could Sydney get an easier run to the final? 

In the history of the cupFor Melbourne victory 11 out 14 games (including the next) were away from home... and one of our home games was against city. 

Interesting that Peninsula Power got the best crowd of the round. Also interesting that the other match in Brisbane that had two a-league teams was less as well. Maybe a team based in North Brisbane that could tap that area could work. In saying that City are based in the North of Brisbane technically.

Our crowd stacks up very well considering the opposition, unless it's a horrible night we should go on and break the record for an all npl clash in the next round.

Sydney have only ever had one home game. Easy runs have their downsides.

Might be wrong, but I think they show the list of teams and numbers before the Ro32 draw which imo is good enough I think since the numbers don't change.

It may partly be that Melbourne City was a good draw, but it's also pretty relevant that of all the cup ties this round the Redcliffe stadium was easily the best.

Weather plays a part as well, peninsula power game looked like summer on tv lol, down here you got the commentators literally almost blown away lol

lol if you're going to go down that road you could at least do 5 minutes of research which would show you that Sydney have only ever had one home game. 

Thought the game between Bentleigh Greens, (who are one of the best BPL teams I've seen in terms of style of football) and Hume was barely watchable. The standard was low, with many players from both teams making far too many mistakes.

When there were flashes of the games between the other two games featuring HAL teams last night, the standard looked a lot better.

Apart from excerpts of Panny Nickas , couldn't see any other midfielder on show for NPL clubs who looked skilful enough for the HAL.

The gap in standard between the HAL and NPL is vast. I agree we really need an HAL2 or an expanded HAL.

I don't know what John Anastasiadis has to do to get a HAL assistant coaching, or head coaching gig?

He seems to have done everything right.

I've never seen South Melb play anything but football dross when playing 11 v 11 against Tasmanian  NPL clubs. I'm sure they are capable of playing a lot better, but they seemed to drop to our teams' level on the day against Olympia  and South Hobart.

The only decent NPL team, who played well on the day, was APIA Leichardt. They played superb football a week ago.

What happened in the Roar/Victory game?

Did Victory simply take their chances and Roar missed every goal?

I thought this game would be a very even contest.

Victory dominated start to finish but never really looked troubled.
Roar had a couple of chances but extremelly poor finishing on their end. They got a pretty good consolation goal in the end.
Roars defending was horrendous though.
Big Mac came on and got about half an hour, didnt do much.

Thanks.

I'm trying to think of who has left Roar besides Maclaren and Borello?

He did a backheel lol

-PB

The only player I've seen from South M who has looked any good was Matthew Theodore.

I was told he was considering retiring. Is he still playing?

I'm disappointed to see Merrick given the Jets job.

@decentric

We've also lost a certain T. Broich

We've all lost players. We use the transfer market to replace them. 

Not to mention Oar.

Broich was playing as a bench player, but he  had considerable impact.

MV have hardly lost any, apart from ones who were released  - or so I thought.

I'm not unhappy about drawing Adelaide, but frustrated we drew a HAL team away again. what is the probability drawing 2 HAL teams away in 2 games? Especially considering half of them were eliminated in the round of 32, which reduces the probability even more. Reckon we're very stiff. 

On a side note, to determine who hosts the final, many people are saying it should be the team the scores the most goals (or goal difference). but that gives an advantage to the team that plays more games against NPL sides. I reckon the team who beats the most HAL teams deserves to host the final. 

Starting CB, both starting wingers, and starting LB (Baro, Rojas, FBK and Georgievski). Debatable as to whether or not its quite as bad as Roar losing Borello, Jmac, Oar and Brioch. But it's still 4 of the starting 11.

Victory still have 3 foreign spots available. I think Brisbane have 2.

MV released Georgievski, Baro and and FBK - as I understand it.

This is different to losing Rojas, who was still considered integral to this season's plans.

Good win for us despite a very slow start. We could've been down by 1 in the opening minute and then conceded a soft goal 20 minutes later. Luckily that seemed to spur the boys into action and we were able to hit back almost immediately. After that FNQH never looked like troubling us. 

By the end of the match 7-2 was a flattering result for them. We could've easily had another 4 or 5. I'm not sure if fitness was an issue for FNQH but they were extremely poor. They are 7th in their league and haven't won in a few weeks but we're also 7th in ours. The gap between the sides was massive despite our recent woeful form. 

Heidelberg will be a tough task but home advantage will help. They're one of the best state sides in the country while we've been inconsistent all year despite being strong on paper. Should be a great game, hopefully we can avenge the 2-0 loss down in Melbourne from 2 years ago. 

What did people really expect him do after coming on with that scoreline, give the old boy a chance still very early.
I think he will surprise a few of the doubters this season. 

When you concede 5 goals it says as much about attitude as football ability.But this is also symptomatic of too many old players in a team.
Coaches have an extra weapon in their arsenal when they have a team chocked with younger players.That is the motivation to improve and the motivation to win.
Older players have little motivation other than personal pride,having done it all.
Last year we saw CCM grab some SFC players ,who were a waste of space.
Most of the time last year BKF was rubbish until later in he could sniff a contract extension.
My worst fears about Roar look likely to materailise.Too many older players .Motivated one game not motivated the next and all a year older and slower than last year.When older players lose enthisiasm it rubs off on the youger players.Desperation is lost .One goal conceded,two goals conceded and its 4+ before you know it.

MV seem like they haven't lost anyone because they have recruited well. Also, all the players they have recruited are former MV players.

Playing semantics I know, but we didn't release Georgievski. He left us. He signed with Newcastle well before the end of last season. We lost Ansell as well which many people aren't talking about. He wasn't in our starting 11 in the latter part of the season, but is a pretty solid CB.