Tara Murray
Western Suburbs has turned to a championship winning coach to get stability at the FV state league 1 north-west side.
The club had an up and down season this year but managed to avoid relegation after being bottom of the table at times.
Now with a focus on keeping stability and putting out consistent performances week in, week out, the club has appointed Terry Antoniadis.
The club’s Sasha Pete said they were excited to have Antoniadis back at the club.
Antoniadis coached the side to the state league 1 north-west title in 2015.
“Terry was a Western Suburbs junior and a championship winning coach,” Pete said. “We are very excited to bring in someone who knows the DNA of our club.
“His father still drinks coffee at the coffee shop. It’s nice to get someone who understands what we are about.”
After coaching Western Suburbs, Antoniadis spent time at Altona East Phoenix.
He had this year off from coaching, but the itch was still there.
“He realised that he still had the passion for coaching,” Pete said. “He can not wait to get back into it.”
Antoniadis will be joined on the coaching panel by James Pete.
Sasha said he younger brother took over coaching the reserves last season and was another person that understood the direction and philosophy the club wanted to take.
“The plan is to consolidate and stabilise the club,” he said.
“It’s always about building squads that can be super competitive. Last season we had moments on the bottom and it forced us to shift in another direction.
“We are grateful to Jim [Gacovski] who stabilised the ship. The squad at the start of the year was good enough for title contention, but every plan on paper doesn’t alway go to plan.”
Pete said at times last season they showed they were good enough to match it with the top sides but it was about making sure they did it for long enough.
“What sets a club apart is a run of form,” he said. “First we wanted to assure we have leadership in the team who understand who we are and it’s important to what we do.
“We had a lot of changes with Harry [Matkovic] and then his assistant [Marijan Cvitkovic].
“With Terry at the club we will get that stability back at the club.”
