When a week off is a bad thing

So normally if some came to you and said you are going to have a week off most of us would be stoked. But when it comes to the A-League it is the exact opposite. The bye is the most hated and unwanted opposition for every fan of football. So this week the Mariners are going to be taking on the bye and as with all teams in the A-League they will miss out on the points.

So what to do and talk about in this week off?

Well first of all I can give you this week's update on the condition and progress of Blue Tongue Stadium returf project. From the top floor of my office you can see straight down onto thepitch so I headed up there to have a look on Thursday Morning. I can tell you with all confidence the pitch looks exactly the same as it did two weeks ago. So there does not seem to have been any great pitch resurfacing as yet. But I can say the pitch does look awesome from 100m away and 5 floors up.

Now to my biggest disappointment of the week. After coming home from work on Thursday I read with some interest on 442 that the Mariners have played the junior Socceroos at Blue Tongue this morning. Why do I start work so damn early. If I started later in the day I may have caught sight of the squads on the pitch and this being the case I would have urgently called a meeting with all the other Mariners supporters on the fifth floor for 90 mins. This would have helped me get over my full week off. That will teach me to be an early riser won't it.

I find it hard to believe that the Mariners would hold this game as a closed session instead of using it to get some more community interest. They could have told members and invited local schools to watch the Junior Socceroos go around. This would appear to be a wasted opportunity for the Mariners and the junior national team.

Seeing as I am really struggling to find worthy issues and Mariner related topics to discuss on this off week I would like to make a few comments about the biggest issue of the week. The Newcastle Jets saga, now I know there are going to be a number of people wanting to know why I am commenting on a Newcastle issue in a CCM blog. But I think that the Mariners as the closest neighbours of the Jets have a vested interest in the Jets wellbeing and additionally I grew up in Newcastle and my family still live in the region.

So given that I come from Newcastle I probably should have been a Jets supporter but when the whole A-League circus started up and I found out that the Jets were owned by ‘Mr Constantine' I immediately vowed to support my new local team. So now that the great Con has departed and the new great white hope, Jason Tinkler has come in I feel happy that the Jets are still a part of the A-League although it is going to make it harder to hate them during the local derbies.

One of the strongest things that a league can have going for it is strong rivalries, Look at the EPL with Manchester local darbies or spectacular Real Madrid - Barca games. Sydney and the mariners have a rivalry and yes we are local neighbours but over the last few years the Sydney - Melbourne rivalry has become much more important to the Sky Blue fans. That means the Mariners are going to use the Newcastle - Central Coast rivalry as the strong selling point for the A-League. I believe that one of the things that has been missing from the Mariners marketing and supporter push was playing on the hatred of the Newcastle Jets, this of course has now been made much harder. The Jets are doing everything they can to make themselves more likeable by the Mariners fans. Ever since that dreaded Grand Final the Newcastle Jets have been on a prolonged campaign to be more likable.

First of all they went and released the man that all Central Coast Mariners supporters loved to hate, the great Crotch Slapper himself Joel Griffiths. Ever since that fateful day when the slapper gave the assistant referee a love tap in the love tackle on the Eastern sideline of BTS Mariners supporters have loved to hate him. Then just to make the hate stronger the great Danny Vukovic gets dismissed for 9 months for tapping a referees hand. Those damn Jets....

Then the Jets take the next dastardly step to make them less hated by all Mariners supporters. They slowly release all the best players they had on their squad and become the worst team in the A-League straight after the Grand Final win. How the hell can you hate a team that became so pathetic. This just goes to show the depths that Con will sink to in making the lives of the Mariners supporters less productive. The Jets became so bad that the Mariners actually threw them a couple of games (that's my story and I always tell my father this is the case when the Jets get a win over the CCM).
Now the last straw has been laid on the camels over laden and struggling frame. Con Constantine is no longer the owner of the Club.

How the hell are we supposed to hate them now.

But in all seriousness though, the A-League is a much stronger competition with the Jets and although many people love to hate him Con did have a lot of passion and love for the Jets club and Australian Football. No one can question that his methods were not always the best but I truly believe Con Constantine did have the Jets and the A-League's best interests at heart. Con the Mariners supporters will miss you even if it is just as an icon of hatred.

On a final note, I can't wait till next week for my fix of Mariners football....