The Mighty Tangerines Make History

It was written in the stars.

Whitsunday United Football Club were crowned Football Queensland Premier League (FQPL) Whitsunday Coast inaugural champions in September of 2022, finishing the season with a tally of 49 points, pipping persistent rivals Mackay Lions in the final game of the regular season. They would face off against Lions twice in the Finals series of the competition, beating them twice to confirm “the double” – winning two trophies: the FQPL Title and the Grand Final Trophy.

It seems a long time since the junior clubs of Proserpine, Bowen, and Airlie Beach’s football associations sat down and amalgamated to create a senior pathway for football in the region in 2019: Whitsunday United Football Club. And it seems an even longer time since the club was known and playing as Whitsunday Football Club; even longer since they were the Cannonvale Cyclones. A long journey for a region whose primary exports and sporting successes are more often reserved for football of a different kind.

It seems an age since the foundations of a team that would make history – claiming Whitsunday United’s first ever Men’s Premiership – were lain.

The story of their championship winning side – the side that broke the duck, ending the drought – began the season prior, with a spectacular series of final games that instilled belief in a team which, in previous years and even that season itself, struggled with players and results.

There is one game in particular, played in Proserpine in the latter stages of the 2021 season, which highlights the team’s fighting spirit: The Battle Of Proserpine

Of the players who would comprise the starting lineup for 2022’s championship winning team, five played in the game that saw Whitsunday United claw back from defeat, scoring five goals to beat Mackay Brothers Football Club in a 5-4 win.

That side went on to be undefeated in their last regular season fixtures, making a late finals charge. They beat or drew against every single team in the dying embers of the 2021 season, all the way until the finals themselves, which saw them eventually lose out to Mackay Lions in the semis.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

There was a promise made on that last matchday for the team: We will be back next year, and we will be stronger.

Those who played would form the spine of the side that went on to win the league, and a strong series of recruits in pre-season saw Whitsunday United go from off-again-on-again world-beaters to consistent champions-elect.

These are your Whitsunday United Football Club Football Queensland Premier League Champions and Grand Final winners:

Scott Ferries, Harry Hodgen, Hayden Filby, Ben Seago, Luke Swift, Declan Durrant, Tommy Torzsok, James McEvoy-Bowe, Connor Mcavoy, Martyn Goodey, Jose Puentes, Kurt Ashley, Sam Blake, Scott Boldy, Ben Farrell, Nick Hansen, and Luke Nightingale.

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