Club History

In the Beginning.....

Central Coast Football as we know it today was established in 1963 and has steadily grown from 19 registered teams from 5 clubs to over 600 registered teams from 23 clubs in 2010. Wyong Soccer Club was formed the following year in 1964, registering just two junior teams but has now grown to include Junior and Girls Junior teams as well as Senior Men's and Ladies sides.

In the early years, only junior football was played on the coast with any senior sides having to compete in Newcastle or Sydney competitions. The year 1972 saw the commencement of a Central Coast competition and Wyong Soccer Club has been arguably one of the most successful clubs on the Central Coast in Senior Mens 1st Grade having been crowned Premier League Champions 8 times and Grand Final Winners on 7 occasions. The Central Coast Cup (formerly the Association Cup) is also something Wyong has been successful in having won the trophy 5 times and been runners up on another 5 occasions.

Achievements.....

The clubs first major success came when Wyong won the 1977 Grand Final. It was followed in 1979 with the first League Championship and this was repeated the following year. 1980 also saw the Emu's lift the Association Cup for the first time. In fact Wyong made the cup their own in the early 80's as they retained it in 1981 and won it again in '83 and '85. But 1983 was arguably Wyong Soccer Clubs best ever season as they created history by winning three Senior Grand Finals in one day ! First Grade, Reserves and Under 19's. With First Grade also going on to win the Association Cup that year as mentioned before, this side was one to be admired!! (see photo below)

1983 might have been a great year for the Emu's but the 1990's were without doubt the best era so far with 4 League Championships and 4 Grand Final wins, three of those being the 'Minor and Major' double in '93, '94 and '99. Add to that two Grand Final runners up finishes in '95 and '97 along with four Association Cup Runners Up (all in a row '96, '97, '98 and '99 !!) and you can see why Wyong were a well respected club during that decade. 

1993 Clean Sweep

In 1993, our 1st Grade side became the first team in Central Coast history to win a clean sweep of the big four trophies...

ie League Champions, Grand Final Winners, Association Cup Winners and Margins Cup Winners!

The Margins Cup was an end of season competition open to all amateur clubs in NSW and was usually held on the October long weekend at Pluim Park. It was attended by many clubs on a regular basis and whilst some used it as more of an end of season celebration, others took it more seriously and the competition showcased some very entertaining football over the long weekend.

Players and Awards.....

Many players from Wyong were nominated for Central Coast Association awards throughout that time with some winning their nominated position. In the Best Defender category, Wyong had a winner 5 out of 7 years with Graham Boulter picking up the prize in '91 and '92 and Mick Carroll in '94 and '95. Carroll was also nominated in 1993 and 1996 for the same award but unfortunately missed out on what would have been the start or end of a hat trick of wins for him. As for Graham Boulter, he was nominated in the Best Midfielder category for the two years following his Best Defender wins but was unlucky to miss out both times. Mark Callaghan picked up the Best Defender prize in 1997.

Other notable awards came for Norm Jackson in 1990 and Matty Garland in '93 and '94 for Coach of the Year, the Emu's having won the Premiership on those three occasions and Steve Powis for Midfielder of the Year in '95 and '97.

A number of Wyong players have also received the ultimate accolade of being the Central Coast's Player of the Year. They are Ian Memhet (shared) in 1977, Ross Sanders in 1978, Stuart Town in 1985 and 1990 and Derek Caisley. "Dekka" Caisley was in fact the first player to win the award three times, the first two in 1995 and 1996 when playing with Gosford City and his hat trick came in 1999 after his first season in Wyong colours when he shared the prize with Umina's Andrew French.

Outstanding Junior Achievement

In the Juniors there is a great story that goes with the 14B team of 2006. As a coach with Wyong for many years, Henk Maarschalk had taken various teams from Seniors to Non-comp. In 2001 and as President at the time, Henk decided to throw caution to the wind and take on the U10E team as his grandson was in it and he thought it would be a great challenge. The results were outstanding and they took out the Grand Final moving up to the 11D's in 2002. At this point he told the boys I will take you through to the A's! It was his dream and it became that of the boys who wouldn't let him down.

Moving up a grade didn't intimidate the team who once again won the Grand Final and moved up to the 12C's the following year. This was a hard fought year but with the same core of players and a few new faces the team came in 4th and low and behold once again faced a penalty shoot out in the Grand Final which was won after 11 players had to shoot! It was a tough game for parents and players, not to mention the coach!!

The team were promoted again in 2005 to the 13B's by CCF even though they did not automatically qualify in a promotion spot. The challenge was accepted but hormones, a few new faces and having won three Grand Finals in a row made it a much more laid back year on the field . In Henk's own words "He wasn't ready for the B's and neither were the boys".

Along came 2006, 12 players registered. Henk recruited Luke Shannon as trainer and Andrew Maarschalk as tactical advisor for some of our matches and as a support base and a new training regime. The team finished in 2nd spot, made another Grand Final but unfortunately lost that one but the 2nd spot finish took them to the 15A's in 2007. The dream had been achieved!

This has never been done in the history of the Wyong Soccer Club and we would be interested to find out if it had been done on the coast? It is an amazing achievement as a coach and also for the three original under 10 players Tim Jarvis, Nathan Salvador and Jake Lemmon. What a coach! What a team!

The Lows and The Highs....

Wyong Soccer Club was an ever present member in the Men's top flight Premier League until the 2002 season when just three years after winning the Championship and Grand Final double, the club was relegated to Division 1 for the first time in its history. Unfortunately, in 2005 Wyong was unable to field a 1st and Reserve Grade squad at all and so the top Men's team was in the All Age 1 competition.  However, after a lot of hard work the Emu's re-entered a 1st and Reserve Grade team into Men's Senior competition in 2007 after a 2 year absence with the appointment of Mal Lockley as squad coach. There was tremendous interest from from a variety of sources and the team were very competitive, finishing 5th in the League. 2008 saw the Emu's strengthen again and an improved 4th place League finish for 1st Grade saw the team make the Finals series for the first time in a number of seasons while Reserves just missed out on making the Finals. In 2009, 1st Grade again qualified for Finals while Reserves just missed out again, this time on goal difference!

After 3 years at the helm, where he had taken the club from having nothing to being regular Finals contenders, "Locko" decided to step down as 1st Grade coach. Steve Clark took over the reins with Andrew Maarschalk in charge of Reserves and after much preparation and hard work, and a couple of very handy pickups in the off season, the Emu's 1st Grade built on the solid foundation of Mal's good work by going on to win the Division 1 League Championship. In the process, this has qualified the club to be promoted back to Central Coast Premier League where the 1st and Reserve teams will play in 2011.

The Future.....?

Promotion to Premier League is one thing.... to stay there is another. The latest trend for promoted clubs is that they end up going straight back down again after only one season. At Wyong, we hope to buck this trend and planning is already underway for next year as we work towards gathering a competitive squad that can  hold its own among the Coast's best. With a great crop of young players coming through in the U18 age group and some talented players in the even younger ages as well, the club is fairly optimistic about our future.