Proud traditions fuelling South and Marconi as they pursue more history in Aus Championship final
Marconi and South Melbourne are two of Australia's most important clubs and it's the weight of this history, and expectation, that they will carry as fuel into Saturday's Australian Championship final
Put simply, without South Melbourne and Marconi, Australian football would be in a much different and much poorer place. It sounds like something that should be hyperbole, but it really isn’t: the two clubs steeped in decades of famous moments and legendary figures that make them indelibly entwined with the history of the game Down Under. But on Saturday, they get a chance to do something new, as well as do something no other club can ever achieve, when they compete to be crowned the first-ever winners of the Australian Championship.
While they never actually met in a Cup final, South and Marconi are the only two clubs to compete in all 28 seasons of the National Soccer League (NSL), as well as the only two to claim four titles. And the litany of greats that graced or emerged from Middle Park and Bossley Park are a who’s who of Australian football; the likes of Ange Postecoglou, Mark Schwarzer, Paul Okon, Paul Trimboli, Harry Kewell and Ferenc Puskás all spending time in the blue of South or the blue of Marconi during the senior or formative years.
Banished from the national stage with the birth of the A-League in 2005, the door to which was only opened once more with the advent of the Australia Cup and then thrown open with the Championship, one has to go back effectively three decades to find the last time these two proud communities competed for a national trophy: Marconi failing to the Collingwood Warriors (a short-lived partnership between Heidelberg United and AFL side Collingwood) in the 1996-97 NSL Cup final and South’s hopes of three national titles in four years dashed when they fell to Wollongong Wolves in the 2000-21 NSL Grand Final.
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Thus, Saturday could almost be said to be just as much about the past of Australian football as it is the future: two proud clubs returning to a spotlight they dominated for so long in the hopes of becoming the inaugural winners of a new second-tier and, in doing so, being at the forefront of a new era in Australian football.
And both belligerents know fully well the responsibility, not just the opportunity, that comes with such a task when you’re representing a Marconi or a South Melbourne.
“I knew the club that I came to coach. I’m well aware of what it means, what that badge means,” Marconi boss Peter Tsekenis said. “As a player who played in the NSL, who played against Marconi, who played against South Melbourne, I’m fully aware of what it all means.
“And we’re continuously educating the new generation of footballers who weren’t alive, basically, when it all happened. And they’re well aware as well. So there’s no doubt our players, when they take the field, know who they’re representing.”
For South, there’s perhaps even more to prove. In large part thanks to its glittering historic success, the club has made no secret of its designs on returning to a level it sees as more befitting its station than its current home in the National Premier Leagues, recently signalling its ability to step up and replace Western United in the A-League Men should it prove unable to be woken from its ‘hibernation’. Further, just weeks after Saturday’s game, they will embark on a new adventure in the first season of the OFC Pro League.
The mood surrounding the club stands in stark contrast to earlier this year, when a 3-0 hammering by their old foes Heidelberg United – who South defeated in last week’s semifinal – left Hellas flirting with relegation from the Victorian top-flight and ushered in the sacking of Esteban Quintas and his replacement with then-technical director Siniša Cohadzić.
Since then, however, the Serbian-born gaffer, who has also worked as a coach in the NPLW with Alamein FC and with the Philippines women’s national team, has overseen a rejuvenation in the side’s fortunes: guiding them to safety in the league, a Dockerty Cup final triumph over the Bergers, the round of 16 of the Australia Cup and, now, the Championship final.
During this time, in which he’s quickly shed any thoughts of him simply serving as an interim or caretaker, he’s also developed a fierce connection with the South fanbase, as typified by his celebrations of last week’s semifinal win, and, helping to feed into this, he knows just how important winning is when you’ve got the Hellas badge on your breast.
“I say to my boys all the time that from the day I stepped into the seat, we’ve played so many grand finals,” Cohadzić explained. “Every single game from that point was a grand final for us. We had to survive relegation. We had to go and win the Dockerty Cup. We went a long way in the Australia Cup. We came into this competition, where it was important to win every single game.
“So every game that we played was pretty much a grand final for us [because] the badge is that heavy, you cannot let off and let this club suffer in any way.”
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Cohadzić is also cognizant of the legacy that opponents Marconi will carry into Saturday, too, as well as the challenge the NSW NPL side will present.
“If you picked it before the competition started, you would really want this to be a dream -- and it’s really happening,” said the South boss.
“In regard to Marconi, we’ve had a look at them very well in all the games they played. They’re a very organised team, a very strong team that plays a certain style of football where they’re very effective. We know that this game will probably be our hardest game in this competition.”
Now, having said that, South are probably considered the slight favourites in Saturday’s final. Dropping just a single point all tournament – a 3-3 draw with Moreton City Excelsior, who would go on to make the semifinals, on the final day of the group stages – they’ve defeated the premiership-winning qualifiers from Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland on the road here and will have the advantage of sleeping in their own beds on Friday evening.
But Marconi under Tsekenis has made a habit of winning the big games. And they’ve made just as much a habit of using the doubts and perceived disrespect of others as kindling for their success. So it doesn’t matter how carefully one couches declarations of South being the slight favourites or how respectful one is in the process – it’s all a tool in the visitor’s playbook, one that they’ll be using to fuel their pursuit of silverware.
“Most people have doubted us,” said Tsekenis. “Even tomorrow, we are the underdogs to most people, from what I’ve heard or what I care to hear. But we use it to our advantage. Why wouldn’t you? It’s one of those things that, if it’s there, I’ll use it -- if someone wants to throw something at us and they doubt us.
“In that change room. We have a lot of self-belief. So, regardless of what people think, if they’re willing to doubt us, then I’m going to use that. And it fires them up because they don’t agree with it, and they believe in what we have. I fire them up, use it to my advantage for big games. And it seems to work, so I keep using it.
“We’re going to go into their space, into their hometown, and we’re going to rob them of the trophy. That’s how I look at it, and hopefully that’s how the boys see it.”
Header Image: Football Australia/Mark Avellino