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About Us
Who We Are
Over thirty years the club has grown through the grit and heart of a select few people. The club has an excellent reputation in the area (eg. Darebin club of the year 2017) and grown fast over the last five years to now have over 250 juniors girls and boys as well as two senior teams, an AAA team and for the first time in 2021 a Masters team.
The last year or two of growth, however, has illustrated some quality-control issues. We have not been able to be as close to our community (and visa-versa) as we would like and our senior men’s team is not in a high-enough league. We need to make strategic decisions about where to go next, and to do it in a controlled fashion. We are also focusing heavily on female participation not just at playing level but in all aspects of the club.
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We are not wealthy, but there is some money in the bank that has been saved up over the years. We can now invest some of that money back into the club’s sustained growth.
We want to be able to offer as many player pathways as possible, whether that is a developing junior moving to a more advanced level then through to becoming a competitive senior player at the Falcons.
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Our Club
We are the benchmark all inclusive community club in the Northern Suburbs. We have been recognised by State Government, Local Council and Football Victoria for our community involvement. In 2024 we will have been in existence for 38 years.
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We are an ambitious, competitive community club.
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Hasan Ibrahim
President
Frank Materazzo
Secretary
Joe Pizzo
Treasurer
History
The Northern Falcons FC, originally known as the Flemington Floridia Soccer Club, was formed by Joe Valentino and Carmelo Pizzo in 1986 as the sporting arm of the Floridia Social Club.
The club started from humble beginnings as it made its first home on Flemington Road with three players, no showers, and the car park as a changeroom, all while playing under the security lights from the surrounding buildings. Within three weeks, Joe Valentino had gathered a group of 15 men, majority whose parents were Floridian. With the financial and emotional backing of the Floridia Social Club the first season began in 1987 as part of the Victorian Amateur Soccer Federation Div.2 League. With Valentino as both coach and president, the team was promoted to Div.1 in 1988.
Some tough years followed as the financial support from the social club decreased.
Due to poor health, Joe Valentino was forced to give up his involvement with the club and things looked bleak.
In 1992 a group of players decided that the club was worth saving and put their hands up to run it and in 1993 the club received an opportunity that would help get us to where we are today. With the collapse of another local club, Flemington Floridia was asked to join the Provisional 3 league by the VSF (Victorian Soccer Federation; now Football Victoria).
The club changed its name to the Flemington Falcons as the Floridia Social club had decided to distance themselves from the soccer club.
In its first year in Prov.3, the club finished mid table as it established itself amongst tougher opposition. In 1994 and 1995, the club had finished fourth both years but because of the ageing playing list, the results began to suffer with some lower ladder finishes between 1996 and 1999.
The next few years saw the club face problems off the ground as it struggled to get people involved on the committee and as a result, finishing mid table most years. In 2003, the club was hungry for promotion, with a new coach and a surge of new players the Falcons found their feet and made an impact on the competition being super competitive and finished only 3 points from promotion. This was followed by a name change to become more synonymous with the area they played in. The Flemington Falcons were no more, we were now the Northern Falcons. A ground change also followed. The club which had played its last 3 seasons out of Oulton Reserve took up residence at Hayes Park where we remain today.
Finally, in 2005 we earned promotion finishing second and, in the process, introduced
the Pizzo-Valentino Medal to honour the Club Champion and named after the two men who got this club off the ground. The next few years focused on the development of a junior program which started with 11 children and an Access All Abilities team, the first of its kind in Australia. The Darebin council saw fit to reward the club for it's great work in the community by approving a pavilion redevelopment at Hayes Park as well as six new light towers to make it a fantastic complex and the envy of every other northern suburb club.
The club celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015 marking it with a gala event honouring past and present players and administrators. In the ensuing years it was a case of close but not close enough as promotions were narrowly missed. We started our female football program in 2017 with two teams which has now grown to eight.
An outstanding 2019 season where our seniors only had two losses was to be heartbreaking as went into the final round of the season two points clear on top. Unfortunately, we lost the final game and missed the title and promotion by one point.
The dreaded COVID-19 stopped all community sport in 2020 and half of 2021 as we struggled without the game we love. Season 2023 sees our seniors primed for redemption, our juniors reached nearly 300 participants, a thriving girls program boasting nearly 100 girls, two AAA teams and a Masters team. We are now truly seeing the fruits of the work done over the last 37 years.
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Thanks to our rich history, we are ready for an even brighter future!