Not much time for anything more expansive or timely this week. We're in a mess. On field, off field. Running out of players. Unable to bring in players. And every day the ordinary supporter feeling more and more helpless, hopeless, and irrelevant. Helpless to help the club, hopeless for a better future, irrelevant to everyone in Australian soccer, including the people running our club
South of the Border, now in its 18th year of once great but now spotty coverage of this club, has seldom been a haven of positivity. Chalk that down to the main contributor. But every week just seems to get worse. What's there to cling on to right now? NSD and the Oceania fantasy. Here's my conspiracy: the club is being run half-arsed on the field this year (no summer training camp, high school reunion recruitment, Danish nepo-baby, etc) so that we save money and/or get relegated so that we can have our youth team in VPL1 next year while the real seniors play in a fully fledged NSD. It's the only thing that makes sense to me, otherwise we are being run so poorly, you wonder what it is we're doing.
Younger, more rosy-cheeked bloggers like Manny - who is doing a bang up job with Blue and White Views - still has the kind of enthusiasm for the battle that I used to have a long, long time ago, searching for ways to improve, offering suggestions. There is his post, for instance, on better and/or more diverse canteen options. Sounds good, eminently sensible, and some of (like loukoumades) that we used to have before. But last week, when a lot of friends and family turned up early to watch the under 23s curtain raiser, there wasn't even any food. I can understand that somewhat right at kickoff. But a lot of people wandered in to the social club at half time, and found nothing. So before we even branch out to other offerings, could we at least have the current offerings available when people are looking for them?
In another post, Manny wonders where the club communications with its members are? We were once at the forefront of social media stuff which, while not a like for like replacement for news direct from the board, at least felt something more than the barebones stuff we put out. A few Facebook posts with results, fixtures, and players birthdays - the bulk of what we get now - is not enough. Manny is right - we need direct, and more frequent communication from the board about the ongoing plans for the club. When Nick Maikousis took over as president, we were promised more frequent member forums, and for a little while we at least had something like that. But now we can't even schedule an AGM, which apart from a moral imperative for a member-based club, is also a legal obligation. You would like to think that people involved in their personal lives in elevated positions in the corporate and legal worlds would have a finer appreciation for that legal obligation, but for some reason the ordinary South Melbourne member is treated less important.
You've got the club's general manager David Clarkson making a brief sojourn into Clarendon Corner last week asking how we can bring people back to the club, but not sticking around long enough to get a thorough answer. Yes, I would love David Clarkson to have the authority to gather that information from the remaining fans and relay that info to the club hierarchy, since we don't really have any other way of communicating it, unless - god forbid - we break open the EGM petition glass. I'm happy to offer an impromptu (and probably unhelpful, doom merchant style) thesis on the subject, but it's not just about me - it's about all of us. Speaking of all us, if you aren't a corporate member, then you basically do not exist to the club outside of match day (unless it's to apparently get banned off the club's socials). I get it, the sponsors are important, and they need their own events. But no room for even one fan table at the jersey night? Also, did you know there was a jersey night? It's a good thing that the Olympic friendly earlier this year doubled up as a family day event, because we haven't had a family day for years otherwise. We didn't even have an informal Christmas gathering last year.
So, again, who and what is this club for? And if the fully-formed NSD doesn't get up, then what? Even if we survive relegation, what are we doing? Sure, go to a game, watch a dreadful refereeing decision put a team already on the back foot even more on the back foot, but focusing on that misses the forest for the trees. How did we get to the stage where one obviously poor refereeing decision could send us down a division? How can Oakleigh have Pierce Waring on the bench, a player who probably would be starting everywhere else, while South fans in the stands are wondering who (with no disrespect intended) each new kid is on the bench? What is the plan? Are we just killing time? Should we wind the club up? It would free up a lot of time on the weekend for me, but I would miss some of the people.
Next game
In a few hours against Port. Oh boy.
Final thought
Anyway, if you want more timely, positive, and good natured South material go to Blue and White Views, also available as a Facebook page.
Showing posts with label David Clarkson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Clarkson. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 May 2025
Precipice - South Melbourne 1 Oakleigh Cannons 2
Sunday, 25 May 2014
IKEA Galvin Park - Werribee City 0 South Melbourne 1
In a slog of a match we cleared one off the line in the first half - apparently it was Brad Norton - had Milos Lujic score a one on one in first half injury time after a great offside breaking pass by Iqi Jawadi, stuffed up a second to seal the game, and the side overall produced another gritty defensive performance to keep up the perfect start to 2014, now out to ten consecutive league wins.
The officiating was... well, it wasn't great, but what can you do? For their part, the home side's defenders are probably still complaining about the goal they conceded, but it looked onside to me from the worst possible place to make that call from. And the three minutes wasted in the first half while a Werribee player tried to put his shoe back on was a particular highlight.
What this all means is that after Oakleigh lost its first game of the season on Friday night against Pascoe Vale, we now lead by nine points from both Oakleigh and the in form Heidelberg.
But the real story was, as is so often the case, to do with scaffolding. Five years ago I got stuck on a scissor lift at the old Bob Jane Stadium, but I never thought that we'd rock up to a ground and be asked to put up scaffolding.
I tell you what, @footballvic's #nplvic facility audit can't come fast enough #ikeaeatyourheartout pic.twitter.com/dDowtO4M9J
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 25, 2014
What that photo shows is the mid-point of a quite farcical situation. With Galvin Park being basically flat all the way around the outer, the South Melbourne media team arrived expecting some sort of scaffolding to be available. And that was true enough, except for the fact the visiting side had to put it up themselves, from the apparent odds and ends available on the other side of the fence outside the ground, without any apparent instructions about how to put it together (let alone an Allen key), or whether we should even bother to do so.Well, the decision was made to at least try, and we (by which I mean mostly other people) ended up getting off to a false start, as we proceeded to try and put it together without any real idea of what we were doing - and then we found the instructions, which were on the part of the base, and that the colour coded poles actually had specific place they were mean to go, and then he real breakthrough when we started thinking in three dimensions. Two dimensions are hard enough. Anyway, eventually we figured out what the hell we had to do, and it was done, and SMFCTV cameraman Tim Dovas got up there to do his thing.
@nicholastsiaras @smfc pretty good! pic.twitter.com/UXSUVDwi26
— Paul Mavroudis (@PaulMavroudis) May 25, 2014
The home side's photographer partly explained the situation, that they had a grandstand (costing $6.8 million, and funded by the social club pokie joint next door that funds Werribee City) planned for the outer side, and I'm sure it'll be a nice feature once it's actually built. But for the time being Galvin Park is one of the crappier NPL grounds.Also, quite why the game was played on the field adjacent to the field which was located next to the clubrooms, canteen and toilets, I'm not sure. The fields looked more or less identical to me, and it's not like the condition of the field that was used was much good.
Still, they had an electronic scoreboard with a count-up clock, which was a nice feature. It wasn't as nice as the colour scoreboard being used by footy club Werribee Centrals next door - and which was visible from the soccer field - but it's better than what most clubs have on offer.
Next week
Double dose of Dandenong Thunder. First up, a Dockerty Cup match at George Andrews Reserve on Wednesday, followed by a home match against the same side on Sunday. Some interesting decisions to be made on the squads and approach to both games - I think if people were forced to make a decision, the Dockerty Cup match, with its reward of taking us to within one game of FFA Cup qualification - will take priority.
James Musa called up to All Whites squad
We've speculated about how our depth would cope with injuries and suspensions, but national team call-ups? It looks as if central defender James Musa has been called up to the All Whites squad to face South Africa on Friday after some of the better known players dropped out.
Hello...
Apparently we have signed some bloke called Dion Kirk, a midfielder from Adelaide United's youth squad. But who'll make way from the 20 man squad once the transfer window opens? Probably assistant coach Graham Hockless.
...and goodbye
Well, it looks like under 20s coach Matthew Maslak has been shown the door, to be replaced by Sasa Kolman. Results are one thing I suppose, but the word around Lakeside for a good while now was that he wasn't exactly the most liked person either. Messy to say the least.
Hay and Murray finally release their book!
Last Tuesday at the MCC Library, historians Roy Hay and Bill Murray finally launched their long awaited book on the history of Australian soccer, A History Of Football In Australia. Something like ten years in the making (probably more), it was officially launched by Les Murray in front of one of the most bizarre seating arrangements I've even seen.
This was different though, for the warmth and affection in the room for the two scholars. In addition to the various sports historians, academics and FFV functionaries, and even members of the footy press - but quite notably few, if any, soccer journos from Melbourne's mainstream press - several South Melbourne personalities were also in attendance: Jimmy Armstrong, Ted Smith, Kimon Taliadoros, David Clarkson, Oscar Crino and even current South manager Chris Taylor.
Wonderful afternoon of football history @MCG with two former @smfc legends @KimonTaliadoros & Oscar Crino. pic.twitter.com/2yYo013C4S
— David Clarkson (@David8Clarkson) May 20, 2014
The library itself is rather small, and so the seating arrangement was less than ideal. The two writers and Les Murray were at the front, but in front of them the audience was cleaved in two by a book shelf.As noted earlier, Les Murray provided the main speech for the launch. He went through his personal history with Bill Murray and Roy Hay which dates back to the mid 1980s, including their shared collaborations - although Les was on much weaker ground when he spoke on the origins of football/soccer and the names of the organising bodies and games.
Bill Murray then provided a rambling, digression filled speech on the history of the book itself, the different ideas of which methodology to use, and a million references to the Scots. The main ideological differences were in their approaches as historians with regards to how to tell the story - Murray is more interested in themes, Hay apparently more interested in narrative (I probably cocked that analysis up), and also about how to view Australian soccer history. Hay thinks that the game is much more than migrants, and that it has had a longer and more nuanced existence within Australia than is often given credit for - which leads to his idea that the most recent soccer boom is the first which is not dependent on migration for its success. Murray on the other hand thinks migration is still the primary lens by which the game should be understood in the Australian context.
Roy Hay thanked those involved with assisting in the book's production, including FFA and SBS, as well as discussing the Hay-Desira collection that was also being launched. Hay also took a shot at Penguin and the general idea that soccer supporters in Australia don't buy books. Hay also subtly passed the baton on to the next generation of Australian soccer historians. While this book will not be the last work on the game that Hay or Bill Murray will contribute to, it is in many ways the grand opus, a defining even if not quite definitive statement which future generations will have to rely on, contend with and hopefully also challenge.
Questions and comments were then raised from the floor - the ones I can remember off the top of my head were Frances Hay's (Roy's wife and editor of the book), asking about why no mention had been made about the women's section of the book, which ended up in an elaboration about the process of including it - whether to integrate it into the main narrative or give it its own chapter.
The other notable comment came from FFV president Nick Monteleone, who seemed keen to latch on to next year's Anzac centenary and finding a way of asserting soccer's place within that. The problem with that approach - aside from my already stated discomfort with Anzac, and combining militarism with sport - is how to create a link without coming across as being opportunistic, jingoistic or prone to me-too ism. The code was there, the code contributed in its way (perhaps disproportionately), but the commemoration of those events must focus first and foremost on the experiences and sacrifices of the service people involved.
While this was the official launch - there are also plans for a Sydney based event - the book has already been out since the beginning of May. The book is retailing for about $45 for a hardback, though it also seems to be available online for a lot less that, perhaps as low as $35, which is outstanding value for a book of this kind. There's also an e-book version available for apparently a third of the price. The book looks terrific, with plenty of photos. I'll try and get a review up here sometime late next month.
The book launch was held at the MCC Library in order to coincide with the opening of the the Roy Hay and Peter Desira Research Collection. These additions - books, magazines, newspapers and other archival materials - have significantly boosted soccer's presence at the library. While the library is not open to the public in the same way that the State Library is, any serious researcher whether professional or amateur, is able to use the library as well as access those materials - all they need to do is contact the library and let them know ahead of time that they'll be coming.
Finally, in addition to this book, Hay and Murray have expanded their bibliography of Australian soccer materials, covering academic articles and theses, newspapers and magazines, coaching manuals, books, novels, plays and films.
Player points cap - what has FFV got to hide?
Fellow Victorian soccer blogger Mark Boric has recently thrown out this piece on the lack of transparency at FFV. I'm linking to it not only because I've thrown my two cents in the comments section, or because South of the Border got a mention, but because he's right. The player points cap is a core element of the NCR reforms - to have them shrouded in mystery seems entirely pointless, even counter-productive.
It also got me thinking about the facilities audit which the FFV has just started - will the results of that be made public? I wouldn't hold my breath, but I'd love to know what the state of Victorian soccer infrastructure is, at least at the 28 odd NPL licensees.
I'll outlast them all at this rate
Well, the tenure of FFV CEO Mitchell Murphy has ended (or rather, will end at the end of June), apparently due to family reasons. Murphy was in the job for about eleven months, following the interim term of Peter Gome, and the five and a half year stint of Mark 'Lawn Bowls' Rendell. Twitter and the forums are rife with speculation as to the 'real' reasons behind Murphy's resignation, which have been followed by the resignations of FFV board members Kimon Taliadoros and Aldrin De Zilva.
According to the forums De Zilva, who had recently been charged with abusing a young referee at a junior game, had apparently been dissatisfied with the financial reporting at FFV and initiated proceedings with ASIC. There's surely more to come out of this.
Around the Grounds
with new contributor Skip Fulton (@Football_Vic)
Bentleigh Greens vs Heidelberg United
NPL Seniors, Friday 23rd May at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex
They say the Burgers are better at Hungry Jacks. Well the Bergers we certainly better at Kingston Heath on Friday night. Heidelberg made the drive south sitting in third position and having won their last four games. They were the favourites against Bentleigh Greens who are out of form with only four wins from nine matches this season. The Greens have had recent losses to Green Gully and South Melbourne and last week delivered Goulburn Valley their first draw in the NPL with a 1-1 result in Shepparton.
Bentleigh started the match the stronger of the two teams and controlled the ball for most of the first twenty minutes. They had a number of chances but it was Brent McGrath with a low strike from the top of the box that sailed past the keepers stretched right hand and into the net to opening the scoring.
If you happened to be at Green Gully in early April you may recall the South Melbourne match when a Kieran Gonzales clearance hit Milos Lujic straight in the back and rebounded into the net. Well around the thirty minute mark in this game you would have been having flash backs because the exact same thing happened to Bentleigh Greens keeper Stuart Webster and suddenly against the momentum of the game Heidelberg were back in it at 1-1 thanks to a rebound off Heffernan’s butt!
The second half saw some tough action often going from end to end with wide play down both flanks. Bentleigh was solid in the mid-field however a tight Heidelberg defence combined with a number of missed opportunities meant the Greens couldn’t add to their earlier goal. On the counter attack it was Kaine Sheppard who put Heidelberg in front in the sixty fifth minute. The remainder of the game proved uneventful with Bentleigh showing desperation at times pushing forward but then easily giving the ball away. Extra time and a marvellous strike from James Goulopoulos sealed the deal and once again triggered the chants from the travelling Heidelberg supporters.
Overall it could be said Bentleigh had the stronger game but individual mistakes and their inability to capitalise on opportunities in front of goal meant they hit the rooms without a result. The Greens with just one point from their last four matches and they sit in fifth on the ladder with five teams within two points of them. Heidelberg continue to be one of the surprise packages this season. They are now seven wins from ten and thanks to an upset win by Pascoe Vale over Oakleigh in the other game on Friday night, the Bergers are only three goals off second place on the ladder.
Next week Heidelberg return home to Olympic Village on Sunday for their fourth home game in five weeks to take on Northcote City. The Greens hit the road and travel to JL Murphy Reserve on Friday night to take on Port Melbourne.
Final thought
If you're not going to put out Kraš napolitanke, don't bother serving wafers.
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Is it OK for South fans to like Ange Postecoglou again?
Here's a confused ramble focused on confusion.
So, while waiting for a bad episode of The Simpsons to start, I was watching Ten news yesterday evening, the sports segment to be precise. The first item was on the Geelong Cup, a group three race, whatever that means. Then some racehorse trained by Tom Waterhouse's mother being retired. Then AFL trade news, including Heath Shaw being traded to GWS for Taylor Adams. Then finally, four stories in, the fact that the Socceroos had a new coach. It makes you think that we still have a ways to go yet. Today online on The Age's sport section prominence is given to Bradman and Warne getting a perfunctory honour, and after that a washed out one day cricket match.
But back to Ange - who could have foreseen this situation after that interview on SBS all those years ago? One of the more humorous comments on the matter in the week leading up to Ange's appointment was made by 'Chips Rafferty' on Football Anarchy:
Some people have talked (vaguely) about his stint in the VPL before making his comeback to the national scene via the A-League - which really, nothing much can be made of, because that team was doomed from the get go. More interesting for me is the fact that, like his 1991 championship teammate Joe Palatsides, he actually tried his hand at coaching in Greece, getting out of the comfort zone of milking a local career, lower league club by lower league club. In our boredom, South of the Border was probably the only English language 'press' (and we use that term lightly) that covered Ange's stint at Panachaiki in the third division, and that was mostly relaying basic progress updates.
What it means to me is that he's willing to take chances, something that became evident as well when he went through the process of creating his Brisbane Roar team. Despite the success he had in his years as South coach, there was always (and still is) talk that he more or less inherited Frank Arok's team, a team that after a tumultuous period would have supposedly come good anyway. And that's no post-A-League sour grapes - that line of thinking existed even among contemporary South fan commentary.
During his A-League coaching career, the attitude of South fans towards Postecoglou has ranged from a certain matter of factness - coaching is his career, and he should be able to continue it anywhere he wants - to calling him a sellout for becoming a part of the system which has relegated us to dealing with an ethnic club glass ceiling (and taking Paul Trimboli with him as well). He's not alone among our former players, sponsors and fans to do this, but he's by far the most high profile.
Most though probably never wished him either well or ill, taking a more ambivalent, philosophical approach - he's not at South, so who cares? That's certainly the approach I've taken since he left Panachaiki, a stint I covered more as an oddity than as anything serious. Perhaps those attitudes stem from the way his recent Australian soccer history has shone a light on the general South experience post-A-League, at least from the point of view of those of us in exile from the top-flight. Here's someone who, because of his association with old soccer, the NSL and especially its most powerful (ethnic) club, was thought to offer nothing to the new dawn, who would usher in an era of new players, coaches, methods and history divorced from whatever happened before. Now he's in charge of the goddamn national team, while we've got A-League reject Mehmet Durakovic.
When I celebrated Mitch Langerak's rise to Borussia Dortmund and Socceroos representation, I did so because yes, it's a magnificent achievement, but also because South was a small, perhaps unusual stepping stone on the road to those achievements (which he acknowledged with re-tweet, swoons). Can we then ignore Postecoglou's even more incredible rise? He's one of the few who came through the South system and had a sustained career at the top as a player. The only one involved with all four of our NSL titles. Someone who had been doubted repeatedly, and yet is one of the few players or coaches who left the club both on his own terms and as a success.
The variety of reactions with which South fans have dealt with Postecoglou and others like him, is reflective of the alienation seemingly inherent in being a South supporter these days, at least for those of us who don't split our time between South and an A-League team. Who are we now, compared to who we were? Can we be something like what we once were, in terms of status? What if we never make it back to the top-flight? Just how much has everyone who once supported us moved on from everything? Far enough to forget us completely, or within reach should we ever once again reach where we 'deserve' to be? At least once a year, most often in the quiet of the off-season, I seem to ask this question, and every time I think I get closer to an answer, I find that it's just as elusive as it ever was.
----------------------------------------------------
Here's a couple of articles from the mainstream/legitimate press that are worth a look.
Ray Gatt's article charting Ange's coaching career path isn't too bad, including some good South history with David Clarkson.
Ange Postecoglou's path: from near-death experience to the Socceroos
Ray Gatt, The Australian, October 24, 2013 12:00AM
IT was early November 1996, in the days of the National Soccer League, and Ange Postecoglou, a wet-behind-the-ears coach, was conducting a training session with South Melbourne, oblivious to the lynch mob gathering around the back of the stands.
Only five rounds into his first senior coaching job and with just a single point to show, Postecoglou had already come under intense pressure from fans and officials of the Greek-oriented club.
That night was supposed to be his last in charge of the club he had served for 193 games as a player. The committee had made its decision and the president would be the one to deliver the coup d'etat.
As the committeemen nervously shuffled their feet waiting for the president to arrive, they received news he had fallen ill and could not make it. Reluctant to complete the hatchet job without him, they made a hasty retreat and decided to leave him in for one more week.
The rest is history. South Melbourne won its next game 1-0 against Newcastle Breakers and went on a winning streak that saw it climb from the bottom of the table to the preliminary final, which it lost to Sydney United.
Under Postecoglou's positive "follow-me" coaching philosophy, South Melbourne won successive NSL titles in 1997-98 and 1998-99.
Postecoglou's coaching career, give or take one or two hiccups, has gone from strength to strength and today he is the new coach of the Socceroos, entrusted by Football Federation Australia to lead the national team out of the abyss and into a new dawn.
David Clarkson, who won two championships under Postecoglou at South Melbourne, always knew his old boss would climb to the top of the coaching tree.
"Who knows what would have happened had it (the sacking) gone through," Clarkson told The Australian. "But, he got that luck. We won two titles, were Oceania champions and played in the world club championship against Manchester United."
Clarkson said he always saw the drive and the passion for coaching in Postecoglou.
"He was a winner, very intense and a lover of the game. You could see it in everything he did," he said. "Yes he was passionate about coaching, but he was also very passionate about the game and how it should be played."
Clarkson said if Postecoglou had a fault it was "maybe he did not manage players as best as he could back then".
"But it was never personal. He always had his end goal and he'd tell us he would take people on the journey who wanted to be there ... if not 'you can go'," he said
"I was always scared of him, to be honest. Why? Because I was afraid of letting him down. He expected such high standards and I respected him so much that I just didn't want to disappoint him."
Postecoglou did it tough as coach of the Young Socceroos between 2000 and 2007, struggling to come to grips with international football and drawing intense criticism from past players and coaches.
Some might have thought that was the end for him as a coach, but his stint as an analyst on Fox Sports showed he was a deep thinker about the game and the critics did not affect his fierce pride and burning ambition.
Postecoglou has stayed true to his philosophy of playing entertaining football based on retaining possession and playing out from the back, even when under pressure.
He is not afraid to make the tough decisions on players. It is the "my way or the highway" mentality as he showed when he first took over Brisbane Roar midway through the 2009-10 season. Postecoglou was ruthless, releasing Socceroos veterans Danny Tiatto and Craig Moore, and journeyman Bob Malcolm.
Young players were drafted in and while Roar did not get anywhere near the finals that season, he was sowing the seeds of success. And success came quickly.
The Queenslanders won the A-League title the next season then followed up with a second in 2011-12 as he became the first coach to win back-to-back titles in the A-League - something he had already done in the NSL.
Postecoglou will be vastly different to his predecessor, the sacked Holger Osieck, in many ways.
Firstly, he understands the Australian sporting mentality. He won't be as rigid in his thinking and will rejuvenate the team with younger players. No player will be safe from his scrutiny. They will all need to fit within his system.
He will go with what he knows and believes in. It is best explained in an interview he did after he was appointed Victory coach before the start of last season.
"I'm in it to win championships, but what drives me is that it has to mean something. A title must reflect the way we've played, behaved on and off the field. When people went to watch Brisbane Roar, they knew how they were going to play and conduct themselves, win or lose.
"I'm not going to do exactly what I did at Roar, but there will be a strong identity there at Victory."
With eight months, maybe half a dozen friendlies and a couple of camps to the World Cup in Brazil, the odds are that there is not enough time for Postecoglou to impose his will on the squad.
But unlike with Osieck, FFA has given him a mandate to produce talent, revitalise the squad, jettison some of players and set up for the future, including the Asian Cup on these shores in 2015.
Even at Brazil, you wouldn't want to bet against Postecoglou at least turning the Socceroos into the competitive team fans have grown to love and admire.
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Joe Gorman's article from The Guardian isn't too bad either, though it probably didn't need the music analogy. The comments on the cultural cringe in Australian football are worth noting.
Ange Postecoglou: the Socceroos' very own Paul Kelly
Like the musician, the new Socceroos coach shows respect and a deep knowledge of the medium in which he works
Ange Postecoglou has graduated from the A-League to become the new Socceroos manager. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP
After almost a fortnight of rumour and recriminations, the FFA has appointed Ange Postecoglou as Socceroos coach. When Frank Lowy confirmed last week the next coach would be an Australian, it was always going to be either Ange or Arnie. Both worthy choices, the FFA has put its faith in a local for the first time since 2005.
Melbourne Victory have made the noble decision not to stand in Postecoglou’s way, although not before criticising the FFA for tapping up their coach and baulking at the seven figure compensation package.
In a statement to the media, Victory Chairman Anthony Di Pietro said, “we are disappointed with the process undertaken by the FFA, given the outcomes we tried to secure could never have been achieved within the timeframes offered, which ultimately forced us to accelerate our decision not to stand in Ange’s way.”
As much as the Socceroos are the pinnacle of the football hierarchy, the clubs are also entitled to defend their own patch of turf, as are state league clubs below them. Developing players and coaches comes at a price, and it is not for the FFA to be cherry-picking the best talent without recognising the investment of the clubs.
That said, it is a milestone in Australian football for several reasons. In the ninth season of the A-League, Postecoglou becomes the first coach to graduate from an A-League club to the Socceroos. In doing so, he’ll also become the first Australian coach to take the national team to the World Cup since Rale Rasic, who led the Socceroos to the nation’s first World Cup in 1974. Forty years is certainly a long time waiting, but it is a change that will be welcomed by the vast majority of followers of the national team.
Having an A-League alumnus at the helm of the Socceroos will certainly be a boost for the profile of the competition. After three successive foreign coaches, the football community has been heavily in favour of a local, and now that we’ve gone native, the cycle will likely continue. With so many former Socceroos completing their coaching licences and receiving jobs in the A-League, Postcoglou’s appointment may be a harbinger of change in the selection process.
In elevating Postecoglou, the FFA has pushed him into a new realm of prodigal son. As one of Australia’s most successful club coaches with South Melbourne Hellas, Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory, he comes into the job with huge expectations. Despite the Young Socceroos hiccup in 2006, Postecoglou has been something of a King Midas at club level.
When he took over from Frank Farina at Brisbane Roar in 2009, he quickly moved to purge several senior players from the squad including Craig Moore, Charlie Miller and Bob Malcolm, building a new-look team around midfielders Matt McKay, Massimo Murdocca and Erik Paartalu, all of whom he had previously worked with at youth level. After two successive A-League championships with Brisbane – which included a record breaking unbeaten streak – he took up a new challenge at Melbourne Victory.
Postecoglou may have taken a little longer than expected to make his mark in Melbourne, but when the Victory are on form, they play some of the best football in the competition. And as he did at Brisbane, Postecoglou has given young players a chance, putting faith in the likes of Marco Rojas, Nick Ansell, Andrew Nabbout and Connor Pain in important matches. In round one this season, Postecoglou continued this trend by granting the highly rated Rashid Mahazi a start in central midfield in the Melbourne derby.
In this regard, Postecoglou offers the Socceroos a sound knowledge of local players and a willingness to experiment with young talent, two qualities sorely needed in the national team. With the team in serious need of regeneration before the Asian Cup on home soil in 2015, many senior Socceroos will no doubt be uncomfortable about their future in the green and gold with Postecoglou in charge. As the Postecoglou motto goes, "you don't sign players but people". It’s about time players are selected on their current standard, not reputation.
Notwithstanding his credentials, Postecoglou is also a fitting appointment for symbolic reasons. Having grown up a South Melbourne Hellas supporter, he spent his playing career at his boyhood club, before taking them to two NSL titles in the late 1990s, as well as a Club World Championship in Brazil. His has been a career at the coalface of Australian football.
The question of nationality has not been far from the debate about who should take over from Holger Osieck. Sections of the media, particularly Michael Cockerill and Robbie Slater, have been banging on for some time for an Australian coach to be appointed to the national team.
Others prefer to look simply at the credentials of the coaches in question, rather than the passport, with Craig Foster going as far to say that some of the discussion has reeked of “xenophobia” in his Sunday column for Farifax Media. Certainly Foster has a point, although his own Sam Kekovich on Pim Verbeek during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa would suggest patriotism is indeed the last refuge of the scoundrel.
While too much has already been made of nationality in the current coaching debate, the importance of Postecoglou’s emotional attachment to the local game should not be understated. David Gallop expressed his delight that Postecoglou happened to be "someone who’s learned his football in this country and who lives and breathes the mission of Australian football." For too long, Australians have held a cultural cringe towards the game’s history, cultural position and importance to the nation.
In many ways, Ange Postecoglou is to Australian football as Paul Kelly is to Australian music. Where many Australian musicians entrench the cultural cringe through gratuitous imitation, Kelly spent his career chronicling Australian culture through his songwriting. In several columns for Fairfax Media, as well as numerous media appearances, Postecoglou shows the same careful understanding and critical engagement with his surroundings, highlighting both a fundamental respect and a deep knowledge of the minutiae of Australia’s unique relationship with the world game. Like Kelly, his is a reflective nationalism, not the shouty, chest-beating, face-palm kind.
Moreover, when Postecoglou talks about learning from coaching greats such as Kevin Sheedy, Mick Malthouse and Wayne Bennett, as he did when he took over at Brisbane Roar, we get of a glimpse of a man unburdened by the insecurity that blinds many other football fans, coaches and commentators. In appointing Postecoglou, the FFA have found an ambassador for Australian football, not just a new coach.
But back to Ange - who could have foreseen this situation after that interview on SBS all those years ago? One of the more humorous comments on the matter in the week leading up to Ange's appointment was made by 'Chips Rafferty' on Football Anarchy:
Imagine, Ange the NT coach and Craig still the SBS weather girl.
Some people have talked (vaguely) about his stint in the VPL before making his comeback to the national scene via the A-League - which really, nothing much can be made of, because that team was doomed from the get go. More interesting for me is the fact that, like his 1991 championship teammate Joe Palatsides, he actually tried his hand at coaching in Greece, getting out of the comfort zone of milking a local career, lower league club by lower league club. In our boredom, South of the Border was probably the only English language 'press' (and we use that term lightly) that covered Ange's stint at Panachaiki in the third division, and that was mostly relaying basic progress updates.
What it means to me is that he's willing to take chances, something that became evident as well when he went through the process of creating his Brisbane Roar team. Despite the success he had in his years as South coach, there was always (and still is) talk that he more or less inherited Frank Arok's team, a team that after a tumultuous period would have supposedly come good anyway. And that's no post-A-League sour grapes - that line of thinking existed even among contemporary South fan commentary.
During his A-League coaching career, the attitude of South fans towards Postecoglou has ranged from a certain matter of factness - coaching is his career, and he should be able to continue it anywhere he wants - to calling him a sellout for becoming a part of the system which has relegated us to dealing with an ethnic club glass ceiling (and taking Paul Trimboli with him as well). He's not alone among our former players, sponsors and fans to do this, but he's by far the most high profile.
 |
| Postecoglou overseeing South training in Brazil in 2000. |
When I celebrated Mitch Langerak's rise to Borussia Dortmund and Socceroos representation, I did so because yes, it's a magnificent achievement, but also because South was a small, perhaps unusual stepping stone on the road to those achievements (which he acknowledged with re-tweet, swoons). Can we then ignore Postecoglou's even more incredible rise? He's one of the few who came through the South system and had a sustained career at the top as a player. The only one involved with all four of our NSL titles. Someone who had been doubted repeatedly, and yet is one of the few players or coaches who left the club both on his own terms and as a success.
The variety of reactions with which South fans have dealt with Postecoglou and others like him, is reflective of the alienation seemingly inherent in being a South supporter these days, at least for those of us who don't split our time between South and an A-League team. Who are we now, compared to who we were? Can we be something like what we once were, in terms of status? What if we never make it back to the top-flight? Just how much has everyone who once supported us moved on from everything? Far enough to forget us completely, or within reach should we ever once again reach where we 'deserve' to be? At least once a year, most often in the quiet of the off-season, I seem to ask this question, and every time I think I get closer to an answer, I find that it's just as elusive as it ever was.
----------------------------------------------------
Here's a couple of articles from the mainstream/legitimate press that are worth a look.
Ray Gatt's article charting Ange's coaching career path isn't too bad, including some good South history with David Clarkson.
Ange Postecoglou's path: from near-death experience to the Socceroos
Ray Gatt, The Australian, October 24, 2013 12:00AM
IT was early November 1996, in the days of the National Soccer League, and Ange Postecoglou, a wet-behind-the-ears coach, was conducting a training session with South Melbourne, oblivious to the lynch mob gathering around the back of the stands.
Only five rounds into his first senior coaching job and with just a single point to show, Postecoglou had already come under intense pressure from fans and officials of the Greek-oriented club.
That night was supposed to be his last in charge of the club he had served for 193 games as a player. The committee had made its decision and the president would be the one to deliver the coup d'etat.
As the committeemen nervously shuffled their feet waiting for the president to arrive, they received news he had fallen ill and could not make it. Reluctant to complete the hatchet job without him, they made a hasty retreat and decided to leave him in for one more week.
The rest is history. South Melbourne won its next game 1-0 against Newcastle Breakers and went on a winning streak that saw it climb from the bottom of the table to the preliminary final, which it lost to Sydney United.
Under Postecoglou's positive "follow-me" coaching philosophy, South Melbourne won successive NSL titles in 1997-98 and 1998-99.
Postecoglou's coaching career, give or take one or two hiccups, has gone from strength to strength and today he is the new coach of the Socceroos, entrusted by Football Federation Australia to lead the national team out of the abyss and into a new dawn.
David Clarkson, who won two championships under Postecoglou at South Melbourne, always knew his old boss would climb to the top of the coaching tree.
"Who knows what would have happened had it (the sacking) gone through," Clarkson told The Australian. "But, he got that luck. We won two titles, were Oceania champions and played in the world club championship against Manchester United."
Clarkson said he always saw the drive and the passion for coaching in Postecoglou.
"He was a winner, very intense and a lover of the game. You could see it in everything he did," he said. "Yes he was passionate about coaching, but he was also very passionate about the game and how it should be played."
Clarkson said if Postecoglou had a fault it was "maybe he did not manage players as best as he could back then".
"But it was never personal. He always had his end goal and he'd tell us he would take people on the journey who wanted to be there ... if not 'you can go'," he said
"I was always scared of him, to be honest. Why? Because I was afraid of letting him down. He expected such high standards and I respected him so much that I just didn't want to disappoint him."
Postecoglou did it tough as coach of the Young Socceroos between 2000 and 2007, struggling to come to grips with international football and drawing intense criticism from past players and coaches.
Some might have thought that was the end for him as a coach, but his stint as an analyst on Fox Sports showed he was a deep thinker about the game and the critics did not affect his fierce pride and burning ambition.
Postecoglou has stayed true to his philosophy of playing entertaining football based on retaining possession and playing out from the back, even when under pressure.
He is not afraid to make the tough decisions on players. It is the "my way or the highway" mentality as he showed when he first took over Brisbane Roar midway through the 2009-10 season. Postecoglou was ruthless, releasing Socceroos veterans Danny Tiatto and Craig Moore, and journeyman Bob Malcolm.
Young players were drafted in and while Roar did not get anywhere near the finals that season, he was sowing the seeds of success. And success came quickly.
The Queenslanders won the A-League title the next season then followed up with a second in 2011-12 as he became the first coach to win back-to-back titles in the A-League - something he had already done in the NSL.
Postecoglou will be vastly different to his predecessor, the sacked Holger Osieck, in many ways.
Firstly, he understands the Australian sporting mentality. He won't be as rigid in his thinking and will rejuvenate the team with younger players. No player will be safe from his scrutiny. They will all need to fit within his system.
He will go with what he knows and believes in. It is best explained in an interview he did after he was appointed Victory coach before the start of last season.
"I'm in it to win championships, but what drives me is that it has to mean something. A title must reflect the way we've played, behaved on and off the field. When people went to watch Brisbane Roar, they knew how they were going to play and conduct themselves, win or lose.
"I'm not going to do exactly what I did at Roar, but there will be a strong identity there at Victory."
With eight months, maybe half a dozen friendlies and a couple of camps to the World Cup in Brazil, the odds are that there is not enough time for Postecoglou to impose his will on the squad.
But unlike with Osieck, FFA has given him a mandate to produce talent, revitalise the squad, jettison some of players and set up for the future, including the Asian Cup on these shores in 2015.
Even at Brazil, you wouldn't want to bet against Postecoglou at least turning the Socceroos into the competitive team fans have grown to love and admire.
-----------------------------------------
Joe Gorman's article from The Guardian isn't too bad either, though it probably didn't need the music analogy. The comments on the cultural cringe in Australian football are worth noting.
Ange Postecoglou: the Socceroos' very own Paul Kelly
Like the musician, the new Socceroos coach shows respect and a deep knowledge of the medium in which he works
Ange Postecoglou has graduated from the A-League to become the new Socceroos manager. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP
After almost a fortnight of rumour and recriminations, the FFA has appointed Ange Postecoglou as Socceroos coach. When Frank Lowy confirmed last week the next coach would be an Australian, it was always going to be either Ange or Arnie. Both worthy choices, the FFA has put its faith in a local for the first time since 2005.
Melbourne Victory have made the noble decision not to stand in Postecoglou’s way, although not before criticising the FFA for tapping up their coach and baulking at the seven figure compensation package.
In a statement to the media, Victory Chairman Anthony Di Pietro said, “we are disappointed with the process undertaken by the FFA, given the outcomes we tried to secure could never have been achieved within the timeframes offered, which ultimately forced us to accelerate our decision not to stand in Ange’s way.”
As much as the Socceroos are the pinnacle of the football hierarchy, the clubs are also entitled to defend their own patch of turf, as are state league clubs below them. Developing players and coaches comes at a price, and it is not for the FFA to be cherry-picking the best talent without recognising the investment of the clubs.
That said, it is a milestone in Australian football for several reasons. In the ninth season of the A-League, Postecoglou becomes the first coach to graduate from an A-League club to the Socceroos. In doing so, he’ll also become the first Australian coach to take the national team to the World Cup since Rale Rasic, who led the Socceroos to the nation’s first World Cup in 1974. Forty years is certainly a long time waiting, but it is a change that will be welcomed by the vast majority of followers of the national team.
Having an A-League alumnus at the helm of the Socceroos will certainly be a boost for the profile of the competition. After three successive foreign coaches, the football community has been heavily in favour of a local, and now that we’ve gone native, the cycle will likely continue. With so many former Socceroos completing their coaching licences and receiving jobs in the A-League, Postcoglou’s appointment may be a harbinger of change in the selection process.
In elevating Postecoglou, the FFA has pushed him into a new realm of prodigal son. As one of Australia’s most successful club coaches with South Melbourne Hellas, Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory, he comes into the job with huge expectations. Despite the Young Socceroos hiccup in 2006, Postecoglou has been something of a King Midas at club level.
When he took over from Frank Farina at Brisbane Roar in 2009, he quickly moved to purge several senior players from the squad including Craig Moore, Charlie Miller and Bob Malcolm, building a new-look team around midfielders Matt McKay, Massimo Murdocca and Erik Paartalu, all of whom he had previously worked with at youth level. After two successive A-League championships with Brisbane – which included a record breaking unbeaten streak – he took up a new challenge at Melbourne Victory.
Postecoglou may have taken a little longer than expected to make his mark in Melbourne, but when the Victory are on form, they play some of the best football in the competition. And as he did at Brisbane, Postecoglou has given young players a chance, putting faith in the likes of Marco Rojas, Nick Ansell, Andrew Nabbout and Connor Pain in important matches. In round one this season, Postecoglou continued this trend by granting the highly rated Rashid Mahazi a start in central midfield in the Melbourne derby.
In this regard, Postecoglou offers the Socceroos a sound knowledge of local players and a willingness to experiment with young talent, two qualities sorely needed in the national team. With the team in serious need of regeneration before the Asian Cup on home soil in 2015, many senior Socceroos will no doubt be uncomfortable about their future in the green and gold with Postecoglou in charge. As the Postecoglou motto goes, "you don't sign players but people". It’s about time players are selected on their current standard, not reputation.
Notwithstanding his credentials, Postecoglou is also a fitting appointment for symbolic reasons. Having grown up a South Melbourne Hellas supporter, he spent his playing career at his boyhood club, before taking them to two NSL titles in the late 1990s, as well as a Club World Championship in Brazil. His has been a career at the coalface of Australian football.
The question of nationality has not been far from the debate about who should take over from Holger Osieck. Sections of the media, particularly Michael Cockerill and Robbie Slater, have been banging on for some time for an Australian coach to be appointed to the national team.
Others prefer to look simply at the credentials of the coaches in question, rather than the passport, with Craig Foster going as far to say that some of the discussion has reeked of “xenophobia” in his Sunday column for Farifax Media. Certainly Foster has a point, although his own Sam Kekovich on Pim Verbeek during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa would suggest patriotism is indeed the last refuge of the scoundrel.
While too much has already been made of nationality in the current coaching debate, the importance of Postecoglou’s emotional attachment to the local game should not be understated. David Gallop expressed his delight that Postecoglou happened to be "someone who’s learned his football in this country and who lives and breathes the mission of Australian football." For too long, Australians have held a cultural cringe towards the game’s history, cultural position and importance to the nation.
In many ways, Ange Postecoglou is to Australian football as Paul Kelly is to Australian music. Where many Australian musicians entrench the cultural cringe through gratuitous imitation, Kelly spent his career chronicling Australian culture through his songwriting. In several columns for Fairfax Media, as well as numerous media appearances, Postecoglou shows the same careful understanding and critical engagement with his surroundings, highlighting both a fundamental respect and a deep knowledge of the minutiae of Australia’s unique relationship with the world game. Like Kelly, his is a reflective nationalism, not the shouty, chest-beating, face-palm kind.
Moreover, when Postecoglou talks about learning from coaching greats such as Kevin Sheedy, Mick Malthouse and Wayne Bennett, as he did when he took over at Brisbane Roar, we get of a glimpse of a man unburdened by the insecurity that blinds many other football fans, coaches and commentators. In appointing Postecoglou, the FFA have found an ambassador for Australian football, not just a new coach.
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Nando going overseas?
Former South championship midfielder David Clarkson released this curious tweet on his Twitter page last week
When I asked if this was futsal or outdoor, Clarkson replied with 'outdoor', which would probably mean Shenzhen Ruby, a second division side, which is puzzling in all sorts of ways.
Another source though seemed to indicate that it was a futsal trip - possibly an AFC futsal club championship. Wait and see if anything comes out of it.
Good luck to @smfc @nandojogado who leaves tomorrow to play in China for Zhenzhen FC.
When I asked if this was futsal or outdoor, Clarkson replied with 'outdoor', which would probably mean Shenzhen Ruby, a second division side, which is puzzling in all sorts of ways.
Another source though seemed to indicate that it was a futsal trip - possibly an AFC futsal club championship. Wait and see if anything comes out of it.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
South Melbourne and Tasmanian soccer - by Walter Pless
I've basically copied and pasted the main parts of this entry from this blog piece from Walter Pless' excellent Tasmanian soccer blog. There's a couple of photos in there that I haven't included, and it's a great blog, so it's worth clicking on the link anyway.
The famous South Melbourne arrive in Hobart on Thursday for a 3-match tour
South Melbourne Hellas arrive at Hobart Airport on a Jetstar flight at 9.30am on Thursday.
South Melbourne will play South Hobart twice during their four-day stay and Olympia Warriors once.
On Thursday, South Melbourne will play South Hobart at South Hobart at 6pm, but this match will probably feature youth and reserve players from both clubs.
South Melbourne will then play Olympia Warriors at KGV Park on Friday at 7pm.
The visitors are likely to train at South Hobart on Saturday prior to the big game against South Hobart at South Hobart at 4pm on Sunday for the Hill Street-Thrifty Cup.
At 1pm on Sunday at South Hobart, there will be a curtain-raiser between the South Hobart development squad and the Glenorchy Knights under-19s.
“We are really excited about the visit by South Melbourne and would like to invite all football supporters in Tasmania to come along on Sunday afternoon as there will be plenty of good football, great food and drink and fairy floss and slushies for the kids,” said South Hobart President, Vicki Woods.
“Over many years, South Melbourne have boasted some of Australia’s best football players, including the likes of Oscar Crino, Alan Davidson, Ange Postecoglou [current Brisbane Roar Coach], Paul Wade and Paul Trimboli.
“South Melbourne have a rich history, having won the former National Soccer League on four occasions, and the Oceania Club Cup in 1999. They were FIFA World Club Cup Finalists in 2000 and, last year, were recognised as the FIFA Oceania Club of the 20th Century.”
Former Tasmanian David Clarkson, who played for Brighton and Hove Albion in England and also in Hong Kong, was a star with South Melbourne and captained the side for a couple of seasons before retiring.
The legendary ‘Galloping Major’ from Hungary, and of Real Madrid and Panathinaikos fame, the left-footed Ferenc Puskas, also coached South Melbourne Hellas in the early 1990s.
Puskas, who also coached Panathinaikos in a European Cup final against Ajax at Wembley, possessed one of the most powerful shots in the game.
He was once coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada but his contract was terminated because he intimidated the club’s goalkeepers and shattered their confidence with his shooting at training.
Puskas conducted a coaching session in Launceston in the 1990s and one of my biggest regrets in the game is that I did not attend that session as he was one of my heroes.
A Tasmanian team coached by Steve Darby beat South Melbourne 2-1 at South Hobart in the 1980s. Former Liverpool star Alun Evans was a member of that South Melbourne team.
South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, is excited at welcoming the visitors, who have been to Tasmania before on several occasions, including when Morton was coach of Olympia in the early 1980s.
South Hobart, under Morton, have visited Melbourne twice in the past two years to play South Melbourne Hellas in pre-season practice matches.
“It is so important for Tasmanian football players to be playing the better teams from interstate on a fairly regular basis if we are serious about improving our football standard here in Tasmania,” said Ken Morton.
“Over the last two years, we have taken our lads to Victoria and performed well against teams like South Melbourne and Oakleigh Cannons and there is no doubt this has helped us greatly with our preparation over the last two seasons.
“This year, South Melbourne have come to us as they are having renovation work done to their home ground and we look forward to welcoming them and playing some good attacking football.”
The South Melbourne Team will boast some of the best players in the country with the likes of Rama Tavsancioglu, from A-League Club North Queensland Fury, and Brazilian Fernando de Moraes (formerly New Zealand Knights) sure to be big winners with the fans.
Former Socceroo Eddie Krncevic is the South Melbourne coach and he is joined by his son, Jessie Krncevic, a recent signing from Richmond Eagles.
The match details are:
Thursday, 13 January 2011 (SQUAD MATCH)
Darcy Street, South Hobart
South Hobart FC v South Melbourne Hellas FC
6.00pm
Friday, 14 January 2011
KGV Park
Olympia Warriors v South Melbourne Hellas FC
7pm
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Darcy Street, South Hobart
South Hobart Development Squad v Glenorchy Knights Under 19’s
1.00pm
HILL St/THRIFTY CUP
Darcy Street, South Hobart
South Hobart FC v South Melbourne Hellas FC
4.00pm
South Melbourne fly out of Hobart Airport at 10pm on Sunday night.
The famous South Melbourne arrive in Hobart on Thursday for a 3-match tour
South Melbourne Hellas arrive at Hobart Airport on a Jetstar flight at 9.30am on Thursday.
South Melbourne will play South Hobart twice during their four-day stay and Olympia Warriors once.
On Thursday, South Melbourne will play South Hobart at South Hobart at 6pm, but this match will probably feature youth and reserve players from both clubs.
South Melbourne will then play Olympia Warriors at KGV Park on Friday at 7pm.
The visitors are likely to train at South Hobart on Saturday prior to the big game against South Hobart at South Hobart at 4pm on Sunday for the Hill Street-Thrifty Cup.
At 1pm on Sunday at South Hobart, there will be a curtain-raiser between the South Hobart development squad and the Glenorchy Knights under-19s.
“We are really excited about the visit by South Melbourne and would like to invite all football supporters in Tasmania to come along on Sunday afternoon as there will be plenty of good football, great food and drink and fairy floss and slushies for the kids,” said South Hobart President, Vicki Woods.
“Over many years, South Melbourne have boasted some of Australia’s best football players, including the likes of Oscar Crino, Alan Davidson, Ange Postecoglou [current Brisbane Roar Coach], Paul Wade and Paul Trimboli.
“South Melbourne have a rich history, having won the former National Soccer League on four occasions, and the Oceania Club Cup in 1999. They were FIFA World Club Cup Finalists in 2000 and, last year, were recognised as the FIFA Oceania Club of the 20th Century.”
Former Tasmanian David Clarkson, who played for Brighton and Hove Albion in England and also in Hong Kong, was a star with South Melbourne and captained the side for a couple of seasons before retiring.
The legendary ‘Galloping Major’ from Hungary, and of Real Madrid and Panathinaikos fame, the left-footed Ferenc Puskas, also coached South Melbourne Hellas in the early 1990s.
Puskas, who also coached Panathinaikos in a European Cup final against Ajax at Wembley, possessed one of the most powerful shots in the game.
He was once coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada but his contract was terminated because he intimidated the club’s goalkeepers and shattered their confidence with his shooting at training.
Puskas conducted a coaching session in Launceston in the 1990s and one of my biggest regrets in the game is that I did not attend that session as he was one of my heroes.
A Tasmanian team coached by Steve Darby beat South Melbourne 2-1 at South Hobart in the 1980s. Former Liverpool star Alun Evans was a member of that South Melbourne team.
South Hobart coach, Ken Morton, is excited at welcoming the visitors, who have been to Tasmania before on several occasions, including when Morton was coach of Olympia in the early 1980s.
South Hobart, under Morton, have visited Melbourne twice in the past two years to play South Melbourne Hellas in pre-season practice matches.
“It is so important for Tasmanian football players to be playing the better teams from interstate on a fairly regular basis if we are serious about improving our football standard here in Tasmania,” said Ken Morton.
“Over the last two years, we have taken our lads to Victoria and performed well against teams like South Melbourne and Oakleigh Cannons and there is no doubt this has helped us greatly with our preparation over the last two seasons.
“This year, South Melbourne have come to us as they are having renovation work done to their home ground and we look forward to welcoming them and playing some good attacking football.”
The South Melbourne Team will boast some of the best players in the country with the likes of Rama Tavsancioglu, from A-League Club North Queensland Fury, and Brazilian Fernando de Moraes (formerly New Zealand Knights) sure to be big winners with the fans.
Former Socceroo Eddie Krncevic is the South Melbourne coach and he is joined by his son, Jessie Krncevic, a recent signing from Richmond Eagles.
The match details are:
Thursday, 13 January 2011 (SQUAD MATCH)
Darcy Street, South Hobart
South Hobart FC v South Melbourne Hellas FC
6.00pm
Friday, 14 January 2011
KGV Park
Olympia Warriors v South Melbourne Hellas FC
7pm
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Darcy Street, South Hobart
South Hobart Development Squad v Glenorchy Knights Under 19’s
1.00pm
HILL St/THRIFTY CUP
Darcy Street, South Hobart
South Hobart FC v South Melbourne Hellas FC
4.00pm
South Melbourne fly out of Hobart Airport at 10pm on Sunday night.
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