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NPL 2025

Its very hard to bottle what Preston have done and distribute it elsewhere. This is a massive club to begin with and what happened there in the 2010s was a disgrace, for a good decade they were disliked by their own community, never should have gotten to the point where they almost folded. Current president and his board are very switched on, sponsorship is through the roof, right now its essentially the national team of its community. It also helps that about 85% of their fan base live in 3 suburbs directly north of where they play, not only does this guarantee high match attendance with the short drive, i suspect a lot of people pass through the club during the week as well, everyone is engaged.
 
southmelb said:
Its very hard to bottle what Preston have done and distribute it elsewhere. This is a massive club to begin with and what happened there in the 2010s was a disgrace, for a good decade they were disliked by their own community, never should have gotten to the point where they almost folded. Current president and his board are very switched on, sponsorship is through the roof, right now its essentially the national team of its community. It also helps that about 85% of their fan base live in 3 suburbs directly north of where they play, not only does this guarantee high match attendance with the short drive, i suspect a lot of people pass through the club during the week as well, everyone is engaged.
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It's not so much about the numbers they're getting, more about a club reaching its potential (and can still go further). Amazing what having the right people in place can achieve. That's what should be bottled, how a club can reach its potential in all areas. Doesn't matter if they're in the top division or the tenth, 10,000 fans or 100.
 
southmelb said:
Its very hard to bottle what Preston have done and distribute it elsewhere. This is a massive club to begin with and what happened there in the 2010s was a disgrace, for a good decade they were disliked by their own community, never should have gotten to the point where they almost folded. Current president and his board are very switched on, sponsorship is through the roof, right now its essentially the national team of its community. It also helps that about 85% of their fan base live in 3 suburbs directly north of where they play, not only does this guarantee high match attendance with the short drive, i suspect a lot of people pass through the club during the week as well, everyone is engaged.
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HG is right.
It no matter just do it as they say.
IMO your Club took the eye off the ball - had pretty easy success the last few years (I've stirred Mono you've not had good competiton) so you get complacent without realising till something bubbles to the top like Lions and all hell breaks looose which is normal.

Its a good thing tbh, this kicks your committee in the teeth and probably what was needed.

Even our NSWNPL stalwarts have had their heads boxed in already this season as well.
We got a minnow Spirit from PL2 the last number of years leading the comp just 5 games in, APIA is 10th 11points behind already :(
SU58 just a point above APIA.
Actually this another good storey HG when I think about it.
This club is from the carcass of the ol NSL Northern Spirit - NWSpirit formed in 04.
en.wikipedia.org

North West Sydney Spirit FC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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LFC said:
IMO your Club took the eye off the ball - had pretty easy success the last few years (I've stirred Mono you've not had good competiton) so you get complacent without realising till something bubbles to the top like Lions and all hell breaks looose which is normal.
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On field yes.

Off field still in same predicament. Our supporters live too far from where we play.

I'd say we have Preston covered for sponsorship and corporate appeal...beneath that the foundations are very rocky.
 
southmelb said:
On field yes.

Off field still in same predicament. Our supporters live too far from where we play.

I'd say we have Preston covered for sponsorship and corporate appeal...beneath that the foundations are very rocky.
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Which other greek teams would you say support south.

Would say northcote/brunswick city supporters be south fans and aris be more oakleigh fans due to location?

Or is it a mixed bag?
 
southmelb said:
On field yes.

Off field still in same predicament. Our supporters live too far from where we play.

I'd say we have Preston covered for sponsorship and corporate appeal...beneath that the foundations are very rocky.
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Too many Greek teams in the same division which south Melbourne are in competition with. Same with Melbourne Knights having dandy and dinamo in the competition.
 
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est47 said:
Which other greek teams would you say support south.

Would say northcote/brunswick city supporters be south fans and aris be more oakleigh fans due to location?

Or is it a mixed bag?
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Historically they're all South but its problematic when they all play same time of the year. Its not just casual supporters but people involved in the clubs as well. The transition from summer to winter football has hurt South a lot, not cos its cold, but the fact you have 30 Greek clubs, the majority bar 2-3 were alligned with you, and in the last 20 years you've had to compete against half of them almost at some point.

I remember when i was a kid attending a Brunswick City v South cup tie, would have been close to mid 90s, South fielded a lot of its nsl players...im not joking the Brunswick players were actually scared because they didnt want to injure any of their heroes that played for South...thats how it was back then. Very different time and landscape, now of course Brunswick are just 1 division below South!
 
est47 said:
Man the golf claps when they scored yesterday we deafening
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I despise Oakleigh like you wouldn't believe.

What business do they have getting a new Grand Stand?!!! Clientelism alive and well with the state sports minister (the Greek name) giving them a sports grant. Disgusting.

But my club virtually gifted them a premisership coach when we unceremoniously fired Chris Taylor at the start of the 2018 season .... for no f'ing reason at all!!!!

Friends of mine who don't know better, shudder when I ell them I want Preston to thrash the pants of Oakleigh! Make them humble .. like the Iron Sheik used to say.

They just think that "Greeks should support Greeks"

Back in the late 1980's I had a similiar (but different) perspective in relation to the NSL. I always supported the Melbourne team's of the NSL over the Sydney teams! Even Melbourne Croatia over Sydney Olympic .... that all changed somewhat after the 1991 GF, when the Croat's got nasty over losing that game.
 
Oakleigh have spent the past 20 yrs trying to be the "new South". They're parasites. In the nsl days they were the biggest suck ups to South and we would always accomodate them with friendly games and help them out where possible.

Oakleigh v South at Oakleighs ground whilst generally attracting a big crowd is the worst fixture in the league, could hear a pin drop when Oakleigh scores against us, half the crowd arent even watching the game. Compared to Preston v South where the crowd is so engaged, you need more of that.

Of course we were the architects of making Oakleigh relevant by giving them a championship winning coach, they'd still be trophyless otherwise.

My entire post pretty much sums up the local issues South has. Preston luckilly dont have to deal with this.
 
southmelb said:
Oakleigh have spent the past 20 yrs trying to be the "new South". They're parasites. In the nsl days they were the biggest suck ups to South and we would always accomodate them with friendly games and help them out where possible.

Oakleigh v South at Oakleighs ground whilst generally attracting a big crowd is the worst fixture in the league, could hear a pin drop when Oakleigh scores against us, half the crowd arent even watching the game. Compared to Preston v South where the crowd is so engaged, you need more of that.

Of course we were the architects of making Oakleigh relevant by giving them a championship winning coach, they'd still be trophyless otherwise.

My entire post pretty much sums up the local issues South has. Preston luckilly dont have to deal with this.
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I probably don't have to tell you why it is a bad idea to have 'proxies' in the same league as you.

Treat them as hostile, treat them as a rival and maybe things will change for both clubs. And don't Preston have Magic?
 
TheSelectFew said:
I probably don't have to tell you why it is a bad idea to have 'proxies' in the same league as you.

Treat them as hostile, treat them as a rival and maybe things will change for both clubs. And don't Preston have Magic?
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I dont think Altona have ever openly been hostile to Preston, if anything its the opposite and Altona still sucks up to them. I think the community respects that Preston is the top dog.

As for Oakleigh, we dont like them, they dont like us, but its hard to take them seriously as a legitimate rival. I've never met an Oakleigh fan, no banter, i think the oakleigh commitee wants that sort of attention and rivalry but ultimately our biggest rivals will always be Heidelberg and preston, because of the histories we probably have more respect for those 2 clubs as well.

To sum up Oakleigh, a month ago the 2 clubs met in the community shield before round 1, Oakleigh were hyping it up as the big grand final rematch on social media. South won the game 1-0. What does Oakleigh do? They dont post the result on socials, in fact no acknowledgement at all that the match even took place from them. From the perspective of South do you really wanna be engaging with these morons? Bigger fish to fry moving forward.
 
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southmelb said:
I dont think Altona have ever openly been hostile to Preston, if anything its the opposite and Altona still sucks up to them. I think the community respects that Preston is the top dog.

As for Oakleigh, we dont like them, they dont like us, but its hard to take them seriously as a legitimate rival. I've never met an Oakleigh fan, no banter, i think the oakleigh commitee wants that sort of attention and rivalry but ultimately our biggest rivals will always be Heidelberg and preston, because of the histories we probably have more respect for those 2 clubs as well.
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What about Heidelberg?

I have seen Preston jumpers at Altona matches, come to think about it.
 
TheSelectFew said:
What about Heidelberg?

I have seen Preston jumpers at Altona matches, come to think about it.
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The South v Heidelberg rivalry is probably historically our version of liverpool v everton, in many cases it crosses family lines, the 2 clubs dislike eachother in pure football terms but i think as 2 ex nsl clubs and once upon a time the biggest derby in Australia you do have thst respect factor, in general theirs no animosity between the supporters. The 2 clubs were more supportive of eachother in the nsl days. The crowds between the 2 clubs the last few years have been diabolical, they have a very old demographic and despite being in a catchment area with a huge amount of Greeks they're struggling for relevance. These days they do their own thing and we do ours. The derby should be as big as playing Preston but dissapoitingly its fallen away.
 
southmelb said:
I dont think Altona have ever openly been hostile to Preston, if anything its the opposite and Altona still sucks up to them. I think the community respects that Preston is the top dog.

As for Oakleigh, we dont like them, they dont like us, but its hard to take them seriously as a legitimate rival. I've never met an Oakleigh fan, no banter, i think the oakleigh commitee wants that sort of attention and rivalry but ultimately our biggest rivals will always be Heidelberg and preston, because of the histories we probably have more respect for those 2 clubs as well.

To sum up Oakleigh, a month ago the 2 clubs met in the community shield before round 1, Oakleigh were hyping it up as the big grand final rematch on social media. South won the game 1-0. What does Oakleigh do? They dont post the result on socials, in fact no acknowledgement at all that the match even took place from them. From the perspective of South do you really wanna be engaging with these morons? Bigger fish to fry moving forward.
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Lets not get confused the biggest local rivalry was always Sth vs Knights from a footballing historical perspective.... Sth vs Preston was a rivalry but not considered derby status in truth till lately..
The greek derby was and always will be Sth vs Heidelberg bc of histories, all else is mute in comparison.
Sth vs Preston has become a bigger game now that the knights are non existent practically.
Heidelberg vs Preston was always a bigger nsl rivalry/derby in essence and it carried through...
Oakleigh is an absolute joke!
 
TheSelectFew said:
What about Heidelberg?

I have seen Preston jumpers at Altona matches, come to think about it.
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The main difference was Sth supporters always travelled to the village to support our team, many Heidelberg supporters of old refused to do even that when they played us at our home, so they dont give us revenue... and would openly state this.
Good for feeding the old rivalry i guess, but in truth they have become more of a historical sentiment, now rather than a big rival club..
Can get numbers but are fickle in crowd..
 
Weekend results – March 7 to March 10,

NPL NSW round 5 results:
Manly United 5 Mt Druitt Town Rangers 0
St George Saints 3 Sutherland Sharks 0
Marconi Stallions 1 Sydney Olympic 1
Rockdale Ilinden 1 Wollongong Wolves 1
Western Sydney Wanderers 2 NWS Spirit 3
St George City 0 Blacktown City 2
APIA Leichhardt Tigers 2 Sydney FC 0
Sydney United 0 Central Coast Mariners 3

NPL NNSW round 4 results:
Belmont Swansea United 1 Cooks Hill United 3
New Lambton 2 Edgeworth Eagles 4
Weston Bears v Maitland – postponed
Valentine 1 Newcastle Olympic 3
Broadmeadow Magic 3 Charlestown Azzurri 2
Lambton Jaffas 0 Adamstown Rosebud 1

NPL Queensland: all games postponed til further notice due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
NPL South Australia: no games due to Australia Cup involvement.

NPL Victoria round 5 results:
Green Gully Cavaliers 0 Dandenong City 5
Preston Lions 2 South Melbourne 0
Hume City 2 Altona Magic 0
St Albans Saints 1 Avondale FC 4
Dandenong Thunder 3 Heidelberg United 2
Melbourne Knights 3 Port Melbourne Sharks 0
Melbourne Victory 0 Oakleigh Cannons 3
 
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