Darwin Cubs was a former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( Larrakia: ') is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The club took part in the

FAS Premier League The Football Association of Singapore Premier League was a semi-professional football league competition held in Singapore between 1988 and 1995. The Premier League succeeded the National Football League Division One as the top tier of the Singapo ...

from 1994 to 1995. It left the league in the second half of the 1995 season due to disagreements with

Football Association of Singapore The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is the governing body responsible for the administration of football in Singapore. Established in 1892 as the Singapore Football Association (SFA), it is the oldest football association in all of ...

(FAS).

History

The Cubs played as a foreign team in the FAS Premier League in 1994. The club had to pay for all expenses for Singaporean teams who travelled to Darwin for matches and also pay their own expenses for the club to travel to Singapore. The Cubs' nickname was derived from the club's sponsorship with

Carlton & United Breweries Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in Melbourne and owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi Breweries. Its notable brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Foster's Lager, Great Northern, Resch's, ...

, whose mascot at the time was a cub (due to the initials of the brand). When the Darwin side was provided with a number of shirts featuring a cub mascot, the nickname was born and the team decided to keep it. The Cubs played their first match in the Premier League against Jurong Town Football Club which they won 4–0. They ended the 1994 season as runners-up to another Australian team,

Perth Kangaroos IFC Perth Kangaroos International Football Club was a soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. Perth Kangaroos played as an overseas team in the 1994 season of the FAS Premier League in Singapore and won the league title. The team was a forer ...

. The Cubs lost just three games for the season, two of those to the Kangaroos. In 1995, the club failed to secure air tickets for

Geylang International FC Geylang International Football Club is a professional football club based in Bedok, Singapore, that competes in Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club was founded in 1973 and played their first season i ...

Tampines Rovers FC Tampines Rovers Football Club (currently known as BG Tampines Rovers due to sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football, football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of t ...

and Balestier United. After the third incident, the club was warned by FAS that further incidents would lead to postponed matches to be forfeited to the opponent teams. The Cubs subsequently withdrew from the league due to concerns over further investments for the club, eligibility of a Cubs player, refusal of FAS to let Cubs' referees to officiate Cubs' matches and excluding the club from discussion over the formation of S.League. Some of the team's higher-profile players included Luis Rodriguez, Peter Politis, Manuel Lolias, Barbero, Hamilton Thorpe,

Jason Petkovic Jason Petkovic (born 7 December 1972 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player who plays as a goalkeeper. He is the brother of fellow goalkeeper Michael Petkovic. Club career He played as a goalkeeper for the Austr ...

, Cyrille Ndongo-Keller and Carlo Talladira, all of whom moved to or returned to Australian

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

clubs after the demise of the Cubs.

Players

First-team squad

Management and staff

Management

Technical staff

References

{{Reflist Defunct soccer clubs in Australia Foreign teams in Singapore football leagues Soccer clubs in the Northern Territory Association football clubs established in 1994 Association football clubs disestablished in 1995 1994 establishments in Australia 1995 disestablishments in Australia Sport in Darwin, Northern Territory Expatriated football clubs