Ambition burns at Postecoglou's old club as Australia launches second tier competition

MELBOURNE :Professional ambitions are firing at the club where Ange Postecoglou cut his coaching teeth, as South Melbourne FC prepare to launch Australia's new second tier competition this week after languishing for years in the state league.

Postecoglou may be feeling the heat after a winless start at Nottingham Forest but his old team, nicknamed Hellas, are buzzing in the leadup to hosting Sydney Olympic in the Australian Championship opener on Friday.

Thousands of fans will flock to Albert Park's Lakeside Stadium to cheer on the four-times national champions in their first meaningful match against Olympic in more than 20 years.

For long-time supporters of both sides, Friday's match will feel like partial redress for a historical wrong when the debt-ridden National Soccer League collapsed in 2004.

Only a few of the old NSL clubs were brought on board when Australia's top flight was reborn as the A-League in 2005 with the help of billionaire Frank Lowy.

Hellas and twice national champions Olympic were among those left behind, relegated to the semi-professional purgatory of state-based competition.

South Melbourne mounted several campaigns to get into the A-League but were overlooked in favour of expansion clubs Melbourne Heart and Western United.

Heart became Melbourne City over a decade ago after they were bought out by the City Football Group, while Western United were recently cut from the league due to financial problems.

South Melbourne's management remain determined to take the club back to the big-time, even if as yet there are no plans to introduce promotion from the Australian Championship to the A-League.

"We haven't shied away from that from day dot," Football Director Peter Kokotis told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Two of