An interview with Andy Vargas: Green Gully legend & coach speaks to HIGHPRESS

Andy Vargas. He is the link between Green Gully’s past and future. He is also tasked with plotting the great escape.

Vargas is one of Green Gully’s favourite sons. A former captain and one of NPL Victoria’s most decorated players, who won four Victorian Premier League championships and four premierships across a trophy-laden 11 years with the Cavaliers.

And after a decade away from Keilor Downs, he is back home in the club’s desperate time of need.

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A powerhouse of Victorian football, the Cavaliers are a far cry from those title-winning days. Green Gully are winless and rooted to the bottom of the table through 13 rounds.

Relegation. It sounds outrageous for a club like Green Gully - steeped in in history, but it is a very real possibility. They are 10 points adrift of safety.

So, after sustained success with rivals Avondale FC as an assistant, why has the 48-year-old taken on this job?

“If I'm completely honest, it was the challenge,” Vargas told HIGHPRESS. “I know going into the job, it was going to be a very difficult task.

“It is a very difficult task at hand, but I think where I am mentally and in terms of my coaching development, if I'm talking about myself now as a coach, I just saw it as a massive challenge and I'm up for it. I really believe in my ability. I believe in my football experiences.

“I love the club too. Let’s not leave that aside. I'm a genuine lover of the club for many reasons. There's many good people there and a rich history and I'll always be attached to the club.”

“I feel part of the family there. Although you can look from the outside and say it's crazy what you're doing. I don't see it that way. I see it as a great challenge.

“For me as a gaffer, for me as a person, as a man, there's no lose for me. I'm not going to lose in this situation because I'm going to learn and develop and work harder than ever because of my attachment to the club.

“I really believe that inside the changing rooms, we've got something that can get us out of that.”

Vargas bleeds green and white. You can hear the passion in his voice when he speaks. It is part of the reason why the former Australia youth international answered Green Gully’s call.

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He is four games into his tenure, after replacing David Chick in Melbourne’s north-west.

Those four games have all ended in losses, including defeats at the hands of title challengers Preston Lions and high-flying Oakleigh Cannons.

Green Gully lost 3-1 to Melbourne City last week, but it was by far their best performance, especially since Vargas returned.

“We've just got to keep building. It's my job to make sure that they keep believing,” Vargas said. “That's hard because we're on the bottom of the ladder and things are very serious, but we're going to do the best we can and keep building and believing.

“I believe we've got the ingredients to dig our way out of this for sure.”

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Belief is a key word in Vargas’ interview with HIGHPRESS.

It all comes down to his mindset and what he is trying to instil, not only in the squad but the club in general.

This is a proud club, but in Vargas’ words, the lights have dimmed. It is all part of his mission to embrace history as he referenced Green Gully’s uninspiring Maltese Derby loss to rivals Caroline Springs George Cross earlier this season.

“That George Cross game, I watched it,” he recalled. “My experiences in those Maltese derbies are one of passion and fire. The games that I've participated in over the years in that derby, they're special.

“I remember them clearly because of the intensity, because of the crowd, what it means to the Maltese community.

“Community is a bit of a buzzword in our circles now but the community is what holds these clubs together and the past is there to reflect on and the past is there to be respected and Green Gully are traditionally a very strong Maltese-backed club with beautiful people currently at the club of Maltese heritage

“I want to bring that passion back. I want to bring that fire back and it's more than just passion and fire. Of course, you've got to have levels of intelligence and your approach around the game but I think if you bring that fire and passion and that's your foundation or part of your foundation, then you'll see people looking at a team and a club like Green Gully again and saying, well that fire and ignition is back.”

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Vargas, who was at the centre of Green Gully’s dominance over their fierce rivals in the 2000s, continued: “You have to look at your arch enemy and recognise the good work that they've done as a community, as a club.

“They've been coming for years now from the state league and slowly, slowly building. I know their head coach Eric Vassiliadis has done an amazing job at sticking to that community plan. They've all supported each other through it. I think that needs to happen again at Gully.

“I've watched Gully from afar for many years, coaching outside of the club now for 10 years and my heart's always been with Green Gully, but that fire for me from afar looks like it's sort of dim.”

“It's about the right people within the club with the right mindset, getting the club back to where it belongs, setting those high standards, being accountable to those high standards.

“Once you can start to create that culture then things will start to fall in place but you've got to start somewhere and if I'm part of the process of reigniting that love and pride and flame for the shirt because it's a beautiful shirt with a lot of beautiful history.

“We shouldn't be intimidated by history. We should embrace it and we all come together as a community then I've got no doubt that hopefully this is the start of that journey.

Coaching Green Gully is the latest chapter in Vargas’ passionate football story.

There is so much more to be written by a man synonymous with the game in the state, who not only dreams of “flying the Australian flag” abroad but working with his brother - former Australia international and Melbourne Victory star Roddy Vargas.

He did try to reunite with Roddy - another Cavaliers great, at Green Gully but his brother’s commitments outside of football prevented a sibling coaching duo.

“For me there's no ceiling,” Andy Vargas, who previously spent time with Chilean giants Colo-Colo, said. “I love football. Football's one of my pure loves. I'm a total lover of the game and the art of coaching as well.

“I love coaching, I love dealing with young people, young men and trying to influence their mindset around how to approach the game because I think football and life go hand in hand. My philosophy with the game and I'm sure for many it's aligned in that regard.

“I'd love to work in the professional environment, but until that opportunity comes, I'll make sure that I do everything to make sure that I keep developing and learning and growing as a person, more importantly, and then as a football coach.

“I've got a Chilean background and I spent two and a half years playing in Colo Colo in Chile and I've got some very strong connections back home in Chile with some ex-teammates of mine that went all the way and now are heavily involved in clubs and coaching and I'm in regular contact with them.

“There's no reason why one day I can't head back to South America and fly the Aussie flag over there. I'd love to be able to do that, because I know I've got the passion and the fire and the culture when it comes to football too.”

“I'd love to work anywhere in a professional environment.

“I'm not going to make any secret about it, people know in most football circles that I'd love to be able to work with my brother one day,” he continued. “Me and Roddy, we're super tight, we're twin flames, we're the same but different.

“I think we would really provide a beautiful balance as a coaching group, I've actually already said to him, I go ‘bro, I think you're higher profile than me, you can be head coach’.

“I don't give a shit about assistant. As long as I'm in a top environment with good people and we want to win games of football, let's fucking go, man.”