They lost over the weekend. I don't know who to but I heard about it last night when I was watching the news.
They lost to the Newcastle United Jets. They can still theoretically make the finals but it would take an unlikely string of results. To see how close the comp has been: If Melbourne had won on the weekend, then all the teams besides Adelaide (1st) and NZ (8th) would still have been able to finish anywhere from 2nd to 7th with just two rounds left. J
Another fascinating and worthwhile post. Since the game was two days ago, it wouldn't have taken much effort on your part to look at a newspaper or check the internet BEFORE you started a thread on this topic. Anyway MVFC is not yet "out of the finals". It is still mathematically possible, although extremely unlikely, so I'm going to put the blinkers on and keep my fingers crossed until it is no longer possible. (Probably this week... ) ...and as they say in the classics, "There's always next year!"
I only heard it last night. Geez...... They are out of the finals race because they had to win to cement their place in the finals. They lost bigtime. I am actually surprised that you didn't post the thread considering you knew already.
Not. Yet. People are too quick to jump on the "sack Merrick" bandwagon. Sure, we haven't done as well as what we would have hoped for, but we weren't that far away either. If a couple of close results had gone the other way, we would have made the finals. You have to remember that this is a new team in a new league and that it was a very steep learning curve this year. The NZ Knights coach admitted that he badly underestimated the standard that the A-League would be at and as a result did not recruit to the level required. I think Merrick should be given a second year to prove that he has learned from the mistakes of the first year and can take appropriate actions for improvement. If we're heading down the same path next season, then by all means change the coach. (The other consideration is that he has a 3 year contract. Do we really have enough cash at this stage to throw away 2 years of salary to pay him out?)
Sack the Hack not purly due to amazingly poor results since the 5-0 but crap player selection (Ferrante, Vhlaos, Storey...) both signing and then reguarly playing, being tatically retarded, no fire in the belly/passion - leaving Muscat to fire thre player up, having no track record, only coaching kids not signing 20 players not being able to put together a midfield that wins the battle in the guts and so many more. If a couple close ones went our way I'd still want him out. www.sackmerrick.tk Each team is new. That and the '3 year plan' is a cope out and a load of schit. Melbourne has the best fans in the land and averages very healthy numbers averaging 85%-90% of filling the ground per game. 2nd last is not accpetable. The hacks from sheepshagger land shouldn't be used as any comparison. The seasons (thus far) are so very short. For those of us that love football in this country you cannot afford to wait another 9 months and then see him piss away our 20 odd games again. If we had EPL style comp it'd be an option but it simply isn't. Im sure we could come to an agreement to mutally terminate his contract. More so after our banner/prosests at the last home game vs Kewis, articles in todays Herald Sun and a complete lack of trust in him from everyone involved. I love MVFC. I want the best for them. Merrick out. Nick Theo/Culina etc. in
www.sackmerrick.tk has been closed already, due to the amount of petitions reaching the required amount LMAO. Seriously though Melbourne need a decent manager for next season and not some hack who specialises in training children.
Well for melbournes sake I hope you dont get one of the NSL has beens, which IMO will do an even worse job than Merrick. You need to get someone in who has actually got proper coach acreditations, which you dont here in australia.
Actually, Ernie Merrick is the highest qualified coach in Australia (he has a UEFA Pro-licence), but it doesn't seem to have done him much good this season!
Does he? christ I though he was just some smuck who coached at the victorian AIS or something, anyway your right it hasn't helped him, maybe the key is to have someone with overseas leagues experience. I mean aside from Kozzie, who had a group that been together for over a year anyway, the best performing coaches all have experience overseas I think. Look what happened to perth when the kicked their coach out when they appeared to heading for finals, now they miss out and the guy's pissed everyone off.
McMahon was Schit. if you want to look at bad signings, Brian Deane has to top the list - a Marquee signing that basically left in disgrace because he couldn't hack it in the A-League. McMahon turned up expecting this to be a holiday, he was the wosrt type of English coach - all running and no tactics, Perth may have still missed the finals but they still played better without him (and without Deanne)
It just gets better and better for Melbourne. First Archie, then Tadrosse (no big deal I suppose) and now Richard Kitzbichler is on the way back to Austria... http://www.mvfc.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=3175&pageid=71 ... in fact he's already played his last game for us as he won't be playing on Saturday.
shame about the austrian, he was a damn good player in the a-league, but the deal they offered him, who would refuse?
If someone wasnt kind enough to post who they lost to, you would never know the result. Oh Dear! The Victory will be back next season bigger and better then ever.
Wonderful player, top bloke. Wish Bitch all the very best. Indeed. When we romp the league and become Champions of Asia this pain will make the glory all the better.