I live and work in Europe. At my previous company we had a sizable Italian language support team which I had some business with. The North v South thing among them was quite frankly a better reason to come to work every morning than the paycheque. 

For what it's worth, I grew up in Adelaide and went to school in a predominantly italian area in the north east. Probably 50/50 italians to the rest. Having lived in Europe amongst Italians-in-Europe (but not in Italy, but I mean people who never in some way were culturally changed by being in Australia) - these Italians are absolutely nothing like the Aussies. Don't mean it to deried, but mean it in the sense that "nationality" is very much a spectrum in the case of Aussieifed migrants. And also FWIW, people of my ancestry in no way consider me to be one of them either. 

Time to get back to the thread. The success of the NST will depend on how well it is managed.  IMHO these are some consideration points:
1  Given a requirement for an NST team is full time professional players, it would better to have more games than fewer as it would not be wise to have to pay players to twiddle their thumbs for 6 months.  My view 14 -16 teams would be ideal.  Also, it would imprudent to insist on all players to be on a professional contract. At this level i believe the league should have a greater percentage of youths trying to prove themselves.
2  The NST should try to minimize competition with the A league. I suggest April to November/December.
3  Free to air TV coverage is crucial. I suggest SBS even if what they offer is not much. I am disappointed with what has been dished out by the commercial stations. Their heart is not in it.  They are certainly NOT true believers. It is more important to build an image than just grabbing the money and being allocated a poor for time slot.
4. Clubs should not be forced to play in stadiums way above their capacity needs.
5  A few years will be needed for the NST to settle down before P&L with the A-League can be considered.  Hopefully by then the A-League will have at least 14 team.

Not sure where this thread has got to, but the FFA is advertising for a “General Manager - National Second Tier”. 

Ok, plenty of Eyeties here it seems who could provide some advice. I'm heading off to Trieste next month, staying at a resort ;) , meeting up with acquaintances and might go and watch Udinese for the fun of it. Any tips on what else goes on in that part of the world?

I did know where you were coming from don't worry 

Totally agree with mcjules too.
First time I set foot in nonno's brothers apartment in Rome it was like being in a condensed version of Nonno's house.
It was quite remarkable. Down to the crockery aha

Ahahaa exactly.

at the risk of turning this thread into a wog love in; Yea  have also experienced this, I didn’t know how Italian many of these things were until i went to Italy for the first time 

nice to see mcjules make an appearance might I add, must have been the wog calling amongst us all hahaha j/k fellas.

Davide I see this quite reflective what I had mentioned earlier about - that league, now thankfully having Glenardo explaining the differences from his pov  between our States relating to football at either level and polar opposites you can understand where I'm coming from bit more.

I relate to all the Italian posts by the way (some very funny) but a gen and 2 older than alot of you, pretty much robbos era by my assumptions though portugese.

What I can't stand here and now this era, the small % SU young supporters who have NOTHING relating to the ol days to behave as such - they are the cancer period and just as alot of active support round those age groups they are NOT there for the FOOTBALL in the first place really grrrrrrrrrrr
I dislike what this behaviour brings to the Club, NO Club can control these flogs at the time when their actions occur, its all too late in any case been recorded and for all to see, just as the RBB and the MV/Cove idiots when they lose the plot.

There are way more well behaved euro background Aussies that behave veryvery well compared to the mugs, I get sic of the same ol same ol bs bringing up long ago and belittle as some posters do, bullying smug posting they call it today.
They are just as childish as the small % who need bans and out of the game.

Absolutely! I remember the first time I went to see my relos in Italy and saw how much the decor in their houses matched my grandparents. There were a few things that were obvious (like the salotto that was only for special guests) but the extent was genuinely surprising to me :laugh: The only difference was that they had way less space because they live in cramped apartments.

The old “omg what were you guys fighting about?” “….What do you mean? We were just talking”

I always find this bit so interesting. I'm sure there are many cultural cues others might notice I don't.

Even when it comes down to language. When my wife is with me and I hear something in Italian I genuinely forget that I understood it unthinkingly but she had no idea what was happening.

Having said that there's not much in modern Italo-Australian culture that would seem altogether "abnormal" to MOST normal people.

It's probably only how loud people speak that is the real shock :laugh:

I live near the club, eaten at the restaurant in the club rooms and been to the odd match with the kids when we were bored. It's hard to pick up how "italian" the club is still just from that (with the small caveat that being of italian heritage, some things just seem "normal" to me that others might not). The part of town it's in isn't particularly italian IMO, the school my kids go to has a large amount of indians for example. I think all the key positions in the board are held by italians or italian adjacent (e.g. Greg Griffin's wife is Italian) still.

And yeah was pretty much the same when united started, for the first time I had people talking to me about the local team from all backgrounds. The reality is I identify more South Australian/Australian than I do Triestino/Italian despite what my genetics might say so it wasn't hard to get behind them. The way they've (almost) always had a strong local identity is just resonates with me.

Ah, the son in law Bruno in Kingswood Country, what a show. Money on the fridge wog! Not the Kingswood!

Ha ha I did have a feeling when I typed that

The old birds (God love them) all pretty much had a wicked sense of humour too.... I miss my yia yia soooooo much ...

 Hehehehehehe its like you have old home videos of me stored under your bed somewhere.... hahahahahaha

Yeah we are certainly different aha

It's possibly just from the whole city being more like a big country town.

There is just as big, or bigger really, sense of being from Adelaide/SA than being from specific suburbs.

Maybe it's just knowing as a smaller place we need to combine forces to take on the big boys.

I don't know. I don't want to discount the suburban rivalries of the SANFL years I guess

Interesting. My ex wife is from Adelaide so I’ve spent a fair bit of time there over the years. Seems to me that in Adelaide there’s more acceptance of the idea of getting behind the unified south Australian club and accepting that the traditional club is a thing of the past. Perhaps because the same thing happened with the SANFL and VFL/AFL. People getting behind the crows and accepting than their old club was no longer relevant. 

Aha not many people know what I mean by dogger anymore!

Funnily enough in my 20s-30s playing in bands I had the skinny black jeans but in a whole different scene aha

I liked the wogs that were a bit older than me dressed like that (and ripple sole boots) that were into Kiss and Zeppelin more than the Kappa wearing ones by the time my school years rolled around  :D:D (not that I ever really liked Kiss but you would know what I mean aha)

Haha, Ah the nonnas, gotta love ‘em, surely there isn’t a more iconic genus of grandma 

Not much insight outside the Cup game vs United sorry guys.
It was about what you expect there. A few of the old boys clinging on and then a 60 year gap to a bunch of 12-15 year olds associated with the club.
Same old tracksuits and hair as the 90s but still didn't hear much Italian being spoken.

Again though, I'm not the man to ask for insight on Adelaide City.

I remember watching the grand final (1992??) that "we" won on penalties when I was about 10.
I went to a game or two down the years but in those days dad and I both played soccer all weekend.
90% of our tv soccer came from the world game on Sundays waiting for Serie A highlights.

By the time United came around in my early 20s there was a massive buzz here. I fell in love with local football and there was no internet (EDIT - mobile based social media I mean) so I was never called a plastic for abandoning the team I watched a few times as a kid aha

To someone not on the inside it was basically the same Adelaide City players in different colours.

Everyone was super grateful to still have a team on the national stage.
It can only have been the hardest of the hard core City that didn't caught up in the excitement.
It just was what it was. City were dead just like Hellas before them.

Anyway

Irrelevant story but I just remembered a Lebanese mate introducing himself to our other mates 80+ year old Nona as "Ciao signora, my name is Teste de cazzo" hahahahahahah she fell off her chair laughing, legs in the air, old lady underwear over her head and all ..... we thought she was having a fit..... for years after at BBQs or whatever she would point to Tony and say "Ciao Cazzo" hahahahahahah 

"Dogger" hahahahahahahahah I havent heard that in 30 years mate, I remember my Mile End cousins calling someone that and even then me thinking it was a lot harsher than "Can-eater"  we used to use.... 

Was the same sort of scenario with Greeks in Melbourne back then too (I DO miss kung fu shoes or wog loafers with tassles and skinny black jeans though :)). Thank God the only knuckle draggers left now pretty much only go to the tennis or to Oakleigh games.... 

We have seen some of it for sure but as always, no doubt in much smaller numbers (my social circle these days is like 5 people so I'm not exactly in touch anymore aha).
In my travels every young Italian or Spanish person I met asked 100 questions about Australia and how they dreamed of coming here because there was nothing for them there.
It's really sad to be honest hey 

PS Nonna was from Guarcino (just outside of Rome) but met Nonno (Sicilian) in Rome and lived there till they came here in the mid 50s.
They moved back for a fair few years in the 70s along with my mum and dad until I think they realised what they had given up.
Some of my uncles never forgave them for that.

Oh, my only point for saying that was half my Italian side have proper red hair and fairish skin and the other half (inc. me) are more what Australians imagine Italians to look like aha

Anyway I'm rambling, nice to "meet" you man

Again. I’d personally say that’s more so the case in Melbourne due to the factors i mentioned previously, historic connections between the clubs and Italian community broken by the mergers and de mergers, loss of club identity and historic through lines, club not being passed from father to Son etc 

In Sydney it is still quite common to see and hear first Gen Italian migrants and their direct descendants on the terraces at Marconi and APIA, speaking the language etc. no idea how is it in Adelaide re Adelaide city, perhaps Davide can enlighten us 

Yea re bettega obviously goes without saying that’s a generalisation and it’s obviously a case by case thing, very much depends on the family etc. 

re davide, kinda comparable experience for me. My father came out at the very end of the big wave in the 70s, most families came in the 50s-60s. I was first Gen born here, where as most people my age it was their grand parents who were the link back to italy. So despite actually speaking the language, having a grasp of the actual culture of the place and having strong connections to Italy itself with family still living there etc it was often said I didn’t “seem” Italian because I didn’t wear trackies and talk a certain way.  Also I don’t “look like” what most people think of When they think of the archetypal Italian and my father is from Rome where as most Italo-Australians trace their ancestry back to the south, Naples, Calabria, Sicily et

For what it’s worth, working somewhat comically stereotypically in a pizzeria, I can confirm that there’s been a sharp uptick in Italian migration to Sydney Atleast in the past decade as the economic Situation in Italy worsens again, especially for the youth. Probably less pronounced in Adelaide I’d imagine 

I always found this funny among the wogs at school in the 90s. Mostly 2nd generation (or barely 3rd).

I spoke fluent Italian, spoke literally half/half until I went to school, spent every night after school at nonno's and half the weekend , knew about italian history and music/art etc yet my mum's an Aussie (who lived in Italy and spoke fluent too)

Most of the wogs at school thought being Italian was having slick hair, saying fungu lu pesc in bad Neapolitan accents and yet they would give ME shit (mostly in jest but not always) for "wanting to be a skip or a dogger" because I was friends with the guys that were into rock n roll and smoking ahaha

It's a funny old world

The interesting thing about some of the old Italian clubs is that they stopped being strongly Italian decades ago, and those born in Italy are now in their 80s and 90s.
However, 3rd and 4th generation Italo-Australians do retain some affection for Italy, and although they can't speak a word of Italian, might in fact support an NSD club with an Italian heritage, even if it's just to have  a Peroni, eat arancini and sing Volare at half time.

Hahahah I get told to "go back to my own country" at least once a week on this forum alone mate... hahahahahah