Author: Craig MacKenzie

SOCCER THE seventh staging of the Wallace Cup and a glut of pre-season matches are top of the local soccer agenda. The 2019 Wallace Cup will be hosted by Baxter and will take place on Saturday 2 February. The annual event is a celebration of the local game and honours Stephen William Wallace, Langwarrin life-member and former club president, committeeman, coach, player and Bayside League referee who died on 19 July 2011 at the age of 54. Event organiser and Langwarrin president Tanya Wallace was disappointed recently when Casey Comets told her they would not be competing but NPL2 West…

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SOCCER GARY Hodgson’s legacy to Frankston Pines may be the greatest gift of any president in the club’s history. He was the driving force behind a push that started off with a successful bid for a grant to build new female-friendly changerooms and ended with local council approval for a $3.4 million rebuild of the facilities at Monterey Reserve. Yet Hodgson sees things differently. “Unfortunately after seven years if you can’t attract people onto the committee … all we’d done was to help the club survive but we wanted to help it grow and we didn’t do that,” he said.…

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SOCCER WILLIE Lynn and wife Liz have been involved with Seaford United since 1978 and have no plans to step aside soon. Willie is in the 12th year of his second stint as president having previously completed 10 years in charge while Liz has had several stints on the committee and turned her hand to almost every volunteer job at the club. “I’m the cleaner, the shopper and the washer upperer,” Liz said. “I wash both the kits for the seniors and reserves, I cook for them after training on Thursday nights and I help run the bar.” North Seaford…

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SOCCER LANGWARRIN has signed Wayne Wallace from Oakleigh Cannons as it gears up for an assault on the NPL2 East title. The 33-year-old midfield general has been released from the final year of his deal at Jack Edwards Reserve and is now part of Langwarrin gaffer Scott Miller’s major overhaul of the senior squad. It is a massive signing for Miller and a clear statement of intent – Langwarrin is targeting promotion to the premier club competition in the state. If it achieves that goal it will become only the third local club to have done so after Frankston Pines…

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SOCCER HARRY Chalkitis is a man on a mission and for Southern United’s sake let’s hope it’s not mission impossible. Two-time Victorian Coach of the Year, former men’s state team coach, head coach of Bentleigh Greens and Port Melbourne, head coach of Victoria Vision in the women’s NSL, head of Victoria’s National Training Centre women’s program … The list of coaching credits goes on and on but right now Chalkitis is focused on a major challenge as Southern United technical director and it’s one he is meeting head-on. “Football is all about results and we have to be results focussed,”…

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