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Andrew Durante’s comments post-match against Adelaide United may land him in hot water, but he can take solace from the fact that he’s right.

Too often are players, coaches and the media cautious to attach the unmentionable label of ‘cheat’ to their analyses of players. The word is, apparently, that one step too far in the cut-throat, highly competitive environment of modern professional football in which incidents of cheating are rife.

And it seems this caution has flowed through to the A-League’s match review panel and their treatment of the incident to which Durante was referring – Jeronimo Neumann’s second half dive that earned Durante’s teammate Ben Sigmund a red card, and the Reds a huge advantage.

Durante’s words weren’t too far off the mark. Diving is cheating. Plain and simple. It’s not necessarily a condemnation of Jeronimo’s character; we’ve seen enough of the Argentine in the first month of the season to know that his contribution to the … Continue Reading

Position: 4th
(knocked out of the finals by Perth 3-2)

Change in position from 2010/11: ↑ 2

Win-draw-loss record: 12-4-11
(34 goals scored, 32 goals conceded)

Highest goalscorer: Paul Ifill (8)

Average attendance: 8,780

Off the park, the Wellington Phoenix’s 2011/12 season couldn’t have got off to a worse start. Owner Terry Serepisos was forced to sell the club due to financial issues, new owners stepped in just weeks before the season kicked off, and the playing squad was barely reaching the minimum required size with a matter of days before their season opener against Gold Coast United. A pre-season knee injury to new signing Lucas Pantelis exacerbated the squad issue, with the former Adelaide midfielder confirming he was to miss the entire season. However, the last minute signings of American midfidler Alex Smith and ex-Phoenix player Nick Ward pushed the squad up to the acceptable size, just in time for the season to begin.

On the park, and the Nix’s season didn’t get off to a … Continue Reading

It was interesting week in fantasy A-League this week, with only 12 goals being scored across the 5 games, a couple of red cards, a wide smattering of bookings, and only two teams managing to maintain a clean sheet. It wasn’t a great week for strikers this week as well, with only 2 recognised strikers finding their way onto the scoresheet. With all that said, where were the points to be found this week?

For goalkeepers, the two clean sheet keepers weren’t the top two scoring stoppers this week. Clint Bolton, who let through one goal but saved a penalty and seven other shots on goal along the way, top scored with 9 points, with Danny Vukovic and Mark Paston close behind on seven and six points respectively after their clean sheets. Danny Vukovic ($197k) would be our pick of the week, because with Perth facing the Mariners (Home), Gold Coast (Away) and Melbourne Victory (Home) in … Continue Reading