The death has occurred in Hobart of Olympia stalwart Tasso Manis, who was aged 54.
Manis played 300 games for Olympia in a career that spanned three decades. Club records indicate he made his senior debut as a 14-year-old.
One of his most memorable matches was the 1975 Ampol Cup Final, in which Olympia played Juventus in what some billed as the ‘match of the decade’.
The teams were locked together at 2-2 after 90 minutes and Manis scored the first Olympia goal and set up the second for Roger Norman from a corner.
Eamonn Kelly was in that Olympia team, which lost the subsequent penalty shoot-out 7-6, with Manis having the crucial spot-kick saved by Juventus keeper Kark Jaegar after he had to re-take it.
Some of Manis’s other team-mates in that game were Chris Broughton, Danny Spendiff, Keith Parr and Mick Roussos.
Juventus boasted players of the calibre of Erik Owen, Joe Hanna, John Genovesi, Chris Hargrave, Domenic Fraraccio, Ron Di Felice, Mike Bailey and Jaegar.
Peter Cagialis coached Olympia the following year and new players included Ronnie Bolton and Chris Hargrave.
3 comments:
Walter,
At the then age of 11 I remember the penalty kick hitting the window above the child minding centre adjacent to the kiosk at South Hobart ground!!
Tasso was an affable lovely bloke who I recently spoke to. He wanted me to assure him that we would not forget him at our 50th celebration. I promptly told him he was a legend and clubs don't forget legends.
May he rest in Peace.
George Mamacas
OFCW
Great player for Olympia and the sport as a whole.
As a supporter, I never witnessed him in his playing days but as a player coming through the Olympia ranks, we were always reminded of the the great players that have worn the shirt before us and would listen in amazement to the stories the supporters would tell us after we had played our games over a beer at the club rooms.
Tasso was a legend and would always come up in these stories.
My dad would tell me how he was one of the players to head of interstate to try and 'make it big'.
In my mind, he had already 'made it big' as he is still spoken of as a legend of Olympia F.C.
May he rest in peace.
Paul Kaproulias (Jr).
Tasso was a tremendous fellow with a great sense of humour. He was known to liven up the New Sydney patrons with one of his stories or one of his jokes.
He will be sadly missed but fondly remembered by all those who shared his company.
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