Western Knights Soccer Club is an Australian

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 currently playing in the

Football West State League Division 1 The Football West State League Division 1 is a regional Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from Western Australia. The league sits at Level 2 on the Western Australian league system (Level 3 of the overal ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. Its home ground is Nash Field, in the

Town of Mosman Park The Town of Mosman Park is a local government area of Western Australia. It covers an area of approximately 4.3 km² in western metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia and lies about 14 km southwest of the Perth CBD an ...

. Since 2018, the club expanded its junior program to include Len Packham Reserve in the

City of Cockburn The City of Cockburn ( ) is a local government area in the southern suburbs of the Western Australian capital city of Perth about south of Fremantle and about south of Perth's central business district. The City covers an area of and had a po ...

as well as Nash Field.

History

Western Knights was established by Croatian immigrants in the state of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

under the name of Metropolitan in 1968, joining the semi-professional Second Division (third tier) the following year as Croatia. In 1970, under their new name of North Perth Croatia, they were promoted from the Second Division to the First Division. Throughout the years following, Croatia went up and down from First Division to the Premier Division. With the moving from division to division also came the moving from different home grounds over the years.

Wellington Square Wellington Square may refer to: * A neighbourhood in Burlington, Ontario, Canada * Wellington Square, Chelsea, a garden square in Chelsea, London * A square in Hastings, on the south coast of England * A square in Kolkata, India, renamed Subodh ...

in East Perth,

Velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate Track tran ...

in Mount Hawthorn and

Perry Lakes Stadium Perry Lakes Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium adjacent to Perry Lakes Reserve, 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 Commonw ...

were all homes to North Perth Croatia over those years. In 1994, the club was forced by the then sport governing bodies to remove all ethnic references from their name, so the club changed their name from North Perth Croatia to Western Knights and in 1995, the club returned to the state's premier league until the 2013 season. 1998 proved to be the most successful year in the club's history so far, the Knights take home the Premier League Minor Premiership, the Championship Final Series Grand Final for the first time in their history and the West Ham Cup. The club claimed back to back minor premierships in 2009 and 2010 after finishing the home and away seasons on top of the league table. The Western Knights has 3 Men's Senior Team which compete in the Football West State League Division 1. It also has Junior Boys and Girls teams from under 6 – 18. Through a joint arrangement with Perth AFC, the club encourages Senior Women, Men's Amateur and Social, and Futsal players to play for Perth AFC. The Knights were a founding club in the Football Wes
Equal Footingball
competition (for those with competitive disadvantages), with both a Junior and Senior male team in competition. In 2017, the Western Knights became the first Western Australian club outside of the

National Premier Leagues Western Australia The National Premier Leagues Western Australia is a regional Australian semi-professional soccer league comprising teams from Western Australia. The league name is often abbreviated to NPL Western Australia or NPL WA. As a subdivision of the Na ...

to reach the Round of 32 of the

2017 FFA Cup The 2017 FFA Cup was the fourth season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. 32 teams began competing in the competition proper (from the round of 32), including the 10 A-League teams and 21 Football Fed ...

, also becoming the first team since 1991 to win the State Cup from outside of the Premier Division, when they defeated

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana rail ...

. It followed this success by also winning the Football West State League Division 1 league title, the first time the club has completed the league and State Cup double.

Notable former players

Robbie Dunn Robert Dunn (born 6 July 1960) is a Scottish-born Australian former soccer player. Dunn played as a defender in a career that spanned 15 years. Playing career Club career Dunn played in the National Soccer League for Preston Makedonia, We ...

. Played in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

with West Adelaide,

Preston Makedonia Preston Lions Football Club (formerly Preston Makedonia Soccer Club) is a soccer club from Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club was established in 1947 to play non-professional soccer matches against other tea ...

and

Melbourne Croatia Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Victoria, Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, t ...

and has 25 international caps for the

Australia national soccer team Australia national soccer team may refer to: * Australia men's national soccer team ** Australia men's national under-23 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-20 soccer team ** Australia men's national under-17 soccer team ** Australia ...

. *

Australia women's national soccer team The Australia women's national soccer team is overseen by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) s ...

player

Sam Kerr Samantha May Kerr (born 10 September 1993) is an Australian professional football player who plays as a forward for Chelsea in the FA Women's Super League and the Australia women's national team (the ''Matildas''), which she has captained si ...

began her career at Western Knights. * Other players from the Western Knights who have continued their careers in the National Soccer League or A-League are

Tommi Tomich Tomislav "Tommi" Tomich (born 14 February 1980) is an Australian goalkeeper who plays for Sydenham Park. Biography Tomich has previously played with Bassendean Caledonians, Cockburn City, Melbourne Knights FC, Western Knights and a stint with ...

Craig Deans Craig Deans (born 7 May 1974) is an Australian former Association football, football (soccer) player and former head coach of the Newcastle Jets. Playing career Deans was a central defender for multiple Australian clubs, with most of his appea ...

Andrija Jukic Andrija Jukic (born 3 January 1987) is an Australian footballer who plays for Western Knights SC. Club career He tried out for the FOX8 reality TV show Football Superstar, but narrowly missed out on making the Perth Top 10, placing 11th, Afte ...

, Anthony Skorich and

David Micevski David Micevski (born 25 February 1986) is an Australian footballer who has played for Stirling Lions. Club career He was identified by former Perth Glory technical manager, Mich d'Avray as one of the brightest young prospects in the WA State ...

Honours

*Western Australian Premier League Champions: 1998, 2004 *Western Australian Premier League Runner-Up: 1988, 2000, 2009, 2010 *Western Australian Premier League Minor Premiers: 1998, 2004, 2009, 2010 *

Football West State Cup The Football West State Cup is a soccer competition held between clubs in the Australian state of Western Australia, known as the Belt Up Cup for sponsorship reasons. It serves as preliminary rounds for the Australia Cup, previously known as th ...

Winners: 2000, 2008,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

*D’Orsogna Cup Runner-Up: 1992 *Night Series Winners: 2003 *Night Series Runner-Up: 1996, 2002, 2004, 2010 *Charity Shield Winners: 2009 *West Ham Cup Winners: 1998 *Western Australian First Division (Second Division) Champions: 1971, 1975, 1995, 2017 *Western Australian First Division (Second Division) Runners up : 1973, 1974, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1987, 2019 *Western Australian First Division Night Series Winners: 2015
2020
*Western Australian Third Division Champions: 1969 *Australian-Croatian Tournament Champions: 1980 *Western Australian First Division (Second Division) Reserves Champions: 1979, 1980, 1981, 1986 *Western Australian Cup Reserves Winners: 1976, 1999, 2004, 2008 *Western Australian Premier League Under 18 Champions: 2007 *Western Australian Cup Under 18 Winners: 2007

References

External links

Official Western Knights Website

Official Western Knights Facebook Page
{{WASL Clubs Soccer clubs in Perth, Western Australia Football West State League teams Croatian sports clubs in Australia Association football clubs established in 1968 1968 establishments in Australia

History

Notable former players

Honours

See also

References

External links