How would you rate this season?

How would you rate this season?

Proud as hell.
Phoenix 'Till I die

Av. ricky said judge me on getting top 4 and didn't deliver

Good. So close to great though. regardless of what was said at the start of the season actually delivering 5ths is a good achievement.

I don't think we will miss smeltz his had it

smetlz is sh*t ive said it since the pre season golden boot = golden bs he got so many penalties hardly gb material so smeltz go be on the bench at GCU cause your average

LOL

FAIL.

EPIC FAIL.

Tbh no one cares about your opinion so piss off please.

i think part of the problem is the fact that players can start negotiating their moves for NEXT season after about 5 games of the current season. then their heads are elsewhere. as for smeltz, he's not played well since the turkish club offered to triple (or whatever) his salary that gold coast are offering him.  doesn't help.

Idiot.
And people dont get the golden boot for great goals.
A goal is a goal.

I have high expectations so average for me. Happy that we improved on last year but no one remembers 5th place.

Good.

No we didn't get top 4 Scottishbhoy, and that should be the aim every season in a league this small. However the team did turn around an abysmal start when they could have folded and given us a Knights-like season.

I also think that many of us (the fans) over-hyped the new signings, and felt we'd simply turn last season's wooden spoon into the Premiership Plate overnight.

5th is a solid improvement on 8th, and a step in the right direction.
wolfman2009-01-24 02:49:29

A step in the right direction and 2 steps backwards because of the Moss/Smeltz loss..

valeo2009-01-24 02:52:38

totally agree.  Its just a pity that the boys had a brain explosion after the preseason cup thinking that they were going to be quality which we all know was never going to be the case.

We didn't come last!!!

I've been disappointed quite a lot of times this season. Perhaps my expectation was too high but we showed such potential in the pre-season that we know we should have made the play-offs.

We certainly had the capability to come away with more points in many games and there's the frustration.

It was a fun first season. Mass expectation with the second. Transfers have already forced substantial change on us for next year, but would like to think we're now brave enough to make some larger changes across the club if we'd really like to compete.

Afterall, it does seem that that the support for the team is still incredibly fickle, which is too dependent on the weather, other events going on and recent results. The club needs much better perfromances more success next year, in order to make sure our attendances claw back up to something more sustainable.

I've moved on to mass expectation in the third season. . .

5th is better than last, 6 will be better than any NZ team has ever finished in the current form of the A-league.

next year will have to be better

The league is tougher than people think....the Nix improved considerably but were still clearly not good enough to regularly beat Victory, Adelaide and co.  Not surprising looking at their rosters.  The reality is we produced a good team with some exciting times in the season, lots of graft at times but not really with a creative midfielder who you thought could dominate against the best teams.

Average (high expectations).

Onwards and upwards though (so long as our MF creativity improves, we recruit two decent strikers, and Ferrante never sets foot on the field again).

atleast we are not newcastle.

last season we played with a lot of flair and attack but also conceded.
this season we really got better in the defense area but were less aggressive.

season 3 would be nice to c new strikers and possibly a LB to fight Lochy off his spot. I think next season we could see even more competition for places in the squad with Costa, and hearfield, Kwasnik, brown, Daniel,  diego (!), leo, mckain and Lia. I think Lia is gonna be able to really put more competitiveness into our side and maybe fight with Muscat.
Kwasnik, Hearfield and Costa Really Started to shine at the end of the season imo.
Hopefully if Dodd re-signs then we will really only need a keeper and a couple of strikers?

happy with the season and the foundations we have in place for the long haul.
Go the Nix!
Bring on season 3!

feverish voted terrible

Maybe he thought it was a poll about you?

The slow start to the season cost us a place in the play-off's.

A good season and a strong showing especially the 2nd half of the season, the only thing that slightly dissapointed me was the style of football we played compared to season 1 but since we moved from 8th to 5th that makes up for it very easily.

Don't want to piss on your cornflakes, but if Sydney win we'll finish 6th.

I know what you mean though. I'm happy with what we did this season. Showed a lot of improvement. Now we have top take that into next season, cos there won't be a lot of room for excuses next year.

I didn't say it was a failure. I'm just not that excited about coming 5th (or more likely 6th after the Sydney game) after playing pretty dull football compared to last season. Do you think that the team is happy? That Ricki is? Seriously? Sure, they might say they are to the media but I f**king doubt it.

In an 8 team competition I just don't understand how anyone can be 'happy' about coming 5th/6th - even after the dismal Knights seasons and (mostly) dismal Kingz.


valeo2009-01-24 12:47:46

I said Great for one simple reason: if you compare the last two seasons, it becomes clear that the club has gone a very long way. I've always been a fan of our style of play last year, but you can't say that football is only about playing well and pick up no points.

Definitely some steps forward, although the pre-season probably over excited my expectations.  Some of the new 'stars' in Durante and McKain took a bit of time to settle into the defensive structure, but once McKain moved forward to provide protection to the back four the defensive shape was very solid. 

The real positive for me was probably Ben Sigmund and Manny Muscat.  Both performed extremely well.  The negative is where we go from here, that we really need to be incisive in the transfer market to ensure that Smeltz and Moss leaving doesn't leave us for dead.  Moss saved our bacon countless times, he'd have to be up there with the best glovemen in the A-League.  Also, it was fun when Fred was here to watch some real skill in the midfield, great player.  Would have loved for him to have returned.

The other negative for me also would have been the performance of Leilei Gao.  That really irked me, and surprised me.  For the Knights in a short period he was so incisive.  He had some magic plays there.  But here his mind wasn't on the job and he suffered.  Bad attitude, an altogether frustrating period for the club.

We didnt have a spectacular season. But it wasnt a sh*t one either. I think That we were unlucky sometimes eg the perth game we should have won. or the mariners should have got a draw. I think we played better at home although w are still not scoring enough goals. smudger2009-01-24 14:11:55

Good points. I agree with your other post that in a league as small as this, finishing outside the playoffs has to be a disappointment.

Like you, I've been less than happy with the style of play. I'm not demanding sexy football week in, week out, but too often it's seemed that the plan has been to sneak a draw or restrict the losing margin. We've had too many games where we've dominated possession, but barely troubled the opposition keeper.

Re: Lochhead and Muscat. Lochhead hasn't been terrible, but neither has he shown the form of last season, yet he started every game. I feel he needs more competition for his spot, whether it be an improved effort from Mulligan, or a new signing. Muscat's, and indeed the team's, lapses are reflective of the standard of the League at present. As the quality of the A-League improves, (hopefully) so will the quality of players.

Next season anything less than playoffs will be failure, but for this season I feel it was a good result