Terry Antonis is left clutching his face after a collision with Victory skipper Mark Milligan. Photograph: Robert Prezioso/Getty Images
There are rules for the A-League Fight Club, and both Graham Arnold and Kevin Muscat know them well.
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.
The second rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.
At least not if you want to avoid a call from Football Federation Australia.
“I’m not allowed to talk otherwise you get fined,” Arnold said, anticipating what was coming.
Despite six goals in a barnstorming 3-3 draw between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC, that key moment wasn’t one of those.
It was Mark Milligan’s elbow colliding with Terry Antonis’s forehead less than half an hour into the contest.
Antonis was left bloodied and requiring treatment from the clash, which didn’t merit a foul according to referee Peter Green.
But it did mean Arnold was keen to bend the rules of Fight Club just a little.
“Coaches in this league aren’t allowed to have an opinion because otherwise we get fined,” he said.
“(But Antonis) is getting ten stitches in his eye.
“He said to me at halftime he couldn’t see out of his right eye, it was all blurry.”
Antonis wasn’t the only Sydney FC player in the wars - Predrag Bojic joined him with a head bandage after an early knock.
Nicky Carle also faces an uncertain future after his own late challenge on Leigh Broxham earned himself a potentially serious knee injury.
Arnold was left thinking his side has work to do getting physical.
“We got beat up tonight,” he said.
“We physically got beat up by Melbourne Victory. It’s one thing we’ve got to look at, we’ve got to fight the fight.”
For his part, Muscat was backing his captain in.
“Milligan’s obviously got his eyes on the ball because he ends up heading it,” he said.
“The referee’s five yards away so I dare say the referee’s seen it and has dealt with it in the manner he that he thought was appropriate.”
Whether Green did see it or not is crucial as there are grounds for the match review panel to ban players retrospectively where the referee does not see the incident.
With the Melbourne derby next week and key matches in the lead-up to the Asian Cup looming, afterwards Milligan was asking whether the referee had seen the clash.
Perhaps it was Muscat’s disappointment at losing points at home for the first time all year, but he too fudged the rules when it came to Sydney FC’s goals.
The Victory boss was happy to shoulder some of the blame for a poor defensive showing but said Marc Janko’s goal shouldn’t have stood.
“We didn’t defend well enough anyway, but he was offside,” he said.
Muscat called the defending for the second goal “soft” and queried whether the ball was out in the lead-up to the third.
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