By Greg Blake
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity”……….. Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, 1859).
This is not the story of the ill-fated Collingwood Warriors. who’s single season in the national league culminated in catastrophic failure. Nor is it about how AFL colossus, Collingwood, and foundation NSL club, Alexander, fused together in an unlikely partnership in that summer of 1996/97. The audacity of the plan, the grand entrance, the dramatic crash. All thoroughly documented.
We know it all ended jn tears. We know to the point that the Collingwood Warriors name is almost a byword for failure. But for the true believers who fought tirelessly for the Alexander name in the wake of Heidelberg United, Brunswick Juventus and Parramatta Melita Eagles all being tossed from the NSL at the end of 1994/1995, this is a note of thanks.
In spite of yet another push to purge ethnicity from the game at the time, this determined few negotiated the Collingwood deal and tossed Alexander a unique and unexpected lifeline. For young fans unaware of that the Collingwood Warriors existed it’s a story worth telling. And for some rusted on Alexander fans who never did warm to the Collingwood connection, the Colllingwood Warriors story remains unique and very much a part of Alexander history.
So this is a celebration of a largely forgotten Collingwood Warriers triumph. The tale of a new club never truly adopted – nor loved – by anyone other than a handful of determined believers then winning a competition never fully embraced by the masses and was on death row by the summer of 1996/97.
People have forgotten that after just five competitive games this new Alexander incarnation had become the hip new thing. In fact, Collingwood Warriors were just about the hottest ticket in town after romancing a growing audience by winning the 1996/97 National Soccer League knock out cup series.
Ethnic branding was out. Sponsor branding not so much, thus the Johnnie Walker Cup series. Reconfigured many times since 1977. when the Collingwood Warriors were ready to roll off the showroom floor for the very first time the cup had been reduced to pre-season status.
The Collingwood Warriors’ very first hit-out was a cup first-round, first-leg game against a South Australian Soccer Federation ‘Select XI’, the S.A Reds. The Reds came in to make up the numbers and the game against the new breed Warriors was relegated to a 5.30pm start, as a warm-up act in a cup double-header at Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Stadium. The date, September 15, 1996.
The date coincided with that of the Victorian Premier League grand final, with Heidelberg United playing off against an Altona Magic team coached by former Alexander champion, Gary Cole. The Victorian title was up for grabs, as were places in the Collingwood Warrior squad for the NSL summer ahead. Hopefuls were lining up for an opportunity.
It wasn’t a great day for either team. With talent spread on either side of Bordertown both games were lost. Before 6,000 fans at Lakeside Stadium Heidelberg United came from behind three times against Altona Magic in a thrilling 3-3 grand final extra-time draw. Brian McNicol won the Jim Rooney Medal but the Warriors lost the game, going down 3-5 in a tense penalty shootout.
Coached by Dusan Brnovic, the grand final team was: – Glenn Clarke, Leigh Tsoumerkas, Alan Scott, Dean Fak, Tom Karapatsos, Brian MacNicol, Steve Iosifidis, George Svigos, Con Boutsianis (Gary Hasler), Bobby Despotovski and Andy Vlahos..
Zoran Matic was considered just about the best in the coaching business when the new NSL club went hard to successfully lure him from South Australia to coach the Warriors. It’s a shame that there is very little easily accessable information about his return to SA as Collingwood Warriors senior coach.
We know 4,064 turned up at Hindmarsh to see a cup double-header, wihere the Collingwood Warriors made their competition debut. They lost 0-1. This is double-sourced as the very first starting line-up for the NSL version of the Warriors: Dean Anastasiadis, George Jolevski, Carlo Talladira, skipper Kimon Taliadoros, Frank Catalano, Ricky Cerracchio, Robert Spasevski (Tsoumerakas), Mehecchella, Tom Sonsini, Vlad Babic and Peter Diorio.
As for the two players highlighted, Leigh Tsoumerkas played in the Victorian Grand Final. Mehecchella is still a mystery, but is also listed as a starter for the second leg against the SA Reds, set down for three days later and again at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Grand final players in Tsoumerkas, Scott, Fak, Karapatsos, MacNicol, Iosifidis, Boutsianis and Vlahos were shunted the 800 kilometres to Adelaide to recover the single goal deficit and push the Collingwood Warriors into the next round.
Changes were made, but the win wasn’t easy. Vlad Babic put the Warriors ahead 18 minutes in and they dominated the SA XI for much of the first half. The game bogged down after half time and when the clock ran down the 1-1 aggregate meant golden goal extra time. A spectacular hail storm forced the players off the field for a short time before Collingwood’s Kimon Taliadoros pinched victory with a header 30 seconds into extra time.
Matic had his home town stay extended, with the Warriors drawn to play their quarter final against the club Matic had taken to four consecutive NSL grand finals between 1991 and 1995, Adelaide City. The game ended scoreless, but the Collingwood Warriors booked their place in the semi finals after a tense 3-1 penalty shoot-out win.
Lakeside Stadium – back then the Bob Jane Stadium – was still configured exclusively for football and it had an atmosphere all its own. The Warriors had drawn South Melbourne Hellas in the semi final set for the following Friday. And on a perfect spring Melbourne evening Lakeside was buzzing with anticipation at a rekindled rivalry and a cut-throat final.
Hellas – in Ange Postecoglou’s coaching debut season – had re-branded as the South Melbourne Lakers to fit the anti-ethnic agenda of the time. Collingwood Warriors were still Alexander. Around 7,000 provided the largest crowd of the Johnny Walker Cup series.
The Warriors took to centre stage for the first time in their home city resplendent in the club’s all-purple third choice strip. And the side featured two gun new faces in Goran Lozanovski and Ernie Tapai. The rest of the starting XI was: Anastasiadis, Sccott, Tsoumekas, Talladira, Vlahos, Taliadoros, Iosifidis, Fak and Cerracchio. McNicol, Boutsianis and Ike Alagiozidis were on the bench.
There was a tension about the game throughout, but the Warriors found a dangerous rhythm and an Andy Vlahos goal was enough for a half time lead, A Warren Spink header just out of half time tied the game up.
But led by inspirational skipper Kimon Taliadoros the Collingwood Warriors surged. Taliadoros regained the lead with 20 minutes left, finishing off after a scorching Tapai burst and Lozanovski cross. Vlahos bobbed up four minutes later to settle the issue at 3-1.
And just a word about referee, Gerry Connolly. Any aspiring, young referees wanting to learn the craft of keeping a lid on a game which always threatened to turn ugly, have a look at the semi final on Youtube. Watch and learn. Just ignore the fashion of the time, with all the officials wearing tops which appear as if dropped in dirt before been run over by trail bikes.
The Collingwood Warriors were just four games old when they faced off against a third NSL founding member club in a row in a bid to win the Johnnie Walker Cup final of 1996/97, to be played at Lakeside Stadium.
Marconi, coached by Socceroo legend Manfred Schaefer, had been Australian champions four times. Against a Collingwood Warrior outfit gaining in confidence and building momentum by the week, they hardly gave a squeak in a disappointing final.
A solitary goal, two minutes into the second half, was enough to win it. Skipper Kimon Taliadoros played a through ball for Con Boutsiani,s who lofted it over Bob Catlin for the winner.
John Waddell was another new face and Ernie Tapai was man of the match in what must now be considered a remarkable cup victory. After the game Schaefer said that Tapai “played like three or four men”. He also thought the Collingwood Warriors would do very well in the season to come.
Victorious Warriors coach, Zoran Matic, was pleased enough but declared that his players “weren’t fit”. A month or two later that would be the least of his problems.The cup final winning team was: Anastasiadis, Scott, Waddell, Talladira, Cerracchio, Vlahos, Boutsianis (Babic 74), Taliadoros, Tapai, Lozanovski and Fak
My vaguest memory of Victoria Park was half-seeing an aussie rules game as a kid in the early 1970’s. It was hot and crowded and the highlight was watching a copper trying to rouse a slumbering drunk as the concrete terraces cleared around him after the game. The drunk suddenly threw an arm in the air – sending the copper’s hat flying – and mumbled about missing the train so he needed to hail a cab.
My second trip to Victoria Park came a quarter of a century later. It was much more pleasant, falling as it did smack in the middle of the best of times for a club which was full of belief and rich with promise. For good reason. Coming off a classy NSL Cup victory just seven days previously, the shiny, new Collingwood Warriors were looking razor sharp and ready for a home league debut. At Victoria Park.
Driving close to the ground was impossible. Lulie Street was thronging with people, strewn over the roadway and the footpath. Finally got a park on the other side of Hoddle Street, negotiated six lanes of traffic back on foot and within sight of Victoria Park the hordes had mostly cleared, but you could hear that delicious hum of a large expectant sporting crowd from 500 metres away.
Even now it feels surreal. Like a David Lynch movie. Magnificent, compelling and chaotic, without ever making sense. Inside the ground every available seat and most choice standing areas were chockers. The energy was palpable. The official figures were nonense. The gates had to be thrown open to let the surge of punters in safely. The crowd numbered better than 17,000. Collingwood Warriors trashed reigning NSL championship-winning Melbourne Knights 3-0.
I remember thinking: “These bastards have done it. Against all expectations, they’ve done it.” To that point the Collingwood Warriors experiment had exceeded all expectations. Looking back, this one day probably represented the zenith of the stunning rise of the Alexander/AFL hybrid.
This new club had won a cup at first attempt and taken out Adelaide City, South Melbourne, Marconi and Melbourne Knights in successive games. No mean feat, given that those four clubs had shared eight of the previous nine NSL championships and at least one and often two of those teams had featured in the nine preceding grand finals.
Everything that came after isn’t this story. But the last time I ever visited Victoria Park was late December in 1996, to cover Collingwood’s re-scheduled home game against Sydney Olympic.The Warriors had conceded five in a loss at Brisbane three days prior. It was stinking hot and the crowd of maybe 600 people sweated uncomfortably through a scoreless draw. No one really wanted to be there. The age of incredulity and the worst of times had already set in.
The club’s crash has been well-documented many times, but it was covered again beautifully just last year, during Heidelberg United’s sensational Australia Cup run. ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ sports journo, Vince Rugari, crafted a wonderful piece about the rise and fall of the Collingwood Warriors and I recommend anyone keen on having some more light shed on events of the time should have a read.
It features some emotive commentary from Matic. “I was an idiot….the wounds will never heal”, he is quoted as saying. The story also includes some emotional insights from, Arthur Evriniadis, a key driver of the Collingwood/Alexander merger and who remains an influential figure at Heidelberg still. It clearly hurt so much because it meant so much.
The Collingwood Warriors era flashed by, but the club’s single-season left a mark. We weren’t to know it at the time, but they won the very last National Soccer League knock-out cup final. Despite its rich 21-year history, the cup competition was quietly shelved and quickly forgotten. And the NSL itself was dead and buried seven years later
In all a total of 42 clubs competed in the original national competition over its 27-year history, some of them battling for many years without any success at all. Twenty-four clubs never won the cup, the championship or a top four series.
In the only season they ever existed, the Collingwood Warriors won the cup in just their first five games. For the briefest time, the Warriors didn’t have to make news, they were the news. For one fleeting moment Taliadoros and his crew were soccer’s rock stars.
