Whose club is it anyway? The battle over one of Sydney’s largest football clubs

Members of Marrickville FC – one of the largest community football clubs in Australia – had arrived in their hundreds for an annual general meeting in early December. It was an amazing turnout given only 15 people had attended the AGM 10 months earlier.

A faction of parents and coaches had become quietly, then vocally, concerned about the direction of the Red Devils, as the club is affectionately known. Together, they established Marrickville Community Voice, a group of members whom they hoped would be elected onto the club’s board.

The club had transformed from a community organisation into a commercial enterprise where money was the primary issue, one parent involved alleged later. A notable shift in the culture was evident in the inclusion of bonus performance payments for some junior coaches in 2026, claimed two parents.

But after the breakaway faction’s plans became known, supporters of the club’s president Bill Drossos and the management committee rallied, turning out in force to stop what they alleged was an attempt to “overthrow the board”. The meeting ran for 80 minutes and, at times, had the decorum of a boxing match.

It would rank among the more controversial days in the club’s 80-year history.

Seven parents, former coaches and members spoke to this masthead as part of this story. All except one did so on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships.

There were questions at the AGM about an alleged lack of transparency about the club’s finances, such as why the commercial terms of a five-a-side competition, run as a joint venture between Marrickville and a company owned by Drossos, appeared shrouded in secrecy?

Aside from the question of finances, the crux of the disagreement was a dispute over the soul of a community football club. Who should a sporting club be run for? And how much should winning be valued in children’s sport?

It is a microcosm of the modern era: one where more is understood about the cost of prioritising results in children’s football over enjoyment, but where high-performance football squads have proliferated as intensely involved parents, living vicariously through their kids, have pushed them to succeed.

Tom Engesser, the former technical director of Marrickville FC, personified one of the competing philosophies of coaching children’s sport.

“If something didn’t come off, I had heard him say, ‘Wow that was a really good idea; it may not have come off because your skills don’t match your thinking’,” says a mother who was involved in her son’s Red Devils side.

According to coaches and parents at Marrickville FC, the technical director took a high-level view on coaching.

In a game as chaotic and error-prone as children’s football, the obvious temptation is risk mitigation: playing direct and punting the ball long – hopefully to one or two strong, fast and gifted players who score all your goals.

Engesser’s approach was different – encouraging players to play more like Spain; passing and controlling possession which invariably causes mistakes. The cost can be short-term results. But the upshot is the development of players, who become infinitely better as they learn by making mistakes.