Socrates Nicolaidis arrives at a paradoxical time at Lakeside, with the side’s championship win marked by significant player and coach departures, while their closest rivals have heavily strengthened their squads ahead of the 2015 season. The new gaffer spoke to the Corner Flag about his philosophy towards ensuring South Melbourne enjoy more stability in the future, without sacrificing the status and grandeur that has been synonymous with the club.
Mark Gojszyk (M): Just checking in to track the team’s pre-season. How are the team’s 2015 preparations coming along under your tenure?
Socrates Nicolaidis (S): Pre-season is going well, [though] we currently can’t use our facility for the month of March and part of April, because of the Grand Prix. That is never a good thing because we’ve got a fully equipped gym at the pit in Albert Park, so a lot of that stuff gets put away for weeks and we’re at the DISC (Darebin International Sports Centre) at the moment.
It’s challenging, but I think the girls like the project that we’re trying to put together.
M: And what exactly is that project?
S: South Melbourne over the last few years have had excellent success, in terms of winning the flag and scoring the most goals, playing a certain brand.
I’ve asked the girls “what type of football would you like your supporters to watch?”, so together we’ve come up with South Melbourne’s brand [this season]. So we’ve got the cliche of possession, all that good stuff that the players put together. But I think you’re going to see a different football team this year in terms of how we want to express ourselves on the pitch and the responsibility we have as footballers for our club and for the greater good of the women’s game. If we’re going to ask kids to come and watch our game, it better be exciting.
I’m from the old South Melbourne, I played there with Ange Postecoglou. We were teammates, and he’s had a very excellent career in coaching, and while I was in America [for close to 15 years in the college system] I was keeping in touch, saw what he did in Brisbane, it’s a credit and the girls love that type of football. It’s a great example of where the game could go if a lot of our players were playing internationally overseas, on a daily basis. So you’re going to see a similar style of game, with some tactical formations that probably haven’t been done before in the women’s game.
M: You’ve lost a lot of key championship squad members while gaining a number of new players this season. South Melbourne has associated with a high turnover of both players and coaches in recent times. What is your philosophy towards ensuring more stability at Lakeside?
S: It’s about South Melbourne having a culture. They really haven’t had a culture. A lot of coaches have come in and have only focused on the senior team, whereas my role is expansive.
I’m a Technical Director, which means i go to the under 11’s, 12’s 14’s, 16’s sessions, I also made sure I was going to be the coach of the under 16’s, because that’s the new crop of 14 and 15-year-olds. My reserves coach is also the under 14’s coach, so there can be a connection from the juniors to the seniors. I think in the women’s game we need that to some extent, because South Melbourne traditionally hasn’t done that, even though they have juniors.
One of the biggest goals is to make sure the junior numbers stay the same and no-one leaves, and having a fantastic training environment. We brought in an exercise coach and myotherapist who has online training modules for the players. Each player has got some kind of weaknesses physically and technically, and we’re identifying those. We’re basically saying if we can improve every single player within the team, than the team gets better. We’ve got goal-setting interviews with each player, what they want to achieve, and collectively our teams goals will come out of that.
M: So essentially, is a more urgent priority at South to regenerate and build a culture ahead of the title defence and results?
S: Initially, when everybody was still in tact I’ve heard the players comment on it [title defence], and i said “that’s down the track, don’t even worry about that, you’ve got a new coach, a new team”. We’ve got a brand new team and we’re trying to create an identity of play, and for us it’s about the style of play and how we’re going to express ourselves on and off the field. If we make the finals or winning the grand final, that’s going to be a bonus.
This is a two to three year plan we’re putting in place. If we win it, if we don’t win it, we’ve got some specific match day goals, both with possession of the ball and without possession and we’re going to focus on those little things first.