Bulls FC Academy is an semi-professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

suburb of

Northbridge, New South Wales Northbridge is a suburb on the North Shore (Sydney), Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located 6 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, Sydney Central Business District, and 3 kilometres north of t ...

, Australia. Founded in 1952 as Northbridge Football Club, Bulls FC Academy was formed in 2023 following a merger between Northbridge FC and

Macarthur FC Macarthur Football Club is an Australian professional association football, soccer club based in South Western Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in Australia's premier soccer competition, the A-League, under Professional sports league organi ...

. The men's team plays in the

NSW League One The Football NSW League is an Australian association football, soccer league based in New South Wales that was founded in 2022 and administered by Football NSW. It consists of two divisions that were named after the Football NSW League's breakawa ...

, while the women's team plays in the NPL NSW Women's. They play matches at Northbridge Oval.

History

Northbridge FC was established in 1952 by local postman Ron Hall who had previously relocated from his work in the coalfields in the Cessnock area of the

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its ...

. The club originally competed in the Northern Suburbs Soccer Association (NSSA). The original playing strip was a red and white shirt, white shorts and red and white hooped socks. In 1973, Northbridge joined the Ku-Ring-Gai and District Soccer Association (now the Northern Suburbs Football Association).

Association with Central Coast Mariners

In 2014, Northbridge established an agreement with

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

to form a youth development academy in Sydney's North Shore. As part of the partnership the North Shore Mariners Academy was based at Northbridge FC. The move led to accusations from

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

that the Mariners were encroaching on their territory. On forming the partnership the Mariners stated that they believe Northbridge to be the biggest club (in terms of player numbers) in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2015, as a result of the Central Coast Mariners affiliation, the club's senior teams changed their name and colours to reflect the Mariners and in doing so, became the North Shore Mariners.

Return to Northbridge name

On 27 October 2020 the club announced it was returning to the Northbridge FC name, as the partnership with Central Coast Mariners was being discontinued. On 21 December 2020 the announced to form a partnership agreement with

club

. The agreement will see all teams play as Northbridge FC Bulls with playing kits incorporating both the Northbridge and Macarthur FC logos respectively.

Bulls FC Academy

In 2023, Having operated as a joint venture for the past two National Premier League seasons, Bulls FC Academy will become a single entity from the start of the 2023 season. The Bulls FC Academy will compete in the National Premier Leagues NSW next season following a merger between Northbridge Football Club and

Home ground

The club its home ground at Northbridge Oval. The Oval had a million-dollar upgrade, including resurfacing with synthetic turf and new floodlights in early 2011. However, as the ground did not meet the NPL NSW 1 criteria, the men's team had to move to play their home games at the

Sydney United Sports Centre Sydney United Sports Centre, formerly known as Sydney Croatia Sports Centre and King Tomislav Park is a multi-use stadium in Edensor Park, New South Wales, Edensor Park, Sydney, Australia. It is mainly used for Association football, football a ...

for the 2021 season. and for the 2023 season. Previous play out in

Lambert Park Alpine is a city on the northeastern edge of Utah County, Utah, United States. The population was 10,251 at the time of the 2020 census. Alpine has been one of the many quickly-growing cities of Utah since the 1970s, especially in the 1990s. Thi ...

in 2020 season.

Men's team

History

NSW State League 1 / NSW NPL 3

In 2011, after spending their entire existence in the local league, Northbridge FC successfully entered

Football NSW Football NSW is the governing body for soccer in the Australian state of New South Wales, with the exception of the northern regions of NSW (the governing body for which is Northern New South Wales Football). Football NSW is a member of the nat ...

's state league competition, the 3rd tier of NSW football and fourth tier overall. They won the NSW State League Division One Premiership in 2013, but went on to lose the Grand Final to Balmain in

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

. The 2014 season once again saw Northbridge fall short of the title – losing to

Hakoah Sydney City East FC Maccabi Hakoah Sydney City East FC, commonly known as Maccabi Hakoah, is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club was formed in 1939 as Sydney Hakoah by members of Sydney's Jewish community. They pla ...

3–2, with Hakoah going on to get promoted to the NSW NPL2. Throughout 2014 and the years leading up, Northbridge, experienced significant growth, with over 2,300 registered players in early 2014. This made Northbridge the largest club in Australia by participation numbers. In 2015 Northbridge had a successful season losing only one game late in the season (won 18, drew 3, lost 1) to take out the State League 1 premiership. Northbridge went on to win their first State League 1 grand final in 3 attempts beating

Hills Brumbies Hills United Football Club, also known as the Hills Brumbies, is a soccer club based in the Hills District, New South Wales, Australia. They currently play in the National Premier Leagues NSW competition, the top flight of New South Wales footb ...

in a 3–2 win, despite playing the last 15 minutes with 10 men.

NSW NPL 2

The successful 2015 season saw Northbridge promoted to the

National Premier Leagues NSW 2 The Football NSW League is an Australian soccer league based in New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It b ...

competition for the first time in their history where they started the 2016 season alongside National Premier League debutants

Sydney FC Youth Sydney Football Club Youth is the youth system of Sydney Football Club based in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. The team referred to as Sydney Youth play in the Y-League (November to February) and consists of u23 players, the highest level of yo ...

Western Sydney Wanderers FC Youth Western Sydney Wanderers Youth is the youth system, academy system of Western Sydney Wanderers FC, Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The team competes in the National Youth League competition know ...

& Central Coast Mariners FC NPL. Despite being competitive for the majority of games, the seniors only managed to win 3 matches. In the last round of the season, North Shore needed all three senior divisions (U18's, U20's and 1st's) to win and had to rely on other results to avoid relegation. All three divisions won and at the end of 2016 had finished 13th out of 14 on the Club Championship, thus avoiding relegation with

Fraser Park FC Fraser Park FC, is an Australian soccer club with senior teams competing in the Football NSW League Two, Youth competing in the Football NSW Boys League Two and the club also has teams participating in the Football NSW Skills Acquisition Progra ...

dropping to the 3rd tier of NSW football instead. 2017 was a much more successful year for the North Shore outfit, with the Mariners finishing the year in 5th position. Another year of improvement in the NPL NSW 2 saw the senior team finish 3rd in the 2018 season. Though North Shore were eliminated in the first round of the finals, season 2018 was the highest league position finish for the club to date. In 2019, North Shore experienced their most successful season in history, finishing first in both the NPL NSW 2 and the club championship, which resulted in promotion to NPL NSW 1. The club sealed promotion on the final round of the season.

NSW NPL 1

As a result of winning the 2019 NPL2 Club Championship North Shore have been promoted to NPL1 for the first time in their history and will play their games out of Lambert Park, Leichhardt. In 2021 season North Shore become Northbridge FC Bulls will play their games in multiple locations. Their head coach is Mile Sterjovski.

Current squad

Club officials

* President: Sam Krslovic * Head Of Recruitment: Shaf Sagol * First Grade Head Coach: Nicolai Muller * U20 Head Coach: Shaf Sagol * U20 Assistant Coach: Lewis Thompson * Goalkeeping Coach: Charles Shamusonga

Honours

*; NPL NSW 2/

Club Championship **Winners:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

*; NPL NSW 2/

Premiership **Winners:

*; NSW State League Division One/

NSW League Two The Football NSW League is an Australian soccer league based in New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It b ...

Club Championship **Winners:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

*; NSW State League Division One/

Premiership **Winners:

**Runners-up:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

*; NSW State League Division One/

Championship **Winners:

**Runners-up:

Women's team

The women's team competes in the

National Premier Leagues NSW Women's The National Premier Leagues NSW Women's, also known as the NPL NSW Women's, is a Association football, soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales. The l ...

Current squad

References

External links

* {{Association football in New South Wales National Premier Leagues NSW Football NSW League Soccer clubs in Sydney Women's soccer clubs in Australia National Premier Leagues clubs Association football clubs established in 1952 1952 establishments in Australia