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