In episode nine of Soccerscene’s Off the Pitch podcast, Oakleigh Cannons General Manager & Director of Football Aki Ionnas joins the show to talk about how the club has grown and the potential of the club competing in the national second division.
On the podcast, Ionnas reflected on his 25-year journey with Oakleigh Cannons, highlighting the club’s transformation and credited its dramatic growth to years of hard work and strong leadership.
“I’ve been at Oakleigh Cannons for 25 years this year, continuously, and from when I started 25 years ago to what it is now, is a massive, massive change at Oakleigh Cannons,” he said on the podcast.
“The infrastructure and what we had there 25 years ago was just a ground where there was hardly any grass, the second outside ground was full of mud.
“All our infrastructure, the most influential people who have been lobbying and working very hard to get the club to what it is now and on another level has been our chairman, Kon Kavalakis, and our president, Stan Papayianneris, they’ve been very instrumental in getting the club to where it is now.
“So, it’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of lobbying, but now you can see the rewards in a couple of months when the new grandstand will be finished, it will be a state-of-the-art stadium.”
Additionally, Ionnas touched on the possibility of Oakleigh competing in the Australian Championship down the track.
“At the moment, we’re still looking to do all the logistics, the financials, we as a club, if we finish this year in the right position and we qualify for the championship, yeah, we’ll enter it no problem,” he said.
“We’ll see how the championship goes, like I said, we are hoping and aiming to finish in that position this year, so we’re given an opportunity to play in the championship.
“But look, let’s wait and see how it goes in the first season, from a financial point of view, and see all the logistics that will go from there, but look, it’s always great, a new competition is always great, and we thrive as a club to always try and compete at the highest level.
“Unfortunately, we’re not in the Australia Cup this year, but we like playing in all competitions and we’ve proven it in the last four or five years that we’ve been successful in the Australia Cup, making the last four quarterfinals, we’ve won championships, Dockerty Cups, we want to be in all competitions.”
To learn more about the Oakleigh Cannons, listen to the full interview with Aki Ionnas on episode nine of Soccerscene’s Off the Pitch Podcast – available on all major podcasting apps.
