History
North Brisbane FC is an inner city northside club located at Prentice Park, Thistle Street Lutwyche. Football clubs have operated out of this facility since the 1920s.
Though various clubs played out of Prentice Park over the post-war years, by the 1960s it became the permanent home of Polonia, a club supported by the Brisbane Polish diaspora. In the early 1970s the club renamed themselves North Brisbane pursuant to a directive from the Queensland Soccer Federation to abolish ethnic names.
For the most part of the 1960s and 1970s the club played in the first division competition. However, the dwindling of the Polish influence at the club coincided with a downturn in the club’s fortunes. By the mid- 1980s, the Polish influence over the club had largely disappeared. The running of the club was taken over by the junior committee and, to create a point of distinction, was again renamed Lutwyche United.
After that came a period of remarkable success, with the club going all the way from fifth to first division within six years. To coincide with the opening of licenced premises at Everton Park, the club was again renamed North Brisbane in 1993.
However, with the licenced club struggling to pay its way, financial constraints forced the club to exit from the then Queensland Soccer Federation competition at the end of the 1995 season, having played the previous 4 seasons in the top flight. Thereafter, the club continued to operate in amateur competitions such as the Commercial League (now QIF) and Christian Soccer.
In 2015, the club, in association with the New Farm Punjabi community, fielded 2 teams in the Capital Division 4 and Reserves competition and so returned to Football Brisbane competition. Now branded as North Brisbane FC and with a proper committee structure in place, the club has gone from strength to strength.
2021 proved to be a stellar year for our men’s Capital League Firsts and Reserves teams who both won the premiership and grand finals, thereby doing the “double double”.
As we roll into 2023, we can reflect on a massive growth over the intervening 7 years. Both our Men’s and Women’s Firsts and Under 23 teams were promoted to the FQPL div 3 and 2 competitions respectively during 2022, the only community football to have achieved this goal.
We’ll have an additional 6 teams- 3 men and 3 women- playing in FQ Metro competitions, reflecting the club’s commitment to gender-inclusive policies.
Additionally, we’ll have a men’s Over 35 team. We’ll continue to grow our boys and girls teams in Mini Roos competition from ages 7-13 (about 100 players in total). We will continue to field a junior girl’s team in under 17 competition, building on a fantastic first season where the girls won the league and grand final without dropping a point.
In all, we expect to field over 350 NBFC players in Football Qld competition, the highest number since our re-birth in 2015 when we started off with 2 teams. This is very much at operating capacity for a one-pitch field.
Off the field, we have also made huge strides. Thanks to grants from the Communities Sports Infrastructure (Federal government), and Get Going Playing and Spaces (Qld government), we were able to do a massive field upgrade involving the erection of perimeter fencing and a total re-laying of our playing surface for the start of the 2020 season.
We also undertook significant clubhouse modifications which largely involved the erection of 2 new dressing rooms and a disabled toilet This was proudly funded by the Building Stronger Communities grant from Brisbane City Council. While 2020 was the year of Covid, we were able to emerge largely unscathed, thanks to assistance from the Lord Mayor’s Covid Assistance grant and the State government Active Restart Infrastructure Recovery Fund.
Other major initiatives we’ve undertaken since our re-birth has been the upgrade of our Lighting system to enable night football and the erection of solar panels and a Battery Unit for power storage, both thanks to the Gambling Community Benefit Fund.
We are well on the way to fulfilling our vision as a community club that provides playing opportunities for our members from cradle to grave.
The phoenix has risen…