Northern Fury Football Club was an Australian 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

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

, Queensland. The club was founded in 2008 and competed in the

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 ...

under the name North Queensland Fury. On 1 March 2011, the club was removed from the league due to financial instability. On 3 October 2012, the club officially re-formed after it was granted a licence to participate in the

National Premier League Queensland The National Premier League Queensland (NPL Queensland or NPL QLD) is the top tier state-level soccer competition in the Australian state of Queensland. The conference, run by Football Queensland, is a sub division of the National Premier Leagues ...

. After rebranding themselves as "North Queensland United" in 2017, the club disbanded a second time at the end of the

2018 Football Queensland season The 2018 Football Queensland season was the sixth season since NPL Queensland commenced as the top tier of Queensland men's football. This season was also the initial season of the Football Queensland Premier League which occupied the second tier ...

. The club played their home fixtures at

Townsville Sports Reserve Townsville Sports Precinct is a multi-use sports precinct located in Townsville, Australia. With redevelopments completed in early 2022, the venue now offers three indoor multipurpose courts, multiple fields and athletics facilities with a main ...

History

Foundation

A bid known as ''Northern Thunder FC'' (or ''North Queensland Thunder FC'') was considered for admission for the 2008–09 season along with Gold Coast Galaxy. The bid was publicly well progressed, with the team's badge and colours (red, white and black) released. The training facilities were to be located at the North Queensland Institute of Sport and the home ground was to play at

Dairy Farmers Stadium The Willows Sports Complex (last known as 1300SMILES Stadium due to naming rights) was a grass football stadium situated in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was used predominantly as a rugby league ground as the home ground of the North Que ...

. The bid was tentatively accepted to join in the 2008–09 season expanding the league to ten teams. Needing to meet certain financial criteria to be granted entry into the league, the club's major financial backer pulled out of the franchise on 5 March 2008, effectively collapsing the bid.

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

determined on 11 March 2008 that neither Thunder or Galaxy would be granted entry "in the best interests of the league," given that a nine team format was generally unfavoured and delayed expansion of the league until the 2009–10 season. With expansion put off until the following season, by June 2008 the FFA had received ten bids for new A–League teams, two of which came from Townsville – one headed by

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

businesswoman Milissa Fischer and one by local businessman Don Matheson. Matheson's bid, which "rose from the ashes of the Northern Thunder bid", was granted a provisional licence by

on 24 July. On 28 August 2008 the franchise was accepted into the A–League by CEO Ben Buckley with the only matter outstanding the finalisation of all legal requirements. On 6 November 2008, the franchise named was officially revealed as North Queensland Fury FC. Their inaugural kit was revealed in April 2009, featuring dark green sleeves/socks, and a white/light green front. It was announced on 10 December 2008, that the Fury had signed

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

–born businessman Dean Hassall as their

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. Also the club signed Scottish club,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

's strength and conditioning coach Alan McCall and was also joined by Football Operations Manager Nicholas Deluca.

Struggles and demise

On 7 June 2010, former

Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...

and one time Czech Republic national team coach

František Straka František Straka (born 28 May 1958) is a Czech former football player and current manager of Dukla Banská Bystrica. Playing career Straka played most notably for Sparta Prague. In 1988, he moved to Germany and spent the rest of his playing c ...

was announced as the club's coach for the coming 2010–11 A-League season after agreeing to a one-year deal. The club finished last in the 2010/11 A-League season, winning only 4 of their 30 matches. The crowd average of 4,245 was the 4th lowest in the history of the A-League behind the Gold Coast United crowd average of the same season and the two seasons of the New Zealand Knights. A community ownership model was launched, aimed at finding 1.5 million dollars (per year, for three years), of capital investment being sought to cover half the expected losses for the next three seasons. Ben Buckley, in an open letter to Fury supporters, made it clear that the FFA would not fund continual losses. On 1 March 2011, the club officially had its A-League licence revoked due to financial reasons. The FFA reported that the Fury had received only $300,000 of the investment required for the next season, and despite increased sponsorship revenue the club would still lose $2 to $3 million. FFA released a statement confirming earlier reports that a decision had been taken not to continue with the franchise as the financial position of the club for season 2011–2012 considered too big of a

financial risk Financial risk is any of various types of risk associated with financing, including financial transactions that include company loans in risk of default. Often it is understood to include only downside risk, meaning the potential for financi ...

for the

FFA FFA may refer to: Aviation and military * First Flight Airport, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, United States * Free-fire area in U.S. military parlance * Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein, a Swiss aircraft and railway vehicle manufacturer * Fe ...

to undertake.

Re-establishment and further demise

On 3 October 2012, the club was officially re-established after it was announced that the club would participate in the 2013 NPL Queensland Conference, with

North Queensland Football North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

forming the new board. The club made an announcement that they would keep the old North Queensland Fury logo. On 12 November 2012 the club announced former player

Gareth Edds Gareth James Edds (born 3 February 1981) is an Australian former professional footballer who played as a defender or midfielder. He was last employed as the head coach at Northern Fury in 2013. Club career Edds started his career in 1999 with ...

would take up the head coach role as well as field his position at the club. On 13 September 2017, the club announced that it would be dropping the Northern Fury name and colours in favour of the name "North Queensland United" and the region's traditional football colours of blue, red and gold. At the end of the

, NQ United disbanded again.

Rivalries

Northern Fury had a rivalry with fellow North Queensland NPL team Far North Queensland FC (now called Cairns FC), with both teams contesting the '

Frank Farina Frank Farina Order of Australia, OAM (born 5 September 1964) is an Australian Association football, football (soccer) coach and former player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. His playing career spanned Australia, Belg ...

Cup'.

Colours and badge

North Queensland's colours were light and dark green and white. These were chosen to represent the lush green vegetation of the northern parts of Queensland. The badge was revealed in 2008 soon after the bid was granted entry to A-League. The light green was often referred to in the local media as "tropical green" but was particularly unpopular with many fans of the club. File:North Queensland Fury.svg, 2008–2011
North Queensland Fury File:Northern Fury FC Logo (2013–).png, 2013–2017
Northern Fury File:Northern Queensland United logo.png, 2018
North Queensland United The North Queensland Fury played at Dairy Farmers Stadium in the A-League and the

in the NPL Queensland.

Players who earned International caps whilst at North Queensland

Shane Stefanutto Shane Stefanutto (born 12 January 1980) is an Australian former professional footballer who is the Technical Director of Brisbane Roar. He previously played for Brisbane Strikers, Lillestrøm, Lyn, North Queensland Fury, Brisbane Roar, Ol ...

* David Williams *

Jeremy Brockie Jeremy Russell Brockie (born 7 October 1987) is a New Zealand former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He has represented New Zealand national football team, New Zealand at se ...

* Eugene Sseppuya

Managers

Club captains

Competition timeline

Placement Timeline

Season by Season Record

Honours

Minor Trophies/Honours

* Queensland Nickel Cup ** 2009/10 (NQ Fury vs Gold Coast United: NQ Fury W2/D0/L1) * Chief Minister's Cup : – 2009 (3–2 vs Adelaide United – Played In Darwin/NT 02/07/09)

All time league records

*Record victory: 8–0 vs SWQ Thunder (H), 16 March 2014 *Record defeat: 1–8 vs

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

(A), 21 January 2011 *Highest league crowd: 8,897 vs

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, ...

, 8 August 2009 *Lowest league crowd: 600 vs Olympic FC, 27 July 2013* *Winning streak: 3 games (29 June 2013 – 13 July 2013) *Undefeated streak: 6 games (9 June 2013 – 13 July 2013) *Losing streak: 14 games (22 August 2015 – 4 June 2016) *Winless streak: 23 games (22 August 2015 – present) *Goals in a game: 4 –

vs Olympic FC (H), 27 July 2013 & Braedyn Crowley vs SWQ Thunder (H), 16 March 2014 *Goals in a season: 17 – Braedyn Crowley,

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 ...

*Most assists in a season: 13 – Reyze Kelly,

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 ...

Note: From 2013 onwards, the Fury played at stadiums where the capacity can only reach approximately 3,000.

Appearances

Goals

References

External links

Northern Fury FC official website

Official photographs of the North Queensland Fury FC 2010 Awards night
{{Townsville Sports Teams Former A-League Men clubs Association football clubs established in 2008 Association football clubs disestablished in 2018 Soccer in Townsville National Premier Leagues clubs Soccer clubs in Queensland 2008 establishments in Australia 2018 disestablishments in Australia Defunct soccer clubs in Australia