BY THE PALM TREES – Round 14
Happy New Year! Anyone who reads my blog will know I haven’t written any articles about my team since before Christmas. I will never waver in my support for my team or my club because they represent my home, but I’m afraid the situation we have found ourselves in recently had left me with the choice to either write negative drivel or write nothing at all. Finding ourselves in last position on the table (for only the second time in A-League history) and creating a new losing streak record while watching our attendance become even smaller and even more subdued has not been easy.
While there is still much to remain concerned about around the Central Coast Mariners this season, the New Year’s Eve home win did much to improve the feeling and the outlook around the fans and the club. Sure, we are still last by more than a win and remain firm favourites for the wooden spoon, but at least we showed we’re capable of more than what we had been achieving recently. I firmly believe there was very little difference in the way we played that night compared to the early season. The difference was simply that where we hadn’t been able to previously, we we’re able to finished enough of our opportunities to ensure we got the result. It was no co-incidence that we had all of our biggest guns available for selection. In my opinion getting results with our best team on the pitch hasn’t been our problem. Our problem has been depth. We haven’t been able to consistently do that since early in the season, when we had all players available, and that led to the opportunities we were creating drying up, and the lack of depth in the squad being exposed.
Special mention must go to our 17 year old debutante goalkeeper – Tommy Heward-Belle – whose calm and professional replacement of Paul Izzo, when he was sent off against Sydney FC, was very commendable. He followed up with a fine performance in the pressure easing NYE win and I hope the young shot stopper continues to be selected at least for the period while Izzo is now on Olyroos duty. Also most notable was the performance of Mickey Neill. Mickey has shown huge potential throughout his time in the youth team and glimpses of his best when making his earliest A-League appearances last season, but has been plagued with injuries. Not only did he provide some much needed intensity in the front of the midfield, but deservingly scored the winner through a combination of sheer effort and a quality strike.
It seems the life of a Mariners fan is to watch the name of our great club persistently dragged through the murk of financial problems at this time of year. Funnily enough the media beat up about players being released from contract due to unpaid superannuation has disappeared, without further incident or action, or perhaps it never truly existed the way it was described. I often wonder how some media reports about the team’s training sessions are formed when most of the media telling the stories make so few actual appearances at Mariners training. Never the less, sometimes players (for whatever reason) don’t deliver on what is expected of them. When that happens, should the coach feel forced to include those players in his team and planning for any given match? Not for me he shouldn’t. Tony Walmsley described the reasoning for team selections on NYE as “selecting players who would be playing for the badge on the front of the shirt, not the name on the back”. I am a particular admirer of more than one of the talented footballers who apparently lost out in those selections, however that statement is exactly what I want from the coach, exactly what I believe being a Mariner should be all about, and in my opinion no player is too valuable to be above being measured on that basis. Without naming individuals, some of them have generated a view among some fans that they need to give more. Hopefully they will either take the opportunity to work hard and come back bigger and better than ever. If not, I wish them well on their path elsewhere.
The latest controversy around Central Coast Mariners is the suspension of Roy O’Donovan for the NYE head butt on Manny Muscat. Based on previous suspensions around the world and other precedents for A-League suspensions it’s hard to argue that the length of the suspension isn’t a bit excessive. To be fair though, the Match Review Panel appears (from an outsiders point of view) to be no more than a group of supposedly football savvy blokes sitting in a room making arbitrary decisions about footballing incidents such as this one. Football is in the entertainment business so any fair dinkum process would include an explanation of the basis for any ban and avoid all the comments and comparisons by ensuring interested fans understand exactly the reasons for decisions. While there is no doubt O’Donovan deserved to be suspended, this kind of method is consistent with the kind of half processes the FFA is known for. Remember how they told us banned fans could appeal their bans. This is just another example of the type of excellent processes run by the games peak body. I expect the Mariners will probably appeal the length of the ban but who knows whether that is anything more than a time and money waste.
On the positive side of things, recent signings have provided a small amount of optimism and it was great to hear the owner, Mike Charlesworth (pictured), respond to Mariners fans questions on the Yellow Army Podcast earlier this week. Listening to responses to questions ranging from the club’s current financial situation, FFA’s support (or not) for the club should our situation deteriorate, through to the reasoning for playing games in locations away from Central Coast Stadium was excellent. Way ahead of the usual often misleading, media driven dribble attributed to Mike, that we’re forced to swallow, at least fans had the opportunity to log their questions and hear the answers directly from the horse’s mouth. Any keen Mariners fan who has not listened to this important information should make it their business to seek out the “Yellow Army Podcast” on Soundcloud (and I believe iTunes) and have a listen. Aside from the interview with Mike, there are a number of previous interviews with club management, coaches and players that the Yellow Army has recorded this season.
In terms of players changes- signings with limited A-League experience (Francesco Stella) or Youth League experience only (Alastair Bray and Trent Buhagiar) are not indicative of an immediate solution to current squad experience issues, they are at least a consistent approach. Charlesworth’s statement that we are planning to sign at least one experienced player in this transfer period is more encouraging for the immediate future.
So, fresh from their confidence boosting win, the boys travel to Geelong to take on Melbourne Victory. It’s a tough ask for the team to get themselves on a roll by overcoming the A-League Champions, but at least we tackle them at a reasonable time. Despite their last start win over Newcastle Jets there is no doubt the Victory are still looking for their best form and have been through a string of disappointing recent results with little of their usual oozing confidence on display. Looking across their squad however, it is only a matter of time before they do re-find their form and this will make for a particularly challenging task for the men in yellow. Can they overcome the usual uncertainties of this time of year and post another result this week? I’d love to say they can but for mine the opposition is too tough. Realistically, if we can sneak a point out of this one, we should feel good about it.
My prediction Victory by 1
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