No Fooling Around
This season's round-up dinner might have coincidentally been scheduled for the first of April, but the mood was anything but jocular, Grilled Birds' third Emerald Challenger Cup on show besides. To begin with, many of the Birds' faithful servants were nowhere to be found, having transferred out under new head coach
Tian Yonghang's direction. There were no hard feelings about that, from how it had been coming, but one could hardly not detect a wisp of longing for what had been.
It would be left to those that remained to build a bridge to the future, then, which had
Manuel Vadalà and
Teo Chuan Yong announce the change in their jersey numbers to Number One and Number Three respectively, in preparation for the new season. Numbers Nine and Ten - last worn by Vikram Mudaliar and Kalki Parvathaneni - would remain conspiciously unfilled, as they await worthy successors. And as for Number Eleven,
Chan Ze Han would attend with his left leg still worryingly in a brace, but he would take pains to assure all present that he should be ready for the league opener.
The club's other leader would be the one to be recognized as the Player of the Season, however, and the 37 year-old
Moey Xin Seng had to deserve it, from his managing to snag the Golden Boot in a competitive Division Two league, while not even a dedicated striker or penalty taker. The team captain looked as ageless as ever as he graciously accepted just his second such award, with Chan - of course - and Kalki his main competition.
As for the U-21 version,
Aw Keng Chuan would snag it despite having played just four competitive games for the Birds, but his resume brooked little competition. A S$7.3 million returner from Spain's campeolones, Aw had looked far and away the most complete amongst Grilled's new bunch in those matches, which was perhaps only to be expected. It was however perhaps telling that
Lau Chu Soon was not even in contention, and the designated defensive stopper may need to buck up, if he is to play a key role in Grilled's revival.
For the Farmer Bunnies, it would be Indonesian star
Djoko Tambusai to edge out
Richard Agyei for the honour, with his many-faceted contributions apparently providing the vital edge.
Vitaliy Efendiev had that too, perhaps, and his return of twelve goals from nineteen games - many with barely any support - might well have warranted the recognition too.
Efendiev would be more than willing to wait, as it was. "It's nothing." he beamed. "Djoko and I both know what's really important, and that's the final score at the end of a match."
Remarkably, there would be almost as much buzz for the youth version, with there being no real competition to Ong Li Jing's nomination despite an objectively extremely-strong cast in the Rabbits. The 16 year-old wingback had been heralded as being in the same bracket as
Tham Leng Teck and
Kwek Yun Jie on raw potential alone, but from how he has drawn crowds at The Purple Plantation and elsewhere, he might well surpass them both.
Hardi bin Besar would take it for Grilled International unsurprisingly, being one of the very few saving graces of a terrible campaign. It was perhaps telling that their announcer didn't spend much time at all on either Hardi's or youth standout Bongwoon Ok's investiture, what with the club having much bigger fundamental problems to deal with.