Full name | Balmain Tigers Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Tigers |
Founded | 1986 |
Ground | Wentworth Park |
Capacity | 10,000 |
Chairman | Terry Wilkinson |
Coach | Stelianos Georgiou |
League | NSW PL3 |
2014 | 5th |
Website | Club home page |
Balmain Tigers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in the Inner West suburb of Balmain in Sydney, New South Wales. The club played at the historic Birchgrove Oval, just west of Balmain. They now play their home games at Wentworth Park, having recently moved from Lambert Park, but continue to train at Birchgrove Oval. After several years of playing in the NSW State League Division 2, they gained promotion at the end of the 2008 season to Division 1 after a hard fought match against Camden, winning on penalties. In 2012 they made the finals series in Division 1 for the first time in the club's history and followed this up by winning the 2013 grand final and securing the State League 1 title. Balmain were the first club to qualify for the Round of 32 of the 2015 FFA Cup.
In 1986 Roy Lawrence, an English migrant living in Sydney, and Steve Hendrick formed a six-a-side football competition, inviting all Brits living in Australia to play in the competition. After there was lots of interest, and dozens of players, they formed the Balmain Tigers Soccer Club, and entered it into the Canterbury District Premier League. The first season in the CDSFA was a huge success, finishing runners up and reaching the grand final. This early success led them to being promoted into the NSW Soccer Federation Division Seven in 1989. The next season, their winnings continued and they finished Runners up and grand finalists again in their first season in Division Seven. Ultimately they were promoted, and continued to be promoted yearly all the way up into Division Five. In 1991 was the season where they won Division Four, winning all but two games.
1992 saw the club move from Easton Park to Lambert Park where it remained for a couple of years with varying results that saw the club remain in Division Four.
Soon after in 1995 Roy Lawrence retired as coach, manager, secretary, and as a result in 1996 they moved to Birchgrove Oval, and reformed under new coach Bruce Allen.