The Football Tragic

Congratulations to Gary van Egmond and the Newcastle Jets.

On the balance of play they were the better side this evening, although it's probably fair to say that both teams were playing well below their best.

Spare a thought, if you will, for Tony Vidmar. An outstanding servant of Australian football, who played superbly throughout the two legs of the crucial Uruguay tie in 2005, missed the World Cup itself through a tragic mischance, and turned in a fine performance for the first hour of tonight's game, ended his career on the ultimate low note. He deserves plenty of sympathetic hugs and pats on the back tonight.

It looked as if Newcastle just might pay for their failure to capitalise on their complete dominance of the opening half-hour. Although they controlled the midfield unchallenged and managed to open the Mariners up on their left flank, young Song Jin-Hyung, despite his excellence in tight spaces, was unable to deliver a telling final ball. It was surprising, too, that van Egmond continued to put his faith in Song's dead-ball prowess, when his delivery from set-pieces was ordinary throughout the first half.

The Mariners were a sorry sight in that opening period; Mile Jedinak for once failed to take command in the midfield, and the forwards were starved of service from the flanks as well, with the two wide men, Kwasnik and Owens, plainly out of form.

Yet the pendulum gradually began to swing, the Mariners started to latch on to some juicy second balls around the Jets' eighteen-yard area, and one got the feeling that all Newcastle's smart, pleasing interplay in midfield would be to no avail.

In the end, ironically, the Mariners conceded in just the way the Jets have often looked likely to: by trying to dribble around an attacker at the back in order to maintain the momentum. This time, it ended in disaster. A fine finish by Mark Bridge, though, partly making up for his otherwise disappointing season.

The introduction of Tom Pondeljak and Andre Gumprecht had its inevitable effect, but as against Queensland in the preliminary final, Jade North and Andrew Durante proved impressively resolute in the face of the many balls in to the strikers. Durante, for my money, was Newcastle's man of the match.

And the embarrassing chaos at the close? Above all, it was an apt comment on the general standard of refereeing this season, which has been nothing short of abysmal. Mark Shield, in fairness, had done fairly well up to that point (although, like his colleagues this season, he was too lenient on some of the early challenges). It was a clear penalty, and the Mariners had a just grievance. But perhaps it was karma for Newcastle, after the ludicrous penalty awarded against them in the final minutes of the preliminary final.

It was a sorry end to the season in some ways, but perhaps a fitting one; overall, this has not been a season to cherish from an on-field point of view, although the growth of the league in other respects has been wonderful to see.

Here's to a much more entertaining fourth instalment of the competition.