Formed on 26 February 1970, and admitted into the Central Coast Soccer Association (CCSA) a month later, the Wyoming Soccer (now Football) Club has grown to become a benchmark club on the New South Wales Central Coast with an outstanding list of achievements.
The Club had its origins at a Sunday afternoon meeting held at Alan Davidson Park in Renwick Street, Wyoming attended by a number of parents previously connected with the old club, together with other interested parents. With the blessing of the Central Coast Soccer Association (CCSA) a public notice (below) was issued inviting the parents of prospective players (boys only!) to attend a further meeting at the Wyoming Progress Hall in Ronald Avenue. The inaugural meeting of the Wyoming Soccer Club then took place on 26 February 1970 at the home of Laurie O’Malley, subsequently to become the new club’s treasurer. The club’s yellow and black colours, and tiger logo, were decided after consultation with John Jury from the CCSA.
By 1974 the club had grown to 19 teams and, in a sign of the dominance which was to follow junior teams won all four of the youngest ‘A’ grade titles. That season also saw the club field senior teams for the first time. The 1974 first grade team finished in fourth place that season before winning five of the seven top grade premierships between 1975 and 1981 as well as the NNSW Amateur Cup in 1976 and 1981. Nicknamed ‘The Pensioners’ by the then soccer writer for the Central Coast Express (and many years later a successful Wyoming junior coach) the team comprised a group of very experienced and battle-hardened players most of whom had honed their skills in the strong Sydney leagues. The quality of that early squad was indicated when seven members were the first inductees when the WFC Hall of Fame was created in 2011.
The growth in junior team continued through the 1970s and in 1979 the club won the Sterland Trophy Junior Club Championship for the first time. The following year Wyoming became the first club to win both the senior and junior club championships. The introduction of the new Central Coast representative club in 1982 saw a number of senior players move up to that level and lead to a steady decline in the performances of the senior grade teams. Indeed it was to be 24 years before for the club won its next first grade premiership.
Wyoming junior teams dominated the decade of the 1980s winning the Sterland Trophy for 12 straight seasons between 1979 and 1990. The club was at its peak in 1983 with 582 registered players (a record that was to stand until 1999) in 41 teams, each one eleven-a-side. Between them these teams won a total of nine premierships as well as taking out the Jack Atkins Trophy for the first time. In the 14 season between 1979 and 1992 Wyoming ‘A’ grade junior teams won a total of 28 titles, at least one every season
Despite this success at the junior level very few of these players filtered through into the Premier League teams and the club went through a barren period that lasted for more than two decades (1982 to 2003) in which it won just two Reserve Grade titles culminating in relegation to the second-tier Premier League Two (now Division One) competition in the 2001 and 2002 seasons.
The tide began to turn with the club’s return to Premier League in 2003. After finishing sixth that season John McLafferty returned as first grade coach and took the team to a memorable penalty-shootout win over East Gosford in the 2004 grand final at Central Coast Stadium. That win set the scene for Wyoming’s second Premier League ‘Golden Era’. During the ten year period between 2004 and 2013 the club won 11 premierships with first grade winning in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2013; reserve grade in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2012; and third grade in 2012.
In a remarkable 2007 season the MPL squad won an unprecedented five titles taking out the league championship / premiership double in both first and reserve grades; the Premier League club championship; before becoming the first, and still only, Central Coast club to win the senior men’s FNSW Champion of Champions competition. The victory over Coffs United at Valentine Park meant that the first grade team finished the season unbeaten with 22 wins and two draws from their 24 matches.
The first grade team’s win in the 2009 grand final was matched by the club’s Womens Premier League to become one of the few clubs to win both titles.
In 2010 the club celebrated its 40th anniversary with the publishing of a 300-page book titled “Tiger Tales” written by Kevin Best and Alistair Kennedy. A pdf copy of the book can be read and/or downloaded here -
TIGER TALES - THE HISTORY OF THE WYOMING FOOTBALL CLUB 1970-2010
