Strikers News 2005

Former Brisbane Strikers defender Matthew Bell has agreed to terms with the club and is expected to sign for the coming Premier League season tomorrow, joining a squad which is now close to finalisation.

Bell, a former Young Socceroo, first broke into the Strikers’ team in their 1996/97 championship-winning season, becoming a regular in the latter part of that season, and will be returning to the club he left in 2001 after seventy-five appearances at the elite level. He has played several seasons since then for Taringa Rovers and Brisbane City in the Premier League.

Director of Senior Football, Tony Georkas, confirmed today that Bell, who has been trailing for the club, was expected to sign a contract on Tuesday night. Georkas said that he also expected to sign experienced Premier League and Queensland representative defender Dimitri Theochari, former Queensland Lions midfielder Stuart Drinkell and forward Paul Brownlie (brother of former Brisbane Striker Royce Brownlie) on Tuesday.

In addition, the club is waiting for a transfer clearance from Welsh club Barry Town before signing former Brisbane Strikers youth player Russell Woodruffe and is sweating on the availability of Daniel Leach, who is currently trialing overseas and is expected back in March.

Georkas said that only four or five contracts remained to be offered by the club, and that there were a host of players still vying for those contracts. An inter-club game of "Probables versus Possibles" at Perry Park on Tuesday night would help to determine which players earned the remaining contracts. The squad would be finalised by Thursday night, before the club’s first engagement in the Silver Boot competition against Mitchelton at Richlands on Friday night.

The following are the players who are currently contracted to, or have agreed terms with, the Strikers for the Premier League season:

Antony Hall (gk), Michael McEvoy, Dimitri Theochari, Matthew Bell, Adam Webber, Daniel Dreger, Russell Woodruffe, Damien Waugh, Stuart Drinkell, Brad Stevens, Eli Gilfedder, Brad Hicks, Greg Di Losa, Steve Melville, Carl Giannangelo, Ross Cunneen.

Brisbane Strikers Supporters’ Association members and former season ticket holders are invited to attend an information session along with the club’s players and coaches on Thursday, 3 February.

The information session will take place at Perry Park at 6.30 pm. As well as being an occasion to welcome the players who will represent the club in the forthcoming Queensland Premier League season, it will serve as an opportunity for Strikers administrators to outline the future direction of the club and its alliance with North Star Soccer Club, its guiding philosophies and its plans to establish a youth academy.

While details are yet to be finalised, speakers are expected to include Brisbane Strikers Chairman, Dr Clem Jones and Director, Robert Gibson. The session is expected to take approximately 30 minutes.

If you are a member of the Brisbane Strikers Supporters’ Association, you should not miss this opportunity to hear directly from the club’s administrators their plans for the future of the club.

If you have been thinking about joining the BSSA but have not yet done so, or you have not yet renewed your membership, now is an ideal time to take the plunge. Just click on "The Fans" on the button bar down the left hand side of this page and follow the links through ‘Admin Info’ to ‘Join Up’. 

The Brisbane Strikers continued their pre-season preparations on Saturday night with a 1-0 win over a Rocklea selection at Perry Park.

It was a reasonably encouraging performance by the home side, which eventually prevailed over stubborn opposition by virtue of a goal from former Strikers NSL Youth player Brad Stevens midway through the second half.

The Strikers were missing four or five of their most prominent trialists and signings (including Matthew Bell and Damien Waugh), but still put out a strong side which included former Strikers youth players Russell Woodruffe and Carl Giannangello. They met plucky opposition from a stoic Rocklea team who, while they struggled to live with the superior pace and fitness of their better-credentialled opposition, battled it out until the end and probably gained a confidence booster ahead of their Division One campaign.

The Strikers' back line, martialled effectively by Webber and Michael McEvoy, was rarely troubled, and the home side dictated the pattern and tempo of the game throughout. 

As sometimes happens in football, the way to goal eventually came through unexpected and unconventional means after about four or five guilt-edged opportunities were spurned through inaccurate finishing. The breakthrough came when Stevens, playing wide on the left, launched what appeared to be an intended high cross into the vicinity of the six yard box, only to see it take a flatter trajectory than was intended and elude the Rocklea keeper at his near post.

A short time later, Rocklea almost equalised with one of only two real opportunities they created in the ninety minutes, but Anthony Hall in the Strikers goal got down well to save a well struck low volley.

The Brisbane Strikers' preparations are scheduled to continue next week with a match against Mt Gravatt. 

The Brisbane Strikers have secured the signatures of three of their former National Soccer League players as they gear up for what shapes as the most evenly contested and competitive Queensland Premier League competition in years.

Director of Senior Football, Tony Georkas, told the Brisbane Strikers Supporters’ Association today that Adam Webber and Daniel Dreger, who first broke into the Strikers’ NSL squad in 2000 and 2001 respectively, had been signed to two-year contracts this week while Damien Waugh, who also tasted NSL football for the Strikers in their title-winning 1996/97 season under Frank Farina, has also rejoined the Strikers from Brisbane City.

Georkas said that Webber and Dreger offered the squad versatility, as they can each play in defence or midfield while Waugh, now 30, was regarded as exactly the type of quality midfielder that the squad needed to compensate for the loss of Malaysia-bound Stuart McLaren, who Georkas nonetheless rated as "irreplaceable".

Georkas said that North Star, who have entered an alliance under which their senior, reserve and youth QPL teams will compete under the Brisbane Strikers’ banner this season, had last year taken a big punt on youth, largely out of financial necessity.

"Last season, we had the youngest team in the competition - about eight of our senior team could have played played Youth", Georkas said. "Stuart McLaren and Luke Morley, when they came to play for us, probably kept us in the (QPL) competition".

Georkas said that this season the club had begun its recruitment drive with a plan to attract "four or five quality older players" to provide experience and depth to the squad. Webber and Dreger, while still young players, fitted that bill because they had significant NSL playing experience while Waugh was one of the QPL’s best and most experienced midfielders.

According to Georkas, the linking of the North Star Soccer Club with the Brisbane Strikers has already produced a marked effect on his club’s efforts in the competitive QPL player market.

"We have had the biggest number of players at pre-season training in three or four years", he said. "The response has been astronomical".

Georkas said that, while it was ‘early days’ and too soon to be making predictions, he was optimistic about the season ahead.

"I don’t want to put the mockers on it", he said, "but if by the end of the season we are not in the top four I would be very disappointed".

But Georkas conceded that, while he felt optimistic, it was hard to be confident because the competitiveness of the QPL should increase this year due to the absence of the Queensland Lions. The Lions’ financial clout had enabled them to buy up a large proportion of the most talented local players and completely dominate the competition.

"The competition this year will be the best in years, because we are not all playing for second place", Georkas said. He also said that the Lions had decided to release ‘thirty or forty" players who were now on the transfer market, and it was hard to predict at this stage where they would end up.

The Brisbane Strikers’ squad preparations continue on Saturday at Perry Park with trial games against Rocklea at 2, 4 and 6 pm, while Mt Gravatt had been lined up for further trial games next weekend.

Former Brisbane Strikers Captain and Player/Coach Stuart McLaren is delighted to announce that his immediate footballing future has been confirmed with the acceptance of an offer to join Malaysian club Sarawak.

Whilst he is joining a host of other high profile Queensland products in plying his trade outside his home state McLaren said that he is excited by the prospect of playing league football in yet another country, having previously played in Scotland, Hong Kong, and the Australian N.S.L.

He also made a point of thanking his former club for the part they have played in his career. “The Chairman and the Board of Directors have given me a fantastic opportunity to play, captain, and coach the club which represented my home state in the N.S.L and for that I am extremely grateful. I would also like to acknowledge the massive impact the supporters and teammates have had on my memorable time with the Strikers”.

McLaren’s former boss, C.E.O. of the Strikers Steve Wilson, commented ‘that it was a shame to see yet another Queenslander with so much experience and talent leave our shores. It’s ironic that the A-League Clubs down south are paying big dollars to lure quality players back from the Malaysian/Singapore Leagues and Stuart is obviously considered highly enough by them to be offered a contract. The Strikers wish him every success and thank him for the professionalism and commitment he has shown during his time at the Club.’

Former Brisbane Strikers player-coach, Stuart McLaren, is to leave Brisbane to continue his playing career for Sarawak FC, in Malaysia's M-League.

McLaren confirmed to the Brisbane Strikers Supporters' Association on Thursday morning that he had signed a one-season contract for Sarawak, who are coached by former Sydney United gaffer David Mitchell, subject only to a two-week probationary period mainly to assess his fitness. McLaren leaves for Malaysia this weekend for a season which begins on 6 February and ends in October.

McLaren said he was going to Malaysia to pursue "the only option left available to me" to continue playing at a level higher than the Queensland Premier League. It seems his hopes of winning a contract to play in Australia's A-League had fallen on stony ground for a variety of reasons.

"My first preference was to remain in Brisbane and play in the A-League", McLaren said. "I'd had discussions with the Queensland Lions but there was never any offer of a contract. They told me I would have to play in the Silver Boot (a pre-season competition to the Queensland Premier League) for them to assess me, but in the meantime the offer from Sarawak had come in and I thought I had to take the guaranteed offer".

McLaren said he had let the Lions know that he had been made an offer by Sarawak, so there could have been no confusion at Richlands about his situation prior to their insistence that he display his wares in the Silver Boot competition. And while he did not couch his words in bitter tones, it is obvious that for McLaren, the request that he prove himself in the Silver Boot was a bridge too far for a player whose skills, competitive spirit and leadership have been on display at the highest levels in Brisbane for quite some time.

"I would have hoped that, having been prominent in Queensland football for six years, they would have known what I had to offer. I'd had contact with Miron Bleiberg and John Sime at Lions, on and off, since around the middle of last year and, (my abilities) being well known, would have thought that a decision could have been made about whether to include me in their plans. To be left hanging in limbo was less than ideal and in the circumstances I thought I had to accept the offer from Sarawak".

McLaren said he did not think his record of loyal service, or his coaching experience, at the Brisbane Strikers had counted against his chances of winning a contract with their rivals, the Lions, as a player. He said the Lions were not the only A-League team he had negotiated with, even though his preference had been to remain in Brisbane.

"I spoke with Lawrie McKinna at the Central Coast Mariners, but he pretty much had his squad assembled and had vacancies only for an Under-20 player or a wide player, neither of which, obviously, is me. It was actually Lawrie who put me in contact with David Mitchell.

"I also spoke with Kossie (John Kosmina) in Adelaide, but Adelaide United wanted to keep faith with their local players and they already had a good quality central defender, having brought back Angelo Costanzo. And I also had discussions with Jean-Paul de Marigny at Newcastle, but they had also already assembled most of their squad and he actually told me 'I never even thought of you, Stuey, because I thought you were guaranteed a spot in Brisbane'".

McLaren said the Brisbane Strikers had made it clear to him, immediately after Football Federation Australia's decision to exclude them from the A-League, that they had plans for the club's future and wanted him to be a part of them, either now or in the future. "That was very satisfying and pleasing", he said, "but it was not the way I wanted my career to pan out. When you look back at your career, you want to know that you've played at the highest possible level and that you've got the most out of it".

McLaren said he thought the Strikers understood his desire to leave to play at the best level he could during the next four or five years that he thinks he can compete at his best, and has not ruled out returning to play some part in the Strikers' future.

He admitted, though, that leaving a club in which he has invested so much of himself would be difficult.

"It's a wrench, to be honest", he said. "It was one of the saddest times I've had in football when I heard we were not going to be compete in the A-League. I was really proud to have represented the club, and they've given me some of the best memories that I will take away from my career".

Leaving will not only be difficult for McLaren from a football point of view, it will also involve considerable upheaval to his family life. His wife Lorna, who has a career in Brisbane, will not be going with him to Malaysia - at least not in the short term.

"It's a difficult one", he said. "My wife is very settled in her job and we are renovating our house. She also has a couple of Labradors that she would find it very difficult to leave behind - as will I".

McLaren said that because, at this stage, he is looking at only a one-season contract, it had not seemed worth uprooting his entire family and lifestyle to relocate the McLaren household to Sarawak. The money that is available from his new club, however, combined with bonuses and incentives such as a car and paid accommodation, mean that financially the move to Malaysia makes sense for him.

Meanwhile, he is looking forward with keen anticipation to what awaits him in Malaysia. He said he had had little opportunity to thoroughly sound out the strength of his new club and its credentials in the M-League, but with Mitchell in charge he has confidence it will mount a strong challenge for honours. This is a consideration that looms large in his thinking about what he wants from the next stage of his career.

"It has been a while since I've been able to get my hands on some silverware", he said. "I hope I can help Sarawak to win a couple of trophies".

When asked if he had any lasting memories about, or parting words for, the supporters of the Brisbane Strikers, McLaren had no hesitation.

"I would like to thank them for always having been there, and for their support of me personally as well as the team", he said. "As I always used to say in my match program column, 'thanks for your support'. I am also glad to see that they are sticking with the club even at a lower level of competition - I think they can be proud of that."

"I will also particularly remember the celebrations after any goal we scored, and the standing ovation they gave the team after the Adelaide United game. Those will always be among the best memories I have in the game".

Preparations to select the squad that will represent the Brisbane Strikers under the Brisbane Strikers/North Star alliance in the forthcoming Queensland Premier League season are in full swing, with around 50 players training for squad places under the watchful eye of coach Ken Swan.

Early indications are that it will be a strong squad, with former Brisbane Strikers and Queensland Lions sharpshooter Greg Di Losa having already signed, and a number of other former Brisbane Strikers NSL and youth players likely to sign for the club over the coming weeks.

Senior Soccer Co-Ordinator, Tony Georkas, said today that the club had agreed to terms with two former Strikers players who were expected to sign on the dotted line on Tuesday night. Georkas said that the full picture on who would be signed to the squad should become clearer later this week, following further training sessions and a meeting with all QPL coaches at which the Queensland Lions will outline which players will not be required for their A-League roster.

The Strikers’ squad is expected to be finalised by 31 January, in time for the Silver Boot pre-season competition in which the club’s first match is scheduled for 4 February, against Mitchelton. As well as most of the players from last season’s North Star squad, players who have been trialing with the club include Matthew Bell, Damien Waugh, Daniel Dreger, Adam Webber, Dean Peltohaka and Dimitri Theochari.

We hope to be able to bring you further details of squad developments by the end of this week. 

I have been involved with the BSSA since its commencement, and like everyone else who follows the Strikers, have been frustrated by the lack of information about the club. Consequently, imagination runs wild. Most often, this results in pessimistic forebodings of doom. Occasionally, however, you can pick up hints of potentially successful futures.  In this article I will stick my head out above the trench of secrecy and pessimism, and will share with you a quick glance at a possible future for the Strikers, based on nothing more than the information already shared on this website, and suppositions shared on the BSSA forums. There are plenty of disenfranchised, disillusioned football people around the country.  What could they do if a leader emerged?  

I do not doubt that the Strikers want to get into the A-League.  I think that this period of time (2005- 2010 perhaps) will appear, in retrospect, as a time of rebirth, rapid growth, and metamorphosis. In retrospect people will see a Phoenix rising from the destructive fire. Those involved will ride a roller coaster of excitement and hard work.

A few years in the cocoon of these forthcoming wilderness years could see the emergence of a club based upon a world class youth academy, with representative teams across the spectrum of football competition, social clubs in various areas of Brisbane, and a senior side which sits on the verge of international competition.  

The BSSA could find it hard to keep pace with the vertical growth and expansion of interests, of the Strikers. There are forms of franchise football other than the model currently being created by FFA.  One of the reasons I welcome the Strikers’ alliance with North Star is that it is a way to keep the Strikers ‘brand’ alive through the wilderness years.  Think of the BSSA as a consumers’ association.  Think of the possibility of a Melbourne Strikers, Townsville Strikers, Cairns Strikers.

Envisage Perry Park with some roads re-directed and a stadium surrounded by satellite pitches on which the Youth academy teams practice and play.  Maybe you can see demonstrations by the talented players, museums, laboratories, custom-built rooms serving students of coaching, goalkeeping, on-field tactics, strategic campaign management, sports entity management, sports career management, media relations, marketing, sports psychology, sports medicine, fitness: some through business relationships such as that the Strikers have enjoyed with YMCA (perhaps with a University, other sports academies, the QSF, other football federations or overseas clubs {possible student exchange programs with progressive clubs overseas}), some through the growth of the youth academy, maybe even some which are projects initiated, funded (through individual or corporate supporters perhaps), and run by the BSSA.  

Have a look at the people committed to the Strikers.  Imagine roles in this future for names that you associate now with the club, such as Stuart McLaren, Matt Mackay, Shane Stefanutto, Luciano Trani, Matt Bell, {such a shame that Andy harper has been snapped up) Steve Wilson, Rob Gibson, and supporters talented in various disciplines (some names spring readily to mind, but I won’t single any of them out).  If a way can be found to bring these talents together, if a leader can be found, one who can who can orchestrate the crescendo of football which can rise from this disappointment, then the potential is boundless.  Add to these the new faces who would be attracted, and some currently disenchanted names who might come back…

The current board is starting out in many directions to create something different.  I am not privy to their plans, but am aware that there is a vision for something unfamiliar in football.

There are many Strikers dates to look forward to in Jan and Feb next year.  One of the most exciting is 3 Feb, Perry Park, 6.30pm .  Dr Clem Jones has invited the BSSA to attend a meeting at which he will make announcements about the Football Academy and, I hope, other aspects of the Strikers rise from the ashes.  I suggest that all BSA members make an effort to get along to the meeting, and demonstrate their hunger for information about the Strikers as well as their support or disapproval of the new directions.

In a few years time the FFA will be looking for ways to admit the Brisbane Strikers to the A-League.  Maybe even looking for ways to entice us in.

Make sure you get to some games in 05, because you are going to want to tell people in the future that you were there when ‘all this was born’, and that it was very exciting. 

When you’re riding a Phoenix , you are on fire!

A new year is upon us. And while we all would have seen out the old year and ushered in the new one with our own thoughts and feelings, some of which will have been influenced in recent days by the awful calamities occurring around the Indian Ocean, that corner of our minds that has been reserved for the Brisbane Strikers might already have said of 2004: "Good riddance".

2004 was not, it must be said, a year which brought the Brisbane Strikers and their supporters much joy. It began promisingly enough, with the team heading for a top six finish and a place in the NSL finals (the ‘final finals’). The football for the year, however, ended in March with defeat in the NSL play-offs at the hands of Adelaide United. Strangely enough, that was confirmed on the night of one of the greatest Brisbane Strikers performances ever witnessed when Stuart McLaren’s team almost overturned a 0-3 first leg deficit with a rampaging 4-1 win in the second leg at Perry Park. The away goals rule saw the Strikers eliminated, but one only had to see the drained faces of the United supporters after the game to get a fair idea of what it must feel like to survive a terrible football mauling and live to tell the tale.

There then followed a seven-month phoney war as the Strikers battled it out off the field with their bitter rivals the Queensland Lions for Queensland’s only licence in the A-League, and supporters propped match-sticks between their eyelids to stay awake.

But when October rolled around, an unsatisfactory year for Strikers supporters got immeasurably worse when they discovered that their club had been given a one way ticket to someplace unknown. The then Australian Soccer Association had decided, for reasons known only to itself (and most certainly not to Strikers supporters), to give the Queensland Lions the responsibility of representing Brisbane in the A-League.

Things looked grim for the Brisbane Strikers and their supporters. The club had been created specifically to play in the national league some thirteen years prior, and its supporters had been drawn from across the full spectrum of the Brisbane football community to support the club as a national league entity. Suddenly, there was no more national league for the club for at least five years. It was as if a ship had dragged its anchor and was drifting in the open sea. Where would it stop? Would it hit the rocks somewhere, or would it come to rest in some safe harbour where it could take stock and re-provision itself?

Very late in the year some answers began to emerge. Having announced plans to build an international soccer academy in the Perry Park precinct, the Strikers struck (excuse the pun) a deal with the North Star Soccer Club to enter an alliance which would see the senior, reserve and youth teams of North Star play in the Queensland Premier League under the Brisbane Strikers’ name and colours, while its juniors would be called the North Star Strikers. Thanks to this arrangement, which benefits both clubs in different ways, the Brisbane Strikers will live on in the Queensland Premier League. They will re-provision their ship.

So now that the New Year is here and we, their supporters, take a moment to size up our situation, what are we to make of it?

Doubtless, there will be some in the football community and observers in the media who will conclude that the Brisbane Strikers are now are a largely spent force who will not rise again to play at a national level. These people will see 2004 as a disastrous and virtually terminal year for the club, and will be inclined to think that 2005 will not offer anything better while the Queensland Lions (or whatever else they will call themselves) monopolize what little attention, glitz and glamour is available to football in this corner of the world.

That would be a short-sighted view. There is no good reason why this kind of gloomy assessment should be true unless the club and its supporters accept that it must be so. Alright, so the Brisbane Strikers have not been chosen by the national ruling body to kick off in the A-League. But that is all. Far worse things have befallen individual football clubs at various stages in their history. Trifling matters such as World Wars, debt and the threat of bankruptcy, destruction of home grounds and almost entire football teams have been overcome and, in the longer term, been seen as little more than galvanizing chapters in the history of an ultimately successful club. And that’s just Manchester United! There would be scores, probably hundreds, more of similar examples for those who wish to go looking for them. What happened to the Brisbane Strikers in 2004 pales into insignificance in comparison.

If you are a Brisbane Strikers supporter, you have every reason to look at 2005 as a year of opportunity for the club and potential enjoyment for you. Almost a full season of football beckons even before the A-League kicks off. In that season, should you have a mind to, you can get to see every single game the team plays - be it at home or away. You can be part of a rebuilding process which could see the club consolidate its foundations and strengthen itself for a more powerful future. While it might seem strange to be saying so right now, it would not be entirely surprising if the Brisbane Strikers emerge in five years’ time as a stronger club than the Queensland Lions.

As we all know, life has its ups and downs. It is about lots of things, including hope, planning, dreams, effort, endeavour, struggle, disappointment, blood, sweat, tears, despair, joy, euphoria, laughter and all the rest. Life is also about having the ability to dig deep enough to eventually succeed in the face of adversity. And football echoes life in so may ways - that’s one of the reasons why so many people love it.

Life goes on in 2005 for the Brisbane Strikers Football Club. If you are a supporter, enjoy!

Last week’s announcement by the Brisbane Strikers and North Star football clubs that they have entered into an alliance that will result in North Star’s top teams playing under the Strikers’ name and colours in next year’s Queensland Premier League could have far-reaching consequences for the future of both clubs - and for the game as a whole in Brisbane.

A quick ‘whiteboarding’ exercise on the potential impacts of the arrangement is enough to suggest that the benefits to each club far outweigh any negatives - provided that it has longevity.

Brisbane Strikers CEO, Steve Wilson, certainly believes that it does.  “The initial agreement is for one year, and it would not be difficult for either party to discontinue thereafter”, he said this week.  “However, it is the expectation that this will become a long term alliance”.

But what exactly is meant by that word  “alliance”?  Some people in Brisbane’s football community have already expressed confusion about its meaning, and wondered whether it is really an old-fashioned merger under another name.  This would appear not to be the case.

“The two clubs will continue to have their own structures in place”, Wilson said.  “In addition to this there will be a separate committee to oversee the management of the senior football and look after budgeting, etcetera.  There will be three representatives from each club, the Strikers representatives being Rob Gibson, Ray Evans and myself, and North Star’s being Lindsay Stokes, Don Peele and Tony Georkas.

“It is important to note that the general football operations will continue to be managed by those North Star personnel who have been responsible for that area historically - for example, Ken Swan will be head coach”.

In attempting to assess why the alliance makes sense to the respective clubs, let’s firstly look at the benefits that might flow from the alliance to the Brisbane Strikers.  For that club, having a team playing under its name and colours in the QPL is nothing less than a lifeline.  Two months ago, when the news seeped out of the Australian Soccer Association that the ruling body had opted for the Queensland Lions to be Brisbane’s A-League representatives, the Strikers were more or less tossed overboard into a stormy sea.  Here was a club that had been formed specifically to take part in the national soccer league, which had never known life in any other football league, and which had most of its players coming off contract.  The Strikers were left with little but an identity, a Board, leases over Perry Park and Meakin Park and a whole lot of football-friendly money and frustrated ambitions.

Treading water in that stormy sea, they looked as if they ultimately had nowhere to go but the icy depths, and some ill-intentioned pundits in the football community were not slow to suggest they were already as good as drowned.  “Move on”, their supporters were told.

But maybe now there’s no need to.  Although the club is still actively pursuing all possible playing options, the partnership with North Star has given it a reason for existing that goes beyond the philanthropic cause celebre of Chairman Clem Jones to channel the energies and talents of Queensland’s junior footballers.  It has given the club a team for those youngsters to aspire to and an opportunity to keep its brand name alive at a senior level on the field of play.

It has also given the Strikers an already-established body of youngsters, through North Star’s admirable efforts at the grass roots, upon whom to bestow the youth development funding and programs they intend to implement. 

Through hosting regular fixtures at Perry Park, the Strikers have also been afforded the opportunity to resume an income stream through gate receipts (which will be shared 50/50 by both clubs) and a means of encouraging patrons to use their catering and social club facilities.  Considering that they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading those facilities over the previous year or so, it would have been a terrible shame to have them go unused.

The negatives for the Strikers?  Well, there are few obvious ones.  Perhaps there might be a perception among some people, particularly their detractors, that the club has settled for “second best” - a less than glamorous existence in an under-appreciated league - and that it has thereby found what the critics would call its rightful niche.  But those detractors tend to be the same ones who have criticised the Strikers over the years for not having acquired a “proper” football infrastructure, including a junior base.  They surely cannot now have it both ways.

A more valid concern would be the potential loss, through competing against other local clubs, of the Strikers’ cherished ‘non-aligned’ status that has always enabled them to appeal to the broader local football community for support.  It will be interesting to observe how a few years in the QPL might affect that.

The Strikers, however, are wide awake and sensitive to such concerns.  Wilson said the Strikers would like to have maintained their non-aligned status, but in the end they simply needed to play in whatever competition was available to them.

“The Strikers have previously stated that it was not our desire to enter the Premier League, on the basis that this would involve taking players from many clubs and upsetting a large part of our traditional supporter base”, he said.

“(But) the beauty of this alliance is that it does not influence any club other than North Star, and for them it offers many benefits.  Whilst we will now be a competitor to some of our previous supporters, I hope most of them will appreciate the reasons behind this alliance.  The only other options would involve either not playing, or taking players from all clubs, and I am sure our supporters will see this as a better alternative”.  

And what about the North Star club -  what is in it for them?  The answers, according to North Star’s Treasurer, Lindsay Stokes, lie primarily in the perceived ability of the Strikers to add value to North Star’s efforts to improve the quality of its football operations.

“The Brisbane Strikers are well known as a professional club with vast experience and resources”, he said this week.  “The opportunity to join an alliance with such a club is seen as an opportunity for all our players to be exposed to the best football skills and expertise available.  I think it has been said that the alliance will ‘raise the bar for Brisbane soccer’.  North Star is pleased to be a part of this process”.

But before anyone (particularly any aspiring QPL players) gets carried away with the idea that the alliance is about making pots of extra funding available to North Star to recruit its Premier League squad, they had best take note that both clubs deny this will be so.  The emphasis is more about stabilising the finances of the club as a whole.

“The philosophy of both clubs is one of ‘nurturing players rather than purchasing players’”, said Wilson, who was also inclined to make reference to that much-imagined ‘bar’.  “It is not the aim of the alliance to compete with other clubs by means of a cheque book.  We expect the majority of the squad will be the same as last year’s, allowing for the few usual changes.  The Strikers aim to raise the bar with regard to coaching and development and expect this should benefit the team”.

North Star were also very much attracted to the alliance by what they felt it could do for their junior players.

“The alliance confirms certain funding for the top three senior teams which allows North Star to devote more of its limited resources to promoting junior soccer”, Stokes said.  “North Star has won the ‘Junior Club of the Year’ award for the last two years and has over 270 junior players.  As with the Strikers, we at North Star have a policy of promoting and developing our own players and this alliance will enable both bodies to continue with this policy”. Furthermore, by associating themselves with the Strikers brand name and development programs (note that they intend to call their juniors the “North Star Strikers”), North Star will no doubt believe they can keep their junior base strong by having a better opportunity to “sell” the club to parents of prospective juniors in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

But while junior development issues are at the forefront of North Star’s longer-term thinking, there can be no doubt that in the shorter term the prospect of realising financial stability and improved playing facilities through involving themselves with the Strikers must have been enormously tempting.  This is because North Star have been to hell and back over the last few years, as their finances hit rock bottom and their home ground became unable to support Premier League soccer due to a bizarre combination of voracious parrots and ground redevelopment.

“Any history of North Star will reveal that the Sports Club was liquidated in 2002”, Stokes explained.  “So in the 2003 season a small band of dedicated volunteers had the vision to set up North Star Football Association Incorporated to continue soccer at O’Callaghan Park under the North Star banner.

“To say it has been hard would be an understatement.  Basically, all equipment was lost, access to bar facilities, etcetera was non-existent and the club still does not have a wall upon which to hang any trophies”.

Then, last season, the local parrot population discovered to its great delight that the top dressing that had been applied by the club to its O’Callaghan Park playing surface contained a highly prized seed.  The resulting airborne assault upon the pitch by the parrots, with their incisive beaks used in a zig-zag motion to dig underneath the turf, when added to the normal traffic of players training and playing on the ground, soon made it almost unusable.  It was then that the Brisbane Strikers first came to North Star’s assistance, with an offer to accommodate the club’s senior games at Perry Park.

“The opportunity to play senior games at Perry Park enabled us to partially rest our main field and thus nurse it through to the end of the 2004 season”, Stokes said.  “We had (Strikers’ player-coach) Stuart McLaren playing for us and the opportunity to play at Perry Park strengthened the relationship we were building with the Strikers”.

None of this, however, means that North Star will be cutting ties with their Zillmere base.

“O’Callaghan Park is currently being redeveloped and the facilities there will eventually be first-class”, Stokes said.  “We have not abandoned O’Callaghan Park and in 2005 will play all junior games there.  Senior training will happen there weekly and Metro Divisions and Women’s teams will also play out of O’Callaghan Park”.

Stokes said the redevelopment of O’Callaghan Park is being done in partnership with Zillmere Sports Community Club - an offshoot of the Kedron-Wavell RSL Club - which leases the ground from the Brisbane City Council.  The Zillmere Sports Community Club is redeveloping the precinct and North Star will eventually benefit by having access, at a price, to the facilities.  This process is expected to take several years.

So, if a measure of financial stability, access to better coaching and facilities, and the opportunity to build upon its already strong junior base were the benefits of getting involved with the Strikers, what are the potential negatives?

Again, it is hard to find any.  Some people might suggest that North Star, through having their senior teams play under the Brisbane Strikers’ name, risk losing their identity and that the people within the club who have been a part of its proud history might feel opposed to that.  Stokes, though, is having none of it.

“North Star will retain its separate identity”, he insists.  “The North Star club will continue to function and will control the overall direction of soccer at North Star.  Feedback from members to date has been positive”.

Now that we’ve covered the football and financial enticements that brought the clubs together, what about that final ingredient that, ultimately, is an essential accompaniment to the players and the football they produce - the supporters?  Where do they figure in the plans?

The answer is: quite prominently.  The management of the Brisbane Strikers has been made aware by their supporters (BSSA and others) that above all else they want to continue having a senior team to support.  No-one should underestimate the passion with which the Strikers were supported in the NSL, even if the size of the crowds doing so were not large enough to impress the new decision makers in the ASA.  And football loyalties, particularly intense ones, die extremely hard.  The Strikers management, to their credit, have been vigorously pursuing options to keep the aspirations of their supporters alive and those efforts appear to have borne fruit.  It is worth noting at this point that initial reaction to the announcement of the alliance among the members of the Brisbane Strikers Supporters’ Association has been positive.  If the BSSA is a window to the souls of Strikers supporters generally, then the Strikers can expect to draw healthy levels of support in the QPL.

But not all supporters have intense loyalties and some Strikers supporters will probably move across the Queensland Lions and the A-League or support both clubs.  Only fools would think that all of the Strikers’ supporters will follow them into the QPL and eschew the Lions.  However, the relationship with North Star now offers the hope for the Strikers that the loss of some of their supporters can be at least partially offset by acquiring new supporters from North Star.

The signs that this might indeed happen were written in the 2004 QPL season.  Stokes estimates North Star’s average crowd over the season to have been around 300-350.  “This was rising at the end of last season as more of our supporters came back to the club in view of the better facilities available at Perry Park”, he said.  “We expect this trend to continue and, as the style of football being played by North Star/Brisbane Strikers will be very attractive we expect crowds to grow.  It would be wonderful if the current Brisbane Strikers supporters came along and also supported the North Star/Strikers alliance in 2005”.

It is not just for the sake of the Brisbane Strikers and North Star that we should perhaps share Stokes’s hopes.  Why?  Because, if they come to fruition, the QPL as a whole will be the better for it.  There surely is no football club in the city that would not benefit from having another well-supported club around to liven up the atmosphere and the cash registers, and add just that little bit more spice to the competition. 

The Brisbane Strikers today announced an alliance with Premier League Soccer Club, North Star. This Alliance will see senior teams competing in the Premier League and Premier Youth competitions next year as the “Brisbane Strikers”, with the junior teams playing as “North Star Strikers”.

Strikers Director, Rob Gibson, said it was a natural progression to strengthen an alliance that existed between the Clubs for part of the 2004 season, when North Star used Perry Park as their home base.

He added “North Star is a club focused on player development, which compliments the philosophies of the Strikers. This alliance will provide the players an opportunity to benefit from the Strikers’ National League experience and facilities, we aim to provide the most modern technology and latest coaching practices available.”  

The President of the Strikers, Mrs Dell Townsend, said the Strikers Board was pleased to be participating in the local competition, and expect the new team will attract strong support from both Strikers and North Star supporters. The club has received numerous letters and calls from supporters who have expressed a strong interest in continuing to support a Strikers team.

For further information including please contact the Strikers Office on (07) 3356 3600, Fax (07) 3356 3477.

Email: [email protected]

Visit our web site: www.brisbanestrikers.com.au

In thirteen seasons of football the Brisbane Strikers have scored 506 goals. That’s 506 reasons to celebrate, and a lot of good memories!

Over the coming months, courtesy of that throbbing Rolls-Royce engine of Australian football statistics, Andrew Howe, we will be peeling back the layers (and the seasons) to reveal the kernels of all those memories - exactly who scored how many goals, against whom, and when.

Along this trip down memory lane we will discover the answers to such head-splitting questions as:

And we will also be asking you, the Strikers fans, to tell the stories behind some of those goals - to describe how they happened, something about the players who scored them, and the memories they bring back for you.

So get set for all of this and more, as we bring you "506....And Counting" - the story of the Brisbane Strikers written in goals.  Look out for it commencing on Monday

The Brisbane Strikers have entered into a partnership with the North Star Soccer Club that will see the Queensland Premier League club, based in Brisbane’s outer northern suburbs, play eleven home matches at Perry Park next year.

Brisbane Strikers CEO, Steve Wilson, confirmed the new arrangements today but said that the best way to describe the relationship between the two clubs is by calling it an "alliance". It is not, as suggested on some football websites over the weekend, a merger.

In essence, the alliance represents an extension and strengthening of the relationship established between the clubs during this year’s Premier League season, when North Star played seven games at Perry Park. There will be no merging of the management structures or identities of the clubs.

"They (North Star) will not be changing the club’s name" Wilson said, while adding that it was nonetheless possible that the North Star Board may elect to do so at some point in the future.

"The Brisbane Strikers will possibly help with sponsorship of the club, but if we were to financially support them there would be a committee below me as Strikers CEO to verify how the money is spent".

Wilson said that, since North Star traditionally play in blue and yellow, it was likely its Premier League teams - Firsts, Youth and Reserves (but not necessarily its juniors) would wear a strip similar to that of the Strikers in next year’s competition.

While there are plenty of avenues that can be explored to the mutual benefit of the clubs, Wilson said that the Strikers were not looking to be involved in the Premier League competition. But while he was reluctant to spell out the club’s future playing ambitions, he did not deny that the Strikers were looking to field a team at the highest possible level outside of the A-League.

Meanwhile, he said that the Strikers’ plans to establish an international youth development academy in Bowen Hills, by linking Perry Park with office space the club is acquiring in a nearby building currently leased to the Endeavour Foundation, were progressing well.

Wilson said that over the next twelve to fifteen months, while the building is leased back to the Foundation by the Strikers, the Strikers would employ surveyors to determine how the building could best be remodelled to suit the requirements of a recreational facility. They would also be looking for a high profile "technical person" (in a football development sense) to plan the academy.

"We are taking the time to make sure we get it right", Wilson said.

Wilson also said that, in their plans to develop the facility as an international academy, the Strikers were looking to attract a client base from Asia and the United States.

"That’s where the bulk of overseas interest will be, but we will balance that with locals and interstate people", he said. 

Our national league team might have been cast aside, the players we supported might be looking to play for other clubs, and the future direction of our football club remains uncertain, but the Brisbane Strikers Supporters’ Association is not going to go away.

That decision was one of the main outcomes of a meeting of the BSSA at Perry Park last Thursday night.

The meeting discussed two primary topics - the immediate future of the Association, and the attitude it should take to an A-League in which Brisbane will be represented by the Queensland Lions rather than the Strikers.

Several of the BSSA’s more active and prominent members, who have done much to set the tone and direction of the BSSA since it came into being, were unavailable to attend last Thursday. But on the other hand, the meeting benefited from the attendance of members who, while being less regular attendees, are exceptionally well placed to gauge the effect of the A-League announcement - not just on Strikers supporters, but also on the Brisbane football community in general.

The members present expressed genuine concern that the Queensland Lions will struggle to win the support of the majority of Brisbane’s football community, due mainly to the feelings of ill will towards the club from those involved in other local football clubs over many years. The meeting felt that there is every reason to be worried, therefore, for the future of Brisbane’s A-League representation. Opinions were expressed that if the A-League is seen to fail in Brisbane this will generate a significant amount of bad publicity for the game here. This in turn would negatively impact the Brisbane Mens Soccer competition and the ability of local clubs to attract and develop quality players, support and sponsors.

The meeting agreed that this leaves the BSSA in an invidious position. While we do not want the A-League to fail, least of all in Brisbane, it would appear most of us find the option of actively supporting the Queensland Lions as a stand-alone entity either difficult or unpalatable.

The meeting therefore decided that the BSSA should explore two courses of action.

Firstly, it was felt that the BSSA should actively encourage the Queensland Lions and the Brisbane Strikers to merge and enter a combined team in the A-League. Therefore, its top priority will be the exploration of ways to bring the management and supporters of the two clubs together.

This course of action was agreed because the meeting felt that a combined Lions/Strikers team would represent the best chance of unifying the Brisbane football community and guaranteeing Brisbane a solid and sustainable core of support for its A-League team. While not all BSSA members will agree with this course of action, the majority view of the meeting was that it is in the best interests of the game. Even the most vehemently anti-Lions members present at the meeting expressed a grudging willingness to support a merged A-League entity providing such an entity contained sufficient visible recognition of their club. This also seems to be the position of members not present at the meeting who have been prepared to debate the topic.

However, if the clubs fail to consider or agree to a merger, the meeting decided that the BSSA should continue to exist and form a visible presence - at A-League matches of the Queensland Lions if necessary. It was felt that football administrators must be reminded that the Brisbane Strikers continue to have support and are available to fill the gap in the event that the Lions falter.

Over the coming months, then, the BSSA will explore means whereby its members can support the A-League without having to feel that they are actively supporting the Queensland Lions.

Meanwhile, the BSSA intends to fill in the long months between now and the start of the A-League with a number of social gatherings, whilst keeping a keen eye on the plans of the Brisbane Strikers. We will continue to give our first loyalty to the club we have supported over most or all of the past twelve years. The Strikers can rest assured that, in the absence of an A-League team in Strikers (or merged) colours, if they field a senior men’s team in competition the supporters will stick with that team.

Lastly the meeting agreed that, in keeping with the agreed direction of keeping the BSSA "visible" and retaining the interest of supporters in the Brisbane Strikers, this website should continue to exist and be updated. We will therefore do our very best to keep you, the Brisbane Strikers supporters, informed of what his happening in the club and the BSSA and to provide you with reasons to keep visiting our website.

We sincerely hope that you will stick with us and keep supporting the Brisbane Strikers.