Stirling Lions

Cross the Mitchell Freeway from Balcatta and you land in Etna territory: the two clubs have been playing each other for decades, their grounds barely a kilometre apart.

The club that plays those games has worn three names since 1958. It folded in 1967 amid a dispute the record does not spell out, and the community rebuilt it two years later. A move west brought a rename to West Perth Macedonia in 1970, and the shift to the current ground in 1986 brought another change, to Stirling Macedonia. In 1999 a national ban on ethnic identifiers in club names pushed it to Stirling Lions; the ban lifted in 2019, and the club reverted to Stirling Macedonia, though Lions has stuck in daily use alongside the nickname Macies.

That ground, Macedonia Park in Balcatta, holds 5,000, trimmed to 4,500 when the fixture calls for A-League conditions. Red, black and white are the colours worn there through nine State League premierships and six State Cups.

Among the players who came through, Stan Lazaridis went furthest: 60 caps for the Socceroos, a place in the 2006 World Cup squad, and a career in the Premier League with West Ham United and Birmingham City.

60 caps for Australia — the number this Balcatta club sent one of its own out to collect.