Time is fast approaching to get to the Heart of things
The Age
Wednesday August 26, 2009
IN 12 months, the club now known as Melbourne Heart will be well into its first A-League campaign, but as yet precious little is known about it.Scott Munn, who played a key role in setting up the bid application for the Gold Coast AFL club, is chief executive. Peter Sidwell is the chairman and a handful of directors (including Joe Mirabella, Michael Catalano and Manny Galanos who have links to the Victorian Premier League) are on the board. And that's it.The club is tipped to announce soon who will be its coach. We know he is Dutch, and that Socceroo coach Pim Verbeek has been sounded out for advice.Any number of names have been thrown up, including Ruud Gullit, Aad de Mos and even a man who isn't Dutch at all, German Lothar Matthaus.The latest suggestion is former Sparta Rotterdam midfielder and De Graafschap coach Henk van Stee, a 48-year-old who hails from Rotterdam.Whoever Heart decides on, common sense suggests it has to get it right with the football director and assistant coaching roles and hire local men with experience of the Australian game.The coach will inevitably be able to use his European connections to bring in players, and Heart will look to make a big-name signing €” perhaps a Socceroo such as local boy Mark Bresciano €” as its marquee man.But the bulk of its players will have to be signed from the A-League and the state leagues, which is where local knowledge comes in.There are several candidates who could be sourced from Melbourne, some with National Soccer League and international experience as coaches and players, others with a track record of success. Ange Postecoglou, Ian Dobson and Stuart Munro would look likely choices for either of the two roles.Postecoglou won two NSL titles with South Melbourne, coached the national under-20 and under-17 teams, coached in Greece and is now a well-regarded pundit on Fox Sports. He is also coaching Whittlesea in the VPL, so he knows the local scene backwards.So does Munro. The former Glasgow Rangers defender has been a successful coach, with Carlton in the old NSL, Oakleigh in the VPL and this season with Dandenong Thunder in the elite state competition. Thunder only got promoted this season yet Munro has led it to the VPL's minor premiership in his first campaign in charge. Like Postecoglou, he knows the local player base.Dobson tasted NSL triumphs with Melbourne Knights and VPL success with Green Gully, although he has been out of the coaching scene for a little while.Another local who has done well at state league levels is Chris Taylor, last year's VPL coach of the year. Someone such as Josip Skoko might be worth sounding out for a player-coaching role of the kind Kevin Muscat has had at Melbourne Victory.
© 2009 The Age