The Melbourne City Gazette
Squad15 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Benaducci
136 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Melbourne City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Age has not caught Awer Mabil yet — 8.07
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match13 Jan 2029
Melbourne City cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Tempers go at Melbourne City
Lucas Benaducci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Christian Theoharous runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match13 Jan 2029
Melbourne City get the job done against Auckland FC
A 1‑0 win over Auckland FC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Melbourne City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonee Burke-Gilroy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
One of those days for Lee Bonis
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Tiago Quintal gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
In brief
- Market Wellington Phoenix expected to open talks for Dylan Riley
- Market Tate Scott leaves for nothing
- Market Brett Ryan leaves for nothing