Andrew Howe is a selfconfessed nut, and that's just how we like him. One day during a discussion on the origins of the proposed new Sydney football team(s) "Northern Spirit" and "Manly Sea Hakws" Andrew was compelled to tell a discussion group about the history of teams from that region of Sydney. This was originally sent (27/02/97).
:Nick Guoth wrote:
: [snip]
:I only brought this up because Manly had a bid in for one of the positions
:this last season and failed, and talk of them resurecting their bid seems
:to me to be positive. For the person who said that Manly was an Italian
:backed team, I want to see proof. When I was there is was all English which
:is why the likes of Kosmina was involved. There was a team called North
:Sydney Inter who I nearly played for in '77, but they folded ages ago. I
:know of no Italian community in the M-W peninsula area.
It appears the confusion arises with the *proposed* EC club MANLY SEA HAWKS and the strongest *exsisting* club in the area WARRINGAH DOLPHINS (NSW '2nd' [ie 2nd highest] division). MANLY seem to be linking with the Dolphins. But hopefully the link is not too strong - word is that Warringah Dolphins are a very amateurish outfit. Why else would they have been demoted from the NSW Super League (read NSW 1st division) this year - especially considering they are the only team from the Sydney's populous north shore.
I also personally know of someone who was offered a contract at Warringah this year - but knocked it back purely because of the amateurish set up - he is now playing for a club in the lower NSW divisions.
But I'm glad you brought up the wonderful story of state league football on Sydney's north shore.
Warringah _do_ have Italian conections. They stem from the above mentioned North Shore Inter. Let me paint the picture.
In 1981, Sydney's northern suburbs (ie. north sydney/north shorenorthern beaches//far north) had 6 NSW state league clubs. These were:
North Shore Inter (first div)
Manly Warringah (first div)
Warringah (2nd div)
Ku-ring-gai (2nd div)
Dee Why Swans (3rd div)
Artarmon (4th div)
Virtually all of these clubs combined to eventualy form one 'super' north shore club by 1992, like this:
Artarmon Dee Why Swans Nth Sydney
(1981-86) (1981-87) Warringah Inter
| | (-1981) (-1981)
North Shore Ku-ring-gai ??? | |
-Artarmon (1981-88) +------+--------+
(1987,88) | |
| | Warringah-
+---------+---------+ Narrabeen
| Manly- (1982-85)
North Shore Warringah |
Utd (1989,90) (1981-90) |
| | Warringah-
+-------------+------------+ Freshwater
| Inter
Manly-North Shore (1991 only) (1986-91)
| |
+--------------+------------+
|
WARRINGAH DOLPHINS (1992-)
NB: "1981" denotes the club exsisted [ie. was not formed] in 1981.
Warringah Dolphins had a couple of good years (including 1995 NSW champions + Kossie's first coaching stint), but seemed to have died off lately. Pity, because this club represents a large population base.
Demographics:
1991 census counted 206,000 in Manly-Warringah shire. Add the surrounding areas (Lower Northern Sydney and Hornsby-Ku-ring-gai) and we're talking 687,000 people in 1991.
But the Italian-born represents a mere 1.2% of this area (8000 people), way below the percentage for rest of Sydney (1.8% of rest of Sydney is Italian-born).
In short, the Dolphins cant rely on Italian support. By the sounds of things, they don't anyway. In fact, sounds like they have little of any support, sadly.
But the Manly Sea Heaks may have a big enough population base anyway....