If Oakleigh Cannons’ new twin coaching team brings the elusive success that the NPL club craves, the Cannons will owe a debt of gratitude to Port Melbourne Sharks.
The new men in charge at Jack Edwards – Peter Tsolakis and Con Tangalakis – have a tight friendship forged in their days as teammates playing for Port Melbourne youth teams.
Their vision for success at Oakleigh is rooted in that experience with both believing that a path to a successful future is paved through developing and promoting talented young players.
The Cannons announced the unique coaching arrangement following the resignation late last week of Arthur Papas who, according to general manager Aki Ionnas, resigned because of demanding work commitments.
Ionnas told Neos Kosmos “the club’s very excited about their appointments”.
“We spoke to a few candidates. We thought that Peter and Con were the appropriate fit for the club. We believe that Peter’s done a great job as a senior coach in previous years at Northcote and at South Melbourne. He’s a great motivator and has an eye for young talent. And the same with Con. We believe Con’s also got a special eye for young talent. Together with our core experienced players, we believe they can build a great team on the park.”
Whilst Tsolakis is new to the Cannons, Tangalakis is a former Oakleigh player (back when the club was in State Leagues), as well as a former assistant coach to Bill Lambropoulos when the pair was in charge of the Oakleigh youth team, and again when they moved on to South Springvale in State League SE1. He’s also worked as an assistant coach to Joe Palatsides at Melbourne City youth.
Tsolakis says of his new partner at the helm – “Con knows the Oakleigh mentality, the Oakleigh people so to speak. I’ve got a lot of respect for Con, what he’s done in the community. He’s a go-getter, knows what he wants and he gets results.”
Tangalakis, who has proven himself a success in the business community, is aware of the challenge ahead.
“It’s a huge challenge. I’m looking forward to it immensely, because being under people like Joe Palatsides and Bill Lambropoulos, guys I’ve been affiliated with in the last six to seven years and earning my stripes as a junior type coach, this will be a challenge to prove myself and see what I’ve learnt.
“Oakleigh is a big club. It’s an opportunity that has been given to me in good faith, by the committee. You know it’s an honour that they’ve given me the opportunity. Big clubs like that are normally very stringent and precise with who they interview and who they give opportunities to. So at this stage it looks like they may have a bit of faith in me and Gus (Tsolakis) and we’re hoping we’re not going to let them down.”
Tsolakis has had close associations with South, Northcote and Port. When asked how he sees Oakleigh fitting into that landscape of Greek NPL clubs, he says “Oakleigh, in my opinion, (I’m talking about the Greek Community) is the biggest Greek club going around”.
“They’re in that hub now where they can tap into businesses, people. If they get a bit of success, I think they can get quite a few people behind them. In terms of football, I think personally they’ve underachieved. That’s my personal opinion. And I stressed that to them. I said that with the resources they’ve got, they’ve underachieved and I don’t mean that in a demeaning way against any coach or anything because I think all the coaches they’ve had have been sensation. They just haven’t been able to take that next step to get that championship. They still haven’t had that success that Oakleigh really deserves.”
Both Tsolakis and Tangalakis are firm believers that promoting talented youth will reap rewards for the senior team. Tsolakis believes the NPL points system, which is effectively a salary cap, is fantastic because it forces the clubs to look at the youth.
“You’ve got to look in your own back yard which is what the FFA and FFV want to do. They want to promote juniors, and Oakleigh’s got a really good junior set up. The other thing is John Kostopoulos (junior co-ordinator) – I played with John at Port Melbourne for many many years so I’ve got a really good rapport with him as well. I’m excited to work with him.”
Tangalakis is singing from the same hymn book when he says: “We’re going to create a club environment where we’re going to produce exciting soccer. We’re going to bring through the ranks, the younger players. I believe a team that is successful, is a team which has got a lot of home grown players. You need to form a culture where everyone will play for each other.”
He recalls the successful Port Melbourne Youth teams that he and Tsolakis played in as teammates.
“We were together many many years. We had created that bonding, that X-factor. We were playing for the strip, playing for the right reasons.”
That bond has held fast and Oakleigh fans will be hoping it can bring long-awaited success to the Cannons.