Sissoko
Voronin
Fabregas
Knight (og) Dempsey
Maloney
Speed
Anelka
Braaten
Lampard
Oakley Jerome 2
Bowyer Scharner
McFadden Santa Cruz
Mido N’Zogbia
Arca Viduka
Nani
I draw your attention to an article on Walter Pless’ blog informing the football community of the recent passing of Pasquale D’Amato.
.
Our most sincere condolences to Mr D’Amato’s wife and family on behalf of all Blackjack contributors.
Keygan
Reserves: Burnie 1 v Somerset 7
18s: Burnie 3 v Somerset 3
Ashdown
Gilham
Howe
Reserves: Devonport 3 v Riverside 1
18s: Devonport 4 v Riverside 1
Duncan Eadie
Mies
Hill, 2
Reserves:
18s:
Smith 2 Reeves
Amos
De Brett
Reserves:
18s:
UNITED is still in a rebuilding phase after the grand final immolation in March that precipitated a big clean out of playing and coaching staff.
DESPITE a relative large turnover of players in the off-season including the departure of best player Fred, Victory is being widely tipped to defend its title.
NEW cashed-up owners and plenty of off-season transfer activity mean that the only way is up for Perth Glory after finishing second-last in 2006-2007.
THE inaugural champion will be relying on some samba magic from Brazilian signings Juninho Paulista and Patrick da Silva.
TYPICAL low-key pre-season but new investors and shrewd signings augur well for the Gosford-based club after a disappointing 2006-2007.
THE presence of dual European Golden Boot winner Mario Jardel will ensure the Jets are in the headlines one way or the other.
BOASTING high profile signings Craig Moore and Danny Tiato, coach Frank Farina is aiming for a top four spot in his first full season in charge.
NEW kid on the block who showed promising form in the pre-season, Wellington Phoenix is the romantic’s favourite.
It seems as though our “Voice like Nektar” will hit the radio waves tomorrow (Thursday) morning on ABC Radio.
I am of course referring to Nektar Vavoulas who has been selected as the voice of Tasmanian Football for Andy Muirhead’s breakfast programme on Hobart’s 936AM ABC Radio.
Nektar impressed enough during his auditions held over the past two weeks, and was selected from a fairly formidable lineup of voices, a veritable who’s who of Tasmanian football. I’m not going to name names but let me say, I was really impressed there were so many people interested enough in the game to actually go through the nerve wracking process. And just to add a bit of spice to the pot, the auditions included your truly!!! (how good is the memory?) 
Congratulations to Nektar and you can hear the lad in his first report tomorrow morning around 7.35am. Nektar you have our best wishes and I am sure you will do the game proud.
Feel free to offer Nektar your best wishes and also to provide feedback on his broadcast in the comments section.
The tipping comp is drawing to a close and it is coming down to the wire. There is only three players who are realistically in the running for the final prize barring complete disaster tipping to allow others to slip in and steal the top prize.
1. Tippernator 56
2. trev69 56
3. Winston 54
4. Lionheart 52
5. ESACHT 49
6. redandblack 49
7. car57 47
8. Reddo 47
9. imported 45
10. Left Back 45
11. soccertipper 45
In the event of a draw the tie breaker will become the player who has the most 100% correct tipping weeks.
Once again I want to publicly thank our friends at ‘The Soccer Shop’ for sponsoring the top prize of a $100 open order at The Soccer Shop. I will announce the winner of the tipping comp after the final match has been played on Saturday 1.9.07
I still like Robbie Fowler’s celebration but it is very politically incorrect.
Enjoy a bit of fun.
Ok this is very new territory for me…and for what we are about to do I want to make one thing absolutely & perfectly clear…any player or players named here will not (NEVER) replace the Vic Tuting Silver Medal winner. I have too much respect for Vic Tuting and his work to detract from his memory by making anything we do here anything more than a ‘popular’ vote. A Peoples Choice Award as it were.
So how will we do this? I am open to suggestion.
Can we arrive at a field of ‘nominations’ and then go on to a final vote or is there another way of doing it?
Can we have a Northern winner and a Southern Winner or do we lump everyone in together?
Thoughts people??
A friend of mine who reads the blog from Britain and who is a qualified FA referee has sent me this dissertation he did for a referees promotion evening he ran a few months back. This was in response to my asking him WHY (he become a referee in the first place)??
………………………………………………………….
I never actually wanted to be a referee growing up as a teenager. It wasn’t something that appealed to me.
But when I realised I wasn’t going to get to the heights I’d hoped for as a player, my father, who was a referee, made me aware of a referee’s course.
I thought I’d give it a go because most of the referees for the games that I’d played in seemed to be old men.
I honestly thought there was a need for some younger people to be involved. I also thought that younger refs might get more respect because they might be fitter and be a bit more in tune with the game.
So me and a few mates went down and passed the course when I was about 19 years old.
Even back then leagues were so desperately short of officials, so you got games straight away.
And if you had an aptitude for it then you got pushed through the ranks quite quickly.
I got a lot of pleasure from refereeing right from the start. Every time you walk out onto the field, the FA are entrusting you with that particular game.
For a young lad of 19, that gives you a feeling of worth. It made me feel quite responsible and that’s the message I’m trying to get across.
When the game goes smoothly, you get a good feeling of satisfaction; that you’ve managed 22 people for 80 or 90 minutes for a successful game of football.
I got more satisfaction from that than being involved in a team that might have lost 5-0 on a Sunday morning.
On top of that you get all the benefits of maintaining your fitness, a good camaraderie amongst the refereeing community and now it can be a full-time career.
I never realised that when I started out.
At local level there is a lack of respect sometimes for those that have decided to become referees.
You get people who would never do it themselves and would rather stand there and criticise from the sidelines.
We have to try and educate people about the importance of referees. If we’re short of referees at local level it will effect the quality of refs in six or seven years at the top level.
There are so many games that are being refereed by unqualified officials which is doing harm to the game.
I know from when I played there is nothing better than when a referee turns up who is neutral and qualified.
It’s just like having proper nets in the goal or having a decent ball; it’s part and parcel of what you need to have a good game.
I’ve never been experienced any violence as a referee but then being 6′3″ and 15 1/2 stone probably helps!
Not that you need to be that. You need to have a strong personality and a belief in yourself.
Being a good referee is all down to the way you manage people and how you communicate with them.
You need to be fit and you need to be dedicated. If you’re a young person you need to aspire high but keep your feet on the ground and be prepared to learn and listen.
Kick off times listed are AEST
Saturday, 18 August 2007
Birmingham 0-1 West Ham
Noble (pen) 70
Fulham 1-2 Middlesbrough
McBride 16
Mido 55
Cattermole 88
Newcastle 0-0 Aston Villa
Portsmouth 3-1 Bolton
Kanu 16 Anelka 12
Utaka 30
Taylor (pen) 88
Hunt 44
Tottenham 4-0
Malbranque 2
Malbranque 6
Jenas 14
Bent 80
Wigan 3-0 Sunderland
Heskey 19
Landzaat (pen) 62
Sibierski (pen) 69
Dunn 72 Van Persie 18
Torres 16 Lampard (pen) 62
Geovanni 31
