Whittlesea Ranges is a professional soccer club based in the suburbs of

Epping Epping may refer to: Places Australia * Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Epping railway station, Sydney * Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...

and Lalor,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. All home games are played at

Epping Stadium Epping Stadium is an Australian soccer ground on Harvest Home Rd in Epping, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. The stadium has a capacity of 10,000, with approximately 1000 seats in its sole grandstand. The venue was host to several National Socc ...

. Formed in 1971, the club currently competes in the Victorian State League 1 North-West after were Relegated from NPL Victoria 3 competition.

Recent History

In 2011, coached by Dean Fak, Whittlesea Ranges were promoted from the State League Division Two North-West, beating

Box Hill United Box Hill United Soccer Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 3. United is based at Wembley Park in Box Hill South. ...

and

Langwarrin Langwarrin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Frankston local government area. Langwarrin recorded a population of 23,588 at the . Langwarrin is bounde ...

in the play-off fixtures after finishing runners up to

Werribee City Werribee City Football Club is an Australia semi-professional association football, soccer club based in Werribee, Melbourne, currently playing in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 competition. The club plays its home games at Galvin Park ...

in the league. Ranges appointed Zoran Markovski as the coach for the 2012 State League One season. He was replaced by fellow former

Melbourne Knights Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, the second-tier of the Australian soccer league ...

National Soccer League player Vinko Buljubasic after 13 rounds. Whittlesea were, however, unable to stave off relegation from the State League Division One competition, losing the playoff fixture against Box Hill. Whittlesea finished in 9th place in the 2013 State League Two North-West competition. In the inaugural season of the

National Premier Leagues The National Premier Leagues (NPL) is a national association football competition in Australia which acts as the second tier of the sport in the country below the A-League. The NPL consists of the highest level state league in each state-based ...

, Ranges finished in 13th place in the 14 team

National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 The National Premier Leagues Victoria 2, commonly referred to as NPL Victoria 2, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is the second-highest in the Victorian league system, behind the National Premier Leagues Vic ...

competition, utilising one of the youngest sides in the league. The next season, following the addition of another six teams, the competition was split into an East and West conference, each compromising of 10 teams. In the new format, Ranges finished in 7th place in NPL2 West. In 2016, Ranges added former

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

defender

Naum Sekulovski Naum Sekulovski (born 14 May 1982 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player who plays for Preston Lions Preston Lions Football Club (formerly Preston Makedonia Soccer Club) is a soccer club from Presto ...

to the side. The club finished the season in 4th place, despite striker Atilla Ofli winning the NPL2 West golden boot with 32 goals in 28 games. In 2017, Whittlesea finished the season in 5th place. After the season, head coach Vinko Buljubasic left his position. For the 2018 NPL2 West season, Whittlesea appointed Gianfranco Impellizeri. Impellizeri had led

Dandenong Thunder SC Dandenong Thunder SC is a soccer club from Dandenong, a suburb in the South-East region of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. They are an Albanian Australian-backed club. Thunder compete in the National Premier Leagues Victoria. In 2012, Danden ...

to promotion from NPL2 East in 2017. The club also signed former

Socceroo The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated wi ...

Simon Colosimo Simon Colosimo (born 8 January 1979) is an Australian former soccer player who played as a centre back and defensive midfielder. He spent two years playing in Europe with spells in the Premier League with Manchester City and in the Belgian Fir ...

. In late May, Impellizeri departed Ranges, with the club sitting in second-bottom place and was replaced by former

Sunshine George Cross FC Caroline Springs George Cross Football Club is an Australian soccer club based in Fraser Rise, a north-western suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and plays in State League Division 1, the fourth tier of football in Victoria. George C ...

manager Tony Ciantar. Colosimo also departed the club. Ciantar brought with him a change in form a guided Ranges to a sixth-placed finish for 2018. Ciantar was sacked as the club's senior head coach after eight rounds of the 2019 season, with Ranges sitting in bottom place with 2 points. George Karkaletsis was named as Whittlesea's new manager. Despite overseeing a significant turnaround in the second half of the season, Karkaletsis' Ranges were unable to avoid , finishing in 8th place. Alfredo Costantino was appointed as Head Coach in the 2021 Season to replace Karkaletsis, with the team sitting last on the ladder. The season got cancelled because of Covid. Alfredo started as Senior Coach for 2022 Season, however, he left Ranges with one win (13 lost one draw and one win through the season The Club took direction to appoint Technical Director/U21 Head Coach, Safi ayoush for the remainder of the 2022 Season but despite all efforts, the team gained 3 points with 6 rounds left under his guidance with better performance safi ayoush role at Whittlesea Ranges Football Club has varied over the years, he enjoyed 5 years in our Senior Structure as Head Coach and Assistant Coach, but most recently he has overseen a number of very successful players in his role as the clubs Football Director, Technical Director and also led Whittlesea Ranges Football Club U21 squad as recently as 2022, where he then took a caretaker role as Senior Mens Head Coach towards the end of season 2022. Given this experience and passion for Whittlesea Ranges Football Club and Football in general, they have rewarded him with this appointment and they see him as a major driving force in returning Whittlesea Ranges FC to its former glory.

External links

foxsportspulse

Official Whittlesea Ranges website

Facebook

References

{{AUS fb state Vic Soccer clubs in Melbourne Association football clubs established in 1971 1971 establishments in Australia Italian-Australian culture in Melbourne Italian-Australian backed sports clubs of Victoria Sport in the City of Whittlesea