Wednesday 23 December 2015

Pre-season Update

Well I'll be stuffed. Seems that I was a fair way off with some of the things in my last piece. 

Starting with Chris May, who I thought the club would have retained at all costs, has parted ways after not getting the pay rise he was after. I can understand him wanting a pay rise and definitely understand the club not being able to afford it, but what I struggle to understand is why you would make a move like that before securing another club that is willing to pay you more? Who knows, maybe I'm a fair way off again with my prediction, but with the stupid systems in place in the league, it's not so easy for a visa player to pick and choose where he wants to play and how much he wants to play for.

Moving along to Tomislav Uskok who was off to Sydney United for a year before returning to the club, who has pleasantly surprised us all by securing his first A-league contract at Central Coast Mariners. I say surprised because after a few unsuccessful trials, it seemed like he was never going to be given the chance he deserved to prove himself in the nations top division. Will be disappointed if he doesn't return in 2017, but glad he will be playing at the highest level available to him.

Farewell Anth

But perhaps the biggest surprise for me is the departure of Anthony Colosimo. Playing more than 100 games over 7 odd seasons, he was the longest serving player at the club who remained loyal throughout. I'm devastated that the club has decided let him go, but at the end of the day I am sure whoever has made the decision has their reasons. I would like to wish him all the best in the future and he will always be welcome at Somers St.

Oddly enough, one goes and another returns. After getting some much desired game time and finding the back of the net a few times, Jacob has returned to the club for the 2016 season. Let's hope he can hit the same form he was in prior to his latest injury.

I'm not going touch on the other signings for now as to be honest I don't know too much about them. I guess time will tell whether they are up to it or not.

In other news;

Some much overdue improvements are being made around the stadium with the car park behind the grandstand being asphalted, as well as the fence around the pitch being torn down and replaced by a much more attractive shorter version. 

Memberships are out. Not too much has changed with the usual Corporate/Gold/Silver/Bronze staying the same. Should be available for purchase immediately after the new year.

Friendship Cup has been confirmed for Valentines Day weekend up in Sydney. I'll see you all there with your wives/husbands! We haven't done to well in the last couple of years so would be nice to take the trophy back for a change.

And finally, the Knights media team has three new additions for 2016. I'll be eagerly anticipating what Donald and the crew will have in store for us next season.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Stay safe and see you all in 2016!

Call to Arms - Rant!

In a future not too long from now, you come across an old VHS tape marked ‘NSL Grand Final 1995’. Instantly you re-call the old Olympic Park stadium, the smell of flare smoke fills your nostrils and somewhere in the background someone is blowing that long red annoying horn.

Melbourne Knights 1995 NSL GF
You gather your children around, blow the dust off the old video player and tell them about this story of a once great giant of Australian football, Melbourne Croatia.

This scenario scares the living day lights out of me, and mainly because it’s a plausible future for our club. I always envisioned my boys growing up supporting and playing for their local club, a club they could call their own.

When your children ask what happened to this club, what will you say? Will you blame the break-up of the NSL? The changing of the name? or the establishment of the A-League?

There really is only one answer to that question. And it’s YOU.

Yes, I’m being blunt, but it’s absolutely true. What has stopped you from attending games and buying a membership? What is your excuse?

Melbourne Croatia/Knights has been around for generations, it was built by our grandparents not just for a place to gather as a community, but for their children and grandchildren to have something to call their own.

Will you just stand aside and watch this once famous club disappear into a distant memory? Are you happy to just watch and do nothing?

If this club has ever given you an ounce of joy, it’s time to show that you care. Memberships cost as little as attending one A-League game, and ensure the stability and survival of the club. Even if you can’t make it to a game, you can still show your support.

There is no reason why this club can’t stick around for another 60 years, a club you can call your own, a place that feels like home. However it is completely up to you to ensure the future of this club isn’t limited to an old VHS tape. Don’t wait until it’s too late.


#ONELOVEONECLUB

Monday 9 November 2015

What will be of Melbourne Knights in 2016?

With pre season not too far away and clubs announcing their new arrivals, some might be asking how we are looking for next season. Seems like for whatever reason we like leaving it late or are just a lot more secretive than everyone else. Let's start with looking at last years side.

Goalkeeper of the year
2015 Keeper of the year Chris May (Photo: Melbourne Knights)

Chris May - Goalkeeper of the year for good reason, had his best season since joining us in 2013 and most will never forget South Melbourne at home. Should be retained.

Ben Surey - Been at the club longest together with Anthony Colosimo, over 100 games and still just as good as ever. Definitely worth retaining.

Milan Batur - Solid in the backline. Grew up with the club, wouldn't expect see him playing anywhere else.

Tomislav Uskok - Already in Sydney and returning in 2017, will be missed in the middle of the park. Do we look for a 1 year replacement? Probably.

Christopher Talajic - Struggled with injuries prior to this year, performed well enough. Should be pushing for a starting place every week if he can stay injury free.

James McGarry - Quality player. Recovered well after his injury in 2014. Will be useful in the middle of the park next year.

Marijan Cvitkovic - Has proven he can be the best player in the state when injury free. Will be an asset if he can stay fit for most of season.

Anthony Colosimo - Longest serving player with Ben. Been pretty consistent over the years. Doesn't belong anywhere else.

Ivan Grgic - Worked his way to the top pretty fast. Will be a long term player unless he takes the next step.

Rodrigo Covarrubias - Will unfortunately struggle to get a starting position with Stipo as the preferred lone striker. Good to have as a back up.

Alex Dao - Can't see him as a regular starter. With a few signings might not even make the bench if he is still around.

Rob Zadworny - Great mid season pick up and good replacement for Alinejad. Look forward to him running a muck next season.

Josh Brekalo - Did very well after the switch from the lower state leagues. Should be pushing for a starting place most weeks if he can keep the same form and injury free.

Michael O'Farrell - Don't get to see much of him, always hard with a second keeper. Not really a position I am too concerned about.

2015 Melbourne Knights B&F Stipo Andrijasevic (Photo: FFT)

Stipo Andrijasevic - Worthy winner of the club B&F. Took the piss most weeks and frequently found the back of the net after Barisic departed. Would definitely have him as number 1 striker for 2016.

From what I can gather everyone that we want to retain will more than likely be retained, which is a good start. 

There some to be a few disgruntled people down at North Geelong who are claiming that we have swooped for more than one of their players in the off season, which is fair enough considering we already snatched Zadworny mid season. But I guess it's better that they are coming to us rather than going to any other NPL side, especially if they have already spent some time at the club as juniors. Ideally we would send a couple of fringe players down to help them out, but it's not easy to convince someone to leave the Knights and head out to Geelong 3 or 4 times a week to play a division lower. But judging by the depth of the squad last year and the injury plague the year before, it doesn't seem like a luxury we can afford at the moment anyway.

And in coaching news, I would suggest Stabba and Frank are hanging around as I haven't heard otherwise.

Let's just hope we start seeing some good news popping up in our news feeds in the coming weeks, as with the addition of a couple of quality starting players, we should definitely be up there again in 2016.


Monday 19 October 2015

Melbourne Knights 2015 AGM Wrap

Thanks to our newest contributor Nemo for this write up. 

Melbourne Knights Croatia NPL National Premier League Victoria Football Soccer FFA Cup
The old 'Batcave'
Last Friday, the Melbourne Knights held their Annual General meeting in the now known Knights Gym. For me though, it will forever be familiar as the ‘ Batcave’. A gathering venue for the more passionate supporter to wet their whistle before and after the game, talk about the glory days and wait for the opposition bus to arrive/depart, to wish luck to our opposition in our more colourful language. 


Melbourne Knights Croatia NPL National Premier League Victoria Football Soccer FFA Cup
The new gym
Those days are a distant memory now, and the disappointment of walking into the ‘Batcave’ and discovering only 35-40 people in attendance is disheartening. Scanning the room, you recognise everyone by name or by face, the same people that rain, hail or shine are there at every game, supporting their club…true supporters. 

The first main talking point of the night, Melinda Cimera announcing that after six long years, she has decided to step down from her role as Secretary.  We should all be thankful for her commitment and dedication to the club, volunteering many hours to a role which give so little back. 

Ange Cimera gave his take on the season, citing that he believed despite the disappointment of the game against Hume, and South Melbourne in the cup, it was a successful season. Our home form was magnificent this year. Ange posed the question what more could the supporters ask of the team, only 2 losses at home all year and still a bare stadium week in week out. He was right. What excuse do the fans have? The irony being that our lowest attendance of the season was for our biggest win of the season (5-1 v Werribee). 

He may have his doubters and some critics, but those who pay attention can see the passion he holds for the club. Like in previous years, Ange has offered his role to anyone that was willing to take it, stating that he would love to see some new young faces on the board, but if no one steps up he won’t leave the club in the dark. One thing he said has been stuck in my head since that night, out of all the eligible voting members we have, it is left up to the minority of approximately 10% to decide the future and direction this club is to take. Do 90% of our members not even care to hear how our club is truly performing, are these the same people that bemoan our on pitch performances, coaching/player selections and committee members? Unsurprisingly, no-one in the room questioned Ange… 

Next on the agenda was finances, and whilst I won’t mention the specifics (attend the meeting if you want specifics), what is clear is how well our season went on the pitch. We compete in a league where player wages are highly inflated and the Player points system is abused. Out of all the clubs in the top 6, my guess is we were paying the least, probably the bottom four in the league would be closer to the mark. Andrew Marth and co have done well considering. 

The topic of player retention was brought up, and if you have been hiding under a rock you wouldn’t have heard that Tomislav Uskok has departed for Sydney United. Uskok’s absence will be felt, as it was in the elimination final. Rumours have been doing the rounds about several star players being courted by opposition clubs, some deja-vu with a gun striker being linked to a greek-cypriot club for triple wages may remind you of the Visevic saga last year. Ange stated that those rumours were exactly that, and he was more than confident that the core group of players were staying. Ideally I would be more confident if I saw some official news on player retention/signings, as actively as Bentleigh, Port Melbourne and South Melbourne. 

The topic which finally got a rise out of the ‘oldies’(pardon the pun), was Friday night home games this season. The board stated that despite the crowd numbers staying around the same, gate takings for home games was significantly higher when we played on Friday nights as opposed to Sunday afternoon. Obviously the older generation dislike Friday nights, stating that it’s too cold and late to be watching soccer at night, again the irony this time being that this very meeting was on a Friday night. Although the Sunday afternoon game is a historic tradition for our club, I can see the need for change. Sunday’s are littered with family events and house chores, we also compete in a time slot against other local clubs (most notably Dinamo) and even our own juniors. Friday night allows for a greater atmosphere, downing some whiskeys without hesitation, and boy does it set up the weekend when we win on a Friday night. The new board will be tasked with attempting to please everyone when it comes to home game fixtures. 

Talking about new boards, we see a familiar face return to the President’s role with Tony Karlusic being nominated and voted in unopposed. Tony last held the role during our NSL season 2000/2001, a season which we knocked Perth Glory out of the finals (following a minor incident). During his short stint, he also had the hard task of removing club legend Joe Biskic as head coach. Majority of the existing board members retained their positions with some new additions which will be formally announced in due time.  

The clear message of the night is one that I will repeat and reiterate, if you support the Melbourne Knights in any way or form; show it by buying a membership! Attend the AGM! This club cannot survive alone on the generosity and commitment of the few. It is time for the next generation of supporters to ensure this club survives another 60 years. Regardless of how many games you can attend, the club relies on its Membership for a sustainable future, sign up your partner, sign up your kids, and show your support. This is our club…our home…our heritage, and nobody can take it away from us except ourselves.

Wednesday 30 September 2015

How I feel about South Melbourne

A couple of days ago someone commented on my last write up about the Knights 2015 NPLV season. Rather than trying to cram everything into a small reply, I thought it would be easier and more fulfilling to just do a whole write up on the matter. The comment read..
Considering how rich the Knight's history is and how well you write your posts (westofthequarry) - I am confused as to why there is so much mention of South Melbourne and no mention of Bentleigh Greens who were the stand out team in terms of you "not rathering be them".

Would be good to get some insight on your feelings towards other teams.
Firstly, thank you for the compliment on how well I write my posts, I sometimes think I can write half decent stuff so it's good to know that others may think that as well..

Now to make it clear, at the time of that write up South Melbourne had won the Charity Shield, the Dockerty Cup and the Minor Premiership, had qualified for the FFA Cup (making a quit exit like us in 2014) and still had the NPL Victoria and Australia Championships up for grabs. Bentleigh on the other hand had won nothing at all, with their only chance of a title being against South Melbourne for the NPL Victoria Championship. So I would have to strongly disagree that Bentleigh were the standout team when quite clearly it was South Melbourne, even though I am in no doubt that Bentleigh had the best quality team throughout the year.


Melbourne Knights, Croatia, NPL, National Premier League Victoria, Football, Soccer, FFA Cup
Still excited about that extension?
Now that the first reason South Melbourne was the team I would 'rather not be' is out of the way, I'll get started on the second. Despite their success this season (as winning the NPLV is a success) as far as I am aware Bentleigh went about their business this year as most teams do, there isn't anything major I can think of where I thought to myself, Jesus Christ that kind of thing would never happen at my club, if it did bla bla bla. But with South Melbourne however, there was more than enough of those. We can begin with the Epifano incident(s). Had Mr Epifano been playing at my club, after the first offence he would probably have been told to leave the club and if not would have been disciplined appropriately. After the second offence, he definitely would have been told to leave the club, and would have received more than a few unkind words from supporters. After the third offence, he would have endured some physical harm at the hands of supporters, who would then question the competancy of the current administration. After the club announced it's excitement of the resigning of Mr Epifano for the 2016 season, a mob armed with torches and pitchforks would have gathered at the Knights head office wanting blood. Now you could just say that we are a bunch of savages, which we very well may be, but we are savages with morals, savages that won't just sit back and watch as the club throws away it's self respect and allows someone to just walk all over it. And for what reason? Because you might have a better chance of winning some stuff with him in the team?

Anyway, one incident (or four) don't make a club what it is. That's why the club went out and announced a make believe partnership with European giants Real Madrid. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, I'll fill quickly fill you in. A few rounds before the end of the home and away NPLV season, South Melbourne announced the postponement of one of it's fixtures (home match against Hume City), that same day South Melbourne announced it's partnership with Real Madrid with a photo from a few years ago and how the club will have the opportunity to host them over the next few weeks for the money making fan boy tournament. Anyone with half a brain would have put two and two together and figured out that they postponed the match so Real Madrid could use the venue. Right? Wrong! Because it wasn't Real Madrid that was using the venue, it was Roma. And because the club were/are yet to sign off on their lease and social club, there's not too much they could do about the venue being snatched from them by the Victorian Government. I do believe that it would be an honour to have a European giant use your venue as a training base while in Australia, but when it's at the expense of your own fixture and you need to make up a fake cover up story then I think I would pass. And how did the supporters react to this? They thought it was good for the club because the announcement got a lot of impressions on their Facebook page. 

Though I could go on for a lot longer about the shady dealings of the club, I will turn to the final chapter, the supporters. While there is a handful (and as far as I know it's only a handful) of decent supporters, the majority of them are not. I won't go labeling them 'Obsessed Maco's" where they apparently can't see because all Croats have been 'banned', but I will say that they don't deserve any better than their club dishes out to them. After five years of no social club, no stadium lease, Epifano and fake partnerships (that's just this year) they haven't done shit. The decent handful will speak their mind, but it is constantly smeared by people blowing fairy dust over anything and everything the club does.

So there you have it, I hope it's enough of a reason for me to have South Melbourne as the club I would rather not be. If it's not, then you'll just have to accept that they are our main rivals and have hated them ever since I can remember.

Thursday 10 September 2015

Another season goes by

With the NPLV Grand Final coming up on Sunday and us playing no part in it, we take the time to look back and reflect on what was the 2015 NPLV season.

Our 11th season post NSL saw us in the more favorable of the two familiar places we have been in since re-joining the state leagues. Rather than the excitement of a relegation battle which our good friends down in Geelong are now enjoying, we got to have another crack at something we haven't done in a pretty long time, be crowned champions.

Going into the season there wasn't too much faith from Knights supporters as poor results in practice matches and a 5-0 drubbing by Sydney United in the Friendship Cup a week before the season didn't allow for much of a positive outlook. However with the players at our disposal, I knew that with a bit of time we would be well prepared to kick some ass. Luckily for us we were dealt a more favorable start to our season which allowed us to find out feet (quite quickly it seemed) as we got off to a 5 and 0 start.

The return of star striker Andrew Barisic worked as well as previous years with the striker finding the back of the net most weeks, before moving on to play in Hong Kong. Working just as well was the decision to bring back former junior Josh Brekalo after impressive performances at the Croatian Soccer Tournament in Wollongong, where he enjoyed a stint with his state league side Strathmore Split. The youngster didn't take long to get his name out there after opening the scoring account with an equaliser in Round 1 against the newly promoted Avondale. The same however cannot be said about the return of another former player Adrian Zahra, who struggled to make an impact resulting in his departure in the mid season transfer window, with his poor form likely the result of a horrendous tackle at the hands of Kevin Muscat a few years ago. His replacement Robbie Zadworny comfortably stepped into the role managing to contribute a number of goals and assists almost immediately.

Whilst Zadworny was satisfying Knights fans in the league, previous appearances for North Geelong left him cup tied and with no choice but to sit out the Knights 2015 FFA Cup campaign. A campaign which unfortunately did not reach the heights of the 2014 campaign, as South Melbourne got their revenge after eliminating us with three late goals at Lakeside Stadium. With other fixtures for NPL sides looking fairly 'easier' for that round, one may question whether fixturing the two sides against each other at that stage of the competition was a deliberate attempt at ensuring one of our clubs would not reach the national stage, perhaps even both with one round still remaining before entry to the round of 32 of the FFA Cup.

No Dockerty Cup for the Knights in 2015
Our simultaneous exits from both the Dockerty and FFA Cup allowed us to concentrate solely on the league, something which was done quite well. With Hume and Pascoe Vale at our tails and first place looking well out of reach it appeared to be a battle for 4th place. However favorable results saw us reaching as high as 2nd place with a slight chance of still lifting the premiers plate. But it wasn't meant to be, as a surging South Melbourne picked up the required amount of points to beat us and the rest to it.

With 3rd place a real possibility but no real advantage over finishing 4th, we had the chance to rest a number of senior players allowing some of the youth to prove themselves on the big stage. Whether finishing 3rd or 4th would have made a difference to our finals exit is something that we will never know.

After making the finals twice in a row (with a year in between due to no finals being played in 2014), we also managed to bow out in straight sets twice in a row. Perhaps those three finals matches being played at home and the fact that we haven't one a home finals match in around 20 years has something to do with it? Not sure, but I do hope it's something that will change very soon.

So where does that leave us? Are we happy with the end result? Was the season a success? Was it a failure? To be honest I'm not too sure. I wouldn't call it a success but at the same time I think it was far from a failure. We reached our target of making the finals but fell short of making a return to the national stage in the FFA Cup, something which is probably a little more difficult to achieve now that all the clubs have seen how big of a carrot it can be. Considering we have one of if not the lowest budget out of the clubs that made the finals, and more than likely in the bottom half of the league, I guess we can say that overall we did ok. Perhaps not as ok as South Melbourne who could very well go on to win everything there is to win in Victoria this Sunday, but I wouldn't rather be them. Yeah it's great to win everything, but when it's at the expense of allowing players to walk all over your club, the board lying to members and supporters without them even bothering to question it and not having a social club with the constant question of when you will be evicted, I would rather be us. We are a proud club with proud supporters, and there will always be next year!


Thursday 3 September 2015

Until next time, Captain!

Earlier this week the club announced the departure of captain and life long supporter of the club Tomislav Uskok to the NSW NPL. While a NSW NPL club is yet to claim him, you can bet your bottom dollar it won't be going anywhere other than Edensor Park.


Putting South in their place
In the face of Mark Rudan rubbishing the game in Victoria after his sides exit from the FFA Cup at the hands of Heidelberg last week, he will be rubbing his hands with glee with the arrival of Uskok. But who wouldn't be? Although South fans cry foul when it comes to Uskoks 'aggression' (I like to call it passion) whenever our two sides meet, they (and any other club for that matter) would kill for that type of player in their line-up. 

Rarely do you see someone bleed for a club like that. And like many players in recent times at the Knights, Uskok grow up with the club. Like plenty before him, he dreamed of one day playing for the club he had a deep passion for. Had he not made the cut he would be on the terraces every week supporting the club, something he even did while playing for another club in the same league! 

As unfortunate as it is that he felt the need to leave the club to further himself (as many young players do at the club), it was probably justified considering where our club was at the point in time. Staying put would have seen him in the Knights first team perhaps a year earlier than his return, but no one was to know the turn of events that were about to take place at the club. 

I don't really have a problem with players leaving the club at the age Uskok left, I actually think it's good for a players development. The gap between U20 football and first team football is just too big. What I do have a problem with is players leaving the club and forever holding a grudge. Either because they simply weren't good enough, or they were good enough but felt that they should have been in the starting line-up by the age of 15, or the U20s by 14. Thankfully for us Uskok had his heart in the right place and came full circle.

His return came at a time when he needed us and we needed him. After a transitional season the club found it's feet and saw Uskok become a vital piece to the puzzle. Perhaps with a bit more luck we would have seen Uskok lifting more than just the Dockerty Cup, or finally landing that A-league contract that has been dangled in front of him time and time again.

While his departure makes things a little more difficult for us in 2016 not only needing to replace a key player but also a captain, I wish him nothing but the best up North and look forward to his return in 2017. Until next time, Captain!




The evolution of West of the Quarry

A couple of years ago there was an idea to have a place where we could all talk about our one true love - Melbourne Knights and all things related. You could say this was a mixture of wanting something like what South fans have at smfcboard, and what we once had with KnightsArmy (which still seems to get an odd post here and there). Although forums seem to be a thing of the past and are pretty much dead in the water when it comes to our club, we decided to give it a crack and evidently failed fairly miserably.
Living in the past

A year or so later, we tossed up the idea of a rip off/piss take of South of the Border which found it's way to the bloggers ears and eventually onto the blog itself. Not only could you use this as a tool to troll people on twitter, but as a means of bringing people to our failure of a forum with things that people might actually be interested in reading. 

This led to the first 'opinion piece' Back in the limelight, which by the forums standard reached a quite an impressive 1000 or so views within a week, eventually reaching over 2500. We quickly realised that we might be onto something where we could have all the fun we wanted on twitter, while still having half decent write ups that people might bother to read. But rather than concentrating on that, it was used as a tool to try and grow the forum.

No matter how desperate I was personally to have a functioning forum to satisfy my own needs of talking about my club all the time, it was destined to fail. The times had changed and it was time to accept it and move on. Luckily for me certain events in the past 12 months have prevented me from continuing, allowing it finally fade away without me trying to force it's existence any longer.

After thinking about it quite a bit since then, I have finally got off my ass and 'converted' to a blog. It's what should have been done from the beginning as the end result is the same. I get the chance to talk about my club whenever I want, and if people feel like it they will join in the discussion.

As tech savy as I am, I'm not quite comfortable with this whole blog setup yet so the layout is likely to change over the coming weeks and/or months and while I make up my mind about a few things.

And finally for the record, West of the Quarry is more than one person. 

Friday 10 April 2015

'Original Melbourne Derby' Preview

It’s not too often that these two sides meet whilst high up on the ladder, so I have taken the time to do a short preview on the ‘original Melbourne derby’. To be honest, after Tuesday night’s disaster against Oakleigh I didn’t even feel like going to this match let alone writing about it. No one wants to go into one of the biggest matches of the season coming off a draw that feels worse than a loss. Even though that point momentarily put us top of the table, it felt like we had been relegated. But, what’s done is done, and there is no point dwelling on something that can’t be changed.

Tuesday’s result aside, this is one of the best starts to a season in the clubs history. If someone offered you five wins a draw and a loss a week before the season you would grab it with both hands. It’s not too often that we Knights fans are looking down on the rest of the league and Oceania team of the week South Melbourne. A win will see us go five points clear of them, and though some might argue they have a game in hand, that’s fine because they still need to win it. Going into the match the side is looking good with minimal injuries in comparison to this time last year, with the bench looking stronger week after week. Marijan Cvitkovic (injured) and Josh Brekalo (illness) were I believe the only players unavailable for selection on Tuesday night, giving Andrew Marth close to a full squad to select from. Both Andrew Barisic and Tomislav Uskok got on the scoresheet again this week and are looking in great form to take their tallies to five goals or beyond. I would go a little further into individual form, but seeing as though some people at South still seem to think Alinejad is running up and down the wing I don’t want to give too much away.

South on the other hand look to be in turmoil despite their undefeated run. As seems to be the norm in the past few years there, the supporters feel they need to take it upon themselves and drive players out of the club. It hasn’t taken them long this year to start a hate campaign against one of their better players Nick Epifano. Right or wrong, the supporters have put the club in a pretty shit situation ahead of the derby. Does the club now allow him to stay on after calling supporters ‘greek cunts’ and wanting to fight them with his family after the game? Or do they sack him to the delight of the supporters which may cause unrest in the dressing room with the rest of the playing group? Don’t sack him and give the players a license to behave however they please, or sack him and show the players that they need to cop it from the supporters or else. Either way, I wouldn’t want that kind of thing happening at my club this week. Tis a real shame @smfcmike from twitter couldn’t do anymore to rehabilitate Epifano before it came to this. And don’t worry mate, you don’t need us to cause problems before the match, as you lot are doing a great job of it yourselves.

Things that would be really nice to see change at Lakeside, but most likely won’t;
The Microsoft word designed dressing room door sign which hasn’t had the correct Knights logo, possibly ever. So much for the best media team in the country.
The wall of fame in the players race to feature something, anything.
The bar to stay open beyond the 60th minute mark or whenever it is they decide they can’t sell alcohol.
Those fucking seagulls.

I have been able to call every Knights match this year bar the Oakleigh one, which ended in a draw. I feel much the same this week, and as much as my heart would love to say we will smash their undefeated run to pieces, I can’t. 

South Melbourne 2 – 2 Melbourne Knights

Wednesday 4 February 2015

The 100 club

A 3-0 win over Maribyrnong Polonia in round 13 at Olympic Park on Sunday the 12th of June in 1983 saw Peter Blasby bag his 100th state league appearance for Melbourne Croatia. Just a week prior Keith Adams achieved that same honour, however it would be a little while longer than a week until the next member would be ready to join the club. After a lengthy 32 years, it looks like we could be welcoming some new members to the club as brothers Anthony and Jacob Colosimo, as well as veteran Ben Surey are on track to hit the 100 mark this season.

Whilst 32 years sounds like a very long time, we must remember that for 20 of those years we competing in the National Soccer League. Still, 12 years is still a long time to go without anyone being able to notch up 5 or so seasons for the club. I guess there are a few reasons for that, the first one being that often a player is simply does not have what it takes to keep their place in the squad for such a period of time. Another reason is that some players are more than good enough, and whilst it is rare they take the next step to play at a higher level. But perhaps the most common reason is, are the players that are good enough but decide to leave because the next suburban club is offering a dollar more.

I think it is safe to say that the three players mentioned earlier don’t fall into any of those categories. Making his first appearance in round 19 of the 2009 Victorian Premier League, Jacob Colosimo equalised just four minutes after entering the field of play, helping his side to a 2-1 win over Hume City. Although his brother Anthony wasn’t awarded the same fortune in two rounds later, it was the beginning of history being made. Though I haven’t taken the time to look further into this, it is more than likely that the pair are the longest serving brothers in the club history, both notching up their 7th year playing in the first team. And provided they don’t have the same misfortunes as the past few seasons with regards to injuries, both Jacob (77 appearances) and Anthony (85 appearances) could well and truly be joining the 100 this season.

Apart from the duo, not much else of the 2009 squad was left in 2010 when veteran Ben Surey joined the club. The Crystal Palace apprentice joined the club in what some would call a new era, with practically a whole new playing group and committee joining the club. He would prove to dominate the middle of the park for the next few years and would have been a hot favourite for VPL player of the year in both 2011 and 2012 had he not missed half of each season through injury. Despite such a lengthy lay off in that two year period he leads the race (86 appearances) to become the newest member of the 100 club.

In this day and age, reaching the 100 club for any side in the state would be tough ask, let alone at the Knights. Many clubs find it difficult to keep players around for a longer period of time, especially with rival clubs offering big money deals which often double or even triple that of their previous club. However this is not the case with the Colosimo brothers and Ben Surey, their great deal of loyalty together with the way the club treats them with the respect they have earned over the years proves to be what it takes to join the history books with greats such as Peter Blasby, Keith Adams and co.