Vale Otto Josef Frick (29.10.1930 - 5.2.2019)

Photo:  Otto Frick in 2008 [PlessPix]

The death has occurred in Hobart of Otto Frick, one of the founding members of Rapid SC in Hobart in 1958.  He was aged 88 and had been in ill health for some time.

Frick was the club’s first goalkeeper, but he initially played for Juventus after arriving from Austria in 1956.

He was born in the western Austrian town of Rankweil, known since ancient times as a place where superbly built Roman roads converged.

Frick was a very cool-headed and reliable goalkeeper.  In 1958, he saved a penalty taken by the renowned George Arnott in Rapid’s 2-1 loss to Caledonians before a huge crowd at South Hobart in that year’s Falkinder Cup Final.

His place in goal for Rapid was eventually taken by Karl Jaeger, who later played for Juventus.

After retiring, he was sometimes recalled when the club had goalkeeping problems.

Frick also served in many positions on Rapid’s committee after retiring as a player.

The Rapid squad of 1958 was:  Frick; Ioannou, Zurasek, Rader, Syrginis, Hattinger, Pieper, Gmelch, Deutsch, G Kaiser, H Kaiser, Nikolai, Umgeher, Krusic, Stee.

Photo:  The Rapid side of 1961, with Otto Frick at far left of the front row.

The brilliant Jan Zurasek, a 43-year-old Pole, was player-coach of Rapid, while Frank Gmelch possessed the most powerful shot in Tasmanian soccer and was tragically killed in a mountaineering accident a few years later while on holiday in his native Austria.

Frick is survived by his wife, Edite, whom he married in 1967, two daughters and a grandson.

Photo:  Otto Frick, third from right, at a Rapid reunion in 2008, with (L-R) Joe Rader, Hubert Kaiser, Fritz Hattinger, Walter Nikolai, Gary Schmull and Chris Syrginis [PlessPix]

[Footnote:  Rapid is no more.  The club had to change its name in 1997 according to the Soccer Australia edict about ethnic names and it became Kingston Cannons.

The club then amalgamated with Christian United, which eventually became Southern FC.

From being a club founded by a group of Austrian and German migrants, it is tenuously linked to Southern FC, which has just withdrawn from the Southern Championship and will probably play in the social league.

Hank Gervan, who has coached Southern FC, is probably the only former Rapid player involved with Southern FC.  His father played with Hollandia in the 1950s.]

Photo:  The Rapid team and other players of the 1960s era at the 2008 Rapid reunion.  Back Row (L-R) - Joe Rader, Hubert Kaiser, Walter Nikolai, Otto Frick, Gary Schmull, Tony Goodman, Chris Syrginis, Alan Mackie.  Front Row (L-R) - Fritz Hattinger, Jim Dolliver, Johnny Stee and Fritz Umgeher [PlessPix]

Hobart United have easy ride into Lakoseljac Cup Round-of-16

Southern Championship side Hobart United go straight into the Round-of-16 of the Lakoseljac Cup competition, which eases new coach Andrew Brown into the job.

United received the bye when the draw for the preliminary round of the competition was made recently and they join the NPL Tasmania big guns in going straight into the Round-of-16.

The preliminary round draw has thrown up some interesting pairings and these games will be played on Monday, 11 March 2019.

Beachside, one of the favourites for the Southern Championship league title this season, will host North-West Coast outfit Ulverstone.

Ulverstone won the equivalent competition, the State-wide Knock-out Cup, back in 1982 when they beat Hobart Juventus in a penalty shoot-out after the match ended at 1-1 after extra-time.  It had been goalless in the regulation 90 minutes.

In another South versus North clash, Metro will welcome Launceston United to North Chigwell.

Launceston United represented Tasmania in the Australia Cup, the precursor to the current FFA Cup, in 1967 and 1968.

They lost 2-1 to Melbourne at Olympia Park in 1967 before a crowd of 2,500, while the following year, they lost 1-0 to Hakoah at Olympia Park in front of 2,000 fans.

Life became difficult for them in later years, but I guess one can say they have pedigree in cup football.

Only one southern side has to travel north.  Taroona travel to Launceston to take on North Launceston Eagles, who are competing in this competition for the first time.

Burnie meet Somerset in a North-West Coast derby which should be hard fought.

Somerset actually reached the final of the State-wide Knock-out Cup in 2007, when they lost 2-0 to Launceston City.

There are two all-southern affairs, with New Town Eagles at home to University and Nelson taking on newcomers to the Southern Championship, South East United from Sorell.

New Town Eagles have won the State-wide Cup no less than four times in their illustrious history.

The preliminary-round draw for the 2019 Lakoseljac Cup is:

Beachside v Ulverstone

Burnie v Somerset

Metro v Launceston United

Nelson v South East United

New Town Eagles v University

North Launceston Eagles v Taroona

Pascoe Vale again beat South Hobart 1-0

Photo:  Pascoe Vale's Davie Van't Schip battles with South Hobart's Tobias Herweynen and Adam Gorrie [PlessPix]

Pascoe Vale of the Victorian NPL beat South Hobart 1-0 at South Hobart Oval last Saturday in a pre-season friendly.

The goal came in the 20^th minute through Pascoe Vale’s Number 16 (no team sheets were available), after a quick counter-attack down the right caught South Hobart’s defenders out of position and slow to react.

South Hobart keeper Kieran Brown, who had made a brilliant save in the opening minutes, was left alone and defenceless and had no chance of saving.

Pascoe Vale had created three decent chances before the goal and deserved their lead.

Photo:  Ben Hamlett works hard against two Pascoe Vale defenders [PlessPix]

South Hobart’s passing left a bit to be desired and their build-ups were largely ineffective.

Their only chance came when Ben Hamlett worked hard to get a shooting angle in a crowd of players, but he blazed high over the bar.

Photo:  Pascoe Vale's playmaker, David Van't Schip, lies injured [PlessPix]

Pascoe Vale suffered a huge blow when their playmaker, Davie Van’t Schip, suffered a leg injury and was forced to come off.

After treatment, he tried to resume, but to no avail.  One wonders why he wears such small shin pads and, indeed, why referees allow it. Incidentally, an English referee from Victoria was in charge of this game.

His injury appeared to be on the outside of the leg just above the ankle, an area a shin pad does not protect, but surely his shin pads do not comply with the laws of the game.

Photo:  Pascoe Vale clear as South Hobart's Nick Morton causes problems [PlessPix]

His departure certainly didn’t help Pascoe Vale’s cause and South Hobart came back into the match after the interval.

They beefed up the centre of their defence by bringing on Hugh Ludford and Oscar Thomas, while Alex Leszczynski also had a run in attack.

Alex Walter squandered a great one-on-one opportunity with the goalkeeper as South Hobart clearly struggled to score.

Pascoe Vale hung on for the 100 win, the same as when the sides met in Melbourne last month.

Photo:  South Hobart goalkeeper Kieran Brown is left to retrieve the ball from the back of the net [PlessPix]

Goalkeeper Graham Wright is back from England and was on the South Hobart bench.

South Hobart travel north next weekend to play Launceston City.

Victorian visitors Keilor will be in town next weekend to play Glenorchy Knights at KGV Park at 7.45pm on Friday, and then Olympia Warriors on the Saturday.

Former Glenorchy Knights player Goran Jozeljic, brother of local referee Ivan Jozeljic, plays for Keilor.

Photo:  South Hobart's Declan Foley, who has signed from Glenorchy Knights, pleads his innocence.  He was lucky later not to be sent off after conceding a free-kick and then kicking the ball into the face of a Pascoe Vale opponent who was lying on the ground.  The Pascoe Vale player needed treatment before he could resume playing. [PlessPix]

Photo:  The Pascoe Vale number 9 controls the ball with his chest [PlessPix]

Photo:  A Pascoe Vale player surrounded by South Hobart opponents [PlessPix]

Metro Reserves storm to win over Brighton in pre-season friendly

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Daniel Thurley, with shirt turned inside-out to avoid a colour clash, takes on a Metro opponent [PlessPix]

Metro Reserves beat Brighton Storm 5-2 in an entertaining pre-season friendly involving two lower-league sides at North Chigwell last Thursday evening.

The teams were wearing very similar strips and Brighton soon turned their shirts inside-out and played in what turned out to be white shirts.

Brighton stormed to a 6^th-minute lead when Daniel Thurley beat the Metro keeper with a delightful chip from range.

The lead lasted only 8 minutes and Brayden Blackaby, Metro’s left-winger in the number 7 shirt, equalised after some poor defending by the visitors left their goalkeeper out of position and the goal exposed.

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Brice Rowlandson clears his lines [PlessPix]

Two minutes later  -  in the 16^th minute  -  Blackaby repeated his party trick and netted into an empty goal to put Metro 2-1 ahead.

Jacob Clark scored Metro’s third in the 24^th minute and the home side led 3-1 at the break.

The Storm rallied in the opening stages of the second half and Ben Smith was unlucky not to score in the 58^th minute when he got onto the end of a left-wing cross only to head against the crossbar from close range, the ball rebounding into play.

Smith made amends on the hour when he scored from close range to make it 3-2.

Photo:  Metro's Terry Kent (left) is tackled by Brighton Storm's Zach Hurd [PlessPix]

That was as good as it got for Brighton Storm and Metro increased the tempo and scored twice before the end.

In the 64^th minute, Shane Kent scored a penalty awarded for handball to give Metro a 4-2 advantage.

In the 73^rd minute, they earned another penalty.  It was taken by their number 6 (no team lists), but Storm’s keeper, Nick Rolle, produced an excellent save.

With 6 minutes remaining, Metro’s Jay Shadbolt scored with a terrific shot from range to make the final score 5-2 in favour of the home team.

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Brice Rowlandson on the attack [PlessPix]

Photo:  Brighton Storm's Brice Rowlandson wins a header [PlessPix]

Photo:  Metro's Shane Kent (right) watches Brighton Storm's Daniel Thurley become airborne [PlessPix]

Photo:  Metro launch a counter-attack [PlessPix]

Photo:  Brighton scorer Ben Smith with his nose plugged.  A stray shoulder to the head have Smith a bleeding nose and a forced spell on the side-lines for about half an hour. [PlessPix]

Photo:  The colour clash is clearly evident in this photo [PlessPix]

Top international referee visits Tasmania to inspire local match officials

Photo:  Former EPL referee Mark Clattenburg at an FFT media conference last Friday [PlessPix]

Former English Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, 43, a familiar face on TV football coverage, was in Tasmania over the weekend to present a lecture at the Tasmanian Referees’ Conference in Launceston on Saturday.

Clattenburg had a busy 2016, refereeing the European Champions League final (Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid in the San Siro in Milan), the final of the UEFA Euro competition (Portugal v France at the Stade de France in Paris), and the FA Cup Final (Manchester United v Crystal Palace at Wembley).

That meant he shared the stage with some of the game’s current greats, including Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric, to name just a few.

Clattenburg has been to Australia before, having refereed the Socceroos against Brazil at the MCG in 2017, but this is his first visit to Tasmania.

He could still referee in the EPL for another 10 years but decided to retire at the end of the 2016-17 season and devote his time to other pursuits.

He was hired by Saudi Arabia to develop their referees.

“There’s not an industry you can go to when you retire, so it was an opportunity to look to develop and help their referees become better and educate them,” Clattenburg said.

“It was a chance I took up.

“Tony Peart got in contact with me recently and asked me to attend the [Tasmanian] referees’ conference and to give a lecture to the referees and to talk about what made me successful, or some of the attributes that made me successful, especially in 2016 when I refereed all the major finals of the Champions League, the Euros and the FA Cup Final.

“Hopefully, I can pass on one or two tips and that’ll inspire some of the referees here in Tasmania to become top referees and hopefully get some of them to the A-League.”

Photo:  Tony Peart (left) and Mark Clattenburg at KGV Park [PlessPix]

Peart, the Football Federation Tasmania referee manager, is currently an assistant referee in the A-League.

Tasmania has had one FIFA referee in the past and that was Jack Johnston in the 1980s.

Clattenburg said fitness was one area he always concentrated on as a referee because a referee cannot reach the top if he or she is not fit.

“Modern-day football is now so fast and referees have to find an area in which to improve on and that was one of the areas I always wanted to improve in,” he said.

“In the 13 years I was refereeing at the professional level, football has changed a lot.

“You have the laws of the game, but you’ve got to understand football now and one of the biggest things for referees is interpretation of the laws and how to manage football matches.”

Clattenburg things there are problems all over the world with the new VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system that has been introduced in many countries and many competitions.

“We have it in Saudi Arabia and VAR is a huge step forward in football.

“I think everyone wanted it, but how it’s been implemented still leaves questions.

“The problem you have in football is that a lot of the decisions are opinionated.  Is it a penalty or not?  I could show you ten clips and argue over the ten clips, therefore you’ll still have arguments between the VAR and the referee.

“When it’s a matter of fact such as off-side, ball over the line, the VAR is special because it proves beyond doubt that the decision is correct.  VAR going forward is the future.

“When I’m refereeing with VAR in Saudi Arabia, it makes my life easier and I feel more confident.  But, I want to check.  As a referee, I still want to see the decision and I don’t really want to rely on the video referee because sometimes the video referee might think it’s not a clear and obvious error, so I think if the referee gets a second chance to look at it, at least he can put his mind at rest that he’s got the right decision.”

Photo:  Mark Clattenburg at Friday's media conference [PlessPix]

Clattenburg said there was a protocol governing the use of the VAR, but some countries implement VAR in different ways.

“What is a clear and obvious error to one person may not be so to another person,” Clattenburg said.

“It’s all about trying to get the right decision.

“Refereeing isn’t just about refereeing.  You need to understand about football and coaches, and get everyone involved, coaches and players, so that everybody is on the right guidelines about what VAR is all about.

“The best referees in the world shouldn’t need it, but it’s there as a support mechanism.

“If we want to stop the absolute refereeing disaster [of a bad decision], then VAR is the way forward.

“But, we’ve got to be careful that it doesn’t ruin this wonderful game of football by continually stopping the action.”

Clattenburg said the use of VAR in some competitions and not in others caused problems in England because an assistant referee might be involved in a competition that uses VAR one weekend and then in a competition that doesn’t use it the next weekend.

“It must be difficult for the referees and assistants to swap between the two systems,” he said.

“If we want to stop the scandalous decisions, or the absolute refereeing disasters, VAR is the way forward.

“But, we’ve got to be careful that it doesn’t ruin this wonderful game of football because we don’t want it to become stop-start because that affects the flow of the game.”

Photo:  Brent Costelloe of WIN TV interviewing Mark Clattenburg last Friday for his radio programme [PlessPix]

Metro and Beachside draw

Photo:  Metro's goalkeeper gets to the ball just ahead of a Beachside opponent [PlessPix]
Metro and Beachside drew 1-1 in a pre-season friendly at North Chigwell today.

Beachside took the lead on the half-hour through Ben Whitehall.

Metro began to create chances as the match wore on and only a fine save by the Beachside keeper kept his side's lead intact.

The pressure told in the end and Metro equalised 13 minutes from full-time through Daniel Harris.

Photo:  Metro's Matt Robb sends a Beachside opponent tumbling [PlessPix]
Both teams will play in the Southern Championship this season.

The game was played in oppressive heat and referee Brenton Kopra wisely allowed drink breaks in each half.

There were several first-team regulars missing from both teams.

Andrew Robb was a notable absentee from the Metro side.

Photo:  Beachside's scorer, Ben Whitehall, in possession and tightly marked [PlessPix]
In two women's pre-season friendlies, Hobart Zebras demolished University 14-0, while Clarence United beat University 3-1.

Latest friendly results

Photo: Pascoe Vale's Davie Van't Schip under pressure from South Hobart's Adam Gorrie.   Van't Schip was injured in a tackle and didn't see out the first half. [PlessPix]

South Hobart 0-1 Pascoe Vale
Metro Reserves 5-2 Brighton Storm
Moreland City 2-2 Olympia Warriors
University 6-5 Clarence United

Photo:  South Hobart's Tobias Herweynen (left) challenges a Pascoe Vale opponent [PlessPix]

Photo: Action from the Brighton Storm versus Metro Reserves game [PlessPix]

Photo:  A Metro player (left) and a Brighton Storm opponent go for the ball [PlessPix]