One word DEREKS!

right on the money....

First half is pretty much on the money with regard to the way the club was run through the 90s - alienating people left right and center. This is something the current committee is aware of and has worked extremely hard to fix over the last year or two. Which is why Sunday was so painful - a year of hard work semi-undone by a handful of morons.

My only critisism of the club itself was that the security staff were on the wrong side of the pitch, but it's easy to say that in hindsight. One of the benefits of the stadium refit will be that jumping a 3 foot fence won't be enough to get you on the playing surface once all the work is done.

As for the reactionary behaviour of some of the fans - I'm pretty sure supporters of any club, anywhere in the world, including the 'new' Aussie sides, would react the same way if their club was critisized. You say Victory fans are badly behaved, they will say Adelaide are terrible, or that they are much better than the old clubs, etc.

No one believes that SMFC in it's current form will ever grace the A-League, which is one of the reasons that SMFC is working so hard to change its current form.

Make no mistake - that pitch invasion pissed us off far more than it pissed any of you guys off.

well done south melbourne for being such a great and professionally run club.

smfc do not listen to these morons who do not love football

Ladies and Gentlemen, Join me in welcoming back solympic=d> =d> =d> =d> =d>

Being a old Heidelberg fan from way back it appears the behaviour of some South Melbourne fans never changes. Disappointing.

dropi sou

I wouldn't let it get you down too much mate. At Adelaide United, a minor scuffle in the stands or on the street often gets blown up to ridiculous proportions. The Advertiser newspaper is reknowned for hating our sport and our team. Meanwhile 100 arseholes get thrown out of the cricket at Adelaide Oval and they'll keep it quiet and play it down. Trust me, it absolutely kills the spirit.

Unfortunately for you, some of your detractors are not only the mainstream media, but also those within our own ranks. All i can say is the initiatives that SMFC has come up with in the last 6 months is something that i am envious of - and i am an inaugural AU member. Keeping pushing forward.

Who gives a sh*t, it's South Melbourne - all but a core of unwashed, poorly behaved wankers stopped caring out them a long, long time ago.

Really great for our game - well done you clowns.

Sunday's events will have absolutely zero effect on 'our game'. The A-League isn't affected, if anything the fuss about an old 'ethnic' club having some bother strengthens the A-league's claims of being safe and wonderfully cleansed of all the 'negative' elements.

What we are seeing here, in a microcosm, is a classic example of what has kept football down over the years. A few nuggets do something stupid and inexcusable, then the media over-reacts, then 'outsiders' who don't know what actually happened run with it and make out it was something far worse than it actually was.

I was walking down the road when I saw this bright shiny package on the pavement with a label that said "New Football". I picked it up and underneath was this writhing mess of creepy crawly maggots all shouting "Old Soccer".

Was the package plastic and empty?

I've watched the A League for 5 years, barely mising a home game at the Mariners and I have never seen any violence and only once saw fans try to invade, and that was the last home game of the season. I have great sympathy for the old NSL supporters and the like and can understand the frustration at the disconnect between them and the A League but this minor incident does nothing to dispel the notion that old ethnic clubs cannot be a part of the future.

Peopel who rip flares, Throw Computer parts around and generally try and pick fights with families and lads just off to the game for a good time are the exact same lads that jump on to the pitch and cause havoc.

Could peole who are lookng down their noses at the "old soccer" supporters please climb down off of your high horses as your teams are not immune.

I remember SFC and other A-League supporters jumping on the moral high horse when 20 odd West Sydney Rovers Supporters causes a bit of Stick after the SYD V Perth game in Feb.

Same type of incident yet no one called for the removal of Rovers and such that is being bandied about on this forum at the momment.

:)The package was empty only if you don't embrace the change in football brought about by the Crawford Report. It was full of promise for me...

:)The package was empty only if you don't embrace the change in football brought about by the Crawford Report. It was full of promise for me...

Ignore people trolling you Ben.

Nah, I was just having a bit of fun. I thought my response was pretty quick. ;)

There's no one on this forum that could post anything more upsetting to me than the site of those dickheads running onto the pitch - or of them trying to justify their actions as they were escorted from it.

As you said earlier, there's plenty of bother at A-league games - none of it worth discussing though because it's all "meh". Same with Sunday's incident - f*cking stupid behaviour, but no one was hurt and nothing was broken. The FFV will deal with the incident.

Is that the Crawford Report which explicitely called for an independant national competition, run completely separately from the governing body?

Good that everyone took notice of that isn't it?

Thankfully due to us being part of the AFC we are required to have this become a reality due to our desire to continue participating in the ACL!

We're also required to have a system for promotion/relegation, I can't see that happening too soon.

I suspect that there will be a lot of fiddling with structures to find a way that the FFA can maintain control of the A-League whilst it 'appears' to be an independant competition - but the situation with Archie Fraser and Ben Buckley this week demonstrates clearly that there is currently no division between the two entities what-so-ever.

The fact is that everytime someone does something like this at an old "ethnic" club, all the old jealousies and stigmas will resurface. If you are an "ethnic" club, surely people will, rightly or wrongly, understand that. If it was an A League game, the media will just call them soccer hooligans. If its South, or Sydney United, or Bonnyrigg etc, it takes on the racial slant.
Not saying its right, but thats the way it is.

Krijoz said:''Stupid Greeks!!!
Kick them out of Football Federation Victoria and send them to Singapore?
Pathetic morons!!!''

Mate,they aren't stupid.They're just typical greek football fans and that was nothing:just check videos from greek football games :D

so when sydney fc fans went and smashed a pub in melbourne everything is ok with that????

and they deserve to be in the a-league stop it now

if you people are football people you will stop with the crap

and i must say FFT im disgusted as a football fan to see ur website is the only one reporting this about the game

and i have spoken to people from smfc who have explained fft was not at the game so please explain this

Weren't you banned solympic?

I was joking (a little bit).Now let's be serious:you can't ban so harsh a club because of a small minority of the fans.

Thank god the FFA didn't except Sth Melbourne bid to join the A-League. Fucking losers have hammered the last nail into the SM coffin. Well done you boys!!! I hope you are proud!!

And he is again.

Why the fuck does race have to be bought into everything on this forum. FFS..!

These idiots did not run onto the field (to the best of my knowledge) yelling "Greece for eva!!" or even "NSL Rulz".

Sounds like the actions of a few morons. Every club has morons who support them, no matter the background of the club.

I love the A-League, and I thank the football gods every day that it was started, but loads of A-League clubs have had problems with their fans (Middleby incident, pub smashing by MV supporters, CCM supporters crashing threw the fencing etc) yet people like Ton of Bricks choose to ignore them so they can continue their passive racism.

The biggest issue facing football in this country is ‘the enemy within’. Not every supporter of non A-League clubs are like solympic, believe it or not, many are just football supporters who have stayed loyal to clubs they have been following for a lifetime.

If we want to achieve anything in this country with our sport, the olive branch (no pun-intended) needs to sought. When the FFA launched the A-League they used the motto “Uniting the Tribes”, well I don’t think anything but a widening gap as occurred.

Ignore idiots like solympic, even his own fellow Olympic fans think he is an idiot, and try not to turn everything into us vs them…….we are all football fans after all.