Mariners Give Way

Coming off the explosion of emotion that was their madcap, final 10-minute comeback win over Melbourne Victory the week prior, some form of hangover was to be expected by the Mariners on Sunday afternoon.

Yet nobody, least of all Alen Stajčić, would have anticipated the struggles experienced by the Mariners defence in the opening 20 minutes at Kardinia Park – a perfect storm of poor defending facing a blistering attack

While few teams could have properly dealt with Damanti’s magical assist on the opener, the all-too-easy turnover by the Mariners defence to give him the ball and Ziggy Gordon’s failure to properly challenge Berisha in the air were areas to improve on.

Even giving poor Rowles the benefit of the doubt for the two deflections – drives to the byline by Pain and Burgess, albeit the latter’s being a supreme bit of skill, also left much to be desired from the Mariners defence.

“We just got punished for individual errors and some poor defending and that’s what happens when you play against a quality team like they are,” Stajčić said post-game.

“They probably had three actions inside our penalty box in that opening 20 minutes and scored off all three. And we had probably seven or eight actions and didn’t produce the same amount of quality that they had.

“In some respects, they had eight or nine actions and could have scored five and we had forty actions and maybe looked like scoring once or twice.

“The quality in each penalty area was significantly different for each side tonight.

“We still dominate the game in terms of territory and possession and balls into the box but that’s not where the game’s decided.

“The game’s decided in the critical moments and in the critical moments they were without question significantly better and the scoreline reflects that."

Western Wilderness  

United’s Whitten Oval home fixture next week may have been organised on very late notice, but it could nonetheless serve as an important litmus test of where the club’s future fortunes lie. 

Despite entry to Sunday afternoon’s contest being free of charge – with patrons encouraged to donate to bushfire relief efforts in lieu of an entrance fee – attendance at Kardinia Park was once again poor.

With vast swathes of the stadium’s stands once again cordoned off, the fans that were seated in the Reg Hickey and Brownlow Stand were unable to overcome the cavernous confines of the contest to create a captivating atmosphere.

Though some Geelong-based fans may have voted with their feet on Sunday after the decision to take a home game off them in favour of Melbourne’s west, an even halfway decent crowd at Whitten Oval next week would be a massive improvement.

Should the attendance and atmosphere be considered a success, it would be very hard to argue against United – despite their grandiose claims of representing everywhere west of the Westgate – seeking to move even more of their fixtures out of Geelong and into smaller venues such Whitten Oval or, should the parties be able to work together and reach an agreement, Melbourne Knight’s Sunshine-based football Stadium.