Rockdale City Suns 12 Girls nicknamed the “Invincibles” after flawless season

Football St George Association side Rockdale City Suns’ 12 Girls completed a dream 2022 season by taking out its fifth piece of silverware by winning the Champion of Champions title embedding them as one of the best teams the state has ever seen.

The squad had won the Proctor Cup, Kanga Cup as well as clinching the Premiership and Championship in their local association and on Sunday added the best piece of silverware to the lot, the Champion of Champions trophy.

The 1-0 victory for coach George Kokalevski’s troops against Terrigal United outfit thanks to a Genevieve Estmore goal put the icing on the cake in what was a flawless year for the talented group of girls.

“I am so delighted and extremely proud of these girls,” Kokalevski stated to Football NSW.

“This Champions of Champions victory was our quintuple trophy for the 2022 season, a feat which we understand has never been achieved by any other team in NSW.

“What makes it even more remarkable and special is that we have a majority of the girls who could play at this age group again next year and had two 10-year-olds playing in the side.

“The way the girls have adapted from our regular season which is played in a 9 v 9 format less than half field format, as part of the Football St George Association, has been fantastic.

“For these young girls to compete in the Champion of Champions, we’ve had to find new levels of endurance and stamina on fields two and a half times bigger than what they are used to playing on.

“It’s been a steep learning curve. It has also meant usually glancing across at opposing teams dugout with five substitutes while we have as few as one or two in this competition because the regular season is played with a 9 v 9 format.

“This year we have taken innovation and technology to a new level with incredible data insights led by “Statman Dan” which has provided invaluable decision making.

“Winning the Champions of Champions has truly made this a historic and unprecedented season for everyone involved.”

This special group of players put on a show at Valentine Sports Park in front of their parents, friends and supporters, but it was the outstanding year they had at local association level that put them in the groove, eventually becoming Champion of Champions winners.

“It was an invincible and perfect league season which saw our girls score 73 goals conceding one, winning all 15 league season games.

“Remarkably the only conceded goal was in Round 1 when the season was just eight minutes old.

“The Suns raced to the Premiership with four rounds to spare, not conceding again during the finals series either.

“The local season was capped off with a 3-0 Grand Final win v Lugarno.”

The special bond this side has had was there to be seen for all on Sunday as this playing group have been together since the Under 6’s.

“The core of this remarkable side has been together since under 6’s where they played up until under 10’s in a mixed comp.

“Over the years, local SAP teams have also managed to lure some of our talent which speaks volumes for the abundance of talent and the talent pool at the Rockdale City Suns to be able to still achieve what they have this year.

“The club has, for a number of years sought inclusion in the SAP framework and with the recent addition of Sydney FC’s Head A-League Women’s Coach Ante Juric to the coaching ranks and a further Synthetic Field, 24/7 gym and all female changerooms facilities all included in the recent government grant, the sun will be shining at Rockdale for a long time to come and hope we can give the girls access to that pathway to keep them together amongst their closest friends.”

Currently in his seventh coaching season, Kokalevski threw his hat in the coaching ring thanks to his two daughters (Milla and Kayla) who were also part of the ‘Invincibles’ squad.

“I’ve been coaching now for 7 years and have two of my daughters in the side including the teams youngest player Milla to thank for getting me into it.

“I’ve followed the work of long-time friend and coaching Guru Dr Ron Smith who I count on as a coaching mentor. The way Ron benchmarked players and games and outcomes played a big part in the thinking behind the technology we have built which will soon become available to all coaches and teams.

“By day, I’m legally trained and operate my own advisory consultancy and I chair an early stage venture capital tech fund, which explains the detailed technology and data we keep on matches to assist the girls development. My wife jokes that my real job is coaching which is what I’m most passionate about.”