Leading Australian-Greek newspaper ‘O Kosmos’ held its second successive special awards evening on Wednesday 17th March at the Bankstown Sports Club acknowledging the efforts of various players, coaches and officials that have taken part in all competitions run by Football NSW in 2010.
Football NSW General Manager Ian Holmes, Football NSW Head of Competitions Bill Kostandas were present on the evening as was Football NSW’s Media Manager Mark Stavroulakis who hosted the event.
Former Football NSW Director Jim Ronis and ex-Wollongong Wolves coach and owner of ‘O Kosmos’ Nick Theodorakopoulos was also present amongst a number of other identities in the round ball game.
‘O Kosmos’ once again has had a dedicated 16-page sport insert each and every Tuesday highlighting all the football competitions that NSW’s runs, something that Football NSW General Manager Ian Holmes was delighted with.
“The outstanding efforts and achievements seen by ‘O Kosmos’ in publicising and promoting all Football NSW competitions goes above and beyond what we expect and we thank them wholeheartedly for that.
“There is a rich sprinkling of Australian Greek clubs and players who take part in our various competitions and we at Football NSW are proud to see such a diverse and multicultural community amongst a number of others who help promote our sport.”
Holmes was awarded for his efforts in acknowledging ‘O Kosmos’ and was presented with club jerseys by Sydney Olympic, Stanmore Hawks and Gladesville Ryde Magic.
Former North Queensland Fury midfielder Panny Nikas was also on hand for the event and he too praised the newspaper’s efforts by awarding his signed jersey to Theodorakopoulos thanking the paper for their support of the code.
Individual awards were handed on the evening as Rockdale City Suns’ Paul Dimitriadis was given a trophy for the Most Appearances in the NSW Premier League in 2010.
The Journeymen’s Award went to Sutherland Sharks’ Nick Stavroulakis while the rising star award went to Sydney Olympic’s Mitchell Stamatellis.
Most Improved Player for 2010 was given to Sutherland Sharks’ Yianni Fragogiannis while the Golden Boot for 2010 was given to his teammate Jim Bakis who notched up seven for the year.
The Long Service award for 2010 went to four players with George Souris, Angelo Petratos, Peter Tsekenis and Peter Zorbas all receiving these honours.
While in the Distinguished Long Service Award for services to Football, Jim Ronis was given the top award for his involvement with the sport.
New Sydney Olympic coach Peter Tsekenis took out a second award on the evening winning the Distiguished Long Services award for football while former Socceroo Peter Katholos was given the ‘Legends Award’ for his services to the game.
The major award of the evening was the ‘O Kosmos’ Player of the Year award and that was awarded to Marconi Stallions’ talented goalkeeper James Chronopoulos who had an outstanding 2010 season in the NSW Premier League and continues to impress with his consistent displays for his club.
The Kosmos were well backed this year in its sporting department as Panos Nikolaou (Editor), George Stavroulakis (Sports Editor), John Mavridis (Football Writer) and George Margiolis (Page Layout) were all involved in promoting the NSW Premier League and various other Football NSW run competitions.
