Diving Divers: Week 5 A-League Preview | Thebigtip

The title sums up the main talking point of the week with both Perez and Baird suspended for two weeks. In lieu of writing an article, a couple of brief points – I understand the decisions, but I have two problems with it. Firstly, there’s no appeal panel, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Surely there has to be a right to an appeal – can you see that happening in any other code? Secondly, the players are getting banned when they wouldn’t be if the referees were doing their job. If the Perez and Baird dives get pulled up on the night there’s yellow cards, the matter is done and nothing else is spoken of. It’ll be interesting to see how the process is altered in the future; because there’s no way it can stay like this.

Central Coast v Melbourne Victory

Date: Friday 3rd September
Time: 8:00pm EST
Location: Bluetongue Stadium
Betfair Odds
Central Coast: $2.92
Draw: $3.25
Melbourne: $2.68

Changes

Central Coast:
In: Brad Porter (returns from injury), Matthew Lewis (promoted)
Out: Patricio Perez (suspended – two weeks)
Unavailable: Jess Vanstratten (knee – season)

Melbourne:
In: 17.Matthew Foschini (promoted), 14. Billy Celeski (returns from injury), 15.Tom Pondeljak (promoted)
Out: 22.Nick Ward (transferred to Wellington Phoenix)
Unavailable: Archie Thompson (knee), Matthew Kemp (knee)

Overview

Finally the Victory get to play a Friday night match – but it has to be on the same night as Geelong v St Kilda. Very annoying, and if the game wasn’t being played up at Bluetongue then I’d have my conspiracy theory hat on. But, it’s not, so as usual I have no point.

Obviously the big loss for this game is Perez after his suspension during the week. You’d think he would have started after his cameo against Sydney, so his absence could mean the same starting lineup that took the field last week. If that’s the case the Mariners need to find more of a spark from the midfield. There’s no-one playing up front with any pace, which means that the Victory defence will be able to control them – so the goals have to come from midfield. That’ll mean McGlinchey and Bozanic have to create the majority of plays and then hope someone like Bojic or Hutchinson can cause havoc with a well taken set piece if they get the opportunity.

On the Victory side of things, you’d think they’ll be looking to open their play up a little more after parking the bus in the second half of the Gold Coast game. Assuming that Ryan keeps his spot in goals, the Victory’s main objective should be to put him under as much pressure as possible. He looked shaky for the entire game against Sydney, yet he wasn’t given much to do. You’d think that the Victory won’t make the same mistake and he’ll have a lot of work standing under repeated bombs from midfield.

After the media scrutiny during the week on Perez and the Mariners, you’d think that the home team will come out firing early. If they manage to grab a goal in that time, I can’t see them losing – but they will be pegged back at some stage. That’s the reason I’m tipping the draw, but if the Mariners don’t get an early goal I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Victory win comfortably.

Tip: Draw (1-1)


Melbourne Heart v North Queensland

Date: Saturday 4th September
Time: 5:15pm EST
Location: AAMI Park
Betfair Odds
Melbourne: $2.22
Draw: $3.35
North Queensland: $3.30

Changes

Melbourne
In: 5. Michael Beauchamp (returns from injury), 15. John Aloisi (returns from injury), 17. Jason Hoffman (promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Kristian Sarkies (Leg – Indefinite), Josip Skoko (Hamstring – 4 weeks)

North Queensland
In: Eric Akoto (returns from suspension), Chris Grossman (returns from suspension)
Out: 8. Adam Casey (Flu virus – 1 week)
Unavailable: 8. Adam Casey (Flu virus – 1 week), 13. Andre Kilian (foot injury, 1-2 weeks), 20. Matthew Ham (knee – 5 weeks)

Overview

Before I get onto the onfield play, I have to mention the excellent promotion the Heart are running on Saturday. If anyone is going to the Collingwood-Western Bulldogs match on Saturday night, they can head down to AAMI Park beforehand and buy half price tickets. Even though the times of the two matches seem to run a little too close together, if the Heart can even attract a couple of hundred interested fans for the rest of the season from the promotion, they’d have to be happy with it.