Sunday 20 August 2017

Season Over – Manly United 2-1 Sydney Olympic

Well another disappointing season for Sydney Olympic comes to an abrupt end, a season that started with so much optimism and promise, only to see it flounder like most of our seasons have since being back in the NSW State League.

Our chances in this game, an important Elimination Final, were severely hampered even before a ball was kicked, as Mitchell Stamatellis was ruled out before the game through injury and we certainly missed his leadership out there. This was coupled with the fact our best player William Angel, picked up an injury just before half-time and had to come off, it was always going to be an up-hill battle from there without 2 of our most influential players.

To the players credit though, they did put up a good fight, gave a good account of themselves and gave it their all, but it was never going to be enough unless we had a bit of luck on our side and we didn’t have any of that either. As it turned out, it was Manly United who progressed to Week 2 of the Finals and for our Sydney Olympic it is now season over.

It brings to an end a season where the description “up and down” wouldn’t do it justice. We had a great start, had our customary mid-season slump, had 3 coaches, had players coming and going on a weekly basis, had an embarrassing failure in the FFA Cup and finally barely managed to scrape into the Finals. What a way to commemorate the Club’s 60th anniversary hey.

As has been rumoured and given what I know and what has been written and said already, we will in all likelihood lose half of our squad from this season and as is becoming a bit of a custom for Sydney Olympic, we will in all likelihood have to build a side from scratch once again in the off-season. It is no way to operate in this League, we need continuity.

In a sane and ideal World, the Club and the Board should be doing whatever is necessary to re-sign and keep; Mitchell Stamatellis, William Angel, Yianni Spyrakis, Jason Madonis, Hagi Gligor, Niko Tsattalios, Darcy Burgess, George Timotheou, Paul Katsetis, Paul Henderson and Jake de Marigny who although didn’t play a game for us in 2017 due to a long-term injury, he showed us in 2016 how good he is and it is worth keeping faith in him.

- Max Burgess was by far our best player, but it was all too brief as he was gone less than 1/3 of the way into the season and we could never replace him.
- Tass Mourdoukoutas was impressive whenever he was available to be in the side, but from what we have been told he has already left and gone to the West Sydney a-league Franchise.
- Peter Makrillos was mooted as a great signing at the time, but he barely took the field for us this season and in hindsight, the essential swap we had with Rockdale for Harris Gaitatzis was a mistake.
- I don’t watch a-league so I don’t know what kind of striker or scoring record Radovan Pavicevic had, but what is for certain, is he couldn’t hit the side of a barn for us this season.
- Tom Whiteside was a bit hit and miss, some good games and some poor ones.
- The 2 Asian boys Jinya and Yu gave their all and were decent for us at times this season, but drifted in and out of too many games and I am unsure on their visa status or what their plans are for next season.

- Liam Youlley who came in as a new signing was gone 2 weeks later, I never understood that signing.

After the Club and Board ideally re-sign the players that I mentioned, they should not be resting on their laurels and they should be going out and looking to add quality players that will complement the re-signed players. First and foremost we need to sign a quality Centre-Forward, this has been a major Achilles heel for the team for many seasons. Also find a Left-Back from somewhere, another problem position.

It is a big ask to expect something different, but the Club and the Board should not make the same mistakes we have been making for the past 5 years. We should already be preparing for next season.

In terms of the Club Championship, anybody who has followed that closely this year, knows it has been an abysmal year, both the U18’s and U20’s were shockingly bad for the vast majority of both their seasons.

Of course this is what determines who is relegated at the end of each season, thanks to First Grade and a truly tragic Melita side, we stayed well clear of any relegation danger in 2017. But with a rejuvenated Marconi coming back up next season and with the expected improvements in the rest of the teams, next season will be a much harder task to stay up. We must be prepared accordingly.

Tempe ah Tempe, remember when there were optimistic announcements and even plans drawn up? In fairness we’ve heard this type of thing before, we’ve been hearing about various plans for several decades if truth be told, so maybe we should never have gotten our hopes up in the first place?

Depending on who you talk to, Tempe is off and has been off for a while – or – the Club is waiting for the outcome of the Inner West council elections which take place on Saturday September 9. Either way we shall wait and see, it is likely we will know fairly soon enough.
 

Last year we had an AGM for the first time in some 4 years, hopefully there is an announcement soon about the 2017 AGM and maybe we can get some answers to a lot of questions.

With the season now over, this blog will be checking in once a month for a monthly update, but you can always leave a comment or send a message via Sydney Olympic Supporters on Facebook or @SOFC_Supporters on Twitter.
 

14 comments:

  1. You have expressed my thoughts perfectly.

    Despite the absences, the team could still have achieved better results this year.

    The people running the club have little knowledge of the game. You cannot ask the players to adapt to the coaching style of 3 different coaches in one season. (Why not let Zorbas coach the team till the end of the year? His results were not bad at all) It sends a message that he is not valued. We will lose another Greek boy to another club and then call him a traitor.

    Don't forget these guys are not professionals. The instability at the club with coaches right throughout is ludicrous.

    First grade had 3 coaches.

    The 20's didn't know who was coaching them, apparently the recruitment manager was calling the shots when the German was suspended ( and even when he wasn't). (Does he even have his coaching licence I wonder?)

    The 18's coach was sacked. Apparently he was only allowed to sign 10 players. ( Now if that is setting someone up to fail, I don't know what is?)

    This merry go round of coaches can only be attributed to the people making the decisions. Who are these people? Can you please put something on your website and explain the debacle?

    In any case, Marconi with a team full of Greek players will play Olympic next year and we will call them traitors. Go figure............

    ReplyDelete
  2. Was at the game , disappointing way to bow out ( long ball garbage by manly) , but can someone confirm who is Paul Jeffarry? Went to the game and had 3 or 4 fathers sat behind me who spent the whole game blaming him for everything , from his failure of putting this first grade team together to the fact they think he does what he wants for the benefit of his sons and they basically blamed him for the entire years issues with all senior grades and they didn't care who heard around them

    ReplyDelete
  3. --Anonymous O Megas--

    Jafari is part of the recruitment team, hardly someone to be ''blamed for everything''

    Pavicevic came with a rep for scoring goals and Makrillos was a gun last season, one lost his form the other was always injured.

    Many people are to blame for this years debacle, not 1 person.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Club states Paul Jafari is not just part of the recruitment team but the 'Head of'. Responsible for the hiring and firing of coaches and players?

    But anyway first problem is a non football person given the responsibility to make football decisions. Sydney Olympic is not a work experience club for these people.

    ReplyDelete
  5. more likely this board will build units at Tempe for themselves rather than a football complex for the community if they do win the tender.. I mean what money can be made by building a sports facility when blocks of units are selling at record prices these days

    ReplyDelete
  6. in regards to Tempe , more likely we will see high rise apartments than an actual home ground. the fact club has gone very quiet on the issue says it all

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for keeping this blog going and allowing this Mexican to get a handle on what's going on in Sydney.

    ReplyDelete
  8. would be very surprised if our core players stick around given the coaching merry go round that went on this year and the circus involving recruitment (liam yooulley anyone) guarantee a particular coaching duo Olympic know very well are going to make plays for a few of them and are using the fact the club has lost control in many facets of its running of the team as bait to lure them in

    ReplyDelete
  9. given the debacle of 3 coaches in 1 year and recruitment that left a lot to be desired (liam youlley say no more) I can see many of our core players considering serious offers from other teams (no doubt a couple of ex Olympic coaches who are back in the top flight have probably already been in touch with a few and used the instability at Olympic as bait)

    interesting times

    ReplyDelete
  10. I went to Croatia club watch ffa cup is that striker the same one that was here Adrian vranic??????
    the crowd were yelling for him come on what he did was amazing are we serious we let him go heard Zorba did it .
    He will not be npl and he was Our player everyone I mean every one loves him whats going on in our club.
    someone from club please explain ??????

    ReplyDelete
  11. Rafa Jimenez the next professional player contract

    ReplyDelete
  12. Gorka get paid: 89.792,71 aus dollar net per year + accommodation
    71834,17 aus dollar paid in Australia
    17958,54 aus dollar paid in spain

    ReplyDelete