I find it frustrating that an organisation like the FFA is meant to serve everyone involved in the game but instead are more focused on getting things done only for the select few at the top of that organisation. No one else's opinion matters. 

Cant help but put the boot in against the Socceroos and wog ball comment. He is anti wog ball therefor I consider it an insult. Make of the other comparisions as you will. 

A day that started with a punch and ended in heart break

• The Australian
• 12:00AM August 1, 2017
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• PATRICK SMITH

  

  Senior sports commentator

  Melbourne

  @Smithersss

  

That was before breakfast. Over coffee and a piece of toast the Matildas walloped Japan 4-2. The previous match in the Tournament of Nations was the historic win over the United States. Against Japan Sam Kerr scored three goals. Only her acrobatics across the pitch afterwards threatened to steal the moment from her hat-trick.

It was exciting just to see Australia play with a skill and a flair that seemed to take the men’s teams decades to learn and embrace. As Kerr tumbled and rolled you were thrilled for her and the game’s progression.

It wouldn’t last. Not on a day like yesterday. Soon you were on your knees, mentally if not physically. A killer punch from nowhere had thudded into your heart. Les Murray was dead.

You might not have spoken to Murray. Not written to him. Not shaken his hand. But you knew him. Knew him well. He was 71, and with Johnny Warren who died in 2004, they were the unlikely double act that fought to make football accessible to suspicious Australians after World War II. That it was a tough assignment is realised in the title of Warren’s book published two years before he died. In part, it read: “Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters …”

It didn’t seem possible to land on the television station SBS without Murray’s face appearing. To a nation wary of funny sounding names playing a game without outrageous body contact, Murray could but chip away, then chip some more. That club football and any incarnation of a national league were mostly chaotic never dulled Murray’s enthusiasm.

Australia first made the World Cup finals in 1974 when a team of football labourers had no skills to hurt both East and West Germany. These were wins for football’s architects. A draw with Chile gave Australia some comfort and respect.

It was after Warren died that his preaching found its reward and Murray was there to record and analyse it. Australia made the finals in 2006, 2010 and then 2014. Australia are well placed to reach the finals in Russia next year. Last year Murray told The Guardian: “I started on this mad mission to convert Australians to football in the schoolyard. That’s where it started, not when I became a broadcaster, that was just a continuation of it.”

If Murray, a foundation stone of Australian football was gone, then we very soon found out an AFL superstar was going. Not to the great interchange bench in the sky but to some peace and a lot less bruising at least. Nick Riewoldt was retiring at the end of the year. He has been no ordinary player.

“I couldn’t be more convinced that the time is right to retire and step aside,” Riewoldt said at an afternoon news conference. I’m really proud that I’m doing so with a litre or two of petrol left in the tank rather than being run out on the side of the road with a foot up, begging for help.”

If Murray was a constant on SBS then Riewoldt and St Kilda have been inseparable for 17 years. And for 17 years Riewoldt has delivered a remarkable standard of football. Six best and fairests, five All-Australian selections and he is on schedule to finish his career on 337 games.

He will be remembered for many things. He was so fit he considered the territory of a centre half-forward included the goal square and the half-back line. Wherever he ran he was a dominating presence as though the ball had been paired to his hands. A champion? Yes, and in any era.

Not everybody leaves an indelible mark but Riewoldt did. In 2004 at the SCG he took the greatest mark many of us have ever seen. He sprinted back into play towards a gathering group of players and took a mark on his chest. That is it at its skimpiest.

As you saw the play unfold it was apparent Riewoldt had committed himself to the mark but also what would more than likely be catastrophic injury since he was running hard the wrong way into a traffic snarl. Deep inside, self-preservation must have set off an alarm but somehow his courage was so intense, and had so flooded his brain, that he over-rode it. And thus a lifetime memory was captured.

Gone, too, is Paddy Dangerfield, suspended for one match for his illegal tackle on Carlton ruckman Matthew Kreuzer. The Geelong Brownlow medallist may yet appeal the decision but he did clamp the arms of Kreuzer and dump his head into the turf. Kreuzer could not carry on because of concussion.

Clearly now the tribunal has adopted the spirit of the bumping rule. That is, if you choose to bump then you are automatically responsible for any head trauma. Now it is applied to tackling. Wrap a player’s arms in a tackle which leaves him vulnerable then you must accept responsibility for any head injury. Fair enough, too, though it is unfortunate for football. If the suspension survives a possible Dangerfield appeal he will be ineligible to win a second consecutive Brownlow Medal. The argument then will be whether the action deserves such a heavy consequence.

That is how the day ended. Kreuzer was not the only one left concussed. Murray will correctly have a grand send off. And he left us with the knowledge that his preaching the virtue of wog ball in the schoolyard after arriving from Hungary began a climb, slow and clumsy as it was at times, to world recognition. The beautiful game has had few better servants — anywhere and at any time.

A day that started with a punch and ended in heart break

Apologies if this bloke has been nominated before...

Lyle Shelton who rejoices in the title of "Managing Director" of  something called the "Australian Christian Lobby" (ACL).

Apart from confirming that he is a warrior for Christ, his Twitter account bio affirms "Soccer is not football". Also that he is from Queensland. Which may explain a few things.

Shelton is implacably opposed to, among many things, marriage equality. I was considering boycotting the mooted ABS opinion poll on this topic as I don't understand why anyone should clamour to enter into a contract to live together with another person that is hard to extricate yourself from should circumstances change. However, the four words Shelton uses have convinced me I should participate on the affirmative side.

Funnily enough Bernard Keane who is nominated on the first page of this thread is a big online critic of Shelton's but at least they have found common cause on one thing.

As he is a Knoxious plant, very possibly:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Grammar_School#Sex_offences_by_teachers

love the soccer comments here by some readers..
seriously 


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/brawl-erupts-at-junior-football-grand-final-in-hoppers-crossing/news-story/9424aecb635242a7b82bd687ad3e3eb9

Australian culture at its best. 

'The crowd became bored with how easy it was to score a goal' is definitely a highlight hahaha quality 

The pirate is back -

Who can challenge Tim Cahill?

Well done, Tim Cahill, for saving the day against Syria and nailing the two crucial goals that Australia needed to stay alive in the World Cup qualifications. But why, once again, does Australia have to rely on a bloke nudging 40 – he'll be 38 in December – to get the job done? Where are the young, hungry generations rising up, to push him out? It would be exactly like the Wallabies still relying on Phil Waugh to get the job done, because no Michael Hooper or David Pocock had come along, to move him along! Wasn't the A-League meant to provide the perfect nursery to produce champions? Or is it that, with the A-League, the Cahills, Kewells, Bosnichs et al, no longer have to leave Australia to go after riches and glory – and thus getting experience in the really big leagues – meaning that our cream is not nearly as creamy as it once was. I note the Olyroos haven't made it to the last two Olympics, and while the under-17 World Cup is happening right now, we don't have a team there. What is going on? (And if as a soccer person, you say I have no clue, I say, "Thanks, Scoop. So give us the John Dory! What is going on?")

Peter Fitzsimons: Knuckle-dragging treatment of women deserves serious punishment from AFL

I agree with some of his crap but he just comes across as a bully who wants Australia to fail. 

The cracks of Ange Whingecoglou

• The Australian
• 12:00AM October 25, 2017
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• PATRICK SMITH

  

  Senior sports commentator

  Melbourne

  @Smithersss

  

The closer you get to this mysterious object the more chips and cracks you see in what once would have been a cherished shell. Possibly priceless.

Then you see it in bright light and clear water. That’s Ange Whingecoglou. Once thought to be a proud and mighty coach. A man with a vision but better still a methodology that would sweep not just the Socceroos to world glory but drag the rest of the nation’s players, clubs and leagues with him. Football would stride across Australia on its way to taking over the world.

Hear him speak and he got to you. You could see his plans and tactics were more than a dream but could become reality. If anybody was going to make football and Australia click as one, it was Ange. Because early on, he was loved. He was Ange. And Ange was Australian soccer.

He got Australia to Brazil in 2014 where a final group 3-0 loss to Spain was not a fair reflection of a fighting Australian effort. In Ange it seemed we had the ­answer.

Four years later we have two critical matches against Honduras before we can even squeeze our way into the World Cup finals in Russia next year. Australian soccer has slipped — from a proud effort in Brazil to, at best, slipping in the back window to Russia.

Rightly the Socceroos efforts have drawn criticism. The new formation with three at the back has few supporters. Team selections have been hammered and public interviews sometimes seem the results of a man determined to have a public breakdown. Just to really prove his point.

He maintains the most childish position of not clarifying whether he will continue on to Russia with the team if they defeat Honduras. It seems the most fundamental question which demands a full and honest answer. After all he is the national coach. But he defers. “It’s yeah, I know ... you know what? It’s a kind of ­facetious question because people just want me to fit into their stereotype and answer it in a way that makes them feel really good about themselves.

“If people are really worried about my future they should be worried about these two games, but they’re not, they just want an answer to a question and I’m not going to give ’em it,” said Ange.

To walk away from the team as it could be preparing for the next World Cup draws images of a child walking away with his ball after being called a sook.

His answer to the ABC questioner makes no sense. It is a jumble of thoughts and fears and defensive strategies for imagined plots.

Facetious question? In what sense? It can’t be glib or flippant. Ange has not publicly committed to the World Cup. Nothing superficial about that. There is every reason to ask the question because it is Ange who is making all manner of things difficult. When the story was broken that he would not continue with the team if it reached Russia he needed to firstly say whether it was right or wrong, and secondly give a full explanation. He hasn’t done that; the FFA hasn’t done that. The players and the public are left in the dark so Whingecoglou can pout and scowl.

Postecoglou began as coach of Australia with the full and warm support of Australians. With smiles and a bit of humour he won over the curious but unconvinced. He was seen by everyone to be the man to carry the nation forward to world soccer prominence. No one knows where that man has gone. Missing persons have been alerted.

Because he certainly isn’t the glum, grim and griping sad sack that fronts media conferences these days. It looks on television that it would be more fun to saw your leg off than attend a Whingecoglou monologue.

Like this: “I don’t care,” he said. “I love robust discussion about tactics but if I think something’s stupid, I’ll say it’s stupid. I want you to criticise absolutely, I want you to talk about it but that doesn’t mean that I’ll blindly follow what you say.”

That little bit of Ange philosophy needs deconstruction. It means: “I get very cross with any criticism. I hate it, hate it, hate it. Criticise me by all means but I will never, never, never speak to you again. I used to really like all of you when you liked me. Now, you are just awful, awful, awful.”

The Mighty Ange cannot take criticism. Not a dollop of it. Imagine how he would go as an AFL coach. He would unravel so frequently the club would have to appoint a personal raveller to bind poor Ange together again. He is the shell of his former self.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/opinion/patrick-smith/the-cracks-of-ange-whingecoglou/news-story/f1bc787737e96711f744eda029954bc1

You know the vultures are circling when Fatprick Smith sees some opportunity

More seagulls than spectators?

"Kick to the seagulls," used to be Jack Gibson's clever maxim, when it came to the strategy of hoiking rugby league balls downfield. The obvious idea was to kick where the defenders weren't. I don't mean to be unkind, but it as well that he is not a soccer coach in the A-League these days. Last week when Melbourne Victory played at Etihad Stadium, I swear there were more seagulls than spectators? I accept that rugby crowds have dwindled alarmingly, and rugby league crowds are down, too, but is it not surprising that the same appears to be happening in soccer?
Peter FitzSimons: Remembering Fatty Vautin's finest moment - his outfield catch

In Smiths article he says Ange qualified the team to the 2014 cup. Geez, the standard of 'journalism' is low in this country.

Must say, I normally hate this Pat Smith bloke, and have despised all his previous cheap shots that he's taken at our game, however in this instance I actually have to agree. His argument is actually quite measured. Sure the title is pretty petty (and he clearly doesn't know that Ange didn't actually get the team to the last world cup in Brazil. No surprise) but in reality much of what he has written is actually what fans and media are thinking.

We do deserve an answer. Being the national coach is not the same as a club coach. He has a responsibility as the national coach. If he thinks he's answered the question all along by saying that his journey will end once the journey to the world cup ends then the only way that can be translated is that he'll be there until we get knocked out either by Honduras or at the actual world cup during the journey of winning it. So some simple clarification and confirmation from him is expected. Instead he's made people guess and on top of that he's made it harder on himself by creating further speculation. 

I like the part in Smith's article about "imagine how he would go as an AFL coach"

These are the guys I often mistake for trainers where the biggest point of failure is not winning a rigged suburban competition with a couple of teams in other states. And if the coach fails the team is rewarded for it

AFL coaches have no idea what its like to have to assemble a squad at the 11th hour after carefully monitoring dozens of leagues around the world - and competing in a 200+ team global tournament with the final stage having the largest audience for any single competition. Where criticism and ridicule comes at you from all corners of the globes and all dialects


Before judging Ange I would have liked to see how he went with a golden generation. But instead the current cattle are just rubbish and I doubt any other coach would have done better

Yeah I had to laugh at that one. The better analogy would be: "imagine how he would fare as coach in Europe or Asia". 

The rest of the article is 100% spot on.

I was mildly conflicted because I agree with what he says also. But the AFL comment ensured it was posted in this thread. 

Maybe Fitzsimons should go back to talking about his diet seems to make more sense then is football observations.

Haha yep, i was reading it and wondering why it was in this thread and then he went and mentioned that.

Ol' mate Sheeds at it again in today's Herald Sun (where else?)...

You have to admit, as brutally offensive as that quote is, the man is very articulate and fluent

That may be so, but we are talking about someone who still believes his code can conquer all of Australia and eventually take off overseas:laugh:

The bloke's a senile piece of shit - the national gene-pool will be that much cleaner for his passing.

So inspiring it just gets beaten out by retired players who take up surfing.

Articulate? Any good examples of this?

was trying to work out the chart a couple of posts above but its a 2015 morgan poll ... I answered myself

the biggest enemy to oz football is the var. 

Interesting the comments towards football are the same anti-migrant stuff that was prominent in the 1950s the tone never changed they just removed the racist undertones. Can't say wog anymore so replace it with 'soccer player' and they can keep their racist diatribe.

Why'd he even feel the need to reference soccer at all the old gimp

"So Kevin Sheedy why is it that Aussie Rules is so much better than soccer? "
"Well, because it is just quite incredible"
... Well, pack 'er up boys. It's over. We can't compete with that! Fold the HAL. Scrap the NPL. Chuck all your round balls in the bin. Did you hear what he said?! Quite Incredible! 

WHINGECOGLOU Part 2. And shit I agree with him again. 

Ange’s biggest blunder rises from wounds of old wars

• The Australian
• 12:00AM November 18, 2017
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• PATRICK SMITH

  

  Senior sports commentator

  Melbourne

  @Smithersss

  

Our place among the 32 countries for the finals in Russia next year was concreted in with a laboured 3-1 win against Honduras on Wednesday night in front of nearly 80,000 fans. Yet coach Ange Postecoglou did what he always does: followed a win with an even better whinge. Whingecoglou. Apparently he doesn’t like the nickname and so he bleats about it.

Here is the problem. Postecoglou — who is obviously a very good coach — is somehow unaware that he is talking to two audiences.

There are people and officials from the past he does not have much time for. Fair enough, that is his prerogative. He was hurt when he lost the national youth job and he must have felt Craig Foster, a loud and consistent critic, spoke for the sport when they had their live TV argument in 2006. And, in fairness, replays and revision make it appear Postecoglou was ambushed. So if he thinks Foster’s interrogation of him was a premeditated humiliation then his back would still be a portable cutlery display. And it is hard to imagine the wounds ever mending when contemporaries Mark Bosnich and Robbie Slater continue to set the table.

To people who have been won over late by football and the glamour of the World Cup, then Postecoglou’s recent behaviour falls just short of bizarre.

For instance, after Wednesday night’s win which guaranteed Australia a fifth World Cup appearance, Postecoglou said: “Mate, if people still think I go round worrying about what people think and looking for some kind of vindication, they’ve missed the last 20 years,” he said.

“I won my first championship when I was 31 years old, and you know what, I could coach for another 20 years and I’ll always be an outsider in Australian football.

“I don’t have the glittering Socceroo career that you need, but that’s fine, I’ll wear it as a badge of honour. The more comes my way, the more I’ll go down my own path.”

What does that mean? To people who have only come late to soccer it appears code for something altogether sinister.

Postecoglou has run a campaign against sections of the media through the media and in doing so lost, or at the very least loosened, the loyalty of supporters. Both rusted on and clinging on.

What had drawn sporting fans to Postecoglou was his directness, honesty and refusal to fall into the simplistic and offensive teacher-talk of the modern coach. He treated players and public as peers and everybody was welcome aboard the Socceroos journey.

His decision late in the qualifying stages to change the team’s formation was not challenged by the public. Ange knows best. But when he fell to the level of the C grade coach, not commenting on his future in the World Cup after the qualifying rounds, he was taken to be just another coach still bleeding from previous wars. We saw the man considered by many — and rightly so — to be the best coach of any code playing the tricks of the infantile. The public had bought tickets to the World Cup and Ange was presumed to be driving all the way.

He failed to see that while going after those in the media who held serious concerns about a change in style he was confusing and, in fact, betraying those who saw him as an Australian taking on the world with panache and confidence.

He admitted as much 24 hours after this week’s game. “I’ve had support all the way along, I’ve just not conveyed that. I’ve always felt well supported by the general public. I’ve loved every minute of this job, the greatest,” he said.

The swing continued: “It makes no difference at the end of the day. For me, it’s making sure that I prepare the team well and that we perform like we did the other day (in Saturday’s first leg against Honduras). It’s nice to get the rewards and, most importantly, to give the 70-odd thousand people a memorable night. That’s why you’re involved in the game.

“It’s about, hopefully, creating moments that will outlast your representation in whatever capacity and that’s the opportunity that exists tomorrow night.

“More than anything else, it is to create a special moment for everyone involved for Australian football and everyone else in the country.”

Here is Postecoglou speaking to that large portion of sports fans who were so taken by him in the A-League and before he took over the national job. As he read the headlines he so despises he must have realised — or someone kind told him — that in going after his enemies in the media he was losing the bulk of his army.

Every coach is forced to withstand attacks — legitimate or just baseless passion. Ange felt he had right on his side and sought to show it. He didn’t do it very well and lost his late believers in the haranguing. Ange might not take Australia to Russia because he took the support of his countrymen and women for granted. And that has been Whingecoglou’s greatest and most inexplicable blunder.

Ange’s biggest blunder rises from wounds of old wars