Hyde the head teacher at Sydney Uni
Sydney University have almost been flying under the radar a little in the NPL3 competition this season, without creating a fuss, yet they proudly take their position in the Final Series having confirmed 5th position on the ladder.
We took some time out with their ever reliable captain, Tommy Hyde, to find out a little about the challenges the team faced at the start of the season, and how they are looking for the Finals Series.
We commenced by asking Hyde how does he assess the team’s performance overall in 2016.
“2016 has definitely been a success, because any season you make the finals is a success in my opinion. Sydney University was relegated from the NPL2 last season, so one of the challenges was putting the men’s programme back on track and introducing a winning mentality. Before that, we had to recruit basically from scratch, given most of the players from 2015 had moved on.”
Hyde added, “We had a core group of players who joined from Balmain, not only familiar with each other, but with this level of football. We were consistent during the second half of the season, and lost just once in a nine game stretch, so we are very happy with our overall performance.”
Just when things were coming along nicely for the ‘students’, they faced an additional hurdle of a coaching change mid-season.
“Our coach, Brian Dene, had done a great job in terms of recruiting and setting the foundations for the season ahead. However, he accepted an offer to join Blacktown City in the NPL1, so it could’ve been disastrous for us. But Brian’s assistant, John Haynes, stepped up and took on the role, and given his familiarity with what we had done at that point, he focussed on not changing too many things. In the end it was a seamless transition as far as the players were concerned,” reflected Hyde.
John Haynes did have some assistance in his quest to continue the good work.
“Ben Rollison and Andrew Prentice have been excellent in their support of the head coach, and helping to get the message across. Peter Sestak, our goalkeeping coach, has also has been brilliant in his coaching of Carl (McMahon, Syd Uni’s goalkeeper). Behind the scenes, our General Manager of Men’s Football, Matthew Rolfe, has been incredible in making sure the club runs as smoothly as possible, enabling us players to get on with the job of doing what we do best on the park.”
We asked Hyde who he thought have been standouts in for the team in 2016.
“Every successful team needs a goal scorer to finish off the work, and Scott Tonkin has been that person for us, with 17 goals this season. Rosario Occhipinti has also been instrumental, playing a supportive role with 9 goals, and often making the runs or laying off the ball for Scotty to put away.”
Hyde added, “I can mention everyone if given the opportunity, everyone has played their part! Gavin Wenyon has had a great season in midfield, Johnny Gowdy proven a real handful for opposition fullbacks, and Josh Karpes and Daniel Mifsud have been consistent in defence. Mifsud was the only player to remain from last year’s team, and has been superb for us at left back.”
Hyde has plenty of respect for the other teams in the Finals Series.
“Hills have been a standout team all year, especially with Peter Cejkaa leading their attack. Their philosophy on football, the way they play, it must be great to watch from a neutral point of view, not so much when you’re on the receiving end! Dunbar Rovers have been excellent as they made adjustments to this league having been promoted last season, Rydalmere have plenty of firepower, whilst Stanmore have been consistent and probably exceeded expectations, but deserve their spot in the finals.”
Despite finishing 5th, Sydney University can rightly assume favouritism for Saturday’s game, given they have defeated Stanmore Hawks on both occasions that they have met this season, although Hyde is having none of that.
“We’ll definitely take confidence from having beaten Stanmore twice this season, but both games were extremely tight, and even though they will miss Steve Liavas, no doubt – he has been excellent for them – I am expecting the very same this time, another closely fought match. Previous form goes out the window in finals football, so anything can happen.”
So expect nothing less than the ‘students’ of Sydney University to have completed all of their study, and to be more than ready for their next assessment come Saturday afternoon – a do-or-die battle with Stanmore Hawks.
