You can listen to the full interview with Joe Scott on the Tier Two Talk podcast HERE.
Moreton City Excelsior, founded out of the merger between Moreton Bay Jets and Albanian Creek Excelsior in 2023, is the youngest club in the inaugural Australian Championship. Though it provides one of the most interesting stories in Australian football in the 21st century.
Located north of the Brisbane CBD, the club has history in the region since the 1960s. Albany Creek Excelsior, founded in 1962, and Moreton Bay Jets, founded in 2012, both played out of their now combined home of Wolter Park.
The merger was focused on “forming a stronger club that will deliver an improved football experience and a more sustainable operational model, ensuring the ongoing success and growth of the game,” FQ CEO Robert Cavallucci said in a statement back in 2023.
“It's always been a very tight-knit group, whether it was Moreton Bay Jets, which we formerly were, or Albany Creek Excelsior, obviously, we had a fair bit to do across both teams throughout, even when the clubs were separate,” Moreton City forward Joe Scott said.
“I think, obviously, everything was intertwined already, so it just made sense to build it into one entity, and then, yeah, it's worked out to be able to push us onto the national stage.”
Now three years on from that merger, the club won its first piece of silverware, lifting the NPL QLD Premiership back in August, and are competing on a national stage where they are in a strong position to fight their way out of Group A.
“If you would have said to me when (Cameron Millar) took over four years ago that we'd go from a relegation fight in our first (season) and then for us to go this far already in such a short time span, I think, is an achievement in itself,” Scott said.
Moreton City have fared well so far in the group stages with two wins and two losses, with their last result a dominating 5-1 win at home against a helpless 10-man Broadmeadow Magic.
“It's been very up and down for us. Obviously, we had two rough defeats on the bounce, our only points coming from Broadmeadow. But I feel that we're only going from strength to strength.”
“The whole novelty of the Australian Championship has started to sort of wear off, and now we're really focused on progressing through. All we're really focused about is getting as many points as we can,” Scott said.
With two games left in the group stages, Moreton have set themselves up with their destiny in their hands, sitting second, three points clear of both Sydney Olympic and Magic. Though their final two games, one home and one away, will be their biggest test thus far of the Championship, with Excelsior needing to pick up vital points off teams they lost to in the first half of the group stages.
“I really think that we learned from (the first meetings against Olympic and South Melbourne.) Sydney Olympic away, that's it's a tough trip for anyone, no matter where you're from.”
“Belief is the biggest thing. It's never easy travelling anywhere, let alone in the state. So I've got full faith within the whole unit that we can come away with three points.”
A win this weekend would all but seal Moreton City’s spot in the quarter-finals.
