Many a job, many a memory

 

December 29 2009

Shepparton News

Representing club or league, there's little Chris Davkovski hasn't achieved in Goulburn North East Football Association, formerly North Eastern Soccer League.

It was a unique achievement - coaching the North Eastern league's senior representatives to country championship glory - that Davkovski recalled most fondly when reflecting on his election as an association life member.

A multiple premiership player and coach with LemnosMacedonia (now Shepparton), Davkovski landed his biggest blow for the league's cause on Monday June 8, 1998.

It was on that day his North Eastern senior team thumped representative side ASF 7-1 to seal a breakthrough win in the country championships.

Davkovski would go on to serve as the league's president from 2002 to 2006, having also acted as registrations officer and board member.

He joins brother George as a life member of the association.

"It's an honour as far as I'm concerned," Davkovski said.

"But soccer means a little bit more to me. It (life membership) wasn't something I was striving for.

"I've had a very good run as a player and coach for club and with the league."

Starting his playing career in 1966 as a 15-year-old, Davkovski was part of the Lemnos outfit that won premierships frequently through the 1970s and 1980s.

While not specifically aspiring to one day be the league's president, the health of the game was always on Davkovski's mind.

"Because most of us were orchardists, the soccer finished and everyone worked seven days a week," he said.

"Everyone looks forward to soccer starting again, otherwise they'd still be working seven days a week.

"That would be the driving force in our head, we knew we had to keep the game going."

With Lemnos' '70s and '80s team built on extended family, Davkovski said it was particularly pleasing to see a multicultural game had evolved in the Goulburn Valley.

His son Johnny and nephew David play in a Shepparton senior team which is a broad mix of backgrounds; the club's traditional Macedonians, Anglo-Australians, Africans and elsewhere.

In his time as league president, Davkovski presided over some harrowing and complicated tribunal cases, while also becoming a target for disgruntled supporters when he attended matches.

He accepted it as part of the role, but said since stepping down after the 2006 season he was not interested in serving on the league's committee again.

"I need to spend a bit more time with my family, I am a grandfather now," he said.

"I'm not interested in being involved in the league any more.

"If we are going to survive here I really believe the clubs need a bigger say.

"They will bring up the things that suit them, but that's fair enough."

Country title

The North Eastern league had been to the senior country championships final five times for five losses prior to 1998 when it finally broke through.

However it needed a favour from Bendigo to knock out reigning champion Latrobe - which defeated the NESL 3-0 in the group stage.

Bendigo's 1-1 draw with Latrobe meant the NESL and ASF progressed to the final as the top two teams after the pool stage.

The final wasn't close, NESL winning 7-1 with Shepparton United's Brian McNicol netting a hat-trick.

Davkovski said a tactic involving injured Yoogali forward Pat Ciampa was key to the final victory.

"Just before the final game, Pat came up to me and Mimmo Lia my team manager and said his leg was no good and he couldn't give 100 per cent," Davkovski said.

"I said, `All I need is for you to be a decoy, they're playing with a marker and a stopper, you run in the corner away from our midfield, that way you drag two players'.

"It worked, Pat was virtually on one leg, but he didn't have to touch the ball, McNicol ran our midfield and we beat them 7-1."

Davkovski said it was a shame, but not a surprise that the senior country championships were no longer staged.

"A lot of the leagues were charging players to represent the league and stay in motels. We and probably Gippsland were the only ones who paid for the bus, the motel, meals and all that," he said.