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Floreat Athena Football Club is a
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
Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
,
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
. The club competes in the
National Premier Leagues Western Australia The National Premier Leagues Western Australia (NPL WA) is a regional Australian semi-professional soccer league comprising teams from Western Australia. As a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues, the league is the highest level of the Wes ...
. The club's founders were of
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
heritage. Floreat Athena has been crowned the Western Australian State Champions five times, League Premiers seven times, State Cup Winners eight times, and Night Series Champions nine times. In 1997, the club won all three trophies to claim its first ever treble.


History


Early years

The club was formed in 1951 as the Athena Club by Greek-Australians as place for the local Greek community to unite around football. The club entered the third division of WA's state league football in 1953.


1960s

In 1960 the club withdrew from the Western Australian Soccer Football Association (WASFA) to form WA's first official semi-professional league under the Western Australia Soccer Federation. It was also in 1960 that Athena played their first season in the state league's top tier, ending the season sixth and maintained its status in the top flight The 1960s were turbulent times for Athena on the pitch. The club finished third in 1961 and 1963, but declined to just avoid relegation in subsequent years before being relegated in 1966 after finishing 9th in the State Premier League. Athena finished second in the 1967 Second Division season, gaining promotion to the State League for the 1968 season. In 1968 they were relegated for the second time in three years after they finished last.


1970s

Athena remained in the First Division for five successive seasons (1969–1973). In 1973 Athena clinched the Second Division title and entered the top flight in 1974, finishing sixth. In the 1975 and 1976 seasons, Athena finished third. The club has finished no higher than third on four separate occasions since 1960. In 1977, internal disputes at the committee level resulted in the sacking of coach Bill Dumbbell despite Athena claiming its first state league title. Athena maintained its status in the top flight until 1980 when the club was relegated for finishing tenth under coach Ulysses Kokkinos.


Golden era

After being relegated in 1980, the club secured its second First Division title in 1981 and returned to the top flight of Western Australia football (soccer). Since 1982, Floreat Athena has not been relegated, remaining in the State Premier League for three decades.


Mid 1980s – early 1990s – The Golden Years

From 1984 until 1991 Floreat Athena entered into a "golden era" of Western Australian Premier League football. After winning the Top Four Cup in 1984 Athena proceeded to win the Night Series trophy in 1985. Then from 1986, Athena were placed no lower than third for six straight seasons. Having finished third in 1986 and 1987, Athena claimed its second State Premier League title in 1988 under coach Ken Worden. Besides its great league achievements Athena also won the D'Orsogna Cup three consecutive seasons during this time. The Soccer Federation changed the format of the championship to be based on a top four finals series for the 1989, 1990 and 1991 seasons. In each of these seasons, under coach Worden and then Alan Vest, Athena topped the State Premier League. The 1990 team finished the season unbeaten, a feat only three other teams have matched in WA history. However, they did not win the top four play-off finals in these seasons (being beaten by Perth Italia and Stirling Macedonia), and hence were not declared the champions despite their success in the league season.


The Treble (1997)

In 1997, under coach Jim Pyraglios, the club won a record treble of titles winning the Night Series, League Championship and Association Cup. In 1999, they finished runners up to Inglewood in the Association Cup Final. In 2000, Athena won their fourth Night Series trophy. In 2001, Athena finished runners up in both the Association Cup Final and the Night Series Final to arch rival Perth Italia. In 2002, Athena again finished runners up to Perth Italia, this time in the State Premier League Championship.


Undefeated season (2007)

In the newly formed
Football West Football West is the state governing body for soccer in Western Australia (WA). It is affiliated with Football Australia (FA), the sport's national governing body, and through FA's affiliation to FIFA. Football West's premier competition is the ...
, Floreat Athena was competing for their fourth State Premier League title. In 2004, a young squad was assembled under former Floreat Athena players Michael Roki and Taki Nicolaidis. Both players had been part of that 1990 side that went through the entire season undefeated. After finishing the 2004 season in ninth position, Athena finished fifth in 2005 and fourth in 2006, climbing the ladder. Athena signed former Perth Glory defender Ante Kovacevic who was to prove instrumental in the 2007 season. Jerry Karpeh scored 25 goals and Josip Magdic played the wing. Captain Bajo Savic played his last game for Athena against Cockburn in a match that helped seal the title for Athena. Savic suffered a serious knee injury and subsequently never played again. In the 2007 Football West Premier League season, Athena clinched the title undefeated with a 15-point gap over second place. There were several notable events during the season: * James Isaia's 94th minute long range goal to draw the match against Fremantle Spirit, * the 4–1 victory over rivals Perth SC at
Dorrien Gardens Dorrien Gardens is a sports ground in West Perth, Western Australia primarily used for soccer. It is the home ground of Perth SC. History Dorrien Gardens is named after James Dorrien, a local businessman and benefactor who donated the land on w ...
, * the 4–0 win over the Stirling Lions at Litis Stadium, * the bicycle kick goal by Garin Collins on debut, and * the last round against Armadale at Alfred Skeet Oval, where Athena found itself down 2–0 in the first 10 minutes, but rallied to win the match 5–3. Being the fourth side in Western Australian State Premier League history to go through an entire season undefeated places Michael Roki and Taki Nicolaidis in the elite category of having played and coached Floreat Athena sides through undefeated seasons. Following the 2007 season, Floreat Athena dominated almost all opposition but failed to bring home the trophies. The team finished the 2008 season without a title, having lost the Night Series final to arch rival Perth SC on penalties. Athena was to finish Runners up in the 2008 State Premier League to Sorrento whom they had beaten 9–3 on aggregate for the season. Floreat was again defeated by Perth SC in the 2009 Night Series final. Floreat Athena managed to avenge the defeat Inglewood had inflicted upon them in the 1999 Association (
Boral Boral Limited is an Australian building and construction materials company. It is owned by Seven Group Holdings. History Boral was founded by David Craig on 4 March 1946 as Bitumen and Oil Refineries (Australia) Limited with Ampol, Caltex havi ...
) Cup final by defeating them a decade later in the 2009 Association Cup final. Following the 2010 Night Series, Michael Roki decided it was time to retire due to work and family commitments. Floreat Athena was taken over by player-coach Ante Kovacevic for the beginning of the 2010 Football West Premier League season. Athena finished a respectable 4th in the league and finished Runners up to the Stirling Lions in the 2010 Association Cup final.


2011–present

It had been 11 years since Floreat Athena had been crowned Night Series champions. Ten players and management staff left at the end of the 2010 season. Coach Ante Kovacevic and assistant Taki Nicolaides assembled a fresh outfit that won the title in February 2011. Floreat Athena finished the season at the top of their group, dispatching Armadale and Forrestdale 3–1, and drawing to Inglewood 2–2 with goals coming from Liam Boland, Garin Collins, James Isaia and Danny Trevisol. All three games being played at Alfred Skeet Reserve. The quarter final against Sorrento was played at Athena's home ground, Litis Stadium. New recruit Dave Houston scored a goal in the 91st minute to set up a semi-final appearance. The semi-final against Cockburn City was played at 6PR Stadium. Athena went a goal down in the early stages of the first half but Liam Boland scored a goal back. Cockburn defender Paul Natale was sent off in the first half and Floreat Athena took the lead. Early in the second half, Boland scored his second of the game. Garin Collins then added a further two goals to make the score 4–1 and put Athena into another Night Series Grand Final. Saturday, 19 February 2011, Floreat Athena faced ECU Joondalup at Dorrien Gardens. In the 68th minute, a goal attempt by the right wing by Jack Allen was stopped by the ECU goalkeeper, however Liam Boland scored a goal from three yards. With 15 minutes remaining, a challenge on Athena goalkeeper Alex Dunn forced the no. 1 to leave the field with a head injury. Replacement goalkeeper Simon Madaschi took his place, making several saves in the remaining minutes to hold ECU at bay. The final score was 1–0. The club had its maiden
FFA Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia (known as Football Federation Austra ...
appearance in
2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
, when it qualified for the competition proper at the Round of 32 stage, drawing
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
Melbourne City FC Melbourne City Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region, South-Eastern region of Melbourne, Victoria. They compete in the A-League Men, the Australian soccer ...
. The club returned to the top of Western Australian football in the 2022 season, winning the Night Series and the League to complete the double, the club's first since 1977. After giving up a 2-0 lead against
Armadale SC The National Premier Leagues Western Australia (NPL WA) is a regional Australian semi-professional soccer league comprising teams from Western Australia. As a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues, the league is the highest level of the We ...
on the final matchday of the season, it seemed Perth RedStar FC would overtake Floreat to clinch the league, but in the dying minutes of the game, Bayley Brown-Montgomery found the back of the net to make it 3-2 and win the league at the last minute. Floreat began their Top 4 Cup campaign against Perth RedStar FC in the hopes of completing a Night Series, League and Top 4 Cup treble. After dispatching of Perth RedStar 2-1 in the Semi-Finals, Floreat advanced straight to the Grand Final, where they took on Perth RedStar once more. After being up 2-0 with only 20 minutes remaining, it seemed certain Floreat would crown themselves champions and complete their treble, but a remarkable comeback saw Perth RedStar win 3-2, with Daryl Nicol finding the winner for RedStar deep into stoppage time.


Crest and colours


Club crest and the Goddess Athena

Both the club shield and the Goddess
Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...
feature on all Floreat Athena merchandise. Playing strips have always carried both emblems. The club shield has blue and white stripes and a football placed in the middle, signifying both the heritage and purpose of the club. The Goddess is the club's original namesake and features heavily on its merchandise and uniforms. Unlike other clubs with an ethnic past, Athena was allowed to keep its name following the implementation of the National Club Identity Policy because it is essentially non-ethnic. Although the goddess Athena is a Greek Goddess, she is not an explicit reference to an ethnicity such as Stirling Macedonia, or Gwelup Croatia, and therefore was allowed.


Colours

Floreat Athena "home" colours are blue and white stripes. Away strips have generally tended to be all white. However, this current format was not the original strip. In 1953, Athena had a predominantly blue strip with a white block 'V' topped off with a blue collar. Floreat Athena used a replica heritage strip in the 2011 season as it is the club's 60th Anniversary. Blue and white has significance as the majority of people who founded the club came from
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
.


Stadium

Athena's first home was at
Wellington Square Wellington Square may refer to: * Wellington Square, North Adelaide, South Australia * Wellington Square, Perth, in Western Australia * A neighbourhood in Burlington, Ontario, Canada * A square in Kolkata, India, renamed Subodh Chandra Mallik Squar ...
in
East Perth East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...
. The club later played at
Perry Lakes Stadium Perry Lakes Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium adjacent to Perry Lakes in Floreat, Western Australia. It was built and funded by the State Government and the City of Perth in 1962 for the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and had a ...
in Floreat, leading to the addition of Floreat to the club's name. The club has played at Litis Stadium, formerly the Lake Monger Velodrome, in Mount Hawthorn since 1985. There are currently two grandstands, the Eleni grandstand and a more modern stand in front of the clubrooms which was built 20 years ago. However the Eleni grandstand, a relic of the former velodrome, is due to be demolished and new changerooms built in its place. A cycling tunnel had been left intact for players to use to and from the change rooms and was a feature of the ground, however due to neglect it has been deemed unsafe and is currently locked up. The old change rooms that the tunnel led to were demolished in 2019. The tunnel was named after two famous Athena players: Stan Lazaridis and Vas Kalogeracos.


Support

Floreat Athena enjoys support from the Greek-Australian community though this has dropped in recent years. The current average attendance at Litis Stadium is between 300 and 500 people per match. This is a far cry from the 5,000 – 10,000 that would regularly attend matches in the early years. Local Greek-Australian businesses contribute in the form of sponsorship on an annual basis. Many affluent Greek-Australian families have donated to the club, helping Floreat Athena become a mainstay in top flight and junior football.


Club Coaching Staff


Current squad


Honours

Joined state league: 1960

Seasons in Semi-Professional State League: 1960–1966, 1968, 1974–1980, 1982–Current

State League Championships
Winners: 5  (1977, 1988, 1997, 2007, 2022)
Runners up: 7  (1989, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2021)

Top Four/Five Cup Grand Final
Winners: 4  (1975, 1984, 1988,
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
)
Runners up: 4  (1986, 2001, 2002, 2021, 2022)

State Cup
Winners: 9  (1987, 1988, 1989, 1997,
2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
,
2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
,
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 ...
,
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
,
2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...
)
Runners up: 4  (1984, 1999, 2001,
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
)

League Night Series
Winners: 9  (1977, 1985, 1997, 2000, 2011, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022)
Runners up: 9  (1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 2001, 2008, 2009, 2014)

First Division
Winners: 2  (1973, 1981)
Runners up: 1  (1967)

Doubles:
League & Night Series: 2  (1977, 2022)

Treble:
League, Association Cup & Top Four: 1  (1988)
League, Association Cup & Night Series: 1  (1997)
Gold Medal Winners:
1963: J. Montagu
1979: Vince Alcock
1988: Jeff Curran
1989: Jeff Curran
1990: John Hunter
2015: Ludovic Boi
2020: Dean Evans
Top Goal Scorer:
1988:
Paul Wormley Paul Wormley (born 16 September 1961) is an English former professional association footballer, footballer. Career Born in Leeds, Yorkshire, Wormley was a regular player with the Leeds United F.C., Leeds United youth team, and played for Leeds ...

1990: John Hunter
1997: Michael Roki
2007: Boima Karpeh


Seasons


1960–present


Key

* Competitions: ** NPLWA – National Premier League Western Australia ** FFA Cup – Football Federation Australia Cup ** WASF – Western Australian Soccer Federation ** SFWA – Soccer Federation of Western Australia ** PSL – Professional Soccer League ** PSFWA – Professional Soccer Federation of Western Australia ** SWC – Soccer West Coast * Other: ** N/A – Not applicable; competition yet to be founded or not held ** DNE – Did not enter ** DNQ – Did not qualify ** GS – Group Stage ** Pre, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R of 32, R of 16, QF, SF, RU, W – Tournament placing * Background colours: ** Gold – Winners ** Silver – Runners-up ** Red – Relegated ** Green – Promoted Notes: * 1966 Season West Perth Athena was deducted 1 point by SFWA * 1989 Season: State champions decided by Top Four Finals Series * 1990 Season: State champions decided by Top Five Finals Series * 1991 Season: State champions decided by Top Five Finals Series * 1994 Season: Floreat Athena deducted 2 points by PSL * 2024 Season: Floreat Athena deducted 3 points by Football West


Notable past players

List includes players from Floreat Athena youth or senior teams that have gone on to represent the Australian national team, or have amassed over 100 games with
Perth Glory FC Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...
. *
Bobby Despotovski Slobodan "Bobby" Despotovski (born 14 July 1971) is an Australian soccer player who played 12 seasons in the top tier of Australian soccer. He played in National Soccer League (NSL) for Heidelberg United and Morwell Falcons before moving to P ...
(also has the all-time goal-scoring record with
Perth Glory FC Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...
), for
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 ...
*
Stan Lazaridis Stan Lazaridis (born 16 August 1972) is an Australian former soccer player. He was predominantly a left winger though he was known to perform at left-back. He notably played for Birmingham City and West Ham United and made 58 official appearan ...
, for
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 ...
* Vasilios (Vas) Kalogeracos, for
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 ...
Past players who have represented the national sides of other countries include: *
Alan Ball Jr. Alan James Ball (12 May 1945 – 25 April 2007) was an English professional football player and manager. Often regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, he won the 1966 World Cup with England and played for various clubs, scor ...
for
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
* Ross Greer, for
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
(in both soccer and cricket) * Brad Scott, for
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
at 2000 Merdeka Tournament * Adrian Sutton, for
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
at 2000 Merdeka Tournament


Affiliated clubs

*
South Melbourne FC South Melbourne Football Club is an Australian semi-professional Association football, soccer club based in suburb of Albert Park, Victoria, Albert Park, in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The club currently competes in the National P ...


References


External links

* * {{WASL Clubs National Premier Leagues clubs National Premier Leagues Western Australia Association football clubs established in 1951 1951 establishments in Australia Diaspora sports clubs in Australia