North Geelong Warriors
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| Full name | North Geelong Warriors Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | North, Warriors, Croatia |
| Founded | November 1967 |
| Ground | Australian–Croatian Sporting Centre, Elcho Park, Lara |
| Capacity | 5,000 (200 Seating Capacity) |
| Captain | Matthew Townley |
| Chairman | Vlado Džajkić |
| Coach | Micky Čolina |
| League | NPL Victoria |
| 2016 | 2nd in NPL 2 (promoted) |
| Website | Club home page |
North Geelong Warriors Football Club, previously known as North Geelong Croatia, is an Australian semi-professional football club from the regional Victorian city of Geelong. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, Australia's joint second division in the country's league system. The club was founded in 1967 by a large contingent of ethnic Croatians in the city of Geelong and is a regular participant in the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament, which it has hosted four times and won for the first time in 2014. North Geelong's home base is Elcho Park in the northern Geelong suburb of Lara, Victoria. The club's biggest achievement is winning the 1992 Victorian Premier League title – becoming the first promoted side to ever achieve such a feat.
North Geelong Warriors FC was formed in 1967 as North Geelong Croatia by newly arrived Croatian migrants; namely Joe Radojevic, Vinko Radojevic, Aldo Siketa, Ivan Sesar and Mirko Hrkac.
North Geelong’s first season saw it compete in Division 2 of the Ballarat and Geelong Districts Soccer Association (BGDSA) in 1968, finishing in fourth place of the ten team division. The club was promoted to BGDSA Division 1 for the following season.
In 1972, the Club competed in the Victorian Provisional League for the first time in its history. The season was marred by an incident 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.
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 in ’73, ’74, ’76, ’77 and '78
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 current home base on Gibbons Road now stands. The land cost a sum of $12,000.
Croatia then won back-to-back premierships in 1980, and 1981.
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