The Mighty Hellas

[Voulgaroktonos]

this thread is reserved for discussion about off-season transfer rumours regarding the mighty South Melbourne Hellas

[macedonian]

So this club and Heidleburg are the two Greek teams in Aus?

[Panathenian_fan]

A few years ago, when I heard about this club for the first time I got really impressed about how organised Greek Australians are. Are they many major Australian clubs founded/runned by Greeks?

[Benfica]

Even I've heard of these guys. Hard to shut up the Greeks when you get going, hahaha. Relax Macedonian, I still love all you Greeks.

[Voulgaroktonos]

Originally Posted by macedonian

So this club and Heidleburg are the two Greek teams in Aus?

there are thousands of Greek clubs in australia. the three biggest are South Melbourne Hellas, Sydney Olympic and Heidelberg United (macedonian club), in that order. they are also the only ones to have been in the top flight at one time or another. South is the most successful club in the australian league and also had some success at the FIFA world club champships in the 90s

Even I've heard of these guys. Hard to shut up the Greeks when you get going, hahaha. Relax Macedonian, I still love all you Greeks.

where did u hear of us. I liked u portoguese ever since EURO

How did the rest of u guys hear about us? Im interested

[Voulgaroktonos]

Also like all football fans we recently mourned for the passing of the great Ferenc Puskas. Especially as he coached us to a couple of league titles. I remember there was sort of a banquet in the social club. a big bowl of pasta was brought out and Ferenc ate it all thinking it was for himself hahahaha. quite an appetite

RIP great man

[macedonian]

Truly a football legend.

[Stevothediscokiller]

Puskas coached SMH??? AMAZING!!

[Panathenian_fan]

So what are the standards of this team? Are they playing in a major league of Australia or something or they are semi-professional?

[Voulgaroktonos]

we were in the national league since it began until 1977 until it folded in 2004. since 2004 they created a new national comp (the A-league) and would not allow SMH or any other clubs with 'ethnic roots' in the new comp, this coupled with the fact that we failed to meet financial standards. so we are currently in the state league (sort of like second division except their is no relegation system). We will however be putting forward a new bid to join once more.

Despite being the most successful club in australia in our years in the NSL (national division), we also had a considerable amount of strife. We were forced to change our name and logo at one stage because it was too "ethnic" and ethnic teams promoted violence according to some people. We also had a string of bad presidents and crooks on our board who took millions of dollars and fled to Greece with our money. This de-hellenisation made many fans walk away from the club, even though we are trying to rectify this now. there is always the struggle between the mainsteamers and the pro-greek views.

still...Hellas never dies!!!!