Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters by Johnny Warren

Author:Johnny Warren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2002-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

I had no great plans to get back into coaching at a senior level during my time freelance coaching around Australia and in Fiji. I was quite content working at a grassroots level and trying to influence the young generation of players. Things changed however when I received a phone call from Steve Doszpot while I was coaching in Alice Springs. Although I didn’t know Steve, his dad had been a big supporter of St George and I was familiar with the Doszpot name. He didn’t beat around the bush and told me straight away that the national league was definitely starting next year and that a team from Canberra had been admitted. Would I be interested in the coaching job? Here I was, up in northern Australia coaching juniors, and I was suddenly being asked to coach a senior team thousands of kilometres away in the nation’s capital! It was an out-of-the-blue proposition and I wasn’t really sure whether I was interested or not. I knew I had little to lose though so I agreed to fly down and see for myself what the set-up in Canberra was like.

During my coaching stint at St George there had always been tremendous pressure on the team to win. Obviously that pressure always ultimately rests on the shoulders of the coach. As long as the team won, played well and brought home the title the club was happy with you. That all went with the job description. But while it was a simple enough equation to grasp it was obviously extremely difficult to actually achieve. It meant there was constant pressure in every game the team played. Of course with the great players, wonderful support and excellent set-up I had had at St George there was a certain balance to it all, but it was a tough environment nonetheless.

When I arrived in Canberra I immediately discovered that I was walking into a completely different situation. This was a club simply trying to establish itself and winning matches wasn’t nearly as important as making sure the club itself laid some deep foundations in both the local soccer community and the national competition. All the people involved with the club, blokes like Steve Doszpot, Theo Moulis, David Dillon, Hal Leslie, Pat Stanley, Peter Vidovic, John Ward and Peter Windsor, were also extremely enthusiastic and keen to make sure the club was a success. They were real soccer people who just wanted Canberra to be part of the big time. It was a refreshing change and I think their enthusiasm rubbed off on me.

When I met with the club officials they decided to take me to lunch. I can remember going to lock the car and being told that there was no need. I’m not sure if I locked the car or not but I quickly realised I wasn’t in Sydney any more and began to appreciate that Canberra had a few attractions that I hadn’t really considered before. After lunch (the car was still

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