NEW Frankston Pines president Liz Diaz is under no illusions about the enormity of the task ahead. After slumping to a second successive relegation the Monterey Reserve club has now lost its entire executive plus senior coach Donn Delaney and is bracing for a player exodus. But it’s not just a personnel shake-up that confronts Diaz. “We’re not in a great place financially and I think everyone knows that,” she said. “Others might want to sugar-coat it but I prefer transparency. “We’re starting from the bottom of the hill.”
It’s believed that the debt is close to $30,000, a far cry from the near $80,000 which confronted Pines at the start of the year. Pines has schemes of repayment in place with Football Victoria and the local council – the club’s two main creditors – and FV is fully aware of the situation in which the club finds itself. “We’ve been working in the past couple of months on sorting out a plan and we’ve established a good relationship with FV,” Diaz added.
“Greg Hurvitz (FV’s metro development co-ordinator) has been a huge help to us and while we’ve dug a hole for ourselves it’s nowhere near as big as it was a few years ago. “I think it’s long overdue for Pines to climb out of this hole and I genuinely believe we’re the people to do it.”
It became clear in the past few weeks that a new committee would be needed as Lee Davies (president), Nathalie Maira (vice president), Satish Maniam (secretary), Vimlesh Chetty (treasurer) and Kameshwan Naicker (assistant secretary and all abilities co-cordinator) would not be standing for re-election. Last week Diaz and a handful of others took a leap of faith and filled most of these positions. The new vice-president is Juan Noguera, the treasurer is Sarah Silberer, Tanya Wood is the club secretary and the venue managers are Kirby and Nicholas Dennington.
Diaz has made a rapid transition from club physio to president in two years and this season coached the under-9 girls team. “From the minute I stepped into the Pines I could see a big future for the place. “I’ve been in leadership groups pretty much my whole career and I felt it was something I wanted to take on. “I know it’s a big challenge but something called me over to the Pines and I really feel I can help them build.”
Diaz works as an export sales co-ordinator in the dairy industry and runs her own small business from Cranbourne West. She sees herself as a people person but her communication and administrative skills couldn’t sway Delaney who chose not to work under the new administration. On 15 November Pines used its facebook page to announce that Delaney had agreed to take on head coaching responsibilities for 2025. The post mentioned Delaney’s “long-term plan” but six days later he resigned.
“The past president and Tanya the new secretary both attempted to get him in for a chat but he wasn’t up for it.
“We understand that he probably had other expectations. “We are realistic about players not wanting to stay now.
“A lot of them don’t want to play in State 4.” Delaney was invited to comment for this story but did not respond.
Outgoing president Davies and his vice-president Maira did respond when asked about their departures. Davies increasingly found himself acting as a mediator of personality clashes rather than “doing what presidents should concentrate on doing.” “It was very frustrating and I think the time was right to hand over the responsibility to new people in fact maybe this is exactly what the club needs,” he said.
Keeping the club going has been an achievement in itself but Davies points to the development of junior and all abilities programs as two of his proudest achievements. “And bringing together different communities – the Fijians and South Americans.”
Maira is widely acknowledged as the hardest working member of the previous administration but that workload proved her undoing. “To be honest there was no support within the committee,” she said. “I did all the team management with the seniors, the reserves and the kids and I stepped in for the treasurer and when anyone else wasn’t available. “It was just too much – it was seven days a week.”
In other State 4 news former Seaford United, Frankston Pines and Mornington goalkeeper Ryan Ramsden is training at Baxter but senior coach Hayden Taylor’s main target – striker David Stirton from Mornington – has decided to hang up his boots. “I’ve told Hayden (Taylor) I’m not going to go to Baxter,” Stirton said. “I can’t keep up with the injuries and my heart’s just not in it as much anymore. “But I won’t be out of the game for long as I plan to get my badges and start my coaching journey.”
In VPL1 news Langwarrin lost its opening pre-season friendly 2-0 to NPL powerhouse South Melbourne at Lakeside Stadium on Saturday. The game was reduced to 30-minute halves due to weather conditions and Lucas Portelli should have opened the scoring in the first half but South’s keeper made an excellent save.
New signings Cooper Legrand, Kosta Apostolopoulos and Tosan Popo looked good in their first appearance for Langwarrin.
At half-time Langy gaffer Jamie Skelly replaced the entire side with players from the under-23s and under-19s and the youngsters acquitted themselves well against a strong South line-up. Cain Vickery had Langy’s best chance but was denied by the South keeper. Langy’s remaining senior players completed a conditioning session on the Lakeside running track and played in last night’s friendly at Lawton Park against a visiting squad from the UK.
Skye United lost 3-1 to Chelsea at Carrum Downs Recreation Reserve last Thursday night. Chelsea’s goals came from a triallist, Michael Wright and Christian Murray. Skye used 22 players with only six from last season’s senior squad. Somerville’s top scorer Marcus Anastasiou turned out for Skye.
Chelsea boss Gus Macleod was pleased with the hit-out. “It looks like we’re in better shape than we were at the same time last year but we’ll see,” Macleod said. UK goalkeeper Liam Harris was between the uprights for Chelsea and the coaching staff are raving about him. “He’s absolutely unreal and I’ve not seen anything like this at this level for a long time,” Chelsea team manager Kieren Harbis said.
In State 1 news Rhys Craigie has decided to stay at Mornington. The Scottish midfielder had been training at Lawton Park but Langwarrin has filled its visa player quota and Craigie’s permanent residency is unlikely to be through in time for next season. Italian goalkeeper Guido Guerrieri is training with Mornington. The 28-year-old last played for Fano in Serie D, the fourth tier of Italian football. He made his professional debut in Serie B for Trapani in 2016 and the following year joined Lazio. He only made one first-team appearance and in September 2020 penned a two-year deal with Salernitana. That contract was terminated by mutual consent in February 2022 and the following day he signed for Bulgarian club Tsarko Selo. Guerrieri returned to Italy in August 2022 and joined AS Sambenedettese before switching to Fano the following year.
In other news it hasn’t taken long for Kevin “Squizzy” Taylor to rejoin coaching ranks with last week’s surprise announcement that he had been appointed to the top job at Casey Comets. Taylor’s CV includes stints at Seaford United, Bentleigh Greens, Westgate, Frankston Pines, Langwarrin, Beaumaris and Baxter. Comets struggled last season and eventually were relegated from State 1 South-East. They had a topsy turvy season both and off the pitch with financial problems causing coaches in different club programs to leave. But that hasn’t fazed Taylor who has taken on the role of trouble shooter before.
“I was quite happy playing golf and recharging the batteries after a hectic few seasons and to be honest the contact from Casey came out of the blue,” he said. “I had a very productive meeting with Dawn Stone and Dougie Williams last Tuesday which convinced me to take on the job. “The on-field position of the club is very similar to that of Pines in 2019 when i took on that role. “The club had been relegated and the majority of the senior squad were pursuing opportunities elsewhere. “I was able to turn things around quite quickly with some quality signings and we became very competitive very quickly. “I’m hoping we can do the same at Comets. “I’m aiming to give talented young players the opportunity to test themselves in senior football at State 2 level, while building a spine of quality experienced players.”
Tom Hawkins will be Taylor’s senior assistant following his retirement from playing and the club will announce the reserves coach soon.
Here are this week’s friendlies:
Saturday, 2.30pm
Langwarrin v Dandenong City, Lawton Park
Sunday 1pm
Skye Utd v Bayside Argonauts, Carrum Downs Recreation Reserve
First published in the Mornington News – 3 December 2024
