Words: Michael Flynn
Image: Football Queensland

PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland Premiership winning coach Jim Bellas has stepped down from his position at Olympic FC as part of the club’s ongoing transition year.

Club officials said that Bellas had not resigned nor been terminated based on Olympic’s sluggish start to the current season, and will remain actively involved with the club including identifying his long-term replacement.

Olympic are currently on their worst run of form in the short history of PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues - losing by a club record 6-1 margin to Moreton Bay United last week to notch a fifth straight defeat.

Bellas had originally intended to transition out of the head coach role at the end of the current campaign, however, increasing demands of the 50-year-old’s business interests and family life had accelerated the original timetable.

Bellas – who is widely known across the league by his nickname ‘Dixie’ - guided Olympic FC to the inaugural PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland Premiership-Championship double in 2013, and remains the most successful coach in the competition with 48 wins to his credit.

Assistant Coach Bobby Hamilton will take the reins for Sunday’s match against SWQ Thunder, but it is expected that Technical Director Joe Fenech, who previously coached CQFC Energy and FNQ Heat, will also take a greater interim role with the first team.

A statement from the club explained, “Dixie will be working very closely with the Technical Director on a number of projects which are part of the club’s development plans.”

“In September last year the club decided that 2016 would be marked as a review and action year as part of the club’s preparation for the next generation of PlayStation 4 NPL due to commence in 2018.”

Bellas said he is looking forward to the next stage in his association with Olympic, which commenced 38 years ago as a junior player before advancing into the first team and then into various coaching roles.

“I love Olympic. When I started playing here as a kid the cars still had steel bumper bars and no air conditioning, so I will still be coming down to watch and I will still be happy when they win,” he explained.

“It was my choice (to step down). It was going to be a whole year of looking for someone to take over for next year and I said to the club they might as well start now – I certainly wasn’t pushed.”

“It had just become too much with my work and my family but I’m still going to be there helping out where they want me to,” Bellas concluded.

It was reported earlier in the year that former Hyundai A-League coaches Miron Bleiberg and Branko Culina had contacted Olympic to express their interest in coaching at the club.

However, it is understood that the preference is to appoint a 'new-age' coach, with Fernando Garcia, who holds an AFC ‘A’ Licence and guides Olympic’s youth team, considered a leading candidate.