North West Sydney Spirit FC

Australia Championship.

NWS Spirit last year actually winning the premiership to qualify, but then leaving Spirit before the actual start of the championship.

So this will actually be his first taste as a manager-

Yes, correct

They beat Preston Lions, which I'm sure nobody would have predicted.

They were a little bit unlucky.

I saw them against, uh, NWS Spirit.

Mm.

She won't hesitate.

So when you returned to Australia, you signed with Northern Spirit for a short period of time.

That's when the medical examinations revealed your deterioration in your hip and ankle.

What had happened physically? Was that

I played about... maybe 10 games for them, scored four or five goals for them.

I don't know how because I couldn't run.

And one day I was still being paid by Northern Spirit and I just called up Arnie.

I said, mate, I don't want to take money anymore under false pretenses.

He's going to back what he does and we'll see what happens.

Well, and that's the thing, like, you know, you can't deny Perko what he's done at NWS Spirit and now Sutherland Sharks.

But like you said, kind of Nick Olsen was that kind of marquee signing, kind of turned a lot of heads at the start of the NPL season.

And now it's doing the opposite leading into your championship.

And so they were tasked with going out and buying Rumble on the Rock.

Spirit FC.

Spirit FC.

And, of course, Cage Rage.

We were the only one in Europe.

And then obviously you get the kids that then, because they've been developed quite well by the club, they are actually becoming quite talented now.

And so they get to go and play at places like Manly United, Northern Tigers, Spirit FC, St. George, wherever they decide to go, Sydney Wanderers, uh, [laughs] uh, Sydney FC.

And the other ones that are at club level stay at club level, and they keep going through.

So I ca- I coached both my kids through Division One.

looking at them.

So, you know, having a Marconi in their group, will they overcome Marconi who also, you know, kind of faded out towards the back end of the season, you know, lost in the elimination final to NWS Spirit just last week gone.

So they'll be also looking for a bit of revenge.

Last year's grand finalists, can they do something? And then you look at a Bayswater and Oakley Cannons, you know, you got to put some respect on these teams.

We've already kind of touched on some of these results when we were previewing the groups, but in the elimination finals, this was midweek, this was last Wednesday night, Sutherland were knocked out by Man Utd on penalties.

After rescuing the fixture with a 90-minute equaliser to make it 1-1, they eventually went down 5-4 on pens at home.

Meanwhile, at the Palace, the Marconi Stadions were stunned by NWS Spirit who defeated the Stadions 3-1 to end their season, which had so much promise just a few weeks ago, being top of the NPL New South Wales competition to finishing third and then also getting knocked out on the first week of finals.

So Marconi will be scratching their heads and again will be wanting to come out even stronger and better for the Australia Championship.