Photo: The new club's badge [PlessPix]
Vale Hobart Zebras (aka Juventus, Hobart
Juventus, Juventus Pioneer) (1956-2019).
Vale Clarence United (aka Phoenix, Eastern
Suburbs) (1958-2019).
Long live Clarence Zebras!
That’s the story in black and white.
Hobart Juventus is no more after a long and
illustrious history in the Tasmanian game.
The club produced some of the Tasmania’s finest talent and some players
went on to represent Australia at senior and youth levels.
Clarence United is no more after being the
dominant club on the eastern shore in past years.
They have had a horror couple of seasons and
with dwindling support it was decided to merge with Hobart Zebras.
This new story, as with most stories, is one
comprised of shades of grey and not black and white.
That story is that there is a new Tasmanian
NPL club called Clarence Zebras. This
new club has much to do to equal the achievements of Juventus, for example.
It’s sad, really, that two clubs have become
one and the State has, in effect, lost a club.
But that’s often what happens. It’s
happened in the past and will probably happen again.
Photo: Former Clarence player Jeremy Price (left) and former Hobart Zebras player Riley Dillon show off the new strips [PlessPix]
Photo (L-R): Maddie O'Brien, Danielle Kannegiesser and Caitlyn Maundrill model the new strips [PlessPix]
The new Clarence Zebras strip looks smart
and congratulations must go to 11-year-old Lachie Pears, son of one of Hobart
Juventus’s best defenders from the past, Bruce Pears, for coming up with the
design.
Veto, the shirt manufacturer, also played a
part in the design of the strip and the new club’s badge.
Clarence Zebras will have co-presidents to
begin with in Nick Di Giovanni from Hobart Zebras and Ronnie Bolton from Clarence
United.
At yesterday’s official launch of the new
club at Wentworth Park, the co-presidents were both optimistic about the future.
Photo: Co-president Ronnie Bolton (right) is interviewed by the media as co-president Nick Di Giovanni looks on [PlessPix]
“It’s a fantastic day and we’re looking
forward to the future,” said Bolton.
“The process was relatively smooth and I
thought it would take a lot longer, but there’s some good people behind this
and the result is very good.”
The new club’s first training session is
tonight [Tuesday] and Bolton did not know how many former Clarence players
would be involved.
He said David Smith, who coached Hobart Zebras
for the past season, would be the new club’s inaugural coach and playing matters
were in his hands.
“This merger probably means survival for our
club and former players and members,” Bolton said.
“When you’re at the bottom of the ladder for
a while it’s very difficult to attract players and sponsors and it costs a lot
of money to be in the top league so, for us, it was a no-brainer not to do
this.
“If you’ve got the right people in the right
places, players will come. They may not
stay, but at least they’ll come and have a look and potentially we could get
some quality players.”
Bolton said the new club would talk to the
Clarence Council about improving facilities.
“We got plans that we hope will come to
fruition, but it may just take a while,” he said.
Money would need to be sourced from
sponsors, the council, government and even the sport’s administrative body.
Photo: Clarence Zebras co-president Nick Di Giovanni [PlessPix]
“It’s a great day and very exciting,” said
Nick Di Giovanni. “Everyone’s done a
great job and we’ve moved quicker than I thought we would.
“With so much work by both committees, it’s
come off really great.
“It was too and fro for a lot of meetings getting
the colours right and the designs right, which we did in the end.
“They look magnificent and the committee saw
them only last Thursday and everyone was unanimous in saying they look fantastic.
“It’s a new era with new colours and new
emblem and at least we’ll look good to start off with. Hopefully, everyone likes what they see.
“It’s going to be different and it may take
a while [to achieve success], but it’s a long-term plan and not a short-term
plan and you’ll see a lot of youth development through David [Smith] this year.
“The club expects to have four or five
hundred players this coming season and we’ve got to start to do things differently
for the future.
“We’ve got to look at how this ground and these
facilities will be ten years down the track for the people of the Eastern
Shore.
“Different times ahead, but I think they’ll
be very enjoyable.
“The development of this ground will make
the Eastern Shore something special. We’re
looking at something good for the future.”
Photo: David Smith is the coach of the new club [PlessPix]
New coach David Smith said he was excited by
the merger and he was looking forward to the coming season.
He said some Zebras players had moved on to
other clubs or interstate and overseas and he was looking at Clarence players
who might be good enough for the new senior side.
“We’ll have a couple of open sessions in the
next few weeks, starting tonight, and we’ve invited 40 or 50 players and we’ll see
what we end up with,” Smith said.
“We’ve got to front three senior teams and
an under-18s and so we’ll see how we go.
“If you want to play for us, you’ve got to
play for the right reasons because there’s no money, really.
“We’ll try and look after a few people but
at the end of the day we’re all in the same boat here, with a little bit of training
money and expenses, but we’re not a cashed-up club.”
Photo: Players, committee members and sponsors of the new club at yesterday's official launch [PlessPix]
Smith said the club could not compete
financially with the likes of Olympia Warriors or Glenorchy Knights in terms of
paying players.
The key for the new club was to appoint the right
coaches and administrators and to follow the right principles to take the club
forward.
“You’ve got to set the bar as high as you
can,” Smith said.
“We want it to be young, aggressive and
dynamic and we’ve got to take a few risks and we’ll learn a lot of hard lessons
during the year doing it.”
Smith said he was looking to bring youth
through.
He said the club had three or four young
goalkeepers and the oldest would be only 18 or 19.
“They’re the sort of challenges we’ll have
moving forward but the long-term aim is to produce our own players because that’s
what it’s about.
“We’ve got to be self sufficient and we can’t
continue to bring in outside players every year.
“We’ve got to build them and get them to
stay here and a youth programme is more important than anything else.”
