Geelong SC

The Geelong Soccer and Sports Club was established in the early 1950s as a way of playing soccer and socialising.

Not long after the club was established, it began competing in the local Geelong and Ballarat Soccer League where it experienced local success.

In the early seventies the club was promoted to the Victorian Provisional League and later gained promotion to the Victorian State League.

The most recent significance in the club’s history was achieved in 1994 when the club merged with the East Geelong Soccer and Sports Club for financial reasons.

Since the season of 1968, the club has won 8 premierships. The premierships were won in the following seasons: 1968 – 1969 – 1970 – 1976 – 1980 – 1988 – 1996 – 1998.

Geelong had a strong second half of the season in 2015, but the poor first couple of months meant that the ambitious outfit had to settle for 6th place in State League 2 North-West.[3] In the 2015 FFA Cup preliminary rounds, Geelong beat Waverley Wanderers 5–0, Hoppers Crossing 3–1 and Westgate FC 3–1 to progress to the fifth qualifying round. There, they met National Premier Leagues Victoria powerhouse Hume City FC, going down 4–0 at John Ilhan Memorial Reserve.

Geelong went on a heavy recruiting spree to aid its push for promotion in season 2016. Players signed included former A-League player İsyan Erdogan, Victorian top-flight experienced Ross Harvey, Brodie Paterson, Craig Sweeney, Kingston City FC 2015 top goalscorer Sean McIlroy and former Chile youth goalkeeper Carlos Espinoza.[4][5] Later in the season, Geelong also signed former A-League player Nick Kalmar.[6] With the star-studded squad, Geelong won the State 2 North-West title and subsequent promotion to State League 1 North-West for 2017.[7] After the conclusion of the 2016 season, Steve Laurie left his position as head coach of the club.[8]

Geelong appointed former Avondale FC coach Fabrizio Soncin as the club's new senior head coach,[9] but the association ended after just one round of the 2017 season, with Soncin resigning "by mutual agreement with the board".[10] The newly-promoted side started the season with four consecutive wins, including a win over sister-club and Victorian football heavyweight Preston Lions in Round 1. The highlight of the season was undoubtedly the 4-0 Round 18 win over eventual league champions Altona Magic.[11] Geelong finished their first ever season in State League One in second place, eight points short of Magic and three clear of North Sunshine Eagles .[12] Star recruit Kuczynski was the side's top goalscorer with 18 goals.[13]

In 2018 Geelong achieved promotion to National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 by narrowly taking out the State League 1 championship.[14] At the conclusion of the season, championship-winning head coach Domenic Barba resigned from his position.

For the 2019 NPL2 season, former Brunswick City coach George Karkaletsis took over as senior head coach of the club. On 25 March 2019 Geelong SC issued a public statement confirming that Karkaletsis had departed the club after 6 league games in charge and an embarrassing 4-2 loss to their cross-town rivals, North Geelong Warriors.[15] On 28 March 2019, the previous season's title winning coach Domenic Barba was confirmed as his replacement, initially on an interim basis. Barba was relieved of his duties after a 1-0 loss in a catch-up round fixture against Northcote City FC, leaving the Lions in a shambles with 4 games remaining. Assistant coach Gabriel Markaj took over as head coach.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ROU Bogdan Nicolescu — MF  ENG Matthew Thorne — MF  AUS İsyan Erdogan — GK  AUS Dylan Nikolovski — DF  ENG Josh Pugh — MF  AUS Alex Stojanovski — FW  AUS Josh Talev — DF  ENG Matthew Townley — DF  AUS Billy Argyros — MF  AUS Michael Trigger — MF  SSD Yach Bol

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ENG Louis Bentley — MF  AUS Melvin Becket — FW  AUS Phillip Ajao — FW  AUS Adamson Ajayi — MF  AUS Srecko Mitrovic — FW  SSD Denis Yongule — FW  AUS Michael Yoseski — GK  AUS Heath Hayes — MF  AUS Cameron Kulcanovski — DF  AUS Mitchell Johns — DF  AUS Shaun Owens