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<\/p>\nInspired by the way some of Greece\u2019s biggest soccer clubs were also multi-sport juggernauts, Evriniadis approached Rob Petrie, who was Collingwood\u2019s general manager at the time, with the idea of joining forces.<\/p>\n
Evriniadis had also put in a bid to acquire the NBL\u2019s North Melbourne Giants. He figured that if the three sports \u2013 basketball, soccer and Aussie rules \u2013 could \u201csynergise\u201d, then a super-club could be born.<\/p>\n
While that element of the plan never got off the ground, the Collingwood-Heidelberg union (represented by the Warriors\u2019 garish black-and-white striped jersey, defaced with zigzags of Heidelberg yellow) was on paper, at least, a win-win for all concerned.<\/p>\n
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Heidelberg spent one ill-fated season as the Collingwood Warriors.Credit: Monique Westermann<\/p>\n
By the early \u201990s, the Magpies had moved most of their home games to the MCG; the Warriors played out of Victoria Park, and the rent and gate money generated would contribute to the ageing ground\u2019s upkeep. Involvement in soccer, meanwhile, had the potential to open up a new, possibly even global fan base for one of Australia\u2019s biggest sporting brands.<\/p>\n
For Heidelberg, of course, it was an easy ticket back into the big time.<\/p>\n
The early signs were overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n
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Kimon Taliadoros in the Warriors\u2019 resplendent strip.Credit: Jack Atley<\/p>\n
Zoran Matic, one of the NSL\u2019s top coaches, assembled an excellent squad featuring Socceroos Ernie Tapai and Goran Lozanovski, Olyroos goalkeeper Frank Juric, and Kimon Taliadoros, their captain, who thought the whole thing was a new \u201cblueprint for the future of Australian sport\u201d, and chose to sign for them specifically because he was so excited by it. The Warriors steamrolled their way through to the final of the NSL Cup in pre-season, beating Marconi in the final. The hype was real.<\/p>\n
The Warriors\u2019 first league game, at home to the Melbourne Knights, was a raging success. Collingwood legends Peter Daicos, Lou Richards and Bob Rose were presented to the crowd, and the team ran through an AFL-style banner created by the club\u2019s cheer squad. So many people turned up \u2013 about 15,000 in the end, a seriously impressive number for the NSL in those days \u2013 that police threw open the gates at Victoria Park for safety reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollingwood thought that it was going to be a typical footy crowd \u2013 that everybody was going to slowly turn up, and that over a two or three-hour period, the people would roll in,\u201d Evriniadis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, soccer crowds don\u2019t behave that way. They all come in the last 15 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Taliadoros lifts the Johnnie Walker Cup.Credit: Hamish Blair<\/p>\n
Indeed, not long before kick-off, the line to get in was so long that it was blocking traffic on Hoddle Street, on the other side of the train station, nearly a kilometre away. It was proof, some thought at the time, that the two codes could co-exist successfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe senior policeman comes to me and says to me, \u2018You either open the gates, or I\u2019m going to open them\u2019. So the last three or four thousand people on that day got to get in for free,\u201d Evriniadis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf only they kept coming.<\/p>\n
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Zoran Matic in 1996.Credit: Bryan Charlton<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great day, and we won 3-0. I went home that night and I thought my dream may come true. But it very quickly became my nightmare \u2013 and two months later I got sacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I was an idiot \u2026 the wounds will never heal\u2019<\/p>\n
The AFL was never thrilled with the whole multi-sports idea, which was popular at the time. Carlton would enter a side in the NSL the following season, and Essendon explored a partnership with the Thomastown Zebras but withdrew their \u201cEssendon Raiders\u201d bid to join for 1996-97. The AFL immediately introduced \u201cRule 40\u201d to stave off the threat and protect their dominance, prohibiting clubs from becoming involved with other sports. But they were still allowed to collect rent from other sports for use of their facilities, which was the loophole the Warriors squeezed in through.<\/p>\n
The novelty quickly wore off. Unbeaten in their first six games, the Warriors went winless for the next 11, as injuries exposed a lack of depth in their squad and punters discovered that Collingwood\u2019s contribution to the venture was merely cosmetic and they were pretty much just Heidelberg in disguise. Crowds dropped below the 5000 needed for them to break even, and then even further, to barely 1000. Having overblown their budget on their football department, they ran out of money by February.<\/p>\n
Facing their own financial problems, Collingwood withdrew their support just five months into the season, amid sustained back-channel pressure from the AFL. Players were told they weren\u2019t getting paid, then refused to take the field for their match against Sydney Olympic. Legal threats from Soccer Australia, however, forced the AFL side of the operation into a slight backdown; the Warriors would see out the rest of the NSL campaign, but go on no further.<\/p>\n
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Ross Oakley was the AFL chief executive in 1996.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo<\/p>\n
In truth, Victoria Park was never a great fit for soccer. Players felt the surface was too hard. As an oval, it was not conducive to generating a typical soccer atmosphere, and for training, it was only available when the AFL side wasn\u2019t using it. More often than not, there were no markings on the field for soccer.<\/p>\n
But it was better than nothing, which is precisely what Matic was left to contend with once the Warriors were evicted late in the season, during the club\u2019s death throes. Players remember he would jump in the car in the morning and search Melbourne for an empty park for them to train in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d get a phone call \u2013 let\u2019s say three, four in the afternoon \u2013 and he\u2019d say, \u2018OK, boys, we\u2019re training here\u2019,\u201d recalls Juric, who works today as the Socceroos\u2019 goalkeeping coach. \u201cWe were training in four, five, six different venues by the end of the season. Sometimes there were no balls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their final home game, a 2-0 defeat to the Brisbane Strikers, was played in front of barely 500 hardy souls at Olympic Park.<\/p>\n
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Rick Cerrachio (centre) celebrates a goal for the Collingwood Warriors with Mark Silic (left) and Goran Lozanovski (right).Credit: Hamish Blair<\/p>\n
Matic, on reflection, later described himself as \u201ca little kid wanting to play with fire\u201d for choosing an ill-conceived AFL experiment over the other clubs who wanted him that season, for whom soccer was actually their core business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was an idiot \u2026 the wounds will never heal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018You learn from your history\u2019<\/p>\n
That was probably the lowest point in Heidelberg\u2019s history. Nearly three decades later, they are enjoying their greatest moment since.<\/p>\n
Off the field, the club is financially stable, with some of the best facilities in Victoria. On the field, Heidelberg are one of Australia\u2019s best football operations outside the A-League; they were recently crowned champions of the Victorian NPL, arguably the strongest of all the state leagues, which qualifies them for the Australian Championship<\/a>, Football Australia\u2019s new second-tier competition, kicking off next week.<\/p>\n Heidelberg\u2019s Australia Cup run has been historic.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Heidelberg\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/650c8069e903523cf2c4ed3e0e7d6e28e90093b3.jpeg\")
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