Labour Day Holiday Boredom!

But not bored enough to get back to work. I've almost finished writing my conference paper - I only have to tweak a few figures and then the nervous wait for acceptance will begin. The strange thing is that since I've decided that I will start my PhD sooner rather than later due to how much work has been driving me nuts, I've started to enjoy work again. Go figure that one out. Perhaps the happiness is due to the relief that I'm not "stuck" there. Of course, I'll be earning less when I go back to uni so my buy-an-apartment-and-move-out plan has completely failed.

One of the reasons that really "helped" me decide that I didn't want to stay at work was their piss-poor excuse for why I was not allowed to teach at uni this semester. Initially I just accepted it - really, what can a newbie really do? But when I found out another graduate can teach (he told me) at the same uni as I had plans to, but I can't - well, it really upset me.

So until I go back to uni I will have to be content with coaching. :) I have decided that since I had offered to be flexible with my hours when I said I wanted to teach microbiology, that I will be completely inflexible now with training nights. i.e. I will leave at 5pm, or perhaps earlier. Of course I'd get in at some ridiculously early time to squeeze in my hours and any physical activity I choose to partake in (my knee rarely hurts these days - except when running downhill). Add that I don't particularly see myself at the company by the time the year ends, and it's even more of a reason to be a bit more ballsy with my hours/demands.

These long days will cause me to be irritable, but hopefully I'll enjoy the coaching enough to balance the irritability. Of course coaching has its frustrating moments, so it will be interesting to see how I cope! The club had a bit of a trial-session a few weekends ago with the U14 to U16 girls. It's amazing that such a gulf exists between the age-groups. I'm sure the U14s would have been all over the U16s if we played them against each other.

The weird part was that once you moved a decent U14 to the U16 group, suddenly they became a different player. And not in a good way. Might have something to do with confidence, but all their skills just disappeared. It may also have something to do with trust - that the U14 with the U16s at any given time didn't know the other girls and hence stopped looking up, so their passes went awry. Doesn't explain the loss of touch - might have been nervousness/lack of confidence after all.

With the club looking at squad-based training rather than team-based, it will be interesting to see how it works out for the players and for the club. The club's made it clear why they decided to do it, but they also acknowledge that it's foreign territory for them. They are also willing to return to team-based training if they can see it's not working. I'm intrigued to see how it all works out.

The A-League season is now over, and I don't think I made an swooning posts, so Fabian Barbiero deserves a mention. He seems to have a lovely attitude combined with those cute looks and decent footballing ability. If only Vukovic would have that attitude, perhaps I could publicly swoon over him again (I've decided that Vuko can be an a-hole; there's confidence and then there's arrogance. Don't ask me why I feel that way, he just annoys me somewhat. Despite how hot he is.)

How to get more girls to go to the football.

A while ago I was discussing pet dogs with Au (a girl at work). With Facebook blocked at work, I couldn't find any photos of my pup on Photobucket. Yesterday morning I remembered that I did have a photo... so I emailed the link to her.


=========================
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:20 AM
To: Au
Subject:



I did have a photo of my puppy on photobucket!



http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/cestaz/73558713.jpg
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:32 AM
To: Au
Subject: FW:



Actually, try this one:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/cestaz/P1000430.jpg

------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:51 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Hahaha… what’s his name?


------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:53 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Gnaw so cute!!

But the other email/pic combination made me LOL! hahaha


------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 10:56 AM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



HER name is P####. Google it to find out where the name was inspired from – it’s a bit of a laugh… well, to me anyway.



That being said, P#### suits her and I couldn’t imagine her to have any other name.








P.S. Yeah, trust me to f@%k it up with a footballer, and a goalkeeper no less! He’s quite hot though . LOL.
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:06 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



“open area on the outskirts of a town “??? I’m not sure this reference is right, cos I had presumed it would be football related!



And yes he is quite hot!
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:08 AM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



It’s pretty much the open prairie area in central Argentina. LOL



I’m imagining someone going, “Here’s my cat. I called it Werribee.” LOL



Yes, VERY hot. Olyroos goalkeeper too – I’m looking forward to the Beijing Olympics. ;) He’s a lot of fun to watch from a goalkeeping point of view. That’s how my semi-obsession with the young boy started anyway…
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:17 AM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



“Here’s my cat. I called it Werribee.” …. When you put it like that!! Or, here’s my cat, I called it poo farm – since that’s what Werribee is referred to as.



I’d even watch it for that!! Just how young is this boy?? (coming from the person who has been to four 21st birthdays in the past 2 weeks…)
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 11:21 AM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



Hmm… I’m surprised I don’t know this off the top of my head… about 10 years ago I would’ve been able to tell you his star sign and what-not.



He’s 22, and a month older than my brother… and older than those people who have recently turned 21.



Hurrah! He’s not illegal!



And he’s an Aries. LOL
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:23 PM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Well that fact that he is legal is the main thing… really though, 22 isn’t that young. How old are you anyway?



Hmm so is Aries compatible with your star sign? haha
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:30 PM
To: Au
Subject: RE:



23 – but I’ll be 24 before he turns 23. :’( LOL



Oooh… “hot air” when I tried a compatibility test online.



your time together will fan the flames of the Arian fire and elevate your relationship to one of passion

…oooh…



This combination can sometimes be very wacky

wOOt!



You might be able to prod Aries’ interest in self-improvement and become a teacher to them

Oooh… wonder what I can teach him, ey? ;)


The best group of Aries for you is the group born between 31 March and 10 April.

Damn, he’s a 22nd Mar.



I am clearly procrastinating.
------------------------------------
From: Au
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:33 PM
To: Cecilia
Subject: RE:



Yes, but you are doing it really well!



Pfft, that’s not much age difference at all… sound very compatible too!



Actually, I found out an interesting fact about my family the other day. Of all the relos that are married, the women are older in pretty much all of the relationships… I’m destined to be with a younger man! haha
------------------------------------
From: Cecilia
Sent: Monday, 14 January 2008 1:40 PM
To: Au
Subject: RE:




Oh, and you really have to see this kid in the flesh. Drool-worthy.

I was watching him warm up (I like to observe how each of them warm up you see) and I started talking about his physical finer points and now have a friend completely hooked on his stature.
=========================

Later discussions revealed that Au has a friend who wanted to take her to a Victory game. Now she wants to make sure it's against the Mariners. Hopefully Vukovic won't be on national duty or suspended when the time comes...

For the record, I did know Vuko was of legal age, but it's one of my favourite things to say when the time comes.

And Wayne, I directed her to your blog for reasons that should be clear.

Swooning recap.

Well, with Melbourne Victory's season effectively over, why not move onto swooning? I don't think I've written a post dedicated to swooning for a long time now, and perhaps a recap is overdue.

Last season's personal swoon Spase Dilevski left the A-League in search of playing in a better league. So far he's only participated in three matches over in Romania, playing with FC Universitatea Craiova. Perhaps things haven't turned out the way he expected. He also has bad hair. This was not something I expected.


And a need for sunglasses. Still quite swoony, though I'd love to see how his through-balls and passes with both feet are faring given his lack of game time.

Meanwhile, Danny Vukovic and Greg Owens (who were both deemed winners of the Best Looking Bloke Award due to my inability to decide on ONE method of analysing the vote data) now play in the same team. Unless I come up with yet another way of doing this only one of them will make the final poll. Or none if John Hutchinson or Alex Wilkinson come through the team stages instead. Oh, how I envy those who live in Gosford and can watch the Mariners on a regular basis!

With the departure of Marcus Wedau, Tom Willis and Dilevski Queensland is no longer as the swooniest team in the A-League. Clearly that mantle has been passed onto Central Coast.

As for new swoon-worthy players from this season, well, I suppose I'll deal with that later.

The catch up round of 22, err... 15.

Milo's mustache was unfortunate because the seperated halves never matched. They were like Milo's disunited eyes, which never looked at the same thing at the same time. Milo could see more things than most people, but he could see none of them too distinctly.

It's pouring in Melbourne, which is good for the catchments, but our stormwater system finds it difficult to cope with the storm at times. So it's a Friday evening and I'm curled up at home listening to Icehouse (actually, they were still Flowers at this point) and reading a book. I came across the above description for a character, and I instantly burst out laughing as at home we always thought that Vidmar was such a good defender because he could keep an eye on the ball and the other eye on the defender. I never thought he'd have a counterpart in modern literature! Except that I think Vidmar can see those things distinctly.

Quite fitting that I would have Vidmar in my thoughts, the irony is that I'm reading this book because it's pouring outside, and Central Coast vs. Sydney was originally postponed due to floods, and is the only match on this weekend. Conspiracy or something more sinister? I suspect that I am simply making leaps in my thoughts which don't quite connect. But that's hardly ever not normal for me anyway.

I didn't catch Sydney's match last week, and was in shock when my mum texted me the result. Shock followed by a very loud, "Oh no!" Simply because I don't want Perth to get any points! But when I got home and found out Celeski scored 3 and that Milligan stuffed up twice I was quite happy. Celeski should be on the swoon list... more on that some other time.

It was disappointing to see Milligan make such errors, and with Verbeek watching I am sure Mark was very disappointed in himself. I find myself in a strange position with Milligan, I don't really think much of him in a sky blue shirt but want him to be an excellent footballer when he puts on the national team kit. So seeing such amateur mistakes was disappointing, even if he was wearing sky blue at the time.

I'm expecting Central Coast to get this one. They've got some key players back and of course they're the swooniest team in the A-League, so why not go for them? Sydney are probably licking their wounds, and I don't think they'll be as mentally tough without their true captain in Mark Rudan who played his last game in a sky blue shirt (for the moment anyway) last week.

I'm hoping that the grand final is Queensland vs. Central Coast, simply because I have a fear that if Central Coast get the hosting honours the match will be shipped away to Sydney. Which would be no good, but then you need the larger stadium... I wonder what would happen...

Hmmm... with the storms currently in Melbourne looking to go towards Sydney, what's the chance of Bluetongue getting waterlogged again?

Our midfield problem

I'm not a Ljubo fan. So with Brebner suspended* and Muscat injured (Broxham too, but he would've been ineligible due to Olyroo commitments) we had a new midfield. Of Ljubo. If anyone saw one thing that Ljubo did for the team, please let me know. All I saw was someone doing bugger all and giving the team instructions the whole time. As if I'd listen to someone who wasn't putting in the hard yards themselves! And how can such a tall guy be beaten in the air?!?! Oh that's right, as part of the step-onto-the-pitch-only-package, the guy can't jump. Couldn't jump during preseason or against Wellington, can't jump now. It's not the knee, it's him. He's useless. So what did Ernie do? Use the three subs but kept Ljubo on the pitch.

I owe Beltrame a hug, not just because I do find him swoon-worthy (I 'fessed up last week during Eamonn's podcast) but because he almost took Ljubo out. I seriously think that we would've been better with ten men and no Ljubo than ten men plus Ljubo. Not only was Ljubo completely useless on the pitch, it looked like the other Melbourne players were avoiding passing the ball to him unless there was absolutely no other option! Perhaps passing and playing with Ljubo gets you on the wrong side of Muscat...

Anyway, let's not waste anymore time on Ljubo.

How GREAT were Adelaide! Sorry, I know I should be licking my wounds, but the main difference between the two teams was desire. Everytime there was a fifty-fifty ball or yet another Mickey-Mouse-pass from Melbourne, Adelaide would be there challenging for the ball. They looked so much quicker, getting there before us most of the time. Mentally and physically faster than us. I think not having Burns, Djite, Agostino and Valkanis means that a few players who don't often get a chance to play really wanted to prove their worth.

Pantelis had a great match, perhaps the best on the park. And to cap it off with that goal - it was quite a pretty strike. Dodd also had a great match, he seems to have really stepped up since taking on the captain's armband. Vidmar is now in the enviable position of having to seriously decide who to start with, and I'm hoping he gives Pantelis another start, he really did have a good match.

Yeah, I'm happy with our loss to Adelaide, but only because I can sit down to watch Adelaide and find myself watching some football. Vidmar may have started his head-coaching career in a bit of a shaky manner, but there's a real football team in the A-League season now. Perhaps two once I see the Roar play this weekend.

*Serves me right, I know.

About yesterday's opposition

Before kick-off I was standing at South End watching Vukovic warm up. A few weeks ago I was concerned about his goal kicks and distribution when it came to long balls. During his time away with the Olyroos, things didn’t seem to have improved, so I was getting quite concerned. But he was looking good during his warm up, with both kicks from the group and from his hands consistently getting to Redmayne. During the match there was one shocker, about midway through the second half, but a nice improvement on how he had been going lately.

While at South End, I think I convinced another (female) Melbourne fan of Vukovic’s swoon-worthiness… I’m trying to get opposition votes for him early should I decide to do the Best Looking Bloke Award again for the A-League! I do think that the Mariners have the best team, but that’s just my completely biased opinion, heavily weighted by one player.

Back to the football, McKinna’s done a great job for a team of players that may not have the individual technical brilliance that some individuals in other teams may have, but they’ve got a lot of heart. I don’t think there’s one player out there for the Mariners that McKinna would have to sub off because he wasn’t trying or didn’t feel like playing. The main reason why I think the Mariners have gotten off to such a great start, is that the team is largely unchanged from season 2, or even season 1! They’re quite a stable club, unlike current bottom team Sydney…

P.S. Looks like Central Coast have taken up the position that Queensland Roar had for me last year...

It's been a while...

...since I updated the swoon list.

Over at Football in the Capital, Carl Valeri has been making a few appearances. I like him a lot as a player. Very calm and cool on the ball, which is always great to watch, and awesome to see in such a young player! He seems to have a stabilising effect on the national team, and a great passing ability. Shame that there doesn't seem to be room for both him and Grella to grace the field at the same time...

Anyway, go visit the appropriate posts, and check out the cute video!

My new career...

Along with being a scientist, engineering student, and professional swooner, I've decided to begin my new career in coaching. It hasn't gotten off too well, with our first "Meet and Greet" session not going ahead due to a lack of communication between either myself and Person B or Person A and Person B. Communication between myself and Person A is pretty good.

I'll label this post and future posts related to my coaching (mis-)adventures as "Coaching" for easy access. Whether you use this feature or not is up to you, and consequently not my problem.

Anyway, so I'll be coaching the U/16 girls team at a local junior club. I once played for the senior club that the junior club wants to be a feeder for. The funny side of this is that I don't think much of the senior club. But then, I haven't played with a senior club for more than a season, so really no senior club is going to get the Cecilia Seal of Approval.

Luckily the squad size is limited to 14, so we'll only end up with 14 goalkeepers.

In other news, I stumbled across a picture that would've given Dilevski a better opportunity to stake his claim as the A-League's Best Looking Player.

Sob sob sob... not.

Alas, Queensland Roar have lost one of their swooniest players, and I am absolutely heart-broken!

Hahahaha.

I'm not really.

Seriously.

Oh come on, can't you see I was kidding?!?

Great, now I'm the laughing stock of blog-reading A-League fans everywhere.

Fine then, if you're not going to take me seriously, just read this then!

Hmmm... I wonder what kind of labourer he plans to be... might have to convince a couple of my friends now in Brisbane to use his services...

No, I am not obsessed. It's just too early in the morning.

Musings on Adelaide vs. Newcastle

Short post for a change!

I was hoping Newcastle would win this match... and then the penalties came around, and I celebrated when Beltrame saved the first time around... and that's when I think I jinxed Newcastle. Sorry!

But really, Newcastle should have thought about their penalties after Beltrame came awfully close to Thompson's. Coveny took the fourth one, chose the same side and elected to place the ball. As everyone knows, Beltrame saved it. Musialik took the fifth (and final) one for Newcastle. Like Coveny, elected to place it to the left of Beltrame...

Two things:
1. Beltrame would have been getting awfully confident on that side.
2. If you're going to take a spot-kick, place it where the keeper won't get it (top corners) or blast it to give it some speed.

In other news, the Mariners now have the best-looking captain. Go Melbourne!

Swoon of the week.

No, not James Robinson, I thought I'd put his picture up for the hell of it.







In all seriousness, swoon of the week and hero of the match goes to Danny Allsopp. Although Greg Owens sipping coffee at the airport looked good on the TV this morning... Anyway, hero of the match and cute to boot too! He singlehandedly put us back in the match by beating a total of 7 players to score the equaliser. He beat 3 Adelaide players with the ball at his feet, decided not to pass to Fred (4) , beat two more Adealaide players (6) with the shot, which also eventually beat Beltrame (7). All class.

In other news, Costanzo had another brilliant match - why can't we sign him? And I'll happily take Beltrame too, but I'll give my man of the match to Costanzo. He's great to watch - plays as if he has all the time in the world, even when under pressure.

----------------------
*He was incidentally was my first football crush oh so many years ago, based on him winning the golden boot at the U/17 championships - in 1995. I would've been 11 at the time. And over 10 years later, turns out he's a bit of a cutie.

(Swoonable) idiot of the week

This week's swoon is more of a rant. Good-looking player in my opinion (and a few others too), but he was very disappointing on the pitch.

I hate it when players pick up stupid yellow cards. It's often the younger players who lack a bit of experience, and often get themselves booked for general recklessness. I've made a short post in the past about this as it is a pet hate of mine.

I would like to think that a player would earn a yellow (or red) card for a decent reason. This week a particular player stood out for me. Greg Owens came on late for Adelaide on the weekend, after the three points and second place had been stitched up.
He had quite an awful 18 minutes. First moment of misery occurred soon after his inclusion in the match, where a shooting opportunity where he didn't make contact with the ball. Now, this happens to a few players (eg. Vargas), but not really as obviously as what happened to Owens. Drew his right leg back, 'shot' with a bit of follow-through and he had a more impressive pirouette than Vargas. Although at least Owens' (lack-of)-action did cost Adelaide a goal.

The frustration that resulted from it did have a possibly worse affect though. Well, I assume that he would have been frustrated with his mis-timing and probably tried too hard to win the ball when he had a chance. And when he did have this chance, he put his entire body in the path of a player. It wasn't malicious at all, but I believe that it was unecessary. He should have known that he was already on three yellows, and that any stupidity of the tackling kind would result in a suspension.

Comparing the two ballerinas - where Melbourne didn't need the three points, Vargas is still available for next week (hoping that he just had a bad game against Newcastle). Owens, however, has now ruled himself out of the first leg of the finals match against Melbourne. From a Melbourne point of view, I shouldn't be complaining. But if I had to be honest, I'd want the A-League to be a success. It needs to be sustainable and produce good quality players. In my perfectionistic view of football, players who earn stupid yellows such as Owens (Melbourne's Adrian Leijer earns a few too, I'm not that one-eyed) affect the quality of the game.

Whether it be through giving away free-kicks or earning themselves a suspension for the next week (or couple of weeks if you're Leijer*), it's something that needs to be worked on. It may up to the individual player to decide that he will keep his cool, or up to their coach if the player needs to settle down.

From a swooning point of view, at least he'll be available for the Melbourne leg of the play-off. From a Victory supporter's perspective, here's hoping he doesn't score or provide an assist. Or recklessly tackle someone in a manner that injures them...

Who's the "best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever"?

From the most recent Queensland Roar podcast:

Stu: I’ve got a sneaky one here, you’ve done your last, I’ll do my last if you don’t mind. Spas Dilevski. Now, if he’s chocolate he’d eat himself, this boy, I’ll tell ya. So what he wanted for Christmas was some kind of nomination or award for the best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever, he didn’t mind. As long as it was some kind of nomination for being good looking. I’ll tell ya, he couldn’t even win the best looking bloke his house, and he only lives with Massimo. Not saying Mass is an ugly–

Josh: Not having a crack at Mass in anyway.

Stu: No shape or form. It’s a two horse race…

Josh: And got pipped on the line!

Stu: He did!

Josh: Actually, not even pipped I think it was four lengths going away. I don’t think he’d want to hear that at all. He does rate himself.

----------------------------
And thus begins the search for the best looking A-League participant. I need to whittle nominations down to a manageable number, I've decided for 8 - one player from each team and have made a thread in each forum.

Perhaps I shouldn't have pointed out that I was from Melbourne, Adelaide think I'm spamming them. Ah well. If they don't want to participate their rep will be Greg Owens. They have been warned. They now seem to be ok with it, in fact things are now going pretty well. Unlike...

Sydney, who don't look to be taking it up at all. Okay, maybe a little... a Sydney fan posted Bolton on the Melbourne forum... turns out he's banned from the Sydney forum!

I can't tell what Perth are doing... they seem to be taking the piss out of it, but at least they're funnier than Sydney.

This is looking like a shambles...

Melbourne are going for it a bit, and just like the other forums, they're listing players from all teams.

Queensland's been pretty good too (sob, sob), along with the Mariners - where someone's put my link up anyway. Cheers to those two forums for taking it with a sense of humour. Jeccy, no-one's nominated Matty McKay yet!

Newcastle were the last forum added, as there were some probs getting onto the site in the first place last night. Like Queensland and the Mariners, this forum has also taken to this silly quest of mine like a duck to water.

And finally, New Zealand. There have been three replies so far, which is proportional to the other forums when you consider their crowds at home games. :P Sorry, couldn't resist.

I'm trying to get guys to respond to this, as surely you can assess whether a guy is good-looking or not, like girls can pick out and accept that other girls can be pretty. So, during the week when I get a rough idea of who's popular in each club I'll try to set up an anonymous poll for each forum. When I get my final 8, I'll then make each forum choose by removing the 'home' player. Hopefully this will take out any bias.

Oh, and Spase Dilevski might get nominated in the final lot by default. So it might be a final 9. I haven't decided yet. I wouldn't how I'd go to go about removing 2 options from the Queensland forum... Who will be "best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever"? Dunno, but I'm abbreviating it to the BLBA award (Best Looking Bloke in the A-League - trying to stay true to McLaren's 'terminology.')

The who needs coffee player of the week

Due to my knack of falling asleep whenever I get bored, I tend to be a bit of a caffeine addict. But, there are times when you don't need a cup of coffee to wake you up. Sometimes a cute footballer does the trick.

So, while I had already had a cup of coffee, it came to my attention that Newcastle's Steven Old is a bit of a cutie. Photos can be found at Getty Images. Photos won't link up properly... :(

Note: I'm going to try my hardest to put a new player in the swoon of the week. Usually the player needs to be halfway decent for me to realise he's there and consequently take a closer look. In this case, I blame a closely contested match, as I spotted Old before he had touched a ball - as he came off the bench. I'd seen him before, but I'm making an effort here to put a new swooning player each week.

A post solely dedicated to swooning.

I've been trying to write a complete nonsense post which was essentially just swooning. However, I've been getting caught up in the more critical aspects of the game. So I'm going to cheat and take the November 29 2006 entry from my old MSN space. With some edits...

Here or Girl's guide? Here!

I'm very sorry, but this entry contains football - it didn't quite belong on my A-League blog.

For those who don't know, I've been planning to move interstate once I finish uni. Just to get a break from Melbourne and forces me to move out, become independent, etc., etc.. Where will I go? Wherever it is, it MUST have an A-League team. Ideally, that team would be Queensland, considering that I am currently swooning over three of their players. Yes, three now. The two keepers that I have devoted previous entries to, and a midfielder. Which is, incidentally, my favourite position to play - that's right, I'd rather be a midfielder than a 'keeper... but I don't have the fitness for it. And until my knee's back in action, I can't get fit... can't play in the engine room.

So, where was I? Oh yes, the interstate plan. The fun of having an A-League team to semi-support (after Melbourne of course) is that I would join up as a member, sit in the members' section (if it's like Melbourne's set-up), and then when Melbourne comes around, dress up in the Melbourne kit and NOT be kicked out of the section! Coz I'm a member and all! Hehehe... it'd be fun.

I've mentioned my silly little plan to my lab - and my preference for Queensland... and when I told my lab my honours results, Catherine pointed out there were PhDs on offer in Brisbane. Not sure if she remember my Qld plans. Insert curses against the incomplete engineering degree I want to complete here.

For the record, Chad Gibson, that Qld player I dislike has moved into midfield. He is NOT the player that I've started swooning over - that player is Spase Dilevski. I haven't figured out what's made me change my mind over Dilevski - I used to poke fun at him because he nearly has no neck and it's weird. Feet - legs - torso - shoulders - head. There are arms too, but not important here. I'm still trying to figure out why I've decided to add him to my swoon list. But I didn't really watch him when Qld played Melbourne, and I missed Sydney's match against them on Friday night.

Oh, well, when I go to the Qld Roar site, SD's listed as a defender... but he's more of an anywhere kind of player. And he can kick with both feet!


So there you are, finally got around to a swooning post. A friend emailed me saying she didn't agree with me on Dilevski, but I think my eyesight's affected when he plays well. I don't know why I put this on the MSN spaces, as I was trying not to talk about football there because people would semi-jokingly-complain when I bumped into them... and my original intention for this blog was to swoon... oh well. I'm getting there.

The morning after...

I can't deny being happy that the Victory confirmed their minor premiership last night, and it was great to do it at Olympic Park.

However, a short message to the Platinum members from the western stand - where the hell were you? If you don't rock up, our crowd numbers go down. I think seats are sold eventually, but before the 15min up to kick-off many fans would already have been turned away - if what's happened in previous matches is still what occurs.

Second, thanks to the Eastern stand who cheered on the Kiwis when they turned out for their warm up. :o)

It's funny that although my second team this season is Queensland, I don't have any problems beating them when Victory are playing them. However, last night I was a bit out of sorts, with the Kiwis being my second team last season. But I'm thinking that my concern for them is more to do with their demise as a club than anything else. Lately they've been playing much better than last season, and it's a shame they've collapsed at this time.

I can't figure out if I was happy for the Kiwis to be included in the A-League in the first place, but now that they're there, if they fail it just gives anti-footballers some ammunition. Also I read somewhere that neither Woolongong or Townsville would be ready to take over the 8th license next season, as their plans were for the season after... or something like that...

Should it be between those two consortiums (with Canberra as a third), I'd hope Townsville gets it. Simply because NSW already has plenty of clubs, and that's probably affecting crowd numbers already.

Speaking of the Sunshine State, what a joke was Matthew Breeze on the weekend? That was one of the most pathetic displays of refereeing I'd seen this season in the A-League, and there have been a few. Oh, and Hyuk Su-Seo! Just a message in case you receive treatment on the pitch again in the future. If the stretcher comes out, I'd recommend getting on it. Whether you walk off or get stretchered off, play will not restart until you're off. Now I have very faint recollections of Batistuta's yellow card at USA '94 (I was only 10... in fact I can't think of any other memories at the moment from when I was 10. So this made quite the impact on me.) He got the yellow because the ref thought Bati was time-wasting or feigning his injury because he didn't get on the stretcher when it came out. So, as I said, no harm done if you leave via the stretcher, you have to go off anyway.

For the record, Hamish - I've decided that Paston is kinda cute (this definitely to do with goalkeeping ability I'm sure) and two days ago I decided that Hickey was cute too. Funny that his Knights profile claims that his known for his good looks...

Will I still follow Queensland?

On Sunday night, I began to write: "I am going to eat my words. Just like last season really... should I have expected any different from Queensland? They seem to self-destruct... one week they're playing good football and the next... unmentionable."


Anyway, I ended up saving this as a draft, went off to dinner, then to bed, and now I can't remember where I was headed... especially since now things have changed at the Roar.

I kinda have Queensland as my second team this year (last year, my second team was the Kiwis, but this year they have bored me). Don't really know why Qld became my second team, but it's probably becuase they have both Reddy and Willis. Sure, I think Vukovic is a brilliant keeper considering his age and experience, and Paston had made quite a good impression against Qld. But in case you haven't read previous posts, if I had a crush on any player, it'd be Willis. But Reddy's a better keeper (and he also pulled his socks up last year, but Willis is now doing this too) and not bad looking, and so they're kinda even. I also love to laugh at Gibson, as he seems to be permanently stuck in the one facial expression. As if he was playing a brass instrument. But he hasn't been playing - so I haven't had much of an opportunity to chuckle.

Anyway, back to Queensland. I also liked Bleiberg. He has a lot of character, and is quite refreshing compared to other figures in the A-League. And in case you've been living under a rock, he has resigned. (I yelled out, "No!" in the lab this morning when I read it on the website of The Age. No-one else really understood why I was a little upset... a mixture of losing Bleiberg and possibly gaining Farina. I don't like Farina for what he did to the national team. Or what I think he did.) But I suppose, with all the talk of Farina, I would rather resign than be sacked in the future under worse circumstances. And so, I have forgiven Beliberg. Almost. If Farina is hired... I may need a few weeks to forgive Miron.

And now comes the tricky part... will swooning over Reddy and Willis be enough to semi-follow the Roar (after Melbourne of course!) even if Farina ends up as coach?