SOCCER JEROME Valadon and Sonny Lindsay are the first new signings of the Ross Wallis-Stephen Duffy era at Peninsula Strikers. The Centenary Park outfit has been on the hunt for promotion from State 2 South-East for the past four seasons and joint coaches Wallis and Duffy hope to realise the club’s dream. The senior squad has held five training sessions but the reserve squad is yet to assemble as the club continues to search for a new reserves coach following Paul Nott’s departure. “We didn’t want to do an expressions of interest sort of thing and have all these lads…
Author: Craig MacKenzie
SOCCER KALLISTA Tzelios is a force of nature. The Seaford United captain has taken the last three State League seasons by storm and at 24 years old has been lauded as one of the best players outside Victoria’s elite NPLW competition. But her story would have been so much different if not for the intervention of her mother Louise. Tzelios started playing with Seaford as a junior progressing to junior girls NPL with Southern United and making her senior debut with the now defunct Bayside United. But she didn’t enjoy her NPL experience. “I fell out of love with the…
SOCCER DAVEY Jones has been to hell and back – on and off the football field. He survived a vicious assault during an indoor soccer match in 2014 that left him in intensive care in the Alfred Hospital with a brain bleed and doubts that he could ever play again. “I scored and from the restart this guy ran over and started laying into me. “I couldn’t remember much about it but when I saw the CCTV footage it was completely unprovoked.” Jones was born in Frankston and started as a junior with Frankston Strikers before switching to Frankston Pines’…
Soccer PENINSULA Strikers star Cooper Andrews is a wanted man. He trained with State 1 side Mazenod early this week and he’ll be at Strikers training on Thursday but may return to his NPL junior club Kingston City now in VPL2. Cooper has spoken to new Strikers co-coaches Ross Walliss and Stephen Duffy without committing himself to staying at Centenary Park. Strikers’ rollercoaster 2025 season ended on a dramatic low when it could only draw 3-3 at home to Casey Comets handing promotion to neighbouring Skye United. “That last game was a lot to take and the emotions were all…
SOCCER CHARLIE O’Connell hopes to celebrate Baxter’s 50th anniversary next year with promotion from State 4 South-East. The 27-year-old returned to Baxter Park last season after winning successive promotions with Bayside Argonauts in 2023 and 2024 so success is no stranger. “We can’t afford to make the same slow start (next year) that we made last season,” O’Connell said. “That was maybe down to having the wrong personnel and possibly a bit of complacency. “I think with a few more quality players we could be in the running for promotion.” The State Leagues restructure has widened the opportunity for success…