Ruckus that struck at the heart of Donikian

Age (subscription), Australia
April 23 2005

George Donikian went from reading the news to making it this week –
a reaction borne out of his heartfelt love of soccer, Michael Lynch
reports.

For most people, George Donikian is that moustachioed fellow in a suit
from television news. So it came as a surprise to many when Donikian
appeared in front of the cameras earlier this week. The veteran newsman
was himself the protagonist in one of the main stories of the day –
crowd disturbances by flare-throwing fans at last Sunday’s Victorian
Premier League match between South Melbourne and Preston Lions.

Donikian might have forged a career as a radio and TV broadcaster,
but the 53-year-old Sydney-born son of Greek/Armenian migrants’
first love is sport – particularly soccer.

And it was in his capacity as president of South Melbourne that the
media man fronted the cameras for the sort of grilling he has often
given others.

He was not happy with the way his club and his sport had been treated,
regarding the media’s criticism of the incidents as a beat-up, despite
damning footage that showed flares being thrown and supporters running
on to the pitch.

Advertisement Advertisement”It wasn’t a riot,” he said later, as
attention continued to focus on the game, pointing out that as few
as 60 people in a crowd of 5000 were involved.

He also railed at what he said was the media’s penchant for describing
any incident at a soccer match as a major disturbance while downplaying
crowd problems at one-day cricket or Australian football.

Some will say that blaming the media in this instance was a case of
shooting the messenger, and that Donikian should have known that the
media always has the last word.

But that view underestimates his passion and commitment, not just for
the game but for the club of which he became president last year when
it was at its lowest, most vulnerable ebb.

He may be a Sydneysider, but he has lived in Melbourne for five
years. And for most people of Greek extraction, the chance to be
involved in a major way with South Melbourne – an institution with
enormous cultural significance – is an honour rarely spurned.

South was in administration, with debts of several million dollars
when a group of new, younger directors took control and pledged to
save the club and asked Donikian to become their frontman.

“When I came back from Europe last year, after Greece had been
successful in the European championships and the Athens Olympics had
gone so well, I was a bit fired up and I thought maybe I am not going
to make a difference at South.

“But a group of people who really wanted to change things came along
and asked me if I would lead them . . . Becoming president meant that
I had an opportunity to get this great club back into a fighting shape.

“We nearly went through the hoop last year when we went into
administration. We got through that, with some terrific people working
behind the scenes to make it happen. Since then, we have been trying to
change the culture, broaden it and make it more accessible to everyone
and take it back to its rightful place at the top of Australian footy.

“It is, after all, the only club that has represented Australia
right at the highest level – the World Club Championships in Brazil
in 2000. Who can forget those matches against the Manchester United
of David Beckham, against Romario and Vasco da Gama?”

By his own admission, Donikian is a self-confessed “sports nut”.
Growing up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in the early 1950s was not
easy for a migrant kid – “I could not even speak English when I went
to primary school,” he recalled – and he quickly realised that sport
would be his entree into mainstream Australian society.

“It was a way in which I could stand up and be seen as an equal,”
he said. “It was cricket to start – I was an opening batsman and
wicketkeeper. Then I became an athlete, and when I went to high school,
we always played soccer, but also rugby league. To this day, I am
a lifelong member of the St George Dragons. I also am very keen on
Australian Rules. Living in Adelaide for nine years (between 1991 and
1999), I followed the Crows, but I also have memberships at Carlton,
the Bulldogs and Geelong.”

But it was soccer that always captured his imagination most. At
school, he had Josef Venglos as coach, a man who went on to briefly
coach Australia before coaching the Czech Republic in a World Cup.
“He was on secondment to learn English, would you believe? He took
a team of schoolboys who were steeped in rugby league and rugby
union, and took us to the finals of the Tasman Cup, which was the
big statewide . . . competition.”

His dreams of making it as a player were shattered by a shoulder
injury in his late teens. “I had played in a curtain-raiser before
Australia played Manchester United in the late 1960s. Bobby Charlton,
George Best, Nobby Stiles, Pat Crerand, players like that were
all there. They wanted to pick some young boys to take back to Old
Trafford . . . I was one of those but my father (Andrew, who ran a
repair shop and service station) said, ‘No, you are going to uni,
you are not going to play football.’

“Within weeks, I did my shoulder . . . I . . . struggled to play
the game and eventually faded out. That frustration hung with me for
quite some time.”

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