by Greg Blake
The hype has been building. The Preston Lions are on the rise. Sixteen years absent from Victoria’s top flight competition, Preston is back and Connor Reserve is buzzing. A bold ascent from the ignominious depths of third tier to NPL 1 and now the roaring Lions travel to meet arch-rivals Heidelberg United for the first time since 2009,
While Preston’s journey back into big boy territory is exciting, it’s not the first time Preston has had to clamber back from adversity. And somewhere down the track Alexander or Fitzroy or now Heidelberg are always waiting for them.
I was around for the original rise of the Lions, between 1975 and 1981, as Preston barnstormed from Victoria’s third tier and into the national competition of the time, the NSL.
1980 was huge for both Preston and Heidelberg. The Warriors carried Victoria’s pride the new national competition and the season culminated in a stunning 4-0 crushing of Sydney City in the NSL Grand Final. Gary Cole scored a hat-trick that day. I could have cried when he packed up and left for Preston four years later.
At Connor Reserve, the Lions would celebrate their first Victorian State League championship in 1980 and that success became a springboard into the NSL the following year. They scored goals for fun and played to home crowds packed to the Connor Reserve rafters.
The rampaging Lions lost just one game that season. To Juventus, at Connor Reserve.
I know. I was there. Preston’s home was my first time. It was round five of the 1980 season and this game was my first paid gig as a reporter for ‘Australian Soccer Weekly’. I was shitting myself.
Press facility whereabouts/existence unknown, rather than an excruciating “excuse me, please” or “can I just squeeze past” through 4,000 supporters in search of it, I nicked a plastic chair from goodness knows where and sat inside the perimeter fence, close to the touchline. OHS had yet to be invented. I remember it being very loud. Four thousand always seemed like twice that at Connor Reserve.
Juve featured former Alexander legends, Jack Reilly and George Gillon, Their coach, former Heidelberg boss Manny Poulakakis.
Preston – including Claude Lucchesi – were magnificent early, but a single George McMillan strike gave the Lions a narrow half time lead. Juve’s goalscoring dynamo, Bobby McGuinness, scored a ripping equaliser, on his way to finishing league top scorer and winning the Rothmans Gold Medal for best player in 1980.
Juve’s 18 year-old Oscar Crino showed glimpses of the future, but one of the biggest upsets of that 1980 State League season was completed by 17 year-old Fab Incantalupo, who came off the bench and headed a famous winner for Juve and inflicted Preston’s only loss for 1980.
Just on McGuinness, Bobby’s Gold Medal night and craving nicotine cravings are forever psychologically linked for me. In 1980 the sponsor ensured complimentary packs of 20 Rothmans at every dinner setting and ashtrays were liberally plonked on every table in the now demolished (in a plume of smoke, no doubt) Southern Cross Hotel ballroom.
I saw Preston often as they charged into the NSL in 1981 A growing support base made Connor Reserve an exciting place to be. And I saw Alexander as frequently and the revival of the rivalry between the two clubs drew 9,000 fans to the now demolished Olympic Park.
Socceroo legend Peter Ollerton – who was a teammate of Gary Cole in the Ringwood Wilhelmina days of 1973 – scored one of Preston’s goals in a 3-2 upset win in the first NSL against the then mighty Warriors.
Ollerton became Preston’s playing-coach just in time for the round 18 return clash, but Cole helped spoil Ollerton’s day by scoring the sealer for Heidelberg in a 2-0 win, again before a packed house at Connor Reserve.
Robbie Cullen was a cheeky ‘will-o-the-wisp’ type and Dougie Brown played with dash and daring and for a brief time in 1981 I loved covering their games. Cullen and Brown together gave games a dash of ‘joie de vivre’, a sense of joy. Like a couple of schoolboys playing pranks, they seemed to enjoy the game so much you couldn’t help but enjoy the show along with them
Preston limped into 12th spot in the NSL in 1981. Cullen and Brown, to Juventus and South Melbourne respectively, were gone by the end of 1982 and both went on to win national championships with their new clubs, in 1984 and 1985 respectively.
The rivalry between Preston and Heidelberg was peaking on the national stage in the mid-80’s, in terms of crowds, great games and calibre of players. Both clubs produced five consecutive seasons of top six finishes, from 1982 to 1986, but they only met once in a final. Preston knocked Alexander out of the 1985 play-offs with a 2-0 win in the minor semi final.
By 1984 the Heidelberg empire of the era was in incremental decline, but they scrapped and clawed their way into the Southern Division Grand Final and actually led South Melbourne 2-1 at half time. But Charlie Yankos was red-carded and Hellas scooted away to a 4-2 win. South Melbourne went on to become the first Victorian side win an NSL title, beating Sydney Olympic in the national grand final.
Preston had its ride of a lifetime in at the elite level a year later. The Lions won cut-throat elimination and minor semi finals and then met South Melbourne in one of the all-time thrillers and an NSL classic for a place in the grand final. Played on a chilly Wednesday night at Olympic Park, South Melbourne led the sudden death preliminary final courtesy of Charlie Egan, but around 10,000 fans saw Steve Smith and Zoran Illioski return fire twice in seven minutes for Preston.
Egan grabbed his second before half time but the moment the theatre curtains opened and the drama began in earnest was an hour in, when one time Heidelberg deity, Gary Cole, came off the bench for Preston. The goalscoring veteran had missed both of Preston’s earlier finals under an injury cloud.
Egan completed his hat trick with six minutes left on the clock but a desperate Hellas clearance span towards Cole who, despite having his back toward goal, nonchalantly back-heeled the equaliser for 3-3 with still three minutes remaining. Cole scored again into extra time but South Melbourne made it 4-4 and finally Preston sneaked home on penalties.
Preston led Juventus until the last six minutes of the grand final, when Juve scored twice then went on to beat Sydney City in the national final.
In 1987 three events foretold a wonderful era ending, Sydney City essentially went broke and pulled out of the league, Heidelberg United finished dead last and were relegated and Preston had one final red-hot crack at national level. Unfortunately it was the year the league trimmed back to one division and Rale Rasic’s Apia Leichhardt went on a 20-game unbeaten streak to start the season.
Preston defeated Apia for the first time during a late season six game winning run, but the Lions had to settle for runner-up in the league and lost again to Apia in the preliminary final. Both clubs played in and lost knock out cup finals, but in terms of the real stuff these 1987 Lions came as close as the Warriors or Preston would come to winning on the national stage ever again.
Preston marked its return to Victorian competition by winning the 1994 championship and then promptly getting relegated. The Lions wrestled their way back into the Premier League for the 1997 season. Again, Heidelberg Alexander – shoved from the NSL in 1996 – were waiting for them.
On Friday night history repeats. Expect a packed house and a ripping game.
