Northbridge Football Club is an Australian semi-professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

suburb of

Northbridge, New South Wales Northbridge is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located 6 kilometres north of the Sydney Central Business District, in the local government area of the City of Willoughby. The Suspension Bridge, li ...

. Founded in 1952, the club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW, with matches played at Northbridge Oval. Northbridge is Australia's largest community club with over 2,500 registered players.

History

Northbridge FC was established in 1952 by local postman Ron Hall who had previously relocated from his work in the coalfields in the Cessnock area of the

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

. The club originally competed in the Northern Suburbs Soccer Association (NSSA). The original playing strip was a red and white shirt, white shorts and red and white hooped socks. In 1973, Northbridge joined the Ku-Ring-Gai and District Soccer Association (now the Northern Suburbs Football Association).

Association with Central Coast Mariners

In 2014, Northbridge established an agreement with

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 ...

club Central Coast Mariners to form a youth development academy in Sydney's North Shore. As part of the partnership the North Shore Mariners Academy was based at Northbridge FC. The move led to accusations from

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

that the Mariners were encroaching on their territory. On forming the partnership the Mariners stated that they believe Northbridge to be the biggest club (in terms of player numbers) in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2015, as a result of the Central Coast Mariners affiliation, the club's senior teams changed their name and colours to reflect the Mariners and in doing so, became the North Shore Mariners.

Return to Northbridge name

On October 27, 2020, the club announced it was returning to the Northbridge FC name, as the partnership with Central Coast Mariners was being discontinued. On December 21, 2020, the announced to form a partnership agreement with

club Macarthur FC. The agreement will see all teams play as Northbridge FC Bulls with playing kits incorporating both the Northbridge and Macarthur FC logos respectively.

Men's team

NSW State League 1 / NSW NPL 3

In 2011, after spending their entire existence in the local league, Northbridge FC successfully entered

Football NSW Football NSW is the governing body for soccer in the Australian state of New South Wales, with the exception of the northern regions of NSW (the governing body for which is Northern New South Wales Football). Football NSW is a member of the nat ...

's state league competition, the 3rd tier of NSW football and fourth tier overall. They won the

NSW State League Division One The NSW League Two Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in Aust ...

Premiership in 2013, but went on to lose the Grand Final to Balmain in

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

. The 2014 season once again saw Northbridge fall short of the title – losing to Hakoah Sydney City East FC 3–2, with Hakoah going on to get promoted to the NSW NPL2. Throughout 2014 and the years leading up, Northbridge, experienced significant growth, with over 2,300 registered players in early 2014. This made Northbridge the largest club in Australia by participation numbers. In 2015 Northbridge had a successful season losing only one game late in the season (won 18, drew 3, lost 1) to take out the State League 1 premiership. Northbridge went on to win their first State League 1 grand final in 3 attempts beating

Hills Brumbies Hills United Football Club, also known as the Hills Brumbies, is a football club based in the Hills District, New South Wales, Australia, that plays in the NSW Premier League. History Hills United SC, which later became known as Hills United B ...

in a 3–2 win, despite playing the last 15 minutes with 10 men.

NSW NPL 2

The successful 2015 season saw Northbridge promoted to the National Premier Leagues NSW 2 competition for the first time in their history where they started the 2016 season alongside National Premier League debutants Sydney FC Youth, Western Sydney Wanderers FC Youth & Central Coast Mariners FC NPL. Despite being competitive for the majority of games, the seniors only managed to win 3 matches. In the last round of the season, North Shore needed all three senior divisions (U18's, U20's and 1st's) to win and had to rely on other results to avoid relegation. All three divisions won and at the end of 2016 had finished 13th out of 14 on the Club Championship, thus avoiding relegation with

Fraser Park FC Fraser Park FC, is an Australian soccer club with teams competing at all grades of the National Premier Leagues NSW and in various divisions of the Canterbury District Soccer Football Association. The club also has teams participating in the Fo ...

dropping to the 3rd tier of NSW football instead. 2017 was a much more successful year for the North Shore outfit, with the Mariners finishing the year in 5th position. Another year of improvement in the NPL NSW 2 saw the senior team finish 3rd in the 2018 season. Though North Shore were eliminated in the first round of the finals, season 2018 was the highest league position finish for the club to date. In 2019, North Shore experienced their most successful season in history, finishing first in both the NPL NSW 2 and the club championship, which resulted in promotion to NPL NSW 1. The club sealed promotion on the final round of the season.

NSW NPL 1

As a result of winning the 2019 NPL2 Club Championship North Shore have been promoted to NPL1 for the first time in their history and will play their games out of Lambert Park, Leichhardt. In 2021 season North Shore become Northbridge FC Bulls will play their games in multiple locations. Their head coach is Mile Sterjovski.

Women's team

The Women's team currently competes in Football NSW Women's NPL Division One however finished the 2019 season in last place.

Home ground

The club its home ground at Northbridge Oval. The Oval had a million-dollar upgrade, including resurfacing with synthetic turf and new floodlights in early 2011. However, as the ground did not meet the NPL NSW 1 criteria, the men's team had to move to play their home games at the

Sydney United Sports Centre Sydney United Sports Centre, formerly known as Sydney Croatia Sports Centre and King Tomislav Park is a multi-use stadium in Edensor Park, Sydney, Australia. It is mainly used for football and is the home ground for the Sydney United 58 ...

for the 2021 season. and for the 2023 season.Bulls FC Season Fixture in Football NSW
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Current squad

''As of February 2023''

Club officials

* President: Rory Grace * Technical Director: Ryan Doidge * First Team Manager: Joe Haywood * First Team Assistant Manager: Brian Baker * First Grade Coach: Will Piriz * U20 Manager: Brian Baker * U20 Assistant Coach:

Tadhg Purcell Tadhg Purcell (born 2 September 1985) is an Irish footballer who plays for Dunbar Rovers FC in the National Premier League. His main position is as a striker, although he can play on the wing. He spent his youth with Leicester Celtic, before j ...

* Goalkeeping Coach: Elvis De-Marchi * Club Physio: Matthew Grant-Smith

Honours

*; NPL NSW 2/

NSW League One The NSW League One Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 2 on the New South Wales league system, behind the National Premier Leagues NSW The Nationa ...

Club Championship **Winners:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

*; NPL NSW 2/

Premiership **Winners:

NSW League Two The NSW League Two Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 3 on the New South Wales league system (Level 4 of the overall Australian league system). The c ...

Club Championship **Winners:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Premiership **Winners:

**Runners-up:

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Championship **Winners:

**Runners-up:

References

External links

Official club website
{{Association football in New South Wales Northbridge FC Soccer clubs in Sydney National Premier Leagues clubs Association football clubs established in 1952 1952 establishments in Australia