It’s been a month or so since the season for Sydney Olympic has ended,
losing in Week 1 of the Finals to Manly United. A Manly United who then went on
to win the Championship. Given that we probably should have beaten them that
day, it makes for another frustrating off-season for the supporters.
Looking through the season as a whole, you would have to say that it was
another “what might have been” season.
Blacktown although up their challenging near the top again and they did
flog us during the season, were not as good as they have been in recent
seasons, Sydney United had an off year, not to mention Bonnyrigg’s fall from
the top in 2017. Rockdale once again threw a truck-load of money trying to win
something, failing once again, APIA re-emerged and looked like the real deal
for the first time in a while, Wollongong were a dangerous outfit, but couldn’t
put it together consistently, while Manly basically came from nowhere to win it
all.
No doubt the door was open for a challenge from Sydney Olympic this
season, but things needed to click for us and they never did.
With a poor Parramatta Melita being relegated this season and being replaced
by a rejuvenated Marconi Stallions, season 2018 automatically looks like it
will be much more tougher and closer competition.
Blacktown, Sydney United, Rockdale, APIA will for sure be throwing
everything at it once again, Bonnyrigg will want to put a poor 2017 behind
them, Marconi you would imagine, will spend even more than they did in NPL2 in a bid for Glory in NPL1. Manly United, the
Champions, will be looking to defend their Crown, while murmurs abound that Wollongong,
Sutherland and Hakoah have also recruited well in preparation for a tilt in
2018, while the Sydney FC NPL team will once again be competitive in all 3
grades.
The man charged with piloting Sydney Olympic’s 2018 campaign will be
Gorka Etxeberria as we are hearing he will be staying on. Hopefully he has learned
and seen enough of the League and Teams to know what is needed to be challenging
on all fronts next season.
News is scarce on who we have signed for 2018, if you believe what was
written in the Greek Herald last week, William Angel and Niko Tsattalios will
be staying on. What is for sure is that the usual suspects will be looking to raid
our squad and sign our players in a bid to weaken us.
What we do know is that Paul Henderson, fresh from another “Goalkeeper
of the Year” season, will go around for another season, while the futures of
most of our squad from this year are up in the air.
Like every year I plead for the Club to sign a Striker who consistently scores
goals and rakes in 15-20 goals a season. We haven’t had one of those for a long
time. We also need to sign a RB and LB and a No.10 type player to help out with
our impotent attack.
The ground situation remains unchanged as we are still at the mercy of
the Canterbury Bulldogs at Belmore, this situation has been one of the huge
blights on this Club for 60 years. As for the alleged Tempe Project, it would be
nothing short of a miracle if that proceeds, it will probably go the way of the
other “Grand Plans” the Club has had, failure.
There is no news forthcoming from the Club in regards to this year’s AGM.
