It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Macarthur FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harry Politidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
Jing Reec was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dean Bosnjak is on it.
Supporters organise against the Macarthur FC board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Ryan Fraser 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.
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diesel Herrington was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Macarthur FC will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Toby Thomas
0‑1 to Adelaide United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words at Macarthur FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Harry Politidis 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.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sydney FC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Macarthur FC scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Macarthur FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Adelaide United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The clubs have shaken hands with Adelaide United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deal with Newcastle Jets is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Macarthur FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jael Norville is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
$22.0K on the table at Western Sydney Wanderers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Macarthur FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Macarthur FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Macarthur FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutStefan Thomas dropped after a run of poor form