Dianella White Eagles SC
Dianella White Eagles SC is an Australian soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia which was established by the local Serbian Australian community. The team was formed under the name of Dianella Serbia in 1978, with the name changed to the current one in the 1990s to reduce the ethnic tension between former Yugoslav clubs, due to the outbreak of the Yugoslav War. In recent times, the club has seen a major influx of players and personnel who were refugees of the Yugoslav War, mainly from the Krajina region in Croatia, and from Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club has had some success winning the Division 1 title in 1993 sending them into the state's top division for a brief stint. The club has since spent its time in Division 1 coming close to winning the league in 2013 and 2017; they are competing in the State League Division 2 in the 2020 season.
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| Full name | Dianella White Eagles Soccer Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | Serbia, White Eagles | ||
| Founded | 1978 | ||
| Ground | Dianella Reserve | ||
| Capacity | 1,500 | ||
| President | Bata Jovanovic | ||
| Manager | Bobby Despotovski | ||
| League | State League Division 2 | ||
| 2019 | 11th | ||
| Website | Club website | ||
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Club Colours, Crest and Song
The club's crest shows a soccer ball with the double headed eagle (the national emblem of Serbia) on a badge with the Serbian national colours of red, blue and white, in the background and serves as a reminder to the clubs ethnic roots. Although the club is extremely welcoming of other cultures it is expected that the players and staff respect the Serbian Heritage of the club. The club's song is called Igrale se Delije.
Rivalries
Dianella White Eagles have a fierce rivalry with Western Knights, due to the ethnic heritage of the club, Dianella being Serbian and Western Knights being Croatian. Western Knights did however have a long stint in the WA Premier league which did not allow for this fixture as the clubs were in different leagues. With Western Knights relegation, the rivalry intensified and deepened with regular fixtures each year. The most memorable encounters were in the 2013 season in which both teams were challenging for the league title.
Home Ground
Dianella's home ground is at Dianella Reserve, a public open space with many sporting facilities throughout. Dianella share their ground with Little Athletics WA who use the ground during the summer months. The local Serbian community also have built their own stand alone clubroom next to the existing clubrooms which used to be shared with the Little Athletics club. In 2017 club sources indicated that during the state elections that the club was promised funding by the local member to upgrade to their floodlights and change rooms. Upgrade to the floodlights was completed in 2019 and the change rooms upgrade will be completed in April 2020.
Playing history
2016 season
The 2016 season was a dark one for Dianella which saw them very nearly relegated from State League Division 1. Mauro Marchione who had control of the squad from the season before had lost almost all of the 2015 roster. The new squad consisted of almost exclusively visa players. Before the season opener tensions began to rise when some of the players and manager revolted against the club over a pay dispute. The manager had made promises to the players that the club could not fulfil and this almost saw the first match of the season against Gosnells not go ahead. in the week after almost the whole squad and Mauro had left the first team and Vesko Zmukic was tasked with the job to pick up the pieces with the few players who stayed he also brought in an array of players who he thought would be able to make an impact on what was going to be a long season.
Heavy defeats to Ashfield and more critically, rivals Western Knights, set the tone for the season ahead and they were without a win until almost halfway through the season until they faced fellow strugglers, shamrock rovers. the 2–0 win galvanised the squad and when they faced Gosnells 2 weeks later they lifted themselves out of the relegation playoff spot. Nebojsa Marinkovic of the Perth Glory had been attending training sessions in an advisory role to help manage Vesko Zmukic. The bad results however returned until once again, shamrock visited Dianella Reserve. By this point of the season ex Socceroo Robbie Dunn had been providing Vesko Zmukic with assistance in training and going into the Shamrock fixture spirits had been lifted. Shamrock managed to go into half time with a 2–0 lead in a hugely important relegation 6 pointer. Dianella came out after the break and managed to score 3 goals to take all 3 points that all but saw them avoid automatic relegation. a draw against Rockingham and a final day win against Bunbury at home saw them into the relegation play-off with Joondalup city of Division 2. The first leg saw Dianella come out 3–0 victors and all but seal their continued status in Division 1. The tie ended 4–2 on aggregate.
2017 season
In 2017, Robbie Dunn came in as full-time first team coach along with Steve Huxtable as his assistant. The squad assembled has thus far proved to be a strong one with a good showing in the 2017 night series indicating that 2017 will be a far more positive year for the club with talk of silverware very much back on the lips of the Dianella faithful. The club have been boosted by the return of striker Angel Andres who had previously been at Cockburn after an earlier stint with the White Eagles. Dianella made a great start in the 2017 FFA Cup Preliminary rounds in WA beating Ashfield, Forrestfield and ECU Joondalup of the NPL to progress to the quarter finals where they were scheduled to face Cockburn in late May. Sensationally after 2–2 draw with Gosnells on 1 May coach Robbie Dunn had to step away from full first team coach duties due to personal and work reasons leaving Vesko Zmukic in charge in his absence. The week after Robbie's departure the club had a top of the table fixture against Rockingham City of which the White eagles overcame them 2–0 to send them top of the league after 5 matches played. After only a week absent Robbie Dunn returned and oversaw Dianella's 2–2 draw with Joondalup City which saw them drop to third place in the table. On 21 May Dianella faced off against NPL opposition Cockburn City for a spot in the WA Cup Semi-finals. the match saw striker Angel Andres returned to his former club and he punished them with a hat trick as Dianella ran out comfortable 3–0 victors. This Equalled Dianellas best cup run which came in 1998 where they also made the State cup Semi-finals. Next up would be Sorrento in early June with the victor qualifying for the FFA Cup round of 32. Before the Semi-final Dianella would have back to back away trips to Canning City and Fremantle City. After a good start against Canning in which Dianella went 1–0 up early through a Stepanovski goal things took a turn in the second half with Canning hitting the lead. Andres Salvaged a point for Dianella in the final minute of the game to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. In the next match 2 days before the cup semi-final, it took a final minute goal from Ibrahim Hamad against Fremantle to steal an important win away to Fremantle this time, sending Dianella top of the table once more. With league duties over for the weekend focus turned to the Sorrento cup Semi-final. With several important players under an injury cloud and the departure of Musonda back to his native Zambia it was never going to be an easy task for the White Eagles. Stepanovski was left out as he was unable to recover in time from an injury sustained in the draw to Canning and Andres started from the bench after he was also injured against Fremantle. Captain Radinovic who was hamstrung since the Cockburn fixture, was available to start. After an early goal to Sorrento Dianella took control of the match and dominated possession of the ball and had Sorrento on the back foot for large parts of the game however the injuries to key attacking players may have been a telling factor as Dianella failed to snatch an equaliser giving Sorrento the 1–0 win. Following the cup semi-final the next Saturday saw the visit of Forrestfield to Dianella Reserve. After what seemed to be cup hangover Dianella were 2–0 down after 15 minutes but rallied to bang in 4 unanswered goals and win 4–2 and keep their undefeated run intact and remain at the top of the table. An eerily identical reverse result of Dianella's away trip to Forrestfield in the previous season where they let a 2–0 lead slip late on to lose 4–2. The same comeback heroics unfortunately were not present the following weekend at Ashfield. The White Eagles went 2–0 down and never recovered suffering their first league defeat of the season and in turn losing top spot. The next week Dianella would have the bye. The Following week the Match against UWA would be postponed due to weather conditions. Following the break was a hugely important match against Western Knights. the Yugoslav Derby produced an entertaining 1–1 draw in which western knights went 1–0 down and down to 10 men. Dianella looked to have the win secured only to concede late on. Dianella would then go on to suffer their second defeat of the season against South West Phoenix, again conceding late on to drop points. the weekend of 22 July saw Dianella play the catch up game against UWA and ran out 4–2 victors. looking to build on the 4–2 win Dianella would then travel to Gosnells seeking to capitalise on poor results from the other front runners, however a scoreless draw would be played out instead. Rockingham would next visit Dianella reserve and the White eagled came out 4–1 victors. This proved to give the side a boost as they beat Joondalup City the following week, 2–0, and returned to the top of the table putting the title chances in their own hands with four games remaining. Dianella then had momentum at a pivotal point in the season. Forrestfield, Western Knights and Bunbury were all keeping pace at the top and it would prove to be a tight end to a great season. Canning were next to visit Dianella reserve and after an early goal from Wanjiru the contest was a tight one until half time. The second half would prove to be a different story with Dianella coming out guns blazing. it was 2–0 10 minutes after the break and it was from here where the floodgates would truly open. Stepanovski was introduced after being sidelined for 3 months with an ankle injury and Dianella would pile on 4 more goals to take out the game 6–0. The result provided them with a huge boost to their Goal Difference which might prove to be worth an extra point come seasons end. With three games left Dianella were now on top by two points to Forrestfield and 3 points to both Knights and Bunbury, however Dianella had played a game more. Fremantle were next to visit Dianella Reserve. Fremantle had started the better and were 2–0 up. Dianella forced their way back into it and took a 3–2 lead in the second half however a hugely controversial decision or lack thereof by the referee allowed Fremantle to equalise and both teams left with a point. Forrestfield away was much the same with hopes of the title slipping away Dianella succumbed to a 4–3 defeat despite the hat trick efforts of their striker Andres. With the title all but gone the Ashfield game proved of little significance and although Dianella ran out 2–1 winners, it was a tale of a season that could have been. Dianella one of the highest scoring teams and losing the fewest games, it was the draws against the lower sides that had killed the title dream in the end.
2018 and 2019 seasons and Relegation
The 2018 season saw the club start off strong with a bolstered squad full of name players around the WA football scene including the signing of South Sudan international Friday Zico. The initial results in the season were promising with Dianella sitting toward the top of the table after the first few rounds of the season. Things began to sour quickly though with a string of heavy defeats and key players moving on to clubs elsewhere in the league and NPL WA. The poor run of results and bad dressing room atmosphere lead to the resignation of coach Robbie Dunn. The rest of the season would prove to be extremely difficult and Dianella would not be able to escape relegation to Division 2.
The 2019 season would require a massive rebuild and transformation of the squad. Dianella would find the first half of the 2019 season reasonably comfortable sporting a mid table position. However another mid season collapse would see them go on an abysmal run to finish 2nd last in Division 2 narrowly escaping possible relegation by 2 points. Another rebuild of the squad with a new manager would be required for the 2020 season.
Coaching Staff and Squad List
Coaching staff
The 2020 season coaching staff is as follows:
First Team Coach : Bobby Despotovski
First Team Assistant: Terry Brown
Reserves Coach: Jason Razmovski
First Team squad
- As of JULY 2020[1]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Honours
1983 Third Division Runners-up
1990 Second Division Runners-up
1993 First Division Winners
2013 First Division Runners-up
2012, 2017 Karadjordje Kup Winners
References
- "2020 Season Preview". www.footballwa.net. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
External links
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