Sunshine Coast Fire FC progress to national second division phase two

A Sunshine Coast football club’s ambitious bid for selection in a second tier national competition can be revealed, as it enters the next stage potentially as a “front runner”.

Sunshine Coast Fire players Jett Ford, Cooper Renzulli, Daniel Dawes and Bodi Ahfock with Melvyn Wilkes. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

The Sunshine Coast Fire has impressed at a national level with its long-term plans as its bid to join Football Australia’s new second division competition by 2024 reaches the next stage.

The Sunshine Coast club is among 26 selected for the second stage, out of the 32 that expressed interest.

The feeling among clubs is that 12 to 16 teams will make up the second division with Sunshine Coast Fire FC and Peregian Beach Academy director Melvyn Wilkes excited for the coming months.

He said the new competition had been discussed for about two years before late last year clubs were given more information to show what it could potentially look like financially.

“From there clubs had to demonstrate financial viability, long-term strategy, infrastructure, sponsorships, partnerships and it’s not just centred around a senior men’s team it’s about the whole nuts and bolts of the development plan,” Wilkes said.

Wilkes said he expected an independent company would review the next applications to select the clubs for the inaugural competition.

He said the club wasn’t relying on a sole owner to “plough millions of dollars” into it, instead providing a substantially self-funded platform of producing their own players through the Peregian Beach full-time junior program.

“This is something we’ve been working on for a long time to be honest and that’s why our focus hasn’t been solely on our senior men’s team, it’s been on the club as a whole,” he said.

“We are one of only a couple of football clubs in Australia that is full-time and our last piece of the jigsaw is to transition our senior men’s team to full-time.

“We haven’t got to go through a process like a lot of other clubs will have to do so we’ve already done the hard work and although a lot of people would’ve looked at our senior men’s team and said they’re not doing too well, we’ve always had this plan in the back of our mind, knowing it would come to fruition.

“Some clubs have had a well performing senior men’s team over the past few seasons but they haven’t even got to the next stage so it shows that the planning and foresight we had has held us in good stead.”

Before relocating to the Sunshine Coast, Wilkes spent more than 20 years working as a youth coach with English clubs such as Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and West Bromwich Albion.

Wilkes said he was confident no obstacles could halt the club’s application.

“We’ve got enough people behind us at the moment where nothing would phase us financially,” he said.

“We’ve covered everything in our documentation and we’re excited with the prospect of actually being involved in a competition which opens the door nationally and potentially internationally.

“Obviously there’s a lot of work to do on the next submission and we’re certainly not saying we’re a shoe in but with what we’ve currently got in place and what we’ve got planned, we believe we certainly would be a front runner.”