Happiness has officially returned to Bluetongue Stadium. It's a weird feeling after so much disappointment, but it's a feeling I've been craving for far too long.
In fact it's hard to remember when I last felt this happy on a Monday morning. Weekends can be frantically busy or incredibly relaxing but there's nothing quite like back-to-back home wins to make the first day of the working week seem truly enjoyable.
There's the enjoyment of gloating about your win with workmates (Hello Swans Fans), the satisfaction of sharing some sarcastic banter ("how's Nicky's toe?") with your favourite Sydney FC-mad barista, the sheer joy of waking up and remembering "we did it again - yesss!"
(To top it off, with Julia Gillard officially taking office last week, the $10 million offered to the Mariners' Centre of Excellence is now guaranteed. Thanks Julia ! There's a Bundy and coke with your name on it at the Kendall Bar anytime.)
Last year I came to dread Mondays. I would wake up with the weight of the world on my shoulders and have to drag myself off to work with images of lost opportunities and negative football statistics floating around in my head. Backpage headlines of other teams' triumphs seemed like Ben Buckley's evil plot to make me feel worse.
Now I'm ready to believe, ready to hope, ready to start enjoying watching what my team has to offer this season. And there is so much on offer : confidence, attack, shape, skill, quick passing - this is a team that's playing some great football and has thrown off the shackles of recent history once and for all.
It's beautiful to watch. Can anyone honestly now say they still harbour doubts about Graham Arnold ? Surely not even the biggest Arnie-hater could fail to admire the new players he has brought into the squad. For example :
McBreen : a risk-taker who brings the sort of heart-stopping excitement up front that we were sadly lacking last year. And his goal celebrations are ultra cute.
Bozanic : a blazing red-haired gem. Beautiful crosses into the box. Just needs Simon to finish them a bit more ruthlessly.
Griffiths : fast talker, fast mover, fast thinker. Everywhere and anywhere on the park, he's brilliant.
Zwaanswijk : Big, solid, imposing - an absolute rock at the back. Has brought out the best in Wilko.
Ryan : two clean sheets in two games for the teenager - what a massive achievement. Even Colosimo gave him a gold star and a pat on the head.
But let's not look through Rose-coloured glasses, what happened to us after the injured Meggsy got sent off (a rather soft red card in my opinion)? We should have been able to bury the ten men but had to settle for 1-0.
Now I don't want to sound ungrateful, but there were some very worrying moments in the last 15 minutes and at times, I thought we were just about to let two points slip away.
It's the kind of thing we did repeatedly last season and I'm not sure I could live through that frustration again. This is a bright, shiny new team and I want to start feeling confident we can maintain a lead when we get one. Otherwise what's the point of a goal-scoring wonderdad ?
We can only hope Perez is unleashed against GCU next weekend, perhaps lifting the team by coming off the bench as he did against Sydney (only with less controversy). With all the doom and gloom hanging over the A-League right now, we all need a bit of South American flair to light the way forward.
Ironically, crowd numbers have fallen at Gosford at a time when the Mariners are performing well : blame the late kick-off times or blame the clash with other codes finals. One thing's for sure, we are all caught up in the future of the A-League and it's difficult to feel completely happy about the Mariners success right now.
This interview with head of the PFA Brendan Schwab makes for sobering reading.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/revolution-at-risk-as-ffa-reaches-too-far-20100911-1563j.html
His analysis of what's wrong with the A-League belies the idea that more money alone is the answer. It seems that the lessons of the past were not learnt and we can only hope that history doesn't repeat itself.
That would bring an end to Happy Mondays for all of us.
