North Geelong Warriors Football Club, formerly known as North Geelong Croatia, is an Australian semi-professional soccer club from the regional Victorian city of Geelong. The club currtly competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, Australia's second division in the country's league system and top division in Victoria. The club was founded in 1967 by a large contingt of ethnic Croatians in the city of Geelong.
North Geelong is a regular participant in the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournamt, which it has hosted four times and won for the first time in 2014, in Wollongong, New South Wales. The club's greatest achievemt is winning the 1992 Victorian Premier League title, becoming the first promoted side to achieve the feat.
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North Geelong Croatia Soccer Club was formed in December 1967 by newly arrived Croatian migrants Mirko Hrkač, Ivan Sesar, Vinko Radojević and Aldo Siketa.
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North Geelong's first season saw it compete in Division 2 of the Ballarat, Geelong and Districts Soccer Association (BGDSA) in 1968, finishing in fourth place of the t team division.
The following year, North competed in Division 1 and a reserve side was formed. In 1970, the club fielded its first junior side, which competed under the name North United.
In 1972, the Club competed in the Victorian Provisional League for the first time in its history. The season was marred by an incidt involving an altercation with a referee in North Geelong's Round 6 match against Werribee which saw the club immediately expelled from the Victorian Provisional League. The VSF disallowed the club from competing in any further matches that year.
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North Geelong was accepted back into the BGDSA competition in 1973, where it was, for the majority of seasons, the dominant force in the league. Croatia won the BDGSA league five times in six years betwe 1973 and 1978.
In 1979, North Geelong re-joined the Victorian Provisional League, run by the VSF, and was placed into Division Three. North finished in a very respectable third place.
Also in 1979, North Geelong Croatia bought a block of land in Lara where its currt Elcho park home base on Gibbons Road now stands. The land cost a sum of $12, 000.
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In 1982, following its Provisional League Division Two title, North Geelong skipped promotion to Provisional League Division One, thanks to a league restructure, and tered the Victorian Metropolitan League Division Four, at the time the fifth tier of Victorian soccer, the highest rung the club had reached in its short history.
The first competitive league game at the vue was a 3–3 draw betwe North Geelong and Essdon City on 29 March 1986.
After four consecutive top four finishes in Division Two, North Geelong finally achieved promotion wh it took out the league championship in 1989.
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North Geelong Croatia dured a difficult start to life in Division One in 1990. After a shaky start, Branko Culina was able to lead the club to a respectable sevth-place finish.
In 1991, with the club run by a new committee headed by Steve Horvat Sior and the first team managed by Čulina, North Geelong Croatia won the Division 1 title, finishing a point ahead of Knox City. and hce promotion to the Victorian Premier League (VPL), reaching the pinnacle of Victorian soccer for the first time in the club's history.
In its inaugural season in the VPL, the club surprised everyone finishing first and collecting the Minor Premiership. The club wt on to make the Grand Final. They faced former National Soccer League champions Brunswick Juvtus at Middle Park. North Geelong's George Karkaletsis oped the scoring on the 22nd minute. Brunswick equalized 4 minutes later. The match remained 1–1 at full-time, taking it into extra time. North Geelong ripped Brunswick apart scoring three unanswered goals from Adrian Cervinski, Robert Markovac and Robert Cosic. It was an unprecedted evt, the only time a newly promoted side had won the title in their first season, a record that still stands to this day. Players in this championship side included Steve Horvat, Adrian Cervinski and David Cervinski. All three players would become successful players in the National Soccer League. All three were a part of the Melbourne Croatia NSL championship side of the mid 90s.
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1993 was another successful season. The club finished third in the regular season, making the finals for a second year in a row. But this time their finals campaign did not prove to rewarding as in the previous season. The club lost both its finals matches, including a heartbreaking loss in extra time to Sunshine George Cross. The next three seasons saw the club miss out on finals action, finishing mid table. But some joy came with the club producing club legd Richard O'Sullivian and future star player and future socceroo in Josip Skoko.
In 1999, the club was relegated once more, to the Victorian State League Two North-West. The Club remained in Division 2 for the next six season, with mixed results.
Throughout the early 2000s, North Geelong battled away in the Victorian State League Division 2 North-West, finishing in mid-table each year for the period.
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2004 marked the beginning of players returning home to North Geelong having left the club in the 90s for NSL and VPL opportunities. The Cervinski brothers, Mijo Trupković, Ante Deak and Greg Šarić were all players that returned to the club from 2004 onwards.
In 2005, with the introduction of new coach Robert Krajačić, North Geelong blazed its way to the State League Division Two North-West title, losing only 4 matches. North Geelong were subject to relegation in 2007, returning to State League 2 N/W.
After an inconsistt 2010 season, the club finished in 8th spot in the Victorian State League Division One, well clear of relegation, but also lower than expectations. In the summer of 2011, Vinko Buljubasic was relieved of his duties as manager
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At the d of the 2012 season, with the club just missing out on promotion, the Skoko brothers stepped down from their joint post as managers of the club.
In 2013, Mario Jurjevic replaced Ante Skoko with disastrous results, having just three points from 12 games and Skoko was brought back. Despite a late revival, North Geelong were relegated from State 1.
After a restructuring of soccer in Victoria in 2014, North Geelong found their bid for a place in the National Premier Leagues accepted, therefore avoiding relegation and remaining in the second tier of soccer in Victoria, now known as the National Premier Leagues Victoria 1.
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Ante Skoko resigned from his post three months into the new season, with the club in 11th place in the new 14 team league. Former St Albans Saints manager Micky Čolina took over.
Ding the season in second place, three points adrift of league champions Avondale Heights. The club also won the Geelong Pre-Season Cup, Victorian Croatian Cup and won the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournamt for the first time in early October.
Ahead of the 2015 season, the club re-signed Čolina to a two-year deal and retained the core of the promoted squad. The season started with a 0–2 loss to evtual champions Btleigh Gres at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex, followed up by a 0–3 loss to evtual premiers South Melbourne at Elcho Park, but Round 3 saw the Warriors record their first points of the season with a 6–1 victory over Gre Gully, with winger Robbie Zadworny scoring a hattrick.
North Geelong Warriors
However, after 14 rounds of the 2015 NPL Victoria season, the club were in bottom place with just five points earned. The Reds managed to turn it around, though, securing 16 points in the last 11 rounds of the season, including two wins in the last two games of the season against Dandong Thunder and Werribee City, with both of the wins confirming relegation for its opponts. The club finished in 12th place and qualified for the promotion / relegation playoff against Melbourne Victory Youth. North Geelong lost 2–0 in front of over 1, 000 at J L Murphy Reserve in Port Melbourne, confirming relegation to NPL2 for the 2016 season.
North Geelong announced that a partnership had be formed with NPL South Australia side Adelaide Raiders, a fellow Croatian-Australian founded soccer side.
North Geelong travelled to Gepps Cross and, on 6 February, won the first ever Fridship Cup against Adelaide Raiders by a score of 2–1. The league competition started with a trip to sister-club St Albans which finished in a 1–1 draw.
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North Geelong moved into outright top spot of the NPL2 West ladder after a 1–0 win over Brunswick City, a match in which Nicholas Jurčić tapped in a 93rd-minute winner.
A tough run of results followed, with the Warriors winning just one of the next sev games in the league, slipping to fourth position on the ladder. North exited the 2016 FFA Cup at the hands of South Melbourne in Round 6 with a 0–2 loss at bogey ground JL Murphy Reserve. The Warriors wt undefeated in the last t games of the season, pushing the title race to the last day. St Albans took out the NPL2 West title and automatic promotion on the final match-day with a 1–0 win over Whittlesea Ranges while North Geelong
