December 2015 and early January 2016 digest

Social club and Lakeside lease saga
Unresolved.

@PaulMavroudis @LAthanasakis @MartinFoleyMP @tom_kalas @johnerenmp @rwynnemp @smfc should have some good news in the week to come

— Tony Margaritis (@sthmel) December 3, 2015

When is the AGM on?
Every year this thing gets later and later. Now I know that there is obviously the issue of the reunification of the women and stalling for time to announce the building of the social club, but we have got to get back to the point where an AGM is held in November, a point in time where the financial details are still half relevant. The delay is also exacerbating the breach between those who have the ear and proximity of those on the board, and those who do not. Here's hoping that in future we get back on schedule with these things - here's hoping also that the AGM is not held on a school night, in attempt to rush the proceedings.

Friendly news
There are a number of friendly games coming up, as the season proper approaches. At the present time none of these will include South Hobart, as they have pulled out of their planned to trip to Melbourne this week (though I believe that they will be here next week to take on other opponents). Instead this Friday evening we will be hosting Eastern Lions at Lakeside. I won't be there, as I have other things to do.

This Sunday at the early kickoff of 11:00AM (reserves at 1:00PM), we'll be taking on Knox City out Egan Lee Reserve in Knox. I won't be there because it's in the fucking public transport black hole that is Knox. Then on Wednesday, we'll be playing against Box Hill United once more at Lakeside. I might go to that.

On Friday February 5th, we will be travelling to Sydney to take on Sydney Olympic for the 'Bank of Sydney Cup', at Kogarah Oval. On Sunday February 7th at 3:00PM, we will be playing Sutherland Sharks at Seymour Shaw Park. As per last year's pre-season trip to Adelaide, I won't be able to make this trip, this time due to ongoing concerns with the condition of the posterior hyaloid of my right eye. 

Season 2016 start date
The fixtures for NPL Victoria's 2016 season are out, and have been updated on the blog. The season will begin on the weekend of February 19th/20th/21st/22nd. Our opening match against Heidelberg is the only match on that day.

There's a lot of blocks of multiple home and then multiple away games. On the plus side, we've at least partly moved away from the Friday night experiment. A lot more of our Friday games in 2016 also seem to come up against Melbourne based AFL games, which probably won't help attendances, but we'll see.

Player movements and contract statuses
Mathew Theodore has been signed up for another season. Including the four new signings, that makes 19/20 of the available spots on the squads - though of course some of these players, like Luke Eyles, may be put into the under 20s squad. No firm word yet on Andy Kecojevic or Jake Barker-Daish, though the latter has reportedly been released.

Assistant coach Dimi Tsiaras has resigned from his post, in order to focus on his business and family.

• Nikola Roganovic (assume signed on for 2016)
• Mathew Theodore (signed up for 2016).
• Kristian Konstantinidis (reportedly signed up for 2016)
• Luke Adams (reportedly signed up for 2016)
• Cody Martindale (reportedly signed up for 2016)
• Nick Epifano is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Iqi Jawadi is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Michael Eagar is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Milos Lujic is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Leigh Minopoulos is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Tim Mala is contracted until the end of 2016.
• Chris Irwin has a two year contract with the club; it is unclear whether that contract finishes at the end of 2016, or 2017.
• Stephen Hatzikostas is contracted until the end of 2017.
• Brad Norton is contracted until the end of 2017.
• Luke Eyles been signed until the end of the 2017 season.
• Chris Taylor has a long term contract with the club, believed to be five years.

Players signed until the end of the 2015 season.

• Andy Kecojevic

Players with unknown contract statuses

• Jake Barker-Daish (probably released)

Gone

• Andy Bevin (Team Wellington)
• Thomas Lakic (Oakleigh Cannons)
• Fraser MacLaren (Dandenong Thunder)
• Dane Milovanovic (Hong Kong Pegasus)
• Nick Morton (returned to South Hobart)
• David Stirton (Port Melbourne)

In

• Zaim Zeneli
• Marcus Shroen
• Jason Hicks
• Matthew Foschini

South Melbourne Hellas match programmes

I may be the king of starting a thousand minor and/or major projects and never finishing any of them, but here is something that I've managed to get through over the break. Having recently received a number of match programmes from the mid 1990s (courtesy of Roy Hay), I've scanned, uploaded and created a section for them on this blog.

The stuff from the 1993-1995 era is the most interesting. The magazine at the time has the most interesting and original content of what I've uploaded so far, including a letters section. In contrast, the 1998/99 era is more laden with advertisements, but all of it is interesting insofar as the match programme portrays the way the club sought to portray itself to its own fans and the wider public who happened to stumble upon it - two demographics which didn't necessarily have a good deal in common.

As usual, feel free to download and share these items with your fellow Hellas fans and Australian soccer history buffs. If people have items that would fill in the gaps, they would be most appreciated, whether you've scanned them into a pdf file yourself, or whether you'd prefer me to do it. Just contact me, and I'll try and arrange something.

Peter Filopoulos' piece
Worth a read if you've missed it. Among other things, it talks about how the club bought its first computer.

Flare incident at Lakeside Stadium
As noted by Southpole.