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Georgallis heads to Vanuatu with Greek rugby league team
By Nathan Ross
Wednesday 17 October 2012 12:10 PM
Georgallis heads to Vanuatu with Greek rugby league team
Wests Tigers NRL Assistant Coach Steve Georgallis will be flying to Vanuatu tomorrow but it won’t be for a relaxing holiday.
Instead, he will be making the trip as Head Coach of the Greek rugby league team who will play Vanuatu in an International friendly this Saturday night in Port Vila.
For Georgallis, the purpose of the visit is simple. Put Greek rugby league back on the map.
“For us, it’s more about playing again,” he said.
“It’s all about getting our Australian based players together and forming an International team.
“We’re thankful to the European Federation and the Greek rugby league in Athens for giving us the green light to play Vanuatu.
“Playing this match will hopefully generate more interest in Greece where we hope to get a successful and self sufficient domestic competition off the ground.
“In order to qualify for a rugby league World Cup, competing nations must have a quota of domestic players in their squad which means this has to be a priority for us.
“There are three or four teams over in Athens already but we need to keep spreading the rugby league word to ensure we maintain a strong level of interest.”
Former Wests Tigers player, Blake Lazarus, will play for Greece in Saturday’s game at halfback. He will be joined by the young up and coming prop forward Matt Constantinou from the Melbourne Storm.
Vanuatu will boast another Storm player in Justin O’Neill as well as New Zealand Warriors forward Alehana Mara.
Sadly for Greece, they will be without Braith Anasta, who had originally expressed an interest to play in the game.
“Unfortunately the dates clashed with his wedding commitments,” Georgallis said.
Georgallis has a Greek father and is proud of his heritage. When the team was first formed in 2003, Georgallis volunteered his services as both a player and as coach.
Since 2006, he has been the Head Coach focusing solely on promoting the game of rugby league to the Greek people.
He admitted that it’s been a stop start process since the team played its first ever match on Greek soil in Athens in 2006 with matches few and far between since then.
“2009 was the last time we played when we beat Italy in the Mediterranean Cup in Australia,” he stated.
“Italy has gone on to qualify for next year’s World Cup but we haven’t got a big enough domestic competition in Greece yet so therefore we didn’t qualify.
“We’ve now had around three years off so it’s all about starting the process again. With a bit of luck we can get over to Greece next year in the hope that we can get things moving again with regard to a successful domestic competition.”
“A win on Saturday night would be great but you don’t really know you’re opposition so it will be interesting,” he said.
Georgallis also thanked Bill Spyros of X Blades for his generous support of the team.
For more information on X Blades products, visit http://www.kossports.com.au/ .
By Nathan Ross
Wednesday 17 October 2012 12:10 PM
Georgallis heads to Vanuatu with Greek rugby league team
Wests Tigers NRL Assistant Coach Steve Georgallis will be flying to Vanuatu tomorrow but it won’t be for a relaxing holiday.
Instead, he will be making the trip as Head Coach of the Greek rugby league team who will play Vanuatu in an International friendly this Saturday night in Port Vila.
For Georgallis, the purpose of the visit is simple. Put Greek rugby league back on the map.
“For us, it’s more about playing again,” he said.
“It’s all about getting our Australian based players together and forming an International team.
“We’re thankful to the European Federation and the Greek rugby league in Athens for giving us the green light to play Vanuatu.
“Playing this match will hopefully generate more interest in Greece where we hope to get a successful and self sufficient domestic competition off the ground.
“In order to qualify for a rugby league World Cup, competing nations must have a quota of domestic players in their squad which means this has to be a priority for us.
“There are three or four teams over in Athens already but we need to keep spreading the rugby league word to ensure we maintain a strong level of interest.”
Former Wests Tigers player, Blake Lazarus, will play for Greece in Saturday’s game at halfback. He will be joined by the young up and coming prop forward Matt Constantinou from the Melbourne Storm.
Vanuatu will boast another Storm player in Justin O’Neill as well as New Zealand Warriors forward Alehana Mara.
Sadly for Greece, they will be without Braith Anasta, who had originally expressed an interest to play in the game.
“Unfortunately the dates clashed with his wedding commitments,” Georgallis said.
Georgallis has a Greek father and is proud of his heritage. When the team was first formed in 2003, Georgallis volunteered his services as both a player and as coach.
Since 2006, he has been the Head Coach focusing solely on promoting the game of rugby league to the Greek people.
He admitted that it’s been a stop start process since the team played its first ever match on Greek soil in Athens in 2006 with matches few and far between since then.
“2009 was the last time we played when we beat Italy in the Mediterranean Cup in Australia,” he stated.
“Italy has gone on to qualify for next year’s World Cup but we haven’t got a big enough domestic competition in Greece yet so therefore we didn’t qualify.
“We’ve now had around three years off so it’s all about starting the process again. With a bit of luck we can get over to Greece next year in the hope that we can get things moving again with regard to a successful domestic competition.”
“A win on Saturday night would be great but you don’t really know you’re opposition so it will be interesting,” he said.
Georgallis also thanked Bill Spyros of X Blades for his generous support of the team.
For more information on X Blades products, visit http://www.kossports.com.au/ .
