Nineties
Merger
The club needed a new start, an injection of new enthusiasm and endeavour. It also identified the need to recommit to junior development. These considerations led to discussions in 1990 at a committee level with Heathfield Rovers regarding the possibility of a merger. Heathfield Rovers had a strong base in juniors as well as senior teams playing in the Collegiate League.
The discussions proved fruitful and, following the agreement of the members of both clubs at their 1990 AGMs, the merger was completed with the new club taking on the name Stirling District Soccer Club.
Stirling faced a number of challenges in blending the club together, including the logistics of three different playing venues. The Heathfield Rovers juniors were based at Mylor Oval and their seniors at Bradwood Park (Bradbury), which were at the opposite end of the old Stirling District Council area from the Woodside Oval clubrooms.
Search for a Home
The club decided to keep the juniors at Mylor and committed to improving the facilities from the existing small change rooms with attached kitchen. The club did eventually assist with the improvements at that facility several years later.
The Division Six (Sunday) side remained with the main facilities at Woodside and the decision was made to move the Collegiate League teams to the higher standard Amateur League (Saturday). This posed a difficulty as the Bradwood Park facility had no showers and a new home ground needed to be found for those teams.
Woodside Oval was the preferred option, but a clash with junior football (Australian Rules) was unable to be resolved with the facility’s management committee. Mylor was unsuitable, again due to the lack of showers. Finally as a stop gap measure, an agreement was made with Stirling Council to hire Stirling Oval.
Meanwhile the club, with the support of the Council commenced a concerted search for a home ground that would have sufficient room for two full size pitches, to allow the club to consolidate its senior activities on one site. The search considered and ruled out the following locations:- Woodside Oval (too small), Woodside Education Department Land (not available), Mylor Oval (conservation issues), Mylor Recreation Centre (too expensive and complex) and Stirling Oval (development restrictions). Finally the Bradwood Park location was considered. The location was not ideal and the development costs would be significant due to the excavation and levelling required, however the Council agreed to assist the club in developing the grounds. With no alternatives available the club agreed to take on the massive project of redeveloping Bradwood Park.
The first step was to move the Saturday teams to Bradwood Park with hired shower blocks in 1993. Showers were then constructed within the existing building for the 1994 season thanks to the efforts of senior player (and tiler) John Van Mierle.
On the Field
Between 1991 and 1994 the new club grew in membership, reaching a peak of approximately 10 junior teams (from under 8’s through to under 16’s), a women’s team and four senior men’s teams. Coaches of the men’s teams were Peter Buckley (Sunday Sixth Division) and Jim Simpson (Saturday Second Division).
Results were immediate, with the Sixth Division team gaining a lucky promotion in 1991 with a third place finish. Good recruitment saw the club consolidate in the Fifth Division for two seasons before pushing for a title challenge in 1994. 1994 was to prove a watershed year for the club in many ways.
With two matches to go in the 1994 season Stirling were sitting on top of the Sixth Division ladder and looking a good prospect to win the clubs first championship (after 28 years of trying) and with it promotion. Unfortunately poor results in the last two games (including a loss against the bottom team) meant that Stirling dropped to equal second, but in third place on goal difference.
The Saturday teams meanwhile achieved only mid table finishes in the early nineties, often losing their better players to the Sunday teams. A not entirely healthy rivalry built up within the club between the two squads and tempers often flared during internal club matches. In 1994 coach Jim Simpson also joined the Sunday team as co-coach with Steve Bradley stepping in at the last minute to fill the vacant coaching role for the Saturday teams.
1994 also saw the introduction of a women’s team to the club for the first time, playing in the South Australian Women’s Soccer Association (SAWSA). The idea was floated by senior player James De’Ath and with the clubs support he advertised for players and began to put the team together. With De’Ath unable to commit to coaching responsibilities the job was taken on by co-coaches Paul DeBoni and David Hoffman. The team consisted of some girls who had never played the game before, some girls who had played in junior boys (mixed) teams, one woman who had never played before and one experienced woman player.
The first two matches were lost without managing to field a full team, but this was followed by a string of wins which incredibly took the girls near to the top of the table and to a cup final at Hindmarsh stadium. The standout player in the team was Jessica Halfpenny who went on to represent the state at senior level, being named in an Australian ‘All Star’ team at the national championships. The Cup Final was lost 0-5 to Cumberland on a Wednesday night and the same teams met again on the Sunday with Stirling needing a draw to win the league. The match finished in a 1-2 loss. Despite losing both the Cup & League in a week, the team were ecstatic at their season.
The 1994 season also saw the club finalise the development application for Bradwood Park and at an Extraordinary General Meeting it was agreed by the members to push ahead with relocating the club to Bradwood Park. Stage One was construction of the clubrooms. A loan was subsequently arranged with the Council for $52,000 to purchase materials for the construction of club rooms. Thanks to the efforts of club President (and local builder) Dieter Wirkus, who led a small sub-committee to manage the project, and the volunteer labour provided by many club members, the clubrooms were completed at the end of 1994.
The disappointment of missing out on the Championship, as well as missing out on promotion to the Fourth Division, was to prove a crushing blow. Stirling were approached by the fledgling Hills Hawks federation club to assist their growth from juniors into senior teams. Coach Peter Buckley was offered the position as their senior coach. Faced with a fait accompli, Stirling gave their blessing to the move, which also resulted in the loss of a number of senior players to the Hawks.
Other senior Sunday players, not wanting to join the Stirling Saturday teams broke away and started a senior team at Hahndorf, who had previously only fielded junior teams.
Memories of the Mid-Nineties
The Hahndorf web site forum has become the meeting place for a number of people across the Saturday divisions between 2005-2007. The following are a couple of memories of Stirling District and Bradwood Park in the mid-nineties from that site.
“We entered the League in 1994 in Div 2. Stirling were in there too. Our Secretary – genius that he is – told us that SD’s ground was in Woodside and we foolishly believed him.
On arrival at Woodside there was nothing and no one around. By some miracle the father of one of our young players thought the game might be at Bradwood Park, and even more miraculously knew how to get there. In the pre mobile phone age we made a convoy and got there with ten minutes to go to the start.
Temperature was about 2 celsius, with howling wind blowing hail into our faces – welcome to Jurassic Park. If you stood in the middle of the ground [at 90 degrees to how it now is] you could not see the base of the posts at either end. This is true. A creek ran across it widthways.
The development of that facility to its current state is a miracle that will one day appear on National Geographic Channel, entitled ‘Great Engineering Feats of our times’ or something similar. We won 3-1 and were all admited to hospital with hypothermia. That Secretary was sacked.
And now – the crowning joy – we are drawn to play up there in the Cup QF. I am not usually neurotic but why is it that the Saturday teams are always given the chance to knock each other out before the Final?
Settle TB. As Scully & Mulder used to say ‘the answer is out there…’
TB (St Peters)”
“Those were the days of the Bradwood bounce. The patches of dirt were interspersed with clumps of what we loosely called ‘grass’. If you were unlucky enough for the ball to hit the edge of a clump it literally went off at a 45 degree angle.
You didn’t even mention the slope on the ground. In the redevelopment they raised the lower end 5 metres, in other words it was approximately a 5% gradient. That’s what the Tour de France riders call a Category 4 climb!
The only club rooms were the current change rooms. The away team were in where the showers are now and on a rainy day the spectators would crowd around inside what is now the home change room door craning their necks to see past the others & watch the action. Having the barbecue inside was the only thing that kept us unfrozen.
I remember running from the change rooms to the hired plastic shower block, in zero degrees, in drenching rain, towel wrapped around to preserve my modesty and clean clothes under one arm. The mud squelching between the toes on the way was the crowning glory of the moment.
Presidents & other committee people of the day were known to go out after the A grade game and spread seed by hand in the worst patches or take barrow loads of loam out & fill in the worst holes. It actually did make a difference & over a period of about 5 years the ground did improve dramatically.
They were great days!
DH (Stirling)”
The Path of Victory
The loss of players to both the Hawks and Hahndorf proved impossible for the Sunday teams to recover from, and midway through the 1995 season the Sunday teams folded, despite the valiant efforts of coach Phil Brooks.
A new women’s team coach, Linda, was appointed and new players were recruited including Amanda Hewison (who went on to represent the state at senior level) and goalkeeper Emma Wirkus (former member of the Matildas). A number of other players went on to gain selection in state under age squads. Bringing a wealth of experience as a winning basketball coach, Linda took the team to the clubs first senior championship in 1995.
The club meanwhile appointed former Adelaide City juniors coach Eddie Berger as senior coach for the Saturday teams. Berger introduced a new focus on youth and skill development. Advertising for an Under 19 competition which subsequently didn’t eventuate brought a group of young, talented players to the club who would form the player base for the next 7 years. The seventh place finishes during his two years from 1995-96 do not reflect his important contribution in bringing these younger players through.
Wanting to build on the technical work done by Berger the club next appointed Rob Booth as coach. His focus was on tactical development of the team and tactical decision making. This was a perfect fit for the continued development of the young squad. Unfortunately the team remained anchored in the bottom half of the table finishing seventh and sixth in 1997-98.
The next coach appointed in 1999 was James Brown who took a talented and tactical group of players and introduced a new work ethic and winning mentality. His appointment also coincided with the arrival of Charles Holding (a former club junior) which would prove a decisive addition. At the end of the century, after 33 years of trying, Stirling finally won a men’s championship, finishing the season as winners of the Saturday Division Two competition. Charles Holding won the League Best and Fairest award and Nick Briggs won the league Golden Boot award with 16 goals. The Reserves finished Runner Up, the highest Reserve Grade result in the clubs history.