By Bill Papastergiadis
It was a preseason friendly but with friends in every sense of the word. That was my experience last Friday, March 15, on a warm balmy night in Melbourne’s west. Westvale Olympic FC, proudly Hellenic but with a distinct multicultural flavour, was hosting Malvern FC in a pre-season friendly match.
I first visited this ground in Melbourne’s west last year. It was for football but not for the immediate reason one might think. Westvale Olympic was not playing that day nor was my son (Lee) involved in a match, albeit that was the reason for my visit the other night. But more on that shortly.
My visit last year to this great club was to present a trophy as a Commissioner of the Victorian Multicultural Commission to the winner of the Nepalese football tournament. Living in the east of Melbourne, it was somewhat of a discovery journey for me.
On arrival last year I met Westvale president, George Loulakis. George was pale and looked tired. The reason for this as I later found out was because only weeks earlier he had suffered a major heart attack. Nevertheless George was at the Club that day working tirelessly as he was hosting this tournament. He had opened the doors of the club at no cost to support other communities. The Nepalese loved George. He was generous and avoided the limelight. He was genuinely interested in assisting this community as well as many others as he understood the significance of how sport unites us and provides a safe home.
Covid has been tough on Westvale Olympic. It had lost a lot of players and teams but George was ambitious to rebuild it. Its social club proudly displayed its Hellenic history along with its trophies and many achievements.
Last week my son (who is undertaking VCE) played for Malvern FC’s reserves in a friendly match against Westvale Olympic.
As I entered the Cub last week I could smell the Greek food and I could hear the Greek language spoken in different pockets of the ground by various elderly gentlemen. As I walked to the sidelines of the pitch I heard a gentleman say to me “Ela Vasili welcome back.” I didn’t recognise him. The gentleman continued and said to me “it’s me, George.”
I looked at him and said “President, is that you? You are a different person. You look amazingly fit and well. You’ve had a great recovery from last year.”
And so we restarted our conversation from last year. George spoke about the 50 year celebrations for the Club. George proudly pointed to the trophies and to the fact that this Club was one large family. He said “we look after one another and I have a board of 14 hardworking people helping me.”
I said to George “you have some great players particularly some of the African lads.”
George replied “they are all local people and they feel at home here. And for the first time I have a women’s team. We are happy with what we have and I am confident about our success.”
George then introduced me to Spiros who said to me “my son too plays at Westvale Olympic but for the wheelchairs team.” I was unaware of that. I thought South Melbourne Hellas had the only wheelchair team in Victoria. Spiros said to me with pride, “I hope my son plays for Australia. He scored a great goal for Westvale the other day.”
My son’s game ended in a draw. We finished equals with Westvale Olympic which ironically was the message inherent in George’s ethos about the Club. We are all equals with the Hellenic spirit of filoxenia ever present.
