The North Sunshine that takes on state league 1 soccer this season will have a fresh look.
The Eagles have farewelled master coach Paul Donnelly, who stepped down from the top job last month.
In his three years in charge at North Sunshine, Donnelly helped breed a winning culture.
In his first year, he guided the Eagles to third place in the division 2 competition.
Far from satisfied, North Sunshine returned the next year to take out the championship and in the process secure promotion into state league1.
While many teams struggle the year after a jump in class, the Eagles thrived, leading the league for a large part of the season before finishing fifth.
Eagles president Besnik Kutleshi is grateful for the contribution Donnelly made to the club.
“Paul brought a great football philosophy to the club – it is something that we want to follow and maintain,” Kutleshi said.
“We always had the core group of players that were young, home-grown kids and … Paul was the one that was able to get us to the fast lane to be successful. He was determined to make the club and the team play better football.”
North Sunshine has moved quickly to fill the vacant role, with Arben Isai taking on the top job.
Isai, a long-time member of the Eagles’ playing squad, will continue playing this season with technical directors Tony Gashi and George Brisku to assist on game day.
“Arben has been at the club for about 14 years,” Kutlesh said.
“We wanted someone who was knowledgeable of that football philosophy that we have created and someone who can maintain it. There was no one better than Arben to take the reins.”
North Sunshine has worked on increasing its player depth during the off-season, though Kutleshi is keeping the names of new signings under wraps. The club lost a number of key players to injury in the second half of last year.
“We identified a few roles and a few areas that needed attention,” Kutlesh said.
“The main focus was on improving that depth. We haven’t been looking for any major signings but we have been looking for guys that have played at NPL or NPL 1 level.
“We are really happy with how that has gone.”
