ATHENISTA: Football @ FAFC - it is the opera of the people.

The beauty of Athena leaves and indelible mark in the mind, body and soul of the fans

Stafford Heginbotham former Chairman of Bradford City FC back in the early 1980's was quoted as once saying that Football is the Opera of the People.

This blogger has taken the license to add the FAFC reference as the title of the latest blog

Both on and off the park season 2011 for Floreat Athena has certainly been a roller coaster that has covered the full gamut of emotions and passions of the football. However this is not necessarily unique just to our club. Over the duration of the 2011 season - whilst reflecting on personal experiences and communications along with random commentary regarding the clubs historical discussions and references certainly suggests that highly charged emotions and passions are a defining characteristic of Athena and what it means to be part of the complex interwoven social fabric of the football club.

Passion and emotion

Football is associated with passion, emotion, excitement and dedication across the globe. Even the often quoted and somewhat clichéd phrases such as "the world game", "more than just a game" or "the beautiful game" - do not just sit there without feeling.

Common references to extreme emotional experiences at football matches are characterised by comments from the fans of the game — some referring to the 'pure joy' and exhilaration of being at football games. Such is the intensity of the experience that surveys have shown that commonly up to two thirds of fans have actually cried at football matches — mostly through joy, but occasionally because of despair. Football provides for many fans an opportunity to let themselves go emotionally — to release the frustrations of everyday life.This phenomenon is a truly special feature of our game and our club.

At season end now it is time to further explore this emotional journey we have experienced in 2011.

A word from AK

Athenista Blogger caught up with the man in charge - the man who was entrusted with the steering wheel in driving seat of the FAFC vehicle, train or the bus - through this journey.

We are grateful that head coach and valued player Ante Kovacevic for for making his time available to provide the faithful with his regular and poignant insights into Athena first team goings on.

Hi Ante, thanks for opportunity to chat abut 2011 reflections.

Cheers - pal, happy to chat as always.

Looking over the season there were four distinct phases of this emotional journey we were taken on.Two were clearly very up and another two down. What do you put the two periods of poor form down to?

There were definitely four distinct phases. The two well performed phases were very satisfying. The two periods of poor form were very poor. Its not easy to put my finger on exactly what went wrong, but it was probably a collection of basic things that led to negative results.

The slow start to the regular league season was probably due to a night-series win “hangover” that led to complacency in the first handful of games. Simple mistakes we weren’t making in the night-series crept into our games and cost us points. Then not getting the all important first win put a lot of pressure on the team.

The poor finish to the season was for slightly different reasons I felt. We dug ourselves out of a relegation battle to be on the cusp of a finals birth which was at its crescendo with the 4-1 win over Perth at Dorrien Gardens. The subsequent stumble against Mandurah a week later, was something we couldn’t recover from. It just seemed like we ran out of steam and belief in ourselves for the remaining games.

Ultimately we only performed for half a season, which saw some superb football. But the poor results in the first 6 games and last 5 games put an end to any finals hopes.

Are you happy with the progress of the young players?

The progress of our younger brigade was superb for most of the season. With younger players there will always be inconsistent performances and that will be expected. For most of the year we felt we have provided a great environment for the young first team squad players to develop.

We had a fit hungry squad of about 20 and the reserves had a competitive squad with Jamie Goodman at the helm. This was interrupted with the sudden departure of Jamie as reserve team coach which resulted in promising young players departing from the first team and the reserves squad.

What areas do you see the squad needing some improvement looking towards 2011?

There are 3 key areas that most teams look for in the off-season and we are no different. I’d say the addition of and experienced Centre Back, a defensive midfielder and an experienced striker will need to be added to the squad for us to take the next step. The squad has shown it can be more than competitive, but these 3 additions will force the current members of the team to be competitive with all positions to be fought for.

Besides our night cup success what other memorable highlights do you personally have from the season?

The night-series cup win was a fantastic achievement for the boys that the majority were together for about 2 months. It provided belief within the team that unfortunately surfaced after round 6 of the regular season.

Other highlights for me personally was the emergence of youngsters such as Liam Boland, Calum O’Connel, Callum Fransz and young Jack Allen earlier in the season were pleasing. The new players we brought in such as the Van Dongen brothers, Damien Catalano etc added stability, enthusiasm and a professional attitude. And then of course the admirable performances with the boys that stuck with the club during this season. True gentlemen and honourable intentions in football and towards the club.

All in all, the squad has a lot of upside to it. A poor handful of games at the start and end of the season cost the squad a finals appearance. If the squad remains together with a few additions it will be bound for finals football next season.

What sort of operation did Alex Dunn have and how long do we expect his recovery to take?

Alex had shoulder surgery. Obviously for the goalkeeper it’s a very important area of the body so his recovery and rehabilitation will be important.

I believe he’ll need 3 months of no activity for that area, so he wont miss too much of the pre-season hopefully.

Remarkably you have retained your fitness and been free of major injury throughout your career, how are you feeling at the end of season?

Thankfully I haven’t had too many serious injuries. I’m definitely not as fit as I was or as I should be, but thankfully the body has held up quite well during the season. At the moment, a few regular aches and pains that I just deal with. But I still enjoy football too much.

There have been no retirement rumours flying around so we assume you will be a WAPL player next year right?

At my age it’s a year to year proposition. Its something that will take a couple of months to consider so I’ll wait until pre-season to decide.

Finally, who are you tipping to be crowned WAPL Champions at the end of the month and why?

Balcatta have been the most consistent team all year so they’d be my pick to win the league. All other teams have had poor sequences of games sometime throughout the year. In finals there is no room for inconsistency.

I’d say all teams in the finals will be happy that Graham Normanton isn’t coaching anyone this finals series, because he has proven almost unbeatable in finals football. Something we’re thankful for in the night-series competition also.

You're an utter champion of club Ante. Enjoy the break mate, give the body a well deserved break, work on the tan and hone your beach bird watching and catching skills and we look forward to having you take charge of the club into the 2012 campaign and beyond.

Pleasure mate - I like the way your questioning it makes me think for answers and reasons.

That's it from Athenista Blogger for the time being. Thanks you to all the positive feedback regarding the content style and themes tackled in this blog.

I hope you have enjoyed the latest post.

Athenista reminds readers that primary purpose of this blog is firmly grounded in keeping the Athena faithful informed on the big issues facing FAFC first team.

I leave you all with the two quotes below that resonate with me powerfully whenever I reflect on what it means to follow your football club as intimately as so many of us do regarding our Floreat Athena FC.

Concerning football playing, I protest to you it may rather be called a friendly kind of fighting, rather than recreation. ~ Author Unknown

The roots of our Soccer Tribe lie deep in our primeval past. ~ Desmond Morris