Mark Judan: Family Time

If Rudan leaves before the end of next season I'll never love again. 

Rudan leaving before achieving his plan with the Phoenix does not fit with anything he has reiterated constantly in interviews about the Phoenix job and his own ethics.

#AUFC would like to provide an update to its Football Department and Club operations.

? Read more: https://t.co/W9SFROo5Id pic.twitter.com/BrR1TWRr4j

— Adelaide United (@AdelaideUnited) January 11, 2019

Adelaide United would like to provide an update on its Football Department and Club operations.

Following inaccurate reports in the Australian media, the Club would like to clarify speculation regarding the future of Hyundai A-League Head Coach, Marco Kurz.

These reports do not hold any truth whatsoever.

Kurz and Adelaide United Football Club management have mutually agreed to discuss the German coach’s future later in the season and, until this occurs, Kurz and Club representatives will not be commenting on any speculation hereafter.

“The Club and I have agreed to discuss my future later in the season and it is not a priority of mine to be focusing time and energy on anything but our next game and then the games after that,” Kurz said.

“As a Club, and in consultation with our coaches, we are looking at recruitment options to strengthen our squad offensively,” Director of Football, Aurelio Vidmar explained. “Our job is to be successful on the football pitch and will do everything possible to ensure this in the short and long-term.”

The Club will make further comment in due course. 

I note that Adelaide did not offer an apology to the Nix and to Rudan for any embarrassment that said fake reports may have made. This sort of speculation can be quite unsettling at a club and in a fan base. Is there no level Australians will not go to stir it up against the Nix?

0:34 "FUCK YEAH! FUCK YOU JP!"

why would Adelaide apologise for that? It was the media that speculated and given we are the hot team at the moment any club that has managerial issues or changes the media will link Rudan with them that's what happens in football

reality is that Rudan has only been in the job 5 minutes and while he is doing fantastic there's still along way to go.

I just love it how Rudan is really to go in to battle for his team

Nice to see him stop for a lengthy chat with the fans after the aftermatch at the Churchill

The Aussie Croat Messiah.

Love the sound of his professed buy in to NZ football overall. Hopefully he can help mend some of the fractures in the NZ scene. Nix v NZF, Nix v Ole etc. An interested, curious, driven, non-political neutral.

Sense he has frustrations with some of the potshots at the Nix, from others in NZ football.

Obviously there is lots of infighting, and internal squabbles in Australian football as well. Maybe by coming to a smaller country, he thought he was venturing to another Iceland, everyone rowing in the same direction.

If one of his legacies when he leaves, is a more respected Nix organisation, a place where young promising NZ footballers want to come, and with better relationships with the likes of Ole - that would be awesome.

Positive tweet from Declan Edge this week:

NZ football is fragmented, Local football appears the same otherwise if the clubs all local got together and supported the Nix, the stadium would be over half, if not fully full when the Nix play. Encouraging their members to come along.

Sorry but you just cant use that sort of reasoning. On that basis all Hurricanes and Lions game should also be sellouts.

They used to for about the first 5 years of the stadium. In fact there was a long waiting list for Season tickets.

A small thing, but encouraging for the bigger, longer term future.

To call someone by their first name, also usually means you have met them before. Another positive sign.

How did we know what other people were thinking before social media?!

Pleased to hear him talk about increasing the club profile in the local community. I don't know to what extent that has been happening in recent years but for me it is crucial to get the players out there into schools, local clubs, etc, so that kids can see their heroes and receive encouragement to maybe one day themselves be a pro footballer in a stripey or all white shirt. Also to badger their parents to take them along to the games.

Interesting thoughts from Rude's in the presser on the strong sense of negativity that pervades life in New Zealand. As another Australian living in Aotearoa, I've also encountered  this negativity, especially in my workplace. Small issues that are easily fixed, or aren't actually real issues get blown out of all proportion as if the whole world is about to fall apart. Even on this forum, there's a strong sense of negativity, even in the now when the team are playing out of their socks and have been undefeated over the past eight games. As Rudes' said, let's live in the now and enjoy this season for what it is. Long may it continue! 

Fully agree with your comments.

On the other hand though, we have better craft beer here in NZ.

You're talking 15 - 20 years ago now though - the market's radically shifted in favour of people staying at home and watching on TV since then.

True but all the die hard boofheads don't think so.

Absolutely agree. So many good things about living in New Zealand, especially the beer, the wine, the flat whites, cheese scones and the Nix of course! 

Also, we have slightly fewer fascist street rallies in New Zealand.

But back on topic: Rudan's appeal to Kiwis to appreciate what we have in the Phoenix while we still have it is very interesting. He doesn't seem to have grasped that Kiwis pretty much only back winners, so it's a chicken-egg situation. Witness the way that Olé have been quietly sneering at the Phoenix for ages (along with much of the football establishment in this country), but we pull our chestnuts out of the fire on Saturday, and Declan himself gives us the thumbs up.

Anyway, this increases my hope that - if we can stay more or less unbeaten for another month - the crowd at Eden Park might be respectable.

I mean, Declan sneers at most people it seems - I think that's probably more to do with Rudan building a relationship with him.

That's the beauty of Rudan coming in as a neutral Aussie, with none of the baggage of any previous relationships within NZ football. As he said he was given a lot of information when he first arrived. That would have included some intel on Declan & Ole. He describes himself as curious.

I'm guessing he looked at the situation and said something like, 'I'm coaching one of the smallest clubs in the A League, with a small popn base, and a real lack of recent success - and yet we don't talk with NZ's most well known football academy 30km down the road? An academy maybe run by a mad person, but that is acknowledged as the "best" academy in this small country, with some of the best young football talent in the country?. Give me this mad person's ph number!!' 

Not saying it happened for sure, but comparing the personalities of say Merrick and Rudan though watching interviews etc - think it's far more likely Rudan would try and smash down a few barriers to get results.

If he indeed has smashed down those barriers to get towards a better relationship with Ole, or at least tried to bring them down, I'll let out a huge sigh of relief. Couldn't come at a better time

Can you clever mods please do a Rudan tee?

Yep. Not just within the NZ football community - even starting with the ones in the Wellington community would be a great start. I still meet long time members of various local 'football' clubs who don't or won't get out and watch the Nix regularly. They prefer to either watch winter park football ("it's my club") or English/European league football on TV ("it's much better quality than the A-League"). I can't get my head around either attitude when pro football is on our doorstep.

I agree with Rudan and I like that he's challenging his players and fans alike to get over themselves, stop making (poor) excuses and just be better.

Its not really hard to understand why people feel more attachment to winter club, rather than franchise football, is it? 

Life takes all kinds. I think I'd enjoy going to the nix more if we were not stuck in a cricket ground. Hutt rec was awesome.

The Ultimate for be/have been for the Hutt Rec to be redeveloped for football/league/union and a 12k stadium. It won't happen, Nimby's and local egos would stop it. Perhaps if they had offered to call it the trevor mallard Stadium, we might have seen it.

Difficult to write a business case for a 12k stadium that turns the Westpac into a complete white elephant.

It is though. Designed specifically for one day cricket because in the early ninety's we had a decent team. The Council led by a certain mayor thought they were going to fill it at every one day game but then they turned crap, fans stayed away and we're left with it.

It should have been a rectangular stadium with rounded corners and a roof.

Don't forget: designed to attract an AFL team to Wellington. Which never happened apart from a couple of Hawthorn/St Kilda games.