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Club History

1991: Formed as Morley Windmills

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1993: Relocated to Rickman Delawney Reserve next to the Vasto Club in Balcatta and became Stirling Vasto, before changing our name to Stirling Reds

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2001: Tim Hodgson, (then coaching One-Team-Club Stirling Reds) and Reds captain, Luciana Colangelo, were concerned about the need to have a Premier Reserves side by 2004 in order to remain in the Premier Division. Attempts to amalgamate with other clubs were unsuccessful.

 

2003: Rebranded as Northern Redbacks. Rita Berry and Louise Hinchcliffe from Sorrento FC approached the Reds with the view of sharing facilities. The Sorrento women's club was bigger, with four to five teams and were keen to establish their own identity.
​This brought the women from Stirling Reds and Sorrento together to form the club now known as the Northern Redbacks.
​The name Northern Redbacks was chosen to send the message that the club was not specific to any district and open to everyone and Redbacks was chosen because this spider is known and feared for its tenacity and its nasty bite.

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2004: The Western Waves (pre-cursor to Perth Glory) was established and a significant number of that team comprised of our first-team squad. This obviously meant there were major disruptions to our season, but we still managed to win the league in 2004 and again in 2005. With many of the squad moving on to play in senior development teams or retiring, a major rebuilding process had to start, and we eventually got back to some success four years later in 2008 by winning the State Cup, a feat that we repeated in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

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2011: We relocated to our current home of Celebration Park, Balga, and straight away started lobbying Stirling Council for an upgrade to the facilities, which were unsuitable for female athletes. There was no lighting at the ground, so we had to continue training at Vasto until three light towers were installed at Celebration at the end of 2011. All of this off-field upheaval seemed to have little effect on our Prems though, as they claimed a league and cup double for the first time in seven years.

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2012: The then Premier, The Honourable Colin Barnett MLA, became aware of the state of the facilities at Celebration and provided funding of $500 000 to Stirling Council for an upgrade. This enabled us to have female-appropriate changing room facilities and our own club room. We also won the cup for the 5th successive season.

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2013: We had one of our most successful seasons in the club's history by winning the Night Series and Premier league title and going unbeaten in the process. The Prems played 21 games, won 20, drew 1 and lost 0, scoring 99 goals and conceding just 12. On October 27th the season ended on a high, as the Prems won the Interstate Challenge Cup on penalties against Adelaide City at Burton Park in Adelaide. Going down 2-0, the team clawed its way back to 2-2 at full time and then played an additional 20 minutes of extra time before winning the penalty shootout.

Squad:
Renee Leota; Katie Moth; Aleisha Dyer; Jacqueline Nellany; Lauren Riley; Charlotte Farrell;  Larissa Walsh; Rita Mankowska; Carla Bennett (c); Clare Dunn; Kathleen Waycott (GK); Emily Dunn; Ashlee Bager; Eleanor Blackmore; Haylee Richards. Coach: Neil Bennett. Team officials: Jessica Nuess; Dave Whiteside; Tim Hodgson.

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2015: Work commenced on our new clubrooms and we also re-invigorated our juniors program by introducing a U15 squad, having not had a junior team for 3 years. The committee recognised the need for a junior program as a high priority for the club as a means of ensuring we could meet any requirements for the possible introduction of a Women's NPL competition in WA.

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2016: The works on our new clubrooms were finished and were formally opened by the then Premier of WA the Honourable Colin Barnett, and we were finally able to have a place we could call ours and be able to welcome guests before, during and after games. We celebrated this milestone in the club's history with another league and cup double for our Prems.

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2017: The hard work put into our juniors program began to pay off, as our U15's squad won the league and cup double and we had 2 players from that squad go on to represent WA in the National Championships in Coffs Harbour. The U15s were joined on Cup Final day by our Prems who claimed their 8th cup win.

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2018: The club fielded its largest number of teams in one season, with 3 junior teams and 3 adult teams, marking a huge growth for us. We again won a league and cup double with our juniors and 4 players played for WA in the National Championships

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2019: The clubs growth reached new heights as we had 7 teams and over 100 players, with nearly 80% of those players being under the age of 21. We also secured sponsorship from the Swedish Women's Educational Association (SWEA) to enable us to send a U16's team to take part in the World Youth Cup (Gothia Cup) in Sweden thus becoming the 1st ever female team from WA to do so. Our on-field successes continued with our U14's and U16's winning their leagues, the U16's and U18's winning their cups, the U14's and U16's winning their top 4 finals, and the Prems winning our third double. On a memorable Women's and Girls Cup final day, we competed in 4 of the 5 finals and won 3 of them. Off the field, we secured funding for a 4th light tower to help us expand our training facilities even more.

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2020: A new dawn of Women's football in WA saw us taking part as foundation members in the inaugural NPLW competition in WA. We fielded a senior team and a U23 team, and both sides had highly successful seasons, reaching the Top 4 Grand Final. The first team took out the trophy, after an epic final which culminated in a penalty shoot-out. COVID 19 had a devastating impact on the season and prevented us from taking part in the World Youth Cup in Gothenburg again. We still managed to field 5 other teams in the Amateur, Metro, U18's, U16's and U14's competitions, and all of them finished in the top 4 of their leagues, with all bar the U14's finishing runners up. Off the field, a 4th light tower was installed at Celebration Park, and we entered into a partnership with Olympic Kingsway to let us play our NPLW games at their newly refurbished home ground.
We also secured a major 3-year sponsorship deal with Global Mining Company EPIROC that will help us to maintain our position as the most successful
Women's Club in WA.

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2021: 2021 was another successful year for the club with our senior team finishing runners up in the NPLW, missing out on the title by just 2 points. Our juniors continued their history of winning honours, with the U16's taking out the top 4 cup and winning the U17 Australind Tournament, whilst our U14's swept all before them by winning the league undefeated, winning the Top 4 up and finishing runners up in the juniors cup.
We also had Golden Boot winners in the NPLW, NPLW U23's and Amateurs leagues as well as the player of the year in the Amateurs league. Congratulations to Larissa Walsh, Siena Crevacore and Dareskadar Tamru on their excellent seasons.

Two members of our first team earned Perth Glory contracts, and we congratulate Kim and Sarah Carroll on their achievement.

Five of our junior players were selected for NTC honours for 2022, with 4 full-time players and 1 associate, and we also had 10 layers make their NPLW debut with two of them scoring in their first game at the age of 16.

We had a Metro 2 team for the first time in the club's history and they performed admirably, managing a top 4 finish, whilst our Amateur and NPLW U23's just missed out on top 4 finishes.

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2022: The end of an era occurred in April 2022 as we merged with male club ECU Joondalup to form Perth RedStar FC.
We went out with a flourish though, as our NPLW team took out its 5th Night Series Cup in our last-ever game as Northern Redbacks and our Amateurs reached the semi-final of their night series competition.
We are incredibly proud of all of our achievements both on and off the field and look forward to creating new history as we start the next chapter in our history.

Pre Western Waves Redbacks

Pre Western Waves Redbacks

Team photo includes Lisa de Vanna (back row 1st left) and Collette McCallum (back row 2nd from right)

EPIROC Signing ceremony

EPIROC Signing ceremony

Club President Tony Mullen and EPIROC representative Alex Grant with the signed document that formalised our three year sponsor deal with the Global Mining Company

2013 Interstate Cup Champions

2013 Interstate Cup Champions

Our 2013 "Invincibles" after they beat Adelaide City in Adelaide.

Official Opening 2016

Official Opening 2016

From L-R, The Stirling Mayor, Councillor Giovanni Italiano JP, the Premier, the Honourable Colin Barnett MLA and Club President Keith Anderson formally opened the new club rooms and changing room facilities on May 15th 2016.

Light tower presentation

Light tower presentation

Club President Tony Mullen with the Hon Michael Keenan MP in April 2019 after we had obtained a grant for $50K for a 4th light tower at Celebration Park.

Gothia Cup march past

Gothia Cup march past

U16's marching into the main stadium as flag bearers for Australia at the 2019 opening ceremony for the Gothia Cup

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