Thursday 26 November 2015

Team of the Decade

As difficult as it is to believe, it’s been 10 years of being back in the NSW State League, and as depressing as that is for most, I thought it be a good idea to look back some of the players who have distinguished themselves for the club over this 10 year period, and put them into a “Team of the Decade.”

During this period, season’s; 2004/05, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 have been the season’s that have lived up to what you would call usual ”club standards”, but players I have selected are not only from those season’s, and I’m sure many out there would have their own thoughts and ideas on who they would select for such a team.

Where to start? I guess I’ll start right at the beginning. Guys like: Zenon Caravella, Damon Collina, Tarek Elrich, Greg Owens, Shane Lyons, Peter McPherson, Matt Gordon, the Musumeci brothers and even the likes of Troy Halpin and Paul Kohler who were still at the club for the early part of that first season.

As we go through the seasons, we’ve had people like; Shannon Cole, Dimitri Petratos, Iain Ramsay, Matthew Jurman and of course players synonymous with the club Anthony Doumanis, Peter Zorbas and who can forget Nick Carle’s short stint back with us in 2007. Michael Cindric, Emanuel Zunino, Paul Wither, Matthew Mayora, Tolgay Ozbey, also performed well for the club.

Younger players came through like; Jerry Kalouris, Troy Danaskos, Emmanuel Giannaros, Phil Makrys, the Triantis brothers, William Angel, Mitch Stamatellis, guys like Ibrahim Haydar, Brett Studman, Richard Luksic, David Gullo came and won honours with us and although his stay was brief Alex Smith was pivotal in that success.

Onto recent times players like Brayden Sorge, Brendan Hooper, James Demetriou, Amaury Gauthier, Zak Elrich, Jason Madonis and Yianni Spyrakis have come through complementing the likes of Petar Markovic, the Gaitatzis brothers and the 2 boys from Japan, Taiga and Go. Obviously I can’t name everybody and certainly I would have missed a few. Anyway after 10 years this is the side I have gone for:

Using 4-2-3-1:

Goalkeeper - we’ve had a couple of good ones, but it’s a no contest and Henderson has to be in goals.
Defenders - Sorge is the best RB we’ve had since Lindsay Wilson, I’ve given Studman and Cindric the nod as the CB’s and Danaskos is the LB.
Midfielders - I have Zorbas and Doumanis as the 2 CM’s, one to sit back and the other one to go forward and help in attack. The attacking 3 is made of William Angel and Go Shirai on the wings, the behind the striker / no.10 role / 2nd striker role was a tough one and there were plenty to choose from but I went for Alex Smith.
Striker - Nobody has scored more goals for the club post NSL than Matthew Mayora and he scored a lot of his goals in what turned out to be poor sides, so he gets a start.

Grant Lee has done exceptionally well in his 2.5 years and took the club out of a dark place and lifted it back near the top. Milan Blagojevic did likewise in his 1 season as coach with the club. But Peter Tsekenis has to be the coach.



-----------------------------Henderson

Sorge----------Studman----------Cindric-----------Danaskos

-----------------------Zorbas---------Doumanis

Go----------------------------Smith-----------------------Angel

------------------------------Mayora

Friday 13 November 2015

Open For Speculation

Allow me to begin by stating that this week’s write-up is not a “club bashing” piece. I personally have respect for everyone who has ever put their hands in their own pockets to contribute to the on-going existence of this Great Club. Mistakes have been made along the way during nearly 60 years, but I will not waste everybody’s time trying to go through them all. Added to that, obviously the people in charge of the club right now, today, are not to blame for those past issues, and from what I understand they are trying hard to rectify those issues.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll get on with it.

Look we all hate South Melbourne, but if there’s one thing they do well, it’s the way they run their media department. It is slick, professional and second to none for any 2nd tier level football club, and to be honest, better than most A-league Franchises, If you compare that to Sydney Olympic currently, we’re a long way off that. Currently there seems to be a lot of nonsense being published, with most of it having nothing to do with the club.

We’re nearly half-way through November, and there has been very little from the club in the way of announcements; signings, departures, pre-season plans, answers to alleged board ructions, or any other news concerning the club. Included in this is the lack of any information forthcoming regarding the current situation surrounding Belmore, the situation regarding Tempe Reserve, not to mention the silence over the long overdue club AGM.

Supporters are reduced to having to hear bits and pieces 3rd and 4th hand, or having to read the blind stabs in the dark from people who attempt to write in the Greek newspapers. The problem is nobody knows exactly what’s going on. This is causing some anxiety among the supporters and is causing unrest. Nobody actually knows what is happening and as a result, supporters then go on wild goose chases, resort to conspiracy theories or have to listen to the gibberish from opposition supporters.

We saw last year a great club like Marconi reduced to a laughing stock, bordering on being irrelevant as a footballing entity, and have subsequently been relegated from the NSW Premier League (or NPL1 if you prefer). Now I’m not saying we will end up like Marconi, but it’s a slippery slope and it’s high time for some answers from the people running the club, starting with holding an AGM – ASAP.

For all anyone knows things could be all hunky-dory, but as stated, the lack of any information has many supporters on edge. The people running the club would be wise to rectify the situation.