THE EARLY DAYS
Turramurra 0, West Pymble 0, 12 noon 11th May 1957 at Bannockburn Oval. This was Kissing Point Soccer Club’s first game.
THE 1970’S
The club operated pretty much for the benefit of juniors until the mid seventies. Rod Woods was the leading administrator.
THE 1980’S
The 1980’s were a golden era for our club with strength in seniors and juniors. John Orlovich, a Life Member, dominated the administration and did an excellent job. He was followed by another enthusiastic administrator in Dianne Brown who also became a Life Member.
THE 1990’S
The late 80’s and early 1990’s saw a Phil Tucker coached side rise to prominance and take out the clubs only Champion of Champion’s title in 1991 in the under 21’s. These players filtered through to Premier League the next season and strengthened our squad to such an extent that we took out the Premiership in 1992 and made it all the way to the Champion of Champion’s final before falling at the final hurdle against Manly Seasiders.
THE 2000’S
The 2000’s saw our club win the Premier League in 2001 under coach Victor Jago. Several of the players were people like Mitchell Raiss, Matthew Bertram and Trevor Jesse who played in the early 1990’s.
2002 was a memorable season as Victor again coached a winning side that came 2nd in the Premiership, was runner up in the State Cup final and won the KDSA Cup.2001 also saw Rhian Davies’ selection for Australia in womens soccer and Rhian has since cemented her place in the team to such an extent that she played all matches for Australia in the Womens World Cup in America in 2003. Rhian has also been chosen for the Olympic elimination matches and if Australia qualify for Athens Rhian may be the Kissing Point’s first Olympian.The 2002 season saw a most successful under 14 team take a KDSA Division one Premiership for the first time since 1991.In 2001 our U21 team not only won the division 1 championship but went on to win the Under 21 Champion of Champions competition!The 2003 season saw us field 44 teams. We fielded 32 teams in juniors and 12 adult teams. 4 of those sides were womens teams. In 2005 the number of teams grew to 49 and saw successes in both mens and womans. The most notable achievements were the Premier team’s victory in the State Cup and the Woman’s All Age div 1 team winning the competition and going through to the Champion of Champions competition in Lismore.In 2007 we entered an U21 team in the Robertson (State) Cup and the team were rarely challenged on their way through to the final and victory!In 2008 the number of teams grew to 60 (800 players) and saw the introduction of Over 45′s soccer to the KDSA.
OVER 45’s
2008 also saw the introduction of the O/45 competition. the comp starting enthusiastically with 14 teams, all in Div 1. After the first round (14 games) the team were regraded Div 1 & 2. KPFC fielded a 20 strong squad and were placed runners Up in Div 2 for the year. KPFC were unique in recording the most draws in the entire comp pointing to a very competitive start to the competition and a promising start for the future of the KPFC O/45’s.
WOMEN’S LEAGUE
Kissing Point started womens soccer in 1994. It became apparent that many young girls were finding that as they got older mixed teams with boys were not satisfactory as the boys greater strength became a factor from under 12 onwards. Kissing Point assembled several of these girls and started putting out inquiries with other clubs in the KDSA. Young ladies from Northbridge, Lane Cove, Berowra, Lindfield and St Ives areas responded and Geoff Kerr and Charlie Stewart prevailed on Mark Stanley to become our first coach. The first year saw us initially enter an Under 14 team in the Gladesville – Hornsby competition. Rhian Davies was one such young lady. Rhian went on to represent Australia.
OVER 30/35’s
2005 saw the introduction of the first Woman’s Over 30s competition by the KDSA. Six teams representing five clubs participated in the inaugural competition. It was not until 2006 that Kissing Point entered a team into the competition that now had 14 teams representing 10 clubs. Colin Stephens coached the inaugural Kissing Point team which finished the competition as runners up! The final match of the season saw Kissing Point defeat the premiership winners 3-0 in an exciting final match.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Kissing Point Soccer Club has had a team in the Ku-ring-gai District Soccer Association Premier League Division 1 since 1978. In that time we have been successful on 7 occasions in winning the competition – the last victory was in Year 2001. Prior to that we were successful in 1980, 1986, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996. Indeed we have not been out of the top four in most seasons.
The squad entered the then Division 1 in 1978 as a bunch of 18 year olds coached by a young man Irvin Gillies. Irv was only in his mid twenties but he succeeded in building a great squad with John Townend as the manager. The team contained many players of natural talent who for various reasons did not want to proceed to semi professional soccer. This choice was either a lifestyle or studies decision. Craig McGeachie, Dick Kendrick, Robert Paton and Shane Thompson were such players whilst players such as Andrew Wheatley and Frank Bertinetti decided that representative soccer was not for them. The squad progressed well over the next couple of years and in 1980 the club had a Rolls Royce squad. The side was unbeaten but was matched all the way by a determined Hornsby RSL and the season finished in a showdown at Mimosa. Kissing Point’s Andrew Wheatley beat the appropriately named RSL keeper Spider McCann with 10 minutes to go. Kissing Point had won its first KDSA 1stDivision Premiership and more were in store.The side continued to be a force over the next few years but 2nd and 3rd spots somehow or other could not be improved upon. This all changed in 1986 when the nucleus of the 1980 team had settled down into more stable lifestyles. The 1986 season saw Kissing Point narrowly take the competition from Hornsby Heights and West Pymble. We also won the KDSA Cup. The side was coached by a returning Irv Gillies and went on to make the final of the Champion of Champions. We met Epping YMCA at Parklea but unfortunately we suffered a 1-0 defeat in an ordinary match. The wonder of this game was how it was only 0-1 as Dick Kendrick, Stewart Robertson and Greg Ford all got red cards. The next few years were always competitive except for 1989 when a rain affected season saw us almost relegated.
1990’s
This was surely Kissing Point’s golden era as a group of youngsters coached by Phil Tucker supplemented the remnants of the 1986 team. Phil’s boys led by the Brown brothers Steven and Graham and his own lads Jeremy and Nathan were the fresh air we needed to make an impact.
2000’s
The 2001 year was a real boomer for the club. A young player coach Victor Jago took over and quickly got the squad into top condition. The side played a five across the middle pattern and proved to be too fit for most teams. Skilled players like Mat Boylan, Victor Jago, Sam Dawson and Courtney Randall got support from tough guys such as Chris Fisher, Mitchell Raiss, Jonah Wigley and Paul Rowe. This all unfolded in front of a superb keeper in Nigel Raiss. We felt we may have been able to win the Champion of Champions but in a gut wrenching penalty shoot out eventual winners Pittwater RSL disposed of our hopes.
State Competitions
Kissing Point has also competed strongly in out of district competitions and were runners up in the New South Wales Amateur Soccer Association’s Champion of Champions Tournament in 1986 and 1992. The club also finished as runner up to Bankstown Sports in the 2002 State Cup.
2006 saw the introduction of the Stewart-Close Cup. The cup was dedicated to 50 years of competition between Kissing Point and West Pymble with the cup being named after Charlie Stewart (KPSC) and Rick Close (WPSC). Kissing Point won the up in its inaugural year and retained it in 2007.