Rockdale City Suns

Football club infobox
clubname = Rockdale City Suns


nickname = "Rockdale City Suns Football Club"
fullname = Rockdale Illinden Football Club
founded = 1969
ground = Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre Arncliffe,NSWSL
season = NSWSL 2006
position = Champions
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pattern_b2=_blackstripes|pattern_ra2=_redshoulders
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Rockdale City Suns (otherwise known as Rockdale Ilinden) are a football (soccer) team that plays in the New South Wales Super League. Based in the Sydney City of Rockdale in the St.George Shire, the club play their home games at the Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre located in Arncliffe, a suburb in the city of Rockdale until their new home at Bi-Centennial Park in Rockdale is complete in early 2009.

History

The Rockdale Ilinden Soccer Club was formed in 1969 by a group of Macedonian Australians who gave the team the name "Ilinden" which has special meaning for all Macedonians throughout history. The club’s first President Simon Zipevski laid the foundations as did the late Vlade Temelkovski who was President in 1978. The name Ilinden represents the Macedonian people’s struggle for freedom, justice, and recognition.

On the field the highlights would have to be the Grand Final wins in 1984, 2002 and 2006. The 1984 Grand Final winning team was coached by Rockdale Ilinden legend Ilija Takac. The 3-2 win over Inter Monaro at Marconi Stadium is firmly entrenched in the memories of the Rockdale Ilinden supporters. The team was arguably the best lineup in the famous Red and Black of Rockdale Ilinden. The team included the following superstars: goalkeeper Nick Kotsohombos; defenders Bill Pilovski, Paul Degney, Darren Wilson and Jeff Wilson; midfielders Kenny Slaveski, Vince Nastoski, Terry Jones and Bobby Yousif; and strikers Ross Brown, Branko Karanfilovski, Jimmy Ristevski and Peco Trajanovski.

It took 18 long years for the Rockdale Ilinden faithful to rejoice another 1st Grade Grand Final victory. In 2002 the coaching team of Mile Todoroski and Bill Pilovski led the team to an amazing Premiership/Championship double with only 1 loss in 24 games. In the Grand Final they would meet the Hajduk Wanderers who Rockdale defeated 5 goals to 3 just two weeks earlier in the Semi Final in very rainy and windy conditions at the Ilinden Sports Centre. The team was captained by the Black Cobra Spase Najdoski who scored the only goal in the game which in turn was the winning goal in the Grand Final in front of a crowd of 3000 at the Melita Stadium. The team was as follows: Peco Trajcevski, Ghenadie Costiuc, Tony Ju, Richard Plesa, Alex Kotevich, Malcolm Bideau, Ben Deighan, Jose Mendes, Peter Apolevski, Denis Alilovic, Leo Carle, Nick Bosevski, Goce Trposki, Anthony Adamo, Ivan Necevski and Spase Najdoski.

Four years later in 2006, Rockdale Ilinden would claim another Grand Final victory this time over the Penrith Nepean Panthers.In the Semi Final, Rockdale defeated the Panthers in a penalty shoot-out after the game was locked at 1-1 after extra time at the Ilinden Sports Centre. They would meet two weeks later in the Grand Final in front of a crowd of 2000 at the Melita Stadium and again Rockdale would come out victorious winning the match 1-0. The Panthers would gain promotion to the Premier League as Rockdale's application would be denied by the NSW Football Federation due to the Ilinden Sports Centre not meeting specific criteria's for promotion.

The Rockdale Ilinden Soccer Club have been led by a wide array of coaching identities over their history. Some of the better remembered are: Kaz Kulak, Archie Blue, Ilija Takac, Ati Abonyi, Ljubo Gojkovic, Geoff Hoggart, John Fleming (1980s), Ljubo Jancev, Bill Pilovski, Manfred Schaefer, Risto Gojkovski, Rale Rasic, Doug Utjesenovic, Bill Temelkovski, Bill Boskovski, Gerry Gomez (1990s), Mile Todoroski, Ivan Petkovic, Zlatko Nastevski and current coach Mike Grbevski.

The list of illustrious players is no less impressive with the likes of the following donning the Rockdale Ilinden shirt over the years. Starting with the golden oldies like Bill Pilovski, Terry Jones, Ross Brown, Darren Wilson, Branko Karanfilovski, Zlatko Markovski to more recent stars of the NSL like Robert Spasevski, George Jolevski, Mike Grbevski, Alvin Ceccoli, Tony Perinich, Ivo De Jesus, David Aceski and Ben Blake. We have also had high profile players such as Tony Franken, Tony Sekulic, Ivan Petkovic, Gerry Gomez, Paul Fernandes, Blagoja Kuleski, Richard Plesa, Kresimir Marusic, Francis Awaritefe, Nick Orlic, Spase Najdoski and of course Zlatko Nastevski. Then there was the late football legend Joe Watson.

The club recently rewarded former player, captain and coach Zlatko Markovski the honour of being recognised as the Most Popular Player in the club's history.

Other highlights over the year’s would have to include our reputation both nationally and internationally. Few clubs would be able to boast having played matches against Macedonian clubs Vardar Skopje and Pobeda Prilep as well as former World Club Champions Red Star Belgrade. We have also played against the Australian train-on squad and had the Socceroos train at our grounds. In 2000 we also had the pleasure to host the Italian Olympic Soccer team during the Sydney Olympics.

One thing needed to be pointed out is that these events happened at the Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre which is something that the Macedonian community are all truly be proud of as representatives and supporters of the club who put their time and money (as well as blood, sweat and tears) into the project and made the dream a reality.

Rockdale City Suns are backed strongly by the Macedonian community in the area. Along with Bankstown, Bonnyrigg White Eagles(Serbian Based Club) and former NSL clubs Sydney United(Croatian Based Club), Marconi (Italian Based Club) and Sydney Olympic, these clubs with Rockdale apart from Sydney FC who play in Australia's Elite Competition the A League rate as the best supported teams in the NSW football league with always above average crowd support turning up to each home and away games compared to other teams in the league.

Club

In recent years, the club has had to move its playing location several times due to the construction of Sydney's M5 Motorway right next to the ground. The club played its home games in Wollongong at John Crehan Park (home of the Cringila Lions a largely supported Macedonian Football Club based in the Illawarra region) during the Motorways construction. Apart from Rockdale's usual local supporter base, the club enjoyed huge support during there time in Wollongong due in part to the largely populated Macedonian community in the Illawarra Region.The local council of Rockdale has announced plans to build the club a new stadium and new club in the area to replace their home at Arncliffe. Before the council had released this information, Rockdale City Suns were trying to get the rights of leasing the poorly conditioned St. George Stadium which is also located in Rockdale but were denied by the council to receive any funding to get it back to suitable playing standards. Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre, where the Suns currently play, has 2 fields (1 training and 1 main), 200+ space car park,2 scoreboards, canteen, field lights, club and seating around the field. Due to the ground not meeting the criteria of Football NSW (suitable grandstand,seating and suitable lighting for night games), the Suns have been playing in the NSW Super League since 1999 which is one division below the Premier League.Even though they have won Super League Titles there applications for promotion have been denied because of the ground and are waiting for their new stadium and new club to be built at Rockdale's Bi-Centennial Park and hopefully in the near future be back in the Premier League. Assisting the Suns in the project will be the invaluable support of the Hon Frank Sartor MP as well as the continued support of the Rockdale City Council. Both the current Mayor Shaoquett Moselmane and Deputy Mayor Bill Saravinovski have been long time friends of the club and will continue to work with the club to ensure there long term future.

Rivalry

A rivalry exists between the Rockdale City Suns and the Bankstown City Lions or as the Macedonians know them by as Sydney Macedonia (another club backed heavily by Sydney's Macedonian community). Due to past ethnic tensions between Macedonians and Greeks, rivalries also exist between Rockdale City Suns and several Sydney based teams with a Greek fan base. These clubs include Sydney Olympic FC and the West Sydney (Canterbury) Berries.

Local Derby

Rockdale City Suns local derby game is against the St.George Saints. There home ground St.George Stadium is in walking distance and can be seen from the Ilinden Sports Centre. A canal coming from the Cooks River separates the two grounds. Due to the poor state of St.George Stadium the local derby was played at the Belmore Sports Ground St.George's current home ground in the neighbouring Canterbury District. Another local derby is against the Sutherland Sharks, Sutherland representing the neighbouring Sutherland Shire with Rockdale representing the St.George Shire.

pecial Info

The Club President is Zlatko Agioski, the previous president was Mendo Cklamovski previously the Club Secretary and has been with the club since 1992.In 2006, 1st Grade coach Zlatko Nastevski led the Rockdale City Suns into the 2006 NSW Super League competition where in the Grand Final they defeated Penrith-Nepean with the final score 2-1.The current coach for the 2008 season is Michael Grbevski.

Premierships

3
Premier League Titles(formally known as the NSW First Division):1984 Marconi StadiumRockdale Ilinden 3 - 2 Inter Monaro (Rockdale did not gain promotion to the National Soccer League as Inter Monaro placed 1st on the table).

Super League Titles (formally known as the NSW Second Division):2000 Melita Stadium Rockdale Ilinden 1 - 0 Hajduk Wanderers(did not gain promotion to premier league due to ground not meeting premier league criteria)2006 Melita StadiumRockdale Ilinden 2 - 1 Penrith-Nepean (did not gain promotion to premier league due to ground not meeting criteria)

upporters Group

Forming in 2000 at the semi final against Hajduk Wanderers at Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre, the fan base is known as the "Suns Army" or "Komiti Sydney" based on the highly regarded supporters in Europe "Komiti" who support Vardar Skopje , one of the most successful football teams in the Republic Of Macedonia.

Notable Former Players

*flagicon|SCO Stewart Porter (1988-92) [http://www.ozfootball.net/ark/Players/P/PO.html]
*Tony Sekulic
*Francis Awaritefe
*Alvin Ceccoli

External links

* [http://www.rockdalecitysuns.com Official site]