SPORT l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l ntnews.com.au

50 NT NEWS. Friday, December 6, 2013. www.ntnews.com.au

PU

B:

NT

NE

WS

DA

TE

:6

-DE

C-2

01

3P

AG

E:

50

CO

LO

R:

CM

YK

John Tambouras, a Darwin junior soccer coach, played for former NSL club South Melbourne under coach Ange Postecoglou Picture: DANIEL HARTLEY-ALLEN

Coaching pair sharea sharp eye for talentSOCCER

ByDOUGBOOTH

I really do thank

Ange for givingme

the opportunityPostecoglou

QUESTION: What do newSocceroos coach Ange Post-ecoglou and Darwin-borncoach John Tambouras havein common?

ANSWER: Tambouras wasPostecoglou’s first profess-ional signing when he joinedthe then NSL giants SouthMelbourne in 1998 when hewas just 16.

Since then, Tambouras hastravelled the world as acentre-back playing thesport he loves.

Stints in the birthplace ofhis parents, Greece (Kala-mata), New Zealand, Malay-sia, Romania, Ireland, Azer-baijan and China followedbefore the lure of Darwinbrought him back home.

For nearly three yearsTambouras, who turns 35 inJanuary, has been working

at football’sgrassroots asskills acquisit-ion coach, teach-ing Darwin’sbest under-13sthe game that

gave him so much.And it seems to be paying

off with three of his protegesbeing identified as playerswith promise at the recentCoffs Harbour talent identi-fication camp.

‘‘Brothers James and Lach-lan Bayliss have actually leftDarwin and moved to New-castle to join the NewcastleJets program,’’ Tambourassaid. ‘‘They were in the pro-gram in Darwin for two-and-a-half years.

‘‘They got identified atCoffs along with CharlieMavros, who is only 12and has another year in theprogram. Lachlan is 11 andJames is 13.’’

‘‘If the kids are talentedand they get an opportunityit’s great for the family.’’

Tambouras said he gainedtremendous satisfactionfrom seeing the skills pro-gram bearing fruit.

‘‘It’s a huge bonus, not justfor them but for the otherboys in the program.

‘‘My job is to bring them infrom their clubs, teach themthe Australian curriculumfrom the FFA and obviouslycreate a pathway for them,’’Tambouras said.

‘‘Grassroots football iswhere it all starts.

‘‘Everyone in Australia isnow trying to play to a sys-tem and Australian footballis going through a culturalchange at the moment.’’

Tambouras is also a pro-duct of the talent identificat-ion program — although thescheme today is far more ad-vanced than in his day.

‘‘It was Ange Postecoglou’sfirst year at South Mel-bourne (as NSL coach),’’Tambouras recalled.

‘‘Ange had seen me at thechampionships in Geelongand I went down and signed atwo-year deal with the club.’’

In those two seasons,South Melbourne, or Hellasas they were affectionatelyknown, won back-to-backnational titles.

‘‘I really do thank Ange forgiving me the opportunity.He was the one that got meout of Darwin,’’ Tambourassaid. ‘‘He has gone to bigger

and better things and he de-serves it because he is areally good coach.’’

Although the two rarelycatch up because of their hec-tic schedules, Tambouras re-calls one chance meeting.

‘‘I saw him in Malaysiawhen I was playing for Pa-hang,’’ he said.

‘‘He was coaching theYoung Socceroos in afriendly against Malaysia.

‘‘Every time we bump intoeach other we have a chatand reflect on the days atSouth Melbourne.’’

After an injury-free play-ing career, Tambouras ad-mits the itch to pull on theboots has never gone but hedoes not think it will happenin Darwin.

‘‘Sometimes you just haveto listen to the body. It’sabout the kids now and that’sall it has been about,’’ Tam-bouras grinned.

Evertonhand outpaybackto Moyes

Luis Suarez

MANCHESTER United’s stut-tering Premier League titledefence suffered a massiveblow after a shock 1-0 defeatat home to Everton yesterdayleft them 12 points behindleaders Arsenal.

Arsenal preserved theirfour-point lead by beatingHull City and United’s causewas not helped by victoriesfor title rivals Chelsea, Man-chester City, Tottenham Hot-spur and Liverpool, for whomLuis Suarez scored four goalsin a 5-1 thrashing of Norwich.

Costa Rican left-back BryanOviedo scored the only goal ofthe game at a shell-shockedOld Trafford in the 86th min-ute, to deal United managerDavid Moyes a bitter defeat inhis first encounter with hisformer club.

Arsenal still have breath-ing space after a straightfor-ward 2-0 win over Hull at theEmirates Stadium.

Danish striker NicklasBendtner was handed his firstArsenal start since March2011 and he made an immedi-ate impact by opening thescoring in the second minutewith a header from a CarlJenkinson cross.

Chelsea remain Arsenal’snearest challengers, but theyhad to come from behind tobeat bottom club Sunderland4-3 in a thrilling encounter atthe Stadium of Light.

City are two points behindChelsea after winning 3-2 at

West BromwichAlbion in a gamedelayed by 15minutes due totraffic conges-tion.

Manuel Pel-legrini’s side, for whomcaptain Vincent Kompanymade his first start since Oct-ober 5, went 3-0 up throughSergio Aguero and a YayaToure brace.

An own goal from City goal-keeper Costel Pantilimon anda late Victor Anichebe effortgave West Brom hope, butCity held on.

The stand-out performanceof the evening came at An-field, where Suarez claimedhis third hat-trick againstNorwich in a magnificent in-dividual performance.

He lobbed John Ruddy from32m in the 15th minute, tap-ped home his second from acorner and then completedhis hat-trick 10 minutes be-fore half-time with a crisp16m half-volley.

His fourth goal, an inch-perfect 22m free-kick, took histally of league goals to 13 andhe even had time to set up alate goal for Raheem Sterlingafter Bradley Johnson had re-plied for Norwich.

Tottenham are three pointsback in sixth, having spoiltRene Meulensteen’s firstgame as Fulham manager bycoming from behind to win2-1 at Craven Cottage.

Newcastle United’s four-game winning run cameto an abrupt halt in a 3-0 de-feat at Swansea City, whileAston Villa overcame stub-born resistance to win 3-2at Southampton.

The game between StokeCity and Cardiff City finishedwithout a goal.

Mulvey dismisses praiseFLATTERY will get you nowherewith Roar coach Mike Mulvey.

Adelaide United mentor JosepGombau admits he is a fan of to-night’s A-League opponents Bris-bane but it seems that will not war-rant any mercy for his strugglingoutfit at Coopers Stadium.

Adelaide United have not won inseven games, prompting Gombau toclaim that moulding them into apowerhouse may take up to fouryears — if he lasts that long.

However, the Roar clearly repre-sent what Gombau has in mind forthe future judging by his glowingpraise of the two-time championshipwinners yesterday.

‘‘They are the best team in the

league,’’ he said. ‘‘For me, they arethe team I like in this league. It is agood test for us.’’

But it seemed no sweet talkingwas going to prompt a hard-nosedMulvey from dishing out compli-ments yesterday.

Asked if he felt Brisbane now feltlike the hunted sitting with a three-point gap on top of the ladder,Mulvey said: ‘‘Absolutely wrong. Weare going to their (Adelaide’s)ground. We are hunting them.’’

Adelaide United have won once intheir past nine matches againstBrisbane. And the Roar, who wel-come back Liam Miller from injury,have emerged victorious in theirpast three visits to Adelaide.

Gutsy Glory hunt victoryIT’S been a case of the walking woun-ded at Perth Glory this week, but de-fender Michael Thwaite still has hisheart set on securing all three pointsin tonight’s A-League clash withWellington at nib Stadium.

The Glory’s injury-hit defencewas dealt another massive blow onTuesday when veteran StevePantelidis quit the club to link upwith Malaysian outfit Selangor FC.

With prized signing William Gal-las (calf), Josh Risdon (knee) andScott Jamieson (achilles tendon) allsidelined, Thwaite is the only first-choice defender still standing.

The fringe Socceroo is set to part-ner 21-year-old Jack Clisby in theheart of defence against the Phoen-

ix, with 18-year-olds Matt Daviesand Riley Woodcock taking up postson the flanks.

The Glory will also be relying on ayouthful attack after Shane Smeltzwas ruled out for a month because ofan ankle injury, while skipper JacobBurns will miss his second gamethrough suspension.

Despite Perth missing a host oftheir best players, Thwaite said theteam would still push for nothingless than a win against the battlingPhoenix, who have four points.

‘‘I think our mindset will neverchange, especially at home,’’ he said.

‘‘We’ve got to be smart, but whynot attack? We definitely have to beplaying for the three points.’’