2010 was South Hobart's year

Photo:  South Hobart, the cup winners, on 21 August 2010 [PlessPix]

The 2010 season in Tasmania was a momentous one for South Hobart.

The club was celebrating its 100^th anniversary, having been founded in 1910, and was one of the oldest surviving football clubs in the country.

Photo:  The Governor's reception for South Hobart at Government House [PlessPix]

A reception was held at Government House and a formal dinner was also held.  The guest speaker was noted Australian and SBS football identity Les Murray.  A book was also produced detailing the 100 years of the club.  It was written by Dr Dianne Snowden.

Vicki Wood had been installed as the club’s new president in 2010, while her future husband, Ken Morton, was in his third year as senior coach of the club.

The season was a huge triumph for Morton and the club as the seniors collected five trophies and went on an unbeaten run of 34 games to set a new Tasmania record.

Photo:  South Hobart, the league champions [PlessPix]

Morton was named the Premier League coach of the year.

Ronnie Bolton, of Clarence United, won the Women’s Coach-of-the-Year Award.

Josh Fielding, the Glenorchy Knights midfielder and captain, made it back-to-back wins in the Vic Tuting Medal when he won the 2010 award, which was presented at the Hellenic Hall.

South Hobart’s first trophy of 2010 was the Steve Hudson Cup in the Launceston pre-season tournament.

They won their second trophy when they beat Glenorchy Knights 4-0 in the final of the southern Premier League section of the Summer Cup competition at KGV Park.

Knights offered little resistance in the final and South goalkeeper Sam Kruijver had little to do.

Former Knights player Jonathon Ladic gave South Hobart the lead on the half-hour to make it 1-0 at the break.

Tom Roach added the second seven minutes after the resumption, while Kostas Kanakaris made it 3-0 in the 62^nd minute.

Kanakaris put the icing on the cake when he grabbed his second of the night and South’s fourth in stoppage time at the end of the match.

Andy Brennan netted twice and Jo Yeong-Sun once as South overcame Glenorchy Knights 3-0 in the Reserves Summer Cup final.

Photo:  The South Hobart squad and support staff [PlessPix]

The Women’s Summer Cup final saw the Tasmanian Institute of Sport trounce Olympia Warriors 6-0.

Rani Cavaretta netted twice, while Brooke Mason, Jessie Williams, Lucy Foote, with a penalty, and Ellie Gavalas collected a goal apiece.

South Hobart won the Forestry Tasmanian Southern Premier League title by finishing a massive 19 points ahead of second-placed Tilford Zebras.

It was South Hobart’s third league championship in a row.

The next trophy the club collected was the Milan Lakoseljac Memorial Trophy, Tasmania’s State-wide knockout cup competition.

They beat Clarence United, the holders, 2-1 in the final at KGV Park in Glenorchy.

The fifth trophy won by South Hobart in 2010 was the State Top-Four title.  They beat Forestry Tasmania Northern Premier League champions Northern Rangers 1-0 in the final through a goal by Tom Roach.

South Hobart’s pre-season preparations under coach Ken Morton had been meticulous and included games in Melbourne against South Melbourne, and also in Wollongong.

It was this sort of thorough and professional preparation that served them well in the season and which saw them claim the five pieces of silverware on offer.

Jonathon Lo finished as South Hobart’s and the league’s leading marksman.  He netted 18 goals.

Exciting young striker Andy Brennan also proved a huge success for South Hobart.  The 16-year-old finished as the league’s equal second-ranked scorer with 14 goals in his first season at senior level.

Photo:  Jack Johnston was Tasmania's only FIFA referee [PlessPix]

The 2010 season was also notable because of a new Board member at Football Federation Tasmania.

Jack Johnston, a commissioner of police and the only Tasmanian to have been a FIFA referee, was appointed to the FFT Board.

Photo:  John Boulous, the FFT CEO [PlessPix]

John Boulous was also announced at the new FFT CEO towards the end of the year and his contribution over the next few years was significant and was to include the introduction of the Victory League in 2013.

Lucy MacGregor made her mark on junior women’s football in 2010.

The 13-year-old midfielder performed very well for Australia at the AFC Festival of Football in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The Australian Under-13 Girls national team won seven games, lost two and drew one.

MacGregor scored three goals in the tournament in her role as an attacking midfielder.

MacGregor had been one of two Tasmanian players invited to attend national trials for selecting the Australian side.  The other was Isabella Gee, who missed out on final selection but was placed on the reserve list.

Three Tasmanians  -  MacGregor, Gee and Caitlin Stalker  -  had been initially identified at the National Junior Championships for Girls and were selected in the All-Star team after that tournament.

The Tasmanian Institute of Sport met Taroona in the Women’s State-wide Cup Final.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw and it stayed like that in extra-time before the TIS won the penalty-shoot-out 5-4.

The teams were:

Tasmanian Institute of Sport:  Plummer;  Vienna-Hallam, Daley, Stalker, O’Brien, A Ayton, Williams, Gavalas, Foote, Edwards, Cavarretta, Macgregor, Bird, Connolly [Interchange applied]

Taroona:  Catheral;  Ormandy-Neale, Konings, Manuela, Prescott, Tolman, Cretu, H Ayton, Bremner, Fyfe, Tarbath, Raymond, Collet, Parsell [Interchange applied]

In the Women’s State championship final, Taroona beat Clarence United 3-2.

A Tolman (14^th and 61^st) and S Cretu (47^th) scored for Taroona, while M Gillbee (17^th) and M Dixon (21^st) replied for Clarence United.

The teams were:

Clarence United:  Ven Der Niet; Herbert, Goss, Brighell, Pagano, Undy, Kannegiesser, Ridler, Bolton, M Dixon, Edwards, H Dixon, Gillbee, Roy, Archer, McLeod [Interchange rule applied]

Taroona:  Catheral; Ayton, Tarbath, Fyfe, Bremner, Tolman. Parsell, Ormandy-Neale, Cretu, D Raymond, Konings, H Manuela, Prescott, Collet, Wilsdon, Farquhar [Interchange rule applied]

Photo:  Olympia's new artificial pitch at Warrior Park [PlessPix]

Olympia Warriors, who avoided relegation from the Premier League by the skin of their teeth announced that they had almost completed their new state-of-the-art pitch at Warrane and that it would be ready for action in the 2011 season.

The club had a new headquarters at Bligh Street in Warrane and it featured a building which would serve as a club house, complete with dressing rooms, referees’ room, canteen, a meeting room and board room, a storage room and gymnasium, an artificial pitch complete with floodlights, and a grass pitch and two grass training pitches at the rear.

The club had already invested $300,000 in the project and it announced it would spend another $100,000 by the time things were up and running at the start of the 2011 season.

The club had a 20-year lease on the facilities, which used to be a hockey ground and was then leased by Clarence United, who were unable to utilise it for the previous five years.

The surface at Bligh Street’s Warrior Park was made of layers of material, including sand and recycled rubber tyres and micro-filament, to a total depth of 60 millimetres.  The artificial grass itself was about 10 millimetres in height and no watering was required.

The new pitch met FIFA regulations and normal football boots rather than runners were required to play on it.

“This is definitely a benchmark for Tasmanian football.,” said Olympia Warriors president, George Mamacas.

Mamacas said the ground would also be available to others, but that Olympia would have priority.

He said there would also be a corporate area in the building beside the ground where sponsors and other VIPs could be entertained and from where they could watch games.

“The whole complex is Olympia Warriors’ for the long-term future and we’ve got a big capital investment in this and it should see us in good stead for the next 50-odd years,” Mamacas said.

The pitch was just over 100 metres in length and just over 60 metres in width, which made it slightly bigger than Taroona’s ground at Kelvedon Park.

The Tasmanian State side was also in action in 2010.

They entertained A-League club Central Coast Mariners on a Tuesday night at KGV Park.

Central Coast Mariners won 3-0 before a crowd of 1,768 through goals by Simon (76^th minute), Bozanic (80^th) and Kwasnik (90^th+2).

The Tasmanian side was coached by Steve Payne.

The teams were:

Tasmania:  Pitchford (Kruijver 46)  -  Pennicott, Iseli, W Abbott, Scott  -  B Eaves (Roach 46), Marchioli  -  Brennan (Lo 46), Mann (D Brown 46), Kanakaris  -  McKenna (Hamlett 60)

Central Coast Mariners:  Ryan  -  Bojic, Griffiths, Wilkinson, Bozanic  -  Hutchinson, McGlinchey (Porter 78), Lewis (Rose 60)  -  Mrdja (Kwasnik 68), Perez (Simon 65), McBreen

The 2010 season also saw the passing of three stalwarts of Tasmanian football.

Alistair Rattray, who had played for Australia at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and starred for Caledonians, passed away aged 85.  He had been a founding member of Caledonians.

Rattray was a member of the Tasmanian side that succumbed 11-0 to England before 6,000 spectators at North Hobart in 1950.  He was named as one of Tasmania’s best players in that match.

Adrian Harmsen, one of the finest footballers ever to grace the game in Tasmania, also passed away in Hobart in 2010 aged 90.

Harmsen was one of the finest players of his generation.

He was a member of three Tasmanian premiership-winning teams  -  with Metro twice and South Hobart once.

He represented Australia against New Zealand in 1954.

He was a Tasmanian representative seven times and captained the State side on three occasions.

Harmsen was the best-and-fairest player at the senior interstate series in Adelaide in 1954.

He was the leading goalscorer in Southern Tasmania for four consecutive years.

He was never cautioned by a referee in his career, which is quite extraordinary.

Harmsen was a teacher of languages and was highly respected in academic and education department circles.

The other loss in 2010 was Luciano Longo, the former Juventus centre-half in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Luciano was the father of Dominic Longo, one of Tasmania’s best-known players who went on to play for the Joeys, the Young Socceroos, the Olyroos, Cercle Brugge in Belgium, and Marconi in the NSL.

Luciano was a commanding figure on and off the football pitch and he was synonymous with Juventus during those two decades.

He was of large stature and was powerful in the air, but a gentle man off the pitch.

In 1959, he was selected to play for Tasmania against the visiting Scottish club, Heart of Midlothian, but injury prevented him from playing.

Hearts beat Tasmania 10-0 before a crowd of 3,000 at North Hobart Oval.

The ‘gentle giant’ was also a Southern Tasmanian representative when South won the round-robin series in 1961 against the North and the North-West.

South beat North-West 6-0 in the semi-final and then downed North 5-0 in the final.

Longo was also a member of the 1961 Juventus team that withdrew from the association and played against Launceston Juventus on alternate weekends at what is now Queens Walk in a competition involving the State’s two Italian clubs.

Juventus eventually rejoined the association.

Luciano was again selected for the South in 1963 and they won the intrastate series by overcoming North-West 3-0 and the North 2-1 in the final at South Hobart.

Longo captained Juventus in 1963 when the title was decided on the last day.  With one round remaining, Hobart Rangers had 28 points and Olympia and Juventus were level on 26 points in second and third places, respectively.

Rangers only needed a draw against Juventus in the final game to win consecutive titles.  But, Juventus beat Rangers 3-2, while Olympia beat Wayatinah 4-0.

That meant Olympia and Juventus finished level on 29points and superior goal-average gave Olympia the title.

It was the first time that any Tasmanian league title had been decided on goal average. [Note:  Goal average is different to the current system that is used, namely goal-difference.]

I remember Luciano Longo being interviewed on the Channel Six (the precursor of WIN TV) sports show by Harry Ward on the Sunday afternoon and arguing passionately in favour of a play-off between Juventus and Olympia to decide the title.

He said that was how it was done in Italy if two teams finished level on points, as indeed it was.

But, Tasmania tended to follow British practices and the title was Olympia’s.

Longo played for Tasmania against Victoria at Olympic Park in Melbourne before a crowd of 9,500 in 1964 and the Victorians won 7-1.

He missed out on selection later that year for Tasmania’s game against Western Australia at South Hobart, a match which Western Australia won 5-3.

The 900-strong Tasmanian home crowd booed their side off the field at the end in protest at the team selection and some late changes that had been made due to injuries.

That signified the end of an era and Longo retired from the game not so long after.

2010 was also the year when two Tasmanian players finally came face-to-face in an English professional match.

And, they are both goalkeepers.

When Tranmere Rovers of Division One and Accrington Stanley of Division Two met in a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy cup tie at Rovers’ Prenton Park before 2,020 fans, Accrington’s Alex Cisak (ex-South Hobart) got to meet Rovers’ Simon Miotto (ex-Launceston Juventus).

Photo:  Simon Miotto, another example of a Tasmanian not appreciated in his home State and who found respect overseas [PlessPix]

Miotto, who was 41, was the reserve keeper for Tranmere, but he was also the club’s goalkeeping coach.  He was on the bench for the match.

The teams drew 1-1, but Accrington won the penalty shoot-out 5-3.