Northbridge Bulls FC coach and former Socceroo Mile Sterjovski will look towards unearthing more talented NSW footballers after the club saw several young guns hold their own in the 2021 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s competition.

Although the season was cut short due to Covid, Sterjovski was pleased with how his young chargers handled the tough NPL NSW Men’s competition and was looking forward to building upon that momentum the team experienced for the 2022 season.

“We are still very young and will take time to build our club to where it needs to be, but I believe we played a very good brand of football this season,” Sterjovski stated to Football NSW.

“I know the players and my staff are driven to be successful and achieve our goals.

“We want to win, we want to develop and we want to see our players move on and secure professional careers.”

Sterjovski and his coaching staff have announced five new signings for the 2022 season with Canberra born defender Gian Fiorese the pick of the lot. The 20-year-old was part of the APIA Leichhardt setup this season but caught the attention of the Bulls who hope to further develop the former AIS graduate’s game.

Former SD Raiders young gun Adrian Valenti, ex-Rockdale Illinden youngster James Cakovski, former Blacktown City youth player Jed Drew and Ollie Jones will also join Gian forming the new faces of the young Bulls line-up for 2022.

Niko Ujdur, Keanu Ismic, Jake Jovanovski and Joshua Karantz have since moved on from the Bulls following the 2021 season.

At only 18, Stephan De Robillard is settling in well to the NPL NSW Men’s Competition.

The youngster has already scored three goals for the Northbridge Bulls side and has big ambitions to make his mark on the league.

“It was a tough season, especially because we’re a young side,” he explained.

“For me individually, I feel like I’ve learned a lot, being only 18 and playing first grade.

“We’ve done well but I would say, means to be more consistent.”

After making the step up to the NPL New South Wales Men’s Competition, De Robillard said there are some key differences between the teams and players.

“I would say one would be probably physicality because they’re much older, they’re bigger they’re smarter but I would say we’ve got them on pace and technical ability and fitness.

“It’s good that we learn playing those teams, so we grow that maturity and experience.”

While the lockdown is keeping the Bulls from training as a team, they are still working hard to remain prepared for the return to football and keeping in touch through Zoom.

“All of us are staying fit, we’ve been staying in contact on Zoom making sure we’re all up to date on our fitness.

“Each week in the fitness program gets harder so we’re always prepared.

“There are these tasks our coach gives us and basically we’ve been put in groups and we’ve got to work together – it’s like homework basically, football homework.

“We’ll analyse another team and then we get together on Zoom and then we share our answers.

“That’s a good way for us to all stay in contact.

The youngster isn’t finding a lack of motivation a problem in the lockdown, drawing on his eagerness to establish himself in the men’s competition.

“For me, the motivation is always there just because I was so pumped to play top tier NPL Men’s football and it’s my first year playing first grade.

“I want to prove myself this season and see how I could perform.

“The season hasn’t been fully called off so until it is called off, then I can have a break.

Outside of training to keep fit, De Robillard has been trying to keep busy through new hobbies.

“I’ve been doing a couple of new things that I don’t normally do to stay occupied and bike riding is one of them.”

When football returns, the youngster has clear goals for the remainder of the season.

“Because we’ve drawn our last four, we haven’t lost, we’d like to obviously keep that streak of not losing but we want to try to win all the games, the rest of the games.

“For me individually, I want to try to score in each of them.”

-By Madeline Riley

Rory Jordan has been a standout star for the Northbridge Bulls in the 2021 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s competition.

At just 21-year-old the recently crowned Player of the Year for the NPL side at the 2021 Macarthur FC Awards night, has easily stepped into a leadership role within the team of emerging stars that has given him valuable experience that will be indispensable throughout his football career.

While the inexperience and of his young team makes it difficult to face up to the more experienced, physical teams in the competition, Jordan highlights the value of this experience in learning and developing as a footballer.

“We are the second-highest goal-scoring team this year, but I feel like sometimes our inexperience shows as a young team… maybe if we were a bit more experienced, we’d hold onto some of the leads and be a bit more clinical,” he explained.

“A lot of these players have a lot of NPL experience and some of the boys even have a lot of A-League experience.

“I’m not too worried about the results and whatnot I just feel like it’s a really good learning experience and I feel like that’s what we really need at this age.

“This year I think the coaching staff are putting a lot of trust into me and have given me a lot of confidence to go out and enjoy the way I like to play.

“A lot of the boys in our team are the same, they love to express themselves and I think that’s great, and I think it helps me a lot being able to rely on every single one of my teammates.”

While the lockdown has affected the rhythm of training and playing, Jordan is enjoying a bit of a break to relax while working on his fitness through a program provided by the Bulls.

“It feels a bit different having a weekend off where you can relax and not get kicked.

“Fitness-wise we’ve all got a program and we’re going to stick to it and hopefully the restrictions and the lockdown ends relatively soon, and we can get straight back into it.”

Jordan spoke about his gratitude for having a supportive group of family and friends to help him through the lockdown.

“My friends and I, we’ve known each other for a long time through school and extracurricular activities so I have a good support group, we can chat to each other anytime, anyplace, we’re a tight bunch.

“Even the group of boys in our football group that maybe we’ve only known for a couple of months really, we’ve bonded really well, and I feel like we can chat about anything and speak to each other whenever we need to.”

Looking towards the remainder of the season post-lockdown, Jordan is hoping that his side can finish strong and stand up against some of the competition’s strongest sides.

“If we can just finish strong and get a couple of results, I think that would be good for us.

“Our remaining opponents are all top six and pushing for finals so it’s going to be a tough run but I definitely back us, our coaching staff and the boys, to be able to put a few wins on and play well.”

-By Madeline Riley