Drysdale Soccer Club celebrates 10 years

DRYSDALE Soccer Club celebrated its 10th anniversary at the weekend in front of a healthy crowd of supporters, past players and sponsors at the Drysdale Sports Precinct.

Established back in 2009 by founder Geoff Briggs, the club brought together a group of players from Drysdale and Clifton Springs who were previously playing at other clubs around the region.

Initially starting with an indoor soccer team, and then one men’s team, the club has grown rapidly to now boast more than 270 registered players with a huge increase in junior and women’s players over the past five years.

The day featured a boy’s Under 14 game followed by the two senior men’s teams in action, with all three teams coming away with wins to cap off a fantastic day for the club.

The Under 14s accounted for Barwon 7-0, the Men’s Reserves beating Leopold 4-0 and the Senior Men’s defeating Leopold 5-3 in a fiery, action-packed encounter.

Star striker Leo Sharaf netted a hattrick and Michael Simpson continued his good run of form with a first half double.

The seniors raced out to a 4-0 first half lead, before Leopold.

New A-League club Western United supported the day with past Socceroo captain Steve Horvat (now Western United’s director of football) and Robert Palmaricciotti joining as special guests, and a men’s “Team of the Decade” announced.

Team of the Decade: Nick Hopper, Ippei Mac, Zac Atkins, Danny Graham, Steve Marsh, Jack Van Wren, Steve Weeks, Andrew Scott, Steve Newton, Dougie Weeks and Chris Alfredson. Bench – Dan Roddis, Mark Hand, Jordy O’Connor, Hayden Reed and Louis Stockman. Coach – Jarrod Gladman.