Vince Grella finally hung up his boots the other day. The defensive midfielder, whose injuries finally took their toll, may not be spoken of in the same breath as Kewell, Viduka, Cahill and Bresciano, and his contributions to the Golden Generation are glossed over by some.

If so, more’s the pity. In those heady days, his name was among the first on the team sheet and rightly so. A destroyer who could also play, a tactical disciplinarian whose football teeth were cut in the Serie A, he offered more than hard tackling at the back of midfield. Grella knew when to speed up play and when to slow it down, when to play it forward and when to buy time and play sideways. The man was the foundation on which our success was built. Thank you Vince Grella, Socceroo fans nationwide salute you.

He never did get to play alongside Aziz Behich who has now departed these shores for the Turkish league. Let us hope Turkey helps Behich further develop his leftback talents and he joins Zullo and Davidson as a genuine Socceroo lontender for the position sooner rather that later.

Interestingly, one of his teammates at Bursaspor will be Anton Ferdinand, placing Behich only three degrees of separation away from Sir Alex Ferguson. As in the case of Kevin Bacon in the world of film, everyone in the game is Six Degrees of Separation (or less) away from Sir Alex or some other football royalty. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself.

And after being royally beaten at AAMI Park, the Sky Blues looked to regroup in another fixture that always goes down to the wire. With just two points between the sides, it was a game we needed to win to push our way into the Top 6.  Having scored seven goals more than the Jets but conceded a whopping thirty seven all up, it was never going to be a low scoring affair.

The absentee toll was horrendous – we had defenders suspended  and midfielders sidelined through injury, and while Yaira Yau was back home on World Cup duty, Joel Griffiths was serving a ban for giving the linesman a gobful last weekend.

Football, at the professional level, is a serious business. Mark Schwarzer talks about beginning his overseas career in Germany in 1994 and finding that no player or coach smiled or cracked a joke during a training session, let alone on match day.

We are a touch more relaxed than that, but the A-League isn’t for clowning about. The day after the round is completed, players are back in for a recovery session with light runs, ice baths and massage the order of the day. Medical staff are assessing players while coaches meet for a post-match debrief and to plan the week ahead.

For the media the round isn’t over either – there are highlights shows to put together, interviews to conduct and articles to write. Even on public holidays. 

The A-League keeps people busy and takes a break for no one. Heck, the break between seasons is long enough. Too long.

Which is why it was galling to learn that the three supposedly wise men of the league, Simon Micaleff, Alan Davidson and Con Diomis who make up the Match Review panel, chose to not to front up for work on Australia Day Monday. As the rest of the league was working as hard as ever, these three bone-idle buffoons were nowhere to be found.

Their indolence meant that the Sydney camp was only informed of Joel Griffiths’ suspension a day prior to the Jets game which put paid to Sydney plans, a week of practising formations thrown out the window. That the MRP’s decision would’ve been a simple one – anyone who saw the footage of Griffiths giving the linesman an expletive-laden spray will know the suspension was warranted  – is all the more ludicrous, given that five minutes of video viewing would have been enough to convict the former Jet star.

Message to the MRP:  do your job. If players found it within themselves to sweat it out on Christmas Day, you three clowns can spare some time on a public holiday to fall in line with the rest of the league. Hopefully an FFA boot has been applied to three very lazy behinds. And if there wasn’t sufficient process to cover the MRP on long weekends then the FFA is responsible for the debacle and this must never happen again.

With the Sky Blues shorn of quality, most Sydney fans would have taken a draw going into the contest but by the end of the match that draw felt like a loss. Two controversial refereeing decisions cost us three points though overall the draw was probably a fair indication of the way the game panned out.

Down so many players and the game played in atrocious conditions, we had to turn the match into a war of attrition and Farina said as much by playing two defensive midfielders together for the first time in a long while, as well as keeping a third one on the bench.

The first half belonged to the Jets who out-passed us but Sydney chased and tackled everything in sight, forcing Newcastle turnovers, one of which led to Del Piero’s opener. The home side’s equaliser came courtesy of a terrific piece of Ryan Griffiths simulation, conning young and naïve Jared Gillet into pointing to the spot.

The Sky Blues came out breathing fire in the second half, and the passing finally came together. Blake Powell’s goal came after Ruben Zadkovich was dispossessed on the halfway line, Del Piero’s vision once again sublime to pick out Ali Abbas.

Would we hold on? As the Jets threw everything Sydney, I had a feeling something would go wrong and it did. Was it really a handball by Terry McFlynn? I can see why Gillet awarded the spot kick and the red, but the replay shows the ball hitting the Sydney skipper on the lower part of his shoulder. It begs the question – how different is it from the decision that put Harry Kewell out of the World Cup three years ago? And what was our reaction then?

Terry Antonis was excellent, benefitting from Del Piero’s distribution and creating plenty himself. The Young Socceroo captain has been dominating the NYL the last few weeks and surely did enough to keep his spot next weekend.

Seb Ryall was once again outstanding at the back and Adam Griffiths was solid, while young Blake Powell probably played his best game for the club and deserved his goal. And Vedran Janjetovic once again covered himself in glory.

Del Piero was regal and had a major say in both goals. Despite that, and plaudits directed at him from all quarters, I must admit that I found his performance just a touch frustrating to watch. Yes, he must back himself, even against three markers all at once, but surely a simple pass is a better option on occasion?

What is wrong with positioning McFlynn five yards behind Del Piero, and as the great man commits three markers, have him lay off back to the skipper for a first time ball out wide or to another player’s feet? Surely someone’s got to be unmarked somewhere! And it would also make teams think twice about triple-teaming the Italian, which can only help open up extra space for him in coming weeks.

Which isn’t to diminish the Italian’s contribution. The man was once again dominant, and got up and dusted himself off time and again after coming in for yet another kicking. He is the Australian game’s most fouled player this season and an example of inner strength to talented youngsters who have the tripe kicked out of them by talentless hacks every weekend.

Zenon Caravella’s two challenges on the Sydney FC #10 deserved at least a yellow, his cowardly kick to Del Piero’s Achilles moments after coming on surely a result of his coach’s instructions. The same can be said of Michael Bridges, the veteran Englishman coming on and immediately directing a well-aimed boot at the Italian’s legs. Young Gillet will need to sit down and watch the replay. He is sure to learn something.

Right now Sydney may not be playing the prettiest football but have definitely grown the largest set of cojones, at least of the bottom six sides. This year we have out-fought and outplayed most teams in the second half as our now-superior fitness has come into play. Even in the Victory match last weekend, we came back into the contest late on as the home side tired and our energy levels remained high. If we improve our first half performances and get a consistent line up a few weeks in a row we will beat our share of opponents.

Two home games coming up: one this weekend against a Brisbane side in transition and hopefully distracted with Asian Champions League commitments and the next against Adelaide United, a side whose wheels look to have well and truly fallen off. I did tip United to come back to the field but no one could have predicted the spectacular fallout in Adelaide. There's something in the water over there.

Six points at home are a definite possibility, especially if Joel Griffiths’ ban can be downgraded. With eight matches left to play we are in a dog fight for the Top 6 two years running. I believe we’ll make it.