There’s not much I ask for at the end of the working week:  good coffee, good music and a healthy dose of football are all I need to relax. But what happens when one of these simple pleasures just doesn’t deliver ?  When you get offered Nescafe, Shannon Noll and a ball that just won’t get over the line ?

It’s been a frustrating week of football for me and it’s ruined my mood. Even a perfect macchiato made by an Italian barista singing Nick Cave’s greatest hits couldn’t sooth my irritation. 

First, there was the lacklustre performance of the Socceroos against Oman, then I took Iain Ramsay out of my fantasy team and an hour later he scored, finally I’m sitting at Bluetongue and hear that the Mariners new “anthem” is apparently “Yellow” by Coldplay, one of the most uninspiring dirges ever to hit the airwaves. (The other alternative suggested was “Sailing” by Rod Stewart – geez, what’s wrong with an Aussie song ??)

Perhaps it’s unsurprising that this was all capped off by the utterly frustrating sight of The Mariners repeated “near and yet so far” shots on goal against Victory. The ball that “crossed the line but didn’t” just about gave me heart failure. And it’s somehow 10 times as stressful when you sit behind the bench and can see Arnie’s growing aggravation.  At one point he even threw his water bottle up in the air, hitting himself in the head in a moment of pure slapstick.

Now I’m not going to dissect the game or make judgements about our strikers, just repeat Arnie’s expert technical analysis: “Our final ball was crap”.  Don’t you just love a coach who tells it like it is?

A few weeks ago Arnie advised Mariners’ fans “not to panic”.  OK, I’m not panicking but to be honest, I’m getting really “concerned”. We all know are defence is still pretty tough to break down but we need to start scoring. Daniel McBreen in particular needs a goal like Balotelli needs a fire extinguisher. 

And I swear, I will open the champagne when he finally puts one in the back of the net because he so deserves to get back to form. McBreen’s pain after the Grand Final was terrible to see but he has come back with a renewed determination this season and  worked hard every week for the team.

And to be honest, without a few goals to celebrate, how long will such great crowds keep turning up at Bluetongue ?  And is it fair to expect the True Believers (who will always be there, even if we have to sing along with Coldplay) to put up with the frustrations we thought we’d left behind last season? 

We had over 10,500 spectators last weekend and they didn’t all turn up simply for the large free bag of Masterfoods goodies (although Coasties do love their condiments).  Admittedly, the sight of Mehmet and Arnie deep in conversation next to Marvin dancing with the man dressed as a tomato sauce bottle was worth the ticket price alone. (But next time I’d really like to see the flying sauce bottle airship get struck by lightning in a Hindenburg re-enactment, with gallons of sauce splattering on the visiting team during warm-up – cue Mel McLaughlin : “Oh, the humanity!”)

Now usually, my football frustrations are soothed the following week by talking with other fans and listening to some interesting discussion on Fox Sports FC.  But this season I’ve grown increasingly fed up with this program’s endless focus on Brisbane Roar, to the detriment of any other A-League discussion.

Is it just me or has Ange Postocoglou been a guest on this show every second week (except for the week Broich was on) ?  Not only that, but he pops up on every other Fox football show as well, including Socceroos commentary. King Ange is inescapable, as ubiquitous as David Guetta at a dance party (but sadly not as entertaining).

Yes, we know he’s a great coach, we know Roar are record-breaking, blah, blah, blah. We get it.  But there are other stories in the A-League and we need to hear about them as well.  Sydney are doing far better than predicted, The Mariners aren’t; Victory are not scoring and The Jets are flying high. These and dozens of other interesting happenings are being ignored so we can listen to another half hour discussion about zzzzz…Brisbane Bore.

This week I was pleased to see Gary Van Egmond had been invited on to the show, until I realized it was purely to discuss his match against Roar with (who else) Ange. Give us all a break !  Let’s hear from other coaches and other teams.  They all have insights to offer and deserve a decent amount of airtime.  

And just let The Mariners score this week.  Sydney are where we ought to be on the ladder, which should be motivation enough. Ryan and Olly will be away but Hutcho’s back and needs to get off the bench. A bit of Hutcho at the SFS never goes amiss !

(PS : Thanks Super Bretts - I feel better now! Can you make me a coffee ?)