From the Victorian state league level, to the Liberty A-League, Tiffany Eliadis has just about won everything. Now a fourth Championship is in her sights. On the eve of Melbourne Victory’s tilt for a three-peat getting underway, she chats with KEEPUP’s Nick D’Urbano about her incredible journey from a teenage superstar to being the ultimate teammate.
Some athletes are just winners.
Whether it’s Championships, Premierships, individual or team-based accolades, success just seems to follow them from club-to-club and city-to-city.
Sometimes, there’s no rhyme or reason to it. Winning just becomes contagious wherever they set foot.
You could argue Melbourne Victory’s Tiffany Eliadis falls into that category. Throughout her almost 15-year career, the attacker turned midfielder has been a serial winner.
MORE LIBERTY A-LEAGUE FINALS NEWS
FINALS GUIDE: Everything you need to know, tickets, dates, broadcast
VICTORY PREVIEW: These remarkable numbers tell you why lightning could strike a third time for Melbourne Victory
MATILDAS: 10 Liberty A-League finalists dreaming of a Matildas World Cup call-up
Her resume speaks for itself.
Championships at state league level with South Melbourne, MVPs, Golden Boots and achieving the ultimate success not once or twice, but three times with Victory – including back-to-back Championships in the last two seasons.
Now, she’s eyeing a fourth Liberty A-League title, which would, if successful, come in the form of a historic Championship three-peat.
GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE LIBERTY A-LEAGUE FINALS!
“Even with South (Melbourne) back then, we were winning quite a bit. We were playing Grand Final football often,” she told KEEPUP.
“We were top of the ladder winners and I think for me winning like that, I was just so drawn to it and it was a desire to just want to always be playing in the finals, playing in a top four team.
“Probably subconsciously, even at training… I always push because I know what it feels like to win and I know what it feels like to lose as well, because how many times have we lost in the finals too.
“Looking back on my own journey. I just think I was born for it (football), really!”
When you look at Eliadis’ rise through the ranks, it’s easy to see why she believes was born for this game.
At the age of 14, she earned her debut for South Melbourne’s Women’s Premier League (WPL) side, which made her the youngest player to feature for their senior team at the time.
It didn’t take long for the spritely teenager to make her mark either.
By the time she had turned 18, Eliadis had become one of the state’s most prolific strikers and overall best players, winning back-to-back Golden Boots and WPL Gold Medals in 2013 and 2014.
Incredibly, she scored a whopping 63 goals for South between 2013 and 2015.
Since then, only three players have scored more than her 29 goals in a single WPL/NPLW Victoria season; incredibly, all are either current or former teammates of hers – Melina Ayres, Catherine Zimmerman and Angela Beard.
Her form at state league level didn’t go unnoticed either, signing for Victory in 2012 prior to her outrageous scoring feats.
However, Eliadis hasn’t made a name for herself at A-League Women’s level as the goal-scoring machine she was in the Victorian state leagues.
In fact, it’s as the ultimate teammate, playing in a myriad of different roles in the last few seasons, to accommodate for a number of Victory’s other attacking weapons – particularly in the most recent of her three stints at the club.
Under Jeff Hopkins, the 28-year-old has played in almost every position imaginable. Defence, midfield, attack; you name a role and Eliadis is ready to do a job.
And in a testament to her character, she’s simply adapted to whatever role she needed to play for the betterment of the team.
“I think it started with Jeff, really,” Eliadis said about her position changes.
“Having so many different coaches, being a younger player, you’re not really considered to be the star attacker.
“So you’re always sort of in the shadows of all those midfield and attacking players and the consideration to sort of step in as a local player to being an attacker, it’s sometimes difficult. Usually most of those attacking positions are taken up by internationals or maybe interstate players or things like that.
“It was a little bit hard, and I think being a good player and stuff. Jeff sort of slotted me in where he thought I fit within the squad at the time.
“I’m quite an aggressive player, and I’m someone that adapts quite well, so if you put me somewhere, it’s like, yeah, right, I’m gonna do it. If you need me in the back line to win balls and contribute, like I will and then the mindset sort of changes when I get put somewhere else.
“After me trying to convince him: ‘come on, play me up front!’ he (Hopkins) sort of realised, ‘Oh yeah I’m also quite valuable going forward’.”
Despite her knack for goals, it took almost 10 years since debuting for Eliadis to pop up with her first A-League Women’s goal, scoring in a 2-0 win over Wellington Phoenix last season.
Since then, she’s gone on to score another three for Victory, including an all-important late equaliser against Canberra United, which essentially booked their place in the top four this season – having finished goal-difference ahead of the side from the nation’s capital on the ladder.
“It felt unnatural that I wasn’t scoring or even getting the opportunity to score,” she said.
“Sometimes I would take a shot on goal and I was like, Oh, that feels weird. You know what I mean?
“Or even when you’re playing as a (number) six, the ball goes forward and the first instinct for me is to want to go, but I had to be held back and held back.
“Jeff and I have a better understanding now and he understands me more as a player and he understands, like I love making runs forward and I’m a pretty selfless player.
“I make runs, but I don’t necessarily make runs for me to get the ball. I make runs for maybe the nine or winger or something and I’ll get that second ball in behind and that’s what I mean by, it’s really good to have players around me that understand, that’s how I play.”
This season, Eliadis has played her most minutes in a single season yet, settling in as a holding midfielder as of late with Alex Chidiac departing the club and Elise Kellond-Knight rupturing her Achilles.
But for the 27-year-old, home will always be where the heart is on the football field.
“I love playing a false nine and almost mixing between the nine and ten role,” she said.
“But having players around me that understand rotation. As an attacking minded player, I love that. Sometimes for me being structured limits me and puts a lot of pressure because it’s like: ‘oh, you gotta make sure you’re here. You’ve got your responsibilities’.
“Being an attacking player, you’re just a bit more free and a bit more free range to be a bit more creative. Whereas when you’re a six or a defender or something like that, you have to be on par all the time, you know?
“I enjoy and love playing, attacking. I love defending as well, but deep down… I love being more free.
“I like it when players worry about me rather than me worrying about them!”
When the A-League Women’s season comes to an end for Victory, Eliadis is set to return to FC Bulleen Lions in NPLW Victoria, where she has played alongside a host of teammates including Paige Zois, Lia Privitelli and Kayla Morrison – while also being coached by Victory assistant Caitlin Friend.
And the connection of playing with her teammates at NPL level throughout the winter months only serves as a boost, particularly her formidable partnership she forged with Ayres during their time at South.
“Mel (Ayres) and I have been playing together for so long. We have a really good understanding of our movements and stuff,” she said.
“A few years ago, Mel was the Golden Boot, but I used to say to her: ‘Oh, I wonder how you used to get these goals?’.
“If they had, if they had an award for a top ‘assister’, I think I would have swept that one up!”
But before returning to the rigours of NPL football, a well earned rest is on the cards for Eliadis who plans to take some time off after the longest season to date.
However, there’s still some business for her to care of at A-League Women’s level.
Victory kick-off their quest for a three-peat against cross-town rivals Melbourne City on Saturday afternoon at Casey Fields – a team they beat in the most recent meeting 2-0 and also, en route to last season’s title.
Eliadis and her teammates again go in as the underdogs, finishing in fourth place this season and needing to go the long way to secure the three-peat – despite going unbeaten in their last seven games (two wins, five draws).
No side has lost less games than Victory this season (three), but conversely no side has drawn more games (eight), which ultimately was the difference between them finishing higher inside the top four.
But doing it the harder way is nothing unfamiliar for Victory, as they came from third and fourth in consecutive seasons to win the Championship.
“It’s familiar, I think,” Eliadis said about going the long way.
“We know we deserve to be in it, as much as sometimes you look on paper and go, ‘oh, yeah well, how many draws and stuff did we have’. But some of those draws felt like a loss. Some of those draws felt like a win and yeah, we definitely deserved it.
“(We’re) undefeated for I don’t know how many games… We just need to, and I think everybody will agree, just score a few more goals.”
Should Victory run the gauntlet and win the Grand Final, Eliadis is set to be one of six players to have featured in each of their three Championship successes, alongside Ayres, Privitelli, Zimmerman, Amy Jackson and Claudia Bunge.
Eliadis featured as late substitutes in both wins over Sydney FC and wasn’t in the squad all the way back in 2014.
However, if there’s any trend from recent starting XIs, it looks as if she could be taking her place in the heart of Victory’s side should they make the big dance this season.
GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE LIBERTY A-LEAGUE FINALS!
As for what it would mean to her personally if Victory secured the three-peat: “It would be nice. It would be a really good achievement,” she said.
“Not many people get to experience it and I think even just back to back that’s really tough to do and it would be nice just to go down in history, to be a part of the team and sort of see your name up there and go: ‘oh, yeah, I helped achieve that’.”
