Nick Maikousis on Greek Herald Cup, reviving heritage, and South Melbourne’s future in the NST

Avatar
Image credit: South Melbourne FC

South Melbourne FC and Sydney Olympic FC hosted the highly successful second edition of the Greek Herald Cup at Lakeside Stadium.

Thousands of fans poured through the gates to enjoy a vibrant celebration of heritage, culture, and football. With Greek music and food creating a festive atmosphere, the event showcased the rich traditions of both clubs.

The match itself didn’t disappoint, delivering an entertaining 2-1 victory for South Melbourne, highlighted by memorable goals and moments that capped off a fantastic day.

In this exclusive interview with Soccerscene, South Melbourne President Nick Maikousis shares his thoughts on the Greek Herald Cup, the revival of ethnic clubs in Australian football, and the immense potential of the upcoming National Second Tier (NST).

Maikousis reflects on the club’s heritage, the significance of iconic rivalries, and how South Melbourne is poised to thrive in this new era for Australian football.

Theo Athans

What is the origin of the Greek Herald Cup?

Nick Maikousis

It started last year and that was the first time the competition took place. We flew to Sydney for that game. It’s based on the fact that we started to develop a relationship with Sydney Olympic and in particular their President (Damon Hamlin) and CEO (Lawrie McKinna) over the discussions about the National Second Division.

The second division was announced as a standalone competition and we thought let’s get ahead of the game and lets show what two big clubs from Melbourne and Sydney can do and that’s basically how it all came about.

We spent so much time with Olympic and the other National Second Division clubs so we thought let’s get on the forefront of this and start the competition.

T.A.

In your eyes, how successful was the second edition of the Greek Herald Cup especially for the Melbourne Greek community?

N.M.

Yeah, it was certainly a success and given it’s really just a friendly so we can build it up as much as we like but we’re pretty delighted with the attendance.

It’s a difficult time, it’s a couple of weeks out from the season so whilst we really want to give it a good shot, we also don’t want to incur any injuries and as it turned out we had a couple of minor injuries which might affect us in the short term.

It allows us to go back to our roots, played a lot of Greek music on the day and doing things that we have not really done for decades now in terms of acknowledging our heritage.

Given that Football Australia and the various federations have relaxed their stance on ethnic names, it allows us to reach out to our past again. Both South and Olympic represent the same thing, we have different supporters, but we represent the same community so it’s a great opportunity to showcase our heritage.

T.A.

Thinking back to the NSL days, can the NST and NPL ever get back to the passion we saw back then? 

N.M.

I think there’s a couple of stages to the commencement of the competition. Do I think it can get to the heights of the NSL? Look South Melbourne was a powerhouse back then and after the Cup game we had a look at some old footage with the 1984 NSL championship legends as a reunion dinner.

We had a couple of past legends there, including Alan Davidson, who wouldn’t stop talking about the old supporter base, how big and passionate they were and how it lifted them during that time.

So I think during certain fixtures, for example South Melbourne/Preston, will fill Lakeside stadium.

Some of the other games between the Sydney clubs perhaps it won’t be quite as full but I still believe we forecasted around 3,000-4,000 people per game so if we can get to that sort of number I’ll be delighted in the early parts.

It’s a competition that we need to build and we don’t know what it’s going to look like in five years or ten years’ time with the inter relationship between the NST and the A-League. I don’t think anyone quite understands what it is going to look like yet but we all have our own idea on that.

Will it be as big as the old NSL? I doubt it. But certainly there will be some fixtures that will be significant and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted Melbourne Knights to come into the NST. Their history and the original derby in this town would have made it even better.

T.A.

Do you think the South Melbourne and Preston game last year was a showcase into what we could expect out of the NST and its atmosphere?

N.M.

The atmosphere was incredible but not only that, it was a cold Tuesday night out at Reservoir. If you put that fixture on a Friday or Saturday night at Lakeside Stadium, you’d be filling both grandstands easily and you could get up to 10,000 people there so there’s huge potential.

T.A.

Now with the NST, ethnic clubs are back in the mainstream, how important is that for Australian football considering its historical roots?

N.M.

I think what they had done to ban ethnic flags and names was going too far but now that they have relaxed their position in regards to that, it’s a very positive thing.

It allows us to do what we did in the Greek Herald Cup and that is to celebrate our culture proudly from time to time.

Certainly, South Melbourne has evolved over the years as well so let’s not kid ourselves. In my case there’s been four generations following South and two of those generations were born in Australia and we’re all South tragics. So whilst we acknowledge our heritage, we have also moved on past that.

Whilst we have a very big Greek community, its reducing a little bit to how it was and the fact that South is in the NPL, soon the NST, we’ve also got a lot of other clubs have suburban level who are sort of competing with us.

Back when South Melbourne was a powerhouse, you’d find that everyone still had their suburban clubs but I’d say 75% of the Greek suburban clubs also followed South Melbourne.

Unfortunately when South Melbourne dropped divisions outside of the NSL, all of a sudden, we became competitors and that’s never what we wanted. So the NST will help us significantly because people will follow their local clubs and now South Melbourne which is a great opportunity for the community and the club.

If you look at our juniors, the cultural diversity as well is extraordinary, so whilst we respect our heritage, it suggests we have moved on.

T.A.

The NST will bring something fresh because apart from the finals, there isn’t much to play for in NPL so how will that benefit the club?

N.M.

Look the positive thing about this year is that there will be plenty of healthy games like Heidelberg, Oakleigh, Melbourne Victory got promoted and of course Preston is in there as well.

They have replaced teams which didn’t have massive followings so I’m looking forward to quite a few games with great attendances. It’ll be a great season.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Northern NSW Football’s Leadership Program Reaches 98 Graduates as Sport Moves Toward 2027 Gender Parity Targets

Avatar
Image Credit: Football Northern NSW

Northern NSW Football has concluded its 2026 Women’s Leadership Program, with 13 participants taking the total number of graduates to 98 women across the region since the program launched in 2023. The five-week program combined online modules with a two-day conference at Rydges Resort in the Hunter Valley, bringing together club volunteers, committee members, administrators and NNSWF staff from Newcastle, Macquarie, Northern Inland and Football Mid North Coast zones.

The program’s growth has been uneven year to year. It launched with two intakes in 2023, drew 25 scholarship recipients in 2024,then settled to 12 in 2025, which brought the cumulative total to 85 before this year’s cohort of 13.

The program was facilitated by Ann Odong, who founded The Women’s Game, Australia’s first dedicated women’s football website, in 2008,and later spent six years as Football Australia’s Media and PR Manager steering the Matildas’ program through multiple World Cups and Olympic Games,before moving into independent consulting work.

A pipeline built against a 2027 deadline

The program fits within a wider set of national targets football and the broader sport sector have committed to reaching within the next twelve months. Football Australia’s Our Game initiative, launched in 2021, set a goal of 50:50 gender parity across players, coaches, administrators and referees by 2027.Separately, the federally backed National Gender Equity in Sport Governance Policy requires all funded national and state sporting bodies to reach 50 per cent women or gender-diverse board directors by 1 July 2027, with funding to be withheld from organisations that fall short.As of the most recent Australian Sports Commission data, 22 per cent of chief executives and 25 per cent of board chairs across 65 federally funded national sporting organisations were women.

Programs built around confidence, networking and committee-level skills, the model NNSWF has run since 2023, are the mechanism most sporting bodies are relying on to close that gap, since board and executive vacancies typically draw from an organisation’s existing pool of committee members, volunteers and administrators rather than external recruitment.

This year’s cohort

University of Newcastle FC’s Charlotte Carey, one of this year’s participants, said the program had given her the confidence to pursue a career in football while developing skills applicable across other areas of her life. Fellow participants included representatives from Cooks Hill United, Westlakes Wildcats, Newcastle Olympic, Lake Macquarie City FC, Western Wolves, Gunnedah and District Soccer Association, Wauchope FC and Stockton Sharks, alongside three NNSWF staff members.

NNSWF Participation and Women’s Football Officer Jamie Bressan said the program had continued to provide women across the game with an opportunity to connect and build leadership skills, with topics covering effective communication, personality styles and team dynamics. Bressan pointed to the network the program builds among participants, drawn from clubs and committees across the region, as one of its central functions rather than the training content alone.

The 2026 cohort’s spread across four zones, Newcastle, Macquarie, Northern Inland and Football Mid North Coast, continues a pattern of the program drawing participants from outside the Hunter region’s largest population centres, consistent with its original design to make the conference and online components accessible to women in regional and remote parts of northern NSW through funded travel and accommodation.

Football SA Extends Sammy D Foundation Partnership Into Third Year for Violence Prevention Round

Avatar
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football South Australia will run its fifth consecutive Violence Prevention Round in partnership with the Sammy D Foundation from 3 to 5 July, with junior teams again asked to wear blue armbands throughout the weekend.

The arrangement was formalised in March 2022, when Football SA and the Foundation signed a three-year agreement, funded by SA Power Networks, to deliver the Foundation’s Monkey See, Monkey Do program to more than 7,500 junior members across 52 clubs.The program is a 90-minute session delivered by Sammy D Foundation facilitators focused on changing players’ attitudes toward bullying and violence and educating parents and club members about the impacts of inappropriate sideline behaviours, built around the story of Sam Davis, the 17-year-old South Adelaide junior footballer whose death in a one-punch assault in 2008 led his parents to establish the Foundation.Football SA general manager George Georganas and Foundation chief executive Brigid Koenig confirmed the partnership at its 2022 launch, framing it as a mechanism for improving club culture from junior sidelines upward.

The round has run every season since, expanding in 2023 to incorporate the Federation Cup Final at ServiceFM Stadium,a weekend Football SA dedicated as the Sammy D Violence Prevention Round alongside the Federation Cup Final Day continuing through the 2024 season,when it was again scheduled as a designated round ahead of that year’s Federation Cup Final and shifting from an early blue tape design to the blue armbands used in 2025 and again this year.

A prevention model funded outside government

The Foundation’s programs, including its work with Football SA, are financed through corporate and philanthropic support rather than recurring government funding. Its rollout with Football SA was backed by SA Power Networks, and separate school-based programs in the state’s Far North have relied on grants from philanthropic trusts.Both the Perpetual Foundation’s Kevin Barnes Gift Fund Endowment and the Fred P Archer Charitable Trust have funded the Foundation’s work in that region.

The State Government’s response to the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, released in December 2025, commits $674 million over ten years to a 136-recommendation reportstructured around themes spanning structural reform, workforce and community education, crisis response, and establishing a foundation for prevention, delivered by Commissioner Natasha Stott Despojaafter four women were killed in the state within a single week in November 2023. The Commission’s focus on domestic, family and sexual violence is distinct from the youth bullying and alcohol-related violence at the centre of Sammy D Foundation programs, but its response includesan expansion of abuse prevention programs to support behavioural change for people who use violence, alongside prevention and awareness activities aimed specifically at young people.

Separately, the Department for Education’s own violence prevention program, developed after a 2022 ministerial roundtable, has directed a $6 million Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Plan of Action toward schools, afterreported violent incidents in South Australian public schools rose 50 per cent in 2023, with more than 13,000 critical incidents recorded that year. The department has since reportedits first decline in secondary school critical incidents in 2024, a 4.5 per cent reduction from 2019 levels, along with a 7.3 per cent fall in suspensions and a 20.8 per cent fall in exclusions in 2025. It also noted thatviolence in primary schools has continued to rise since the pandemic, and that physical violence against teaching staff, the large majority involving primary-aged students, climbed from 273 incidents in 2021 to 662 in 2024.

Evidence from earlier rollouts

Sammy D Foundation programs delivered through junior sport have previously reported strong self-assessed outcomes. An earlier three-year rollout of a related program through SANFL Juniors, a separate competition to Football SA,reached up to 12,800 young players and their families, with 98 per cent reporting increased awareness of the impact of one-punch violence and 89 per cent reporting they avoided a violent situation because of the program.

A national evidence guide on preventing violence through sport, compiled by Our Watch, notes that69 per cent of Australian children and 87 per cent of adults took part in sport or physical activity over a twelve-month period, while also pointing toa lack of research assessing the effectiveness of such approaches, and the need for more robust evaluation of primary prevention programs within sport settings.

Clubs taking part in this year’s round have again been supplied with blue armbands for junior teams, with Football SA and the Foundation asking clubs to share images from the weekend under the round’s official hashtag.

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend