Albury Hotspurs great Ian Belgre reflects on memorable time with AWFA club

After moving to Albury from Sydney in 1975 to start teaching, Belgre became one of the Border's most decorated players and coaches.

He was president of Hotspurs for 29 years and is still actively involved in the club today.

Belgre spoke about some of his highlights with The Border Mail this week.

BEAU GREENWAY: You started playing in Sydney from a young age and found yourself at one of the biggest clubs in NSW, Hakoah, what brought you to Albury?

IAN BELGRE: It was a Jewish club and Frank Lowy was president. He was fantastic and put a lot of money into this club. I couldn't get into the seniors because there were six Australian players in our squad and most went to the World Cup in 1974. All players were paid well and it paid my way through uni. I thought I was going to make a bit of a career in soccer, but I was sent to Albury as a teacher.

ALSO IN SPORT:

BG: You first played for Hotspurs in 1975, what brought you to the club?

IB: I really didn't want to leave the city, but as soon as I got to Albury I loved it and I don't really miss Sydney at all. When I got here I started looking for a team. The league had only been going a couple of years at that stage. I was posted at Albury North High School as a teacher in 1975 and there was a bunch of teachers that had formed a team called Albury Rovers and I started training with them in pre-season. Hotspurs at that time were a huge junior club, but had very few seniors, while we were just a senior team, so we joined together and that was how Albury Hotspurs grew.

BG: You won the cup in your first year at the club?

IB: There was eight teams in the league and we ran seventh. It's funny because the star team was Albury City. They had the Andronicos boys (Nick and George) and guys like Joe Sagor and Phil Barrett and they didn't lose a game all year. We had a cup competition and we used to play a couple of rounds during the year and at the end of the season you'd play the semi-finals and final. Because there was only eight teams, each club would put in two teams to make it 16 and it was all drawn out of a hat. We drew a reserve side the first round and the second round we drew another reserve grade side because two had drawn each other in the first round and we ended up in the semi-finals. We then drew Lavington (now Boomers) and they finished last in the first division and they were the only team we'd beaten all year. We beat them and next thing we know we're in the final against Albury City who had thrashed us all year.

BG: Is it true you were described by Border Soccer magazine as 100/1 odds to win that final?

IB: There was no way we were going to beat them because they had such a great side and we were a bunch of plodders. Our goalkeeper's father passed away on the Saturday night and he had to withdraw and our reserve goalkeeper (Greg Livingstone) didn't know he was playing. We went looking for him Sunday morning and dragged him out of some pub because he was getting tanked up to go to the game. He turned up half pissed, but he played the best game you've ever seen and we beat them 3-2. We celebrated for six months.

BG: Can you tell us about your experience in the Southern League with Hotspurs and then Border Soccer Club?

IB: When we started in the league, we were called Albury Hotspurs but we changed the name to Border Soccer Club to become a new entity and attract more players. Border Soccer Club used to be out where the Equestrian Centre is on Corrys Road. We raised money and built it all and we were going to have poker machines and try to set up a professional soccer team here. It went close, a few things just didn't quite happen for us. We left the Southern League and played in the Melbourne leagues for a while because it was closer, but there was not enough local support. Teams just wanted to win leagues here, you'd get the odd player who was keen, but not enough.

BG: You were close to winning a league Star Player award as well?

IB: I tied with Joe Martinez (father of St Pats coach Javi) in the early 80s. Joe was at United and I was at Hotspurs, but he won on a countback because he got more best on grounds than I did. He got $500 too, he bought me a beer though.

BG: You coached Hotspurs to the league-cup double in 1987, 1988 and again in 2003, did one of those standout?

IB: We had a very good side in 2003. We went through almost undefeated and we had to win away to Benalla to win the league. We lost to them and they were second last. We went back to the old Terminus which was our pub and we were really pissed off because we had a big night planned. Melrose were coming second and someone down the bottom beat them, so we actually ended up winning the league on that day. We scraped past Melrose in the cup semi-final in golden goal and we got to the final against Diamonds who had thrashed United down at Myrtleford. We ended up winning the final 6-1 which was the biggest win ever in a cup final.

BG: You were club president from 1990 until 2018, what are you most proud of?

IB: I say this with all modesty, but as a local club of any sport we've been a very important club. Our influence of starting soccer here was enormous because it was people at our club who looked to form the association. The first president (Bill Luders) and secretary (Ian Barker) of the association were both from Hotspurs and we've always been junior-focused. I think people respect us a club that looks after its kids and we've remained a very big club because of that. We were also one of the first clubs to have a women's team. The club is in good hands with Brad Howard as president. What I'm most proud of is guys like Robert Tuksar, Darrel Mills, Justin Wild and all these blokes I've coached now have kids in the club and are coaching in the club and giving back.

BG: You're a life member of both Hotspurs and the AWFA, were you on the league executive?

IB: I was on the executive for five years and it's a really tough job with the time they have to put into it. People knock the association but I think it's going pretty well. It has its ups and downs and there's things we can do better. We're struggling to increase numbers, but a lot of sports are. You can certainly discuss issues and say you've got disagreements, but we've got to support those people.

BG: How did you get the nickname 'Tags'?

IB: I played baseball for about a year and I was hopeless, but I think they called me tags because I missed people all the time at first base. The other nickname I have is 'Ian, Ian'. The reason was when I played I was pretty competitive and because I came from a pretty high standard, the coach would say to me 'if you don't want the ball, you shouldn't be playing'. I had a habit of calling out 'Ian, Ian' all the time because I wanted the ball. Because I'd played for so long the club wanted to put a name up in the stand at Lambert Park and they went to council and named it the Ian Ian Stand.