Coach: Mark Torcaso
Home Ground: Keilor Park Recreational Reserve
Brief overview: Born out of Keilor Park Soccer Club, Calder United (briefly Keilor United) is an ambitious club with professionalism born out of their work behind the scenes. They boast good facilities, a professional take on their social media channels and have experienced coaches running throughout the age groups. Based quite centrally in comparison to the other teams in the league, their duty is to provide strong representation across western and north western suburbs of Victoria. The latest addition to a strong coaching back-room staff – including the experience of Ian Williamson – is specialist goalkeeping coach Sarah McKeon, who comes with good wraps having been a part of South Melbourne’s 2012 WPL winning side.
Confirmed squad (2015 club in brackets):
- Enza Barilla (Bundoora United)
- Cindy Lay (Bulleen Lions)
- Jess Pitts (Bundoora United)
- Jess Au (Bundoora United)
- Rachel Alonso (Bundoora United)
- Tijen Hussein (Cairnlea FC)
- Rachel Binning (Casey Comets)
- Aliesha Newman (Boroondara Eagles)
- Gulcan Koca (Bundoora United)
- Claudia Fruscalzo (Bundoora United)
- Stacey Papadopoulos (Bundoora United)
- Marissa Tisocco (Keilor Park)
- Marie Rampal (Keilor Park)
- Shanel Camilleri (returning)
- Bethany Mason-Jones (Bundoora United)
- Tyla-Jay Vlajnic (Bundoora United)
- Bridie Siryj (Essendon Royals)
- Bianca Trimboli (Bulleen Lions)
- Guilia Sepe (Bundoora United)
- Holly Boldiston
- Deanna Fruscalzo (Bundoora United)
- Chloe Cini (Heidelberg United [train-on])
Pre-season: The pre-season for Calder United saw the club take to the road, completing trips to Tasmania, Ballarat and Monbulk. They competed against a number of State League One sides in preparation for the game, while also fielding in-house matches against representative sides from Keilor Park.
Players to watch: It promises to be an exciting season for the NPLW side who are carrying a young, talented squad into their maiden year. Reflective of this is the young leadership group at the club, which includes co-captains Rachel Alonso and Rachel Binning, ably assisted by vice-captain Claudia Fruscalzo. Binning and Fruscalzo will marshall the side from defence and will prove a difficult wall to break down in 2016. The signing of Binning could free Gulcan Koca into a midfield role to provide foil for the likes of Enza Barilla and Cindy Lay. While they’re some of the more well-known names, look out for youngsters Holly Boldiston, Bridie Siryj, Marissa Tissoco and Marie Rampal who all come with huge wraps on them and will be allowed to develop with talented players surrounding them.
Coach comments: “The club have worked hard on getting themselves into this position, big congratulations to, Nigel, Eric and Paul for putting together this new consortium along with the members of Keilor Park. We want to build on the foundations previously prepared and work hard to be as competitive as possible. The work of all coaches has been brilliant, the dedication and hours will benifet the girls locally. I must specially thank Ian Williamson for his hard, rigorous preseason which we hope have best prepared all these players for a long hard season, his professionallism attention to detail is important for all these players to go forward. We look forward to a challenge but exciting 2016 and aim to be a great environment for all these players.” -Mark Torcaso
What to expect in 2016: On paper, it all looks perfect for Calder United to establish themselves as early frontrunners in the competition. They’ve got an incredibly talented playing roster, with depth all the way through and are well coached in former Bundoora United coach Mark Torcaso. They’d be disappointed with anything but a finals berth and a lot of people will be expecting even more from them in 2016.
Photo: Adosinda Au