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19/1/2010
Greeny's blog
Fantastic fans
are our "12th man"
Sorry
it's taken a while to do my follow up, but it's been a very
hectic schedule as far as the A-League is concerned. I have
just arrived back from our world record away trip - Perth Glory
V Wellington Phoenix 6000 km! - while on the way home playing
an inform Melbourne Victory at the Etihad stadium. We had a day
at home and then flew to the lovely city of Christchurch on the
south island to host Adelaide United and then finally flew to
the Gold Coast to play Gold Coast Utd.
I have
been thrilled to bits to have joined in full-time training with
the boys and be back amongst the banter and school boy humour!
Like most clubs we have a ‘fines system’ in place throughout the
club. All players must sign and agree to this.
Fines
include yellow and red cards, also bookings for decent.
Basically it's all the disciplinary actions that the F.A usually
deal with followed by a club fine. Being a striker who can't
tackle, I have never needed to read this policy as four bookings
is my record for a season, I think! The fines I need to be wary
of are the "in house" ones set by the players.
The
way we do it at the Phoenix is that if you are caught
misbehaving it is a straight $20 and a roll of the dice. We have
a board on which categories are numbered, 1 to 9. You must roll
your dice and suffer the consequence. Some are easy like "wash
the bibs" but an 8 means you pay $50 plus your $20. The
favourite number is 9. If you roll a 9 you can choose someone
else to roll. This person is usually the guy who dobbed you in
to the fines panel in the first place and it’s amazing how many
times this innocent by-stander rolls an 8! It’s great for team
morale but proves "trust no-one" philosophy!
My
injury is behind me and thanks for your support and your good
wishes. My fitness came just at the right time. My rehab was
about a week longer than we thought initially so that was good.
It was my desire to travel on the Perth trip because the players
were away for about 9 days and this would of meant that I would
of had to continue my rehab alone in the gym and believe me this
would of been a tough mental battle. The way I saw it was that
if I travelled I would have got a lot more out of training with
the first team than just running in the gym. Thankfully, I got
the outcome that I wanted.
The
Perth game was a strange scenario. There was a time difference
of 5 hours so our body clock thought it was midnight when we
kicked off. In all honesty, as a player you get into game mode
and you don't really think about it. You have a job to do and
you get on with it. We had Eugene Dadi playing against his
former club who he had only just left two weeks previously. As
well as I am aware, he was a crowd favourite so we wanted a
result for him. I was on the bench and it was great to get that
match day buzz again.
We
didn't start the game very well and conceded a goal by Daniel
McBreen. It was a shame because that has not been a problem for
us of late. We had been starting games at a good tempo and
putting other teams under pressure and in fairness they did that
to us. We conceded another before halftime and that killed us.
We
came out in the second half and started livelier and should of
got one back in the form of a penalty. Eugene stepped up and
didn't take the best penalty of his career shall we say ha! The
lads have wound him up about it! Late on, Paul Ifill created a
bit of magic on the right and put in a great cross. Tim Brown
our goalscoring midfielder (with six goals) timed his run to
perfection and deflected his header wide, it was a good chance.
In all, although we didn't play well, we created the better
opportunities which was positive for us.
I
came on for the last twenty minutes which was great. To be back
out there in a competitive game was where I had longed to be. I
was shattered after about 5 minutes in the heat haha!
It
was a quick turnaround for us as our schedule took us to
Melbourne. After a bad result it's great to have a fixture so
close as you want to get back out on the field and try and put
those "wrongs" "right". No game comes bigger than the league
leaders at a fantastic stadium. www.etihadstadium.com.au
We had
a great team performance earlier on in the season here and came
away with a 1-1 draw. We should have taken all three points on
how well we played. They showed how all good sides are, even if
you don't play well you still take something from the game.
I
started the game surprisingly after being out for so long, but I
was ecstatic to be included. We played quite well in the first
half and had one or two chances, but nothing clear cut. We went
in at half-time and fancied ourselves in the second half. How
wrong was I?
We
conceded 4 goals, one was probably offside but it was the one
that hurt us the most I think. I had a chance late on but was
blocked close to the line having received a great ball from one
of our very promising youngsters, Costa Barbourouses. It would
have made no difference. Personally, I really enjoyed the game
in a strange way. I think it was probably because I had got
through 90 minutes unscathed and just embraced the occasion,
though I was gutted about the result as you don't want to lose
by 4 goals, not even in training.
From a
team point of view, I think if we could have got a couple of
draws on this trip it would have put not too much pressure on us
for the remaining fixtures but two defeats did and the Adelaide
fixture was an enormous one.
The
Westpac has been a fortress for us this year, not only for our
home advantage, but the fans have been immense. Playing a
fixture of this importance away from the Westpac was on my mind,
I think it was the same for the other players too. We trained at
the stadium in Christchurch the night before and to our surprise
the stadium and the surface were terrific. The grass was a
little short which made the ball bounce higher than usual, so we
knew we were in for a lively encounter.
The
stadium was full on three sides and there was an attendance of
over 19,000, which was very special. The players are so thankful
for the support we had and it gave us a real "twelth man". They
were tremendous all night, so on behalf of the players and
staff, thank you.
Adelaide started better than us but didn't really force any
clear cut chances. Their problem this year has been lack of
goals, and that night was the same old story. They pass and move
very well and just need that final piece of the jigsaw. It took
us a while to get going and settle down. We were competing very
well but couldn't get the ball down.
Finally my Ozzy team mate John Mackain scored for the second
time this season, a left foot volley across goal. I was only an
inch or two away from scoring and would of ran off in the other
direction with my hand up!! In the second half they forced our
keeper "Rocket" into some fine saves and we also had a few
chances. I think it was good game to watch by all accounts but
thankfully we held on.
It
was a night that the players knew they had to stand up and be
counted. There are times in a season where you need everyone to
really give more than their all, and this was one of those
nights. Everyone from the manager, coaches, staff, subs and
players needed to, and they delivered. This result effectively
ended Adelaide's hopes of making the finals. It was a good night
I assure you!
Our
following fixture was against Gold Coast United. This week’s
fixtures throughout the league were going to be a landmark in my
whole career, I will explain later. It has been a close run-in
for Miron Bleiberg's men at the top of the table. Melbourne,
Sydney and Gold Coast have all been top at some stage and after
results going for them, a win against us would take them top.
Our
result against Adelaide gave us a great chance of cementing our
place in the top 6 but other results could affect this. We seem
to be the thorn in Gold Coast's side. We seem to be their bogey
team. We drew with them away but should have won, then we
destroyed them in a 6-0 routing at home. Again, we stopped
their top scorer Shane Smeltz from scoring against us, and
limited the supply to Cullina. We were awarded a penalty on the
stroke of half time. (in all fairness it was probably not a
penalty, but we have been the ones at times who have not got the
rub of the green!). We held on for a superb away victory.
This
week was one of the most memorable of my whole career. The
reason was because every single result went for us. The outcome
we needed happened. Thankfully, with us being the last fixture
of the weekend, we knew that it was in our own hands to get a
result. In the past (all the boys agreed) we may of lost and
the other results would not be of the same importance or we
would have won and another result would have let us down. It’s
never happened where everything was just perfect.
This
lead us nicely to our last home fixture of the season where we
hosted Central Coast Mariners. They had nothing to play for but
pride. They got an impressive result against Newcastle Jets the
week before, still with nothing to play for, so we had to take
the tie seriously. If we went into this game thinking we had the
fourth spot on the ladder boxed off and been complacent then we
would lose - simple as.
Winning this game meant we would solidify the fourth spot and
give a home fixture in the semi's. We scored early on with a
great team goal set up by Vince Lia. He played a lovely ball
down the side of the box and Manny Muscat stood up a brilliant
cross for that man again, Tim Brown, with a surging late run
into the box to head home.
The
three of them have been fantastic for us this season and have
set the bench mark for many of our good performances this year
with their work rate and passing ability. After that, Central
Coast had the odd shot but didn't trouble Rocket. We dominated
from that goal.
During
the second half there was a twenty minute spell where Paul Ifill
absolutely destroyed their back four and scored a brilliant
brace. The second goal showing why he was voted as one of the
top three players in the league. A superbly worked free-kick
lofted over the wall. He took a great touch with his right foot
passed the fullback and bent his shot past the keeper into the
far post. Personally I was not involved in the game as I have
been of late, which was disappointing, but the result was what
mattered and thank God we are in a home semi !
The
nature of the draw has decided we will host Perth Glory at home
in the semi. We had a crowd of over 14,000 who again were
magnificent. It's a sudden death tie so is a massive game for
us. Perth are a good side so it will be tough. We are expecting
a good crowd and want everyone from the city to go. We are
making history here and want everyone to be part of it. On
behalf of all the players and staff we look forward to you all
being our twelfth man and coming to support us. Hopefully when I
next blog you we will all have something to celebrate.
I
would also just like to congratulate Andrew Durante and John
McKain on their call-ups to the Socceroo's. It’s nothing more
than they both deserve. They have been like two rocks back there
with Ben Sigmund. They are two good pros and great lads and
deserve everything they get. Hopefully they will have a good
camp and be on the plane to South Africa along with the All
White Boys.
Finally, I would like to take time to answer a couple of
questions that were put to me on my blog from a guy called Jon,
who basically asked .....
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE A-LEAGUE FANS AND THEIR ADAPTION TO
THE GAME ?
I
think the fans have been terrific for us. They really get behind
the team and are very vocal. I have been told that the rugby
players get a hard time from fans if things are not going too
well, but that does not seem to be the case at the Phoenix.
I have
heard about one or two comments made on different web sites
about players and like anywhere there is a minority who don't
know the game. When you have attendances in thousands that
minority are not worth worrying about. When you see bad press
about yourself it hurts but you have to remember not everyone
thinks that. It affects the younger players more than the older
pro's I think.
With
soccer not being as big as other sports over here hopefully with
the success of the Phoenix reaching the finals it may prompt a
few more fans through the gates. The whole city seems to be
embracing Yellow Fever.
HOW
DO THE CLUBS MARKET THEMSELVES COMPARED TO THE UK?
This
has really surprised me. To see advertisements on TV using your
team mates and seeing posters advertising games in bus shelters
etc using myself, really gave me a reality check. In the UK,
only the big stars get to do this kind of thing, Gerrard's,
Lampard's, Torres etc. Only occasionally would players be
interviewed on TV but the cameras are there every week at
training.
The
best thing for me is that all the other A-League games are
televised. It's great to watch your opponents and also to watch
yourself to see where you can improve your own game. Again, only
occasionally would we be televised back home. The club also do
many things in the community for local hospitals, schools and
charities. Our chairman, Terry Serepisos is very much apart of
this which is important. I think it is better here.
WHERE DO I SEE THE LEAGUE BEING IN 5 TO 10 YEARS TIME ?
I hope
there will be a few more teams added and maybe a cup competition
similar to the F.A Cup. To begin with, just the A-League teams,
and then in the future using the non-professional teams too, if
the funding was right of course to enable them to travel.
It
would be great to see some cup upsets and may even bring more
supporters to the game. I hope more of the overseas based
players from the top leagues start coming and playing here.
Imagine the Cahill's, Kewall's, Killen's, Nelson's etc If they
don't bring fans to games then nothing will.
WHAT ARE THE COMPARISON'S TO THE PROFESSIONALISM AND PRESSURE OF
THE UK?
The
professionalism here at this club is tremendous. The club is run
very well. Before each game we have to the last detail,
information about the team we are facing. The work from behind
the scenes that the coaching staff do for us is the best I have
ever seen.
After
games we have our own personal stats on how we have played and
our impact in a game, passes, touches etc. Players can get
massages, have gym access, everything is catered for. We know
our monthly schedule in advance. These are small things but in a
professional athlete's world these are things that matter and
the Phoenix provide.
Personally, the pressure is the same anywhere in the world. You
have outside pressure anyway but that is nowhere near the amount
of pressure that you put on yourself as an individual to
perform.
The
only difference in the A-League for me is that there is no
relegation to worry about. I have been involved in relegation
battles before and let me tell you that is real pressure. You
can’t grasp a win from anywhere, other teams may win around you,
you don't play for another week and your next opponents are 5
points clear at the top of the table, that's pressure!
Many
thanks
Greeny
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