Adamstown Rosebud cheering on Clare Wheeler in Women’s World Cup
With a 135-year history that features dozens of internationals, buckets of titles and a stint in the NSL, one Newcastle club has plenty to celebrate ahead of the women’s World Cup.
The Newcastle News
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Over the course of its illustrious history, Adamstown Rosebud FC has arguably had more to cheer about than any other football club in Australia.
Established way back in 1889, the senior arm of the club has – by its own count – produced 28 Australian internationals, including the likes of legendary striker Ray Baartz, hero of the 1974 World Cup team Col Curran and Peter Doyle, who played in the first ever Socceroos game back in 1922.
It has also collected dozens of titles in various Newcastle and Northern NSW competitions, and even spent three years in the NSL under the name Newcastle Rosebud United.
And with the Women’s World Cup just six days away, Adamstown will have an extra special reason to cheer on the Matildas, with Rosebud junior Clare Wheeler selected in the Australian squad.
The 25-year-old midfielder, who plays for English club Everton in the Women’s Super League, has become an increasingly important figure for the national team since making her debut in 2021.
While now playing in the bright lights of the international stage, Wheeler started her footballing journey for Adamstown Rosebud Juniors, which she joined at the age of 10 simply because one of her friends had signed up to play there.
Although the entire football community will be behind the team, it will be particularly special for the Adamstown faithful who remember Wheeler running around as a junior.
One of those people is Kerry Conquest, who in addition to holding a series of roles at Adamstown’s junior club, was a team manager of under-12 and under-13 Northern NSW rep sides that featured a young Wheeler at various national carnivals.
“I remember Clare very clearly. She was very focused. You don’t get a lot of kids at that age that are totally focused on football,” said Conquest.
“I remember commenting to the coach at the time that there were probably two kids in that camp that would make it as a footballer and Clare was one of them.”
While impressed with her attitude and approach off the field, that wasn’t the only thing about the young gun that caught Conquest’s eye.
“She was a very good midfielder. She was very positive, very confident, and at that stage she actually hadn’t been playing football for all that long.
“It’d only been a couple of years, because she only started when she was 10 or so, which is fairly late these days – they normally start around four or five.”
Conquest added: “She was very consistent, and had that great attitude where she’d actually come and ask what she could do to get better... which is probably why she where she is now.”
Rosebud legacy
Wheeler’s selection in the squad is another shot in the arm for Adamstown, which is also home to Col Curran, who became the first Hunter footballer to feature at a world cup, when he played in all three games for the Socceroos during the 1974 tournament in West Germany.
And while the junior and senior clubs are technically two separate entities, Conquest describes the bodies – whose respective home grounds are literally over the back fence from one another – as “very good neighbours”.
The seniors run the men’s senior and youth NPL sides, while the junior club runs the women’s NPL team, along with miniroos and other community football teams.
“When our miniroos get to a stage where they want to do more with their football in the boys, we steer them towards our neighbours,” says Conquest.
“And our neighbours do the same thing: if they get girls enquiring with them, they steer them towards us, so we have a very good working relationship with each other.”
After making her debut for the national team two years ago and being selected for the world cup, Wheeler has joined very good company as an Australian international Rosebud.
Starting off with Peter Doyle, who represented Australia in its very first international fixture against New Zealand in 1922, Adamstown has been the home of some of the country’s finest footballers, with the likes Alex Cameron, Bill Coolahan and Gavin Russell starring for the national team in the pre-World War Two era.
Ray Baartz and Col Curran were among the first players picked in the Australian team throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Graham Jennings played more than 80 games in green and gold during his illustrious career throughout the 1980s, while Joe Senkalski, who captained Newcastle Rosebud to victory in its famous NSL Cup triumph in 1984, was considered one of the most skilful players of his generation.
In more recent years, other Adamstown juniors to have made it include Australian youth representative and A-League player Stuart Musialik, while many were shocked to hear that manager Jon Brady, who led English side Northampton Town to promotion into England third-tier of football earlier this year, was also a Rosebud junior.
“There are some fabulous murals on the walls of the famous players who have played for the men’s team,” says Conquest.
“It’s a wonderful legacy and I think it’s great for our girls to see those famous faces over there. Certainly they’re one of the landmarks in the area.”
She added: “It’s a wonderful footballing area and Newcastle has a wonderful footballing culture. It’s just in the blood up here. They love their rugby league and other things as well, but soccer – or football – is engrained in the culture here.”
While not originally from Newcastle, Conquest has her own link with Adamstown, with her grandfather – former Socceroo Norm Conquest – having spent many weekends travelling to Adamstown to play during his years living in the Hunter Valley coalfields.
“My grandfather was Australia’s goalkeeper from 1939 to 1951,” said Conquest, “and he used to talk about coming up to Adamstown on the train and going in to play the game.
“They were no rosebuds, they were tough to play against, but the good thing was after the game was finished they’d all go to the pub and have a beer and something to eat, and then they’d take them down and put them on the train and away they went.”
While Wheeler will line up for the Matildas in an historic home world cup, Conquest hopes she won’t be the last, and that her presence can inspire the next generation of Rosebuds.
Indeed, Adamstown juniors Leia Puxty and Josie Morley have been involved in Matildas pathways in recent years, with both going on to play for the Newcastle Jets in the A-League Women competition.
“They would vaguely know her (Wheeler) as well because she was at the Jets’ academy for quite some time, and it was when they were young kids coming in,” she said, praising Wheeler and fellow Novocastrian Emily Van Egmond for their dedication to the local area.
“It’s good in the way that they don’t forget where they came from and they’re not big-headed. They don’t go, ‘Oh I’m playing overseas or for the Matildas so I can forget where I came from.’
“When they come back they make connections. It was actually Clare that reached out to us to ask if we’d like one of her signed shirts and we got it framed and put it up in our clubhouse.”
No doubt plenty of Adamstown players, supporters and administrators alike will be watching on as the Matildas take on the world’s best, and if the team happens to make a run deep into competition or go on to lift the trophy, Wheeler may well have a mural of her own at the famous old club.
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