Macedonian Australian
Macedonian Australians ( Macedonian: Македонски Австралијанци) are Australian citizens of Macedonian descent. Many arrived in the 1920s and 1930s, although larger numbers came to Australia after World War II and the Gre ...
s as Newcastle Macedonia FC. Originally formed as a social club to play football together with other Macedonians, it is now a major force in Northern New South Wales' NBN State Football League. The club saw its first action on 20 March 1967 when they travelled to Evans Park to face Cardiff Workers RSL. The hosts were upset however, with Macedonia winning the match, 2–1.
Throughout the years, Broadmeadow have gone through a series of name changes. The club was known as Broadmeadow United from 1971 until 1974 and then enjoyed a period of success in the 1970s as Hamilton Red Star. In 1975, Red Star was promoted to the Northern NSW Soccer Federation 4th division, the 3rd division in 1976, the 2nd division in 1978 and finally the 1st Division in 1980. By 1985, Red Star was relegated back to the 2nd division, and had reverted to its original name, Newcastle Macedonia. During 10 years of competing in the 2nd division, Newcastle Macedonia won the league title twice.
In 1995, Newcastle Macedonia was finally promoted back to the highest flight in New South Wales, the
NBN State Football League
The National Premier Leagues Northern NSW is a regional Australian Professional association football league comprising teams from Northern New South Wales. As a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues, the league sits at Level 1 on the Nort ...
. The club made its final name change to its current, Broadmeadow Magic FC, but struggled in its first 2 years in the new league. Richard Hartley was appointed as the club's coach in 1997 who led the club to their first league title in the same year. Broadmeadow Magic remained successful in the first decade of the 2000s, as head coach Damien Smith led the club to their third league title in 2003, the club's first grand final title in 2004, and both titles in 2005. In recent years, Broadmeadow won its 5th league title in 2008, but disappointingly finished 3rd in the league in 2009.
Broadmeadow has produced a number of players who have gone on to play for the Newcastle Jets in Australia's number one domestic competition, the
A-League
A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...
. Ben Kantarovski, one of Newcastle's key players and current captain of the Australian U/20 side, was a Broadmeadow Magic junior. Ben Kennedy, Newcastle's first-choice goalkeeper, was also a Broadmeadow junior, and Peter Haynes, who was in the Newcastle Jets squad for the 2009 AFC Asian Champions' League, currently plays for Magic. The club was co-coached by Damien Smith and Robert Virgilli during the 2010 season, which was a disappointing one for Broadmeadow. They finished the season in 6th place a missed out on the finals.
Broadmeadow were champions in the 2012 and 2014
NNSWF State Cup
The Northern NSW Football State Cup was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition which ended in 2014, being replaced by the preliminary rounds of the FFA Cup. The annual competition was organised by Northern NSW Football, NN ...
. 2014 was the last year that the NNSW Football State Cup was contested, being replaced by the FFA Cup from then on.
On Tuesday 29 July 2014, Broadmeadow hosted the inaugural FFA Cup game against Brisbane Strikers at
Magic Park
Wanderers Oval, nicknamed Magic Park, is a multi-use sportsground in Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle, Australia. It is mainly used for Association football, soccer and is the home ground for the Broadmeadow Magic FC, Broadmeadow Magic. The ...
. The game was won by Brisbane Strikers after going into extra time. The final score being 1–2 to Brisbane with Scott Pettit scoring the goal for Magic.
On Wednesday 29 July 2015, Broadmeadow hosted Heidelberg United FC at
Magic Park
Wanderers Oval, nicknamed Magic Park, is a multi-use sportsground in Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle, Australia. It is mainly used for Association football, soccer and is the home ground for the Broadmeadow Magic FC, Broadmeadow Magic. The ...
for the FFA Cup. Heidelberg defeated Broadmeadow Magic FC 3–1 with Scott Pettit being Magic's goalscorer.
On 7 May 2016, Jon Griffiths reached 100 caps for the club.
On Wednesday 25 July 2018, Broadmeadow beat
Canberra FC
Canberra Croatia Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in the suburb of Deakin in the south of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Founded in 1958 the club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Capi ...
4–1 at
Deakin Stadium
Deakin Stadium is an association football ground located in the south-central Canberra suburb of Deakin, Australian Capital Territory, Deakin, ACT. It is the home ground of Canberra Croatia FC in the National Premier Leagues Capital Football, NP ...
to secure their first round of 16 place for the FFA Cup.
On Wednesday 10 November 2021, Broadmeadow hosted
Western Sydney Wanderers FC
Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premie ...
at No.2 Sportground in
Newcastle West
Newcastle West () or simply Newcastle (''An Caisleán Nua'', formerly anglicized Castlenoe) is a town in west County Limerick, Ireland. It is the largest town in the county, excluding Limerick city, It is also the county town, and sits on the ...
for the FFA Cup. Western Sydney Wanderers FC defeated Broadmeadow Magic FC 3–0.
NBN State league/NPL NNSW
NBN or nbn may refer to:
Broadcasting networks
* National Black Network, US radio network
* National Broadcasting Network (Lebanon)
* National Broadcasting Network (Trinidad and Tobago)
* Nagoya Broadcasting Network, Japan
* Nanjing Broadcasting ...
President's Cup
The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...