Victory's title defence officially over

Melbourne Victory's defence of the A-League title is officially over despite an emphatic 3-0 win over Wellington Phoenix on Friday night.

Newcastle's 2-1 win over Central Coast this evening (Saturday) has locked out Melbourne with one round of the home and away season remaining.

While this moment has been coming for some time, Melbourne did its best to tease us that an unlikely comeback to make the finals was possible.

Friday night's performance went some way to having fans believing the team could even make an impact in the finals should they make it. Now it is simply a piece of good form before the side's first foray into the Asian Champions League.

It was somewhat typical that the major issues plaguing the Victory's season were resolved in the 3-0 over Wellington.

Kaz Patafta got decent game time. He scored.

The Allsopp-Thompson partnership was broken up front in Allsopp's absence and the team was versatille and creative. Archie Thompson helped himself to a couple of misses of the season but that has been the story of his year.

The maligned signings - Hernandez and Kemp - held their own. Hernandez was creative and also found the net, while Kemp was able to back-track and defend effectively.

But the big positive for me was to see the main fan group "Blue and White Brigade" back on level one, the ground level, of Telstra Dome.

The season has been plagued by poor relations between the fans themselves, the club's administration and Telstra Dome. My boss and I frequently argue the toss over the impact a crowd makes on the actual on-field performance of the team, but the proof is in the pudding when Melbourne's most emphatic home win of the year came with the crowed back on level one, and 25,000 people sounding like 40,000.

The fans on Melbournevictory.net are saying the ball is back in Telstra Dome's court. Whether the plan is to try and allow standing on level three, or again attempt to engage the ALL the fans, BWB or not, to involve themselves in active support on level one, I feel the burden falls on the fans.

Fan culture for football is still foreign to Australian administrators. In our society of insurance and liability it is very hard to install a flexible stadium policy that can allow active support. In an ideal world it will be level one that jumps and chants as it did on Friday night. Whether or not we'll see it in EVERY home game next year is up in the air.

Until then, let's hope the world-class fitness facility where the Victory train can prepare the team well for the Asian Champions League.