R20 vs Western United | Fri 21th Feb | 7:15pm | RoF/SS7 | #WhackingDay

Anyone know what Barisha was mouthing off about in the tunnel at the end?? Saw some sort of gesture..

who gives a shark? They were shark and we were better. Get it right up those cods.

Their second half sub, Skotadis (27), should have been given two yellows and sent off.

Then they would finally have eleven against our eleven.

p. A fudge yes

Skotadis yeh he's is a real hacker. Same as last game we palyed them.

What a night.  Being out in the shark weather is fine when you walk away with a win :) 

Kurto was frickin amazing.  Some of his saves were insane, if we shot like that against other teams we would be dancing at our goal difference. 

With how much we were fouled i can't believe the only 2 yellows were given to us.  When they were fouling us on the first half I leaned over to a mate and said we will definitely get the first yellow, and we did for what seemed like sod all. 

If Hooper could stay on side his goal tally for the year would be awesome. 

Still a 2 point win and clean sheet against the snakes, happy as clams.

I just hope the bullshark yellows don't add up and hurt us going into the finals. 

Hot take - Kurto wasn't incredible or anything, our finishing was just pretty average. Look at the chalked off goal, where Hooper shot at the keeper twice and the second luckily went in. Most of our shots just went straight at him

Not sure if it was just being there giving worse views but it looked like Kurto did some split second saves and a few pretty good reaches to stop them. 

I'll have to watch a replay because it can be hard to judge when you're there. 

100% agreed; the save off Taylor was good because it came at him slower than he expected. 

Most of the saves were regulation and Kurto made them look more difficult than they were.

And who said he couldn't distribute? 

There was one against Ball? which was pretty damn good. Other than that everything was regulation, and he really should have saved Libby's goal.

And this isn't me being salty he left or anything - he's a fantastic keeper, it's our finishing which caused us issues

Eeep missed that.  Ta. 

Missed watching the game as was on shift this afternoon - Rushed through a few of my setups just so I could jump on the computer for 'work' and see what the score was. 

Very pleased with the result, sounds like we played them off the park, even though we could have (should have) buried a few more goals! Will have to watch a replay when I can. 

To be completely honest, I'm more happy with another clean sheet. We can't be beaten if we're miserly, and barring the first 4 weeks of the season when we were a bit haphazard at the back (I'll take Perth as a blip - we all have off days) we've been seriously solid over the course of our remaining 14 games.  

Talay is working wonders in this setup too, and long, long may it continue. 

COYN!

Very much this. Just constant niggly fouls throughout the game and it just broke up play. Risden should've been booked, nasty player. 

Disagree about Hooper its more to do with our players learning his leads both him and Ball make numerous leads that if we could get the ball to them would lead to much more.

Piscopo was clattered all game shark he takes some punishment don't get how no cards were issued for tackles against him,yet he makes a similar tackle and is shown a yellow.

Read through some things when I got home and shark some people watch the game with blinkered views they slag off Hooper Piscopo didn't think Kurtos saves were much.Yet Libby gets rated as awesome, sorry but yep he does some great things but can also be ordinary in others he may have scored but also should have crossed rather than trying some other wonder strikes and gave up the ball to easy in others. Love the way he plays the game and  look forward to see him playing at a much higher level. 

Well, that game deserves the hangover I have today.  Mental weather and kudos to those who showed up, we were certainly provided with much more entertainment than I thought we would do.

Page 2 of the Australian coaches handbook v Nix

Stop the momentum

Josh Risdon and Dario Jertec both conceded 4 fouls and Jertec only played for 67 minutes! Berisha also conceded 5. Persistent fouling isn't a thing anymore? None of the three recieved a yellow. You'd hope the ref performance is reviewed after the round and special attention gets paid to tactical fouling against the Nix in future games.

We dominant in all those stats except fouls.  Got to start hacking :P

The most important stat we won on was the goals though. 

God its great to be a Nix supporter right now.  Given a lot including me wrote this year off as a build year I'm enjoying the hell out of this build. 

Come on! He might be a ?, but he pulled of some top quality saves.

The weather was truly dreadful but man, that's about the best atmosphere we've had in a long time. Chanting right through the game and leaving the stadium afterwards, taking the piss out of Rudas and Berisha (me and my son sang He had bird shark in his hair). Great stuff.

Great performances from Devere, Cacace, Ball and Piscopo (early on at least, he waned a bit). Probably should have been a 4-0 win at least, and we'd be second if it had. Oh well...

Only one thing, oh how I wish we still had Max Burgess in our squad. He'd slot in beautifully for Ulises when the little wizard tires or gets a knock. 

COYN!!!

He did make good saves,  but I agree that our finishing helped him out a lot. But ultimately those saves mean little when you wave in a goal that loses you the game and that's basically a regulation save at any serious level of football.

Would add the slagging off of McCowatt to that. Sure, lost the ball twice. So what? See what we were saying about Ball and Davila and Devere in the first couple of games. Plays more simply than Piscopo, but set up a great chance for Hooper and Libby trusts him enough to pass to him. 

To sumarise: relying on distance shooting aint guna make us a threat in the finals. It's an inconsistent source of goals against a competent stopper. It looks good, but we need to get those Hooper tap ins going. And some from Ball, Sotirio, Davila etc.  Difficult to play in behind without Sotirio on the park.

Bitumens looked liked Sunday league team in the first half. Only way to to stop us was fouling, a sign of weak team. Referee should do more to protect players.

Our team is so much fun to watch, no complaints, keep going!

All in all it was a great night and atmosphere got better when people came all closer together to avoid the rain.

Sutton appears to be a permanent fixture within the matchday squad, why is he not on a contract?

.

I thought Piscopo played very well and has a lot more quality then many of you are letting on!

Underrated passer, great defensively for a forward, extremely tenacious, and is being played in an unfamiliar position. Kid scored 21 in 16 last season - he's not useless like some of you are letting on. And Piscopo's even better! Got to be grateful we're not stuck in 17/18

I'm not saying he's useless. I'm saying he hasn't taken his chance. He had a month where Piscopo was away and did not go anywhere close to nailing down a spot.

He worries me because his technique is really poor - particularly his first touch. I hope he pulls it together. Just had a lot of hope for him this season.

I think it will take him an entire season in a pro environment before we can start to really judge his output - but he's only got one season with us at the moment, so all I care about is right now.

Presume the one year deal was his choice?  It was always going to be a huge step up for him and he should have agreed a two year deal to set himself up properly. 

As you said, it was disappointing he didn't do much during Piscopo's absence.  Just hope he doesn't run out of time, for his own sake.

not sure I agree that McCowatt has a lack of technique. I think he has great technique and his cutbacks are deadly.

Disagree; his first touch is so, so bad at times.

Very good points tbh

McCowatt is just not good enough for 1st team football, another season at the Wenix should help his course there after

He's never been at the WeeNix. It's more likely he goes off and joins Edge somewhere.

From a source reasonably close to him, I believe this to be true. It would seem that he believes he is being sidelined for not commiting to a longer contract.

Thats interesting. But probably some truth there. Piscopo is a three year investment, so there is more incentive to get him on the field.  I think McCowatt shows great promise but is lacking a bit of confidence atm. He did have his chances but didn't really grab them and I think he knows thats the case. Piscopo I'd say deserves his starting place through merit. 

This is only McCowatts first year as a pro, He's still got a lot to learn. that includes dealing with a bit of adversity, I hope he sticks with the Nix. Would hate to see him in 5th tier Sweden.

The NIX are use to 1 year contracts... Payne got one and worked hard enough to get another deal.

If he wants longer, let him earn it.