The opening fortnight of the 2020 NPL Victoria season has concluded and, depending on who you talk to, we’ve either seen early heavies begin to separate themselves from the pack or are still waiting for clubs to begin to find their feet.
Regardless of your views on who is a contender and who is a pretender, though, one can't deny that there was some highly entertaining football on display on parks across Melbourne in round two.
For the action certainly started with a bang, Melbourne Knights and Dandenong Thunder playing out an enthralling draw at Knights Stadium on Friday night.
Gian Albano opened the scoring for Croatia in the 13th minute of the contest when, after being fed by Hamish Watson, he cut inside onto his right boot and fired home, before Watson made it 2-0 just before the half when he fired home from the spot.
Giuseppe Marafioti dragged a goal back for the visitors when he headed home in the 55th minute and second-half substitute Paul Kuol then restored the game to equilibrium when he blasted home a saved Brandon Barnes effort.
Watson’s second penalty of the game in the 87th minute had then seemingly won it for the Knights, but a red card to goalkeeper Harry Cakarun in stoppage time subsequently forced Joey Franjic to don the gloves for the hosts and seek to keep out a resulting free-kick.
Barnes showed no mercy to the fill-in keeper with the subsequent set-piece, firing home to rescue a point for Thunder in the 97th minute.
The points were also shared down by the bay, as Port Melbourne and Bentleigh Greens played out a 1-1 draw at JL Murphy Reserve.
Yuta Konagaya made it 1-0 to the hosts in the ninth minute when he fired across his body to beat Javier Lopez in the Greens goal, only for his effort to be cancelled out by Brent McGrath’s third goal of the season when the former Socceroo fired home after a goalmouth scramble in the 56th minute.
Hume made it two wins from two, two games without conceding and went top of the NPL Victoria table in their Friday night triumph; defeating Green Gully 2-0 at Green Gully Reserve.
Former Central Coast Mariner Josh Bingham got proceedings started for Nick Hegarty's side in the 32nd minute when he drove a cutback from Steve Hewitt home and James Brown then proceeded to seal the contest in the 65th minute when he sent an effort from just outside the penalty area beyond Jerrad Tyson.
Heading to Melbourne’s southeast looking to capitalise on the momentum from their thumping opening-round win over Gully, St Albans was instead forced, despite their strong showing, to stage a dramatic late recovery to salvage a draw against Dandenong City.
Brayden Mann had made it two goals from two games when he met a Shaun Filipovic cross and slid in from close-range to give Hajduk the lead just on the stroke of halftime, only for Adam Hodor to equalise with a sharp volleyed effort in the 84th minute of play.
Friday evening’s final contest saw a battle between two of the competition’s heavyweights: Chris Taylor’s Oakleigh Cannons welcoming George Katsakis’ Heidelberg United to Jack Edwards Reserve.
And it was the visitors drew first blood in the battle; Sean Ellis somehow sneaking a left-footed shot from an extreme angle beyond Nick Feely and into the Cannon goal.
Alas for the Bergers, they were unable to maintain their lead into halftime, with Cannon attacker Harry White bundling a close-range header home in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time.
A Joe Guest goal two minutes into the second stanza then put the visitors up against it, with their woes then compounded when Joe Knowles thundered a right-footed effort into the roof of the net in the 79th minute.
Harry Noon quickly dragged one back for Heidelberg but it wasn’t enough to spark a revival in their fortunes – the Cannons running out to a 3-2 win.
Avondale – defeated by the Cannons in round one – got their first three points of 2020 on the board on Saturday as they defeated Altona Magic 2-0 at Geelong’s Stead Park.
In the end, it was two, quick-fire first-half goals that did the damage for the Avengers, with Matthew Reid diving in to head home a Tasuku Sekiya cross in the 32nd minute to seize a lead that Stefan Valentini soon doubled when he sent home a chance put on a plate for him by teammate Joey Katabian.
After a disappointing defeat at the hands of traditional rivals Heidelberg in round one, South Melbourne got their first win on the board for 2020 with a comprehensive 5-2 win over the newly promoted Eastern Lions.
Newly signed number nine Harrison Sawyer put South ahead from spot with a 12th minute penalty on a picturesque Sunday afternoon at Lakeside, before Lions’ stalwart Ziggy Razuki brought proceedings back level when he fired a skidding left-footed free-kick beyond Pierce Clarke in the 20th minute.
But, not content with registering his first goal for his club, South’s newly signed talisman added a second and third to his name in the 22nd and 42nd minutes to send the hosts into the break leading 3-1.
Daniel Clarke’s finish off some smart play by Gerrie Sylaidos made it 4-1 on the hour mark and Chris Irwin then made it five after finishing off a sharp counter in the 63rd minute.
The Lions were able to drag one back from the penalty spot in the 83rd minute, but any good feelings from the late consolation were quickly soured when the scorer – Ryan Losty – was sent off for a high boot in the 88th minute.
The result leaves Lions, alongside Altona and Gully, without a point in 2020.
The Week Ahead
The next chance for the Lions to get their first points on the board will arrive on Friday night when they head to Port Melbourne to take on a Sharks side seeking their first three-point haul of the campaign.
Green Gully and Avondale will lock horns at Green Gully Reserve in other Friday night action, while coach Taylor will prepare to welcome his former side to Jack Edwards Reserve when South Melbourne clash with the Cannons.
Though nominally a home game, ongoing renovations to Olympic Village means that Heidelberg United will welcome Altona Magic to CB Smith Reserve on Saturday afternoon, with Dandenong Thunder hosting Bentleigh Greens and Hume City welcoming Dandenong City in other Saturday matches.
The round’s final contest will take place on Sunday afternoon when St Albans welcome Melbourne Knights to Churchill Reserve for a fixture that could nominally be called the Hamish Watson Derby – the big Kiwi initially slated to spend 2020 with Dinamo before being lured back to Knights Stadium on the eve of the season.