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.

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.