It’s been an interesting start to the season, to say the
most. It’s been pretty tame from a Knight’s fans perspective.. are we going to
see another year of the standard issues? I hope not..
Only 2 games into the season proper, and it’s clear to see
that there is some spark on the pitch, a bit of energy, a flickering flame –
but who’s got the spray can? We need some homemade flame thrower action out
there! 2 games in and we’ve seen one really good performance, and one that I’d
rather just forget about. With the game against Bentleigh tonight, I’m
interested to see which team rocks up.
Those crazy refs huh?
I can’t put much on the officials for last week’s game
against Paco, we more so let that game go ourselves. But I would have enjoyed
having the +9 minutes extra time that Hume had the week prior to try and get
one back. That would’ve been nice.
I feel for all players when a shit call is made by a ref,
whether it’s on one of ours (that’s when the ‘jebemti pas mater’s’ start
getting hurled) or when it’s against an opposition player (the ones
where you crack a cheeky smirk cause you know it was bullshit but you love
it anyway).
It’s a hard pill to swallow for players and for fans, we expect the
officials to be of a minimum standard, and to at least be consistent throughout
the league. It’s the most frustrating thing to watch, or be a part of – so who
is at fault?
My personal opinion – is both. Players and refs.
Bite your tongue, like a pro.
It’s one thing for a ref to make a horrendous call, or allow
a game to go on 3 days into extra time – but to lose your shit at the guy,
obviously doesn’t work – of a lifetime I have watched football, I can’t ever
remember a refs call being changed straight after being called a fucking cunt.
Just doesn’t work that way.
Ego is a massive factor, I can understand feeling
hard-done-by, especially after 96 and a half minutes of pressing football – but
we should remember – the officials have egos too, and they’re not about to kiss
the boots of someone who just hurled abuse for a good 2 minutes.
It’d be nice to see some professionalism, some guys in the
NPL have it, some don’t, but it can be learnt, it’s not a hard thing. I’m not
saying the refs calls aren’t cactus, but it’s give and take, and if that’s what
the FFV are gunna give us, then we should learn to deal with it, to get the
best out of each game.
Locked & loaded.
The squad is looking solid, I think that given the mass-exit
of some key players last season, the club has done a good job of damage control
and acquired some boys that are capable of creating magic. As mentioned, there’s
been some small sparks .. but we’re often late out of the gates, the next 3 or
4 games will be a good indication of how our season will go.
I’m not going to go into each player and what I think about
them, it’s too early to see how our existing players have grown from last
season, and how our new boys will perform this season. But from first
impressions of the first two games, it’s plain to see that Elvis is a man to
watch. Scores a goal, does a flip – twice in two games, let’s hope it
continues. Also want to mention young bloods Nikola Jurkovic and Harry Cakarun.
Nikola has been nothing short of impressive in the back line, and his improvement on discipline has done wonders for him. He’s taking charge, chasing down the ball when lost and he’s doing it in a smarter way, hopefully that means less yellows! He may have started out as a warrior, but he’s been polished – he’s a Knight now.
Harry has had to step in for Chalmers, and he definitely stepped in and stepped up. It’s always shaky as a fan watching a second keeper come in out of necessity, but to be honest, watching the kid out there was natural, didn’t even have to spark up a cigarette when Paco got a corner or anything. The two goals he copped could not be helped from a keepers perspective, I hope that the added game time will only give him more confidence – it’s what you want to see for a club who is big on promoting youth.
Season is underway, I
love that shit.
It’s back, and no matter what, it’s all good. Naturally, in the
NPL; a league that is only semi-pro, things happen slowly – look at the
A-League for fucks sake, that shit is professional and it is moving at only
glacial speeds.
So we can’t expect things to transform season to season – it
takes what football is built on to achieve it, hard work. So I’ll sit back, be
a little bit more patient, and in my almost depressing amount of optimism –
hope that we can get the club back to performing at a solid and consistent
level of quality. It’s what keeps me going to games every week, my curiosity to
see how the boys will perform against a wide array of opponents.
Tonight: Is it flares? Is it ethnic violence? Nah it's just the smoke from the gyros at Kingston Heath for our third NPL fixture
against table-toppers Bentleigh, who have 2 wins from 2. I’m looking forward to two things in particular; seeing how they use Stipo and a cold pivo to end this week. It’s almost
as if the weather knows that NPL is back, and the last two weekends have been
cold – but I don’t mind it. Jacket on, beer in hand – Friday night football,
there’s nothing better.
