Contracted Players - Return of the Long Pins

Good for the culture, good for the youngsters, good for the whiners.
Would have been a surprise if he wasn't offered an extension. 
Happy to have Vinnie on for another season.

One good reason I think Vinnie is really one of us on this forum:

“If we can sign a couple more defenders I think we will be in for a really good season.” 

(from his interview on WPX website)

I think a success for us would be if he never gets on the pitch, that would mean our top side has performed really well

The Scapegoat

Soon he'll be making another run

The Scapegoat

Getting the blame from everyone

Lack of ambition

Or, The Scapegoat / Soon we'll be finding another one / etc

Think everyone at the Nix (including Vinnie himself) knows that he's going to have a different role in the side this year. Good as a squad player/injury cover, not so good if he ends up being the Riera replacement.

This is not a reflection on Lia personally. 

My enthusiam for the Nix is waining. We have been consistently sit near the bottom of the league with the same core crop of players for the last four plus years. Every other team apart from one or two have been consistently improving their squads and the gap just seems to be growing..

Our backline has been pants for a while, our midfield wouldnt rate any higher than 8th and we dont have a striker..

Oh the angst...

2014/15 we finished 4th, and we were top of the league for a couple of weeks.

Our backline is something we have several months to fix, our midfield is one of the best, with Roly, Gui, WeeMac and A-Rod (who may be primed for a breakout season). Krishna scored a bagful pre-injury and looked like a challenger for the boot in the early rounds. Not to mention Kosta...

not surprised. Nice guy, but i swear one of the worst A league players to continually get contracts; obviously no cernak. Still amazes me that his experience is not due to being any good/earning contracts but somehow sticking around the club long enough that it'd be rude to let him go.

If your love for the club requires that the club actually win anything, you don't really love the club.

And you probably shouldn't follow anything to do with NZ football

Anyway, I think Lia owes Riera a few beers. Saved his job.

In recent years I have thought of Lia as the" Litmus Test" .  If we need to play him then we are really struggling.

He's been bloody good under Merrick, I really don't understand the hate. Same with Rodriguez.

On the positive side, whiners gonna whine.  One more season of reliable material, and the Hilltop Hoods on the team bus....

Provides at the very least great experiance and good squad competition. I am surprised it took so long for him to be re-signed to be honest

Did I see Vinnie at the Interrnational terminal today heading off shore? Has Vinnie got a son about 8? If not, Vinnie, you have a twin out there.

Was he boarding a scapeboat?

Vinnie has a twinn or a brother that looks just like him. Is it a doppleganger?

at the last game of last season i saw a guy in the area with the players families that looked like vinnie just a bit rougher looking, i thought at the time he must be vinnie's brother

Sounds like the guy I saw, had a pirate type beard, i have seen vinnie with one in the past.

Excited about the current squad. A new CB and a Right or Left back and I'll be very happy!

Hope we go back to the high wide strikers formation we played with Burnsy.

With the current squad I'd go:

                      Moss

Fenton    Durante   Fox   Doyle

                  Rodriguez

      McGlinchey   Bonavacia

                    Finkler

Kosta                            Krishna     

Is resign the only word in the English language in which if you leave all the letters in the exact same order and don't add any other letters becomes the completely opposite meaning?

Isn't it resign vs re-sign?

Doh!

Yes. A hyphen isn't a letter though :)

It's seven and a space

I didn't know Hyphen was available

I don't comment on here much anymore - I just read. However as a high school English teacher I can't let this one go.

Resign is what is called a contronym. Essentially it is a word that has two meanings that contradict each other. Another is 'fast' which can mean stuck to a fixed position OR moving rapidly. There are more.

But resign doesn't have two meanings which contradict each other. It only contradicts itself if you add something to it (a hyphen). I guess I didn't word my question very well.

I meant is it the only word that changes to the opposite meaning by leaving all letters in the same order but adding something that isn't a letter?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym

That exchange is precisely why I come to this site. 

I sure do not expect my team to win anything but, on the other hand, oh it's a motherlode of magnificent trivia out here.

Incorrect (technically) as McGarry has been released.

They have added a section with all the info about the salary cap to the A-League website - http://www.a-league.com.au/about

Explains a bit more about the Loyalty Players salary cap exemption. Vinnie being here 10 years means 50% of his wages can be put towards the 200k maximum allowed outside the cap.

Does Vinnie get a "Testimonial" game for 10 years? Go for Arsenal Vinnie, get a decent turnout for that one.