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The Name Macedonia
Information about Maria
View of Greek Australians
History of PAOK
South Melbourne Soccer Club
KISS ARMY
Block Head Quotes
Personal Resume
Greek Revolution 1821
Archive JOKES
My Brothers Malakias
Parthenon Marbles
Todays Crystal Ball Reading
PARTY OF THE YEAR
The Great Alexander
The Beauty of N Pella
About people close to me
Wacky Horoscopes
What Does Your Name Mean
ITS FUNNY CAS ITS TRUE
Did You Know
JOKES FOR THE DAY
Wheres Maria
I HAVE LEARNED
Fast Facts
Ancient Quotes
quotes
macedoniaJust When You Thought You Knew|
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| SOUTH MELBOURNE SOCCER CLUB |
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| The year 1959 saw the amalgamation of three Melbourne clubs - South Melbourne United, Greek backed Hellenic and Yarra Park. All three clubs had been struggling and the amalagamation was the brainchild of Theo Marmaras, the then president of Hellenic. Of these clubs South Melbourne United was the longest established (circa early 1930's), playing from pitches that now form part of the Australian Grand Prix track. Marmaras went on to become South Melbourne's longest serving president as well as serving as the chairman and president of the Victorian Soccer Federation. In their first year of competition 1960 South Melbourne Hellas won the Victorian 1st division north championship - dropping only one competition point in the process, scoring 79 goals and conceding only 11. In the first year, the club also reached the semifinal of the Dockerty Cup before going done to Hakoah 2-0. The club was not surprisingly promoted immediately to the Victorian state league first division, finishing fifth position in 1961. The next year South took the State League Championship for the first time the following year under the coaching of Manny Poulakakis who was brought over from Egypt. In 1963 South Melbourne reached the final of the Ampol Cup (losing 1-0 to Polonia) but it had a poor season, finishing in 6th place inspite of signing Tommy Anderson from George Cross. A further recruting drive in 1964 yielded Ernie Ackerly, the former Man Utd apprentice, Jim Pyrgolios from Panathinaikos, Sam Service and Jim Adam. The new players started a run of three consecutive State League titles for South (1964, 65, 66) Winger Leo Damianakos from Kalamata was added to the squad in 1965 after waiting a full year for his clearance. Perhaps their most successful season in this period was 1966 when one of Greece's best ever players, Con Nestorides, joined Souths. 37 year old Nestorides' immediate impact upon joining the club was to double the crowds and secure the 1966 Victorian state league title. In 1967 South underwent a slump finishing fourth and losing the Ampol Cup final to Slavia. Ten Greek players were brought over but only three were up to standard. By the end of the season all had gone back to Greece. Lou Brocic guided the club to third spot that year. Under Brocic, South won the 1969 Ampol Cup beating Croatia 2-1, with one of the goals coming from Frank Micic. South repeated the import experiment in 1969, bringing 5 more players over from Greece. Once again it failed and the players all returned home. The club finished in 7th spot on 21 points. In 1970 South turned it's recruiting resources locally and secured two of it's all time greats, Steve Walker (from Lions for $3500) and Jim Armstrong (from Hakoah for $6000). The club also brought Ulysses Kokkinos back from Greece for $2000. However the club finished fifth inspite of winning the Ampol Cup. In 1971 South missed the title by one point, many people believing that the absence of Kokkinos (trying his luck in Greece again) cost them the championship. Bill Curran took over the coaching in 1972 and promoted Giovanni Batticiotto (16) and Bill Hasapis (17) into the seniors as well as recruiting Peter Bourne from English club Burnley. With Armstrong scoring goals galore, South kept pace with the front runner George Cross before overtaking then in the penultimate round. And despite dropping a point in the last round, South won the championship on goal difference. In 1972 South and George Cross were again front runners but it was the mighty Footscray side who clinched the title. The barren period finally ended in 1974 when with Arthur Xanthopoulos by now established in the side, Bourne dominating in midfield and Armstrong still scoring freely, South took over as early leader and romped away with championship by four points. Armstrong was top scorer with 22 goals. South also won the Dockerty Cup beating Ringwood City 4-1, with goals coming from Marshall, Armstrong, Nick Nechvoglod and Bourne. South retained the Dockerty Cup in 1975 beating Sunshine City 2-1, the first goal coming from the best recruit of the season, Jimmy Mackay. South had to be content with 2nd place in both the Ampol Cup and the State League. The club's final year in the Victorian State league, 1976, ended with another championship as well as another Ampol Cup. Peter Ollerton, signed for $9000 from Apia, scored a hat-trick in the final against Footscray, which South easily won 4-1. Ollerton's striking partner was Duncan Cummings, a $10,000 buy from Melbourne. The pair scored 18 goals between them as South romped away with the title by nine points. The club then waited for Mooroolbark to make the first move before joining Footscray and Heidelberg as Melbourne's participants in the newly formed nationwide Philips Soccer League. Despite big expectations, South Melbourne had a very mixed start to the national league. They had discarded Armstrong, Walker, Bourne and Mackay claiming they were too old for the new league. In that first year they finshed 11th. They had recruited heavily but without that old backbone, they weren't the same team. In 1978 coach Dave Maclaren embarked on another huge recruiting drive signing John Hansen and Stuart Baxter from Sweden, Bertie Lutton and Bobby McGuiness from Sydney City, Sammy Wright from Wolves, George Campbell from Aberdeen and promoted George Christopoulos from the reserves. The club finished in a repectable third spot. A low point in Souths' twenty-one year national league experience was 1979. After a positive start to the season, the club had three competition points deducted after it was deemed that import player Tony Turner had not been properly registered with Souths. Three coaches, along with high profile Socceroo player Jack Reilly all left the club that year, which saw Souths finish the season last. The only high points of that year were the arrival of Alan Davidson and Steve Blair. They both proved to be revelations and at $1000 a piece, money well spent. John Margaritis was coach and he rebuilt the side with experienced players to lift the club up to third spot. Socceroo Branko Buljevic and former Liverpool star, Alun Evans led the scoring with 18 goals between them. The next year Evans managed 14 on his own and the club climbed to finish second behind Sydney City. Striker Charlie Egan was signed from Frankston City in 1982 and he went on to score 20 goals but Margaritis was released after 4 consecutive losses. The controversial Tommy Docherty was lured from England to take charge for an eventful 5 months. The club finished 6th and Tommy was sent home. Former National coach, Rale Rasic took over and he rebuilt the side signing Oscar Crino, Ken Murphy, Doug Brown, Bobby Russell and John Yzendoorn. The newcomers along with Davidson, Blair and Egan were to bring the club great success but there were committee problems that overflowed onto the field. The team hadn't settled and the coach was sacked after 13 matches. New coach Len McKendry lifted the side to fourth. In 1984, Souths secured first position on the final league ladder (Southern Division). But in this year, a restructure of the national league meant that, for the first time, the minor premier were not champions. South had to win the finals series to be declared true champions of 1984. The club powered through the Southern Division finals series, defeating arch-rivals Heidelberg in the Southern Division grand final before a 15,000 crowd. Souths then won out over Sydney Olympic 2-1 in both legs of the 1984 National Grand Final. In 1985 South again finshed top of the Southern Division but were knocked out of the finals by Brunswick and Preston. 1986 didn't see any improvement and the club finshed a dismal seventh in the Southern Division. Brian Garvey took over in 1987 and after an ordinary season, decided on a major overhaul of the team, bringing youngsters like Paul Trimboli, David Healy, Kimon Taliadoros, Harry Micheil and Paul Fernandes. The young team put on a memorable season to finish third but lost it's 2 finals matches. Souths finished all five seasons from their knock-out cup-winning year of 1990, until 1994, in the top three. In the midst of this extended halcyon period, a massive crowd of 23,318 gathered to watch probably the most enthralling national league grand final ever in May 1991. Here Souths defeated Melbourne Knights - albeit on penalties - after two hours of intensive on-field action resulted in a quite pulsating national league season climax. A move to the Bob Jane Stadium and a nickname change in the early 90's injected new life into the club. South were now known as the Lakers and after the 'failure' - by Souths' high standards - of the last couple of years (5 preliminary finals defeats), South Melbourne were able to shrug the finals monkey off it's back by winning the 1997/98 Ericsson Cup. One of only three clubs to have played in all twenty-one seasons of Australia's premier football league, Souths supporters were hungry for another championship, and the team delivered, defeating Carlton 2-1 in controversial circumstances. Please note: This is a copy of the South Melbourne Home Page |
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