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Tigers FC (Australia)

Tigers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football club previously based in Cooma, New South Wales. Now based in Canberra (ACT) The club is affiliated with Capital Football and currently competes in the National Premier Leagues 1 ACT and the Community State Leagues Capital Football in the ACT. Their home venue is AIS Field 2 Oval.

History

Cooma Football Club was formed in 1952 by the workforce of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme which attracted people from all over the world to the Australian Alps. Cooma FC is one of the oldest continuous football clubs in Australia.[1]

In 2014, Cooma won the league premiership for the first time in the club's sixty-three-year history. The Tigers defeated title rivals Belconnen United 3–0 at home to clinch the title.[2]

In 2015, Cooma FC announced a partnership with club Brindabella Blues FC. The partnership saw Brindabella Blues administer and run the U12, U14, U16 and U18 NPL programs out of Brindabella's home at Calwell District Playing Fields while the U20 and senior NPL programs remain based in Cooma with Cooma FC. At the time the NPL games were split between Calwell playing fields and Nijong, with U12, U14 and U16 playing at Calwell and U18, U20 and first grade playing at Nijong Oval Cooma, Capital Football Board insisted that the two clubs must form a new entity, the two clubs agreed to form Tigers FC as their NPL club.[3]

In 2016, the Tigers fell short of winning the league title by three points as Canberra Olympic claimed the premiership.[4] In the finals series Cooma lost the major semi-final to Olympic 5–3 on penalties after the two sides drew 2–2 after 120 minutes. The Tigers had looked certain to advance to the grand final as they headed into the final minutes of the match 2–1 up but a late goal by Colombian striker Phillippe Bernabo-Madrid sent the match into extra time.[5] Cooma advanced to the preliminary final against Canberra FC but a number of injuries in the lead up to the match saw a depleted Tigers lose the match 1–5 and end the club's season.[6] Cooma also missed out on reaching the round of 32 of the FFA Cup in 2016 when they lost the Capital Football Federation Cup final to Olympic 1–3 at Deakin Stadium on 18 June 2016.[7]

Tigers won the NPL ACT mens title twice in 2019 and 2021, as well as reaching the australia cup knockout stage against APIA.[7]

In 2022 Cooma Tigers FC rebranded itself as Canberra Tigers, then Tigers FC, they relocated to Canberra under a new logo, and jersey colour.s.

Current squad

As of 6th January 2025 [8]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Australia AUS Gabe Taurasi
— DF Australia AUS Nikola Taneski
— DF Australia AUS Sam Whitehear
7 FW Australia AUS Josh Millicević
— DF Australia AUS Marko Miluntovic
11 FW Australia AUS Archie McGregor
— DF Australia AUS Nikolas Popovich
13 DF Australia AUS Shandon Whitehead
— DF Australia AUS Nathen Megic
No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF Australia AUS Bailey Dickinson
— MF Australia AUS Angus Pitkin
— MF Chile CHI Alessandro Pena
9 DF Albania ALB Jack Bitani
— MF Australia AUS Hamish Wales
— MF Japan JPN Tomohiro Ogowa
— MF Australia AUS Nicholas Pulciani
— MF Greece GRE Nikos Kalfas
10 FW Italy ITA Cristian Barresi
— DF Australia AUS Noah Steinacker

Staff

Club management

As of 4th of February 2022[9]
Club Management
Position Name
Club President Greece Gerard Rampal
Vice President England Ian Worthington
Director Australia TurkeyAli Efe
Treasurer Australia Nicolas Alcaazar
Youth Technical Director England Ian Worthington
Head Coach Iran Hatef Biegi

Club identity

Club colours

Cooma FC has traditionally used yellow and black, including at a community level. The colours are now Orange and Black following their club relocating to Canberra and rebrand in 2022 to Tigers FC.

Club Grounds

Their home previous home ground in Cooma was Nijong Oval, located in the middle of the town. Now having relocated to Canberra they play at the AIS, whilst juniors play at Ainslie Enclosed Oval.

Honours

  • Womens State League 2
Premiers (1): 2014[10]
  • Womens State League 3
Premiers (1): 2021[11]
Champions (1):2021 (finals cancelled due to COVID pandemic)
  • Mens State League 1
Premiers (1): 2018[12]
  • Mens State League 2
Premiers (1): 2016[13]
  • NPL Mens ACT
Premiers (2): 2019[13]2021
Runner-up (5): 2005, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2016 Winners 2019 Federation Cup


References

  1. ^ "Brief History". coomafc.net. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  2. ^ Gaskin, Lee (17 August 2014). "Cooma Tigers win Capital Football NPL championship for first time". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  3. ^ "BBFC & Cooma SC form NPL partnership – Tigers FC". bbfc.org.au. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  4. ^ "Entrants confirmed for PS4 NPL 2016 Finals Series". nationalpremierleagues.com.au. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  5. ^ Dutton, Chris (28 August 2016). "Capital Football: Canberra Olympic win tense shootout with Tigers to book grand final spot". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  6. ^ Helmers, Caden (5 September 2016). "Capital Football NPL: Canberra FC advance to the decider with Cooma thumping". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  7. ^ a b Hall, James (18 June 2016). "Canberra Olympic to play on national stage in FFA Cup". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  8. ^ "O'Connor Knights Team List". www.sportstg.com. 12 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  9. ^ "Canberra Tigers Football Club - Home of the Canberra Tigers Football Club". Canberra Tigers Football Club.
  10. ^ "Ladder for Women's Division 2".
  11. ^ "Ladder for Div 3 - State League Women's".
  12. ^ "Ladder for Men's State League Division 1".
  13. ^ a b "Ladder for Men's Division 2".