs Altona, Melbourne Victory vs Juventus, Green Gully vs Richmond, Australia vs Iraq, South Melbourne vs Oakleigh, Altona vs Richmond, Fawkner vs Whittlesea, Richmond vs Western Suburbs, Green Gully vs Melbourne Victory, Fawkner vs Heidelberg, Fawkner vs South Melbourne, Western Suburbs vs Frankston, Richmond vs South Melbourne, Trojan Athletic vs Satellite City, Fawkner vs AIS, Green Gully vs Melbourne Knights, Melbourne Victory vs Newcastle Jets, Heidelberg vs Richmond, Melbourne Victory vs Adelaide, Altona vs Melbourne Knights, Melbourne Victory vs Queensland Roar, Melbourne Victory vs Perth Glory, Melbourne Victory Women vs Perth Glory Women, Melbourne Victory vs Central Coast, Melbourne Victory vs Queensland Roar & Melbourne Victory vs Sydney FC

How many matches did you watch?

Going into tonight’s game against there was always going to be a selection headache between Grant Brebner and Jose Luis Lopez for Ernie Merrick in the defensive midfield position. However, as fate would have it this little problem has been solved in the short term by the news that Brebner has been suspended for four games (two of which are suspended) for his involvement in a betting scandal that also involved Victory captain Kevin Muscat and the Roar’s Craig Moore.

Brebner, a reformed gambling addict (or so it seems) is also likely to receive further sanction from the club regarding his actions and it would surprise me if he sees game time for the rest of the season. The club also should seriously consider giving Kevin Muscat a reprimand of some sort as well for his involvement as well. Its not good way to go into an all important match against a struggling side. And as you would expect, the Melbourne Victory fans forum is going nuts.

Poor form fellas, poor form