In this week's Match of the round, we travel to Etihad Stadium, where Melbourne lost both a match, and their epic pride, going down 4-0 in front of 18,000 fans. A quiet first half and start of the second was ignited by a rampant Central Coast side.

Ernie Merrick left his side unchanged for his side's clash with Central Coast, the standout being Carlos Hernandez, who is in blistering form for the Victory.

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SO it's matchday. Welcome to the preview blog, boys and gals.
Melbourne have won five of the last six games, though they haven't won in four games at ME Bank Stadium against Perth.
This week, Glory have fallen over themselves to give respect to their opponents, while Victory coach Ernie Merrick admitted that Perth are their bogey team. Click to continue reading...

MORNING all, hopefully this blog finds you well on 'hump-day'.
Just a quick note on yesterday's post on the void of Perth Glory news. Apparently, Monday was a rest and recovery day for the players - which is understandable, considering they have been on a two-week road trip of Queensland.
So yesterday there was a bit of news coming out the Glory camp, but the first official media gathering for this week, will be a presser just before training today. Click to continue reading...

Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick has described Saturday's 3-1 win over Adelaide as his team's best 90-minute performance of the year and a shining example of the depth the club has at its disposal.Melbourne's new-look side featured two players who had never started a game for the club before in Sutee Suksomkit and Mate Dugandzic and both played major roles as the Victory recorded an eighth straight success over the Reds. Click to continue reading...

After a poor start to the season, we can breathe easy again. Two wins on the trot has put Melbourne a point from first place, though the A-League is so tight this season that we're still only in sixth place. But it's good to see the team hit some form at last.

With a third of the season almost done, I thought I'd pop in to share my thoughts on how the mighty Victory are faring this year.

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Gold Coast must be relieved. Gold Coast can look forward to a rapidly healing home ground. The NRL would also be relieved. The Broncos did the job on the Titans and secured a home final for Lang Park this Saturday. It could be the biggest rugby league game of the year - 52,000, full house. The Titans, victims of poor refing, also play a final, but not at home. Click to continue reading...

Gold Coast United has lifted the bar for domestic football in Australia.
Jason Culina, Joel Porter, Shane Smeltz, Robson, Bas Van Den Brink all lit up the Brisbane night with intelligent, skilful football. 3-1 to United. Great for the A-League, great for football fans everywhere.
Joel Porter particularly caught my eye. Click to continue reading...

The wait is over, the first match played and a surprise result already. Season previews and bookie odds are in tatters after a team most tipped to finish in the bottom three up staged last years premiers (and bookies favourite) to take the points in the opening match.
To be honest Victory hardly looked interested in the first half. Click to continue reading...

Or that should read magnificent Tony Tannous from the Half-Time Heroes.
Was he the only football writer in the country to have any real analysis of the opening game?
He picked the Jedinak factor as being important, no surprise their but unlike any other football analyser in the mainstream media he solved the problem, or least found out the solution from the man who knew, Laurie McKinna. Click to continue reading...

"The number of youngsters in this country playing football at grass roots level is enormous and that's now providing more elite players at junior level and many of them come into the system."

Ernie Merrick talking to FourFourTwo
And this A-League season Kofi Danning, Ben Kantarovski, Mitch Nichols, Luke Devere and many many more young Aussie players are starting to change the Australian game. Click to continue reading...

So the journey from ANU to FOOTBALL SUPERSTAR begins...read the press release below...no press conference when he signed for ANU or did I miss it? Best of luck Luke.
Football Superstar arrives in Melbourne
Media are invited to attend a press conference in the VIP Room at Olympic Park Stadium tomorrow (Tuesday, July 21) at 11. Click to continue reading...

I am not so big on reality TV. But if you are going to have it, this one is probably for me. I only watched the last 2 episodes. Which was enough.
The idea was a top 50 of young football players is reduced to one - selected and then signed by Melbourne Victory for the upcoming A-League season. Click to continue reading...

Loose lips sink ships? Luke would have been good in the war! Because he's not saying if he won a contract with Melbourne Victory after competing in the reality TV product placement show.
This year it's dire. More products than footballers I reckon but it's probably an age thing.
Luke Pilkington on his Fox 8 Football Superstar experience. Click to continue reading...

The running bitchfest between Ljubo Milicevic and his employers is going beyond amusing and becoming thoroughly embarrassing for Australian football. It needs to be mediated, quick smart.
It's hard not to read a touch of cynicism into Milicevic's championing of Kaz Patafta, who has been something of a poster boy for those who choose to drone on ad nauseam about "technical players being ignored" in Australia. Click to continue reading...

We're four rounds into the A-League, and Kaz Patafta is yet to appear for his new club, the Newcastle Jets. All this after the youngster left Melbourne in search of regular game time. So has Gary van Egmond's decision to keep Patafta out of the squad vindicated Ernie Merrick's decisions regarding Patafta last year? Click to continue reading...

Another day another article on Canberra's Kaz Patafta. This time it's 442 discussing what Kaz needs to do.
Kaz, of course is well known and respected throughout Canberra fooball. He Captained the Under 17's at the World Cup a few years ago and was outstanding and a joy to watch. Click to continue reading...

A-League Assists
If you look at the FFA Hyundai A-League player assist table it shows after Melbourne Victory's 5-0 demolish of Newcastle Jets that Archie Thompson leads the assist table with 3.
A mistake....
Surely Jade North should be on 3, and after last weeks showing Tarek Elrich should be on at least 2. Click to continue reading...

Wow. Well that settles that. Three strikers on at a time is a good idea. A very good idea. The match started lively enough, with both sides looking evenly matched. An injury to Michael Thwaite forced Ernie Merrick to make an early substitution. With no defenders to pick from, Merrick chose the most daring option: Archie [. Click to continue reading...

With José Luis López' addition, Ernie Merrick's off-season recruitment seems to have reached its end. But work on the Victory's W-League and National Youth League teams is still well underway. Melbourne has signed Matilda's goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri, who becomes the first signing for the Victory's inaugural W-League team. Click to continue reading...

Ernie Merrick is somewhere looking for players, but Gary Cole says the club's "not at liberty" to discuss the coach's whereabouts: "He's going to various places over the course of the next seven days to look at a few different players. We're not going to discuss where he is, that just complicates things. Click to continue reading...

It has been a long time coming for Rodrigo "Roddy" Vargas but he now finds himself on the cusp of a national cap. 29 years old Vargas has been selected in Pim's twenty-three man squad to take on Ghana on Friday 23rd of May in Sydney and it looks like he may get a start.
Vargas has been a standout performer for Victory in its recent AFC Champions League campaign. Click to continue reading...

Melbourne Victory love the long ball. Hands up all those who disagree.
Okay Ernie you can put your hand down now and read with me!
Michael Lynch from The Age says,

"Merrick likes his team to play the 30 metre pass....."

I wish Michael it was only 30 metres! Click to continue reading...

There has been a noticeable lack of signings by Melbourne Victory during the off season to date. Certainly Victory has been focussed on their AFC Champions League campaign but I am sure Gary Cole has been working hard behind the scenes to turnaround the poor season from last year.
So who exactly do we expect to be exiting the team and what areas might we expect to see new faces next year. Click to continue reading...

Melbourne Victory take their first ever steps on the Asian stage on March 12 when they host South Korean team Chunnam Dragons.
It is over a year since the team won the A-League but because of timing and deadlines, Melbourne have had to wait until now to make their debut.
Coach Ernie Merrick had time for a quick chat before the Chunnam match. Click to continue reading...

Around this time last year, we had won the A-League. Well, at least we knew we were going to finish top of the ladder. One year later, we know we're not going to the finals. Sydney FC's win over the Central Coast Mariners put them into 4th place, a solid 7 points ahead of us. Meanwhile, we're [...] Click to continue reading...

"Deja vu" was the phrase used earlier this week in The World Game to describe the Melbourne Victory's season. Quite right. Those who remember the first season will remember how Melbourne started out with a series of draws and a loss, before finally nailing its first win in an Olympic Park match with the Newcastle [. Click to continue reading...

According to The Whistleblower at Fox Sports, Ernie Merrick rang Fox commentator Simon Hill after last Friday's win against the Queensland Roar. Supposedly, the Melbourne Victory coach had a go at Hill for dubbing Melbourne's first win of the season as "unconvincing". It's hard to come to any conclusions about what exactly was said by Merrick [...] Click to continue reading...