Photo: Anita Milas/Goal Weekly
Green Gully coach Arthur Papas believes last night’s 2-1 win over A-League outfit Central Coast Mariners gives further credence for a national second division, to give further opportunities at professional level to players that “capable of playing at the next level”.
As one of two Victorian clubs still competing on every front – competing with Bentleigh Greens for the Dockerty Cup, FFA Cup and NPL Victoria – Papas believes there needs to be more opportunities for coaches and players in a professional environment.
“I think it provides the fairytale, knowing that in this competition, there are players that are capable of playing at the next level,” the Gully head coach said.
“At the end of the day it comes down to how many opportunities there are available and maybe gives the idea that a second division somewhere down the track is important, because there are talented players that aren’t allowed to do this full time.
“It’s important that coaches and players are given full time opportunity, maybe results like this give it a bit of power.”
Gully became just the second ever member federation club to knock off A-League opposition, and while the significance was not lost on Papas, he has shied away from taking the credit for masterminding the victory.
“I look at it as a group today that came together and provided me with some really fantastic moments this year, and I’m just a part of that process,” he said.
“They believe in me and I believe in them a lot. In the end it’s a group that goes on and wins games like this. We’ve done something special, absolutely.
“It’s not going to happen many times; you look at cup competitions all around the world and these situations where a semi-professional team can go out and take the team to a professional team, happen rarely.
“The performance warrants the victory today I believe.”
An early goal to Blake Powell saw the Mariners hit the lead, which they held for over an hour of play, however a late flurry triggered the come-from-behind victory.
Papas spoke about his message to the team at half-time, and knew that there would be chances if they could stay in the game for as long as possible.
“You can’t be happier. Proud of the six minutes, proud of the whole game to be honest. From the word go, we didn’t take a backwards step,” he said.
“They missed an early chance, then we missed a couple but we went behind early after 15 minutes. It’s easy against a professional team to drop your heads and not keep doing the things that had already put us in a good position already.
“Half time, 1-0, we spoke about staying in the game as long as possible and I think we had the legs to keep going, and also the belief and the spirit. We underrate the spirit of the group, and this group is amazing as they’ve shown many times.
“We spoke about it before the game that every time we’ve faced a challenge in Cup competitions this year, we’ve risen to the occasion every time, and there wasn’t a better way of finishing a game.”
He also touched on the failed attempt to capture gloveman Ante Covic for a one-off appearance at Gully, to replace the suspended Rani Dowisha, which was “knocked back” by the FFA on Monday night.
“We had an incident with our number one going down. We played Heidelberg United earlier in the FFA Cup qualifying rounds and they had the same incident, so we thought there was a precedent set where Stuart Webster [was registered] and played for them.
“We had our under-20’s out for the last month as well so it was legitimate. In the end, it was knocked back but we didn’t really discuss it in the change rooms. We said there’s a possibility [Covic might play], but if not, we’ll still have to go out there.
“We’ve lost numerous players over the course of the season that are very influential players but this is a strong group. Teams win matches, it’s not about the individual so we’ve got to move on from that.
“We’re so grateful for him putting himself in that position, where he made himself available. In the end I might have found a new number one today because Seb Mattei was outstanding.”