Day: December 20, 2013

Photo by Kostas Deves

South Melbourne FC is delighted to announce that it has entered into a partnership with Alphington Grammar to develop an educative training schedule, which provides a comprehensive and fully supervised football program. This program will be open to Alphington Grammar students only, and will promote excellence, maturity, and success in all facets of the students’ development.

The program will aim to deliver high performance, technically and tactically proficient junior football players with improved personal match performance. Participants will be monitored, mentored, and assessed by the Club Youth Development Coaches. The Program will run for 30 weeks during the academic year and will be open students enrolled in Years 7 to 12.

Speaking to smfc.com.au, SMFC Youth Development Director Andrew Mesourouni said “we are quite excited to launch our partnership with Alphington Grammar in establishing the Football Program, which will further strengthen the sporting curriculum of the school. This will provide students with an opportunity to enrol in an intensive skills and tactical program that will play a role in the school offering a sporting and academic balanced environment”.

Dr Vivianne Nikou, Principal of Alphington Grammar School told smfc.com.au “this new initiative would now see young girls and boys take their skill development to the next level and having access to such an elite training program would further enhance the students social, emotional and cognitive abilities within a supportive learning environment that understands the needs for students to have broad skills and attributes if they wish to better prepare for the future.”

President of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria, Bill Papastergiadis also speaking to smfc.com.au said “the football program implemented with SMFC coupled with the recent outstanding VCE results at Alphington, create a real and defined point of difference for the school. Alphington Grammar will be in a position to offer excellent academic and sporting opportunities to students. Such specialist football training will set Alphington apart from its school competitors.”

The advanced Football Program will commence in March 2014. For all enquiries, please contact Alphington Grammar on 9497 4777.

South Melbourne FC is pleased to advise that Dimi Tsiaras, Tim Mala and Nick Epifano have all re-committed to the Club for the 2014 season.

Dimi Tsiaras arrived at Lakeside Stadium from the Richmond Eagles for the beginning of the 2012 Victorian Premier League season. The defensive midfielder has since represented South Melbourne FC on 31 occasions in both League and Dockerty Cup matches, scoring one goal in the process. Although he only made nine senior appearances in 2013 largely due to a nasty injury sustained against Green Gully on Sunday 7 July, Dimi has shown faith not only in Coach Chris Taylor but also in the Club by extending his stay at Lakeside Stadium.

Tim Mala arrived at the Club from Dandenong Thunder in the 2013 mid-season transfer window. The right-back made 12 appearances for South in the second half of the season and played his part in South’s rise from mid-table mediocrity to an eventual Preliminary Final finish.

Like Mala, Nick Epifano also joined South from Dandenong Thunder in the mid-season transfer window. The left-sided midfielder made 13 appearances and scored three goals for his new Club, with his debut goal coming against the Bentleigh Greens at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday 21 July.

Speaking to smfc.com.au, SMFC Football Director Nicholas Maikousis said “we are quite excited to commence announcing the re-signing of a number of our existing players. All three players were required by Chris Taylor, and we are looking for a big season from the boys in 2014. We have been working very hard in the off season to further strengthen the squad, and we will be making further announcements of new player signings shortly.”