State League Two 2014 Season Preview
The 2014 Football NSW State League 2 competition is shaping up as an absolute belter, albeit with a slightly smaller shape.
This year’s nine-team contest features a rejuvenated Hurstville FC and Hurstville City Minotaurs, rebranded Rydalmere FC Lions, more-prepared Enfield Rovers, relegated SL1 stalwart Prospect United, plus Southern Bulls, Western Condors, University of NSW and Southern Branch (representing NSW South Coast, Southern Highlands and Tablelands) to round out a tight-knit field.
Three Saturday evening games kickstart the season proper on April 5 as Southern Bulls host Southern Branch at Ernie Smith Reserve, Hurstville City Minotaurs welcome Western Condors to St George Stadium, and Prospect United play Enfield Rovers at William Lawson Park, while many eyes will be locked onto the Sunday afternoon sizzler (April 6) between Rydalmere Lions and Hurstville FC.
This year’s title race will again be hotly contested as clubs seek to stake their claims for a higher division seating. Here’s how the coaches see it:
Enfield Rovers
If Enfield Rovers can emulate how they performed in the second half of last season they’ll go a long way to proving their state league two mantle.
On games played in the last 11 weeks of the competition Enfield was third-best performer, turning the state league debutants from easybeats into heartbreakers as they sank the finals hopes of rival teams.
They lost a few players over summer but returned coach Andrew Montgomery was keen for a better start to what remains a progressive build for the fledgling club, which includes finding a more permanent home with Pratten Park ruled out.
“It will be a development year for us. We lost a lot of vital players from last season and brought in some younger kids to replace them and our main aim is to turn them into good players in the future,” he said.
“I think our first goal has to be a mid-table finish, anything above that is a bonus. The club has given us the time to develop the team… making the finals might be a bridge too far this season but next year onward we should put in a good challenge, we’re probably just a few players short at the moment.
“I hope we can gel together and have a solid finish but certainly with no expectation. If it was a horse race the form guide would read: ‘Others look better’.”
Those others included the big three: “I think Lions were outstanding last year and will be difficult to beat especially with the big budget behind them. Bulls would have high expectations to demolish all teams in their way like a juggernaut, and if one team’s ever going to go through undefeated it will be Minotaurs,” he said. “This season, with fewer teams, it’s more important than ever to get off to a good start.”
Hurstville City Minotaurs
Premiers
Div 1: 1997
Div 2: 2007 (southern)
Hurstville City Minotaurs are one of state league’s most perennial performers and you can bet they’ll want to make immediate amends for such a checkered 2013 winter.
Sharing iconic St George Stadium with rivals Hurstville FC will make weekends busy in that part of hood and charismatic coach Peter Sarikakis doesn’t need an invitation to stir the pot.
“We’re the team to beat! I’ve got players come out of my nose, my ears, all good players, it’s incredible…” he steamrolled tongue in cheek. “No, we’re looking okay. I’m not really happy it’s only a nine team comp as division two has always been a strong competition, but that’s not for me to decide and we just have to do what we do best and play good football.”
In the Minotaurs ranks this year is former player Peter Papouthis as assistant coach, and prolific striker Paul Paras who comes across from Belmore. It may just prove the remedy to last year’s goalscoring troubles.
“Paul is a very good worker and comes into an environment where the players are all keen to do well. Tony Basha’s group Rydalmere and Southern Bulls are probably the two teams to beat but there’s no excuses for us; we have players fighting for positions and we’ve been training quite well, so I’m quietly confident we’ll do well this year,” said Sarikakis, who also noted the battlefield state league two provides to instill club strength.
“We’re a proud club. We started from the bottom and had to win to gain promotion and we’ve won many trophies along the way. Just like us, Stanmore and Dulwich Hill started at the bottom so you can see why state league two is very important to create strong clubs, even just to make sure kids don’t go to other sports. Not many division two clubs have a junior base, but you must have a way for 15-16 years old kids to eventually make their way into an under 20 or first grade side.”
Hurstville FC
Hurstville FC have plenty to play for as they enter a new state league two season as evident title contenders again, and there’s plenty to make up for following last winter’s disastrous run home saw the early competition leaders miss the finals altogether.
Hurstville won just two of its last 13 games to slip from the top of the ladder to eighth – and coach Steve Zoric is adamant that won’t happen again.
“We’ve recruited a hell of a lot of players, many from Uni of NSW as everyone knows, and we’ve also got a gun from Sydney United’s under-20s… but I also kept the talented young boys from last year and it’s coming together slowly, but nicely,” he said.
“We’re just looking for a solid year and to play a good brand of football. The trial game results aren’t quite there at the moment but we’re keeping plenty of possession and building our pre-season in stages as one of the main things I want to avoid is having a flat spot in the middle of the season. I want to maintain the pressure all year and peak at the right time, in the finals. Certainly the quality of this year’s team has gone through the roof!”
Zoric played under the likes of Manfred Schaefer (at Sydney Croatia), Frank Arok (St George Colts) and John Kosmina (Warringah Dolphins) and acknowledged his off-season recruitment and a switch in venue to St George Stadium had pitched the club as a competition heavyweight, but he considered a smaller league meant every team had to be on their toes in every round.
“Everyone knows that Rydalmere will be favourites and Southern Bulls and Minotaurs will be hard to beat, and there’s even less room for error in a smaller comp, so consistency will matter even more this year,” he said.
“We’ll need to work hard week to week to week and make it count at the end of the season. We’re hoping for a great year but what will be will be.”
Prospect United
Prospect United has distinct plans to make their state league two stay as short as possible.
Relegated after last year’s poor division one showing Prospect are determined not to make the same mistakes and coach Tony Caruso believes he has a bunch of players committed to the cause.
“We were definitely disappointed to finish last; a few things didn’t go our way but that’s football. The boys we’ve retained understand they have a job to do in trying to gain promotion back to state league one,” he said.
“We’ve recruited okay and it’s a competitive squad, but more importantly the players fit the club DNA – it’s good to have players that want to do well for the club as well as themselves.”
A spate of cancelled trial games has made the pre-season a bit bumpy for United but Caruso is sure the team will hit the ground running come the season start in April.
“It’s been a bit up and down for us but we’re hitting our targets as each game comes along and I hope that it carries through to the season proper. When we start we have to be at 100 miles an hour and can’t afford to make mistakes,” he said.
“I dare say every other team will have the same motivation to do well as every club aspires to get to a higher division. They would all feel they have recruited well and we’ll have to look out for every club.
“Of course we’re playing to win it, but we’ve set new targets and the first one is to be competitive in the right way and manner.”
Rydalmere Lions
Premiers
Div 1: 2005 (as Fairfield City Lions)
A new base, a new name and several new players – but rest assured it’ll be the same fearsome pride that takes to the field as Rydalmere Lions FC this winter.
One of the league’s worst kept secrets turned to fruition over summer with the inevitable union of Fairfield City Lions’ state league components and the junior-rich Rydalmere Football Club (http://www.footballnsw.com.au/index.php?id=149&tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=2014&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=01&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8472&cHash=660b097e987994dc025ba8d13739853b).
On paper the decision was easy with the opportunity to improve the Lions status via better facilities, increased financial support and a youth structure the envy of many established clubs.
The senior teams will play at Rydalmere Park where an extensive development has just taken place to enhance its amenities block and install new lights, and the club also hopes to have a grandstand and scoreboard erected by year-end and is discussing the possibility of new turf as well.
The off-field excitement has certainly helped coach Tony Basha entice some healthy new faces to replace the loss of several key players to higher leagues, and this has translated into some spirited trial game showings against Sydney Olympic and Camden Tigers.
“All the players who left are now playing in higher levels, which is what we’re here to do, to develop better players so they can go onto better things, that’s what it’s about,” he said. “Of course it’s hard to replace them but the new guys in – all park footballers – are doing okay. We’re certainly heading in the right directions… as a team and a club.”
“Being with Rydalmere makes us financially better off, and we needed this sort of backing as we have aims as a club to go higher. We are a zero budget club, some clubs pay some of their players, so we’ll struggle to compete in that regard, but we’ve always been more focused on playing an attractive brand of football that people will like to watch, and to develop as many players as we can.”
Basha, a former Parramatta Melita and S-League player (Singapore), would be happy if his team finished in the top half of a competition that featured prominent Prospect, old foes Bulls, a quickly improving Enfield and Southern Branch, and two Hurstville sides (Minotaurs and FC) he believes have bolstered their squads for the upcoming season.
“Whether we can get the players committed to the cause, I don’t know just yet, but the top five or six is a good mark to set at this stage,” he said. “The two Hurstville teams will be hardest to beat, probably Prospect, and I’m not sure about what the Bulls have done over summer – but, just like last season, I’m pretty sure all the other clubs will have their moments and make each game a challenge.”
Southern Branch
Southern Branch enjoyed a relatively successful introduction to state league two business last year and they’ll be looking to make further inroads on a plan to take them higher up the divisional ladder.
After a brisk 2013 start Branch fell by the wayside by season-end to miss out on finals action altogether, but they did enough for people to take notice of the southern upstarts.
A few players have gone, freeing up spots for more locals, and coach Brod Crighton is content with how his squad is shaping up. He also stressed how important the bigger picture was for the region’s youth (representing NSW South Coast, Southern Highlands and Tablelands at the pristine South Nowra Sports Complex).
“We lost a few blokes and gained a few, and we’re playing a decent style of football. Training is getting better… it’s all looking good,” said. “Our 20s coach Sam Tooley has got them playing possession-based football, and we’ve brought in Joel Lockard, a very good goalkeeper from Wollongong, joint players of the year in the Shoalhaven league Gary Masters and Kane Wolfenden, and I think we’re getting more support from the community because more players are coming across to the club.”
“I was really disappointed with how we finished last year. I guess the good part is the younger blokes really stepped up and have matured a lot, but we have to get the club to a position where we can get back our 16s and 18s competitions and that means winning it to gain promotion to division one.
“We started a state league team so we could provide a pathway for our local youngsters to an elite club and we can only do that through division one now. Every team wants to improve on last year, so it won’t be easy against eight other clubs aiming for the same thing.”
Crighton believed Southern Bulls would be strong this season but that Rydalmere will be the competition’s real heavyweights. “The Lions were the best team we played last year,” he said.
Southern Bulls
Premiers
Div 1: 1990 (as Southern Districts), 1998 (as Fairfield Bulls)
Div 2: 2010 (as Fairfield Bulls)
Southern Bulls will again be a force to be reckoned with in 2014 offering a bolstered squad on and off the field that’s been working hard since last October.
Coach Ramsin Shamon is pleased with the group he’s assembled, which includes former Marconi captain Nahuel Arrante as an assistant, and feels the Bulls can do better than just making the finals.
“We’re stronger than last year and have had a very good pre-season, increasing our intensity at every training session and putting in some good performances in the trials,” he said.
“The players are ready to go and I believe we can do even better this season. Last year we beat everyone in the league including Stanmore; we just left ourselves short against teams we should’ve put away. So this year we want greater consistency.”
Shamon wasn’t sure on where the other clubs stood but outlined the Bulls’ ambitions pretty clearly, saying the merger between Fairfield Bulls and Southern Districts two years ago was on track to reaping rewards sooner than expected.
“I honestly don’t know how the other teams will go. Maybe Rydalmere will do well but I’m really not sure,” he said. “I can say that we want to be club champions and the mandate for that is pretty simple: make sure our 20s are strong and making our first team competitive for positions. The two squads are training together so that any particular player can step into the first grade team and play a particular role, and because of this I’m feeling much more confident than I was last year.”
“Southern Districts is building toward the future and we have 20 teams now associated with Bulls. We want to be structured long term rather than have a short term gain, and this includes Ernie Smith Reserve where we’ll be installing an electronic scoreboard, player’s tunnel and 6m high fences behind the goalposts this year.”
University of NSW
Premiers
Div 2: 2006
University of NSW endured a massive summer clear-out but a new-look squad and coach are primed to maintain last season’s rage that took both grades to the finals.
Only a quarter of last year’s playing squad stayed on at Uni, many heading to other state league teams, and the club’s coaching seas parted to allow young Tom Belcher the opportunity to test his skills in a highly competitive environment.
But don’t think 24-year-old Belcher is new to the game – he’s coached nine years in the Eastern Suburbs association and is currently studying his B-Licence.
“I started helping my dad coach a girl’s team at Maroubra United when I was 15 and got bitten by the bug,” he said. “Back then the experience was how to relay instructions to the girls, some of who had never played before, and seeing them respond on the field. Then I started doing course after course, some school coaching, and three years ago started a bachelor in sports administration – and now it’s more about the technical and psychological side of coaching.”
Belcher was approached by Sydney University a couple of years ago to assist their [association] premier league team and this year moved across to Uni of NSW as an assistant to their 20s outfit. Then the first grade coach parted ways with the club and Belcher was suddenly in charge of the senior side.
“We’re still trying to find our feet as 90 per cent of the squad left and we had to do some rebuilding,” he said. “My philosophy is to, first of all, make sure they’re a good team unit and then work on the playing structure and types of formations we’ll be using this season. It will be a mixture of results-based football and developing players.”
“Having a new squad gives me the opportunity to start fresh and build the camaraderie in the playing group, finding out who plays where and how each player plays and getting them used to each other. Everyone gets a go with me as I want to get the most out of the entire squad, not just a core group of players.”
“It’s going to be a massive learning curve for me as well, so building some stability is essential.”
“I’ve looked at last season’s results and teams lost matches to teams they had beaten in the first round, so it certainly looks like an open league,” Belcher said. “We’ll be looking at a top-four finish to maintain what the club achieved last year in both grades because what we really want is for the club to become a desired destination for players.”
“I’m still learning about our competition. I think travelling to Southern Branch for both games will be difficult, and as most of our players went to Hurstville FC I’m sure that’ll be a cracking match.”
Western Condors
Premiers
Div 1: 2002 (as Wanderers Cedars)
Div 2: 1986, 1987 (as Granville Chile)
Western Condors have flown under a few badges over the years but their club mantra has remained the same – football and footballers first.
And there’s an extra air of excitement surrounding the club with several younger members joining the board, stalwart Erick Anabalon handed the coaching reins with former Sydney United player Lisandro Berbis joining him as assistant, and several events planned to support UNICEF and the McGrath Foundation – an initiative instigated by devoted member O’neal Harral.
“It’s an interesting moment for us as we’ve made some changes that will help us improve as a club. Every year becomes more difficult to stay in state league and the idea of the changes was to give us some longevity and clear direction,” Anabalon said.
“The first step is to be financially sustainable, the other thing is to improve the football and we’ll be looking at expanding the club to add juniors in the future as that’s what Football NSW are looking to do across the board.”
“We’ve kept the bulk of last year’s squad and brought in some good players to replace the ones we lost. I think Condors can be very competitive and it’s important to always be fighting for the title, but for me a finals spot would be a good finish in what is now a small competition.”
“It will be a stiff season and you can’t go past Rydalmere Lions as favourites, the Bulls and Prospect are always strong, Hurstville FC look good… it will definitely be a comp where every game matters.”
Anabalon enjoyed a stellar playing career (starting as a five year old at Fairfield Athletics, developing as a teenager with Parramatta Melita then joining Marconi for three NSL campaigns before a serious knee injury in a 2004 semi-final against South Melbourne saw him turn his focus to coaching, with almost immediate success.
“I started as an assistant coach at [then division three side] Colo Colo because my brother was playing there. I became head coach the next year and won both the first and reserve grade grand finals, that has probably been my best achievement as coach,” he said, before underlining the importance of a healthy division two and its development of players and coaches.
“The level of football is sometimes underestimated in our league, not just from a playing perspective where good youngsters can get experience playing against men and some amazing older players who are still getting around, but this league is also a great place for those looking to build a coaching career down the track.
“We really value our position with Football NSW. Of course we have ambitions to play at a higher level, but it’s just as important for all the different cultural communities to have a face in football and we really appreciate our place in State League 2.”
Waratah Cup/FFA Cup
What an exciting year for Australian football with the launch of the national FFA Cup knockout that gives the country’s best amateur clubs the chance to test their skills against interstate and A-League rivals.
The NSW Waratah Cup first round takes place this weekend (March 15-16) with all SL2 clubs involved. As well as an inner-league clash between Enfield Rovers and Hurstville City Minotaurs, Southern Bulls play Rooty Hill RSL, Southern Branch take on Padstow United, Western Condors tackle Balmain Wanderers, University of NSW engage Dunbar Rovers, Rydalmere Lions battle Gladesville Ravens, Hurstville FC meet Dobroyd FC, and Prospect United face Knox United.
The Cup hasn’t been particularly kind to division two sides, Northbridge the only SL2 club to make it past the third round (in 2011) and of the current crop only Bulls (2013), Prospect (2012, 2009) and Condors (2011, as Wanderers) have made it to round three over the past six years. Here’s hoping 2014 proves more fruitful and we could possibly see a SL2 club battle an A-League giant in the FFA Cup later this year.
-By Dan De Nardi
