By Greg Blake
Pisces, daydreamers and hippies believe an indomitable spirit is enough. On Friday night Heidelberg United coughed up a late but eminently forgivable equaliser against another very good team, Oakleigh Cannons. A 53rd minute Bul Juach goal was the difference going into second half stoppage time, but a sweetly timed Campbell Strong goal got the Cannons back on terms at 90 plus one.
This 2025 Alexander team is abundant in indefatigable character, but four games in 13 days (soon to be five in 17) – all massive, all against big hitters and the last two rain-soaked slogs – is why you don’t see hippies playing football. It’s bloody tough going. And the 1-1 draw was enough to regain – perhaps temporarily – top spot and also enough to complete a second successive unbeaten league season at Catalina Street.
Alexander coach, John Anastasiadis, had to shuffle the chess pieces about again, with Jamal Ali’s hamstring being nursed, and no Anthony Lesiotis or Sabit Ngor, both suspended compliments of that gift that keeps on giving, the debacle at Avondale in round 23.
Friday night’s starters did enough to beat Oakleigh, but just about the entire contingent wearing yellow and black looked buggered and spent – perhaps physically and certainly emotionally – by the time the Cannons grabbed their equaliser. It might have worse, had Yaren Sozer not retained his sparkle into the late-evening gloom
Keep in mind that Friday night’s game fell less than two weeks since the Avondale aberration, less than one week clear of the Dockerty Cup swindle and just three days after one of Alexander’s most significant and emotive victories in perhaps forever. I daresay most of the current squad and certainly the younger guys have never experienced such a tumultuous and emotional roller-coaster concertinaed into such a brief period of time.
The slow-burn fatigue was certainly reflected in the game. Alexander might have been a goal up early on as Asahi Yokokawa’s footrace with Ajak Deu into the penalty area ended with the former sprawled face-down in the grass, which sent Bul Juach to the penalty spot. His spot kick was a near perfect 9.5. The dive and stop by Oakleigh’s 21 year-old custodian, Jack Warshawsky, was a perfect 10.
Yokokawa hit the crossbar with a back-spinning nine iron from a distance around 60 seconds later, but crafting a lead had to wait until eight minutes after the interval, and there was little perfect about it. Yokakowa’s corner at the scoreboard end dropped nicely into the hot spot, where the ball appeared to cannon off two Oakleigh players before falling for Juach to stab home from close range.
To be fair, Chris Taylor’s team deserved the point. A goal down into the last 30 minutes and with Alexander flagging, it was stand-alone Sozer holding back the tide. His double-stop from Kingsley Sinclair and a Joe Guest follow-up on 66 minutes might have saved the game and Sozer also spectacularly refused Guest and later Thomas Alisandratos the chance to level with still time on the clock.
Don’t underestimate the context or the quality of the result. Often overlooked in the shadows the grandiosity of of South Melbourne and Avondale, Oakleigh’s perpetual third-placed finish is deceptive.
In the past three years they’ve won two grand finals, played in three Dockerty Cup finals, won two Community Shields, as well as putting Alexander out of the finals in 2022, out of the Australia Cup in 2024 and beating the Warriors in the 2023 Dockety Cup final. I suspect we’ll see them again in the finals this season.
The madness has peaked – I hope – and now a little welcome breathing space before next Tuesday night’s showdown with NZ’s Wellington Phoenix in the quarters of the Australia Cup. And for so many reasons an Avondale choke or stumble would be lovely and would keep the premiership alive for Alexander’s final round trip down to Port Melbourne next Saturday. What a ride, what a season. Fly the flag and cue the song. Warrior Nation!
