Category: News

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 11:56 AM

In a first for the Victorian Premier League, Hume City will host South Melbourne FC on Saturday April 25th for the Anzac Day Cup.

Anzac Day is a very important day for the Australian community, symbolising the anniversary of the first major military action fought by members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.

The day is considered to be one of the most sacred and spiritual days on the Australian calendar, with a public holiday being observed to honour those heroic Australians who risked all, and sacrificed so much.  

With this in mind, Anzac Day has been a day that has also seen our diggers honoured through sport, with the AFL playing the Collingwood – Essendon blockbuster on the day every year.

In what now will be a milestone for Victorian Football, both South Melbourne FC and Hume City will have the opportunity to represent the World Game in Australia on such a proud and historic day.

With Hume City being a club with Turkish decent and South Melbourne FC remaining the most successful Australian football club, the contest will provide the ideal method to honour the diggers through football on this special day.

 South Melbourne FC Director Dr. George Triantos was excited about the opportunity to play in such a historic game:

“South Melbourne FC is delighted to be participating in this wonderful sporting opportunity to commemorate and honour the sacrifices of our troops. We urge all SMFC members and all Victorian football fans in general to support this initiative, and attend the ANZAC Day Cup”.said Dr Triantos

The game will kick off at the newly developed Broadmeadows Valley Park at 3.30pm, with the Anzac Day ceremony commencing at 3pm.

All South fans are encouraged to attend in an attempt, not only to make this a special day in Victorian Football, but to also get behind our team in a crunch game for 2009.

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 10:47 AM

South Melbourne WFC has been defeated by arch rivals Heidelberg United in Round 1 of the Women’s Premer League season on Tuesday night.

In what was a unique way to start the season, all opening round matches were played at the Darebin International Sports Complex in Northcote, with all Premier League clubs required to either play on the Tuesday or Wednesday night.

Heidelberg entered the season coming of a bitter Grand Final loss in 2008 against Box Hill Inter and were regarded as one of the premiership favourites entering the contest.

South however entered the contest coming off a disappointing 2008 season, where the club struggled throughout and subsequently missed out on finals action.The game between South and Heidelberg was the marquee match up of the round, with the Bergers beating South in the Hellenic Cup pre-season tournament final in February.

The first half started in a typical round 1 style, with both clubs very timid in the early stages and not really mustering any significant chances. The deadlock was broken however late in the first half by Heidelberg’s Melanie Camilleri, who managed to slam home the ball from close range, despite South’s goalkeeper getting a hand on the shot.

This was to be the only goal of the game despite South’s efforts to continually push forward in the 2nd half and try and grab an equaliser at every opportunity.

Despite the loss South will head into the Round 2 contest on Sunday against Box Hill Inter confident that it can match it with the powerful teams of the competition. The game will kick-off at Bob Jane Stadium at 1pm.

In the reserves curtain-raiser, South came back from a goal down to draw with Heidelberg 1-1.

Wednesday, 15 April 2009 9:35 AM

By John Kyrou

South Melbourne FC travels to Green Gully Reserve on Saturday to take on fifth-placed Green Gully in what is shaping up as a very important match for the club. With Oakleigh and Richmond drawing 1-1 in their round 7 match on Easter Monday, an away victory for South will secure third spot in the league and possibly even second depending on Heidelberg’s result against the Melbourne Knights on Monday.

A positive result is also vitally important because should he play, captain Rama Tavsancioglu will celebrate his 100th league game for the club, a milestone only 36 other players have reached since South entered the National Soccer League in 1977. There will be another milestone broken should Vaughan Coveny score, as he is one goal off 100 league goals for South Melbourne FC over a 12 season career in both the NSL and the Victorian Premier League.

Despite the forthcoming milestones, the home side will no doubt make South’s task as hard as possible to achieve. History shows that South has not beaten Gully away in a league match since round 21 of the 1986 NSL season. On that September day, a goal each from Bobby Russell and Manny Anezakis led South to a 0-2 win. This means that South has not beaten Gully away in nearly 23 years. Since resuming in the VPL in 2005, South has picked up only one draw from 5 matches at Green Gully Reserve and lost the rest. To make matters worse, South has failed to score there in all five matches. With Gully only one place below South in the league standings heading into this fixture, there is no doubt that the away side will face a tough opponent. In the corresponding fixture last season, South had a bucketload of chances but could not stop Gully from winning 1-0.

While the above facts seem daunting, South can go into the fixture full of confidence after winning four games in a row, with the last result being a comprehensive 3-0 belting of ladder leaders Richmond at Bob Jane Stadium. Speaking afterwards, coach Michael Michalakopoulos was not fazed about Saturday’s trip, mentioning that “my job and the players’ job is to make sure statistics like the Gully one are erased and we are looking forward to doing that.” With Coveny motivated to score his ton and Goran Zoric on fire up forward (six goals in 6 games has him as the league’s leading goal scorer), South probably has its best chance yet of breaking the hoodoo on Saturday.

Gully heads into the match on the back of its first defeat of the season against Altona Magic. However prior to this the Cavaliers won 4 of their opening 5 matches and did not concede a goal in the process. This set a record as Gully became the first team to go through the opening five rounds without conceding since the Victorian State League was renamed the Victorian Premier League in 1991. Gully has a very strong team, with players such as Steven Tilovski, Joel Nikolic, Andy Vargas, Kole Delev, Jeffrey Fleming and Pablo Cardozo all capable of destroying South. Cardozo in particular will need to be monitored closely. Despite only netting once this season, he hit 21 goals from 23 matches last season for Richmond.

Saturday’s match will kick off at 4pm. All South supporters are encouraged to make the trip to Keilor Downs to support the team whilst potentially celebrating Rama’s 100th match and Coveny’s 100th league goal for the club.

Monday, 13 April 2009 10:51 AM

By John Kyrou

At the 2009 South Melbourne FC season launch, Rama Tavsancioglu mentioned wanting to become one of the SMFC greats. “I want to be the next Paul Trimboli” said the newly-appointed club captain. If fit and available for the match against Green Gully at Green Gully Reserve on Saturday afternoon, the inspirational Rama will join an elite group of players – Trimboli included – that have represented the most successful Australian football club 100 times in the National Soccer League/Victorian Premier League.

‘Rama’ as he is affectionately known, was brought to the club by former coach John Anastasiadis in 2005, South’s first year back in the VPL. Although only 20 years of age when he made his debut against Frankston, Rama made an immediate impact by cementing his place in a side that achieved a surprise Preliminary Finals appearance. The supporters recognised Rama’s efforts by naming him the Under 21 Player of the Year. The following season, Rama’s passion and dashing defensive runs were instrumental in helping South to finish third in the regular season before going on to win the club’s eighth VPL championship.

Rama celebrated the opening of the 2007 season by being part of the Hellenic Cup triumph against Oakleigh, before reaching his 50th match for the club in the 3-3 home draw against Heidelberg. Even though South did not qualify for the finals in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Rama continued to prove to be one of the side’s most valuable assets. He even chipped in with two memorable goals – the first a rocket against Whittlesea Zebras at Epping Stadium (3-2 loss) and the second a memorable run and low finish at the near post against Oakleigh at Bob Jane Stadium (5-2 win).

Rama’s efforts did not go unnoticed entering this season, as senior coach Michael Michalakopoulos rewarded him for his loyalty by naming him as captain of the club in its 50th year anniversary. He has already lifted one trophy as captain, as South won the pre-season Hellenic Cup competition. Rama becomes the 37th player to reach the 100 game milestone for South since 1977 when the club entered the NSL.

Rama Tavsancioglu – SMFC Statistics:

• DOB 7th June 1984
• Debut v Frankston Pines (round 3, 2005 @ Monterey Reserve, 1-2 win)
• 2005 Clarendon Corner Under 21 Most Valuable Player of the Year
• Member of the 2006 VPL championship team
• Member of the 2007 Hellenic Cup championship team
• 50th match v Heidelberg (round 1, 2006 @ Bob Jane Stadium, 3-3 draw)
• 2008 Clarendon Corner Most Valuable Player of the Year
• Captain of the 2009 Hellenic Cup championship team
• 2009 Club Captain

Season Breakdown:
2005 – 26 games (25 starts, 1 sub), 2 goals
2006 – 23 games (23 starts, 0 subs), 1 goal
2007 – 24 games (23 starts, 1 sub), 2 goals
2008 – 21 games (21 starts, 0 subs)
2009 – 5 games (5 starts, 0 subs)
Total – 99 games (97 starts, 2 subs), 5 goals

Monday, 6 April 2009 9:23 AM

South Melbourne has made it four wins in a row after trouncing the top placed Richmond in a one sided match on Sunday at Bob Jane Stadium.

With Richmond undefeated in 2009, they approached the game against the in-form Blues as warm favourites, with South having played on the unusual day of Tuesday night against Whittlesea in the lead up to the match.

It was the home side that came out of the blocks running, with Goran Zoric and Vaughan Coveny combining early to create a half chance early on. With the keeper to beat, Zoric hit a timid drive into the arms of the prying Peter Zois.

South however did find the net in the 26th minute. A wonderful sweeping move forward culminated in the ball finding the South wingback Rhodri Payne on the left hand side of the area. Payne then launched a wonderful swinging ball into the area and onto the head of Joseph Youssef, who nodded the ball past the hapless Zois.

South continued to dominate the game and possession in the remaining minutes of the half, though to the frustration of the coach, the final ball was continually letting down the hard work of his side further up the park.

It was also the case with Richmond, who could not muster any chance of note to respond to the South Melbourne goal.

This however changed in the second half when the home side came out like a house on fire.

In the first five minutes of the half both Zoric and Coveny missed chances from just outside the area, with both players opting to try and beat Zois from long range. Also on both occasions the ball flew well wide of the target.

South continued to pepper the Richmond goal and should have had a second goal in the 57th minute when a mazy run by Zoric concluded in the diminutive attacking player playing a sublime square ball into the path of the wide  open Sebastian Petrovic. With the keeper to beat, Petrovic slammed the ball over the bar from just inside the area.
The Blues were finally rewarded in the 62nd minute after some delightful work in the midfield allowed for Coveny to find the ball in acres of space just outside the area. With the Richmond defence unwilling to close down the veteran, he opted to hit a steaming 30 metre pile driver at the goal. With the keeper helpless, the ball sailed over the top of him, before sensationally dipping below the bar to smash into the back of the net in what will be one of the goal of the year contenders.

With Coveny now on 99 career goals at South Melbourne, he was intent on trying to claim his 100th career goal for the club. He came agonisingly close in the 66th minute, when he launched a free kick from just outside the area inches wide of the target.

The 282 game veteran continued to torment the Richmond defence at every opportunity and in the 65th minute he was once again released by Youssef down the right hand side of attack. With the defence backtracking, Coveny hit a hard shot toward goal, only for the ball to be deflected out for a corner. From the resulting corner, Zoric hit a well placed cross to the back post to which Coveny managed to header into the upright and away for a goal-kick.

In the 77th minute, the man known as the “Horse” was seemingly on track to finally break the milestone after a lovely ball by young Sam Torrens found its way into the path of Coveny. With the ball bouncing in the area and no Richmond defender able to track him down, Coveny then launched a chipped attempt on target, only for the ball to be caught by Zois, who could not believe that the veteran had not managed to lob his shot over the top of him and into the back of the net.

With the veteran in scintillating form, he was substituted in the 80th minute to the applause of the boisterous and fanatical South Melbourne faithful, who were appreciative of his man of the match performance.

With Richmond merely trying to contain a rampant South attack, they launched a half effort on goal in the 81st minute through Richard Cardozo, who tried to score from well outside the area. With no real power behind the goal, Tommi Tomich was able to catch the ball without any real concern.

South closed off the comprehensive victory in the 84th minute when some lovely interplay by Zoric and De Nittis on the half way line concluded with De Nittis playing a well weighted ball past the stagnant defence and into the path of speedy Zoric. With only Zois to beat, Zoric tucked the ball onto the right side of the keeper to score his 6th goal of the season in as many games.

South will have a two week break before playing Green Gully in two weeks time at Green Gully reserve. 

SMFC 3 (Youssef, Coveny, Zoric)
Richmond 0

SMFC Line-up
Tommi Tomich, Shane Nunes, Rhodri Payne, Steven O’Dor, Eddie Cetkin, Vaughan Coveny, Joseph Youssef, Rama Tavsancioglu, Fernando De Moraes, Goran Zoric, Sebastian Petrovic

Richmond Line-up
Peter Zois, Danny Black, Erhan Karahan, Terry Antoniadis, Stuart McCluskey, Dimitri Tsiaris, Richie Cardozo, Nick Kalambokis, Lorenz Kindtner, Nick Robinson, Andrew Viola

Thursday, 2 April 2009 11:50 AM

 

 Click here to download application form (PDF – 150kb)

 

Thursday, 2 April 2009 10:44 AM

By John Kyrou

South Melbourne FC will host the Richmond Eagles on Sunday in arguably the match of round 6 in the Victorian Premier League. The high-flying Eagles will travel to Bob Jane Stadium to face a red-hot South that has won three matches in a row.

Along with newly-promoted Dandenong Thunder, Richmond has started season 2009 in outstanding form and will enter Sunday’s contest as deserved league leaders. The Eagles have been undefeated in their opening five matches, with four wins and a draw to show for their efforts. The most recent result was a 5-1 hammering of the Preston Lions at Kevin Bartlett Reserve that nearly made history for the Eagles. Had Blaze Georgioski not scored a consolation goal for the Lions in the 90th minute, the Eagles would have joined Green Gully in being the only teams to record 5 clean sheets in the opening five rounds of the season since the old Victorian State League was re-named the Victorian Premier League in 1991.

In contrast, South cannot stop leaking goals, conceding a single goal in every one of its 5 games in 2009. However, the Blues cannot stop scoring at the other end as well, as evidenced in the last three rounds with 12 goals in 3 games. As a result, South are the highest goal scorers after 5 rounds but more importantly the team has consolidated fifth spot in the league. A win on Sunday can potentially lift South into third spot, making the match very important for the home side heading into the Easter break. The 1-3 victory against Whittlesea Zebras on Tuesday night was the perfect result in the lead-up for Sunday’s game. The ever-dangerous Goran Zoric’s opening goal against the Zebras meant he now joins Heidelberg’s Osagie Ederaro at the top of the individual goal scoring charts with 5 goals from 5 games.

For statistics lovers, the home side will go into the match with several milestones on the verge of being broken. If selected, captain Rama Tavsancioglu will make his 99th senior appearance for the club, with Futsalroo Fernando De Moraes just behind on 96 appearances. Former Kiwi international and South legend Vaughan Coveny will break 100 league goals for South if he can find the back of the net twice against Richmond, while five goals from the home side will bring up 400 South Melbourne goals at Bob Jane Stadium in 195 matches at the venue.

Richmond has been a difficult opponent for South since they were promoted into the VPL in 2006. Though South has won four of the six encounters between the two, it has always been by a single goal. Richmond has managed to taste victory at Bob Jane Stadium, winning the 2007 encounter 0-1 after ex-South goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak spilt a low cross to allow Steven Burton to score the winning goal. In the corresponding fixture last season, a 48th minute Gianni De Nittis goal was enough to give lowly South a confidence-boosting 1-0 win over an in-form Richmond side.

The match kicks off at 4pm on Sunday at Bob Jane Stadium. South supporters are strongly encouraged to attend and lend their valued support to the home team in its quest to beat the league leaders and consolidate the club’s position in the top five.

Wednesday, 1 April 2009 1:47 PM

South Melbourne has made it three wins in a row after defeating Whittlesea at Bob Jane Stadium on Tuesday night by 3 goals to 1.

The game was switched to Bob Jane Stadium after the Zebras were unable to host the match at Epping Stadium the night before. Despite the venue, the game was a designated Whittlesea home fixture.

The game started in a timid manner with both sides really struggling throughout the early stages to muster any meaningful chance on goal.

South however started to gain some ascendancy and through pocket rocket Goran Zoric, the lakeside club were nearly ahead after 10 minutes. A neat ball by Coveny allowed for Zoric to find himself in range just outside the area. With a non-committal Ross Antoniadis watching on, Zoric hit a curling shot into the prying arms of goalkeeper Kenny Gerohristodoulou.

South continued to come forward in waves and were thwarted twice more by Gerohristodoulou, who was starting to be the busiest player on the park given the South Melbourne dominance.

The Blues gained the 1-0 advantage after some sublime footwork by Coveny saw the veteran dart past a few defenders before playing an exceptional ball into the path of the well positioned Zoric just inside the area. The quick midfielder then calmly slotted the ball past the keeper to give his side the advantage, whilst also making himself the leading goal scorer in the competition after scoring his 5th goal in as many games.

It however was Whittlesea who would get the next goal of the match against the run of play. Some unsure South defending allowed for the ball to find the open Brandon Vassallo who brilliantly volleyed the ball past the helpless Tommi Tomich.

South had the final chance of an eventful first half in the dying moments of the period. A free kick was awarded after a brilliant solo run by Rama Tavsancioglu was cut short just outside the area. From the resultant free kick, Fernando De Moraes hit a wonderful curling shot into the left hand upright.

The second half started off in a similar way to the first half, with South coming out of the tunnel as the more attacking of the two sides, with half chances falling to Zoric and Coveny, who were both unable to bury them home.

Whittlesea also had some half chances in the opening 15 minutes of the half, with Edemer Garcia becomming a problem for the South defence, placing two timid chances into the arms of Tomich in the South goal.

It was South however who would strike first in the second half after a wonderful cross by Goran Zoric found Gianni De Nittis inside the area. Similar to his finish in the 2006 VPL Grand Final, De Nittis buried his header into the back of the net to give his side a one goal advantage once again.

South were dominating proceedings and some wonderful goalkeeping by Gerohristodoulou once again denied South from increasing their advantage. On this occasion he was able to acrobatically deny both Coveny and Fernando, who both managed to steer efforts from just outside the area onto the target.

With the Zebras on the back foot, South managed to grab the vital goal to close off the game. Some brilliant footwork by Brazilian maestro Fernando saw the midfielder slice his way past three Zebras defenders before slamming the ball over the sliding keeper.

South should have had another goal only moments later when Zoric was released into wide open space behind the stagnant Zebras defence. With only the keeper ahead of him, Zoric darted into the area and hit a low shot onto the target. With South fans already celebrating the goal thinking that Zoric had buried the ball into the bottom corner, goalkeeper Gerohristodoulou produced a remarkable point blank save to turn the shot around the post for a corner.

South was running rampant and closed the contest off by missing a host of chances in the final 5 minutes, with Nic Curtis coming closest by driving his shot over the bar.

However South could be pleased with a resounding 3-1 victory ahead of a very tough game against the league leading Richmond Eagles on Sunday. Kick-off for this vital game is at 4pm and all South members and fans are urged to make their way to lakeside and support the team as they push up the table.

Tuesday, 31 March 2009 12:34 PM

Last weekend Central U14 Boy’s were crowned Champions in the inaugural season of the FFV Summer League Victorian Championship.

Competing against representative teams from Metro and Country zones through-out Victoria they swept all before them in their age group and finished victorious in their Grand Final against North West, 2-1. Truly a wonderful team performance, not only in the Grand Final but through-out the Summer League season.

The squad of 19 was made up of 12 South Melbourne U14 Super League players. This South U14 SL team has had a lot of success finishing undefeated last year in the U13 SE SL and winning the Play off Championship against Essendon Royals. Now Central which was predominately made up of our club has beaten the best Representative teams in Victoria, a feat not to go unnoticed.

Congratulations to the South Melbourne boys: Peter Skapetis, Philip Petreski. James Karvelis, Carl Tai, Erdem Ozcagli, Bradley Blumenthal, Jonathon Parra, Chris Therios, Michael Afanassiev, Harrison Michaelis, Jeremy Minfa, and Gareth Jones (GK). Co-captains for the Grand Final were Peter Skapetis & Philip Petreski.

A special mention to the Central U14’s coach Boyan Mitkov who steered the boy’s to victory. Boyan has been a successful South Melbourne Coach for many years now and not only has his own South team’s trophies in his cabinet but also the Victorian Summer League U14 crown as well. Thank-you also to John Vafiadis who assisted Boyan with the team and Noula Skapetis who was Team Manager.

We wish all the South boys every success for season 2009.

Monday, 30 March 2009 9:37 AM

The Whittlesea Zebras will host South Melbourne at Bob Jane Stadium on Tuesday night.

With the Zebras finding themselves in uncertainty regarding the availability of their usual home ground of Epping Stadium, an agreement was reached late in the week between the two clubs and Football Federation Victoria to play the match at Lakeside.

The teams will come into the game in contrasting form. Whittlesea have opened the 2009 season with four straight losses and without scoring a single goal. In contrast, South have won their last two encounters against rivals Preston and Melbourne Knights, scoring 9 goals in the process.

If the Zebras are to trouble South they will need to take the game to them from the outset. In a stadium and environment that the South players are used to, it is vital for the Zebras to gain the early ascendancy in order to silence the parochial South fans.

To do this, their experienced players really need to step up, including Josip Kozic, Terry Antoniadis and Steve Martin. All three face the tough task in instilling belief and confidence into the struggling squad. Former South striker Tex Apostolikas will be looking to provide his side with their first goal of the 2009 campaign. To do this he must be ready to convert any opportunities that come his way.

The main factor in South’s great form in the last few weeks has been the supremacy throughout the midfield, with both Joseph Youssef and Sebastian Petrovic dominating, whilst the flamboyant Fernando De Moraes has rediscovered his form, as well as chipping in with a goal last week against the Knights.

In attack, South will rely on the veteran Kiwi Vaughan Coveny, who with Goran Zoric provides South with one of the most dangerous and potent attacking partnerships in the competition. The duo have scored a combined total of 5 goals in the past two weeks and Coveny is just two goals shy of 100 league goals for South, with his 98th coming in last weekend’s 2-1 win over the Knights.

Kick-off on Tuesday is at 8.30pm, with South fans needing to purchase a ticket for the contest as South is the away side even though the match is at Bob Jane Stadium. Whittlesea members will have the same entry entitlements as per their membership