Prydzopolis

Loosened it up & sent it further into your chest

Me too, the amount of cricket they’ve played over the years has increased exponentially. The introduction of T-20 has certainly hastened things.

I must admit things have changed for me too, this summer just wasn’t that excited for the cricket like I have been in seasons past. All started round the ball tampering saga.

Very sorry to hear goat, are you thinking of getting another cat as a companion? I know our grey Persian became a different cat once he got a brother but unsure how female cats work?

Horrible Wendy, unimaginable.

Ahhh... Claudio Il Principe, the Prince! Loved him as a Juve player, in his pomp he was a boss. A fantastic mezzala (think CM in a 4-3-3). Unfortunately this is our big problem. His body can’t handle the rigors of a top 5 league season. He hasn’t been the same the last few years but that doesn’t mean much when you compare it to our 28 game season. He could easily be managed through a season much like other injury plagued players who have come to our league. Pure class, big win if we could bring him out to Australia. Don’t forget they’ve got player agent & intermediary Lou Sticca as part of there set up. I wouldn’t dismiss this if he goes for the lifestyle factor but can we compete with the US? They’ll double our best offer (our tax rates effectively 1/2 gross to net wages. Hard for us to be competitive on the wage front. Or the rumor (as a dead as a body) in a body bag? Lets be honest, you’re just doing it so old mate (“our legitimate very real journalist annoymous twitter account”) can start another baseless rumor. I know what’s happening

View of the field & how far the goal posts are away from the north stand.

Thanks for that In the end, I only gave 1 second yellow but was one of those situations where 2 or 3 others were walking the tight rope. It was right at the end, I had blown for a foul on the edge of the area & the guy was screaming in my face to give the guy a second yellow literally seconds after I had blown the whistle, after constantly badgering through the game & been one of the people I had warned in the first half. Probably could have done it earlier in the half but contrary to what many players tend to assume, we don’t like having to send players off unless necessary. You know what the worst thing was? The captain was a PL referee & knew I was been assessed. He was one of the worst players guilty of the behavior shown on the field, critiquing every decision I made, just frustrating. Funnily enough, post match the assessor said that he was going to report him to the referee committee. The one thing I have learnt from the game & the feedback is that I’m being too nice. Letting the players ask me too much, letting them talk way too much in the background & not nipping things in the bud earlier. I find my style leans towards managing the players through the game to get them to come around to win them over but perhaps I need to set better boundaries earlier in the game so it doesn’t get out of hand.

On Gallop, many things had been achieved during his time at the FFA but many things happened despite of him not because of him. There were many things that occurred that were a big positive & you can’t take that away from him but too many negatives that always seemed to happen on a regular basis. There are so many challenges involved in running Football in one way it was a poison chalice that was bound to come with speed humps along the way. Had it been any other organization, incompetence would not be rewarded with contract extensions & large pay packets. One important note that must be considered when assessing his time in charge of the FFA was the influence of the Lowy’s. Despite an independent board, Gallop & the FFA took its lead from the board who were passive & was lead with an iron fist by the Lowy’s. In effect, many of the inadequacies & legacies were related to the Lowy’s not Gallop, think NCIP, independent A-League, one team one City A-League, basing the Sydney team out of SFS instead of Parramatta as was intially intended. In a last big “FU” to all his opponents before being turfed, one of the last acts was to give Gallop an extension on a mega contract, in effect forcing the new board to tolerate him. At long last we have now been ridden of one of the last remnants of the Lowy reign & sorted many of the issues that have lingered far too long in our game.

All make good points here & @Carns hits the nail on the head. I feel slightly differently but almost as if they wanted to eliminate support of Football clubs based on nationality, not so that it would lead to the old NSL but so the support of Football clubs was more inclusive to a wider demographic & so those people felt an allegiance to them (ie Marconi was associated with many Italians so understandable it might not appeal to non-Italians). Unfortunately, in doing this they’ve alienated many football clubs & people who are/were the lifeblood of the game. Instead of being about inclusiveness as it was first intended, it quickly became anything but inclusive & many felt the opposite. Covering up national flags the size of 5c coins or stopping flags from being brought into grounds (like the traveling English fans from a few years ago). One of the many black marks on the legacy of the Lowy & Gallop reigns

Back to grass roots, yesterday was my first time been assessed to complete my level 3 qualification. It was supposed to be next week, glad I didn’t have a week to ruminate over the game & did well. Funnily enough, had it been a different day I would have walked off miserable. One team complained the whole match, made me doubt myself & made me feel like the match wasn’t going so well. Just having someone there, let alone an ex international referee there telling you that you were fine & doing well. They were just complaining too much in the end but made me feel much better about things. Was one of those teams that you couldn’t do anything right. When they got the foul, they wanted the advantage, when they got the foul I didn’t blow it up soon enough. Then they spent the whole second half either getting silly yellow cards or baiting me to give them a second yellow. This was after they were down 4-0, got back to 4-3 but seemed more intent wanting a yellow (one guy kicked the ball away wasting more time when they needed to score in the last 5 and another just constantly badgering me)

I’m guessing that they won’t be rocking the boat, they’ll pick him up because he has the most experience but won’t be surprised if they start looking elsewhere. I think it has more to do with ability rather than anything else, just like we shouldn’t expect the A-League to compete with the top leagues in the world, we shouldn’t compare our referees to those in the top leagues. Would be nice not to get shafted a few times every season, that would be nice

Not bad, appears 3k sold in the last week, I’d think it is the corporate side that might be a bit sparse. Be nice to crack the mid 20’s

If you throw enough **** against a wall, some of it is bound to stick

You could pretty much copy all those comments & apply it to every glamour friendly played on our shores. Once you hear Basheer voice, it’s a death knell. Flabagasted how that guy still has a job in Football commentary.