Optically thin perforated gold films, fabricated using template colloidal masks self-assembled by following an elsewhere described simplified colloidal lithography protocol, are presented and discussed with the aim to develop a theory of short-range ordered nanoholes without straightforwardly extending concepts strictly related to periodic nanoholes. By Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of the evolution of nanohole short-range ordering and spatial coordination geometry under increasing interhole average spacing (dNN), unprecedented differences in the spectroscopic response are pointed out with respect to periodic systems. First, the dependence of the wavelength of a propagating plasmon mode on dNN is demonstrated to deviate from the linear relationship predicted by the grating-coupling picture developed for periodic arrays. Second, dNN cannot be straightforwardly interpreted as the counterpart …