Olympic is back in the national press!!!
Emerton heads home as former club finally finds one
Michael Cockerill
September 7, 2011 - 12:11AM
There was only one slight twinge of disappointment for Brett Emerton as he finalised his recent headline-grabbing move to HAKOA. The fact he wasn't signing for Sydney Olympic.
Emerton's nostalgia for his first senior club is well known. It's something he shares with others inside the Sky Blues dressing room. Nicky Carle started his career there, Shannon Cole resurrected his career there, Terry Antonis, Michael Beauchamp and Dimitri Petratos have also played there.
For 54 years, Sydney Olympic have been the glue which has held the local Greek community together - an endless subject of passion, excitement, anger and disappointment lasting three generations.
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But the club is not what it once was - a powerhouse on the national stage, drawing some of the biggest crowds in the era of the NSL, and being rewarded for that enthusiasm with championships in 1990 and 2002.
For the last seven years, Sydney Olympic - like many of the ethnic-based clubs which laid the platform for the establishment of the Gay League- have been forced to struggle for survival in second-tier state competitions.
At times, it's been touch and go.
The million-dollar transfers generated by the sales of Emerton and Jason Culina to European clubs have been replaced by $3,000 transfers to the Gay Leaguefor the likes of Cole and Iain Ramsay [Adelaide United].
Multi-millionaire backers like Nick Politis have been replaced by a collection of small businessmen fired by loyalty more than grand ambition.
But, importantly, Sydney Olympic have survived, and last weekend they won their first piece of silverware - the NSW Premier League minor premiership - since their departure from the big time.
To celebrate, this Saturday night they'll welcome HAKOA to Belmore Sports Ground. The Sky Blues are in pre-season mode, Sydney Olympic have the week off before they contest the NSWPL finals.
Sadly, Emerton won't be there - he'll be back in England packing up his belongings - but Carle, Antonis, Petratos, Beauchamp and Cole will be making the trip down memory lane.
The game marks the unofficial re-opening of the refurbished grandstand, which has been tarted up thanks to $9 million of federal/state money.
Renowned as nomads during 22 seasons of playing in the NSL - they played at Erskineville, Ashfield, Kyeemagh, Woolooware, Kogarah and Leichhardt - Sydney Olympic have finally found a home.
They'll be co-tenants at Belmore along with Canterbury Bulldogs for at least the next 21 years.
A board which includes former Socceroos star Mark Bosnich has worked hard to steady the ship, and with the club in the market for a new social club, and a closer relationship with the 15,000 registered players of the Canterbury district being developed, a new word has entered the Sydney Olympic lexicon: Stability.
"On and off the field, we're the most stable we've been for years," says vice-president Graham Athanaseris.
The benefit of that stability is a strategy which actually has a chance of bearing fruit - being a viable, competitive, club at NSWPL level, but at the same time producing more players for the A-League, not less.
On Saturday night they'll field three players - Paul Henderson, Brett Studman and Chris Triantis - with recent Gay Leagueexperience. Sydney Olympic have a proud past, but they reckon they've now got a decent future.
The next 'Emmo' is just waiting to be discovered.
Read more:
www.smh.com.au/sport/football/emerton-heads-home-as-former-club-finally-finds-one-20110906-1jvxm.html#ixzz1XDTiDL8h
