Surf Coast FC earns historic promotion

SURF Coast Football Club’s historic promotion-earning night on Saturday was not guaranteed with 45 minutes to go, but a galvanising message at half-time broke the dam wall.

Head coach Denis Holtgrefe narrowed his team’s focus at the intermission, pleading with his side to stick within its structure, with the score 0-0 against Keilor Wolves.

Christian Mahon then opened Surf Coast’s account with a sublime header from a beautifully executed corner to send the Coaster faithful into raptures.

Mahon doubled Surf Coast’s advantage six minutes later, and John Pykett put the result beyond doubt in the 62nd minute with another corner success.

The second half became a coronation after Mylton Bailey (88′) and Jasko Ikanovic (90+2′) scored the fourth and fifth goals of the evening, before supporters invaded the pitch to celebrate the team being promoted to State League 3 in 2025.

Holtgrefe was beyond proud of the group talking to the Surf Coast Times post-match, watching on as players revelled with spectators.

“At the end the day, it’s not necessarily about what is said, it’s about the culture, and we’ve built our culture over a long period of time and it was responsible for what we were able to do in the second half,” he said.

“As a group we set ourselves goals, and our goal at the start of the season was for us to get promoted because we were so close to doing that in 2023.

“We did that with a much more inexperienced squad, so this year the club allowed us to really build around our structure with a few more experienced players and we’ve reached our objective as a result.”

Captain Kreso Jurkovic said it was a long journey leading up to claiming promotion and winning the league title, after the side’s heartbreak in last year’s promotion playoffs.

“Before the game, we were ready for it. We prepared for it all week.

“All season we’ve worked very hard. We used the club and fans as motivation; they deserve it the most. The history of the club is very rich.

“We just wanted to do it for them.”

Saturday marked the first time Surf Coast FC has earned a spot in State League 3 since the competition’s inception in 2013.

It also marked the first time the club earned promotion at any competition level since 2010, when the club was promoted from State Provisional League 1 to State League 4.

Club stalwart and assistant coach Tom Langman said it was the greatest moment of his nine years at Banyul Warri Reserve.

Surf Coast FC still has three games to play in the season, with fixtures against Moonee Ponds United SC, Melbourne City FC and Melton Phoenix.

The Coasters will then take part in the State League 4 tournament against other divisional winners, with the fixture still to be determined by Football Victoria.