1961: Our First Year
With the formation of the club, Mick Cacas was appointed president/secretary and Jimmy Hall was appointed as coach. On the 29th of April 1961, the dream of Mick Lisgos, Michael Cacas and Nick Nicholas became a reality when the Greek Orthodox Football Club played Cowandilla Church of Christ at the South Parklands in the A3 Division.
The season's opening game saw the crushing defeat of the Greeks by a margin of 8 goals 1 point. The scores were Cowandilla 11 goals 8 pts to Greeks 3 goals 7 pts. The following week, with a more settled side, Greek outplayed St. Marys. St Mathews with hard vigorous football to win 5 - 5 to 1 -3. Gaining confidence as the season progressed the Greeks won 8 of the next 12 games to finish third. The first semi-final was against Prospect Methodist, a team that had beaten the Greeks at their 2 previous encounters by 12 and 3 goals respectively. By ¾ time, the Greeks had been outplayed by Prospect in almost every position and things looked grim, but after an inspiring speech by coach Jimmy Hall, the team lifted and kicked 5 quick goals to win the game 8 - 9 to 6 - 9. This took the Greeks to the preliminary final against Woodville Lutheran the following week.
Again the team was found wanting and at ¾ time was trailing by 9 points, but recovered booting 5 goals in the final quarter to win 9 - 8 to 5 - 7.
By winning the preliminary final and the right to play Port Adelaide Presbyterian in the Grand Final, the Greeks created history by being the first ethnic club to contest a grand final in their first year of Australian Rules Football. On the big day, both sides match each other with only a few points separating them at halftime. The third quarter saw a 7 goal burst by Port Adelaide Presbyterian who ran out winners 12 - 12 to 5 - 10. Although beaten 1961 was a great year and laid the foundation for bigger and better things to come. Best and fairest for the year was won by captain Tom Frossinakis and the leading goalkicker was Len Brown with 41 goals including 10 out of 14 against Cowandilla Church of Christ.