Details:
Monday 6 February – 7pm sharp
Westerfolds Park, Fitzsimmons Lane
Templestowe

All players are to bring water bottles and runners. Players are to meet at the carpark of Fitzsimmons Lane (as circled in map below).

If anyone has any queries, please contact Bill Kotsabouikis on 0400653988

Reserves & Girls
Training for the Reserves and Girls squad, who commence their preparations for season 2012 today, will be held at Carey Grammar Sports Complex as per normal, starting at 7pm sharp. Players are asked to bring runners, boots and grasscuts if possible, together with shinpads.

Bill Kotsabouikis & Chris Moore’s sides will then face a tough road assignment, travelling to Bayside Argonauts, before a home game against Ashburton.  Old Carey SC will face a disrupted start to the season, with one week breaks in between Rounds 1 and 2 (Easter) and Rounds 3 and 4 (Mirabella Cup matches)

The first Local Derby (against Boroondara) takes place on 5 May 2012 at Macleay Park, with Old Carey SC hosting the return leg on 28 July 2012.

Old Carey finish the campaign against Lyndale, Skye United and Keysborough, the latter being played at Wilcox Field.

PLEASE NOTE: All fixtures and kick-off times are subject to change.

While only 5 friendlies have been confirmed to date, the Old Carey SC will also be taking part in the Mirabella Cup and the Pelada Cup (Womens Competition) – the Victorian version of the “FA Cup” – which will provide additional match practice, albeit it in a more competitive environment.

These fixtures will provide the playing squads with an opportunity to make their claim for Senior football in the 2012 season.  With a large number of games to be played during the pre-season, the coaches will have an opportunity to experiment with their line-ups and structures to ensure that the squads are ready from Round 1.

Any further details regarding Old Carey pre-season matches will be announced on OldCareySoccerClub.com.

Northern Roosters v Old Carey SC
Saturday, February 11
Senior Kick off: 3pm
Reserves Kick off: 1pm
Jack Roper Reserve

Whitehorse United v Old Carey SC
Saturday, February 18
Senior Kick off: 2pm
Reserves Kick off: 12pm
Kingston Heath Soccer Complex

Rowville Eagles v Old Carey SC
Sunday, February 26
Senior Kick off: 1pm
Reserves Kick off: 11am
Park Ridge Reserve

Darebin United v Old Carey SC
Saturday, March 3
Senior Kick off: 3pm
Reserves Kick off: 1pm
TBA

Meadow Park v Old Carey SC
Saturday, March 17
Senior Kick off: 2pm
Reserves Kick off: 12pm
Kingston Heath Soccer Complex

 
Each player will be required to pay a fee of $10 per week to cover the cost of the ground hire/referees for the pre-season fixtures.

Pre-season friendlies for the Womens team will be announced in the coming weeks.
NOTE – Round 1 of the Mirabella Cup is scheduled for 10 March 2012.

While informal “light” training sessions have been running for the last couple of weeks, all of which have been well attended, the intensity is now to be lifted as all players return from their off-season break.

Senior coach Bill Kotsabouikis and Reserves coach Chris Moore will be running the sessions to be held on Monday and Wednesday nights, commencing at 7 pm sharp!

All players are welcome, and new players are encouraged to come down to the club.

Details:
Monday 23 January 2012, @ 7pm
Bulleen Park (outside Carey Grammar Sports Complex)
169 Bulleen Road
Bulleen

NOTE:- All players are to bring boots, runners and shinpads to all sessions.

Should you have any queries, please call the club secretary on 0421 054 554.

All players are welcome, whether you have played at Old Carey SC previously or have no affiliation with the Club.

Players are to meet at Bulleen Park (outside Carey Grammar Sports Complex), and all players are to bring runners, shinpads and boots to all pre-season sessions.

The Club will soon announce the schedule for the rest of January once arrangements have been finalised. Sessions will be held on Monday & Wednesday evenings.

Details: 7pm Monday 9 January 2012, meeting at Bulleen Park.

Should you have any queries, please call the club secretary on 0421 054 554.

It took two departed Senior Coaches, and months of hard work, to construct Old Carey SC’s most successful season since the promoted side of 2008, and for the first time in the clubs history, they spent much of the season challenging for the top positions in Provisional 2 S/E.  Unfortunately, it only took 5 games to tear Old Carey’s promotion dream apart.

For the past two seasons, Old Carey had fallen into the category of ‘easybeats’, and were better known as a ‘schoolboy’ side.  Season 2011 went some way to erasing those misperceptions. 

A pre-season of mixed results had left many at the club wondering what direction Old Carey would be heading in in 2011.  Coupled with a limited pre-season for most at Old Carey, together with the absence of key player Daniel MacDonald for many of the opening rounds, no one knew what to expect from Old Carey – including the players and the coaching staff. 

Bill Kotsabouikis had added to his squad during the off season, with Guy de Vos returning from his boyhood club Eltham Redbacks, bringing with him the young and talented Monty Mehdi (Eltham), and Marco Manciano (Riversdale).  Much needed experience was also added to the squad, with Greg Costaras (Monash) joining former assistant coach David Thompson in the senior squad.  Bang Nguyen was also a welcome addition to the squad, bolstering Old Carey’s midfield strength. 

It seems a long time ago that Old Carey travelled out bush to kick off their campaign, and the Provisional 2 S/E Season at Monbulk, under lights on Friday night.  Old Carey crashed Monbulks return to the league with an unexpected, and now infamous, 2-1 win in front of Melbourne Victory front man Danny Allsopp.

The question marks over Old Carey’s lack of mental fortitude (they had only one once picked up maximum points when conceding first in 2010) was nowhere to be seen during the first half of the season.  In fact, it was the complete opposite.  A 2-1 win away from home in front of a boisterous Monbulk crowd, a 4-3 win at the death against bitter rivals Boroondara (coming from 3-2 down in the last 10 minutes), and traditionally tricky trips to Caulfield and Keysborough brought victory.  At the midway point, Old Carey were tracking early pacesetters Monbulk at the top of the table and, much to everyone’s surprise, were well and truly in the promotion race.

The noisiest accusation, and one which had haunted Old Carey for the past few seasons, was this: Old Carey are too inconsistent.  Despite being in the top 2 at the midway point, the stats bore this out, especially after Old Carey’s thrashing at the hands of Monbulk.  At the midway point, Old Carey’s biggest winning streak was 2, and they had only strung 3 games undefeated once.  Big wins away (i.e. Monbulk) were usually followed the subsequent week by poor results (i.e. Casey). 

However, Old Carey had one factor in their favour: they were excellent travellers.  After 11 games, Old Carey had played 7 away from home, picking up 5 wins and a draw, for a total of 16 points out of a possible 21.  In fact, no one in the league could match Old Carey’s away form – and if Old Carey could get their home form on track, who knows where they could end up.

Those criticism further came to hand between 16 July 2011 and 13 August 2011, during which time Old Carey suffered 5 straight losses to Endeavour United, Ashburton, Riversdale, Seaford United and, worst of all, Boroondara Eagles. 

At the end of that stretch, Old Carey had fallen from 2nd to the bottom quarter of the table and somehow now found themselves facing a possible relegation fight – something which had seemed impossible a mere month beforehand.

However, coupled with the additions of Jeremy Schwellinger and the influential Diego Lorenzo, Old Carey managed to turn things around and finish the season off strongly. 

In fact, for the first time since season 2008, Old Carey were able to string together 4 straight, and big wins.  All of the results were quite remarkable in themselves: including beating Uni of Melbourne 1-0 after playing the final 30 minutes with 9 men on the pitch, and beating Bayside Argonauts 5-2 after being 0-2 at half time.

That strong finish propelled Old Carey into third place, and will help provide momentum for a strong 2012 campaign.

We look forward to seeing you all back at the club early in the new year!

OC: Bill, firstly congratulations on what can only be described as a successful season. Is that how you view the season – successful?
BK:  The boys have worked very hard this year which has shown in our results.  I am extremely happy we finished 3rd this year. The Club has been very successful this year but on a personal note, we didn’t win promotion this year.

OC: It seems a hell of a long time ago when the season started up at Monbulk, but an eternity back to the start of pre-season. Did you expect this team to be pushing for promotion back in January?
BK: I had my doubts at the beginning of pre-season as the friendly games results where shocking. It’s always difficult to settle when you have a new coach,  a new style of play and tactics come into play.  It does take a team a while to take it on board, I would have settled for a finish in 8th spot.

OC: How have you found your first season at Old Carey? I can only imagine that it would have been markedly different to anything you had experienced before?
BK:  Overall my experience at Old Carey has been a positive one. I don’t think there are many clubs out there that I would say are as good as Old Carey, our facilities are 2nd to none.  The clubs positive and can-do attitude is a breath of fresh air. I have enjoyed my time so far at Old Carey, I am sure it can only get better next year.

OC: The playing group, and some of the characters within it, can only be described as a one of a kind. How have you found the playing group?
BK: I was pleased that they worked hard and took up the challenges that I threw at them the entire season. They are a positive and determined bunch of guys which I thoroughly enjoyed coaching.  I wouldn’t change them for any other group.

OC: You would have to be pleased with what you got out of the squad this year. A jump from 10th to 3rd in one season – what do you put that down to?
BK: A great coach LOL,  In all seriousness the boys put in a huge amount of hard work and effort this year. They took all the advice on board and played with heart. I am very proud of these boys performance this year but next year I am looking forward to winning promotion.

OC: For all the positives to take from the season, there were some shortcomings which ultimately saw OCSC fall out of the promotion race. What do you put that down to?
BK:  Our shortcomings were injuries, and a few players out due to holidays etc.  I think the boys had just forgotten how to win. They weren’t accustomed to being on top of the ladder and pushing for promotion, I think the pressure of being in that position was too much for them. Now that they have had a taste of it I’m sure we wont fail at that hurdle again.

OC: The additions of players such as Guy de Vos, Monty Mehdi and Diego Lorenzo certainly had a massively positive effect on the squad, how did you see the ‘new boys’ first season with OCSC?
BK: Well being my 1st season they were all new boys to me. They might have been new boys to the senior team for 2011 but they fitted in as if they were playing with the team for a few seasons. I was very pleased to see the new signings gel so quickly and effortlessly.

OC: Turning very briefly towards season 2012 – have you begun preparation as yet, and what should the players expect for preseason 2012?
BK:  Season 2012 will pretty much be the same as we left off 2011. There will be plenty of hard work, plenty of challenges and obstacles to over come. It will definitely be a challenging year and I know the boys will be up for it. We will strive towards finishing on a higher note in 2012, now that we have set the bar in 2011.

Preparation began as soon as the final whistle was blown for season 2011 to come to an end. All will be revealed in 2012 pre-season.

See you then.

OC: Bill, congratulations again to you and your squad on a fantastic season.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be reviewing the 2011 Season, and we will be speaking with some of the Old Carey SC players and coaches to assess the year from their perspective.

Make sure you check back regularly to see what those at Old Carey SC thought of the season.

Both the committee and the club as a whole would like to thank Dan for his contribution and achievements since taking over as coach of Senior Girls team in December 2010. He has shown incredible character and commitment since his appointment, and the club wishes him well for the future.

Dan will always be welcome at the Old Carey SC, and we hope to see him return to Wilcox Field in the non to distant future.

Old Carey SC will now be concentrating all our efforts on identifying a new Girls Coach who will continue to develop and nurture the talent of the Girls team, and lead them on to bigger and better things.