Taking over … Lubo Lapsansky will coach Green Gully in the Victorian Premier League in 2011. 56728 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By Luke D’Anello
FROM the outside, it appears Lubo Lapsansky has his hands on the dream gig after the former midfielder secured the top job at Green Gully.
But coaching in the Victorian Premier League (VPL) is no easy task, and it is a position filled with twists and turns.
The Cavaliers may have won the 2010 title, but a new challenge awaits Lapsansky, who was in charge of the club’s under-21 team last season.
Premiership coach Paul Harris has remained at Green Gully and will resume his duties as assistant, after taking the reigns when the club parted ways with Peter Ollerton in the early stages of last season.
Ian Dobson, who has been involved in six VPL premierships, including four with Green Gully, has also stayed on as technical director.
It means the 38-year-old Lapsansky will have more-than adequate support in his corner.
“I’ve got an opportunity to coach probably one of the best clubs in Victoria, so I’m pretty excited,” Lapsansky said.
“I’m very pleased that Paul stayed on board. I’ve known Ian for 15 or 16 years, and he’s been a great coach and a great mentor to a lot of players.
“I’m familiar with the club and the people, players, and all that. It feels like you’re working at home and that’s a really positive thing.”
Lapsansky, who spent two seasons at the Cavaliers as a player, is regarded as one of the best midfielders to ever play for the club.
Lapsansky signed his first professional contract at the age of just 16 for Poprad FC in Slovakia before moving to the Melbourne Knights in the then-National Soccer League in 1994.
He also played for Carlton SC, Parramatta Power FC and moved to Green Gully in 2004.
With the majority of last season’s premiership squad retained, Lapsansky is optimistic about what is ahead.
Last year’s back-up goalkeeper Kyrakos Gerohristodoulou has departed, along with Grand Final substitute Nick Robinson. Key midfielder Steven Burton is currently in the UK and his future with the club is up in the air.
“We’ve been able to re-sign about 75 or 80 per cent of the squad from last year. They played very good football the last eight to 10 weeks (of the 2010 season), which obviously I want to continue doing.
“I want to also implement a few new things that I saw last year that we need to work on.
“As a player I was a midfielder, so I will be trying to play the football I liked to play as a player. We’ll try to work on keeping the possession, and trying to provide a bit of entertainment with our style of football.
“We’ve got really good quality players out there, who are technical players, and they’ve been around.”
Green Gully’s pre-season started on Wednesday, and the new coach said managing his players and coping with the move from under-21s to head of a senior squad will be his biggest challenges.
Lapsansky said the Cavaliers will not be recruiting aggressively, but will look to fill some minor holes.
“We’ve got a few young kids who will be training with us, and hopefully we can develop something out of that.”
Club manager Raymond Mamo welcomed the appointment of Lapsansky.
“What the club’s really excited about is that he is an ex-player and he’s able to implement his knowledge from over the years. Even as a player, he was always so dedicated to the job at hand.
“He was a very professional player, and we saw that that’s the way he coaches as well.”
