The ambitious Caulfield United Cobras couldn’t have timed their run to the top any better, as consecutive promotions has them fighting out in a State League One South East competition with it all to play for.
It’s the Cobras’ first foray in the top division of the State Leagues in their 31-year history, a self labelled community club that has always stayed true to their goal of providing an “inclusive environment for all members of the community to develop their social, life as well as football skills”. The challenge that lies ahead is the largest they’ve faced yet, with the prize on offer come the end of the season a potential promotion into the NPL system.
The FFV issued three-year licences in their initial selection process, with the proviso that relegation would only occur within the two tiers of the NPL until the end of the 2016 season. 2014’s State League One champions Moreland City and Eastern Lions applied and were granted two-year provisional licences for 2015, as were Murray United, Nunawading City, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City.
“The current participation licence signed by the 34 clubs that are in provides protection from relegation for three seasons or two seasons in the case of the teams that joined later on,” said FFV’s head of NPL Liam Bentley.
“That basically means there’s no relegation from NPL in 2016 and that relegation will start to kick-in in 2017. Also by virtue of there being no relegation, there’s no promotion from State League One into NPL at the end of 2016 – again, that will kick off in the 2017 season.”
Five-time VPL champions Altona Magic have already thrown down the promotion gauntlet with their aggressive recruitment strategy this season, having claimed the State League One North-West title last year. The enormity of the task 0f keeping up with these heavy recruiters isn’t lost on a Cobras side that has performed out of their skin over the past two seasons, with head coach Mike Kupinic believing both in his game plan and the desire of his players to achieve their goals.
“I coach for us to win every game, that’s what it’s about,” Kupinic said.
“That doesn’t happen but if you go in with that mindset and everybody gets on board, then the chances of success are pretty good. We don’t accept mediocrity, I don’t, the players don’t, and we’ll give it our best shot next season.
“I make sure that the team is well organised and each player knows what their role entails, when we have the ball and when we don’t have the ball. There is individuality in the final third where we have creative players, but the rest of it is pretty strict and organised – we’ll make things difficult for any team coming against us and I’m confident we can do ok.
“Our squad is at a really good age. We have a couple of experienced players and some unbelievable younger players in the group who are so open to new ideas and everything that I’ve tried to produce, they’ve really grabbed and run with.
“From my perspective that makes it much easier. We are going to have to recruit because it looks like we may be losing a key central midfield player Michael Johnson – the guy is unbelievable. Someone else is going to have to step up, whether that be in the group or whether we bring somebody in, but the ingredients are there.”
The pillars of their success were simple. Have the right people and the right structures and let the synergy do the talking on the pitch. Kupinic has been a big believer of this philosophy, since taking the helm at the beginning of the 2015 season. He was handed a team coached by Gus Caminos – who departed to take up a role as U20’s manager at Springvale White Eagles – that had fought hard to earn promotion from State League Three, and knew it was going to be another tough fight.
“When we first got together and they asked if I’d be interested in doing the job, they were pretty ambitious and they were hoping to win promotion,” the head coach said.
“They weren’t sure if it was going to happen or not but their aim was certainly to win promotion. When I got to speaking to the players, they were all keen and up for the challenge.
A blistering 2016 season from the club – who play their football out at Victory Park in Bentleigh – saw them notch up 16 wins and three draws from their 22 games, piling on an impressive 58 goals in the process while conceding at a rate of just one per game. It was enough to give them a second place finish behind the St Kilda Celts and with it a chance to mix it with the very best across the state.
“What happens when you really want to be successful and you get out there, a lot of things happen. How players react is important and that is something that was my only concern, but they were sensational,” Kupinic said.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, but this is probably the best group I’ve worked with. It doesn’t matter what organisation you’re involved with, the main ingredient for success is to have good people, when you have that, it’s amazing what you can achieve.”
The club holds big ambitions once more and have signalled a desire to achieve NPL status in 2017, and have taken steps to ensuring their long term future. Discussions with sponsors are ongoing, although plans to play out from Duncan McKinnon Reserve have been quashed as the club confirmed they’ll remain at Victory Park.
Should they be successful next season, they’ll need a team of people all pulling in the same direction, with Kupinic sensing something special about the current crop he has at his disposal, as well as the support staff supplementing the on-field division of the club.
“I’ve gained a lot of experience through coaching, but at the end of the day, it’s what we do as a group that matters,” he said.
“I’ve worked with Bentleigh Greens from State League 2 all the way to the VPL, Port Melbourne was a similar situation where in the first years they were struggling to survive the drop. That period was similar to what we’ve got here – a young group who were really committed and we were able to do something.
“I’ve been involved with a lot of clubs, but one thing I can tell you is that whenever we have been successful, I’ve been surrounded by good people. One person does not guarantee you success – they should not be held responsible if things don’t go well.
“It’s a combination of a lot of things, all of which come together. The people we’ve got around here are terrific people, and that’s a big part of why we’ve been successful.”