Image: Smile for Peter
With nearly 300 Victorian top-flight league appearances under his name, Avondale FC defender Ramazan Tavsancioglu is one of the NPL’s most experienced and distinguished footballers.
At 32, the imposing central defender is showing no signs of slowing down as he looks to take his new club to unprecedented heights. Going into this round, the Avengers sat at the top of league standings having collected three successive 1-0 wins to open their season before dropping their first points in a 1-1 draw away to Oakleigh last Sunday.
The team from the humble surrounds of Doyle Street Reserve now anchors the top of the Victorian football state league hierarchy, having competed as far down as Provisional League Two less than a decade ago.
The signing of Tavsancioglu was aimed at strengthening Anthony Barbieri’s back-line. Early results had the indented effect with the former Melbourne Knights junior rekindling his defensive partnership with Jamie Cumming in a vastly experienced side also featuring veterans such as Jeff Fleming, Massimo Murdocca and Craig Carley.
“Compared to all the other clubs I’ve been at, there is a lot of experience here,” he said. “When I was at South Melbourne back in 2006 we had big names like Dean Anastasiadis, Con Blatsis and so on – we had a lot of experience as we do here, and I feel that we have gelled well. We’re doing really well and hopefully we continue on the run we’re on and are working well together and look very solid.”
Having safely avoided relegation in their first campaign in the top tier two years ago, Avondale finished mid-table last year with a poor start to the season and lack of victories against the top six outfits ultimately ruling the club out of finals football despite the brilliance of Jonatan Germano in the attacking midfield role.
Barbieri and the Avondale hierarchy needed to bring added playing quality to the club founded by Italian migrants in 1984. Their first acquisition was that of two-time NSL Championship winning defender and ex-Hume City assistant coach Zoran Markovski. The coaching addition of the man affectionately known as ‘Paprika’ led to an additional boost, with the former Melbourne Knights and Green Gully hardman luring several players from his former employers at ABD Stadium to his new club.
Reigning NPL Goalkeeper of the Year Chris Oldfield, ex-Melbourne Victory defender Petar Franjic and English marksman Craig Carley joined Markovski at Avondale, as did Tavsancioglu, who credited the 43-year-old for convincing him to make the move further south.
“It was more so the assistant coach Zoki [Zoran Markovski] who brought a few of the old Hume boys here and gave me a call as well and said he’d love to have me here.
“It was also a new challenge with Avondale being a smaller club to some of the others I’ve played at, but they do that have the ambition to climb up the NPL and win some silverware which I want to do as well. I did back in 2006 and had a few sniffs when I was at Oakleigh for two seasons, so I still have that desire to keep going and win again.”
Having not conceded a goal in 291 minutes of football to kickstart the new campaign, Avondale’s backline finally shipped their first goal so far this year against the Cannons last week, but recovered to a secure a point away from home at Jack Edwards Reserve – a venue where they lost 6-0 last term against the same opposition, highlighting the rapid improvement overseen in the meantime.
“I was disappointed by the fact that we conceded against Oakleigh but that was always going to happen eventually. But myself, Jamie, Oldy, Nick [Symeoy] at right-back and Jimmy [Riccobene] at left-back and Jeff in front of us are working very hard as a unit trying not to concede, be solid and stop attacks coming through, and if we keep on doing that we can go very far in this league.”
Having made his senior debut at the Port Melbourne Sharks in 2003, the then 17-year-old Tavsancioglu jetted off to his parent’s homeland Turkey by signing a senior contract with top tier Ankaragucu in 2003. While he made only one senior appearance for the club, his time in the Turkish capital proved to be a challenging but worthwhile experience for the teenager, who then went onto join South Melbourne in 2005 in the club’s first year back in the VPL following the demise of the NSL.
“They treat you as a foreigner, although I am a Turkish boy and essentially one of them,” he said. “I just did my job. I was still 17 at the time and had a four-year contract there and developed myself quite quickly by learning a lot from that experience.
“I then returned to Melbourne and played for South Melbourne, winning the U21 Player of the Year at the club as well as finishing second in the senior Best and Fairest behind Dean Anastasiadis. For me it was an unbelievable experience and I’d encourage any young boy who wants to go overseas to do it because it’s a wonderful experience which they will get a lot out of.”
His impressive form in an experienced side at Bob Jane Stadium caught the interest of Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick, who offered the youngster a six-week injury replacement contract in early 2006.
“When I was at the Victory I was there for the last six games and that was a great experience as an injury replacement. I wasn’t fortunate enough to get another contract and something came up while I was back at South Melbourne which is in the past now,” he added.
Four A-League appearances for the Victory would ultimately be followed by another stint in the country’s top flight almost five years later, when the now established defender earned another injury replacement contract at the financially embattled North Queensland Fury in season six of the A-League, featuring 12 times under Czech coach Franz Straka.
“Going to the Fury, I go a lot out of that and if they had stayed in the league I had a two-year contract (lined up) which would have been exciting. Since then I’ve been back in the Premier League and haven’t had another stint.
“For me it doesn’t matter, I’ve had my sniff and have played overseas for a season in Turkey and as you can see am loving playing in this league.”
However, it was his time at four-time national league Champions South Melbourne that Tavsancioglu treasures most. Six years at Albert Park yielded over 150 competitive appearances for a club which ‘Rama’ ultimately captained – a major feat for a player of Turkish origin to be captaining one of Australia’s proudest Greek-backed clubs.
A Championship win in 2006 under John Anastasiadis saw Hellas win league silverware for the first time in seven years as they defeated rivals Altona Magic 1-0 in the season decider.
“Playing for South Melbourne was an unforgettable experience and I’m very honoured that I got to opportunity to not only play for that club, but to also captain it,” he said.
“I had many good years and if it wasn’t for Eddie Krncevic I probably would’ve retired there and kept playing there. But a few things happened there when he came in while I was at the Fury, but again that doesn’t matter as it’s in the past.
“Overall so many unforgettable memories and I’d say it was the best time of my Premier League life, especially winning that Championship in 2006.”
While his six-year spell with the Oceania Club of the Century was the highlight of his VPL/NPL career, Tavsancioglu also reflected on the bitter low of being a part of Southern Stars 2013 playing squad. The disgraced Stars were embroiled in a match-fixing scandal which rocked the Victorian top-flight four years ago, with their proud captain admitting he came close to quitting the game there and then.
“To be honest it left a sour taste in my mouth and I just wanted to quit there and then as I thought to myself: if this is happening right under my nose and I’ve got no knowledge of what was happening, it was just a wasted year for myself.
“Why would I put myself through this and get nothing out of it. It’s a shame what happened because if you saw those boys at training and what they did, we would have won the league by 15-20 points that season had they played as they had trained.
“Obviously it was an unfortunate situation what they did but you move on and then I got an opportunity to play for two years at Dandenong Thunder, which again weren’t the two best years of my career, but still got a lot out of it before moving onto Hume for a year from which I gained a lot out of too.”
A well-spoken and humble figure, Tavsancioglu is once more enjoying his football and jumping at the opportunity to compete for league honours this term having also played in two consecutive Grand Final defeats while at Oakleigh in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
A popular figure in the Avondale dressing room, the formidable defender is feeling right at home in his new surrounds as he looks to help the club maintain their undefeated start to the season when they host Green Gully at Knights Stadium today.