Arabella Vaughan
The Next Big Thing
Wayne Rooney joining Perth Glory? Nah mate. The really important (and all together more factual) transfer story to come out of last week was Mathew Leckie's proposed move to Borussia Moenchengladbach.
The whole issue has resurrected the debate about when exactly the right time for a player to ...
Arabella Vaughan
The Golden Generation. Version 2012.
There might not be another Mark Viduka in our midst but the potential in the Young Socceroos is overwhelming.
With most of Australia's 'Golden Generation' of Socceroos retired or close to it, many fans have been left wondering if we'll ever find another Schwarzer, Dukes, Moore etc.
If recent ...
Arabella Vaughan
On the (other) A-League…
You've got to hand it the FFA. They really know how to attract as little attention to themselves as possible.
The World Cup bid has been remarkably unpublicised; many people I know don't even realise we're bidding for it, yet they know of something as insignificant as the latest NRL scandal.
Th...
Arabella Vaughan
Can't Touch This
In theory, the A-League's Match Review Panel sounds like a really good idea. The opportunity to crack down on simulation, violent conduct and aggressive behaviour? Absolutely brilliant.
If only it actually worked.
I'm all for cleaning up the A-League (even though, in comparison to many foreign ...
Arabella Vaughan
The Han-Berglar
Five months ago I interviewed Iain Ramsay at Pluim Park behind the deteriorating main block. It was muddy and smelt like, well... sweaty footballers. He and Sam Munro came out of the change rooms shirtless, apparently unaware of who was about to interview them.
Ramsay, a softly spoken character,...
Arabella Vaughan
Kewell Off, Guys!
Tuesday night's televised confrontation between Harry Kewell and Robbie Slater reached rather dizzy heights.
"I don't know why you're creating this kind of thing."
"What have I ever done to you?"
To be honest, it wasn't unlike the sort of stuff I witnessed in my junior all-girls high school ...
Arabella Vaughan
Football is greater than Masterchef
I'll be honest; I'm not a fan of reality TV.
My rare excursions into watching it inevitably end in disaster. 'Any Dream Will Do' resulted in me spending half my life humming songs from Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. I watched an episode of 'Masterchef' the other week but ...
Arabella Vaughan
Maths With The FFA
It's a well known fact that maths is not fun. Nevertheless, the past week has seen the FFA introduce a number of new provisions that epitomise just how not fun maths is.
When Kevin Muscat's maybe/maybe not testimonial match and Scott Jamieson being stuck in Germany are top news items I thought ...
Arabella Vaughan
I Believe In A Thing Called Arnold. Or Not.
Let me tell you a story. Last weekend, I wrote the blog that follows. Today, I got a text from my dad saying the Mariners had released Panny Nikas. Retrospectively, I must have been nuts to write this. But I thought that I'd post it, just for kicks. With annotations in italics...
As the ...
Arabella Vaughan
Grand Final Preview
As a fantastic season of football draws to a close, the biggest annual match in Australian youth football has arrived. The battle for the 2009/10 National Youth League Grand Final plate will be contested by second placed Perth Glory and fourth placed Gold Coast United, after their victories ...
Arabella Vaughan
Empire State Of Mind
She's back. She's bitter.
Yes folks, after a brief hiatus (read: intense mental block) I've returned to the blogosphere. And this time I'm grumpy. Really, really grumpy.
I'm grumpy for several reasons. My team has been knocked out of the A-League (old news, I know). The new Socceroos away ...
Arabella Vaughan
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
When I woke up just before 10 am on Saturday morning, I was ready for an F3 derby double. 12 hours later, and I was left with nothing but a serious reality check.First came the revelation (via Lawrie McKinna’s twitter) that the National Youth League match had been postponed but I clung to ...
Arabella Vaughan
Kicking Some Balls
It may be transfer season but, rather than Scott McDonald's pending switch from Celtic to Central Coast Mariners, the issue on everyone's lips over the past few weeks has been the consistency of referees in the A-League.
Okay, so I just made that bit about Scott McDonald up. But I can always ...
Arabella Vaughan
New Year’s Reso-youth-tions
It's fair to say that there are few people who take the National Youth League as seriously as I do. In fact, I pride myself on being the only regular written source of National Youth League opinion in the world - although, if someone would like to challenge that then that's all the better ...
Arabella Vaughan
That’s ‘Captain’ Bob Malcolm To You
There is one thing that, above and beyond everything else, I really love about the National Youth League.
And no, watching 22 hot guys who are young and talented footballers prancing around on a football pitch is not that one thing. Although, the Mariners youth backline is looking pretty good ...
Arabella Vaughan
AFL, NRL - Planet Earth Calling...
Right. That's it. I've absolutely had enough of this.
If I have to read one more article about how Australia hosting the World Cup would be a threat to faux-football civilization in our sunburnt country, I think I'm going to go mad.
For years, football people have put up with sporting events ...
Arabella Vaughan
Melbourne Heart(less)
WITH the new Melbourne Heart franchise announcing the signing of Dean Heffernan, Matt Thompson and Kristian Sarkies last week, the message was clear - ‘If we want your players, we’ll take your players’.Which is all well and good. Fair play to them for taking advantage of the A-League's player-out...
Arabella Vaughan
Well, That Was Embarrassing
THANK you to the lovely Fox Sports cameraman who chose to film me during the Mariners 0-0 draw with Adelaide last weekend. That really made my weekend, mate!At least I got my mug on camera though, which is a heck of a lot more than you can say for the National Youth League.
Call me insane, but ...
Arabella Vaughan
The Road To The Goalie Grail
Q. WHAT do you call a guy who hangs around football players?A. A goalkeeper.
Goalkeepers, like drummers, are often the butt of cruel and demeaning jokes. Probably because, like drummers, we find their ability so astounding and incomprehensible that we choose to make fun of them, rather than ...
Arabella Vaughan
Frankie Does It Again
YES, ladies and gentleman, it’s that time of the year again. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later…Mr Frank Farina has, once again, voiced his humble opinion on the National Youth League. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just that last time this happened he had no point whatsoever.
This ...
Arabella Vaughan
Where Are They Now?
FOOTBALL can be a cruel game for fans. It can be even more cruel for the players. So you can imagine what it’s like for those who never really made it.Injuries, bad behaviour off the pitch, inability to break into first teams and plain bad luck have all been blamed for the curtailing of many ...
Arabella Vaughan
Nobody Asked You, Arsene
FIRST it was Craig Foster. Then it was Tommy Smyth. Now it's Arsene Wenger.It seems like anyone and everyone in the world of football has something to say regarding Australia's chances in South Africa next year. Which would be perfectly fine if there criticisms were legitimate. Last week on ...
Arabella Vaughan
Losing Touch
I WOULD question the sanity of the 5800 or so people who turned up to Bluetongue Stadium on a cold, wet night for the dead rubber match against Tianjin the other day - if I wasn’t one of them.I know it's been said but I'll say it again - the Mariners recruitment was not particularly eye ...
Arabella Vaughan
Football Curriculum Flop
LAST week FFA technical director Han Berger released plans for a “football master plan” which, at first glance, seems to be exactly what Australian football needs (and has been needing for a long time).Berger has, in true European fashion, placed an emphasis on the development of skills rather ...
Arabella Vaughan
Economy Class Football
PUT your hand up if you're sick of the English Premier League.Good, I'm not the only one. It just seems to be so incredibly ME to go off the Premier League as it's at its most ‘exciting' point.
I know as well as you know that Man United are going to win. It probably won't even be that ...
