Uh, wow, I mean, has the hangover subsided? I don't know if you're cracked in in, into the, any of the ouzo or whatever, or it was just adrenaline that carried you through.

Um, thank you firstly for having us on the show and, um, and thank you for your kind words.

And it is about community, and it, and it's about spirit, and it's about drama and intrigue, and that's what makes football interesting.

It's the stories that can only come- From tradition and history, and, um, I think that's, I think that's the narrative that's flowing from, from Saturday night's epic journey, and it's an epic journey for all of us 'cause it's 22 years in the making for South.

Um, and also, may I say, and Peter Kakaras reminded me of this, it's probably the only moment in football history in our country, and probably any sporting code, where you have a team from a lower tier competition winning a national title.

Bill, uh, so have you talked to anyone, had e- even informal conversations about the pyramid, about the structure, about any kind of thought of being in the A-League with anyone from the A-League?

No.

Unfortunately not.

Uh, wow, I mean, has the hangover subsided? I don't know if you're cracked in, in, into the, any of the ouzo or whatever, or it was just adrenaline that carried you through.

Um, thank you firstly for having us on the show and, um, and thank you for your kind words.

And it is about community, and it, and it's about spirit, and it's about drama and intrigue, and that's what makes football interesting.

It's the stories that can only come- From tradition and history, and, um, I think that's, I think that's the narrative that's flowing from, from Saturday night's epic journey, and it's an epic journey for all of us 'cause it's 22 years in the making for South.

Um, and also, may I say, and Peter Kokotas reminded me of this, it's probably the only moment in football history in our country, and probably any sporting code, where you have a team from a lower tier competition winning a national title.

Is that something that's on the cards or there's a, there's a lot of water need to pass under the bridge before that becomes a reality?

Um, a lot of water does need to pass under the bridge in terms of where the APL sees us fitting into the football ecosystem.

Um, that's unfortunate because if you look at the criteria for the purposes of satisfying, uh, and being present in the A-League ecosystem, well, I'd struggle to find where it is that we don't meet that particular criteria as we speak.

Uh, wow, I mean, has the hangover subsided? I don't know if you're cracked in, in, into the, any of the ouzo or whatever, or it was just adrenaline that carried you through.

Um, thank you firstly for having us on the show and, um, and thank you for your kind words.

And it is about community, and it, and it's about spirit, and it's about drama and intrigue, and that's what makes football interesting.

It's the stories that can only come- From tradition and history, and, um, I think that's, I think that's the narrative that's flowing from, from Saturday night's epic journey, and it's an epic journey for all of us 'cause it's 22 years in the making for South.

Um, and also, may I say, and Peter Kokotas reminded me of this, it's probably the only moment in football history in our country, and probably any sporting code, where you have a team from a lower tier competition winning a national title.

Bill, uh, so have you talked to anyone, had e- even informal conversations about the pyramid, about the structure, about any kind of thought of being in the A-League with anyone from the A-League?

No.

Unfortunately not.

When these people say to me, Bill, about reasons about not having that, are you aware of these reasons or is it something that I'm missing here?

Absolutely not.

No, there are no reasons.

Let's be honest about it.

The reasons are fiction.

They're there for political reasons and they serve political agendas.

They're not based on equity.

Bill, so have you talked to anyone, had even informal conversations about the pyramid, about the structure, about any kind of thought of being in the A-League with anyone from the A-League?

When you commenced going down this path, when you sat in the boardroom and convinced your colleagues that this was the right place, this was the right path for South to go on, could you have imagined twelve months later, after fifty-four games, that it would culminate with what occurred on the weekend?

No, I couldn't.

But what I, what I could imagine, and what I have known through my work as a lawyer, through my other community work that, um, through the Greek community of Melbourne and on various government boards that I've sat, I understand the importance of commitment and investment.

And you don't, um, you reap what you sow, and I knew that for us to be able to affect meaningful change, we needed to invest in our football product, to invest in our administrative, uh, systems, and without any investment, we were simply gonna be on a merry-go-round that didn't produce anything different.

And, um, the ultimate outcome is never predictable.

However, the one thing that we do all know, um, if you build it, they will come, and that's what we saw.

So we made a decision to punt it, to throw in resources, financial and otherwise, into this, and we've been fortunate enough to see, um, that investment come to fruition, not for ourselves, to be perfectly frank, because, you know, a lot of people have asked me, "Have you been sleeping well?" The excitement and the interest and all of that.

Well, tell us about your discussions with state governments on either side of politics and how this night, Saturday, kicks on into many more nights of, of substance for your club and for Australian football.

I don't think it matters.

The feeling.

I...

We don't care about the numbers.

We care about...

Look, I, I might show this.

I wanna share some of the personal stories.

Now, when you take away the purpose, and you wake- take away the dream, and you kill the aspiration-

It was not only a very special night for your club, but it was a very special night for football.

Oh, that's, that's exactly right.

And that's what it was.

It was an opportunity for people to realize their dreams.

That is all of the clubs.

When you think about it, you've got eight hundred clubs aiming and dreaming and aspiring to play at the top level and to lift a trophy and a cup, and everyone gets a shot at it.

A-League clubs all the way down to State League Five.

Yes.

So what has to happen now for you to have serious conversations with Football Federation of Australia to almost just ask the question, okay, what do we have to do to get into the A-League?

The only thing that needs to happen is the other side needs to open the door.

I think from our perspective, we've got the best boutique stadium in the country at Lakeside Stadium.

No one else really has it.

We've got the fan base.

We've got the sponsors.

We've got a playing group that if you were in neutral and were watching that game, you wouldn't have been able to pick the best A-League club versus South Melbourne.

I kind of feel like you're halfway there.

Okay, so do you wanna be part of the A-League?

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

We've been...

We've, we've put in, I think, two submissions in the two different, um, competitions that were run in the last 12 or so years for entry.

We believe that our supporter base, which demonstrated their interest by selling out that stadium, we probably could have sold out, um, Marvel Stadium, I would've thought, in four or five days 50,000 people comfortably.

But we sold out AAMI in two days.

Mm.

Yeah.

From local, city of Port Phillip, state government financial support, federal government support.

They've come together to support.

Football is really a vehicle and an ambassador for this country within our region.

There are a lot of threats.

There's a lot of tension, and then there's opportunities to build bridges.

We're building bridges from a football sp- perspective, from a cultural perspective, from an administrative perspective, from a social perspective.

Okay.

Why does the club feel like this will be or should be different?

Well, I think the nature of football in this country is at a stage where it needs a reboot of some form.

It needs to redefine its place within our sporting environment.

It needs to transition towards embracing its foundation clubs and its history.

And I believe the time is right now for there to be a connection in that football pyramid between the top tier and the remaining tiers of football, and particularly at a time where we're seeing the disconnect in terms of football talent and football results not being particularly large.

The Australia Cup is the best example of that.

And we've got two teams out of the eight, in the quarterfinals, six from various NPL levels around Australia.

Could you tell our listeners just a little bit more about When the Australian Championship was unlocked, what did that look like for you and the South Melbourne team from the point of view of corporate partners and for the extended community to come out and show another level of support which was above NPL?

Yeah.

It belongs to the people.

It should be available to community clubs, clubs that can support themselves, fund themselves.

We beat Adelaide United the other day, who, uh, made the finals of the A-League, um, last year.

We beat 'em, a- and I know they were bitterly upset post that result, this is in the Australia Cup, um, because they did protest the outcome.

So they were...

They turned up to win, and they turned up with their full squad, and we beat 'em.

Mm.

Mm.

We're playing more football than any other team in this country, perhaps in the world.

We've played 48 games this year because we're in the Oceania Professional League run by FIFA.

You've got the European Champions League.

Well, FIFA set one in Oceania, and we're the only country representing Australia in that.

We made the grand final.

We lost to Auckland FC, the A-League Club.

Right.