By Greg Blake
“Now is the winter of our discontent”. This opening line of William Shakespeare’s play ‘King Richard III’ conveys a lament for a season not yet lost, but certainly on life support following Heidelberg United Alexander’s 2-1 defeat at Avondale on Saturday.
For those still viewing Heidelberg through the lens of a glorious yet cruelly unfulfilled 2025, well, that was then and this is now. At full time on Saturday only three players on the paddock – Anthony Lesiotis, Ben Collins and Ryan Lethlean – remained from those who saw game time in last year’s grand final. The current reality of this 2026 model is they are on a now eight game winless streak.
The upsides are scarce, but despite Alexander’s run of outs they remain inside the top six and a finals berth is theirs to lose. And despite a growing injury list the Warriors weren’t far away on Saturday. They rallied against the odds and might have clawed back a second half equaliser had Kayne Razmovski not hit the crossbar and a late Ciaran Bramwell effort flashed just wide of the mark.
The not-so-up sides start with next Saturday’s Dockerty Cup final, Alexander’s third in four years. Heidelberg United is now considered a massive underdog against Preston. Alexander’s defeat at Avondale last Saturday leaves the Warriors as the only Victorian NPL side winless since the onset of winter up against a Preston team which is the only NPL side to remain undefeated in June and July and into early August. That includes a narrow win over the Warriors at Olympic Village.
On Saturday the Warriors weathered an early Avondale blitzkrieg and Ashton Bonsall pulled off a couple of impressive stops before Avondale hit the scoreboard 34 minutes in, after a nervy Joseph Lee conceded a cheap corner. The corner went short and Trajcevski drilled a far post cross which ultimately fell for Jacob Muir to fire home through the chaos from close range.
Avondale might have put the Warriors away early on, but statistically Heidelberg matched them on the day in virtually every measurable category – except on the scoreboard, which records the only stat that actually counts. Heidelberg’s team pressure of last year has largely been usurped by a hopeful reliance on individual brilliance to turn games in 2026.
And it was just a little of that from both Jay McGowan and Bramwell, who combined to draw Heidelberg level two minutes from half time. McGowan’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it swivel and cross from wide left was delivered with pin-point accuracy to Bramwell as he swept between two defenders and powered an unstoppable header into the Avondale net.
At the risk of invoking the Bard of Avon twice in a football story, Shakespeare’s most famous farce is ‘The Comedy of Errors’. You can catch a two minute modern day take of it by watching the opening two minutes of Saturday’s game on Football Victoria’s Youtube channel. Oh dear! Suffice to say that Avondale was able to break the half time deadlock with a goal that ultimately decided the contest.
Murphy’s Law is stalking Alexander at the moment. On Saturday Choc Dau joined the lengthening injury list after copping a seemingly innocuous clip from an Avondale player just a couple of minutes into Saturday’s game but went down clutching at his chest. Dau was subbed out of the game a little over ten minutes in and after concerns he was having trouble breathing Dau was driven to hospital for tests by injured teammate Yaren Sozer.
A day out at Avondale is always rich with the promise of pleasant. Under a silvery blue winter sky, Avenger Park appears as a tranquil oasis sandwiched between high-rise suburbia and eight lanes of traffic. It never ends as well as I hoped it might.
But just on avenging, unlike revenge, to avenge is a most noble act of retribution. It’s about fairness and righting a wrong. It’s about bringing justice for yourself and others who might have suffered harm through injustice. The outcome of next weekend’s Dockerty Cup final will never heal the hurt and disappointments of 2025, but hopefully JA and the boys are up for a wee bit of avenging just the same.
