South Hobart has become the first Tasmanian club to win a match at soccerl’s Australian Championships, beating Brisbane’s Lions FC 2-1 away from home in round one.
The win on Sunday was the club’s first in the national competition, after it failed to record a victory in last year’s campaign.
South Hobart president Ed Swan described the match as “the minnow against the giant”.
“It’s really great to be there, great to be representing Tasmania and great to get a win, so it’s all ahead of us now,” he told Pulse.
The Australian Championships is the only national community club competition in any code and effectively serves as soccer’s second tier, sitting between the A-League and the state competitions. South Hobart qualified by winning Tasmania’s statewide National Premier Leagues competition.
Head coach Peter Edwards said the result was “a fantastic achievement for not only South Hobart Football Club, but for Tasmanian football”.
“Really proud of the players,” he told Pulse.
“Couldn’t start a better way.”
Edwards, who previously worked at Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners, joined South Hobart for the final three games of last year’s championships after the departure of former coach Max Clarke. The club’s best result in that campaign was a draw with Heidelberg United FC.
He said this year “has all been about trying to build and prepare and close the gap to the mainland teams”.
The 16-team competition is split into four groups of four, with teams playing each other home and away. The top two from each group go through to the knockout quarter-finals.
South Hobart now plays the Wollongong Wolves in Wollongong this coming weekend.
“Every team we come up against has got serious quality,” Edwards said.
He said the team would head to Wollongong with “a bit of a lift” but was not getting ahead of itself.
“We know how hard these games are,” he said.
South Hobart then plays three home games at Darcy Street, on the last weekend of October and the first two weekends of November, against Melbourne’s Preston Lions, Lions FC and Wollongong.
The group stage ends with a Thursday night match against Preston Lions in Melbourne in late November.
