The way the FFA Cup was marketed was that anyone could have the ‘honour’ of going up against an A-League club.

But for Queensland’s Olympic FC, who will come up against Graham Arnold’s newly minted side Central Coast Mariners, the draw is a little bittersweet.
Olympic FC Coach Jim Bellas he says he was secretly hoping to come up against a Greek Australian team.

“Deep down I really wanted to play a Greek side, like Sydney Olympic or Bentleigh,” he tells Neos Kosmos. “That would have been fantastic.”

Bellas’ view isn’t a one-off; it is in fact what many of the Greek sponsored clubs are thinking.

There is one Greek derby booked for the round of 16 – Sydney Olympic and Bentleigh Greens. The match will most probably trump other A-league club matches for crowd numbers.

Sydney Olympic coach Grant Lee says he is quite excited to be playing the Melbourne team, and isn’t disappointed Olympic missed out on an A-League opponent.

He sees the match as the best chance to progress in the Cup by playing against equals.

“I was happy with the draw, it’ll be nice with another Greek club,” he tells Neos Kosmos. “Coming from interstate it gives both of us an opportunity to progress to the next round.”

The view of both coaches shows just how deep the community spirit is in the sport.

Many Greek Australian teams have outlasted and sometimes outshone their professional counterparts.

Their teams go back decades and they’ve nurtured some of the best players in the country. It’s no wonder the A-League clubs come sniffing.

One of the main goals in creating the National Premier League was to create clearer pathways for progression, and to rightfully compensate lower league clubs for their contribution when a player is poached.

Bellas says from the NPL and the FFA Cup exposure, four of his players have already been snapped up by the top clubs.

Just after their round of 32 match against Melbourne Knights, Bellas had to say goodbye to another player, signed to the youth teams of Brisbane Roar.

This season, Bellas has seen three others move to the Roar and one player sign to Melbourne Heart’s youth squad.

It’s left his team quite depleted, but he’s happy to get the club’s prowess noticed.

“We still want to be competitive, and be up higher on the ladder, but the club sees the development of players, and sending them to the A-League … it’s the best thing for the club because that means everyone wants to come play for Olympic,” he says.

Knowing his team’s deficiencies, in the next three weeks Bellas will be putting all he can into training up his younger players, to at least give the Mariners a run for their money.

“The thing that’s concerning us is that we’ve got a lot of games in the next three weeks,” he says. “Our squad is not that deep, and if two people get suspended or injured then we’ll be really struggling.

“We’re looking at it positively; I think we’re in with a shot, we’ve come so far.”

The minute he got the draw, Bellas has been chasing as much insider knowledge as he can about the Mariners.

“I’ve spoken to one of the coaches down there who knows their coach and he says he’s a bit weary and he’s sending his best 11 up to play us,” he says with a laugh.

Sydney Olympic is using their finals series as the best road test for a player formation against Bentleigh.

One thing concerning Lee is that if the team makes it to the grand final, they’ll have to battle match fitness two days later for their FFA Cup match.

The fixture for all local teams is one of the most concerning things.

Deep in the final legs of the NPL, most will be watching their players closing and keeping others in reserve.

Lee says he won’t be too cautious with his players, saying that it’s better for the team to be overloading on matches rather than overloading on training.

“It can be a bit of a minefield if you go down that path if you try and protect them too much,” he says. “It’s better for them to be playing.”

The other Greek sponsored team to make it through the round of 16 and defy all odds is Melbourne lower league side South Springvale (Aris).

Thankfully the team will be going up against Queensland’s Palm Beach Sharks, giving them much more of a chance to progress.