Geoff Finch

DOB: 1st January 1951

Position: Midfielder

Season of first appearance: 1971/72

Season of last appearance: 1971/72

Full Appearances: 4

Substitute: 1

Goals: 0

Also played for:

Toronto-Awaba United (Australia), Barry Town, Doyalson-Wyee (Australia) and Newcastle Tech (Australia).

Player Profile:

In September 1971 Geoff moved to England aged 20 having just missed out on being selected for a tour by the Australian national team.

He travelled carrying two letters of introduction, one to Huddersfield Town and one to Sheffield United, from two former English players living in Australia who had played for both teams but Geoff didn't contact either club. Instead after arriving in London he went to see Chelsea manager Dave Sexton in his office at Stamford Bridge. Sexton arranged for Geoff to have some training sessions with the 1st Division club and he also spent a few weeks training with Isthmian League club Slough who were linked to the Blues at the time.

At the end of October 1971 Geoff found himself back in Sexton's office at the same time as Margate manager Les Riggs who was at Stamford Bridge to arrange the signing of Chelsea's Kevin Barry. After some discussions Geoff agreed to have a trial at Margate in November 1971 and during the following month he joined the club on a permanent basis.

Geoff was given a weekly wage by Margate and also had his accommodation paid for by the club. He trained every day, often alone, at Hartsdown Park and after a few games in the reserves he made his debut in midfield in a 3-2 defeat at Dover in the Kent Senior Cup on 12.1.72. A local press report said Geoff was "prominent" and "looked an attractive prospect". Unfortunately he was unable to appear in the Southern League for Margate due to FA rules that meant overseas players had to be resident in the UK for two years before they could play senior football.

As a result of the FA ruling Geoff spent most of the second half of the 1971/72 campaign in the reserves but he did feature in four more first team games - all in the Kent Floodlight Cup. Over two months after his debut Geoff had his next senior outing on 13.3.72 when he came on as a half-time substitute for Eddie Clayton in a tie against Dover at Hartsdown Park and a mere two days later he wore the number six shirt in a 3-0 defeat at Folkestone.

Geoff then started Margate's next two Floodlight Cup ties - a 3-1 defeat at Canterbury on 21.3.72 and a 1-1 draw with City in the return game at Hartsdown on 10.4.72. The local press said that he "fought tooth and nail in midfield" in what turned out to be his final senior appearance and at the end of the season Geoff left the club to seek out regular first team football.

In his guise as a mining surveyor Geoff travelled to Wales during the summer of 1972 and spent some time in a number of mining schools. He also went underground at a couple of coal mines to look at the operations. He ended up attending pre-season training with Barry and Geoff joined the club for the 1972/73 campaign. He played for them in the Welsh League until February 1973 when he decided to return home to Australia.

Within weeks he played for Northern New South Wales again, lining up for them in a match against Japanese outfit Hitachi on 2.3.73 and Geoff went on to spend the 1973 Australian season with his old club Toronto-Awaba. He ended up winning the clubs 'Player of the Year' award for the third time and played in further Northern New South Wales games including one against Australia's national team.

In October 1973 Geoff was seriously hurt in a car crash and missed the whole of the 1974 campaign due to his injuries. Just before his accident he'd reached the milestone of 100 appearances for Toronto-Awaba.

He resumed his career with the club during the 1975 season and in 1976 Toronto-Awaba won the B.P. Super Cup with a 3-1 win over Edgeworth after extra time.

Geoff joined Doyalson-Wyee for the 1977 campaign and they paid a total of $1,100.00 as a joint fee for him and his team-mate G.Randall.

Geoff later had a spell with Newcastle Tech before returning to Toronto-Awaba once more for the 1982 season. After playing over 300 first team matches in his senior career Geoff retired at the end of the 1986 campaign aged 35 and moved into coaching.

Between 1986 and 1989 he coached various Northern New South Wales state and association / zone junior representative teams before linking up with his old club Toronto-Awaba once more in 1989. They played in the Northern New South Wales 1st Division at the time.

After a spell as the clubs youth team coach Geoff became Toronto-Awaba's Head Coach in 1990 and continued in that role until taking over as Cardiff's Head Coach for the 1992 season. They were another Northern New South Wales 1st Division club.

In 1995 Geoff became Director of Coaching at Macquarie Football based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It was originally a part-time post but in 1998 the role became a full-time one as he established The Macquarie Football Academy at Speers Point, New South Wales.

In 2002 Geoff became Junior Development Officer at Newcastle Jets who had sides in both the National and 'A' Leagues and he continued in that position until 2009 when he took over as Technical Director of Football Mid North Coast - a zone of Northern New South Wales Football. Geoff combined his duties with some consultancy work for Football Mid North Coast and also helped to train other community coaches.

In 2012 he was living in Teralba, New South Wales and working as a community coach for Newcastle United Jets of the 'A' League.

At that time Geoff said "Football has come a long way in Australia and the 'A' League is developing and continuing to grow as a strong professional League where players can establish themselves in Australia before trying their luck or being approached by clubs to play overseas with the support here in Australia of Football Federation Australia (FFA), professional club personnel, player agents etc. There are over 300 Australians now playing professionally all around the world. It was obviously a different story and process when I travelled to England 41 years ago but I certainly enjoyed the experience of playing for Margate and Barry Town