Sunday, December 13, 2020

Romilton Amaral Rosa to take the reins at Beachside

Photo:  Romilton Amaral Rosa at the appropriately nicknamed Beachside ground of The Tropicana.

Romilton Amaral Rosa, who hails from Brazil, has been appointed coach of Southern Championship club, Beachside.

He has played and coached in Tasmania for a decade or more.

He has been away in Africa for several years and now that he has returned to Tasmania he is looking forward to the challenge of coaching Beachside. 

I spoke to Romilton about his background and the new challenge he faces.

1.   Which clubs have you played for?

I played in a local team called Estudante in my hometown in Brazil and other representative teams. I stopped playing when I was 26 years old. Later on, when I came to Tasmania I decided to play in the old Division One with South Hobart, Hobart Wanderers as well as Howrah and Hobart United. 

2.   Which clubs have you coached?

Youth teams at South Hobart and Glenorchy Knights. Then I spent a couple of years in Brazil, where I coached Estudante and Monte Formoso. I returned to Tasmania and my last experience was for 3 years with the seniors team at University. 

3.   Have you won any trophies as a player, and as a coach?

As player I won the local Brazil Independence Tournament, which was a big honour, and a couple championships. I still keep some nice pics of this era in my Facebook.  As coach, I won two championships and two cups in a row with University. 

4.   Why are you coming back to coaching?

I love football. As I cannot play anymore, the most logical thing is to work to develop players who can resemble you.  A player who can do in the field the things that you used to do. I’m always keen to see someone coming through the ranks being able to replicate that. This is my inspiration and the reason why I always go back to coaching. 

5.   What will your coaching philosophy be?

I like an attacking style of football. My source of inspiration are the Brazil teams of '92 and '96, along with the Arsenal of Henry and Bergkamp.

6.   What do you hope to achieve at Beachside?

Beachside is a 45-year-old club with the ambition to play in the NPL, which I believe is possible. We can work towards narrowing the gap and get ourselves into a position where we can compete with the NPL teams on an equal footing.  As a former University coach, I have memories of beating Launceston City once and Knights twice. We had two close games with Kingborough. On top of that, we had an epic final draw, going to 122 minutes extra time with Olympia (who were the top-league champions of that year) with four goals each.  Therefore, if Beachside is keen to recreate these conditions, I have no doubt that we will reach these goals and my hope is to be part of this history.

7.   Why did you choose to go to a second-tier side?

I think that I have accumulated enough experience to be able to coach an NPL club, but to be in that role isn’t only dependent upon me. By being away from the field for a few years, it is not easy for clubs to have confidence in someone who has never done the job on that level before. I have been through all the coaching courses which have been administered in Tasmania. As I am more interested in competition (performance) rather than development for its own sake, I am no longer prepared to coach NPL youth teams. Given this situation, I would like to take a championship team and, together with them, make a way to reach the NPL level. 

8.   How do you rate Tasmanian football at present?

I just spent four years doing volunteer work in Senegal, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It is difficult to compare clubs and leagues in different states or countries. For me, the important thing is to see the progress that Tasmanian Football has gone through. Despite our issues, we have seen some breakthroughs of the Tasmanian clubs over those on the Mainland and as evidence of the quality of our players, more and more of them are going to there for trials. Also, women’s football has gone to another level altogether. They are playing an entertaining and beautiful style of football. Also, I watched a schools competition this week and I could see the kids doing some very complex combination play. The teams were very well structured, and listening to their coach’s instructions and language. It showed to me it was all sound football. So, I think this is what really counts and we are definitely moving in the right direction.

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting appointment.
They have nothing to lose so why not something new.

I think Romilton's character is of a very quiet person and may seem disinterested with this mannerism if I can put it that way so it will be interesting to see players adapt to his style and manner.

Anonymous said...

It will be interesting to see who he recruits.

Craig and Jane Turner said...

Very smart man who understands a players strengths. Good luck Romilton and as I said to you that cup game UNI V Olympia is close to one of the best played in this state in the last 50 odd years. Craig Turner.