Victory in Melbourne 

One of the big stories of the 2009 Victorian Premier League so far has been the rise of Dandenong Thunder. Playing their first ever season in the state’s premier football competition they have been a relevation remaining undefeated after eight rounds, with seven of those being wins. They currently sit on top of the table, six points clear of their nearest rival.

I had my first experience of the phenomenon that is the Dandenong Thunder on Friday night as they took on the Richmond Eagles at the Kevin Bartlett Reserve. In what was a highly entertaining match the Thunder ran out 3-2 winners. All the goals were of the highest quality, although I did think the first goal by Dandenong had a touch of offside about it as the Thunder caught the Richmond defence napping in the first minute. But that may just be my pro-Richmond side showing through.

Although disappointed by the fact that Richmond lost the match you had to marvel at the number of supporters that were there to support Dandenong. The Thunder, are a team that has a strong following in the Melbourne Albanian community, bring a huge amount of support to away games. Against teams such a team as Richmond, who have only a small dedicated group of fans, make an away game feel like a home game.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the Thunder progress through the remainder of the season, as the more experienced heads of the big name clubs will certainly look to bring them back to the field and try and cut them down to size. For my sake, I hope Richmond can bounce back from the defeat and maintain their position in the top five.

Before the big one on Saturday night there was the small matter of the kick off the 2009 Victorian Premier League season on Friday night. Kicking off the action was my second favourite Australian football team, the Richmond Eagles at Kevin Bartlett Reserve against the Whittlesea Zebras.

Like last season the Richmond boys started the season of in style and didn’t appear to be missing the services of Golden Boot winner, Pablo Cardozo and Jesse Krncevic as they ran 3-0 winners on a somewhat balmy night.

The player really grabbed my attention was Daniel Visevic, a player once on the books of Melbourne Victory in a cadet ship type of role before trying his luck with Dinamo Zagreb. His performance as an attacking midfielder on Friday night was second to one with his incisive passing being the highlight. The deft finish for the third goal was truly sensational. He will be certainly one to watch and it wouldn’t surprise to see him back with the Victory or maybe another A-League team before the season’s end.