South Melbourne FC: The FULL Story (President & Football Director)

Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to "Sooted and booted" I'm your host, Drogway to my left. - Rizmahazim. - And we are joined by the Australian Cup winning guys. Peter Gokotis, senior director of football. Bill Papaster Yadis, I didn't realise you had Greek heritage. - I don't want to be Greek, I want to be Greek, I don't want to be Greek. - I have senior sort of floating around Oakley, so there might be a living. - Floating is a nice way to put it. - Living. - Living. - Living. - I've been littering there for 15 years. - Well that's a good thing, so you know what? We're happy to be here then. - Oh man. - That's changed the whole nature. - You're not dropping Oakley as well. - I know more. - You're both Oakley boys. - I'm a little bit further out but like I obviously I should finish the introduction. - Co-president Bill Papaster Yadis. - I know more Greek than I do my own languages. - Well what type of Greek do you know? That's the question. - Look obviously bad words. - Yeah of course. - But I know like random things. - Oh you can get by. - Household items, little sayings here and there like. - Have you dated Greek girls? - No. I might as well have my best friends. - What if your mum would disapprove? What's the issue? - No at this point I could date anything and she'd be like just hurry up and get it done. But no, just my best friend's Greek, I'm always around his family. I just went to Greece. - Yes I know, I saw those little clips about this is the place people need to retire. - Yes. - Is that right? - Yes in Crete. That's where I did it. But I don't know. - You guys are three. - You do look Greek. - You both look like Greek. - I could pass. - If you're a part of Greece. - If you're a part of it. More than or more Southern art. - What's the best place in Greece? - Where you're from, you're from. - Yeah. - You're partisan because this is a whole nature of how Melbourne and the diaspora. And even Athens was set up. They, when villages moved, they moved together. So they moved to particular locations. And then that was their way of socialising and relating to one another. The same thing is here. When they came to Melbourne, they set up clubs from their localities. And that was their socialisation. So clubs like South Melbourne transcend that. There's not many associations that transcend the local village relations. We're one of them. And that's why you know it's people. - The initial South, the people that started it. Was there a region that they were from initially? - Well, that's an interesting story because Michael was part of that story. There were three clubs. - Yep. - Yarra Park, which actually is a Peloponnesian club. From my father's choreo, which is a village called Valimitika. So that club was Yellow and Black, actually. And then there was Hellenic, which was another club. I think that could have been from Peloponnes as well. And they were both playing in that Richmond area. And then there was the English club, South Melbourne United, which owned the ground. And they didn't have the supporters. They had the ground. And then in 1959, my uncle, Luca Cotas, who was the president of Yarra Park, signed off for the merger between and the other three clubs and become South Melbourne Hallis. And the original board had the Englishman on the board. - I had no idea. - Yeah. How long did it take before the Greeks deposed them through some presidential-- - Two years. - It wouldn't have taken long. - That next Greek president would have been deposed within about five minutes. Followed by another president who was there for ten minutes. Greeks had got a thing with presidencies as we know. - Wow. - It's like we were talking about setting up of the diaspora here in Melbourne and from their locations. Like the Calamations from Calamata came here. - Right. - It's a city. It's a city in Greece, in the Peloponnes. Only 40,000. They set up a group, the Peloponnes group, the Calamata group. Within five years, there was five groups. Five presidents, all representing the same region. It's an idea, yeah, yeah. - Love that. - And we've just-- Oh, maybe we should do a congratulations. - Wow, yeah, that's-- - Yeah. - I mean, we were talking about the Peloponnes region. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That's pretty important. But yes, guys, massive congratulations. I mean, it was one of the craziest sporting events. Events in general, I'd ever witnessed. And you know, I was saying before the game, how to me, it didn't need to be free kicks scored and people doing rainbow flicks and this beautiful football because that to me wasn't the point of the game. It was bigger than the quality of football. Not to say the quality was bad, but it was cagey game. You know, a few chances, very tight defensively from both teams, so I wasn't really focused on that, but the occasion as a whole and then to end on penalties the way it did. - You couldn't script it. - You actually could not script it. - You could not script the emotion, the drama, the intrigue, the history, the passion, and the storytelling that has come before this game and post this game, the Ellen Davidson story. And I spoke to Ellen before the game, he came to the South Melbourne Hellers function and he said he could not leave the toilets at the school for a number of years at lunchtime because of the difficulty he was encountering and applying ground and it was through football and through his Greek family friends that he found a way forward as was a story of Charlie Perkins at Sydney Olympic. Same story, first time he ever felt normal and that he belonged in this country was when he joined Sydney Olympic. So these are the stories that were told, we'd heard, but we're told again as part of the narrative of football because what does football do? It unites us. And that's what we saw in the weekend. We didn't see any crowd trouble. - You know, one thing on that point, I will say is that I did see even online, I saw a lot of victory fans even saying like, "You know what, I'm annoyed we lost. We really wanted to win that obviously." But seeing what it meant to the fans and the staff and the players and what it's going to mean for Australian football going forward, they lost on the day, but I don't want to speak for all victory fans, they're not a monolith. But some of them were saying like, I think this is actually a positive step going forward to see like, like you said, a lot of the stories in Australian football, especially in the A league, and I mean this with no disrespect, were manufactured because it's a newer league. But this has organic narratives to it that you can't script. - And I spoke to a bunch of people all coming into the game outside the grounds, the important interviews, that'll come out in a video tomorrow. And everyone, victory fans, South fans were wanting to see South in the top division. And then that was before the game. That was pre-game. And then I do want to say congratulations and well done to South Melbourne. Of like, on the park, of course, all the behind the scenes, all the stuff you guys have put together, leading into the game the whole year. But then particularly the fans. I have been a victory person, played at victory many years. I've never seen an away fan group come to Amy Park and make so much noise. Never, never, honestly. Maybe in away games, like when we travel to another fan group's ground, Western Sydney and stuff, early days, or maybe even Sydney FC, but never in Amy Park that loud. I've never seen like competing with non-victory supporters. So congratulations. - Competing, maybe super-seating. Like, I mean, I know I was at that end, so it was obviously louder for me because I was closer. But, and look, you've got to give credit to victory as well. - 100%. - They are a part of this story. Without them, there isn't this story. And they packed out their side. I'm seeing different numbers go around of the percentage of fans. - Doesn't matter. - No. - The atmosphere matters. - The equation matters. - I don't think it matters. - The feeling, we don't care about the numbers. We care about. I might show you this. I want to share some of the personal stories. So this is someone, something I saw this morning, we're a girl, posted a photo of herself, and beside it saying, I was one of the 29,911 who got to witness it. But for me, this story started long before Saturday night. And I thought, how touching is that? She then posts. And these are the personal stories you talk about. Built by migrants. It was built for more than just being a football club. A place to belong. A community. A legacy. More than a decade later, we still live on. And she's posting little stories and anecdotes. And then posts says, I spotted this shirt in the crowd. It said everything. and I'll show it again. And there's a shirt of someone in the crowd with the South Melbourne emblem saying, "South Melbourne helpless." Grandfathers, we could say grandmother's as well, built it. Father's kept it, mother's kept it. And sons and daughters now inherit it. And these little stories of maybe they never stop along. This is the same person who's posted these little intimate stories of her own experience. At the game, which fills us with so much joy because this is what the game's about, isn't it? It's about experiences. And it's about parents turning up with their children and sharing a time in history and a moment that they can recount and then maybe one day they can pass on to their own families and their other generations through it. That's what football does. - Yeah, brilliantly put. I think I just want your guys' perspective on, I guess Peter, what are your thoughts on, and again, it doesn't actually matter because they were all their supporting South, but do you feel like that was an accommodation of just Greek Victorians in that end, being passionate about their background, but also supporting South Melbourne because I won't say who he is, but one of my acquaintances, he's like, you go, shh, I'm a Heidelberg fan. He goes, but I have to be here. - There was lots of them, bro. - Oh, there was lots of fans. - There was lots. - North Good fans, Kingston City fans. - I see. - We were all on South supporters to be, I mean, you're not at the tribes again. And of course, that's what happened. Traditionally, when South Melbourne was the NSL giant, Saturdays was the local state league games. Where you went to your local. And Sunday 3 p.m. was South Melbourne's match day where everyone came and supported South. And that's how it was for many, many years. I didn't have a local state league team. So for me, it was just South, but a lot of, so it was easier for me. I'm a one club man, always have been. And that's how I'm built in my DNA. I'm just that type of person. But a lot of others, like Peter Cuziris from North Good, who's a massive South fan. And he says, now North Good's his wife, South is his mistress. - Of course. - In True Cotsie Way. And it sums up how things happened. Once we started competing with them, we started becoming like a little bit, you know, like we were touchable again. We're not, we didn't have that elevated sort of status. And that beat us as footballs are, you know, not even a game, we start losing to them. And then sort of everyone broke away and only the hardcore state, the rusted on supporter state. But Saturday was uniting that. And everyone says, if South back in the A league, we're there tomorrow. How many of them? And of course, there was those other ones that went off to victory. And there were some, there were, I saw parents there with South tops and victory, no, there's sons, victory, which blew me away. 'Cause I don't know how I'm not that democratic in my family with my son when he was four years old. - We didn't invent democracy, but it doesn't apply to us. Not to me, not to me. Like my son when he was four, he said, "Dad, I want to go to this team." I said, "You can go, but you'll feel "and your uncle and I, we're going to that game." So if you want to come, you can come. But if you're more than welcome, I don't know who's going to take you to the other team. - So that's what we're trying to ask. - But not other people a little bit more democratic, but I saw a bit of that as well. - Yeah, no, I saw, I saw, it was such a good day 'cause I saw so many people from like my childhood days of football that I haven't seen, 'cause they don't engage with the A-League. But for this game, they showed up 'cause they're football people, they're from grassroots community, football, hard old bird, Oakley canons, whatever, different clubs all just came to this game. Sort of so weird. - Yeah, I saw people I hadn't seen in 10 years ago. - Yeah, me too. - And who disengaged from the A-League? - Exactly. - Exactly. - Yeah, some of them, like some maybe, some maybe like still watch it, but yeah, others where I hadn't seen them in years, maybe because I only saw them at the A-League or something. Maybe they had just like, you know, gone away from it or whatever, but I do want to ask, we got you guys on for a reason. We want to know what's happening behind the scenes in the lead up to this game and then post game, we'll start with the lead up. What was happening in the week leading up that maybe the public don't know about or they have the wrong perception of? Because after the game, I saw a lot of South staff and stuff crying and they're like, "You don't know how much work went into this fucking game." So maybe give, you know, paint a picture of what it was like the week leading up and all the work that went into it. - Well, they're all drinking frappes at Nikos K. (laughing) - Into a traditional Greek style. - And ordering everyone else to do the work. Hey, you, pick up that phone. You, you, a clipboard over there. - Yeah, I should've seen them. I'm always down there. - Yeah, and we're great at giving orders, you know that. Democracy has peter-indicated and it's good in theory, but not in practice particularly when it's a lead. Oh, well, a lot went on behind the scenes. But you know what, the other thing we tried to do, we tried to keep it normal. It was important for us, for all of us not to be over-enthused and overexcited. And for that then to step into the lives of the footballers because that's the last thing in it is for them to spend their energy in the week leading up to it. So we isolated them. Andrew and I and Peter met with the footballers two weeks ago, not a week ago, with Sinister and the coaching team. Two weeks ago and we spoke about the game and the importance, but we then left them alone. I had zero contact with the playing group, the administration staff killed themselves. I don't think any of them have slept. We've got a shoe string administration team. It's quite a good one. We've got quite a few professional staff, full-time administrators. They worked hard, you know, with ticketing, publicity, dealing with inquiries, kit, the other logistics, getting there. We had a function as well, attended by the ministers and quiet, the Lord Mayor, who all posted, all posted at the game. Brad Battern announced at the game, the opposition sports minister. Melbourne will be the home of football if we're elected and Melbourne will get that third license and it will be South. Steve Demopoulos posted, A league needs promotion. Should it be South? The Lord Mayor announced before the match, South Melbourne needs to be admitted in these radicals and Herod's son in the A league. So there was a political storm happening. Hopefully someone sees. You know, we're pretty good at that, it's South. I'll say it, but I'll say it. Yeah, and they should see it because it's not really a political conversation. It's a conversation about what does the public want? What do people want? And, you know, we talk about this. Football is a metaphor for life. In life, when you wake up, there's no point getting out of bed unless you got a dream and you want to aspire to something. And then you got a purpose for getting up and doing things. Now, when you take away the purpose and you take away the dream and you kill the aspiration, what then happens to footballers? What happens to administrators? What happens to people like Sinister coaches who are dreaming themselves of doing it one day? And as a metaphor and my God, we're lucky and I use the word lucky that we won because we didn't win for South. We won for football. We won for people. We won for equity. We won for justice. We won for all of the things that matter to people's lives. And I think that's what we saw. That emotion we saw on Saturday was that pent up feeling of give us a chance. Give us a chance in life. That's all we want. It's like a young footballer. You want to be given a chance. Sometimes you don't get it. You try somewhere else and you try somewhere else again. You don't always succeed. But if you keep trying, grit and determination, get you there. And South is exhibiting that. But we're doing it and I'm going to be honest. Not for us, not for Halas. I want to do this for everyone because I think we need it in this country. We need football to open up and acknowledge history and tradition. Now our history as a Hellenic club is important because it helps define us in some ways and gives us meaning. But it doesn't determine the outcome nor where our life is going. It's only a part of it. We live in Australia. It's a multicultural, pluralist country. We're a multicultural football club. When people apply to play or train or to coach, we've never asked them which village in Greece was your mother? Yeah, we should've gone. Oh my god. Where, like, can you play? Can you contribute? Same with the fans. We embrace you. You're one of us. Well, I think, Peter, I think it'd be hard to find many people, maybe outside the APL at this point, that don't want South Melbourne or don't believe that South Melbourne should be in the. And now, especially after this weekend, everyone was saying it, but now after this weekend, it's kind of inevitable that you guys are the number one club that should be given an opportunity, right? What are I guess the practical things that you could maybe speak about that you're being told that may limit your opportunity to be able to do that. - I don't think there are any practical limitations for us because one of the key determinants of football in this country are stadium deals. It's the stadium deals that are terrorising football clubs. We saw that with in Queensland, who was at that billionaire that set up the club in South Queensland? - Help me not one of the minor bar. - Five bar. - The minor game. - Where he found the stadium deal so expensive, he was cutting off three quarters and opening up a small section for each of the games. - That's right. - Now, the beauty of South Melbourne is we had middle park as part of the Grand Prix taking that over. They gave us lakeside stadium. We negotiated a really equitable deal for exclusivity for the club at Lakeside, where we make a profit, host to 1,000 people. So that allows us to set up a multi-million profit base out of five to 10,000 people attending our games in the top tier competition. Do we expect to get five to 10? I think it's reasonable. - Yeah, for sure. - It's a cheaper getting 5,000 for a strange chance. - So financially, we can do it. We have a stadium that will enable us to achieve it financially without crippling us, we have a supporter base, we've got the sponsors, we've got stability from a board perspective. So I can't see the impediment at the moment. And also, we want to work with people. We're a club that wants to invest in the product and work with others. We want to work with the APL, we want to work with the A league, we want to be friends and have friends in football. It's important. - Sorry, I just want to follow up with a follow up question on. - So what specifically are they asking you to meet? What areas are they asking you to meet? Or what, not you guys, what specifically are they asking all clubs to meet before being able to get here? - We haven't had that conversation yet. They've said we'll come to you post the final. - Okay. - So we've had conversations. How you're doing? What's happening? You know, what did you have for dinner last night? But nothing specific about, you know, what are the entry requirements? Or are we even interested in you to come into the A league? - In terms of, we haven't actually got to that point yet. We've got to be honest about this. Can't put words in the APL's mouth. - In terms of lakeside, does there need to be any additions to it for it to be deemed A league standard quality for the stadium? - No. - No, but in any case, during the 2018 bidon, we had Matthew Guy with us at the function pre-game function. He was in the Liberal government at that point in time and he announced, back then, if we won, he would allocate funding for even a more additional seating, lighting and whatever else is required to make the stadium purpose fit for whatever level is required. We're very tight with current Premier, tight with Jess Wilson, it won't be an impediment. And number one ticket holder is the Deputy Prime Minister. He got us funding for the OFC because it's in the government's interest to build friendships with our neighbours. And what's the best vehicle for friendships? Sport at your nights at all. So we take a number of those little boxes and create good friends domestically, nationally and within our region as well. I think Joey Lynch made a really important point on the last podcast we just did before the game and he basically said, as bluntly as he can, they tick every box. This winning the OFC Cup final didn't determine whether South Melbourne should be fit for the A-League or not, it's already done. This was just a cherry on top of the cake-type thing. But it's not just about South, it'll send a message to every club with aspirations that there's no chance. - Yeah, exactly what we're saying about that. - So don't even have the grandiose dreams because-- - Don't invest. - Because don't invest in your coaches. Don't invest in your football programs. Don't invest in medical teams. Don't give your kids the opportunity to dream. It's been the systems stopped that for so many years. And the Australian Championship has shown that it's given the opportunity for investment. Coaches, players. When we sort of reached out to the players and said we're going on a journey now and the new leadership came in with Bill and Andrew and we sat down and we had a vision that, you know, we want to rise above the NPL and start being ambitious. We reached out to the players and asked them, you know, "Guys, you're up for this." And some of the guys, I mean, portion of that squad is not at an age demographic where they're looking to play above South Melbourne. South Melbourne is their final destination. And not one of them flinched when we said, you know, we've got traveling, we've got time away from work, we've got extra sessions. They're, it's, it's, it's, do you want to do better? - Yeah, they want to do better. - Do you want to sell? - Which is what Bill said. And the investment in the medical stuff and the coaches, everyone was on the same page. - Everyone did. - And then when Bill gave us the belief, he gave me the belief, he said, Peter, I want to win the effort. I want to win the, sorry, the Australian Cup. I looked at him the time we were getting at a relegation. I said, Bill, are you mad? And he said, um, he said, no, no, no, no, no. - It goes with being great. Of course, mad. - Is mad, and are you crazy? - But he meant it. And he's at, and every time I'd say Bill, we need this player to go to the next level. It's said, me, Peter, we need to win. Go do it, endorse me. He just said, don't worry about it. Just go find the player. - So how long ago was this, when was this the relegation battle and then the turnaround? And what did you do to get out of that? - Well, the relegation battle was, yeah, that was obviously sort of mid last year. - Yeah. - The year we'll be back 12 months ago. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - And remember it clearly, though. - Yeah, I remember it, I was living it. He was living the abuse online. - Abuse online, I come from Oakley or East Bentley, but I live in Oakley. So my son at the time was working in a, in a Contangularcus's Melissa Cafe. - Melissa, yeah. - So that was like the sporting hub, soccer hub of Oakley, so everyone would come in and they'd act like, they'd know that he's my son, but they'd act like they didn't know. And they'd be bagging me, in front of him, as he's making coffees. He came home one day, he said, dad, you know, I'm just getting tired of going to work. They're just giving it to you all the time. And I said, I said, don't worry, son, you know, it'll be okay, we'll get out of this. So, yeah, it was around that time, we had the change of coach happened, and then we sort of navigated our ship out of, first was just survival. After the first game, when we lost to, we had that bottom-table clash against Port Melbourne, Cinnis' first game. And he was very passionate about changing the style of play and going to more attacking, sort of progressive, sort of pressing game. And I, after the first game, when we lost, we did a three-hour meeting at in Chatsdon, Pancake Parlor. We got a draft shot for itself. No spenty spared. Everyone paid their own way, and I'm tipped. I've had the contract negotiations. I don't know, Chatsdon Pancake Parlor for NBL this time. Apparently, is that where Oakley's sack their coaches or something, some famous shop. Anyway, so I went there, and I wrote, I just wrote a piece of paper. I said, since I know you want to progress this team to a different style football, but you can't do it overnight. This play is not indoctrinated with the fitness levels, and I just wrote survival on a piece of paper, and I said, mate, this is where we're at at the moment. Everything you do, everything we is survival. And then, mate, we nearly made the finals. And of course, we won the Dockety Cup. And then everything started, and then Bill and Andrew came in and the investment and support and the belief that they gave was unbelievable. And they just said, we're going to win this, we're going to win that, go do it, and come to me if you ever need any problems. So it's been amazing. It's been step by step after that. Of course, we got to that September window, and I just said, I need a window to catch up to Hartleburg, 'cause I was so strong and so good. - What exactly happened with the sinister reinstating situation? What in terms of wind, was that? - Yeah. - I made, no, no, when was that? And that was May, June, May, June. So that was just a little bit of a hiccup. You know, sometimes you've got to get some passion in football, who's like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And then, you know, within minutes, we hugged and kissed is a nice guy, Sinosa. He's a gentleman. I like him, I should like him as a person, leaving aside the great work he's done. So we hugged and kissed, and I said to him, how long do you want to go? he goes, you know what? I said, do you want a year? Do you want two years? How long do you want? I guess I don't know. Just give 'em till the end of the year. It's fine. It goes. That's plenty. I'll realise my dreams. We've got a few more things I want to do here. So we're in a good space with Cinnus, as we know. He's moving clubs. He's moving to Avondale. That's okay. We're good with that. He's good with that. Avondale's good with that. What he has achieved is many extraordinary. And we want to celebrate it. And we wish him well in his journey. He's a good guy. I like him. He's a good guy. He's passionate. He's different. He's different. He's fun. Yeah, I love him as like a character here in the MPL. I'm going to ask Peter, Bill coming into the club, can you give us a little bit of a background because you told us something off the pod that we didn't know about Bill's background, or maybe current part of his current lifestyle. What he's doing in Greece. In Greece? Oh, there's south of me as his side gig. Bill was holidaying in Greece as he does. He runs a very successful law firm as well as everything else he does. Father of two beautiful children. He's also head of the Greek community. He's a very, very big role. Just 600,000 people or something, you know? Yeah, yeah. And he's done incredible. No opinions in my city. No opinions. But he had experienced running a board because I mean, what he's done there is unbelievable. And I didn't really. I'm more of a football guy. I'm proud of my Greek heritage, but I'm not into all that sort of stuff as much as other people. And I sort of stay away from events because I just don't like all the crowds and overpriced food. And I just wasn't for me. When I went to the Longsdale Street event last year because Bill said, you've got to come down. I was blown away what he'd done. This is like tier one event. I said, this is unbelievable. Like so, I said, understanding, you know, whatever he does, he does at a very high level. And when he says he's going to do something, he does it. He backs up his words with his action. So he one day met a home and I'm watching, you know, Greek morning news, sorry, the Greek morning show, sorry. And Bill's standing in the pool with his tight blue speedos on. That's not true. That went speed up. And there's kids behind him. And I like talking to Greece. And I wanted to pull shot. It's summer there. We want to pull shot. And I didn't have the courage to tell him guys, it's summer in Melbourne, but it's actually 18 degrees in rainy. I get freezing my speedos. Why are you in the pool in Melbourne? Yeah. Standing in the pool. I thought you were holidaying in Greece. No. And he's talking to Greece in the middle of winter. They're waking up having their coffee. They don't have cornflakes. They're winter. They're winter. They don't have cornflakes in here. And it's made of summer. It's felt like everything. But what show is this thing? The equivalent in Australia. That's the channel. And channel seven. I've got Sunrise TV interviews post today in Greece with the equivalents of 917 ABC. Oh my god. Yeah. This is a big deal for them. And they're interested in this story. They're interested in Alan Davidson's story. They're intrigued by what goes on 14,000 kilometres away. It's like, what? There's another world with Greeks in it. Outside our borders. What are they doing? What there's flags? Tell us a little bit about it. They want to celebrate that story. They're not all living like Bill. I could tell you that. But, um, yeah, it's great. He's a superstar back in. Yeah, he's a rock star. We're very privileged to have him because he's connecting Greece to us. But it's good, though, because I saw a lot of Greek Instagram pages from Greece, like showing the guy playing the Buzuki and showing the game, obviously in Greek writing on the slides and everything. It's, you know, making a internationalizing our game. And like, obviously, there's a massive Greek community here. Is it true that it is Athens, Thessaloniki Melbourne? Correct. That is the third biggest Greek city in the world, which is crazy. So obviously it does. We apologise to the non-Greek of this city, who might think that we've taken over. I love it. I love it, personal. Not yet. What was the Merkel story during the Greek crisis? There was a joke about Merkel arriving in Athens airport and the attended that the airport says to her occupation. And she said, "Ah, not yet." And I think this is some similar story about the Greeks who arrive here. Occupation? Not yet. We're not having taken over this year. Maybe later. I want to ask, either of you, do you remember what it was? Do you remember the experience of the NSL finishing and then what you were doing at that time and what it felt like going through that period, separating away from the A-League for sale? Yeah, for sale. Yeah, look up, obviously, bands since 1979. So I live and breathe the club, unlock the club geek. When it comes to you, do you remember that game? Well, that's that. So that said, my little bit of great man, sort of part of my personality. And for you, that was an incredible time. And there was some amazing people that we need to acknowledge that there's so many things that we have to do at this club, but that's part of our story. And at the end of the day, they just shut the league down. If you recalled, it was 18 months of no football. So it wasn't cool that we just couldn't trade. And you have these leases locked in, you've got players. So that was like, that was a really, really weird time. And then we had, we went into administration, we had to save our South campaign to raise money to try and, you know, and there's some incredible stories, like the liquidator, which one of them was Croatians, he was a soccer guy. And they came into the club and to grab all the assets. And all the trophies disappeared the night before. Totally better tip off. Yeah. So one was at, you know, this guy's house in the lounge room. One was at, and the guy came up and he said, oh, look, we've got to grab the trophies and this and that. And they go, you know, we don't know what happened. And the day before it disappeared, and he's got a smile on his face. He said, okay, really? So there's all that sort of stuff out. Yeah, disappearing. Yeah, disappearing. So the four in a cell trophies, I mean, that's not what I want to be arrogant, but pretty big trophy cabinet. So we had a bit to sort of hide, but that sort of stuff that was going on back then. And it wasn't a very glamorous time, so long, long away away from Saturday night. Very different time. Yeah, that's where I think, for me, someone who's, I know, some people call me a Johnny com lately, because I grew up an AFL kid and I went to my first MPL game, maybe 2018, 2019. So all of those, all of those stories are very, they're interesting to me because I've never heard them, but that's where you've got to look at the people that are crying after that final whistle and think they've seen shit like that. So when you do witness what you did on Saturday, for me, Saturday night was just an incredible event that I've gone and told everyone about, but I don't have a emotional and spiritual connection to it because I didn't witness moments like you guys did. And that's a moment, right? Then there's 18 months of no football and not just that. Then there's also years and years and years where you're not in the top flight. Still not in the top flight. So the people have been around through that whole year. Oh, yeah. Some of the experiences we've had. I remember FFV bringing out the whole MPL license sort of strategy and putting a diagram and they wanted us to be like a vessel, like taking away our identity and pretty much saying, you're here to have a talent and then provide it and deliver it to the A League for nothing. It's like what the hell are these guys on about? I mean, some of the stuff that we've been through and then we took the fight back then. Great man Tom Callas who we've gathered an award for took the fight United the Tribes back then took on the United Tribes to set up the Australian Champion. Correct. And he's a great man. A great man of football. I believe in the broader vision of an importance of our football ecosystem. And that's really the important part that it's South can't play on its own. Like there would be no fun at first playing our seconds every week. We need to play in a football ecosystem and we need to play around other healthy clubs that are also investing and also have character and tradition and also want to win and create the intense rivalry we saw on the weekend. That's what it's about, isn't it? Yeah. That's what it's about. It's all it is. It's not more complicated from your perspective. Bringing in. I guess you're one of the key figures, if not the key figure of bringing in players to the club. Yeah, that's my job. When I looked at that team sheet, uh, before the game on the weekend. And I'd seen people say this online as well prior to that. You look at it, and if you know the quality of players, you wouldn't really bat and eyelid. That's an A league team. Well, that is a top flight team, like, especially your midfield pairing are the midfield is top shelf A league, like it. Some clubs in the A league do not have that that quality. One person as well. I really want to point out. He's an absolute gentleman as well. He's Yankevich. I was extremely impressed with his performance. Yeah, good. Did he play it? Because anyone passed the ball 60 meters with depth and precision. No, the way Yankevich does to put swivel on a full pace. We controlled it perfectly and swivel hasn't played a lot of football in recent months, but he's been turning up to training, doing everything he needs to do, making himself ready and relevant. That five minutes. Yeah. And he delivered that cross that got sent us a set that sent us a one of his messages on the Friday was guys, you're all, um, every whether it's two minutes or 90 minutes or 60 minutes. You're all have an opportunity to play a role and maybe impact this game. James, like it's, you know, how good was he when he was unbelievable? How good is that? I was right there on that on that wing. He was playing on sort of just behind the goals. And I thought he is up close, rapid, great dribbler confidence, confidence, but we're giving him opportunities, because when James started playing with us four or five months ago, we have to be honest. He struggled. Yeah. And he struggled in quite a few zone of C games, he was running into players, regular, there were games where I imagine the poor kid had zero confidence. But we kept playing him, because we believe in the future and we believe in young kids, because this is what football is about giving people an opportunity. We kept playing sinister, kept playing him, Peter kept supporting him. Andrew Missouri is at a big part in the development of this football team along. Alongside Peter, Andrews, Andrews are rusted on football person. So we have conference. I go he managed the football department for years before I came along while I was in the juniors. He to this thing about South Melbourne. And this is I think a very pertinent point and have to be made. Andrew miss Aruni was a junior football director for years, then went senior football director, and then president, and I was the junior football director with an agent's background. So we were football people, and then I became senior football director. So the last 15 years of this club, the senior football directors come from the juniors and understands the club from the ground up. So it's, and so we, we get it. And I think where the difference has been in the past when in your era, like if you got cut from a league, you pretty much went to suburban football. And you know, it was where we're a platform. Now we're aspirational footballers who might. For some reason, you know how it's such a fine line. They sit there and they make a list management decision on a whiteboard. They put two names up and they say, oh, he's a little bit faster. This one's a little bit more technical. And they go, oh, that one. And then the other one gets cut. But you know, they need somewhere to go and develop themselves and maybe have another, you know, have another go with it. And talent applies like lackey. And I mean, how many of those boys and Marco made the point, Bill, didn't he? He said, um, if you're from Europe watching this game, you wouldn't know which one was a league, which one wasn't. I don't think you could really tell the difference. Could you? What I couldn't. What is I don't know. You don't obviously have to give away the secret sauce here. But what is your approach when it comes to procuring talent, bringing in players, because some of the some of the talent you guys have brought in could well have gone and played in Asia, could well have gone and played in the A league. And if those offers and if stayed. Well, that's why I love the people. They love the club. I love the supporters. But I'll let Peter answer it. No, well, look, we've been very, I think the last 12, 18 months of the competitions that we've been able to playing has given us the ability to understand. And I'm I'm I'm not doing this. I'm a volunteer. I'm not doing this full time. But we're investing in that area, because it's such a key part of building football clubs. You don't have merino coaching. If you don't have the team, you're going to fail. Scouting and development in this. And it's it's a it's a it's a battle of weapons here of having the best available talent to try and to try and win a football match. And they're playing in the strange championship. We saw, you know, Aaron Cox playing against us. I wouldn't have been able to catch to me. It was playing in the new castle league. When would I have the time to see him. But it was in front of us. We saw him. He was stock stocky, you know, a little strong little wing is a ball. But and we saw it. Sam PD is that I look at him is unbelievable. Good kid. They're all good kids. David you good people. Yeah, it's the most important thing about a club. Surround yourself with good people. Good things happened to good people. And I live by that mantra. And we've got a great culture inside that dressing room. Outside as well. Inside that dressing. Boy, they play for one another. And you saw it. Putting in those last tackles. Oh, yeah, chasing down players. Yeah, I played for one another. Yeah, as much as I played for the badge and for their supporters. They played for one another. I thought Yuki was how good was he. Yeah, there was one. There was one. He was. It was one sequence where he had it. It was late in the later stages of the game. Chopped, chopped again, chopped again, embarrassing to defend them. That was on the winger, on the wing. Yeah, on the wing. And I thought this guy is. He's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Just getting in that talent is obviously not an easy thing, like you said, offers from overseas, I'm sure, with the money gone around Asia as well at the moment. But I think that's a good point you make of guys, we are giving you the opportunity. And you're probably only going to get this at south and maybe a handful of other clubs, where you are going to play in not one, but three, four. Six. Six. Dockety, Australian Championship, NPL, OFC, OFC, Australia Cup, and Asian Champions League. You could argue this is. So we're going to give a lot of opportunities to a lot of players. Our roster was 55 players this year. That is insane. And we were at the top of almost every comp. I just thought of this. 55 players got a gig at south. You want to play football? Come to us. We'll give you a chance. If you want to come out every time. You're on. I just realised you could argue that it's actually better for a young player to play it south and open at the moment, because you play more games. Yeah. You're going to get more opportunity to play. And the level is not that different. So you're playing more games, the A league you might get, what, 15 games or something. You could play 40 games, maybe for south Melbourne. It's actually that's insane. I just thought about that. But in Oshania, if you saw the Oshania after, we just narrowly missed that one, but I spoke to the football director of Auckland. And he said that some of the games in Oshania were a higher level than the A league. If you look at Cox's opportunities, what he's had since his coming, what is the 55 games now, Bill? He's had to manage traveling and getting off planes, going to overseas, learning how to prepare, playing in different types of athletes, the different athletes, the Oshania. Very physical, far strong, human conditions. Then flying, playing in a, in a taxing game like that, and then coming back and having to play four days later in an MPL game. And every time you're playing in an opponent, they don't have one eye on another competition. They've just got that game to worry about. And they want to kill you in that game. Well, we got that game, and then we got in the back of our mind, oh, we're going to go there on Thursday. And then mate, his development's just gone through the roof. And you can't get that. How does it work now with Oshania and Asia? Well, there's separate, separate times of the year. Oshania finishes in May. Asia starts in September. Right. I saw you had coach saying, it's funny. People say, they need to be able to become professional. Like, how much more professional can we be? You're playing in Asian charity. Right. We are now. And we have to satisfy that criteria. So what do you have to do now? We already did that for the Oshania professional football league. We have to satisfy the criteria to be a professional football club. We've got the tick. And we're the 13th professional football club in the country. So you got to satisfy them from administrators, marketing, medical, analysts, communications, coaches, all of these are full-time roles that you need to demonstrate that they're being achieved. and then you get the license. We've got a professional football license. We're a professional football client. Asia is very strict, aren't they, with what they are. So what is the deal with Asia, with everything? What is the deal with the Asian ACL2 going forward for you guys? I can't answer that yet. I mean, we only just woke up from. (laughs) This giant championship in the Australia Cup, so we'll have those conversations in the coming weeks and months. But I think we learned a little bit from the Holterberg experience too, as well about what they needed to go through, what various steps they needed to go through. We've got strong government backing. You know, they're all with us, all the relevant ministers, we're with us pregame for the Australia Cup, cheering for South, you know, in our home state. So we're confident we'll be able to satisfy whatever is needed to make sure that we get there and we can pay it and we'll see what happens. It doesn't stop for you guys. What are your plans over the next few weeks? I know you said the APR haven't spoken to you yet. What do you envision in the next few weeks are going to be like for you guys? We've got Southern Sharks on. (laughs) On the weekend, how about that? It's not normal. I said to Bill, "Santa, this is so much not fair." You wouldn't, I felt grandfinal. You know, you celebrate for months. They've got a mad Monday. And we haven't had mad Monday. We've got bloody training on Tuesday morning. The boys have mad Monday. Talking tactically, how to play for Southern Sharks, I just think that's not normal. Not after Saturday, but we love it. We love it because you know what happens. When, if you're playing in PL and the season finishes, you think this is such a drag, you've got to turn up every week, this at the other, season finishes and then the following weekend after it's over, you're like, shouldn't I be somewhere? Yeah, now we're doing it home. I need to beat somewhere, but you know, there's, there's a positives and the negatives about the fact that we're a 12 month, a year club now. It's good. That's what a professional club should be, in my opinion, anyway. I mean, we just active all the time. It's good though. Like I said, there's gonna be tolls on players and all that, but like you said, with Cox, you're building players, their resilience and what their, what the world is in professional football if they were to move abroad. Like this is what it is. You're in a new competition every bloody week. You think it's done, but then bam, we've got something fresh to look forward to. Prepare for that. Asia, Asia's different to Oshihana. Oshihana is different to the MPL. MPL's different to the Yoss Cup. Oshihana's different to the championship. They all have different elements to them, which if you're, if you play in all of them for one or two seasons, you are going to be so fucking well equipped as a player. Spot on two and that was anything. That was the Saturday night story. In many ways, we were confident from my perspective. We were battle ready. Yeah. The whole season. We've been fighting for nine months in a variety of leagues in some pretty tough conditions in Oshihana, like committee at 99% and 35 degrees, and you know, the travel and whatnot. We've been playing in adverse conditions. We knew that we could handle adversity. Now poor victory, and I use the word poor. We're in the preseason. Yeah. That was to our advantage. That was that was one of the advantages we had. We were people saying that we might be a bit tired or leaky, but our medical team, Shalom, to Antap and Alain Fizio is just a genius and the way he's managed to have one injury leading up to this extraordinary role. There's not one player that was injured here. After 56 games this year. And we've rotated 50 players. It's incredible. I'll show you the stats. I wouldn't discredit like having the three weeks it's off. You guys have been off. That makes it hard. We took 12 days. We took 12 days. We had to have 12 days. Yeah, there you go. Well, they had to because it's just not mentally or physically normal because we had the strange championship. But that was your right. It was a real balance if to come back and lose the fitness and momentum for the final. So they won very strict running programs, but we said you have to get away from the club and just get away. Do not talk to anyone mentally freshen up because it's just too much. I was like, you know, it's, I got two things to say. If you have any more questions. First one was I was driving through the Burnley tunnel the other day. It was a Friday. So for the game. And I thought to myself, fuck. I go, I wonder what the South players are feeling right now. I'd be shit and bricks. Like I genuinely would now. I know that a lot of them have a league experience and they've played in front of crowds like that. But the noise is something that some of these players have never dealt with. Some of these players might not have played in front of crowds that big. Oh, no. If you've been to the Solomon Islands, we're, that's true, that's true. We're 15,000 cans. We're being thrown through after we utilize. I didn't think of that. That's why I said we were battle ready. Yeah, yeah. We've lived worse than the victory supporters. Where we, we were running for our lives out of the state. [LAUGHTER] They prepped that up with everything they had. The Preston Cauldron was, you know, that was a, that was a caught off final. The boys have lived some interesting experience. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But you're right. You're absolutely right. But that's another level. It said I was another level. It means different, you know? I mean, that, that cup meant a lot. Well, that's the difference. That, that what I would think. Like, of course, the Solomon Islands game is important. You want to go there and win. Of course, a caught off final is important. This is a game where you're seeing everyone online saying, this is the biggest game in Australian football history. You're hearing us say it as a player. They would have felt it. Absolutely. It could be like, oh, fuck. Yeah. Okay. Not only do I have the, the hopes of South Melbourne on my shoulders. I've got the whole Greek community. Then I've got other aspiring A league clubs wanting to push all of these things. And the way they handled it, like, like you said, couldn't tell who the professional team was on the day. Honestly. Full credit to him. Yeah, it was great. We love those boys. We really do. We love them. Such gentlemen. Such kind. And kind, spirited. Welcoming to our young players. Supportive. Good people to be around. It's what I said to you. What I said earlier. Good things happen to good people. And we've got a great change. Change in room. Yeah. And full credit to Peter and Andrew. And to Siniser. And to Peter for creating that right environment for them to flourish and thrive. And to be the best version of themselves. Be the best person they can be on and off the field. That means a lot to me. Because, you know, that game's over. But we want that image of true gentleman transcending that game. You know, showing the right attitude, the right spirit and the right example. To aspiring footballers. To know that. I'm a nobody, but I root. That's what I take on board when I meet players. Yeah. Because I never played. And you know, I've got this joke about my good list. But. Ramazzani gentleman. What a nice talk. Right after the game. What a nice guy. Lovely to meet you and everything. I'm like, mate, I'd be running off in my undies with the cup. Yeah. And he's coming up and saying Yankevitch as well. Yeah. I was super impressed with how, yeah, gentlemanly everyone was. Especially like, is this random guy trying to come into the fucking change room? So he can get a photo of them drinking hot. Yeah. Like, you know, everyone was really welcoming. And one thing I'd loved seeing. And, you know, obviously South has a proud Greek heritage, so on and so forth. One thing I love seeing was all the ethnicities in the crowd. That was South fans. I knew who they were there to watch. I saw James Lackie's family. I saw Yuki's family. Someone who actually ran on and hugged him. And I was like, this is a, it's multicultural. Like, there are people from all over the world here supporting South because of the different ethnicities in the team. I did you see the photos that we lauded in the crowd. Of our. Resilience. You've got Brazilian. You've got that. Jimmy Armstrong. Yeah. A proud Scott. Yeah. Margaritas is a legend from the 60s. Yep. You know, all sorts of different people are Puskas, Hungarian. You know, that's South Melbourne. Our great, who represented our club to lift the trophy, Paul Trinvoli. Our greatest player and person, in my opinion, in the history of our club. You know, it's, it's, it represents, as Bill always says, represents the village that South Melbourne is. And that's the community. Unless there's anything else you fellers on a touch on, I'm completely content with that. I do want to ask you guys. And I've got to go in a minute. Okay. The Greek channels are waiting. Right. My phone hasn't stopped ringing with Greek numbers. You're not going in the swimming pool today. No. No. And on the license, on the license that the A league expects people to play pay, I'm a hundred percent of proponent on, you get on in on merit. And obviously, you need to meet certain criteria at the same time terms of professional standards, which you guys obviously have. What is your thinking on the law? license side. I don't want to preempt those conversations. I want to have an earnest discussion. We want to have an earnest discussion with the APL about that. And let's see where the cards fall in terms of what the criteria and requirements are. I have a similar view to you. They have a value associated with the license and their own entities. I respect that. I understand it. The game has moved on and forward beyond that. So they'll be part of the conversation. We've got an open mind about talking to the APL about all of that. I was a bit facetious yesterday where a few people were asking me, "Oh, it's 15 million to get into the A-league. Geez, you know, you're going to pay that much." And I said, "Yeah, it's 15 million." I said, "Really?" I said, "Yeah, it's 15. They're going to pay us 15 million so we can play in the A-league." And they just looked at me. Some of the journals just looked at me stoned face and went white. I said, "Guys, I'm joking. But, you know what? Offer 15 million. We might come in." You would obviously, at this point, offer, I mean, I would assume, I don't know, but I would assume based on the game on the weekend, you would offer millions in value to broadcast anything else. Look at the numbers on TV. It was double 100% higher than last year's numbers. And it was almost the largest number ever on television in terms of viewer-oriented ship. Almost the largest they've ever had for a football match, just like it was 30,000 less. My parents are in Italy right now and they've been hearing about everything like of what's going on with the game. Before I let you fellas go, I do want to say, again, I'm a nobody, but I'll never forget all nations' cup. I think Greece was playing South Sudan down there at Knox. I think it might have been right when you became president. You didn't have to do this. You came up and you introduced yourself. You said you're always welcome at South like we'd love to have you guys down and I haven't forgotten that. I've got the photo. I've never posted it, but I'll look today. I posted today. So, it's not a bad bloke. He's not a bad bloke at all. So, I do. Who were you supporting that day? Oh, you just stand there and enjoy your work. But we sat down to be on my make-up line. Yeah, they did better. They just, they're just different in that. But, yeah, I want to thank you guys for coming on Pete as well. You actually made this happen because we were saying after the game, like, "Fuck, who do we get on?" No, I don't know if they want to come on. The president's stuff after the game. They're probably going to be busy. I'll try to get bull back on, whatever. And you came up to me in the tunnel and it's been incredible. You guys are very well spoken, obviously. That was a great podcast. So, good luck with everything going forward. We'll be there supporting you guys. Get south in the A-League, and we'll catch you guys next week. And keep doing the great work you're doing as ambassadors for the code. We really appreciate it. And can I tell you a lot of kids watch you? And so, you do have a lot of influence out there. And you are using your influence wisely. So, we appreciate that from the football public. 100%. Well done, guys. I appreciate you guys. We love you guys. Thank you so much. Sooted and booted, South Melbourne, Oz Cup winners. We out.