In July 2026, celebrations broke out at the final whistle of an FQPL1 game with a difference. This match, played at the iconic Perry Park, was anything but a standard league game for hosts Brisbane Strikers. By beating Sunshine Coast Wanderers with goals from Omoro Adoro and Kirito Higuchi, they had confirmed something Strikers fans had waited five long years for; a return to NPL Queensland, the state’s top flight, with four regular season matches still to play.
For a club with the Strikers’ history, this promotion means more than most. It is the story of a genuine rebuild, on the sideline, in the boardroom, and on the pitch.
The golden years
Long before there was a fall to recover from, the Strikers had a real storied history in the Australian football landscape.
Until the Brisbane Roar won the 2010/11 A-League title, they were the only Queensland team to have won an Australian national football title (the 1996/97 National Soccer League season).
Following the National Soccer League and introduction of the A-League, the Brisbane Strikers played in the Brisbane Premier League before joining the new Queensland State League competition, where Premierships were won in 2009 & 2012.
2015 brought a new coach in Kevin Aherne-Evans, and with him one of the most heartbreaking campaigns in the club’s history. The Strikers finished the regular season level on points at the top of the table, only to be denied the outright minor premiership on goal difference after their final match was abandoned due to wet weather; and later declared a goalless draw. Still, they reached the Grand Final, where Moreton Bay United proved too strong.
That near miss became the platform for real success. In 2016, the Strikers went all the way, claiming their first NPL Queensland title (NPL was established in 2013). Sean Lane took over the following year and went one better in one sense, guiding the club to back-to-back titles and, in doing so, making the Strikers the first side to retain the NPL Queensland crown. Postseason football remained stubbornly difficult, with semi-final losses in the national series both years, but 2017 still produced a landmark moment; Strikers became the first Queensland club to reach the national NPL Grand Final, hosting Victoria’s Heidelberg United at Perry Park in front of over a thousand fans, before falling 2-0.
It stands as the high point of the modern club, back-to-back state titles and numerous grand final appearances, which is exactly why the fall that followed hit so hard.
How the fall happened
The trouble began away from the pitch. An annual bequeathment from the late Dr Clem Jones, which had underpinned the club’s finances for years after his death, came to an end in 2018 under the terms of his will, leaving the Strikers’ financial base considerably shakier than it had been during the title-winning seasons.
The boardroom that followed was turbulent, with new directors arriving in 2019, followed by an overseas partnership in early 2020 that later drew considerable scrutiny.
Then came the big shift, in 2021. Without the financial foundations the club had long relied on, the board announced a new youth-focused policy that saw almost the entire first-team squad depart for rival clubs. The results were brutal and immediate. The Strikers won just two matches all season, a collapse severe enough to relegate them from NPL Queensland for the first time in the club’s history.
The chairman behind that decision left the board later that year, and the club spent the next few seasons finding its feet again before real stability returned.
Rebuilding from the chair down
The turnaround really began in 2023 and 2024, and it started well before a ball was kicked.
Daniel Carew was appointed head coach in September 2023. Then, in 2024, the club rebuilt its leadership in earnest. Paolo Ucchino became club chairman in July 2024, former Socceroo Jade North joined the board, and in August 2024 the Strikers brought back a familiar face in Kevin Aherne-Evans, appointed Football Director and First Team Head Coach on a three year deal.
It was a return with real pedigree. Aherne-Evans had led the Strikers to the 2016 NPL Queensland Premiership during the previously mentioned spell at the club, and in announcing his return he was upfront about the scale of the job ahead, acknowledging the scale of the rebuild required. Rather than clearing out the previous setup, the club kept Daniel Carew involved as part of the senior coaching staff, a deliberate choice for continuity rather than a clean slate.
Off the field, the rebuild continued too, with the club adding senior commercial and operational roles and steadily growing its sponsorship base through 2024, 2025 and into 2026.
The return of a club legend
If there is one thread running through the entire story, it is Matt Thurtell.
Thurtell made his senior debut for the Strikers as a 17 year old, more than fifteen years ago, and went on to become the club’s all time leading goalscorer. After leaving Perry Park, Thurtell spent eight years playing in the Victorian NPL before returning to Brisbane, signing with rivals Brisbane City for the 2023 season.
That stint away did not last. In October 2023, right as the Strikers began piecing their rebuild together, Thurtell signed back for Perry Park. He re-signed again in December 2024, this time explicitly as club captain, committing to the project just as Aherne-Evans and the new leadership group were settling in.
The timing has proven perfect. This season, Thurtell has scored 13 goals to lead the Golden Boot race, captaining the side that has finally delivered the promotion the club has been chasing since 2021. Few players get to spearhead their boyhood club’s return to the top flight as captain and top scorer. Thurtell is doing exactly that.
A squad built on patience, not spending
It is worth noting what this promotion is not. Neither Omoro Adoro nor Kirito Higuchi, the two goalscorers in the win that clinched promotion, are new arrivals bought in to force the issue. Both are established members of the squad, which says something about the nature of this rebuild: it has been built on stability and patience rather than a marquee transfer campaign.
That is not to say the squad lacks quality. The current Strikers roster includes full internationals for Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Samoa, a reflection of the depth Aherne-Evans and his staff, including former Socceroo and NSL great Frank Farina as technical advisor, have had to work with.
What comes next
This is just the start of the Strikers rebuild. The biggest immediate objective, the one that has defined the club since 2021, has been achieved. The club are back where they belong, at the top table of football in Queensland.
Where it goes next will no doubt be mapped out by the ambitious leadership group, and finding quality additions for the 2027 NPL season will be top of the to-do list. Seeing the recent success of Moreton City in the NPL and Australian Championship will have shown what Queensland clubs are capable of, and will no doubt be a motivation to the team from Perry Park.
