West Canberra Wanderers FC

West Canberra Wanderers FC

Full name	West Canberra Wanderers Football Club
Nickname(s)	Wanderers
Founded	2014 as Woden-Weston FC (WMFC-1971 and WVFC-2007)
Ground	Melrose High School (Canberra)
Capacity	1,000
Coordinates	35°20′40″S149°5′47″E / 35.34444°S 149.09639°E / -35.34444; 149.09639
President	Steve Rohan-Jones
Technical Director	Rey Castro
League	Capital Premier League
2023	NPL Capital Football, 8th of 8 (relegated)
Website	https://www.westcanberrawanderers.org.au/
Home colours Away colours
Current season

West Canberra Wanderers Football Club, previously known as Woden-Weston FC is a semi-professional soccer club based in Canberra, Australia. The club currently competes in the Capital Premier League.

West Canberra Wanderers FC field teams in Junior and senior (adult) men's and women's National Premier League competitions in the ACT. The club has historic links to the community clubs Woden Valley Football Club and Weston-Molonglo Football Club.

History

Weston Molonglo FC (formally Weston Creek Soccer Club), founded in 1971, competed in the ACT Premier League from 1992 to 2002 when the club dropped out of the top level of men's football in the ACT due to the retirements of Warren Barsley and James Lee from presidency and senior men's chair respectively. ^[1]

Woden Valley FC was formed in 2007 to distinguish itself as a senior club from junior club Woden Valley SC (formed in 1989), and participated in the ACT Premier League and later the National Premier League: Capital Football until 2014.

In late 2014, then Woden Valley FC President John Brooks approached Weston-Molonglo FC men's chair Chris Webb to discuss the possibility of a merged entity to enter the NPL and women's Premier League.

Woden-Weston FC was incorporated in November 2014 with the intention to merge the elite levels of Woden Valley FC and Weston Molonglo FC into one club to compete in the 2015 National Premier League: Capital Football and beyond.

20 February 2015, the new merged club was officially launched as Woden-Weston FC at the Woden Tradies Club, with the two regional ACT clubs, together fielding combined teams in the NPL and women's premier league from u12's through to seniors, however the community league sides (both junior and senior) remained under the separate control of the two community clubs: Weston-Molonglo FC and Woden Valley SC.

The new merged club adopted the colours from both clubs with the black from Weston-Molonglo and Red from Woden Valley picked to form the new strip. The strip has been compared to the Western Sydney Wanderers home strip with red and black hoops. The inaugural manager appointed to the men's NPL team was former Canberra FC coach Miro Trninic while the women's PL inaugural manager was long-time Weston-Molonglo coach Pat Mills. The inaugural club technical director was 'Rockin' Rod Lyons. ^[2]

By the end of 2016, due to various differences between Woden Valley FC and Woden-Weston FC, the clubs agreed to separate, becoming their own entities again.

2015 Inaugural season

On 12 April 2015, Woden-Weston FC took to the field away from home for their maiden men's first grade ACT NPL match against Tigers FC relinquishing a one-goal lead to lose narrowly 2-1. ^[3]

On 24 April 2015, Woden-Weston played their inaugural home match at Woden Park against Tuggeranong United in what was billed as the Southside derby and was the inaugural match for the Mount Taylor Cup. ^[4] Under the flood-lights the Woden-Weston boys secured an historic first victory for the club in a crushing 4–0 victory. Both Pepe Varga and Tim Anderson scored braces in the match, enabling the players to lift the newly created Mount Taylor Cup. ^[5]

2016 season

On 2 November 2015, Woden Weston FC appointed Martin Lategui as men's head coach along with a number of other coaching appointments for the 2016 season. ^[6]

On 13 May 2016, after five matches in charge, Martin Lategui quit as head coach of Woden-Weston. Club president, Steve Rohan-Jones stressed philosophical differences on how the first team is run was the main reason for the split. ^[7] Technical Director Rey Castro was appointed interim Head Coach for the remainder of the 2016 season. ^[8]

While only the club's second season this was a fairly successful season, with the clubs NPL u/13s winning the grand final to clinch the championship.

2017 season

4 October 2016, Woden Weston appointed Tony Olivera as the club's new men's first team Head Coach as well as a list of new coaching staff for the 2017 NPL season. Long time Woden Valley coaches ^[9]

2018 season

27 November 2017, Woden Weston FC appointed El Salvadoran born Rey Castro as the club's Head Coach and Technical Director. Castro had previously managed a young Wanderers Men's 1st grade on interim basis in 2016 (managing 2 wins and a draw in 12 games). As announced in Woden - Weston FC's Facebook page, Rey Castro's appointment as a Head Coach is a continuing football strategy from Wanderers officials to consolidate a pathway to NPL football for youth (women and men) in the region. Castro has been part of Wanderer's coaching staff for the previous two seasons as Technical Director.

Club facilities

Woden-Weston FC play home fixtures at the newly redeveloped Woden Park facility (co-shared with ACT Little Athletics ) and Melrose Enclosed (Pearce 1). These are redeveloped facilities that have been officially re-opened/opened on 14 February 2015 and 9 March 2017 respectively.

Players

Inaugural squad

After the merger and with the departure of previous Woden Valley FC head coach Mitch Stevens and Weston-Molonglo FC head coach Graeme Plath, only six players returned from the Woden Valley team that competed in the 2014 ACTPL and three players from the 2014 Premiership winning Weston-Molonglo FC Capital League side. The new squad for 2015 saw a number of players drafted in from Canberra City (who dropped out of the NPL) and Monaro Panthers. ^[10]

The long term plan for the club is to develop youth products and bring them through the youth ranks into the senior elite setup. The major challenge for the club that has a youth pool of over 3,500 players to draw from is to retain the best players once they graduate to first team football as traditionally both the community clubs struggled to compete financially with some of the other NPL clubs in the ACT when previously participating in the first grade. ^[10]

Current squad

Current NPL Squad as of 31 March 2019. ^{[11] [12]}

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF   AUS Adam De Franshesci (c) 4 DF   AUS Connor Bill 7 MF   SDN Martin Deng 9 MF   AUS Chris McEwan 13 MF   ENG Benjamin Mann-Townsley 14 FW   BOT Phakedi Manda 15 MF   AUS Seamus Carr 16 MF   SDN Deng Deng 18 GK   AUS Ben Yeo 19 DF   AUS Angus Bailey

Coaching staff

Current staff

Current as of 1 January 2023 ^[9]

Men

Men's First Team

Position	Name
Head Coach	Dom English & George Economopoulos
Assistant Coaches	Rob Twommey
Seniors GK Coach	TBA

Women

Women's First Team

Position	Name
Head Coach	Rey Castro
Assistant Coach	Antony Ceruti

Men's head coach history

No.	Manager	From	To	Played	Wins	Draws	Losses	GF	GA	GD	Win %
1	Miro Trninic	8 March 2015	2 August 2015	16	3	2	11	20	40	−20	18.8%
2	Martin Lategui	2 November 2015	13 May 2016	5	1	0	4	5	16	−11	20%
3	Rey Castro*	14 May 2016	3 October 2016	12	2	1	9	11	33	−22	27.0%
4	Tony Olivera	4 October 2016	November 2017	18	4	2	12	31	52	−21	22.2%
5	Rey Castro	November 2017	November 2019	16	4	6	6	32	36	−4	43.75%
5	Ulisses Da Silva	November 2019	November 2021	3	2	0	1	4	5	−1	66.7

(*) – Denotes interim manager

Club management

Current as of 4 April 2017 ^[13]

Club Management

Position	Name
Club President	Steve Rohan-Jones
Vice President	Chris Webb
Secretary	Amanda Pitkin
Treasurer	Dan Webb
Technical Director	Rey Castro
Member Protection Officer	Lisa Perry
Members	Lachlan Cotter; Deb Moss

Season-by-season results

The below table is updated with the statistics and final results for Woden-Weston FC following the conclusion of each National Premier League Capital Football season.

Champions

Runners-up

Third Place

Woden-Weston FC Season-by-Season Results

Ref	Season	National Premier League ACT										NPL Finals	Fed Cup	FFA Cup	Top scorer
		GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS	League	Finals				Name	Goals
[14]	2015	16	3	2	11	20	40	−20	11	7th	-	-	2R	-	Nikolas Popovich	6
[15]	2016	18	3	1	14	16	55	−39	10	10th	-	-	QF	-	Daniel Di-Salvatore	2
[16]	2017	18	4	2	12	31	52	−21	14	8th	-	-	QF	-	Daniel Crkovski	12
[17]	2018	16	4	6	6	32	36	−4	15 [lower-alpha 1]	7th	-	-	SF	-	Olaide Yinka-Kehinde	12

1. Woden-Weston had 3 league results and 1 Fed Cup result forfeited for fielding an ineligible player in their squad and breaching the Player Points System (PPS). Source

^[18]

References

1. "Weston Molonglo Football Club Inc: Club History". foxsportspulse.com. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
2. Gaskin, Lee (8 March 2015) "Woden-Weston FC hoping to channel Western Sydney Wanderers in National Premier League debut". The Sydney Morning Herald . 8 March 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
3. "PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues: Capital Football Round 1 – Review". Capital Football . Retrieved 18 April 2015.
4. "PS4 NPL: Southside Derby to Light Up Friday Night". Capital Football . Retrieved 27 April 2015.
5. "Woden-Weston FC vs Tuggeranong United Round 3 match Card". Fox Sports Pulse. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
6. "WWFC appoints coaches for 2016 season". Woden Weston FC. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
7. Jordan, David (13 May 2016). "Woden-Weston FC coach Martin Lategui quits and blasts club for betraying him". The Canberra Times . Retrieved 7 February 2017.
8. "Coaches: NPL Head Coach (Acting) – Rey Castro". Woden Weston FC. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
9. "Woden-Weston FC Announce 2017 Coaching Line Up For PS4 NPL". capitalfootball.com.au. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
10. Gaskin, Lee (23 April 2015) "Woden-Weston FC aiming for long-term success in the National Premier League". The Canberra Times . 23 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
11. "Woden-Weston FC Players". foxsportspulse.com. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
12. "Woden-Weston FC Player Stats". foxsportspulse.com. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
13. "2016 WWFC Committee". wwfc.org.au. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
14. "2015 NPL Capital Football Ladder". www.sportstg.com. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
15. "2016 NPL Capital Football Ladder". www.sportstg.com. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
16. "2017 NPL Capital Football Ladder". www.sportstg.com. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
17. "2018 NPL Capital Football Ladder". www.sportstg.com. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
18. Roberts, Lachlan (11 May 2018). "Woden-Weston in hot water as four results overturned due to ineligible player". www.the-riotact.com. Retrieved 18 January 2019.

External links

• Australia portal
• Association football portal

• Official club website
• NPL club website
• Capital Football Home
• Woden-Weston FC ACT NPL Fixtures
• Woden-Weston FC ACT NPL Results
• ACT NPL News