Mariners schedule Shandong friendly

[nikko]

That's you. Actually, it's not, he's got more hair but I reckon he might've stolen one of your shirts. ;D

Crossing the line from "haha" into "personal slander" a bit I think.....

take a joke. i didn't complain when you posted an actual photo of me on here - learn to take a jab or two.

.....................................a photo from your Facebook, which is accessible to _how_ many people??   Clearly you don't mind said photo being in the public domain.  I don't recall slandering you either.

slander! ha... i made a joke about your hair and your shirts while implying you're clutching at straws in your criticism of us re-signing kwas. similar jokes to what many others have done. little bit thin skinned there?

besides, to be slander it has to be malicious. it certainly wasn't malicious - it was facetious. it also has to be false...

can you please keep this in PM or sms. I dont want to sit in front of a computer and scroll through pages of you guys having a bitch about each other

 

[FFC Mariner]

7 losses on the trot, poorly received signings, fans bickering.

Smells like real football to me.

Expect the worst, enjoy it when its good

Love it

 

[serious14]

Hey, I'm not "doing a Razorback", there were some positives. 

And what about the club (except the impending Asian embarrassment) is their to look forward to. The scum have a better chance than us of pregrssing past the group stage. The deluded optimism by some on this forum is a joke FFS wake up to yourselves. 

Yeah Serious, none of that deluded optimism you've been spreading.

Sorry Kev, what was I thinking. 

 

[marinermick]

7 losses on the trot, poorly received signings, fans bickering.

Smells like real football to me.

Expect the worst, enjoy it when its good

Love it

or we can take the half glass full theory and say:

- the five losses were from teams above us in the table and four of the five losses were from shit-hot queensland and melbourne sides, and the adelaide game had no bearing on final table placings
- the two losses in china, as the newcastle game, were just trial games in which lawrie used 23 players and was tinkering with lineups
- the jury is still out on the signings but all three have played quite well in the trials
- the bickering is amongst a handful of twenty year olds who represent a very small percentage of the total Mariners (and Marinator for that matter) fan base and are in no way a large enough sample of the wider view

 

[serious14]

and are in no way a large enough sample of the wider view

Being entirely proper here - I do wonder sometimes what that wider view actually is.  Are we all just nutters on here, or are our views reflected by the general public??

Time to commission a survey methinks. 

 

[brett]

The league will go backwards in quality next season. Two new teams will slightly dilute the talent and a dozen or so starting XI quality players will go to Asia. Kwasnik will make the cut and to insist the league has passed him is to insist it has passed almost every player in it.

Things turn around very quickly in football. On Jan 1 we were top of the A-League. By mid-January the Jets looked like they would barely make it to the end of the season without having their license revoked. Since then we've lost all our games and there is seemingly no sign of a turnaround, while the Jets have put the loss of Griffiths, the wooden spoon and Con-gate behind them. Things will turn back that quickly.

 

[brett]

*Awaits match report from someone who was paying enough attention to notice if a Chinese dude ran on for us*

Asia awaits for battle hardened Mariners

Thanks...smartarse.

PS This was slightly less one-eyed than a typical Serious match report, yet the guy writing it is paid to be biased.

 

[Paolo]

Im not sure how but somewhere along the line we went from being proud to not be wooden spooners, to envying the jets for their latest signings, news flash, we had the exact same oppurtunities as the jets, we could of signed costanzo and made him captain to whip wilkinson into shape, we could of wined and dined chippers wife and told heff to get his ass up to midfield or f*ck off, we could of even had a stab at NTS, he is better than O'grady all round and people are talking about having O'grady back just for his aerial presence? Oh please...

1. being proud that we wernt wooden spooners.....low standards???
2. You realise that there is a salary cao and that clubs dont just have an open cheque book?
3. We didnt lose the volume of players that newcastle did

 

[serious14]

PS This was slightly less one-eyed than a typical Serious match report, yet the guy writing it is paid to be biased.

Heh - perhaps I could get a job as the 'counterpoint' to the official match release. 

 

[Arabmariner]

and are in no way a large enough sample of the wider view

Being entirely proper here - I do wonder sometimes what that wider view actually is.  Are we all just nutters on here, or are our views reflected by the general public??

Where we sit in the eastern stand I haven't heard too many complimentary things said this season about either Lawrie,team selection,tactics or our team in general.

What I have heard a fair bit of is mutterings and grumblings about sacking the coach,shit football,not coming back etc.

There apears to be a general opinion in the stands that we're crap and tbh the way we played most of the season I agree.

I should add however that I agree with GP that this is what real football is all about........lots of crap with some good bits thrown in to keep you coming back.

Much,much better than just deciding to follow a ManU,Chelski,Celtic,Rangers,Barca etc because they win a lot!!

 

[Razorback]

and are in no way a large enough sample of the wider view

Being entirely proper here - I do wonder sometimes what that wider view actually is.  Are we all just nutters on here, or are our views reflected by the general public??

Time to commission a survey methinks. 

I think you'll find that it is easy to see the views of the general public...outside this forum anyway. Look at the crowds.

9000 to semi final tells sums up the views of the general public. Down 10,000 on the previous year. So fwiw, micks opinion about the "wider view" supporting his views about the progress of the club mean f**k all really.

Just quietly I can't see the inclusion of Kwas bringing back these supporters. I can see a crowd figure of around 6000 to these ACL matches and more doom and gloom once the team actually takes the field.

I hope I'm wrong, but speaking to people who support the club and don't go on this forum (yes there are many) the club is in trouble and in dire need of a shakeup. People are not excited at all about the acl and I don't blame them.

 

[Redline]

Why get excited when we've lost all this year, made no quality name signings except cast offs from other teams and seem to have lost the community touch that they built themselves upon in the first few seasons.

 

[Arabmariner]

and are in no way a large enough sample of the wider view

Being entirely proper here - I do wonder sometimes what that wider view actually is.  Are we all just nutters on here, or are our views reflected by the general public??

Time to commission a survey methinks. 

I think you'll find that it is easy to see the views of the general public...outside this forum anyway. Look at the crowds.

9000 to semi final tells sums up the views of the general public. Down 10,000 on the previous year. So fwiw, micks opinion about the "wider view" supporting his views about the progress of the club mean f**k all really.

Just quietly I can't see the inclusion of Kwas bringing back these supporters. I can see a crowd figure of around 6000 to these ACL matches and more doom and gloom once the team actually takes the field.

I hope I'm wrong, but speaking to people who support the club and don't go on this forum (yes there are many) the club is in trouble and in dire need of a shakeup. People are not excited at all about the acl and I don't blame them.

I don't want to particularly spread doom and gloom either but I agree with Razor.Your general sports fan on the coast has no idea the Asian champs league is on.The one's that do have no idea how important and big it is and don't really give a toss.

The crowd for the final was bad enough but jeez, a Wednesday night (our Friday crowds are never that great) ....in a commuter area where half the population only sits down to dinner at 8 o'clock and considering the shit football lately.....we'll be lucky to get 6 or 7,000 tbh.

 

[Part_Timer]

im excited to see the trumpet boy again..

 

[marinerbhoy]

i gave a spare ticket to a uni friend from the coast and she was cerain that the season was over. she had not even heard of the champions league. is there much media work or advertising up there?

 

[brett]

The crowd for the final was bad enough but jeez, a Wednesday night (our Friday crowds are never that great) ....in a commuter area where half the population only sits down to dinner at 8 o'clock and considering the shit football lately.....we'll be lucky to get 6 or 7,000 tbh.

Have to agree that we're going to struggle for crowds. With the GFC I know relatives of mine can't even afford match tickets so aren't going on Wednesday - and they are members of the club who never miss a game. The people more likely to have the money for a night out on a Wednesday are those commuting back from the big smoke, and they'll struggle to make the game.

We also have the disadvantage of shit media coverage. Despite what people say about News Ltd, the Adelaide Advertiser gave the Reds great coverage including a few front pages during their run in Asia. Hype creates hype, but you need that catalyst.

We have the toughest market for good midweek crowds and I can only see them coming if we start winning.

 

[brett]

Can I ask those whining about the lack of signings where we're supposed to find players from at this time of the year?

It's easy to rave about the Jets but they have simply signed more 'cast offs' from other clubs than we have because they had a whole lot more squad to fill and salary cap to splurge.

In the January transfer window not many overseas players are coming off contract, and we're not exactly going to splash a big transfer fee. John Aloisi isn't floating around unemployed every season.

As far as A-League players coming off contract, you've got two new clubs with full rosters to fill who have picked up the best of those months ago.

The club seems to have investing a lot of time and energy into the Sheffield United link - and from all the gossip it seems like it's been a series of players who don't want to come here, aren't good enough for our level, want too much money or in many cases, all three.

And as far as find the next state league gem - the cycle is all out of whack.

Lawrie has a pretty good recruiting record, but the recruiting is traditionally done in June-July: the world off-season. He also likes to meticulously piece together his puzzle - not just throw cash at every Ljubo Milicevic on the market.

Heading into Asia in an expansion year doesn't seem like a very easy thing to do.

 

[Arabmariner]

The crowd for the final was bad enough but jeez, a Wednesday night (our Friday crowds are never that great) ....in a commuter area where half the population only sits down to dinner at 8 o'clock and considering the shit football lately.....we'll be lucky to get 6 or 7,000 tbh.

We also have the disadvantage of shit media coverage. 

Exactly.

The papers are full of knuckledragging news atm and that won't stop until after September/October.

The only way we'll get anything resembling good coverage is if we do an Adelaide............which brings me back to our form...................

 

[Marquee]

Im with the low crowd prediction.

Poor end the season + poor semi crowd and performance + 3 lost friendlies

The supporters on here realise that the result of a friendly doesnt really matter but the performance does. However I'd say that MOST of the general fans don't realise this and when they see the results in the paper, think "Wow another loss to the mariners".

Three questionable signings, non whom are well known, diminishing community links and poor results spells disaster for the ACL in terms of crowd, IMO.

Im really, really hoping they pull something out of the bag and do well. It's too big an opportunity to waste. Put Central Coast on the map, not embarrass us.

 

[marinersman]

Sigh, when are we going to get some good news?!
It seems like the mariners have gone from the centre of football excellence to a victim of negative publicity and poor results, has all this bad hype just been a consequence of increasingly harsh forum criticism combined with some conspiracy theories of love childs and favourites?

Im not sure how but somewhere along the line we went from being proud to not be wooden spooners, to envying the jets for their latest signings, news flash, we had the exact same oppurtunities as the jets, we could of signed costanzo and made him captain to whip wilkinson into shape, we could of wined and dined chippers wife and told heff to get his ass up to midfield or f*ck off, we could of even had a stab at NTS, he is better than O'grady all round and people are talking about having O'grady back just for his aerial presence? Oh please...

I dont know if its just the credit crunch or the static posture that the mariners as a club seem to be adopting, but im finding it increasingly hard to get excited about coming on this forum anymore, i used to check it every day in the hope that we had a new prospective signing or that someone was playing out of his skin, now i just log on and hope we didnt lose by more than 2 goals and that Shane Huke had a decent game, yes it really has become that sad...

Good post shipwreck and pretty well sums up my mood.

I can almost tolerate the odd game with bad form or losses if we are receiving information from the board/manager about what they are doing to try and rectify it.

More alarmingly to me than our season just gone, is the lack of publicity, media releases, information from the board about what they are doing to put us back on track. I'm not talking and P & L's and sensitive information, I just want to know the plans for the next season. We all used to admire the way the club kept quite on potential signings which was fine because we had confidence we'd end up with a quality signing. Those days seemed to have left us. Instead there is nothing but silence from the board about new signings and initiatives apart from the new complex. Nothing on sister clubs arrangements, nothing on new signings, minimal cloumn space is the local rags etc etc

Even more alrming than that is the windback in community relations. I may be wrong here and it may be just my perception but it seems to me that we are not doing the work in the community we once did. Has the good work been undone? Are we still connecting with the community? I personally don't think we are. The stopping of the PMF is a classic example without even a small story on the website advising why.

I respect LG and others invloved, I've spent quite a bit of time talking to Mr Gorman and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have enormous respect for his intellect and passion and drive for the club, but please, it is time the club reconnected with the fans and treated us with more respect. I just want to know what's going on a little behind the scenes to correct the current malaise.

I just hope the club takes on board and really thinks about what, we the fans say on this forum. The silence from them is deafening.