It’s been a little while now since South played a match, but to be honest it was a little while before that when our season actually ended.

What have we missed? Well a fiery finals series for one! Dandenong City have stormed to the Grand Final after defeating Dandenong Thunder (for the first time) and then Avondale (against the odds but with the wind).

Heidelberg will face City in the final and will certainly go in as favourites. The Bergers managed to defeat Preston Lions in a highly controversial match at the village which made headlines for the off-field antics of some Preston fans. More on that later.

The Bergers however also come into the final after having defeated a third A-League opponent in the Australia Cup, Auckland City no less! On form alone the Bergers are certainly favourtite to take home the biscuits in the final.

Alternatively, the Bergers also have a unique opportunity to choke on a scale never before seen. They have already lost in the Dockerty Cup Final, and dropped the Premiership late in the season, will we see them also lose an NPL Victoria Grand Final and an Australian Cup Final as well? Time will tell if they can complete a rare quadruple.

On the Preston shenanigans. I was at the game and enjoyed the atmosphere. I had no issues getting in or out and saw no violence. I did see about a dozen flares thrown on the field and heard racists chants from the away bay, but unlike previous incidents this year, the scale and response to these has been greatly increased.

Preston has officially come out condemning the behaviour, set up an anti-social information hotline and is looking to remove those responsible, but as we know in football (especially at this level) that is incredibly hard to police, and I sincerely wish them luck for the good of the game. The question is now if Football Victoria will punish the club with penalties. Will they be fined, will they lose points next season?

What else has happened… well closer to home it appears South is officially in the OFC Professional League! How that goes is anyone’s guess as the fledging competition is only four months away and hasn’t even appeared to have set up a website. Will we last more than one season in that competition? Will the competition last more than one season?

Domestically (lol) the Australian Championship is around the corner. South will face Sydney Olympic, Broadmeadow Magic (will Preston fans come to Lakeside?) and Moreton City Excelsior (of Brisbane). So all in all, pretty exciting! It also lines up a pretty incredible series of fixtures at Lakeside – we will see the NPL Victoria Grand Final, the Australia Cup Final and the launch of the Australian Championship at the venue!

Any other news from the new competition? Well from the player recruitment side, there’s been a little bit. Yuzo Iwakami has left the club (sad) which was a bit surprising, but Bruno Fornaroli has signed for Avondale (glad). Avondale has been generally guttered, they have parted ways with their coach and supposedly half their squad. At face value it looks like they’ve reacted violently to the finals loss against Dandenong City… not exactly a good sign from them if that’s the case.

A-League stuff? Well Western are officaly OUT (for this year at least) and the league has removed byes as a result. Expect better metrics both attendance wise (by virtue of dropping their lower attending team), broadcast wise (see previous bracket comment), and engagement wise (as fans can actually watch their team every week now). The tight regular season competition now starts in late October and ends in late April, a tight six months. They need more games…

So what next for South? Let’s enjoy the break I guess. New competitions are around the corner as well as a new President, let’s just wait to hear about the AGM timing! I think there’s a window between the Australian Championship, OPL, NPL, and preseason for that… right?

Finally, if the rumours are true and the club looks to pivot to a summer focus, all I can say is, careful what you wish for. The regular week in week out way of supporting of our club may significantly change…