Sydney v Macarthur at Allianz 7:45pm Saturday.

Victory v City at AAMI Park 3:00pm Sunday.

I really don’t know where to start with this fixturing.

Firstly, Sydney fans have to chose between travelling for the woman’s GF or staying in Sydney to watch the men’s elimination final. These games should have been on separate days to allow fans the opportunity to attend both if they chose to.

Secondly, its Orthodox Easter on Sunday. Melbourne has a large Greek population as we know. They have just thrown away any chance of this game selling out.

The obvious solution here would have been to move the ALW GF to 3pm Sunday and the Derby Final to 4pm Saturday. Its not a perfect solution, but a better one.

Also, as I type this, its 9:20am and codes to access finals tickets have not been emailed.

Got my MV email at 9:10, so maybe check your junk if you haven't received it.
Despite the odd kick-off, I still reckon they'll get close to filling the place. Derby always pulls a big crowd. It could also be Broxham's last ever game at home.
Tickets are well priced (cheapest Adult is $25 ($22.50 for members).
Unfortunately I'll be out of town, so will have to watch on the TV, but a mate used my membership to grab a ticket.

Seems they've bowed to the effniks

5 pm kickoff now

which is dumb. Not sure if a 2 hour delay will make much difference... but it will make a difference to families with school on a Monday

Yep. Was planning to take my 8 year old for 3pm start but 5pm fucks it right up with us traveling 2 hours to get home to regional Vic after possible extra time and penalties 

CCM had the same problem last weekend. Womens semi at Leichhardt at 3pm. Mens derby to stay in contention for Premiers plat t:15 in Newcastle.

playing around with Ticketek, the derby won't even come close to selling out. The APL and Melbourne-based clubs have a lot of work to get local Football fans back to the fold

It sold out earlier in the season. Still think tickets are still a bit expensive and Sunday night isn't an appealing time 

I think tickets are cheap for a final. and Yes, Sunday sucks. 

Really? Aren't these pretty much the same price as any regular season game?

• Cat D - $25
• North / South / Away Active - $30
• Cat C - $40
• Cat B - $50
• Cat A - $65

So more people in Melbourne observe Orthodox Easter, than the normal one ?

I find this perplexing.

Nope, not more, but depending on where you live, it's definitely not insignificant.
I still find it a bit weird that it was enough to shift the kick-off time though. Maybe they've looked at the number of Greek and Lebanese sounding surnames in the membership list and decided it's enough to make some accommodations.

what's a normal Easter? laying about in your jocks and replacing your normal diet of chips for breakfast with cadbury's chocolate eggs?

Cadbury! La di da.

Not saying that at all, but you clearly underestimate the amount of Orthodox Christians in Melbourne (the APL suits in Sydney clearly do as well). If you live in Melbourne you have lots of Greek friends and you know they all observe their Easter. FYI, Victory also played on the regular Easter Sunday and the crowd was poor.

I think "normal" for old mate Sutho is anything that distances itself as much as possible to non anglo interference in the country he resides

The one that the majority of christians celebrate around the world.

There you again, you know not a thing about me, but continue to spout shite about me and any other Anglo for that matter. Stop trying to incite racial hatred. ( You know you do )

Anyway, back to the football.
Magnificent win by the Mariners tonight. Champions, no doubt. 

Sydney certainly up for this match.

The pitch, especially in Redmayne's goal mouth, is not in great condition. 

That is an absurd red card!

Not sure how that is a clear goal scoring opportunity? A high ball on to the chest, facing away from goal?

That is fucking disgusting.

I am not invested in either team but that is exceptionally fucked.

Fold this bullshit league up now. 

Fagani made the final decision. Top referee in Asia? Fuck me.
 I'm agnostic about who wins. How can a referee or VAR at this level consider that to be DOGSO?

That decision is too biased against the defender. You've got to be careful not to in like that but it's somewhat unavoidable too. 

We honestly need to go back to the days of the vast majority of fouls simply being free kicks and spare the cards only for the really bad stuff. This one here was silly by the defender but a bit harsh. The fact the ref pointed to spot initially. Imagine that without VAR. 

I agree reds for those bad DOGSO but just a whistle and place the ball and get on with it. 

Well done Sydney, Talay earnt his keep with the display after half time. Very dominant all game without the score to reflect it in the first half.

Shut up furfuxsake, bad decisions in every league in the world.

Good tough game for the first half.

City on top in general play and a deserved goal up. Victory a bit toothless in front of goal, but not out of it.

Clear kick out by Machach saw him rightly cop a red - but I think the player on the ground holding his face when the replays showed the boot went nowhere near his face also deserved a yellow. Can't stand that sort of cheating. Arzani tried a lower level of the same with several 'pained' shouts much earlier exaggerating the amount of pain. Ref has done a pretty good job of ignoring or punishing the theatrics. Yellow card for Arslan faking the amount of contact in the back to fall and grab the ball.

Tough game for the ref with a lot of niggle and nasty contact by both sides, but I think he is handling it well. Some legitimate stuff will be lost in the theatrics and some crap will be paid but so far a decent threshold being applied.

Hoping the second half continues the entertaining battle - and no reason to expect otherwise.