On Sinisa Cohadzic

Like so many other aspects of South Melbourne history, most of us will never know the truth of what happened with Sinisa Cohadzic's apparent sacking, nor what led to his return within days of said sacking, and how it worked out that he would remain onboard for months afterward, even though everyone seemed to know he would be gone for good at some point this year. Only time will tell whether we got the best out of him, and whether he'll be able to continue his success at Avondale, and wherever he ends up after that; back in the day it didn't look good for Johnny A after he left us, and then it got very good for him. And even if Sinisa does go on to have success in his future coaching gigs, one will never be able to take away his supreme accomplishment of the Australia Cup win. I mean, restoring some of our pride and self-regard in 2025 was good enough for me, but the night of October 10, 2026 will be his as much as everyone else's. (and to think we didn't qualify for the cup in the conventional way through the Dockerty Cup, but rather via the Australian Championship, with an undefeated run and magnificent wins against other formerly great clubs, before we even got to the bit of coming from behind in every single game of the Australia Cup including two wins against A-League opposition). But back to the beginning, or at least after Cohadzic had left us after years spent as a technical director and coach of youth teams. Midway through the 2025 league season, luck finally deserted Esteban Quintas entirely, and we seemed to hire the only coach willing to take up the role in Quintas' place; not many South fans were thrilled with the appointment, as Cohadzic so obviously lacked the local big name and senior men's coaching pedigree. Thanks to Sinisa, as well as some of that luck returning (among other notable changes), we dug ourselves out of a deep hole and then went on a bizarre run where we not only won things, but at times even looked the part off the field, too. That first win in the cup against Bentleigh? The desperation of Lucas Inglese up top and reliance on Jack Pope's cameo against the Knights? Knocking out Avondale in the Dockerty Cup semi? And then the sweetest of all, stealing the Dockerty Cup from the Bergers because he allowed the team to dare. I was glad enough with survival, considering the way things could have gone, but to nab a couple of trophies playing a much more attacking style was a welcome bonus. By the end of the year, the slogan "Hellas is back!" rang out, and life was good, in the sense that it all worked out a lot better than it should have. By comparison, 2026 has made even less sense. We fielded as close to a fully pro-team as we have for 25 years, across two league competitions. At the same time we scarcely fielded a full-strength line-up in one of those comps for weeks at a time. Instead, in part due to deliberate misdirection but mostly down to the demands of the more lucrative competition, we often fielded sides made up largely of footballing children. Somehow, we won two of those games, while our our fully-pro first XI (give or take one or two players) lost to the best footballing children this state has to offer. Sometimes Sinisa coached those weakened sides, sometimes he did so for only a part of the game before needing to jet off, and sometimes he wasn't here at all. Who knows what the breaking point was that led to Sinisa's sacking. A lot of people will say it was the nepotism question, but who knows for sure? That's the thing with South Melbourne, though - they'll tell you that you should write a history of the club, while ignoring that the true history of the club is strictly off the record. Maybe we'll also find out one day why Nahuel Bonada left.