Signings galore as Sharks hope to bring back glory days
The Sutherland Sharks have signalled its intentions on having a huge crack at taking out the 2022 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s Premiership and Championship after announcing a number of quality signings that is hoping to bring back the glory days at Seymour Shaw.
It’s been a while since the Shire based outfit has celebrated silverware, 2008 was the last time they won a Premiership while 2009 they took out the Championship. The last trophy the club celebrated was the 2012 Tiger Turf Cup (Waratah Cup) where they defeated APIA Leichhardt 4-1.
Coach Nick Dimovski has been busy recruiting quality NPL NSW Men’s talent as well as former A-League players following the cancellation of the 2021 season due to Covid.
As many as six former Sutherland Sharks juniors have returned to Miranda with the likes of Jason Madonis, Michael Neill, Harry Callahan, Nick Sullivan, Liam McGing and current Under 17 Australian representative Lachlan McDonald all agreeing to terms for the 2022 season.
Madonis in particular is a huge acquisition for the Sharks.
The hard-working midfielder who spent 13 years with Sydney Olympic as well as captaining the Blues for two seasons, one being their Premiership and Championship year in 2018 was looking forward to returning to his old stomping ground.
“I’m excited to be joining the Sutherland Sharks for the 2022 season.
“Sutho is where my NPL journey started when I was 11 years old so to be re-joining the club after all these years really feels like a homecoming.
“I’m looking forward to getting started with my new teammates, working under Nick and helping the club have a successful year.”
Experienced striker Nikola Taneski and former Stallions defender Mark Rodic have also made the move to the Sharks with Dimovski resigning eleven of his 2021 squad members.
James Andrew, Anthony Bouzanis, Patrick O’Shea, Lachlan Everett, Jeremy Cox, Adam Massoud, Christopher Lindsay, Gabriel Contigiani, Gerrard Roebuck, Charlie Jones and Luke Sauer have all penned agreements for 2022.
There will also be three Under 20’s Sharks young guns and juniors that will see themselves amongst the senior group as Sam Amey, Nelson Lam and Julian Trovato will all hope to gain some much needed first grade experience.
Dimovski emphasised to Football NSW that the plan was to bring back as many ex-Sharks juniors as possible along with giving the local Sutherland talent an opportunity, keeping the strong Shire player development system on track.
“The Sutherland Shire area has been renowned for quite some time now as a fantastic football nursey and to see so many Sharks juniors return to our senior squad is special.
“To sum it all up we now have 17 players that are Sharks juniors and it’s been this objective we’ve been trying to push in promoting and bringing back our local talent to Seymour Shaw.”
To have former A-League players McGing and Sullivan return to the club as well as being boosted by the arrivals of long-serving Sydney Olympic skipper Jason Madonis, ex-Ilinden defender Micky Neill as well as the talents of Mark Rodic formerly of the Stallions has issued a warning to fellow NPL NSW Men’s clubs that the Sharks mean business in 2022.
