SO...there we have it, the end of the Mariners 2013-14 season....and to be fair, I'm stoked that we got as far as we did, considering the decimation that occured up to and when that transfer window was flung open ....and when it did fling open, I thought for certain..ARRHAH, you took a while you evil swine, but you got here, the Grand Final winner hoodoo had finally arrived..WONDERFUL, MARVELLOUS..FAN-DAMN -TASTIC
Started off with the retirement of the mighty dutchman and GF goal scoring hero .....# 6...Zwaanje...Patrick Zwaanswijk....mind you, we didn't technically lose him, he took over the youth squad...
anyway, the season commenced to proceed and we had a couple of months with a good sized chunk of the grand final winning team virtually intact, with some additions, like Marcos Flores, Marcel Seip, Liam Reddy and Stormy The Wonder Kid and the return of The East Gosford Sportsman of the Millenium, the human dodgem car, Matty Simon...oh, yeah and we got a new chairman..Bruce from the Roar joined the crew...
So, the boys cruised along in the start of the season...THEN...we lost, among others, Bernie, Matty Ryan, Olly Boz, Tesco and Macca, and then in November, to top it off after signing a new contract ( which apparently mean jack nowadays) Arnie got a new gig in the J-league, which was cool..except he took Clarky and Wee Mac ( until January 2015 anyway) with him....
and instead of going shopping for someone who dunno how the place runs, the club, quite rightfully allowed Mossy to step up and take over the reigns, he started out by bringing back Mariner original, Wayne O'Sullivan as his sidekick....NOW, to be fair, sometimes I couldnt see Phils vision...but i aint a footballing genius, so IN MOSS I TRUST...still gave me the occasional peptic episode none the less.
Speaking of going shopping...since we had ACL (AGAIN, cause thats how we roll) this year, we had to get a few boys in, former Mariner, Glen Triffiro, Isaka Cernak, Matt Sim, "Fast" Eddie Bosnar (the proud owner of one of the fastest free kicks around) and from Korea, Kim Seung Yeong....OH and Bernie, who got a tally of 6 goals this year, came back to the club from China, Bernie is on loan....
NOW...the powers that be, our wonderful owner, decided that Fortress Mariner shouldnt be our only ground and petitoned the Foxtel Football Association to play a game at that friggin antique North Sydney Oval, yes, I went to Spirit games there but still, anyway he was convinced all his yuppy mates would show up and then go to games ALL the time afterwards..
It could be said that the boys were a bit hot and cold this year...winning one week and losing the next, and It we got our fair share of draws this season...but i guess that could be said of just about every team in the comp....we gave everybody a scare this year, I mean considering the decimation, we damn near made it to the Grand Final again...BUT...the boys fell a bit short in the major semi v The Drive Bys...
mind you we only flew in from Japan the day before the game..so jet lag was an issue ...I fully blame FOXTEL, its their scheduling that caused this debacle I also lay some blame squarely at the feet of FFA boss David Gallop, who crumbled like a woosy insteaqd of telling Foxtel to boil their collective skulls and have both major semi's on the Sunday...I mean was there really a friggin issue ? the knuckle draggers from Parramatta werent using the ground on Sunday..so what was the problem ?...NONE, thats the answer...you suck Foxtel...go throw your weight around somewhere else...
Heres a scenario regarding El Giraffe....they could of sold off Kwasi, who hasnt kicked a ball in anger in what seems like a Mrdja ( a unique form of Mariner time measurement) and Matt Simon ( who bumped into enough blokes to activate his rollover) and talk Hutcho into retiring...harsh you say...maybe...but it would of freed up some funds.....imagine if we kept Marcos...Wee Mickey, Marcos, Monty, Fitzy with Kimmy as back up...a scary thought if they all get on the same page mentally...
Speaking of the fans...we were all there when the main st of Gosford was drenched in yellow when the boys brought the Dunny Seat home, how awesome was that afternoon..Kibble Park was deadset chockers...awesome....and while the crowds didnt exactly flood into Fortress mariner (again), even though we had our most members this year...and once inside the gates, the crowd interaction improved out of sight for the first time in a loooong time...we had the faithful doing call back chants at home games, both ACL and HAL and even away games...AND...for what i believe to be a footballing first in Australia, the Mariners got their very own brass band taking up residence in BAY 16...how cool is that...VERY COOL thats how cool....if we can get a few more coasties to become members next year that would be all the better....might stop Charlesworth moving friggin games to places that are a bastard to get too
SO...we all have a couple of months off to get our voices back into shape...Oh and we have more football than ever coming soon when the FFA Cup springs to life...SO...next year we gonna win the dunny seat and the inagrual FFA Cup...that'll be cool...C'MON YOU YELLOW AND BLUE
Well that was a tough season but once we sold so many good players I guess it was always going to be....The positives.....we lost a great Manager but replaced him with his understudy and Phil proved himself to be up to the task. I'm hoping he and the team continue to improve but Mossy certainly appears to be a good fit for us.
We brought in some decent new players. Roux and Bosnar are starting 11 material and if we can get Kim playing to the standard he is capable of then we have a star in our midst.
Caceras made the breakthrough to first team Football and Fitzy had a very solid season......The Yellow Army found their voice in great style and the prawn sandwich brigade joined in at last. Finally the Mariners fans came to life.....at the current rate of improvement only the Drive Bys and Victory will be louder than us.....The band.......these guys are so good I just love them......brilliant idea by somebody.
The Negatives....Our forwards failed to fire apart from Bernie who almost single handedly saved our season....Dour negative football was served up for much of the season.
A horrible defensive mindset crept over the club signalling a team that was in damage limitation rather than a team that genuinely wanted to have a go......that it not the Mariners way.....Our defence was terrible early on but the addition of Bosnar and the improvement of Chesty meant that we were competitive for the second half of the season.
Player Marks.
Pasfield C. Didn't take his opportunity and that horrendous blunder cost him his season. Having said that he had a couple of good games.
Reddy A. What a redemption. Fantastic season and Player of the Year. Probably the main reason we didn't come in the bottom 3.
Bosnar. B. Quite impressive. Tough and reads the game well. Needs to work on his set piece.
Anderson C+. Terrible early on and still prone to mistakes but showed real improvement and looks to have the tools to be a decent player. Probably the most improved from start to finish.
Griffiths C-. Great debut but sometimes unsteady after that. Some potential.
Rose B-. Probably his weakest season yet but still often our best attacking weapon. One he got dropped he improved a lot.
Roux B. Still raw and a little sloppy defensively but clearly a quality player. A star in the making.
Siep C. Average season but did improve. That volley was beautiful.
Caceras. C+. Decent season. Showed he can play at this level. Good with the ball at his feet and chimed in with a couple of terrific goals.
Cernak D. Tried hard but didn't really do enough.
Fitz. B. Good season. His work rate is probably the best in the team. Needs to try and stay calm when he does he is top class as show by his finish against Brisbane.
Flores C+. Sad to see him go. Probably slightly underachieved but the team set up was poor and he was let down somewhat by his teammates who were happy to leave everything to him.
Hutcho C. Usual mixed bag. His toughness was great at times and he had a few good games but frustrating to watch and although his job was to protect a shaky defence his constant playing back when we were building an attack was annoying to say the least.
Monty B+. Some games he took by the scruff of the neck and won it for us on his own. Plays some lovely through balls and tough as teak. Finishing is woeful and needs to be worked on.
Sim C+. Solid pro. Never let us down.
Sterjovski B-. Showed a lot more quality this year. Intelligent Footballer.
Triff. C+. Solid pro. Has some class. Good addition to the squad.
Duke C+. Work rate was sensational. Some good games and probably our best in he GF. Let down by our formation.
Ibini B+. Please come home Bernie. Saved our season.
Kim C. Some flashes of pure class but needs to get tougher and busier.
Simon C+. Brave and also worked his socks off but finishing wasn't great this year. Also let down by lack of support and poor team structure.
Moss B-. Did well to steady a sinking ship but his charges got smashed a few times and he had us playing Anti-Football some games.
Overall a promising start to the management game.
Crawley A+. How good is this bloke. Legend.
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