FFA Cup offers the Wolves a chance at redemption
The history of the South Coast Wolves is one of scintillating highs and despairing lows. It is a history filled with heroic moments and beating the odds, but in the same breath it is a history of unfulfilled potential.
The South Coast Wolves Football Club was established in 1980 as Wollongong City FC (later renamed the Wollongong Wolves), making their debut in the National Soccer League in the 1981 season. From the outset, the Wollongong Wolves played in red and white, the traditional colours of the Illawarra region, taken from the Illawarra Flametree which is used by a number of sporting teams representing the region.
The Wolves played at Wollongong Showground (now known as Win Stadium) in their early years, but it is Brandon Park that, for many, will always be their spiritual home after the team moved there before the start of the 1988 season. The move saw an instant turnaround in the club’s fortunes, as they finished the 1988 regular season as Premiers, before being knocked out in the game before the Grand Final.
It would be another 12 years before the team finally reached an end of season decider. In 2000, with the young Perth Glory franchise having dominated the regular season to finish as Premiers and warm favourites to clinch the season ending Championship, the Wollongong Wolves travelled to Subiaco Oval as underdogs with many experts not rating the red and white outfit’s chances. What transpired will go down in Wollongong Wolves folklore. In what many consider as the greatest Grand Final in Australian football history, the Wolves were down 3-0 at the end of the first half. Seemingly down and out, the Wolves, led by club legends such as Matt Horsley and Scott Chipperfield, clawed themselves back into the contest to bring it back to 3-3 at full time. With extra time unable to separate the two teams, Les Pogliacomi stepped up in the penalty shootout making a number of vital saves and delivering the Wollongong Wolves their first ever national title.
The next year saw the Wollongong Wolves go back-to-back after a 2-1 win over South Melbourne in the 2001 Grand Final, as well as their first international silverware, the Oceania Club Championship, marking a high point in the club’s history. The Wolves would finish the next four seasons in poor ladder positions before ultimately missing the chance to become one of the foundation A-League clubs.
Poor form was compounded by the demolition of Brandon Park in 2003 in order for the University of Wollongong to build their new Wollongong Innovation Campus. At the time, the Wolves had six years left on their lease to the ground, but had an agreement to play out of Win Stadium as co-tenants with the St. George-Illawarra Dragons. This never eventuated and they found themselves living a nomadic existence for the best part of a decade.
Failure to get into the A-League meant the Wolves played in the NSW Premier League from the beginning of the 2004–05 season. In 2008 they had a mixed year, winning the Grand Final with a 4-2 win over the Sutherland Sharks. However, by the end of the year they found themselves in financial trouble and still without a permanent home. At times it looked as though the club would fold, but used to the underdog status, they clung on for dear life. Only this season, have the Wolves finally secured a deal which sees them playing out of Win Stadium on a part time basis. As a result they now draw the highest home crowd average in the New South Wales division of the National Premier League.
Now here we are on the doorstep of, potentially, another great chapter of the South Coast Wolves history. With all respect to the Central Coast Mariners, this is just another game for them. For the Wolves, a club who have developed the likes of Scott Chipperfield, Mile Sterjovski, Sasho Petrovski and Luke Wilkshire, a club born out of a rich history of football in the Illawarra and have suffered so many setbacks on the road back to the top of Australian club football, this is a chance to establish themselves on the national stage once again. A good performance from the boys from the Gong, together with a strong showing of support from the people of the Illawarra on Wednesday night, could see Wollongong established as firm favourites to become the 11th A-League team, and perhaps, just maybe, begin to realise that unfulfilled potential.
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