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Miro Vlastelica steps down as Sydney United 58 coach

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National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s Grand Finalists Sydney United 58 will be on the hunt for a new coach for season 2020 after Miro Vlastelica announced that he was stepping down from the head coaching role at the club.

Vlastelica cited personal reasons for his decisions to step away from the Reds coaching job.

“I would like to announce that I have decided to step down as head coach due to personal reasons.

“The last 18 months at this great club, have been an absolute pleasure, honour, and even more so, a privilege to be involved with.

“I would like to thank all the players and my support staff for their dedication and hard work during this time.

“Also, I would like to thank the Club and Committee Members for all their support and for all the work they have put in behind the scenes, that many do not see.

“To all the supporters, I would like to thank you all for your support throughout the year, you guys were amazing, and truly are the best in the country

“Finally, I would like to wish the team and the club the very best for the coming season.”

It is rumoured that former Sydney United 58 legend Zeljko ‘Spider’ Kalac could be Vlastelica’s successor.

Persistence pays off for Yianni Nicolaou

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After trialing in Scotland at the end of 2018, 19-year-old defender Yianni Nicolaou then returned to Marconi Stallions FC.

He played 15 games in the Stallions FC NPL 1 team in 2019 before leaving mid-season to trial with English League 2 team, Salford City.

His persistence was rewarded, he was signed to a one-year contract with an option to extend.

He joined the newly promoted club following a successful trial.

Salford City have been promoted in four of their last five seasons and are currently 15th after 5 matches in the English 4th Division.

The club is “part owned” by former Manchester United team mates Phil and Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and David Beckham.

Nicolaou, was a member of the Waratah Cup winning team in 2019 after making his first-grade debut this season. He became a “regular” in the team

He has come up “through the system” in Australia, starting out at the Football NSW Institute of Sport and Westfield Sports High before joining Marconi Stallions FC.

The defender represented Australia at the AFC Under 16 Championships in 2016.

Australian born, Nicolaou is expected to be spending his time with the Salford City youth team set up. This boasts a University, begun by club owners to offer degrees for players to build life skills outside of football.

Stallions helping to save lives

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Marconi Stallions First Grade Coach Peter Tsekenis is “educating “his players in how to handle potential “health situations on and off the field”.

After attending a Fund Raiser recently, he was curious as to how the Marconi Stallions FC would handle a potential “life and death situation” requiring the use of a defibrillator.  He was concerned that the club was not equipped or educated to handle such a situation.

What would we do? This question prompted him to invite Andy Paschalidis from the Heartbeat of Football to address and demonstrate the defibrillator to his first grade playing squad.

The organization is a non-for-profit charity which promotes healthy hearts in sport via player education including understanding the use of the defibrillator machine.

The aim was to increase the players awareness and provide a safeguard should a potential “heart stopping” moment occur.

“We would never forgive ourselves if such a situation arose and we were unable to handle a potential life-threatening crisis.”

“Knowing about CPR is so important.”

Following the visit by the Heartbeat of Football every player and official in the first-grade squad is now aware of the defibrillator, its location and most importantly, how to use it should such a situation eventuate.

This is a starting point for Marconi Stallions FC, this proactive approach with the first grade NPL  team will be followed by the Under 20 and Under 18 Boys Youth teams and the Senior Women’s Teams all becoming more aware of CPR and becoming educated to handle a potential life-threatening situation.

Kekeris takes out NPL Dash at Bankwest

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APIA Leichhardt Tigers may have won the major NPL NSW Men’s prize for 2019 but Sydney Olympic’s high flying attacker grabbed the headlines for being the fastest man in the competition taking out Football NSW’s ‘NPL Dash’ during half-time of the big finale on Saturday evening at Bankwest Stadium.

Collecting a cool $2500 kindly donated by TAFE NSW for destroying the rest of the pack, Kekeris stood tall in what was an otherwise impressive lineup of runners albeit minus the early running favourite, Manly United’s Charles Mendy who pulled out a day prior to the event.

Marconi Stallions’ James Andrew and Blacktown City’s Leroy Jennings were seen as next stars to take out the Dash but it was the ‘pocket rocket’ Kekeris who reigned supreme in the 60 metre challenge with a time of 8.48 seconds.

Thank you to every participant that took part and thank you to all the NPL NSW Men’s clubs that threw its support behind this activation.

NPL Dash Runners 2019

APIA Leichhardt Tigers – Zander Regan

Blacktown City – Leroy Jennings

Hakoah – Amaury Gauthier

Marconi – James Andrew

Mt Druitt Town Rangers – Shane Prasad

Manly United – Jack Berte

Rockdale City Suns – Alec Duckinoski

Sydney Olympic – Peter Kekeris

Sydney FC – Joe Roddy

Sydney United 58 – Anthony Pedavoli

Sutherland Sharks – Jay McGowan

Wollongong Wolves – Bul Juach

Sean Symons adds ‘Robbie Slater medal’ to the trophy cabinet

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APIA Leichhardt Tigers star and former NPL NSW Men’s Player of the Year Sean Symons has revealed his side’s incredible championship triumph has been the greatest highlight in his football career to date.

The winger was crowned Robbie Slater Medal winner as man of the match in APIA’s 2-1 extra-time victory against Sydney United 58 at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday scoring the winning goal with a sublime lobbed finish.

The win was third time lucky for APIA who had suffered back to back grand final heartbreak after suffering defeats in the 2017 and 2018 deciders.

Symons, who played a key role in all of APIA’s grand final appearances, said while the win was a long time coming, it was vindication for all the sacrifice and hard work made by his Tigers teammates to achieve championship glory.

“This APIA team is an incredible group and to finally breakthrough after everything we’ve been through makes it extra special,” Symons said.

“We all just wanted the win so badly and there was no way we were going home as grand final losers for a third straight year.

“To be able to lift the trophy with the team in front of our fans is something I won’t ever forget.”

After a roller coaster 90 minutes, the match was on a knife edge with both sides battling to snatch a winner.

The flash point arrived only four minutes into extra-time with Symons the man on the spot to score the historic goal.

“I saw Manos rushing out from his goal and thought to myself as long as I get to the ball first I’ll be a good chance of scoring,” he said.

“Payney (APIA striker Chris Payne) put the ball into space after Franco (Parisi) won a key header so I just did everything I could to get in a good position

“Watching the ball hit the back of the net was an incredible feeling and from that point I was confident we were going to get the job done.”

The pacy winger wasn’t the only Symons family member to put in a stellar performance for APIA with his brother Josh Symons making an incredible return from a hamstring injury suffered only a week before the grand final to play a huge role in the decider.

The chance to share Championship success with his brother made the result even sweeter for Sean.

“It was an incredible effort from Josh to fightback from injury and he had an incredible game for us at the back,” Symons said.

“To have him out there on grand final day and then to lift the trophy together was a great moment.”

“I’m looking forward to a bit of a break in the off-season but next season hopefully we can come back and do it all over again.”