Vale Dale Itchins (20 August 1957 - 18 January 2023)

Photo:  Dale Itchins in his office at Soccer House in 2008. [PlessPix] 

The death has occurred in Hobart of Dale Itchins, 65, who had a huge influence on junior coaching and Futsal in Tasmania over a period of four decades.

Itchins was a successful coach at several clubs at reserve-team and youth levels, but also did a splendid job at senior level when called upon.

He was always reluctant to coach at senior level and preferred to work at a level just below the top flight, where he developed numerous young players who went on to play successfully at senior level.

He was popular amongst his players, some of whom preferred to play in his teams than move up the ladder to senior ranks.

Itchins was a superb man manager and he employed his skills in this area, as well as using practical psychology, to get the best out of his players and the teams he coached.

He called a spade a spade and demanded discipline from his charges.

Anyone who crossed him or let him down intentionally was in danger of being assigned to what he jokingly called ‘The Muppet Bus’.

Itchins knew what he wanted in football and always had strategies to achieve his aims.  Winning was not everything to him and he placed great emphasis on player development as well.

He was employed by Soccer Tasmania, the governing body of Tasmanian football (now Football Tasmania, but previously the Tasmanian Football Federation), for over two decades in a full-time capacity in various roles as a junior coach and as an administrator.

He was always ready to play the role of a trouble-shooter, but his greatest success was as the man in charge of Futsal.

In this role, he brought considerable revenue to the governing body’s coffers.

Itchins won much silverware with his teams at a number of clubs, including Glenorchy Knights, Hobart Juventus, White Eagles, University and Olympia.

An example was the Under-23 Knock-out Cup in October 2001, when he coached Glenorchy Knights to a 1-0 triumph over Hobart Juventus.

That was a particularly successful year for Itchins as Knights’ Under-23 side completed the treble, having already won the Summer Cup and the league title earlier in the season.

Itchins did not bother to keep tabs of his successes at youth level but did sometimes give senior-level coaching a try.

In 1992, he took over Hobart Juventus seniors half-way through the season following the departure of Chris Hey.

In 1994, he coached White Eagles’ seniors in the State League.  They reached the grand final, only to lose to Devonport City.

Photo:  Dale Itchins as coach of White Eagles. [PlessPix] 

I interviewed him after this and he said:  “I’ve had one-and-a-half stints at senior level and I have experience to offer.  My record speaks for itself and I certainly haven’t disgraced myself or anybody else.”

In 1999, he faced one of the biggest challenges of his career when he coached University’s State Youth Reserve League side, whose players were considerably younger than the players from other clubs.  Players travelled from the North and North-West to train and to be a part of this team and it was basically the previous years’ State Under-15 team.

Itchins had considerable roles with State youth representative teams, either as a coach or as a manager, when they competed in national championships.

In 1998, he was manager of a Tasmanian Under-15 team, coached by Andrew Greenwood, which went to Japan for a tournament.

Itchins often took the nucleus of his teams with him when he changed clubs, which showed the loyalty his players had towards him.

In countering accusations that he never coached bad teams, Itchins replied:  “I recruit well and I pick the right players.  I want to coach good players and players that respond to what I want and there’s a bond that’s established there and it’s not just about the way we play.  I’ve had some players for four or five years and it becomes a bit like a family.  I don’t go out and recruit players that aren’t quality players.  There are different standards, but you can make average players better players and, usually, if you bring average players in with better players, they become above-average players.”

Photo:  Dale Itchins (third from left, back row) in the Rosetta High School state premiership side of 1973. [Photo courtesy of Stephen Pitchford] 

Itchins began coaching in 1983 after retiring as a player at a relatively young age and qualified as a Level 2 coach and working on a part-time basis for Soccer Tasmania.

Itchins began full-time work with Soccer Tasmania in about 1998 and was involved with youth development, special projects, indoor soccer, school holiday programs and school visitations.

He worked under David Smith, Soccer Tasmania’s General Manager at the time, and Neil Connell, Soccer Tasmania’s State Development Manager, and they remained firm friends right up until his passing.

He was also part of the Football Tasmania team during the highly successful tenure as CEO of John Boulous.

Dr Daniel Hanna, a member of the Board of Football Tasmania, said that Itchins had been a very important part of the growth of the game over the last 40 years.

“I still remember him as the manager of the Central Region rep side I played in circa 1983,” Dr Hanna said.

Itchins’s contribution to Tasmanian football was considerable and he will be fondly remembered by former players and people involved with the game in this State.

I was friends with Dale from the early 1980s and had the good fortune and the pleasure of dining with him and Dallas Joiner last year.  He was stoic about the illness that was to claim his life.  He had moved to Kempton for a quieter life as he battled his illness.

My condolences go to his family and friends.  Vale, Dale Itchins.

Photo:  Dale Itchins at Juventus training in 2010. [PlessPix]

Photo:  Dale Itchins (pointing) and Olympia president George Mamacas at Olympia training in 2016. [PlessPix]
 

A look at Tasmanian football 60 years ago - the 1963 season

Photo:  Olympia, who won their first Southern Championship in 1963. [Photo courtesy of Dick Girling.] 

The Grove Road ground, now known as KGV Park, was opened in October 1963 after innumerable delays, so it seems appropriate to look at the season that was 60 years ago given that KGV Park has been ‘reborn’ with a new artificial surface.

There was turmoil in Australian football and it affected all the States.

Australia had been kicked out of FIFA because some clubs in New South Wales had lured Austrian players to these shores without paying their clubs transfer fees.

Australian football broke into factions  -  the existing Australian Soccer Association, which was booted out of FIFA, and the new Australian Soccer Federation.

Tasmania remained loyal to the Australian Soccer Association, as did Western Australia and Queensland, but before the 1963 season started, all States, including Tasmania, aligned themselves with the new Australian Soccer Federation and Australia was readmitted to FIFA.

Tasmania was, therefore, able to participate in a State competition run over the two seasons, 1963 and 1964.

It was not before a visit to Tasmania by German club Tasmania 1900 was cancelled because Australia was not in FIFA.  Tasmania 1900 was a very successful club from the Berlin suburb of New Koln and nicknamed The Tas and Tassie by its supporters.  It had won three Berlin championships and played before crowds of 90,000 in cup finals.

Tasmania 1900 had been founded by German sailors who had visited Tasmania and fallen in love with the island.  New Koln’s population was about the same as Tasmania’s at that time.

A pre-season friendly between Rangers and Melbourne’s Hakoah also had to be called off.

Soccer was also making some inroads on the West Coast with the formation of The Queenstown Soccer Association in 1963.  Games were played at the Preston Reserve with the blessing of the local hockey association.

Bill Bennett was granted Life Membership of the Tasmanian Referees’ Association.  He had been the foundation secretary of the Southern Tasmanian Referees’ Association in 1951.

The North-West’s Arthur Fillbrook was similarly recognised for his work in forming a referees’ body in that region in 1952.

The only other Life Member of the State referees’ body had been Hobart’s Norm Evans.

Tasmania’s first interstate championship game was on 13 April 1963 against South Australia at South Hobart.

The result was a scoreless draw and Olympia’s goalkeeper, Harry Alexiadis, was the star, making several crucial saves, including a penalty save.

Later on, Tasmania lost 3-0 to Queensland in Brisbane and 7-0 to New South Wales in Sydney.

The following year, Tasmanian lost 5-3 to Western Australia at South Hobart and 7-1 to Victoria in Melbourne.

The Tasmanian squad for the 1963 interstate games was:  H Alexiadis, S Prsa, G Arnott, T McLaughlin, I Gjurbuzovic, A Goodman, P wood, F Umgeher, W Worsey, J Bartolic, W Nikolai, C Jaeger, G Smith, H Zoetsch, C Kelly, J Scally, R Girling, G Gazzignato, H Pattison.

Alex Sarfalvy was the coach.  He had been an outstanding player in his native Hungary before migrating to Australia.

Sarfalvy introduced theoretical coaching classes on Friday nights at the Polish Club in New Town to which anyone interested was invited, but attendances were poor.

The State team comprised 99% of southern players, Harold Pattison being the exception.  The North had proposed seven players be included, but they were not chosen.  They were Terry Clark (28), Peter Mies (24), Harry Visentin (23), Mario Morosini (24), Josip Dekic (23), John Mooney (21) and Tom Bain (18).

Parochialism seemed alive and well.  It was somewhat ironic, then, that Launceston Juventus won the State Premiership Final by beating Ulverstone 4-2.

The 1963 season started with a local ‘World Cup’ tournament played at the Silk and Textiles ground in Derwent Park and organised by Hobart’s Juventus club.

The final, between Croatia and Germany, resulted in a draw and was not replayed.

The tournament was marred by a broken leg suffered by Rapid's star centre-forward, Egon Mathias, who was playing for Germany.

Soccer in Tasmania was presided over by the Tasmanian Soccer Council, which sat above the three regional bodies  of South, North and North-West.

The secretary of the Tasmanian Soccer Association, the southern body, was Selchouk Djemal, who had a spot on local television in some weeks and who was involved in the foundation of the Olympia club.

He caused a shock when he resigned suddenly.  His replacement was Fred Forstner, a great Bayern Munich supporter, who would always go to Europe to watch them play in various European finals.

South Hobart was the headquarters for soccer and there were many delays in establishing a new ground at Grove Road.

A grandstand was constructed and there were toilets and change-rooms for the players, but the construction of toilet facilities for the public were delayed for months.  The surface of the ground was also regularly torn up by machinery and it took a while for new grass to grow.

The ground was supposed to be opened in time for the start of the season, but the only three games played there were the last of the season, in Late October and early November.

The game between Croatia and Inter ended in a riot with a pitch invasion by supporters.  Three players were hospitalised and there was talk of erecting barbed wire between the grandstand and the pitch.  Does this remind readers of a recent A-League incident?

The 10-team Southern Tasmania top-flight competition comprised Rapid, Inter, Croatia, Caledonians, Olympia, Rangers, Wayatinah, Juventus, South Hobart and Metro.

The southern title was won by Olympia, who had only been founded two seasons ago and were coached by player Dick Girling.  He had been in the British merchant navy and had signed off from a tanker in Hobart and played for Caledonians, where he won several titles and personal trophies.

The final round saw Olympia, Rangers and Juventus finish level on 28 points each, with Olympia winning the title on goal average (Note:  not goal difference, the method used today).  It was the first time the title had been decided in this way.

Olympia used 19 players during the season:  H Alexiadis, R Girling, A Hall, C Syrginis, N Hanzivas, J Mayer, L Sacco, B Shacklady, E Huddlestone, W MacMillan, B Plomaritis, J Ioannou, C Petropoulos, N Hatjis, F Watson, V Kroustalis, J Alexopoulos, M Roussos, D Poulter.

I reckon that side would have given any of the top teams today a run for their money.

Olympia went on to represent Tasmania in the Australia Cup but were beaten 3-0 by Adelaide Juventus in Adelaide.  They gave a good account of themselves, however, and were certainly not disgraced and received much praise interstate.

The Association Cup Final was played at Grove Road on 25 October 1963 and Rangers won it by beating Croatia 1-0.

The last game of the season was at Grove Road on 1 November, when Olympia trounced Juventus 6-1 in the Falkinder Cup Final.

Other things of note in 1963 included the attempt to define professional and amateur players.

Clubs were asked to provide statutory declarations listing which players were professional and which were amateur.  This proved a fiasco and not many clubs submitted the required paperwork.

Transfer rules were supposed to be based on this information but the paperwork was unreliable, leading to some confusion.

At the start of the season, youngsters Phil Owen, Colin West and Wally Foster were denied clearances from South Hobart’s Under-18s to Rapid because they were regarded as belonging to South Hobart.

The South won the intrastate series against the North and North-West for a fifth time in a row with a 2-1 triumph over the North in the final.

I have already mentioned the riot at Grove Road, but violence was often just below the surface.

At South Hobart, a woman had her glasses broken and a man was bashed in the new grandstand.  A referee was kicked by a player and another threatened, forcing him to give the game away.

They were tumultuous times in some respects.

White Eagles won the league and cup double in the second division, thus gaining promotion to the top flight, which, as I say, should always be the case.

I wish everyone a successful 2023 season.  Let’s see if the game has really moved on since 1963.  As the old French saying goes:  “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”