Blog: 'What You Talking About, Willis?'

TALK is cheap - that is unless you are making expensive overseas calls.

The calls I've been hearing all week though have been emanating from the mouths of Adelaide United players. They've been responding to the inevitable media questioning about how the team can possibly scale the mountain that is the seven game losing streak to Melbourne. Edmund Hillary himself would struggle.

Captain Travis was the first to speak up, saying "We need everyone to be leaders on Saturday night and if I can be part of it that's great, but we need to get the win as well, three points is very important for us, especially to break this losing streak we've got against Melbourne."

He continued: "All people talk about is seven games on the trot that we haven't won, so everybody is expecting Melbourne to win again, so there's no pressure on us, we will go over there and play our own game and hopefully come away with the points."

Iain Fyfe chose to talk up the rivalry aspect between the two clubs and not focus too much on recent results. He said: "I've only experienced the Adelaide and Melbourne rivalry once and they got the better of us that day, but I'm used to going down to Melbourne for big games when I was playing with Sydney so I know what it's all about, and they're probably some of the most enjoyable games playing against Melbourne because of that rivalry."

Scott Jamieson took another tack, saying: "It's not in my mind at all, and when I come around to playing against Melbourne it's another game. It's always good to play in big games and these are the biggest in the league for us. It's another game and I haven't won against them, so I'm probably due for a win this week."

He goes on: "There has been a lot made of the hoodoo and everything like that and to be fair, they've been fantastic every time they've played us. They've also had a lot of luck. If you look back to the last two or three games there have been send offs, goals from the sidelines and stuff like that, so hopefully this week we get a bit of luck going our way and can convert it into a win."

So Adelaide needs a team of leaders, playing under no pressure to win, enjoying and thriving in the rivalry between the two clubs, dismissing recent results from the mind and hoping like hell that the team gets its fair share of luck.

There we go, easy.

In truth I have sympathy for the players who are forced to give some sort of coherent response to the questions asked every time a game against Melbourne rolls around. I mean what are they supposed to say? The losing streak is embarrassing and until the Reds snag a win the media might just as well be interviewing Humphrey B. Bear.