Rockdale 2-1 Sydney Olympic

The tailspin this team is experiencing is bewildering to say the least. The players who performed so well last season, have simply not come to terms with the fact that it is a new season and you have to do it all again. Quite a few of them have been woeful.

Max Burgess and Riley Woodcock have been big losses no doubt. But, is anyone going to seriously tell me that should mean that we turn into a putrid, shadow of the side we were last season?

The recruitment in itself to cover those losses was virtually non-existent, not to mention some of the people who were brought in. Whoever was in charge of that side of things, needs a good long hard look in the mirror and probably needs to be doing something else in some other field.

We lost only 4 matches in all of the 2018 season. We’re not even 1/3 of the way into this 2019 season and we have already lost 3 matches and to put that into more context, we have had what some would call a “soft draw” to start the season. We have lost matches against teams we have no business in losing to.

Further to this, we have also yet to play the likes of Manly, APIA, Marconi or Sydney United. Things will only get worse.

As for the Rockdale match, it was a match where we should have come out firing from the get-go, stomp on their throats and kill the game off early, but we pussy footed around for most of it, which is becoming a trait in this side.

Ironically, we managed to score first. Now you would have thought that in doing so, we would shut-up shop and try to hold on, given we were with 10 men. But instead we buckled under the pressure and copped 2 goals in the latter stages of the second-half to send us to another defeat.

Sure there are genuine gripes about the cheat of a referee who officiated the match, but we have to rise above that sort of stuff and not give these types of referees who go on a power-trip when given a whistle, any excuse or opportunity.

In terms of the red card we copped, it is unfortunately exactly what happened. Nikola Kuleski got himself into a situation he was never going to profit from and was given a 2nd yellow for dissent.

We have not beaten this Rockdale team since 2015 now, which is hilarious when you think about it. They are not a traditional heavyweight of the competition, I can’t remember them winning anything in this League, nor are they a great rival of Sydney Olympic’s, but for some reason these clowns are our bogey side.

Maybe them facing Sydney Olympic and it being a sort of World Cup Final for them explains it, they have nothing else, so it has to be it.

To go with that abysmal result in First Grade, it was a clean sweep of failure. The U18s lost 2-0 and the U20s lost 3-0.

If this sort of garbage continues, we will seriously find ourselves in a relegation battle. And as has been seen over the last few years, Marconi, Melita and Bonnyrigg have all been relegated, so there can be none of this, “we’re too big to be relegated” or “it won’t happen to us” rubbish.

I don’t know what they’ve been doing at the Club, but they need to wake the fuck up and fast.

Our next game is against Lindfield FC in a 4th Round FFA Cup Qualifier, This Wednesday Night April 17, who play association football on the North Shore. It will be played at Charles Bean Oval in Lindfield with Kick-Off at 7pm. What odds we lose that one as well?

Our next match in the League is against Manly United on Friday Afternoon April 19, which is a Public Holiday, at Belmore Sports Ground, Kick-Off is at 4.45pm. We have yet to win at home this season and if we don’t win this one, pull the curtain down on 2019.