The Time Has Arrived.

After a long off-season, an off-season that has seen many issues brought to the fore, both on and off the field, the season finally begins next weekend. And what a way to start the season, at the scene of our Finals elimination from last season, against our old rivals A.P.I.A Leichhardt, at Lambert Park. A.P.I.A. are tipped to be right up there again and challenging for silverware this season, so it is a tough early examination for our Sydney Olympic in the 1^st round of the season.

During the pre-season, we’ve had quite a few matches to get the cobwebs out, to test out and get our combinations right, to see who will be important for us going forward this season and to see who won’t be. Overall, it is very difficult to make bold predictions and statements about where we will finish this season based on pre-season form, so I won’t. But it is vital that we get off to the best possible start this season, instead of having to chase our tails going into the business end.

What cannot be denied is that we have lost a lot of quality players from last season and with that, plenty of experience has gone as well. This year it will be a more youthful looking Sydney Olympic. There are advantages and disadvantages in such a situation, but at the end of the day, no matter what the age or experience levels are, whoever is good enough to play should play. Everybody must move in the same direction, work together and put their best foot forward for this season. The Sydney Olympic jersey is a heavy one.

In our final pre-season game, the team travelled down to the A.C.T. to take on Canberra Olympic. In a tough fought contest, Harris Gaitatzis got the goal that would ultimately prove the difference just before half-time, the match finished in a 1-0 win for us, whilst in the 20’s we also played well and won that match 4-0. Everybody in the squad got a run, bar the injured boys.

Also this past week, the club inducted 3 more Legends into the Sydney Olympic Hall of Fame, they were; Graham Jennings, Chris Kalantzis, and Pablo Cardozo, all worthy inductees. We’ve been privileged to have had some of the greatest names in Australian Football play for the Blue and White and all three men have provided the supporters with plenty of great memories. Congratulations to all of them for the honour.

Sticking with the Hall of Fame theme, my view is that whenever it comes time to announce the next group of inductees, the club should go back into the club’s past and honour the likes of; Comino Omeros, Sotiris Patrinos, Jim Hatzis, John Karagiannis, George Yangou, Brian Smith, Tony Maglis, Richard Bell, Johnny Thompson and others from that era. Then later come back to the modern era if you will and induct the likes of Peter Raskopoulos, Gary Phillips, Tony Spyridakos, Marshall Soper, Mark Koussas and so on.

The Hall of Fame is a great initiative and there are many people who have been involved with the club who are worthy of such an honour. It’s a very tough task deciding who to put in next, but I hope the people who are involved in the process take notice of my suggestion to honour players from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. The club could even induct 2 from the Pan-Hellenic era and 2 from the Sydney Olympic era each Hall of Fame night, as an example.

So, another season is here, and it all kicks off again next Sunday afternoon against A.P.I.A Leichhardt at Lambert Park, kickoff is at 4:30pm. I hope to see as many Sydney Olympic Supporters out there.