Twenty-three-year-old shotstopper Nicholas Sorras has secured a short-term injury replacement contract with A-League outfit Perth Glory following the injuries to Liam Reddy and Brad Jones.

The highly rated goalkeeper has been viewed as one of the National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s rising young custodians with the tall number one viewing this as an ideal opportunity to gain more experience in Australia’s top tier competition.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for Nick and a great reward for his effort and performance,” said Sydney Olympic FC CEO John Boulos.

“As a Club we sign players to not only contribute to the success of the Club on the field, but also, provide a football environment and pathway for them to reach their potential and progress.

“We wish Nick the very best for his stint with Perth Glory.”

Sorras, whose father George was also a footballer having played for Olympic in the 80’s and 90’s will hope that this short-term move to the Glory will also boost his chances of taking part in yet another Olyroos camp coming up.

Standing at a massive 6 foot 5 in height, Sorras will be part of the team as the Glory take on the Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park this Sunday.

Labelled as one of the signings of the 2022 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s season, former English Premier League and A-League star sharpshooter Roy O’Donovan will be wearing the Blue and White kit of Sydney Olympic starting off with the FFA Cup clash against Sydney FC in what’s been seen as a massive coup for the club and competition.

The 36-yer-old Irishman made the move ‘down under’ in 2015 when he signed for the Central Coast Mariners and spent two seasons there before moving off to the Newcastle Jets, then linking up with the Brisbane Roar for the 2019-2020 season. He then made the switch back to the Jets for the 2020-2021 season and it was there he spent his final season in the A-League before agreeing to terms with the Blues.

O’Donovan was looking forward to joining Sydney Olympic Football Club as well as linking up with his new teammates.

“I am as willing as ever to play and support this great Club in both the upcoming FFA Cup match against Sydney FC and the 2022 NPL season,” the prolific striker said in the club’s official press release.

“There are few Clubs like Sydney Olympic in Australia, a great tradition and history, supported by passionate fans that want success for this Club.

“I will be trying my best to contribute to the team and help bring success to this Club to make the fans proud, I like the look of our squad, many young aspiring players combined with some experienced players, I can’t wait to join them on the park.”

Head Coach Ante Juric was confident Roy would make an immediate impact on the playing group.

“Roy is a great addition to our squad.

“He brings experience, and he is a proven goal scorer at the highest of levels.

“Roy is another important piece to our team as we look to succeed as a team and club this season and beyond. We are looking forward to him joining the team in training.”

O’Donovan will commence training from next week ahead of the upcoming FFA Cup Round of 32 match against A-League heavyweights Sydney FC at Belmore Sports Ground on Wednesday 24 November.

Ante Juric has wasted no time in preparing for the 2022 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s season after the club announced the signing of four quality youngsters in Mathieu Cordier, Sam McIllhatton, Emmanuel Peters and Niko Ujdur.

Both Cordier and McIllhatton come to the Blues after successful seasons with APIA Leichhardt, young defender Ujdur spent the past year with the youthful Northbridge Bulls outfit while Peters was part of the Marconi Stallions senior setup.

“We are looking forward to the 2022 NPL NSW Men’s new season and want to build on our solid fourth place this year and a FFA Cup Round of 32 birth,” Juric stated to Football NSW.

“I believe we have further strengthened the squad for the new season by bringing in some excellent young players such as Mathieu, Sam, Emmanuel and Niko.

“The team will again be youthful, though it is also a team for the now, as I believe we will be capable of challenging for trophies.”

The club however lost three influential players from its 2021 squad with long serving Blues star Jason Madonis, pocket dynamo midfielder Hagi Gligor and Nicola Kuleski who have all moved to rival NPL NSW Men’s clubs. Japanese import striker Yu Hasegawa has also departed while Olympic did lose both Mo Adam and Fabian Monge to Xanthi FC earlier this year.

Juric will still have a fair bit of experience to counter his young gun stars on display with the likes of Tom Whiteside, Brendan Cholakian, Fabio Ferrerira, Adam Parkhouse and fan favourite William Angel all ready to wear the Blues jersey once more.

For Angel, it will be an amazing 19th year with the club and twelve as a senior Olympic first grader, such is his passion for the Blues.

“This club means everything to me and I am delighted to be back once again.

“We are aiming to build on last season after finishing in a good position.

“A lot of the younger boys are gaining experience which is great for now and shaping us as a squad for the future as we look to be a force in season 2022 and beyond.”

Sydney Olympic 2022: William Angel, Ben Van Meurs, Michael Glassock, Brendan Cholakian, Tom Whiteside, Marley Peterson, Fabio Ferreira, Simun Milicevic, Chan Deng, Danial Dias, Nick Sorras, Christopher Parsons, Adam Parkhouse, Oliver Pufflett, Matthew Cordier, Niko Ujdur, Sam McIllhatton, Emmanuel Peters.

As one of the NPL NSW Men’s most experienced players, Brendan Cholakian has been a mainstay of Manly United’s squad for the majority of his time in the competition.

After making the big switch from Cromer Park to Belmore Sportsground for Sydney Olympic this year, the midfielder has settled right in to the new team dynamic, continuing to be one of the league’s most impactful players.

“I think this year was always going to be the toughest season for me because of the change,” he explained.

“Taking the big change into account, it’s been such a smooth and enjoyable season so far, the team, the squad, the coaching staff and the Club itself have been so welcoming to me and that made me fit in really, really well and it feels like I’ve been playing there for such a long period of time.

“We always knew it was going to take a fair bit of time for us to gel, but the chemistry that we’ve got as a playing group is really, really good and I’m enjoying my football now more than ever – it’s been a really good season.

“We’ve positioned ourselves really, really well, in that fifth spot and close to the top three or four that once we get back to playing, we can really close out the season with some strong form with the remaining games that we’ve got at home at Belmore.”

Having spent so much time at Manly, Cholakian experienced going back to Cromer Park as a visitor this season.

“It was strange when I came up against them the first time and it was actually at Cromer Park – it’s always strange going back to a place that you’ve been at for so long.

“I think the way that the Olympic has made me feel so much at home since day one, it made that transition a little bit easier.

“I still speak with a lot of the players at Manly still quite regularly and they’ll be good friends to me for a long, long time even outside of my footballing career.

“From that sort of individual people side of things, I still sort of keep in touch with everyone, but when it came to football, even though the first time back to Cromer was a bit strange, I haven’t really felt any different and I feel like my new home at Olympic is somewhere I want to be for a very long time.”

While the lockdown is stopping Olympic from getting together and training as a team, they are still training individually and building their chemistry through the digital channels available to them.

“As most people would say when you’re in lockdown the best escape is to sort of get out onto the paddock and have a run and have a kick so the fitness plan that has been provided to us by Olympic has been really, really good and, most importantly, we’ve got a really committed squad of individuals and I know that every single one of them is going to be doing this at the best of their ability.

“Our WhatsApp group chat blows up quite regularly with a fair bit of banter, in fact, I think now that we’ve gone into lockdown the WhatsApp group has probably got a bit more content in there in comparison to when we were seeing each other every pretty much every second day of training anyway.

“We’ve got a really good bunch of boys everyone gets along really well, everyone’s reaching out to individuals independently as well – I’ve reached out to the boys just checking to see how they’re going, and I’ve received the same, so it just shows what a strong group of players that we have.”

With the extension of the NSW stay-at-home orders, Cholakian can’t wait until it is safe to get back on the pitch and continue Olympic’s 2021 campaign.

“We’ve positioned ourselves in a really good spot in terms of the league, being fifth with a number of games to go.

“With a number of those games at Belmore, it gives us a really good opportunity to secure our spot in finals football and finish as high as we can on the table, so that when we do go into the finals series we’re going into that with a bit of sort of winning momentum.

“It’s also been a really successful year for us in the Cup competitions – we’ve got the semi-final of the Waratah Cup against Blacktown, and we obviously want to win that game and get into the final, and then we’ve got the big matchup against Sydney FC in the FFA Cup so we’ve still got so much to play for.

“That’s why this time off is so important to make sure that we are staying fit and sharp so when we do get back we’ve got a couple of big-ticket items to make sure that we win and progress well in.”

-By Madeline Riley