2020

**2020** was South Melbourne Hellas' 61st season of senior men's competition.

## Overview

**League:** National Premier Leagues Victoria

**Finishing Position:**  8th of 12 - season cancelled after round 5

**FFA Cup:** Cancelled

**Dockerty Cup**: Season cancelled before South entered the Cup.

**Coach:**Esteban Quintas

**Captain:** Bradley Norton

**Best and Fairest:**

**Leading Goalscorer:** Harrison Sawyer - 3

**President**: Nick Maikousis

**Major sponsor:** Tandem Building Group

**Apparel sponsor:** Kappa

**Women**: 2020 South Melbourne Women season

## Match results and season summary

### Summary

2020 was a season unlike any other for both South Melbourne Hellas, and Australian soccer as a whole, though few could have anticipated just how unreal things would eventually get.

Following the failures of the past two seasons in the aftermath of the early 2018 sacking of Chris Taylor, South came into the 2020 season in a low key manner, and with a squad largely removed from what remained of the successful 2014-2017 era. The senior men's team spent a week in Shepparton for pre-season, but come round 1 against old rival Heidelberg, the outcome was much the same as the previous two seasons - a heavy loss, and no obvious signs that the team would be able to compete with the league's better teams. A solid win against Victorian top-flight debutant - and early relegation favourite - Eastern Lions, was followed by tepid draws away against Oakleigh, Port Melbourne, and Altona Magic, before the season was put on hold due to the then emerging coronavirus pandemic until at least April 14, and then well past that.

Initially, South's official point of view was that the season was unlikely to resume, but when it appeared that the worst of the pandemic was over, South was one of the few top division NPL Victoria sides openly pushing for a resumption of play. Football Victoria planned for competition to resume in late July. Football Victoria confirmed there would be no relegation in 2020 and that clubs would not be punished if they elected to sit out the remainder of the season once it re-commenced.

With the exception of Bentleigh Greens, all other clubs elected to continue playing, and it was decided to play only one round of league fixtures and conclude with a top 8 finals system. Two weeks before the restart however, the pandemic situation had worsened in Victoria to such a degree that all metropolitan competitions were cancelled for the year.

In the wake of the season's cancellation, Harrison Sawyer and Pierce Clark headed to Queensland to play out the remainder of the NPL Queensland season, while Irish visa player Stephen Folan returned to his home country.

Off-field, apart from dealing with the fallout from COVID-19, the club also had to deal with other issues left over from its recent past. This included the ongoing matter of Chris Taylor taking the club to a FIFA tribunal in the hope of being paid out the rest of his contract. South also faced allegations in the media of failing to the pay the wages of past players. The Chris Taylor situation was resolved, finally, in late June, while the resolution of the issue with the players owed money (apparently not wages, but rather end of contract money) remained undisclosed.

In a change of tack, when the Central Coast Mariners' A-League licence was put up for sale, the club noted that it had no interest in making an offer for the licence - preferring instead to focus on the efforts to establish a National Second Division.

### Ladder

The top side was to qualify for the NPL National playoffs. The top six sides were to qualify for the finals series.

The bottom two sides were to be relegated to NPL2.

The cancellation of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic rendered all this meaningless.

## References

1. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/03/press-pause-altona-magic-1-south.html
2. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/04/npl-shutdown-extended.html
3. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/04/nick-maikousis-on-south-radio.html
4. ↑ https://amp.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/top-soccer-clubs-lukewarm-with-slated-npl-return-20200519-p54ugx.html?\_\_twitter\_impression=true
5. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/06/news-sweet-nourishing-news.html
6. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/07/2020-npl-victoria-season-cancelled.html
7. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/02/journey-to-centre-of-earth-south.html
8. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/02/journey-to-centre-of-earth-south.html
9. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-extended-gist-of-june-2020.html
10. ↑ https://southmelbournefc.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-extended-gist-of-june-2020.html
11. ↑ Avondale were docked three points prior to the  beginning of the season, for breaching player payment rules