Mariners v Spirit

[marinermick]

Bloody cold last night at Christie Park.

I arrived early with Kevrenor and Harsulus (Cove member) and watched the academy game. I must say I was impressed with the quality of the match and the abilities of both teams. The match finished 1-1 but if Ty Owens had his scoring boots on the academy would have romped it in.

It seemed like a massive wait for the main game which kicked off well after 8pm.

Good first half by the Mariners with Gump dominating the midfield and Mile playing the holding role superbly and was unlucky not to have scored a couple of headers from corners. Hutch and Kwassy were working hard on each wing but the front two of Nik and Saso seemed reluctant to run. We were also getting caught a bit by their speed out wide with both Browny and Osman getting skinned a few times. Trotty looked solid in goals.

The goal came from great lead up work from Gumpy and Kwassy. Kwassy did his now regular goose step and skinned former Australian international Jason Van Blerk. He put a perfect cross to Saso who tapped in from three yards.

The second half was a different story and with the large number of substitutes and diobolical refereeing the game turned into a kickfest led by their captain and number eight.

Spirit scored from a supposed backpass indirect freekick. Viddy had the ball close to Danny. He flicked the ball up and was readt to clear it before Danny jumped in and grabbed the ball. Ref blew the whistle and chaos ensued. There is no way it was a deliberate backpass as Viddy flicked the ball to himself, not Danny.

Anyway, shocking second and the team really has plenty of work to do - especially linking the midfield to the strikers whose workrate was abyssmal last night.

The second half striker pairing of Simon and Kwasnik worked harder in the second half but lacked quality service.

Goose of the night goes to their number eight and captain. After hacking our players all night he went for another cheap shot on Simon towards and. After poleaxing Matty the defender slumped to the ground in agony - cruciate liagament and no sympathy from the Marinators.

Thank you to Pete for the bus driving duties and see you next Tuesday at Cromer.

[serious14]

Diabolical refereeing?? Come on Mick, you're being a bit kind there aren't you??

[marinermick]

serious14 said:

Diabolical refereeing?? Come on Mick, you're being a bit kind there aren't you??

To quote a mariners' player after the game (and i won't name the player because i know how tetchy some forumites get at pointing out referee errors):

"The referee was drunk for sure. He came late and was all over the place. I bet they called him up from the pub and he was watching state or origin, sinking beers, and they offerred him $500 to do the match".

I was quite amazed that no Mariners player was hurt considering how much he lost control of the second half.

[ceburoo]

I went down to Jubilee Park and watched the squad practice one morning a few weeks back and the way the strikers practiced that morning must have been carried over into their performance last night at Spirit.

They did not put too much effort into their work that morning. I coach by the credo . . . what you do in practice you will do in the game. Obviously by Marinermicks summation they did just that. Maybe someone should be tattooing it up in their brains and let's see if it makes a difference.

I admit that I have only been there once and maybe they had an off day but these two strikers have something to prove to a lot of people and I was disappointed with their attitude.

[DJ]

Mrjda has been sick recently and Tommy just had his baby so they would have been affected by that.

Generally thou I know the players don't value this game too highly, at least they got a run and some game time! There's plenty of time available for them to get it right on the park

[marinermick]

djgrounsell said:

Mrjda has been sick recently and Tommy just had his baby so they would have been affected by that.

Generally thou I know the players don't value this game too highly, at least they got a run and some game time! There's plenty of time available for them to get it right on the park

that would certainly explain mrdja's effort but tommy was pretty active in the second half

and congrats to tommy and wife on their baby girl called sasha - the players are ribbing him that he named her after saso

[Pete]

marinermick said:

djgrounsell said:

Mrjda has been sick recently and Tommy just had his baby so they would have been affected by that.

Generally thou I know the players don't value this game too highly, at least they got a run and some game time! There's plenty of time available for them to get it right on the park

that would certainly explain mrdja's effort but tommy was pretty active in the second half

and congrats to tommy and wife on their baby girl called sasha - the players are ribbing him that he named her after saso

Well, at least Nik had a go and got on the park and put it some effort. He's been criticized in the past for being too precious about himself and not playing, so the change in attitude was good to see. Congrats to Tommy, happy as he might have been, I thought he would have killed Matt Simon in the second half after Matt wouldn't lay off the ball to Tommy on the fly up the centre of the park!
As for Danny's hair, I think Heff has some serious competition for the Most Metrosexual Mariner title this year! ("Danny Danny give us a blowwave!" Gold Roddy, Gold)
Adam showed some multi skilling by taking his partner in the six yard box and commencing a beautiful quick time waltz as a corner was being taken.
Congrats to Brett for beating all the other kids for the ball when it was booted out!

[brett]

It was a decent fitness hit-out from the lads.

I thought Gumps looked keen and was genuinely enjoying the game. He was a class above their players.

Our combinations up front need a lot of work. With the players we have, there is potential to just knock team's defences out of our way. But that won't always work and we will need a bit more imagination. There is plenty of time to gel that together of course, but the movement with the strikers just didn't look that coordinated did it?

I'm glad Matt Simon is in the squad so Sasho and Nik will always have someone who gives 110% effort over their shoulders waiting for a chance.

[Pete]

Yes, Matt actually contracted INTO the squad rather than being a short term contract & training partner, is certainly going to imply some pressure on the established guys.
In the second half we had some bloody tall timber in our defence line, with Boogs, O'Grady and Vidmar! That's the tallest defense backline I've seen for the Mariners. Good to see Boogs getting into the action altho he didn't seem comfy at right fullback.
Agree that the strikers and the midfield need to gel a bit more, more gametime will improve things, however, Lawrie did change the team quite a bit for the second half, so they did lose some continuity.
The simple fact that Saso finished off a Kwasnik cross to get a goal, is a hell of an improvement on last year. Saso and Nik upfront will be formidable, they need time that's all.

[jazasydneyfc]

My early prediction was that a Mrdja+Petrovski frontline would not work, that they would actually impede each other and you'd be more likely to see a 4-5-1/4-3-3 by year's end with Owens, Pondeljak, Kwasnik and co in support of one or the other.
Good to see I'm on track.

[marinermick]

jazasydneyfc said:

My early prediction was that a Mrdja+Petrovski frontline would not work, that they would actually impede each other and you'd be more likely to see a 4-5-1/4-3-3 by year's end with Owens, Pondeljak, Kwasnik and co in support of one or the other.
Good to see I'm on track.

they actually really worked well together in the malaysia

last night they were trying to find each other but:
- the runs were not being made
- when the runs were being made they did not read each other's play

dj gave us some inside information as to the health and motivation of the players for this game

jury is still out for me and i am also skeptical but i can certainly see potential for a stellar partnership

[thedoc]

It was FREEZING there. The 18s game was good to watch. The mariners result was not so good to watch. I don't think the ref did a very good job of controlling the game.

[~Floss~]

marinermick said:

they actually really worked well together in the malaysia

last night they were trying to find each other but:
- the runs were not being made
- when the runs were being made they did not read each other's play

dj gave us some inside information as to the health and motivation of the players for this game

jury is still out for me and i am also skeptical but i can certainly see potential for a stellar partnership

I only saw the Malaysia game and was impressed by how the whole arrangement was working... for that one game against that particular opponent. I'd have to agree with Mick's sentiments, at least until a few more pre-season trials have been played

[brett]

jazasydneyfc said:

My early prediction was that a Mrdja+Petrovski frontline would not work, that they would actually impede each other and you'd be more likely to see a 4-5-1/4-3-3 by year's end with Owens, Pondeljak, Kwasnik and co in support of one or the other.
Good to see I'm on track.

You could hear by their calls and see by the body movement that they were desperate to find each other with the ball. I think they will connect well mentally and once they read each other a bit more things will work quite well.

Matt Simon or Tom P running off one of them would make things easier but (given how we went last year) I think Sash and Nik are players we need on the field, with tactics to best accomodate their partnership.