“At the end of the day, Oakleigh needs to be at the top, whether it’s at the FFA Cup fighting for the last four or last two or whether it’s in the League.”

That is the philosophy of newly appointed Oakleigh Cannons coach Arthur Papas, who took over Miron Bleiberg’s role this Tuesday.

Bleiberg handed in his resignation this week after family and business constraints in Brisbane became too much.

He handed over the reigns to Papas on Tuesday with a heavy heart, but comforted by the fact the club is in good hands.

Papas returns to the Cannons after almost three years in India, coaching the Olympic team and transforming their youth squads. He rose to fame when he started coaching I-League team Dempo S.C in 2013.

While at the Cannons in 2010-2011, he managed to coach the team to the grand final, scoring himself a coach of the year award.

Coming back to Melbourne just last month, Papas wasn’t expecting to be taking up the reigns of a major club so soon.

“It was completely unexpected to be honest, because I didn’t come back with the idea of coaching for this season,” he tells Neos Kosmos.

“But the circumstances were a little bit unique. Oakleigh was the club that gave me my chance back in 2010, and Miron was involved in the whole process and that’s what made it something that appealed to me.”

Now, he faces a huge uphill battle to get the team back to its glory days.

The club is eight matches into the season sitting at a dismal 12th position.

It only just scraped through their preliminary FFA Cup match last week thanks to penalties.

“The situation is difficult if I’m honest, it’s not an easy one, but that’s a good challenge,” he says.

For any coach entering new territory, inheriting a club at its worst, or in Oakleigh Cannons’ case, in what seems like a bit of a rut can be a very daunting situation.

Papas hasn’t been able to pick his players, he hasn’t seen them in under pressure and is fielding a relatively unknown team today in Geelong.

“It’s a very tough game, when you’re in the position that you are on the ladder, it obviously says there’s no easy game,” he says.

“North Geelong are just a spot below and we’re playing them on their home ground , which is always very tough to go to at Geelong.”

Some comfort to Papas is that he knows a couple of players personally and can utilise them in his formation.

He admits that while some key players are out thanks to injury, the team is well rounded.

“There is a lot of talent in the group, there’s a really good bunch of characters,” he says.

As he sets himself up at Oakleigh, he’s looking to the immediate future, and not concerning himself with title aspirations in the NPL or in the FFA Cup.

“I don’t think there should be any talk about titles right now, the first thing is to move away from the bottom pack,” he says.

“All the boys understand that, but we’re realistic about the situation.”

Last week the Cannons fell to top of the ladder Heidelberg United in a 1-0 home loss.

Oakleigh Cannons take on North Geelong Warriors today at 3:00pm at Elcho Park, Gibbons Road, Lara.