Day: October 30, 2003

Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:00 AM

By Michael Tsoukalis

After a sterling performance against Newcastle United South return to Bob Jane Stadium to face the rejuvenated Marconi Stallions. Coached by NSL stalwart and former Marconi legend Jean Paul De Marigny the Stallions have made an impressive start to season 03/04.

Marconi kicked off their season with an undefeated run through their first 5 encounters; the Stallions however dropped their first game last week (25/10/03) against title favourites the Parramatta Power, going down by 2 goals to 1.

Marconi find themselves comfortably entrenched in the top 6 and coach De Marigny must be credited with managing to attract an impressive array of players back to the club. Winger Brendan Renaud has returned after a couple of seasons at Parramatta, Brad Maloney also makes a much-heralded return to Marconi Stadium after spells at both the Perth Glory as well as the Parramatta Power. Ex-Sydney Olympic striker Jeromy Harris has also made the move to Bossley Park.

Perhaps however, De Marigny biggest coup is the acquisition of Nick Carle, an exciting midfielder with a classy technique and an eye for goal. Carle returns after a spell in France and is looking to re-establish himself in the NSL in order to impress the national coaching staff.

Add these signings to an already impressive crop of established NSL-hardened players such as Angelo Costanzo, Dominic Longo, Luke Casserly, Chad Gibson, Joe Spiteri as well as exciting youngsters such as Shane Webb, Kevo Gulessarian and Alex Brosque (who will be missing due to commitments with the U20 national squad) and Marconi possess one of the strongest squads in this season’s competition.

Conversely South Melbourne are coming off yet another positive away result against Sydney United, the Lakesiders have conceded only 2 goals in their 5 encounters and hence possess the strongest defence in the competition. Worrying for South is the fact that their 8 goals have come from only 2 games, – the 0-4 victory against Wollongong and the 4-1 drubbing of Newcastle – Coach Munro will be eager for his charges to settle early and work at getting some goals on the board.

Young Socceroos Vince Lia and Massimo Murdocca will be missing due to national team commitments, however, their absence should allow for the first team return of Kristian Sarkies, the just turned 17 year old made a sparkling NSL and South Melbourne debut against Newcastle and will be eager to follow up his first performance with yet another solid display.

A win for South could see them overtake Marconi into third position; whilst a Marconi victory would see the Stallions consolidate a top 3 position and perhaps nudge into second place if Parramatta drops points.

Game: South Melbourne v Marconi Stallions
Date: Sunday 2 November 2003
Venue: Bob Jane Stadium
Kick-off: 7.30pm AET

HEAD TO HEAD (Overall):
Played: 52
South Melbourne: 19
Marconi wins: 22
Draws: 11

HEAD TO HEAD (at S’th Melbourne):
Played: 24 (Regular Season)
South Melbourne: 15
Marconi wins: 9
Draws: 0

Last Encounter:
Marconi 2-2 home draw (Round 23 – 21 February 2003)

LAST WEEK:
South Melbourne 0-0 away draw v Sydney United
Marconi 2-1 home loss v Parramatta Power

Position on Ladder: 5th v 3rd

SOUTH MELBOURNE SQUAD: E Galekovic (gk), M Panopoulos, A Kovacevic, M Stergiopoulos, M Curcija, C Boutsianis, S Tunbridge, V Coveny, S Poutakidis, S Storey, K Sarkies, S Laurie, P Trimboli, L Osman, M Theoklitos (gk)

IN: L Osman, M Panopoulos (both promoted)
OUT: V Lia, M Murdocca (both U-20 international duty)

MARCONI STALLIONS SQUAD: M Turnbull (gk), C Gibson, L Casserly, D Longo, A Costanzo, N Carle, G Last, B Renaud, E Anabalon, J Harris, J Spiteri, M Thwaite, T Brodie, S Webb, S Alogdellis (gk)

IN: S Webb, L Casserly (both back from injury), D Longo (back from suspension)
OUT: B Maloney (suspended – 2 matches plus tribunal hearing pending), A Brosque (U-20 international duty), K Gulesserian (long tem injured), D Severino (omitted), D McDonald (omitted)

Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:00 AM

South Melbourne joined forces with Australia’s International Rules team to promote this weekend’s sporting extravaganza. Captain Vaughan Coveny and Eugene Galekovic were joined by Australian Captain Shane Crawford and goalkeeper Glen Jackovich after Australia’s training session on the MCG last night. Vaughan and Eugene were happy to give the Australian players advice on kicking the round ball and wished them all the best for their Friday night game against the Irish.

As a special promotion for South’s Sunday night game versus Marconi, anyone who presents their Australia v Ireland International Rules ticket, Derby Day ticket or Australia v Ireland Rugby World Cup ticket can gain half price entry to Bob Jane Stadium. There will be drink specials all night and a large Irish contingent is expected.

Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:00 AM

“Fans urged to support club or miss out on new league”

The winds of major soccer reform in Australia threaten the existence of foundation NSL club South Melbourne. This is the stark message taken away by the club’s two most senior officials after they returned from an NSL meeting in Sydney yesterday.

Club President Peter Mitrakas and Chief Executive Mark Patterson returned from Sydney with this open and honest warning to the club’s supporters. “ There is a strong view in soccer that reform must be radical and teams will need to prove that it has the business and marketing ability to take the game forward” said Patterson.

“While we are very supportive of the reforms and excited about South’s potential involvement we have some major challenges to address. We must be clear there will be trade-offs for South Melbourne. The performance bar will be raised higher than ever and as a club we must raise the bar in ever area of our operation, if we are to be serious contenders” Patterson said. Crowd levels and the contribution that the fans make to the club will no doubt be a key consideration for the NSL task force.

A critical area of performance will be the ability of the club to attract its fans to games. The objective is to get back to the crowd levels of 10,000 and more that were a feature of South’s matches in the past.

Unfortunately many fans are under the misapprehension this season means little to soccer because of the reform however that could not be further from reality in particular because the winner of the championship this year will most likely participate in the FIFA World Club Championships in 2005.

South Melbourne is a foundation member of the National League, however it is clear to South’s top men that this alone will not assure the club entry into the new competition, and the it will be the fans of South who also need to understand the influence they will have as to whether the club will continue in the country’s top competition or not. “Our ability to attract crowds over the next few weeks will send a very clear message to the powers that be as to whether South Melbourne are serious contenders or not and we need to attract sustainable fans and membership support“ said Mitrakis.

So far this season South has attracted only average support, which is worrying to the club as it is very keen to push for participation at the top level.

The NSL task force will report its findings to the Australian Soccer Association Board on 1st December.

The new league will be a new and totally different competition and probably unrecognisable to the existing NSL. “We are not talking about modifications to the old competition, we are talking about major and wholesale changes to the face of national soccer in this country” Patterson said.

South Melbourne’s fans must now show strength in numbers at home games or be prepared for its club to simply accept that it is not good enough to participate at the highest level. There are no guarantees of a reform league membership for any of the existing clubs and South Melbourne is no exception.

Sunday evenings clash with one of the leading teams Marconi has been the talking point in soccer for different reasons this week after an incident packed match last week in Sydney. A poor crowd will not be a good sign for South Melbourne’s future in the reformed league.

“We want to embrace change and be positive but we want the fans to show us that they are serious about wanting us to represent their soccer interests. We are playing good, exciting and positive soccer and we are asking the fans to back the team and the club by putting bums on seats” said Patterson

All indications are that the new reformed league will be operational for next year.