‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 21 1998 - ISA Champions

‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 21

1998 - ISA Champions

As a coach it is always useful to find a motivator for your side. In some cases in can be what someone has said, done or failed to do. As the SPX 1st XI came together after our 1-0 ISA Final defeat in 1997 I implored the boys 'to remember this feeling of losing a final'. As fortune would have it, significant numbers of our squad were back again the following season to put things right.

One of the ongoing tasks of the 1st XI Coach and Football Convenor at SPX was to discover our hidden talent. In only my second year at the college this involved chatting about football to all who would listen. In this way I discovered which good players were playing  outside in Rep football.  A key conversation at this time was with a certain Damien Pisano. Damien had come through his time at the college without playing for the school sides. He had played all his football outside for Representative teams and was presently with NSL side Sydney Olympic. This was some uphill task. His ongoing point to me was “Why should I play for SPX? It has never supported or encouraged me in any way with my football ambitions. If anything I have had impediments put in my way”. This was a difficult argument to counter but with the aid of his mate Alan Sardelich, I made a case. We tried all approaches. ‘The football community will look up to you’. ‘You have an opportunity to get a chance at School based recognition and glory up on that podium, at assembly’. ‘Through school you have an alternative representative pathway to NSW and Australian teams’. In the end through sheer persistence we got his agreement to playing for the School 1st XI. This was probably the most important ‘convincing’ conversation I had with a player at SPX. Now I could say to every other parent and player “If Pisano can make the time to play for SPX, I’m certain your son can do the same.”

Thus, in the 1998 season our task of lifting Footballs profile at SPX was showing good signs of progress. Once again we entered both the NSWCCC and NSWCIS Cups fronting up against teams from different competitions. Oakhill pulled us back in a game we led 2-0 only to go down 3-2 in extra time, having fielded a very young side. We also ran into a crack Sydney Grammar side to exit a second Cup competition. Steep learning curves were plotted in games against Cranbrook, Knox, Aloysius and Newington. We discovered that, the more we played, the better we got! When the ISA season came around we only lost one game and that was by 2-1 to St Pats. We came off beaten but also with the knowledge we could go closer the next time we met. Winning five ISA matches made us runner up and a home semi-final with St Spyridon’s. We had beaten them 5-0 in the regular season so it was a big surprise when we went 1-0 behind in the semi-final. Drawing on our extensive match experience we stormed back to win 4-1 booking an ISA Final berth in the process. The speed of Kaan Peker, hard work wide of Marc Scardelli and goal touch of Pisano with 17 goals carried us all the way.

Competition in the squad was fierce. We carried two keepers in Khatchadourian and Byok. Bullish Steve Georgevski, Shant Kahramanian, Seb Oreb-Johnston and Daniel Fiorenza made a no nonsense defence.  Interestingly on first viewing I had judged Anthony Perich to be too slow to play 1st XI. I’m glad to admit I was wrong because this player read the game so well it made up for any lack of pace. Bill Gleeson and Mark Campbell were right to press me on this one! Alan Sardelich provided that touch and X factor. Captain Robert Ciampi led the midfield of youngsters Richard Cuthbert, Shaab Kargarian and the strong Garth Moring. Utilities Gough, Zaknich and Williams all playing their part.

On the night of the ISA final Christy Park was buzzing with 300-400 supporters form St Pats and ourselves. On what was an awful night weather-wise, I’m sure no one noticed the wind and rain. As with the 1997 Final defenses were dominant, chances few and tension was all too apparent. The St Pat’s crowd had identified Pisano as a danger-man and proceeded to ‘give it to him’ throughout. At the time I had written that ‘this years squad perhaps lacked the flair of 1997 but were more than their equal in teamwork’, and so it was. With the match edging ever closer to sudden death extra time, we made the vital breakthrough. Pisano won the ball on the left and drifted right before unleashing a shot in off the far post. With barely two minutes left we were in front. As is way with many of our Christy Park finals there was hangover to be discussed later. Apparently in celebrating his winner the goal scorer slid down on his knees in front of the St Pats crowd closely followed by the rest of the team.  I spent an hour with Br Leary on Monday reviewing the footage! The celebrations at the final whistle were wild. SPX had won its first ISA Grand Final.

In the context of SPX football the importance of this win should not be underestimated. Byok, Kargarian, Perich, Peker, Ciampi, Moring and Sardelich all played for the ISA. Pisano went on to play for NSWCIS while Mark Campbell was the manager of that side. Long term friendships were established with parents Ron Cuthbert and Paul Parkes refereeing a host of games for the college in the following years. Our blue and gold ‘Croatian’ checkered shirt made its one and only appearance in season 1998 retiring rightly as a Champion SPX kit.