Tony Ciantar will lead Sunshine George Cross Football Club next season. 72972 Picture: EMILY LANE
By Liam Twomey
IT may have taken 20 years but Tony Ciantar has finally returned to Sunshine George Cross Football Club as senior coach for the coming season.
President Darren Farrugia said the club was rapt with the appointment.
“He has a lot of discipline which is something I think we’ve lacked over the last three years. That was one real emphasis we put on with Tony,” Farrugia said. “We didn’t want to go through too many interviews like last year. Con did a great job for us this year but I think we are just going back with experience and discipline. He’s got the runs on the board and when we saw all that he convinced us pretty easily.”
Ciantar first played for the club back in 1988 as a member of its first team.
The 45-year-old has coached at Brunswick City for the past four years and was at the Whittlesea Rangers prior to that as well as coaching in the Premier league.
He said he was delighted to be back after the 20-year break.
“They had shown interest over the last two seasons and the only reason why I hadn’t committed to the club was because I was happy at Brunswick. They were good to me and a great club. This year I made the decision to step up because of the interest they showed.”
Sunshine will be hoping the off-field change will lead to a successful next season after they finished seventh on Men’s State League One ladder with eight wins, four draws and 10 losses this year.
Ciantar and Farrugia have held initial discussions about the playing list and plan on holding a number of early season training sessions.
“We will look at strengthening the squad. Everyone will start off on a level playing field and all the players will have a look in and we will go from there. I’ll be looking to start training at the end of November or the first week in December,” Ciantar said.
“My goal will be to finish in the top five, anything above that would be a bonus. The club always shows that they are a very ambitious so I come across here ambitious as well and hopefully, with the playing list we have and the players we bring in, we can at some point give it a shake.”
