Palm Beach Soccer Club is an Australian amateur soccer club based in
Palm Beach, Queensland
Palm Beach is a coastal suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Palm Beach had a population of 16,349 people.
Geography
Palm Beach is bounded to the north by Tallebudgera Creek, to the east by the Coral Sea, to the ...
. The club was formed in 1966. The club plays in the
Football Queensland Premier League 3 − South Coast, the top flight of the
Football Queensland South Coast
Football Queensland South Coast is a Football Queensland administrative zone encompassing the Gold Coast and surrounding areas in South-East Queensland and North-East New South Wales, including Kingscliff, Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and ...
administrative division and the fifth flight of the
Australian soccer league system
The Australian soccer league system is the league system, league structure for soccer clubs in Australia. The league system in Australia since 1977 has involved one top divisional league controlled by Football Australia and many leagues run with ...
. The club has won 6 premierships, 7 championships and 4 President's Cups within the division.
History
Palm Beach
In 1964 Eddie Wardell organised a group of boys, one of which was his son, to play football out of Palm Beach and compete in a three team football competition against Kingscliff and Twin Towns. The first game for Palm Beach was held at
Salk Oval and the team members wore plain green T-shirts but the team would later move to a council paddock also located in Palm Beach. By 1965 the local
Gold Coast Association football competition wanted a presence in Palm Beach and invited the team to join the local junior competitions. The first official playing strip was debuted in 1965 which was a plain T-shirt that embossed with a single blue stripe.
In 1966 the team incorporated three teams; under 8s, under 10s and under 12s. During sign on time it was decided the team needed to unofficially become a club and held its inaugural meeting in the
Currumbin RSL. Neville Cripps, a father of a Palm Beach player, was elected the first president and names for the club began being thrown around. Names such as Palm Beach Hotspurs and Palm Beach Pilchards were put forward at the meeting but Palm Beach Currumbin Soccer Club was voted the winner. In 1966 the club began wearing playing strip which was a white shirt emblazoned with a large blue vee.
1971 saw the council reclaim the playing field of the club and urgent calls to council were made which led to a field behind the
Tugun Bowls Club becoming their new home ground. With the team being located in Tugun their official name was changed to the Palm Beach Currumbin Tugun Soccer Club. The following year while John Neumann was developing the suburb of Palm Beach he suggested to the club that they should attempt to be given two recreational fields in Mallawa Drive, Palm Beach. Club president Mal Sutherland met with the council which would eventually lead to the club being given two fields at their present location on Mallawa Drive. The
Palm Beach Currumbin Lions Football Club donated the blue and white striped strip that the club would begin wearing.
The Gold Coast Association decided in 1975 to begin a senior football competition and the following year Palm Beach would enter their first senior team. By 1977 the building of a clubhouse began as well as the instalment of the floodlights which allowed the club to hold night training sessions. In 1979 a club meeting was held which resulted in the decision for the club to become the first soccer club on the Gold Coast to register as a limited company. 1979 also saw Palm Beach enter an under 16s team in the Brisbane South competition in an attempt to attract higher quality players to begin playing on the Gold Coast and more specifically at Palm Beach. 1983 saw the additional of more floodlights which allowed the club to host night matches as well as the club introducing the shark as the emblem and officially become the Palm Beach Sharks.
In June 1992 the club was granted a full licence by the Licensing Commission which allowed the Sharks to apply and be given permission to install
pokies
A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers.
A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...
, granting them an additional revenue source. Thirty year anniversary celebrations took place for the Sharks in 1997 at the Currumbin RSL, the venue in which the club held their first meeting 31 years earlier. In 2000 the Sharks were invited to compete in the Brisbane-based
State League A state league is a level of competition in Sport in Australia, Australian sport directly below that of a national league. Most of these competitions are based in a single States and territories of Australia, state or territory, and from this the te ...
. The Sharks would prove their worth in 2005 by capturing the minor premiership, the premier cup as well as finishing runner up in the championship. In 2008 the club would withdraw senior teams from all Brisbane competition due to a lack of funds. In October 2012 it was announced that
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 ...
granted the Palm Beach Sharks a five-year licence into the newly formed
National Premier Leagues 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 ...
along with teams from Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast and Townsville.
Joining Queensland NPL
From 2016 Palm Beach teams competing in the National Premier Leagues Competitions are called Gold Coast City FC, to represent all the Gold Coast community.
Competition timeline
Honours
Football Queensland
*
National Premier Leagues 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 ...
** Premiership
*** Winners (1):
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 ...
** Championship
*** Winners (1):
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 ...
Football Queensland Metro and South Coast
*
FQPL 3 − Metro / Brisbane Premier League (1st tier Brisbane)
** Premiership
***Winners (1): 2005
*
FQPL 3 − South Coast / Gold Coast Premier League (1st tier Gold Coast)
**Premiership
***Winners (6): 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2010
**Championship
***Winners (8): 1984, 1985, 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2023
**President's Cup
***Winners (4): 1985, 1988, 1997, 1998
*
Brisbane Premier Cup (Brisbane domestic cup)
** Winners (1): 2005
*BLK Cup / FA Cup (Gold Coast domestic cup)
**Winners (4): 1993, 1997, 2008, 2012
References
External links
Official website
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{{AUS fb state Qld Brisbane
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National Premier Leagues clubs
Brisbane Premier League teams
Association football clubs established in 1966
1966 establishments in Australia
Soccer teams on the Gold Coast, Queensland