As Milton Ulladulla Football Club proudly celebrates 40 remarkable years of women's football, we honour the dedication, passion, and community spirit of the volunteers who have helped define our journey. As part of our commemoration, we shine a spotlight on Nick Palagyi, a distinguished senior coach, and parent coach to U10s, whose unwavering commitment has been instrumental in shaping the success and growth of our club in recent years.
I’ve been involved in football my whole life. I started playing when I was 4 or 5, and I’ve got fond memories as a kid of getting up in the middle of the night with my dad to watch FA Cup Finals on SBS, and parking next to the pitch in a long row of cars, watching local matches under the floodlights with a bbq chicken and a few bread rolls as our dinner. The game has always been a big part of my life and a part of who I am, and I expect it always will be. So when my body told me it was time to hang up the boots well before I wanted it to, I got into coaching as my way of staying involved
1. What inspired you to become a football coach, and what coaching philosophy do you bring to the team?
It didn’t take long for me to work out that I loved coaching just as much as playing, and over the journey, I’ve had some great opportunities now to coach in local, state and national competitions, and it’s all been great fun! I get a huge amount of support from my wife now, even though it keeps me out of the house (or maybe because it keeps me out of the house) but she’s my #1 supporter and I couldn’t be involved to the level I am without her there beside me. She’s grown to love the game over the years now too and she’s an awesome sounding board when I’m playing around with new tactical ideas. I wouldn’t be coaching if it weren’t for her support.
My coaching philosophy is pretty simple - I like a possession based attacking style of football, and that’s probably no different to the majority of coaches you ask. But there are an infinite number of ways to implement that idea, and it needs to be constantly adapted to complement the strengths of your playing group, and to expose the weaknesses of your opponents. One thing is always non-negotiable though - I always want us to have the ball as much as possible, and to use it effectively to create as many goal-scoring opportunities as we can.
2. Can you share a memorable coaching moment or achievement from your career that has shaped your approach to the game?
I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of highlights over the years, but it’s not only the successes that shape you. I had the opportunity to work with some of the best coaches and players in Canberra while I was living there, and I learnt a lot from all of them regardless of whether we were winning titles together or collecting wooden spoons and trying desperately to keep a club afloat. It’s those tough times that I believe really have the biggest impact on your development, because they make you question everything and scrutinise your whole coaching process. You grow a lot more during those tougher times, and they remind you how important it is to appreciate and celebrate the successes when they come along.
A highlight while in Canberra would definitely be while I was involved with Canberra Olympic during a really special period with Frank Cachia at the helm. We collected multiple titles and trophies over a number of years, and in 2016 we won through to the second last round of the FFA Cup, and hosted Sydney FC in the semi final of that competition. An amazing journey with lots of hard work, plenty of laughs, and a bit of luck here and there along the way, but it was definitely a memorable experience that I learnt a lot from.
Ultimately though, the achievement I’m most proud of is my most recent one. Our 2023 season here at Milton Ulladulla was really special. To see how much hard work and commitment the players had invested over the 3 years leading up to it, and to see the individual growth in the players as well as the strength of the bond within the squad over that time has been incredible. These players have had their fair share of tough years in the past as well, so to post an undefeated 1st Grade season and a Grand Final win with the boys, and to be able to share in that kind of achievement and celebration with this great group of players and coaches was something very, very special.
3. What excites you the most about joining our team and community, and what are your goals for the upcoming season?
2024 will be the toughest season most of us have ever had. Expectations are very high now after winning the league and the grand final last year, and we’ll be questioned at every turn this year and have every action compared back to last year. The way we go about managing this as a squad will be a great challenge and I’m really excited to see what we can achieve as a squad now that we have a genuine belief in our abilities, in addition to the outstanding work ethic that’s always been present within the group.
When I moved to the area with my wife and two kids in early 2020, just as Covid was emerging and locking us all down, we weren’t really sure how we’d settle in or in what way we could get involved in the community. I naturally started to look into the Shoalhaven Football scene and after heading along to Lighthouse Oval and sitting on the hill to watch a few matches, I could see straight away that there was a really positive vibe about the club, and an inviting, family friendly atmosphere. I contacted the club at the end of that year to enquire about getting involved, and my family and I were welcomed in with open arms and have been well supported ever since. We’ve met a lot of great people and our kids have made great friends and love playing for the club. We’re a grassroots club for sure, but everyone involved is really passionate and committed, and you can see the club’s ambition is growing year after year. It’s exciting to be a part of it all, and my family and I are grateful to the club for how inclusive and welcoming it’s been towards us.
4. How do you plan to foster a positive team culture and inspire the players both on and off the field?
The culture within any playing group is a critical aspect of its success or failure.
Each year I try to introduce a few new experiences for the players, which I think is important in terms of developing the bond within the group and ensuring the players are challenged and continue to grow. For example during last year’s pre-season we travelled and played matches at the Australian Institute of Sport against strong Canberra-based opposition, and we followed this with a recovery session straight afterwards at their Aquatic Centre before heading out for a team dinner. We’ve also played clubs from the Eurobodalla, Far South Coast, and Southern Highlands in recent years in an effort to expand our horizons and continue to step out of our comfort zone.
As well as challenging ourselves on the field, I try hard to be as transparent and honest as possible with the players and to make that part of our culture. I think this sort of communication is really important in order to earn the trust and respect of the group, and I also make a point of always recognising that the players' families, school and work commitments should take priority over football. I want each and every player to know they are valued within the group as a person, as well as a player. This is probably one of the most difficult aspects to achieve though, because the ratio of players to coaches is way off. This makes it really difficult to catch up with everyone as often as I wish I could, but I’m fortunate to have a great group of coaches and managers who help with this a lot. We’ve also made a point of empowering our senior players with this as one of their key objectives within the group, and again I’m really fortunate that we have so many fantastic leaders to provide us all with this kind of support.
5. In your opinion, what role does community involvement play in the success of a football program, and how do you plan to connect with our club and supporters?
Without the support of our great community, we wouldn’t exist as a club. Our home ground is a community oval, our sponsors are local businesses, and all of our players live and work locally. As a club, we work really hard to accommodate anyone in the area who would like to play football, and our participation rates over recent years are continuing to grow which is fantastic!
We’re run by a hugely dedicated, but very small group of volunteers, and our sustainability and growth is really dependent on the levels of community support that we receive. We still need a lot more support from our parents, families, friends and anyone out there who would like to help because we still have a lot more that we can be doing, but it all needs ongoing support from members of the local community.
Within our senior mens playing group, we speak about ensuring we set standards that will not only make us and our club proud, but also our broader community. I think it’s fair to say that although we have strong participation rates across the club, the general awareness of our sport and our club within the community is still behind that of a few other sports. But we’re all really proud to represent our area and we hope our efforts are being recognised more and more each year within the local community. Without a dedicated local paper or radio station, etc it can be challenging to connect with supporters. Over the last few years we’ve tried to increase the visibility of our matches through social media, and we’ve sought out and established relationships with Wollongong bases reporters from the South Coast Register, but not all of those articles make it into the Milton Ulladulla Times and a lot of people aren’t able to subscribe to the SCR so it’s difficult to get information and news out there, but we’ll keep working on that.
Last year we held our first Ladies Day which was a great success and this was well supported by local businesses and all who attended had a really enjoyable afternoon. We’ll keep looking to do more things like this because we want to make sure we’re finding ways to ‘give back’ to the community and the people who support us playing the game we love, and we get a huge boost from having a crowd in to watch us play.
