The New Century

James Brown remained as coach in 2000 for the clubs first season in the First Division achieving a creditable fourth placing. Holding backed up his previous year’s effort winning the First Division league Best and Fairest award.

This was a great year for Stirling as the development application for Bradwood Park was successful in achieving government funding for the project to be added used in conjunction with contributions from the Council and club members. Planning for the development was ramped up to commence in 2001, with President Peter Cooper leading a small sub-committee to ensure the smooth running of the project.

Damian Hone was appointed coach for the 2001 season. He faced difficulties in the loss of Holding to the Hills Hawks and the commencement of the redevelopment of Bradwood Park. Training was relocated to Mylor with the associated lack of showers and poor lighting. The home ground was relocated to Stirling Oval for the season. Despite recruiting well these obstacles didn’t help the team as its results slumped. In an effort to lift the spirits the club managed to play the last match of the season at the newly established Bradwood Park pitch. A poor 1-9 loss consigned the club to relegation when a draw would have been enough to ensure safety.

2002 saw the return to the club of Peter Buckley from the Hawks as coach and his appointment of Jim Simpson to the coaching team. Holding also returned and Buckley recruited a number of other ex-Hawks players. This resulted in a strong side winning the Second Division undefeated with a league record points tally. Holding this time winning both the league Best and Fairest and the league Golden Boot awards. The Reserves also finished the season as champions, the only time the club have achieved this feat. As First Division Champions, Stirling faced up against Salisbury Inter, the Sunday First Division Champions in a Champion of Champions match, winning on penalties after a 2-2 draw after extra time.

The return to the First Division nearly proved too much for the squad in 2003 as it slumped to eighth, just avoiding relegation on the last day of the season.

Buckley further strengthened the squad by recruitment from the Hawks in 2004 and Simpson was replaced by Chris Hodgskin on the coaching team. The season was the clubs most successful ever, winning the First Division Championship. Holding again won the league Best and Fairest award.

This was followed in 2005 and 2006 with consecutive Runner Up finishes in the league, with the Reserves also Runners Up in 2006. The club also reached a Cup semi-final in 2005, the first in the clubs history (the previous best being quarter-final appearances in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1973).

Buckley backed up his 2004 premier win in 2007 with another champion’s title before leaving the club and moving on to coach Sturt Marion Thunder for the 2008 season. Alan Evans set another milestone for the club in 2007 taking the Reserves Title as Player Coach, the first ever Div 1 Reserves title attained by the club.

2008 saw Juan Rodriguez take the helm as senior coach and had a reasonably successful first season in charge as both the A’s and Reserves placed a respectable 3rd in the league. Stirling saw more silverware flow into the club in the following year with Alan Evans again leading the Reserves to another championship as player coach. The A’s however struggled in 2009 and 2010, narrowly avoiding relegation in both years by winning their last game of the season. 2010 was Rodriguez’s last year in charge of the A’s, his successor being Alan Evans who has played under and coached alongside both Buckley and Rodriguez

In 2011 Alan Evans took the reigns of the senior team and finished an impressive 3rd and was unlucky not to have clinched the title, narrowly missing out by 2 points. Reserves player coach Caderyn McEwen helped his side clinch the 2011 reserves title on the final day. 2012 saw Tyron Blunt take charge in what was a season to forget, which saw the club relegated on the final day.

The 2013 season was contested in Division 2 and a welcomed return to former coach and long time serving player Alan Evans. Ambitions of returning to the top flight were put on hold as a number of narrow losses contributed to a 4th place finish. The following year Peter Cottle was appointed as the new manager which also bought in a few new faces to the first team. Cottle’s first season was successful, finishing second and lifting the club back into the Premier Division. The reserves team dominated both the 2013 and 2014 seasons in division 2, claiming championships under coaches Chris Winters and Gary Thwaites respectively. The club returned to the top division in 2015 and with a new influx of players managed to survive a relegation fight to finish the season in 8th position. Bob Barnard was appointed as the new first team manager for the 2016 season with Steve Spencer at his side as reserves coach.