Preston Makedonia
celebrates its long, proud and distinguished 50 year
history
Wednesday 17 June
2009 On Saturday 6th
June 2009 club legends, supporters and other guests
gathered to celebrate the clubs 50th Year Anniversary.
The Gala
Dinner was held at
Emerald Receptions with a number of guests attending,
which include
The Honourable Martin
Ferguson AM (Federal Member for Batman, Minister for
Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism), Trajce
Atanasovski (Mayor of Brimbank), Mark Trajcevski (FFV
Board Director), Savo Sibinoski (Macedonian General Consul
Melbourne), and Goce Pejovski (Macedonian Vice-General
Consul Melbourne).
Present were
a number of past players
and administrators, which include
Phil
Traianedes, George Jolevski,
Robert Spasevski, Chris Emsovski, Graham Heys, Nick Cuculeski,
Josif Mitrov, Lou Petropolous, Warren Spink, Bill Murray,
George Petrov, George Campbell, Con Opasinis, Robert
Markovac, Joe Markovac, Zlate Ilievski, John Branov,
Nikola Boskov, Dr Tom Vaiopoulos, Dime Petreski, George
Nestorovski, Chris Sterjovski, Zoran Trajceski, John
Sapazovski,
and Les Anastasiou to name a
few.
The PMFC Gala
Dinner MC Jason Kambovski begun proceedings by welcoming
all the guests, followed by a brief overview of
the clubs fifty year history.
Guest
speakers John Bronov, one of Preston's long standing
President, and Preston legend and former Socceroo
Phil
Traianedes gave passionate and thorough personal accounts
of their time at the club, describing the highs from
participating in the old National Soccer League (NSL) from
1981 to 1993, winning a number of trophies along the way
which includes the Victoria Cup in 1980, the Gold Cup in
1991, the Dockerty Cup in 1992, and then to the lows of
relegation from the NSL to the Victorian Premier League (VPL).
Branov
described the days of how the club focused on buildings
its foundations in the Victorian State League and not
prematurely entering the NSL when it was founded in 1977.
After the club built the Preston Makedonia SC Social Club
across the road from its home ground B.T. Connor Reserve
and became Champions of Victoria by winning its first
Victorian State League (VPL) in 1980 did Branov and the
rest of the committee feel that it was the right time to
enter and participate in the NSL in the following year.
Traianedes
described Preston's "12th man" (the fans), that the crowd
on many occasions made the difference between winning and
losing, and how the whole squad knew regardless of where
the club played (including interstate) that they would
always have a large supporter base at the ground cheering
them on.
Event
coordinator Chris Terpos presented a number of videos on
the night, showcasing club highlights from its NSL and VPL
days, and interviews from club legends.
The evening
ended with a auction of Preston Lions memorabilia, which
included the jersey of the 1992 Dockerty Cup win, followed
by traditional Macedonian dancing.
The Preston
Lions Football Club would like to acknowledge and thank
those people that volunteered their time to organise the
event, the players that donated their old Preston
Makedonia jerseys that were auctioned off, PMFC Gala
Dinner Sponsors which includes
Superstars and Legends, Macedonian Band Modus, Informator,
Emerald Receptions
and special thanks to Football Federation Victoria for
their assistance, and to everyone that attended the night.
To view some
images from this event, please
click here.
The following
video is a sample of what was shown on the night, and the
club at the moment is working at compiling a special PMFC
50th Anniversary DVD which will be available soon for
sale:
Preston Makedonia
celebrates its long, proud and distinguished 50 year
history
