While football is a team game you can’t ignore individual player achievements. For goalkeepers it is clean sheets (the Club record is held by Paul Kotrotsos with over 50 in his 221 matches) while for strikers it is goals. The overall career Club record is still held by Harry Kotsapas with 130 goals in 380 matches while the season record is held by Geoff Brown with 35 goals in 22 matches. Instant success can be achieved by rattling in a hattrick – Gianni Bouzoukis holds the Club record at 9 while Ben Mata is the nearly man with 9 doubles but no hattricks.
The first recorded hattrick (when we were playing as CYFC) was on 7th August 1971 in a 9-1 win against Wanganui City in Central Two. Unfortunately, we don’t actually know who scored it since two players – Jeff Allen and Laki Tsoumbaras – scored 4 and 3 goals respectively in the match and records don’t show goal times. Remarkably, Jeff Allen’s 4 goals in a match wouldn’t be beaten for over 30 years!
In 1973 Greg Robertson (career 31 goals in 52 matches) became the first player to score two hattricks in the same season, scoring 3 against Douglas Villa and 4 against Wanganui Athletic.
Despite his record 130 total goals, Harry Kotsapas only managed five hattricks (Wainuiomata in 1974, Adriatic in 1976, Hastings City in 1977, North Wellington in 1979 and Manawatu United in 1985) during his time with the Club.
Arthur Brown scored our first ever Central One hattrick (and the first one as Wellington Olympic) against Waterside in 1983.
Only 18 hattricks were scored between 1970 and 1989 but then they started flowing. Imre Foldi scored the next four in 1990 and 1991 only to be outdone by Andre Racz who scored the five after that between 1991 and 1994. During this streak Andre became the first player to score a hattrick in a losing effort when we went down 4-7 in a Capital Premier match to Waterside Karori in 1992.
In 1994 either Chris Christie-Yiavasis or Simon Elliott (same problem as before although maybe Chris might remember who got there first in the match) scored our first Superclub Championship phase hattrick in a 7-1 win against Christchurch Technical.
In 2004 Geoff Brown scored four hattricks in one season (4 against BNU, 5 against Wellington College, 6 against Wainuiomata and another 3 against BNU) which remains a Club record. He had none the following season but scored his fifth and sixth hattricks (Club record at the time) in 2006 against Western Suburbs and Napier City Rovers respectively.
In 2006 the 50th hattrick was scored in a 10-1 Chatham Cup win at Wembley Park against Wanganui Athletic. Yet again a milestone was marked in a match where two players scored hattricks – Adam Cowan scored 3 and Kieran Cripps scored 4 – so again, without the recorded time of goals scored, we don’t know who hit the milestone one.
In 2007 Anthony Neonakis became the first player to score a hattrick in his first starting XI game (he had previously been a sub) scoring all 3 goals in a 3-2 win against Palmerston North Marist at Memorial Park.
In 2008 Miroslav “Mickey” Malivuk became the first player to score hattricks in consecutive matches (3 against Wellington United and 3 against Naenae) and then in 2010 equalled Geoff Brown’s tally of six career hattricks when hitting 4 past Tawa in a 8-1 Central League win at Redwood Park.
In 2013 Olympic fielded arguably their best team never to win a trophy (lost the league by one goal and lost in the Chatham Cup semi-final 0-4 on a Christchurch bog), six hattricks from five different players were scored as it rained goals through the season (81 in 24 matches). In the final league match when we needed to beat Petone by 4 goals, Andrew Abba’s hattrick was in vain as we only won 5-2.
In 2015 Jimmy Haidakis scored three hattricks (3 against Napier City Rovers, 3 against Tawa and 3 and Wairarapa United). The Napier one included a shot from close to half way. Unfortunately, both the Napier and Wairarapa United matches were lost (3-4 AET and 4-5 respectively). Despite the feat of scoring three goals per game, Jimmy holds the Club record of most hattricks scored in a losing effort.
The Chatham Cup 13-0 demolition of Stokes Valley in 2019 saw Thomas Jackson equal Geoff Brown’s record of six goals in a match.
2020 had Gianni Bouzoukis hit his first hattrick, scoring 5 against Wairarapa United at Wakefield, and breaking a new record for the Club in a league match. He followed this up with 2 hattricks in 2021, 3 in 2022 and 3 so far in 2023 to make a Club record nine hattricks to date.
A then record seven hattricks were scored in 2022 – in addition to Gianni’s three, there were two for Jesse Randall, one for Jack-Henry Sinclair and probably a unique one from Kailan Gould where all goals were from the penalty spot in a 5-0 Cup win against Wanganui Athletic.
With six or seven matches to go in 2023, we already have 10 hattricks this season. In addition to Gianni’s three, there were three from Hamish Watson, two from Jack-Henry Sinclair, one from Merlin Luke-Minny and one from Gavin Hoy. Gianni matched Mickey Malivuk’s feat of scoring consecutive hattricks with 3 against Wainuiomata and 4 against Miramar Rangers.
Two players scored hattricks in the same match twice this season. Gianni scored our first ever hattrick against Miramar Rangers in a 7-0 thrashing at Dave Farringdon Park with Hamish Watson missing out on the record and getting the second ever later in the match (bad luck Watto!). In the National League Championship match played against Napier on 30th September, we had 98 hattricks already banked and both Gianni and Jack-Henry had two goals so hattrick 100 was a possibility. Gianni hit his hattrick first (the 99th) leaving it to Jack-Henry to claim the honour of scoring our 100th hattrick in the 7-1 win.
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