Some Golden Soft Sombrero Moments with Damien Phillips Phillips on the Colonial experience… Diegos: 'The three points are always important especially to a club with the winning pedigree of South Melbourne but the venture into the state of the art and very expensive Colonial stadium was a courageous one by the club. With 10,369 punters turning up, was the move a success?' Phillips: "Yes it was. Surprisingly for a lot of people who don't understand the deals that we were able to put in place in the week leading up to the fixture, financially it was better for the club than if we had played the fixture at Bob Jane, both through the gate and through our corporates. From that point of view it's been a great success. Obviously we're still a bit disappointed that only 10, 500 people turned up. We were hoping for a 15,000 plus crowd. The crowd we got was probably our bare minimum. So yes in that respect, we are a little disappointed that we weren't able to get more of the Melbourne footballing public out to watch the game.' Soft Sombrero Moment November 2001
Diegos: 'The Melbourne derby showdown was a test run at the stadium. The deal to use the facility was only clinched the week just prior to the match. Melbourne Knights coach, Andrew 'Stabber' Marth in the after match press conference blamed the media for not pumping the game up more in the lead up. Were you happy with the media coverage and what will the club do next time to try and get more people to watch South Melbourne at Melbourne's own Maracania?' Phillips: "It's a tough one but I tend to agree with 'Stabber'. I felt that certain sections of the media really didn't promote the game. We all have an ownership in this game and we attempt to derive an income from it. This is no different if you're a journalist. I just find that stories and features are far to often of a negative bent and I believe for such a historical occasion there wasn't a lot of coverage particularly in the print media. I felt that we really could've got a lot more out of it. From our point of view our club through our media department was putting out stories twice daily. Surely there was enough to go on with. I know the team is struggling in terms of wins on the board this season but there were great stories that could've been generated if some of the journos had taken the time to have a look at them. Some of our young players like Ray Sekulovski, Marco Santilli and Steve Manceski who have come from nowhere this season to earn first team spots together with some good young talent at Knights, all stories that could've been the basis of interesting news. Everybody has been talking about taking soccer to Colonial since the day it was built. We just felt that for such an historic event the occasion deserved greater exposure.' Soft Sombrero Moment November 2001
Diegos: 'Would the club look at playing teams other than the Knights at the stadium and are there any thoughts of South playing an overseas touring team at the facility sometime in the future? South Melbourne V Liverpool or Real Madrid or if we can work out a decent financial arrangement, South V The Four Diego's All Stars has a nice ring to it don't you think?' Phillips: "We could never afford you guys so that's out of the question. For the past two seasons we've been looking at taking the Perth Glory game to Colonial. Primarily for fiscal reasons we weren't able to do it though. Since Channel Seven has taken ownership of the stadium it certainly made things a lot more feasible. So we are looking at more possibilities. I think Perth Glory and Olympic Sharks are two games that we can look at in the future. If we're struggling in terms of team performances we may have to have a rethink at whether we take it there again but certainly in the future it is a venue where we could definitely take big games. With respect to the overseas club option it is something that we have been talking to Colonial for a while but it is a timing issue. If the timing is right it is something that we are keen to do.' Soft Sombrero Moment November 2001
Diegos: 'We at the Diegos know all too well about your personal penchant to disco dance. Colonial has a number of strobe lit clubs. How do they compare with Goya night at Inflations on a Sunday night that you frequently attend? Phillips: "I must say that the after party at the clubs are a little different from the scene that I'm used to. Having said that there still were some good sights that could take my fancy even though I was shattered after the loss and the drink was tasting very bitter.' Soft Sombrero Moment November 2001 |