State League Division Two 2010 Preview

It?s that time of the year again, when the studded boots come out of the closet, shin pads get tucked into long socks, and the best sport in the world begins! And what a hot football season awaits the 12 combatants in the 2010 NSW Division Two championship ? Bathurst ?75 Panthers, Belmore Hercules Fairfield Bulls, Gazy Lansvale, Hakoah, Hawkesbury City, Hurstville City, Luddenham United, Prospect United, Roosters FC, Springwood United and Fairfield Wanderers FC. The only trouble is, after hearing how the first grade coaches see the year ahead, how do you fit 12 teams into five finals places?
With division two pacemakers Camden and Gladesville elevated to division one, the gates have been left wide open for any of this year?s candidates to step up and take the title. And fingers were pointed all over the place as to where the competition?s top chances would be. Even by their own proclamation, Hurstville City will be a side to beat, but this air of confidence comes as no surprise to most of the other coaches, who had already rated the Minotaurs to be this year?s benchmark, alongside Hawkesbury and defending champions Wanderers. So how will season 2010 pan out? Here?s how the coaches see it:
BATHURST ?75 PANTHERS
Teams who have travelled over the Blue Mountains before to take on Bathurst ?75 Panthers know that claiming points is no certainty. Always a tough prospect on home turf, Bathurst?s success has plenty to do with its away performances, a geographical dilemma that head coach Mark Rooke doesn?t buy into.
?[After all this time] Bathurst is used to the travel side of things,? Rooke said. ?People have always said there is a huge home ground advantage for us, but I think it?s up to every team to bring a certain mindset with them to every game. I don?t read a lot into home and away games, if you?re good enough you will win. This year most of our games are on the western side of Sydney, so there won?t be very many big trips anyway.?
Rooke is Bathurst born and bred. He had a short stint with Sutherland as a player but found a more settling atmosphere back at home at Bathurst. Rooke said the club had been in a rebuilding phase for five years and, after just missing last year?s finals, he was optimistic about the season ahead.
?The township follows the club closely, but the hardest thing for us out here has been to maintain the senior element at the club, especially those who finish college and move on,? he said. ?[Over the last few years] we have been able to get young players back in place, and it has been encouraging to see some of the older players stay on and help out. The expectation at the start of every year is certainly to be playing semi final football at the end of the year. You have to keep that sort of enthusiasm going right throughout the year.?
Rooke tipped Hawkesbury as the competition?s frontrunners and rated Hurstville?s chances too. ?Going on what has transgressed so far, I think Hawkesbury will be the side to beat,? he said. ?Hurstville are also strong, Fairfield Bulls improved last year, and the likes of Prospect are always strong. The Roosters will be up there as well.?
BELMORE HERCULES
Belmore coach Ernesto Meduri doesn?t need much incentive to get going. Armed with a competitive nature, there is not much the former Italian policeman won?t take on. And coupled with the fact he has found a happy home at a rejuvenated Belmore Hercules, season 2010 could be a glittering one for Meduri and company.
Not surprisingly for an Italian, it was love that attracted Meduri to Australian shores. He met his wife-to-be in Rome and was living in Sydney as a 23-year-old with the world, and a football, at his feet. Meduri played a year in the NSL with Apia in 1983, and was a regular in Canterbury colours in the old state league.
He had his first taste of coaching not long afterwards and loved it. More recently, Meduri has enjoyed great success with division one outfit Inter Lions before being handed the reins at a Belmore club that was attempting to rise from the ashes of being broke just three years ago.
?It is a good club with many good people behind it, and good supporters,? Meduri said. ?It is a club that has played at a higher level before, but they have had to start in division two and work their way back up. There is a feeling at the club that we really belong in Super League, so our aims are set high; and for that reason, we must come first. I am a competitive person, and Belmore know this, so it won?t be hard to motivate the players.?
The fact Belmore belted division one club Balmain 4-2 last week shows just what the Hercules is capable of. It also underlines Meduri?s belief in achieving success this year, although he had little idea of what the other teams would produce in division two. ?Wanderers and Lansvale maybe? I don?t know,? he offered. ?I only concentrate on my team, and we will see who else is a good side as we play.?
FAIRFIELD BULLS
A pre-season recruitment blitz has fired up Fairfield Bulls ahead of the March 20 season start, and coach Michael Mamoo is happy with the way things have started. He rates this year?s side as slightly better than the team which beat both grand finalists Camden and Wanderers last year ? an achievement that more than whets Mamoo?s lips, particularly as Camden has been promoted to division one.
?No team was easy last year, so I was very happy to have the third best defence in such a tough competition,? he said. ?The club overall was very happy with the achievement. We suffered some mid-season injuries, but still managed to play well against strong sides.?
Mamoo is pretty young to have 20 years coaching experience under his belt, and he has travelled some distance since guiding Wetherill Park juniors at district level in the late1980s, including mentoring a young gun named Matthew Borg (a former Premier League Golden Boot winner). Mamoo progressed to the Bulls in 1992 and won division two premierships with its senior team to earn promotion to the first division. He was still playing and coaching Fairfield in the mid-1990s before moving to Mounties for a season.
The early coaching success prompted Mamoo to form a club that ended up taking over Glebe Wanderers and were then named Western Sydney Lions in state league division three. The team made the finals three years running and won the minor premiership in division two in 2001. Unfortunately, the club ran out of money and Mamoo left for the newly formed Western Rage. Mamoo was managing young kids and academies in the Hills District up until 2008 when a struggling Bulls club sent him an SOS to return to the Fairfield fold.
?They had had a couple of lean years, and I came in to start the clean-up process. I think they had finished last three years running, so it was always going to be a challenge,? he said. ?But I liked what the new committee was trying to do and we did quite well last year [finishing mid-table]. It?s still a new-look team, but we have some very experienced players like [goalkeeper] Khalid Kando, who I had coached previously at Bulls and Lions. [Ex-Super League player, Bonnyrigg and Bossy] Sargon Georges and Danny George will run the midfield, with Eddie Adam [from Hajduk], and we have a couple of young boys from Sydney Cedars, which folded last season, and some other young players who have stepped up into first grade.?
?I definitely think we?re a top-five side. The players are a lot more optimistic and confident than I am. I?m more realistic about it. We have got a side capable of reaching the finals. I don?t think any team is unbeatable and it will be a very strong competition. I think we will trouble all the teams in the comp. I think the likes of Roosters, from what I?ve seen, will be a tough side to beat, and maybe Hakoah will be there. Also I heard Lansvale Gazy have recruited well and will be a tough opponent. Hawkesbury, Prospect and Bathurst play physical style games and will also be tough teams.?
FC GAZY LANSVALE
Phil Pavela is the first coach to be congratulated in 2010, even without a ball being kicked. Pavela was in Tokyo last weekend to watch his son get married and will miss the opening round of the competition. But coaching Gazy Lansvale wasn?t even on the cards for Pavela at the end of last season. After laying a solid platform at Super League club Mount Druitt, the wily mentor was going to take it easy for a year before old friend and Gazy president Safet Alispahic approached him.
?I had known Safet for a long time, since my coaching days at Auburn Star years ago when he introduced himself to me,? he said. ?We?ve both been realistic in our plans for the club, but we are looking to move ahead. I?m under no pressure to win the competition this year, as we are working on a three-year program to build the club up.?
Pavela said he had been impressed with some of the club?s younger players, and was thrilled to have some good experienced players on the roster as well, but he was more buoyed by his team?s pre-season results. Lansvale beat division one outfits Hurstville ZSC and Mounties in the past fortnight, both hard-fought 3-2 victories.
?The players now know they will be competitive,? Pavela said. ?We finished just outside the finals last year, and the attendance at training this year has improved steadily. I would like to make the semis, and anything else is a bonus from there on. We are more than capable; if the players work hard and apply themselves we will do well, because there?s definitely the talent there.?
Coming from Super League, Pavela said he didn?t know what to expect from the other teams in division two, but he suggested Prospect and Roosters had traditionally been strong clubs.
HAKOAH
There?s no questioning the coaching pedigree of Hakoah chief Paul Watkins, who grew up at Greenacre and honed his football skills on the parks around Bankstown. He joined powerhouse club Melita as a 16-year-old and played one year in the NSL before seeing out the remainder of his career at premier league outfits Blacktown City, Bankstown Lions and Ryde City.
Watkins took a couple of years off before taking up a role as head coach at Brazilian soccer schools, and it wasn?t long before his talents had attracted the attention of an old playing mate, goalkeeper Andy Prentice, from their time together at Melita. Prentice asked if Watkins would be his assistant at Hakoah last year and this year he stepped up as first grade head coach.
It should be a less tumultuous 2010 for Hakoah, who missed almost half their squad last year during the running of the Jewish Maccabi Games. ?It was a bit of a shambles, to be honest, but I hope that makes the players hungry for this year,? Watkins said. ?We had a bit of a clean-out and a major restructure; there is a completely new board and committee, new home ground [including a new synthetic surface at Hensley Athletic Field], and only a few of the players stayed on ? fortunately, they included a few of the more experienced ones, which is good.?
The club also picked up the services of former Sydney FC midfielder Mark Robertson, but the pre-season buzz at Hakoah was tragically cut short when club stalwart and director of coaching Ian Gray died in late January. ?It was pretty hard to deal with when it first happened,? Watkins said. ?A lot of the players had grown up with him so we thought it?d be best to have a week off. There will be some sort of motivation there for most of the players [to win the competition on behalf of Ian].?
?I would imagine, from my experience and what I?ve seen, that we should perform pretty well and finish quite strongly as the players get to know each other. Definitely the potential is there, but we?re a little bit underdone at this stage.?
Watkins wasn?t sure who the title favourites would be this year. ?To be perfectly honest, I don?t know,? he said. ?Ryde and Camden were usually sure things, so it?s been pretty much opened up now that they?re gone. I couldn?t tell you who?s strong and who isn?t. Bathurst is hard to beat up there but how they travel is anyone?s guess. There are a few teams that may have a problem with the travelling throughout the year. The competition should be quite good; the standard is reasonably good, and club expectations are high.?
HAWKESBURY CITY SC
When you?ve spent some time working with football guru Brian ?Bomber? Brown you can be sure of establishing a good coaching platform. Hawkesbury City coach Gary Lewis spent six years as a manager with Brown at Blacktown City. They won a couple of premierships together, but they couldn?t crack the championship, and it?s the elusive title that?s helping to drive Lewis at Hawkesbury.
Lewis played in the NSW Masters indoor team and premier league at an association level before heading to Blacktown to coach their girls team. He set up SCA Sports Tours (Soccer Culture and Adventure) with Brown and, after its initial success, left the game to concentrate on the business.
 ?Surprisingly enough, the same year I left, Bomber went to Marconi,? Lewis said. ?[Hawkesbury president] David Bertenshaw had wanted me to coach up there for a while. I told him I was a Blacktown boy, but I spent a season helping him out. I knew he was keen to step back a hit and he asked me to take over two years ago ? and I thoroughly enjoyed it.?
The club lifted and, along with solid success in reserve grade, registered rousing victories over last year?s grand finalists Camden and Wanderers, a scenario that frustrated Lewis, whose team had suffered from a torrent of injuries and suspensions. He said he had spoken a lot about discipline to this year?s playing group and all bodes well for the season ahead.
?We?ve recruited well [such as stopper Tony Judge from Camden]. It?s hard to attract players to Hawkesbury because of our location, and I came here at a time when a lot of the senior players decided to retire and hang up the boots,? Lewis said. ?But we?ve had a lot of younger boys step up to first grade over the last two years and I think that maturity is starting to show.?
?I?d like to think we can be competitive this year. With a full team on the paddock, we are always going to be strong. The players are very excited. [In regards to the other teams] To be honest, I think the Roosters are always strong, and Hakoah are a solid outfit. The Wanderers are a bit of an unknown quantity after their off season, so it will be an interesting competition.?
HURSTVILLE CITY MINOTAURS
The first thing you notice about Hurstville City coach Peter Sarikakis when you speak to him is that he breathes footballs. You can actually hear them clatter against woodwork during the conservation. And, at a spritely 57 years of age and almost 40 years of coaching, Sarikakis ? affectionately known as ?The General? in football circles ? is showing no signs of slowing down either, as he leisurely and surely explains how Hurstville will win this year?s trophy and play in division one next year.
?It doesn?t matter what time of day or evening, if you want to talk anything about football, I will be available to you ? even if I?m in the shower,? he said. ?I will tell you how Hurstville is going to win the comp this year, and that we will be in first division. This year definitely, with the players I have got, we should win it. My aim is to be undefeated at the end of the season. Everybody knows Hurstville as being as Super League team, as being a powerful team, so they know it isn?t being over-confident ? it is a realistic aim.?
But even with silverware and promotion fixed firmly in his sights, Sarikakis knows his role as coach is more than just winning titles. He understands that, at this level, it is also about developing players. ?This is a good division for us as we can give a lot of young kids a chance in first grade. My love for football kept me away from doing silly things as a child, so I try to do the same for the young kids now, to keep them involved in football. To see them focused on their sport makes me happy. We see ourselves as part of a Minotaur family. I am happy for players to go to a higher division; that is what I am here for.?
Last year?s Charles Valentine Medal winner for his life-long involvement in the round ball game, Sarikakis arrived in Australia from Crete when he was 10 years old. In terms of football culture, he couldn?t have picked more polar opposites between two countries and wound up forging a solid playing career as a sweeper with premier leaguers Canterbury (the old Berries). He finished his playing days in the over-35 competition at St George, at 53 years old.
?Everyone plays football in Greece, but there wasn?t even any youth development in Australia when I came here. It was simply whatever we learnt in the parks. I played football as much as I could, even though I knew I would be in trouble for not helping out at my father?s shop. I had many broomsticks broken on my back. It was a lot different back then, but not so much now.?
Sarikakis actually started the Minotaurs club in 1985 as a team in a Sunday morning business competition. They then joined the state federation?s seventh division. Things got a bit hectic for Sarikakis when he also guided Grays Point to an undefeated year in the Sutherland competition in 1988, going on to win the champion of champions tournament, so he decided to concentrate his efforts with Hurstville and, by 1997, had managed to elevate the club to Super League ? mostly without money. His extensive football contacts also helped him secure a professional contract in Greece for one of his players.
With Hurstville locked in for first place in division two, Sarikakis had not given too much thought as to who would finish second. ?I don?t know,? he said. ?I have not seen enough games this year. I don?t fear anything. I have already promised the players we will go overseas with the winning money at the end of the year.?
LUDDENHAM UNITED
There?s always something a little suspicious about a coach who doesn?t want to give away too much, and it just might be that Luddenham United coach Andrew Montgomery is playing the ?don?t look at us? card. If so, he is doing a superb job at keeping his cards close to his chest and played down his team?s chances of winning this year.
Montgomery is actually a Mountains boy and played juniors at Springwood before a broken ankle saw him get involved more in coaching. After a stint with Emu Plains in the tough Nepean association, Montgomery was asked to take over at Luddenham.
?The expectation is to improve. They were getting belted before last year, so there is improvement and this year we will be aiming for a mid-table finish,? he said. ?I got in some players I know, but it is still going to be a tough season. There?s a long way to go.?
?When I took over the side it was always going to be a three-year plan, so it would be more realistic for us to make a leap towards a top-five spot next year. We will certainly give it a shot [this year], as you must always get in there and have a go. I believe Hurstville are talking up their own chances, so they would be the one to watch out for.?
PROPECT UNITED SC
It is little wonder why Prospect is rated a perennial finals candidate. The western Sydney operation is a popular destination for juniors who thrive in the club?s family environment and player involvement. That a proud club supporter wants to produce football cards of its senior players to give to the juniors is the sort of interaction that coach Brian Vella says will ensure Prospect remains at the top of the football tree.
?We ran a skills day [last weekend], run by our state league group, and 30 players turned up to help out. We have one of the best club websites which is managed by one of our enthusiastic supporters, and all this is typical of the club,? he said.
But it was plain luck how Vella found his way at Prospect, following 10 years playing for Wanderers/ Hajduk. ?I got this job by sheer fluke,? he said. ?My daughter was playing at the club, so they asked me to be part of the coaching staff. It was a very sharp learning curve. I took on a side that had finished last for a few seasons and we came seventh the next year. We were doing well but then we suffered from too much expectation and just fell over ourselves.?
?Fortunately, we have kept most of the troops from last year and added a few more quality players and hopefully we can go the next step. Although the [division two] competition has got better, we really want to get out of this division.?
?I think Wanderers will be team to beat this year, and Fairfield Bulls if they keep their discipline,? Vella said. ?We?re quietly confident. We have a stronger side than last year and if we keep the players healthy we should do alright.?
ROOSTERS FC
Roosters FC leader Juan Ortiz had seriously considered becoming a referee like his father, Juan Ortiz (senior), who refereed professionally in his home country of Chile, but a phone call from the Roosters late last year decided his future for him. A former state league player himself, Ortiz (junior) had always dabbled in coaching junior and indoor teams, however, this is his first year in charge of a first grade outfit.
?I?m excited; there?s nothing to be nervous about,? he said. ?I?ve just finished my coaching licence and got a lot out of it, so I?m looking forward to the challenge. My ambitions are to progress with my own coaching, and take the club to division one. They have been trying for so long to get there, and they have the playing roster to get to division one.?
?The structure is in place, and we were a lot smarter in our pre-season preparation this year. We made the mistake last year of starting our pre-season way too early and the boys were tired at the end of the year. We should be playing at our best after 6-7 rounds.?
Ortiz is adamant his side will take some beating this year, but didn?t want to overplay their chances. ?I?m not going to be a coach that says, yeah, we?re the team to beat. But every team will know they are playing against the Roosters. We are aiming to make the semis, and to finish first would be good for the club.?
?From what I?ve seen I think Hawkesbury are going to be strong,? he said. ?I?ve heard from everyone that Belmore have brought in players from left, right and centre, so they might be strong. Prospect should be up there. But I think Hakoah might be a dark horse. I saw Robbo [former Sydney FC midfielder Mark Robertson] playing there, so they might make the semi finals too.?

SPRINGWOOD UNITED SC
Errol Warwick-Day sees his rise through the coaching ranks ? as a dad-coach of under-7s 15 years ago to today?s state league position with Springwood United, the largest football club in the Blue Mountains ? as a slow progression. But he has done so at a club that has a strong emphasis on giving its juniors a pathway into senior football. It?s a grassroots approach that sits comfortably on his shoulders.
?I didn?t play much as a junior; my kids were starting to play 15 years ago, so I started coaching the under-7s ? it was a slow progression to where I am now,? he said. ?I still do a lot of grassroots work (at the association and youth representatives), but it has been made a lot better with increased support from the FFA [national body] and Football NSW. There has definitely been a lot of junior development over the last decade.?
Springwood have been in state league for quite a few years and lifted as far as first division a few years ago before settling in division two. Warwick-Day said being involved in state league acted as a carrot for the club?s young players. ?It gives our kids aspirations to play at a higher level,? he said. ?I would say the progression process is still in its early stages, but it?s a good position to be in.?
Warwick-Day wouldn?t offer a marker on his team?s performance this year. ?I don?t place any expectation on them other than to play good football,? he said. ?We have a large squad with good depth, which has created competition within the squad to compete for first grade places. With the depth we have got, hopefully we can carry through any injuries during the year. I?m hoping we can finish in the semi-finals.?
The Springwood mentor said any club in the competition that had good youth programs would be strong this year. ?I don?t have too much experience with the other teams, so it?s a hard question to answer. But clubs like Hakoah and Hurstville will probably trouble us, and I expect Bathurst to be pretty strong. It?s difficult to rate any team this early in the season. I really think it [the competition] is pretty wide open.?
FAIRFIELD WANDERERS
To think that Sydney football owes a bit to Argentina?s crippling economic woes of the 1990s speaks volumes about the contribution of Wanderers head coach Walter Alvarez. The well-travelled coach left Argentina in 1991 as a 29-year-old and has added his expertise to a multitude of clubs in the Sydney basin. He is one of the reasons why every coach is wary of the Fairfield Wanderers.
?The economic situation was very hard in Argentina, so I made up my mind to leave and went to the Australian embassy. It took two years to process the visa, but I can tell you it was well worth the wait ? 200 per cent,? Alvarez said. ?In Argentina, especially in the north where I am from, football is life, so you can?t compare it with Australia, but we are definitely getting there. I am very happy with how football has grown in the time I?ve been here. Today, you can watch football played all day long.?
It was a volcanic introduction to the Sydney scene for Alvarez, who signed up for Apia the first year he arrived but was injured during training. The next year Apia were dropped from the NSL to Super League, prompting Alvarez to move on to premier league outfits Dulwich Hill and Sutherland. In 1995 he took over Liverpool Jugo (now Bossy) as a player-coach but shifted to Rockdale a year later to work under Aussie legend Rale Rasic. Following further stints at Sutherland and Bankstown City (and a close association with Socceroo hero Manfred Schaeffer), it was time for a break.
But one year turned into six before Alvarez returned to the football paddocks ? and with great aplomb. In 2006, he played and coached and won state league division two with Gladesville United, and the next year was an assistant coach of a Penrith Nepean side that lost the premier league grand final on penalties to Manly. He started at the Wanderers in 2009 and also made the grand final.
?I have my own philosophy based on where my football comes from, and it is mixed with all the experience I have enjoyed from my career with all the great coaches in Australia and South America [on his last trip there, Alvarez caught up with Uruguayan national coach Oscar Tabarez],? he said.
?I set my goals high and when I do I stick to them until I get it. I wanted to win last year but didn?t expect us to because it was my first year there and I didn?t know many of the people there. You have to work hard at training, get the players in the right position, so there is a little bit of luck, but you need a little bit of luck to win any competition.?
?Of course the club was disappointed not to be promoted, especially for the players because they really believe we have the intention to be there [division one]. But we now move on and look forward to this year. The expectation on the players, I think, is to move further. We know each other and how far we can go; now it?s up to us to take it a step further.?
Alvarez said it was impossible to predict the competition?s stronger teams until halfway through the season.
2010 SEASON STARTS
Round one of the 2009 NSW Super League kicks off on Saturday, March 20, when Prospect host Gazy Lansvale at William Lawson Reserve (5pm kick-off) and Bathurst welcome Hawkesbury to Alec Lamberton Field (7pm start).
On Sunday, March 21, Belmore take on Hakoah at Blick Oval, Springwood travel to Luddenham Oval, Roosters and Fairfield meet in a mouth-watering clash at Knight Park, while Wanderers clash with top guns Hurstville at Parkes Reserve. All first grade games begin at 3pm.
Good luck to all teams? now, let the games begin.
-By Daniel de Nardi