Oakleigh Cannons have joined Bulleen Lions and Hume City FC in parting ways with their senior coaches, just eight rounds into the new NPL season.
Joint coach Con Tangalakis, speaking to Neos Kosmos, confirmed midweek that both he and Peter Tsolakis were dismissed as Cannons’ coaches.
“Nothing was made clear as far as to why we were dismissed. Even today we still haven’t been given a clear indication as to why exactly we’ve been dismissed. They said they’re changing direction and appointing some other coach.”
Tangalakis said the decision took both coaches by surprise, pre-empting as it did, a planned mid-year review.
“We had discussions with the club that mid-season we would review and analyse our position, because as you know our results haven’t been the best. But we didn’t expect it to be sooner than mid-year, so it was a big surprise.”
Appointed at the start of 2016, Tsolakis and Tangalakis worked hard to rebuild a dysfunctional team culture, succeeding in leading the team to successive finals, a grand final loss against South Melbourne in 2016, and a semifinal defeat to Heidelberg United last season.
As Tangalakis says, they had big ambitions this year to win the Dockerty Cup and to make finals again.
But in a disappointing start to the season, the Cannons currently sit in a lowly 11th place on the table with just two wins from eight games. Tangalakis says that after a good pre-season, “We’ve been very unlucky. We had early major injuries. We conceded some goals we normally wouldn’t have conceded in other games in other years. Overall I solidly believe and still believe the club is good enough to move forward. And looking at it, we’re only a point behind where we were at the same stage of the season last year, and we’re still in the Cup. So we’re probably better off. For whatever reason, the club decided to go their way because maybe they lost faith in us, or maybe they thought we’d lost control of the change room. I’m not sure. I don’t believe that the team was in dire straits. I think that the team would’ve turned it around because we’ve got good players. But at the end of the day, the club is a club and it’s run by committee members. They all vote. So they decided to go their way. So I respect their decision. It is what it is.”
Tangalakis says making finals two years in a row was the most satisfying achievement of his and Tsolakis’ tenure, but regrets that he and Tsolakis didn’t lead the club to their first major silverware.
As to the future, Tangalakis said, “We’ve both had some calls from other teams. It’s way too fresh. Let the dust settle, as they say. We’ll weigh our options. Whether we coach together or separately, we don’t know. We’ve always been mates and we’ll continue to be mates.”
At the time of writing, the club did not respond to calls for comment, nor have they made any official announcement about a new appointment. But speculation continues that former South Melbourne boss Chris Taylor will take up the senior coaching job at Jack Edwards.