All images Graeme Furlong
With the season entering its final stretch, one team has proved to be the most dominant in the run home and now stands on the cusp of claiming their first state Premiership, possessing an almost unassailable seven point lead over second-placed Heidelberg United with three games remaining.
In addition to this, that team has a Dockerty Cup final to play for, as well as an important FFA Cup Round of 32 tie away to Metro Stars this Tuesday evening. You might be forgiven for thinking those down at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex are feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment given the extent of their demanding schedule, although those associated with the Bentleigh Greens wouldn’t have it any other way at this given moment.
Heading into July, the reigning Champions were three points behind competition leaders South Melbourne, but have managed to conquer all before them by collecting a maximum 15 points to leapfrog their rivals, as well as securing their place in the state knockout cup final.
However, the mastermind behind this feat is not getting carried away by his side’s form, expressing his satisfaction with his side’s disciplined performance on Friday evening, where a clinical second-half showing saw the Greens dispatch Green Gully 3-0 to complete their perfect record for the month.
“It was always going to be difficult, but we have said that we’ll take each game as it comes and not worry about Tuesday,” Anastasiadis said. “It was very important to get the three points today as we were playing a very organised team who are very disciplined and can hurt you on the counter, but I said to the boys at half-time that it will take some individual brilliance to unlock that and we saw it through the high quality goals scored by Kamal [Ibrahim] and Wally [Wayne Wallace] on the night.
“That opened the game up and allowed us to have a little more freedom to play. It was not a pretty game, but sometimes you have to win ugly, and for us the most important thing at this stage of the season is to get the three points.”
Going into the season, Bentleigh unveiled the prized signing of reigning Gold Medallist Kamal Ibrahim from the Port Melbourne Sharks, although the foundation Melbourne Heart player failed to hit the ground running early on in his time with the club. Anastasiadis stressed the importance of having patience with the high-profile recruit after his sending-off in the 3-1 win over South Melbourne earlier on in the month, just minutes after coming onto the field as a second-half substitute.
That patience has seemed to have paid off, with Ibrahim grabbing an assist in 2-0 victory over Pascoe Vale on return from suspension before scoring a cracking opener against Gully to open his account for the club. His manager spoke of the faith the team had in him to come good and believes that the 24-year-old Ethiopian-born winger will get even better in the coming weeks.
“Kamal is a quality player, so we’re not going to hide away from that, as you don’t become NPL Gold Medallist for being good looking. You win it because you’ve played well and done the right things.
“We knew we had to be patient with him and knew that he would come good towards the latter part of the season, as his campaign has been curtailed by the injuries he sustained early on. It’s happening at the moment, but we still need him to get better and better as we know he has more in his game and hopefully he’ll carry that for the games coming up.”
While Melbourne Victory manager Kevin Muscat recently voiced his frustrations over his side having to play their FFA Cup tie against the Newcastle Jets just days after their friendly against Atletico Madrid, Anastasiadis admits that his players and he are revelling in the opportunity to compete on multiple fronts, with the Greens hoping to secure a historic treble this campaign by securing the league double in addition to the Dockerty Cup, while also hoping to reach the latter stages of the FFA Cup.
“For us to be competing on two fronts is extra motivation, as we’re semi-professionals who look forward to it with our players thriving on it,” said the 48-year-old former PAOK forward said.
“We’ve got them in the right frame of mind for them to understand that there is a cup competition on now and a Championship to win. They know what is at hand at the beginning of the season and they’re prepared mentally and we’re prepared physically and at the moment we are seeing the fruits of that.”
The last four seasons have seen the Greens establish themselves as the most dominant side in Victorian football, having finished 2013 as runners-up to Northcote City following a dramatic 3-2 extra-time loss to Hercules at AAMI Park in the VPL Grand Final.
The following year, the Greens placed fourth in the inaugural NPL campaign, although the youthful side made national headlines for their memorable run into the FFA Cup final four. A Championship followed in 2015 after being pipped to the Premiership by South on goal difference, with Anastasiadis believing the class of 2016 to be better than those that have come before them in recent season.
“I think we are a better squad than we were two years ago. We are more organised now as each player really knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We are better prepared and we know what each player can do on the day, and two years ago we were perhaps more so on an adrenaline run,” he said.
“This time we are much more professional in the way we set up, so whilst we are like that, we’re playing Metro Stars on the synthetic turf and that’s another hurdle we must get over. I think the boys know what is stake and some have lived the dream from what happened two years ago when they reached the semi-finals. They want to do that again and mentally they are really switched on for the games ahead.”
Having established himself as one of the best coaches outside the A-League, the two-time NSL Championship winner has admitted that he has aspirations to one day coach in the nation’s top flight, although believes that a successful FFA Cup campaign is not integral in him meeting that ambition.
“Trying to prove everything to others is not in my forte, as I’m not interested in that, but rather proving to myself that I’m good enough and have that ambition. At the moment I’m pretty happy with where I’m at as a coach and the club I’m at.
“Have I got things to learn as a coach? Absolutely.
“A good FFA Cup run is not make or break for me as last year we got knocked out in the second round but ended up winning the Championship.”
Having begun his senior career at childhood club Heidelberg United in the late 80s before a near decade long stint in Greece with PAOK, the former Young Socceroo ended his career in Australia at South Melbourne, where he won two NSL titles under Ange Postecoglou. Like his former mentor, Anastasiadis is a firm believer in winning games while playing good football and admits there are challenges to always pursuing this style of football.
“What I want to see is my team play good football and win games by playing good football. There’s a lot of talk out there about teams playing really well but not winning games, but not here. We play well and want to win well and that’s what it’s about,” he said.
“We specifically set out this year to get some players who can go out and make a difference individually and we’ve got those players. We know teams come out on a lot of occasions and park the bus against us, but have to unlock that because it’s very difficult to do at times and need some people do their own thing at times and that’s why great teams around the world have all got two or three special players.
“We’ve tried to do that from the start of the season and have Kamal as well as some other boys who just run all day, along with Wayne Wallace who can turn games, and the backline where Jack and Pilko are just phenomenal. We know that each player can do something really special and we look for that, but at the same time collectively when they put all that together we have a very good team.”
Like so many other coaches in the league and across the NPL nation-wide, Anastasiadis has to juggle his football commitments with family life as well as a thriving business, with the Greens manager the owner of several Caltex outlets across Melbourne’s inner south-eastern suburbs. While acknowledging the time-consuming nature of his commitments and the effect this has on his coaching, he remains optimistic that Australian football will eventually progress to a level where coaches and players alike in the nation’s second tier will be professional to the point where it reaps many benefits to the quality and structure of the game in the country.
“It is very difficult for us in this environment as we’d love to be more and more involved in the game and help it grow as professionals. But we understand where we’re at and cannot hide away from that, so trying to get to that next step is very difficult at this stage for teams in the NPL,” he said.
“We hope that one day it will be sustainable for a coach to be full-time here as with some players, and from there onwards we’d see a much better standard because we would be able to work with them every day. It is extremely difficult to work with the boys two or three times a week and then be expected to come out and play top quality football.
“We have tried that as best as we can but there is no doubt that if we had more time with the players that they would become even better and you’d see better quality football and hopefully more people attending games. At the moment it is what it is and we have to live with that and hope that in due time the game will become more professional in this part of the world in terms of the second and third tiers, where we have more time to work with youngsters and make them better players.”
Ten years on since he lifted his first major coaching honour after guiding South Melbourne to their first Championship in the Victorian top-flight since their return to the state leagues, Anastasiadis is gunning for this third at the helm of a side many consider to be the country’s best outside the A-League.
The next two months will go a long way in determining whether that observation is true, but no matter what the rest of the season holds for Bentleigh, there is no doubt that they remain to be one of the most attractive and forward-thinking sides in the competition with a manager determined to play football the way he feels it should be played.