Hailing from North Queensland, Townsville, Taylor Ray has found her home away from home at Belmore Sports Ground with Sydney Olympic. 

Into her second season at Sydney Olympic, Ray is loving life with the Blues.

“Honestly, it’s such a great culture here at Olympic, I’m very grateful to be a part of it for another season. There are quite a few girls that I’ve been playing with for the last five years since I’ve been living in Sydney and the atmosphere we bring each game I love it and that’s why I came back,” Ray said.

A ‘Queenslander at heart’ as she says, Ray moved from Townsville to Sydney at the young age of 15 to pursue her football career, looking for a better opportunity.

“We don’t get enough opportunities in Townsville for football and I had to make that sacrifice to leave my family to pursue this career,” the midfielder said.

When Ray first moved to Sydney, she represented the Football NSW Institute and attended Westfields Sports High School.

“From there I got scouted by Ante Juric to sign for Sydney FC as well as George Beltsos for Sydney Olympic and was lucky enough to be a part of the Young Matildas and Junior Matildas.”

One of the best midfielders in the #NPLWNSW competition and even in the A-League Women’s competition, Ray sees the World Cup in 2023 on home turf as a realistic goal for herself.

“The World Cup next year is my main goal and to make that squad I need to work hard this season in the NPL and have a good year in the A-League Women’s.”

Before last season’s COVID season stoppage, Sydney Olympic were on top of the league and Ray cheekily believes they were the Premiers despite the halt.

“Technically we were on top when we finished the season so I’m going to say, we won,” Ray said with a smile.

This season though, Olympic want to go all the way.

“We want to be one of those top teams, that have a good chemistry and work hard for one another.”

“We can go all the way; I have all the faith in this team. We’re a great bunch of girls, some of my best mates and when you have that combination you have that faith that we can win if we work hard,” said Ray.

“A Premiership and Grand Final double.”

-By NPL NSW Women’s Chief Writer and Commentator Nikola Pozder

It was a dream come true for 25-year-old Sydney Olympic FC star Claudia Cholakian who recently represented the Armenian National Women’s side in a recent FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifier.

Swapping the Sydney suburb of Chatswood for the Armenian capital of Yerevan, it was an experience the attacker stated will cherish for the rest of her life.

“I was contacted by the Armenian Football Federation (AFF) who invited me to play for the national team and the rest was history,” Cholakian stated to Football NSW.

“My dad is Armenian, and my mum is Australian. I don’t speak Armenian, but I have started to learn a few words and would like to learn more. No one in my family had ever been to Armenia until this trip, including my dad who was originally born in Jordan, so it was an amazing experience.”

Asked how the training camp, qualifiers and setup was with the National Team, Cholakian stated that Armenia are slowly but surely developing women’s football for the better.

“It’s a very professional set up at the football academy with a lot of people working behind the scenes to support the team. The standard of football isn’t as high as what we see in Australia, but this is understandable as the team has only just started up again in 2019 after not having a women’s national team for almost a decade.

“The effort and desire to improve and compete is there which is most important.

“We only have two more FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers left but is isn’t possible for us to qualify due to previous results. After this, the focus will be on the Euro Qualifications.

“Most of the players play in the local Armenian professional league with a few players playing in the USA, Spain, and Greece.”

Cholakian also had the opportunity to explore the beautiful country whilst keeping fit as she prepares to take part once again in the National Premier Leagues NSW Women’s competition with George Beltsos’ Sydney Olympic squad for the 2022 season.

It was an injury disrupted season for the female star in 2021, but has pinned her hopes on a big season ahead with Olympic.

“I am really looking forward to the year with Sydney Olympic as we hope to push for both titles being the Premiership and Championship in what is a highly talented squad.

“It wasn’t the best of years due to being injured in 2021 so on a personal level I want to do my best in playing as many matches as possible and staying injury free.”

Cholakian is hoping to be involved in this Sunday’s round 3 clash against Bankstown City FC at Jensen Park, a match the Blues hope to get back to their winning ways after suffering an opening 3-0 loss to Manly United over the Easter long weekend.

For Aimee Phillips, joining Sydney Olympic for the 2021 NPL NSW Women’s season has proven to be a great decision and their position at the top of the table is just the icing on the cake for the eight-time New Zealand International, who is happy to have settled into the new team environment.

“Being top of the table is what we wanted, especially with the injuries and players out and a lot of players have had to step up,” she explained.

“Moving to Sydney Olympic and starting to get to know the girls it’s really helped because all the girls are obviously so nice and they’re very lovely people, so they’ve really made it easy for me to transition in and have a good season.

“They need to be able to pass me the ball and we all need to work together so I’m very grateful to the team and this season I’m pretty happy with how I’ve been going.”

The football pause, due to stay-at-home restrictions, came just as Olympic were gearing up for a top-of-the-table clash with the Northern Tigers, and while the halt is disruptive to the momentum they were building, Phillips is trying to look at it from a positive point of view.

“I’m a bit mixed about it, I’m annoyed that it stopped our momentum of playing but at the same time it’s good for our players and the team to get rid of the injuries and feel better in general mentally and physically as well.

“Every game Is very physical so I’ve been very lucky that I can freshen up any niggles that I have had or just give my body a little bit of time to rest.

“We’re still training just as hard but it’s a lot better going on your own schedule, and I’ve had a lot more time to do a lot of strength-based activities like weights to actually build my strength.”

Aside from enjoying some time to work on getting her body right, Phillips has been taking some time to stay social through networking on social media.

“I’ve just been really networking with a lot of people on social media, just talking to them, figuring out what they do with their businesses and with football and just connecting with other people.

“I’ve just really enjoyed doing that, connecting with other people that I don’t usually talk to.

“Everything that you’re following, that’s actually affecting who you are, that’s affecting your mental state, so I try to be very careful with what I put into my head and I’m very careful with what I select and the channels that I try to follow.

“If they’re not motivating, if they’re not uplifting or making me feel better about my team or anything, then obviously I don’t want to be involved in it.”

As for the remainder of the 2021 season, Phillips is eager to help her team achieve some big goals.

“To win the premiership is the goal and to win finals football, we haven’t done that as a club.

“I’m enjoying being involved and I would really love to score more goals and help the team.”

-By Madeline Riley

After six rounds of National Premier Leagues NSW Women’s action, Sydney Olympic’s gun marksman Cortnee Vine has developed into one of the competition’s most lethal goal machines scoring six goals in what’s been a dream start to the rebooted competition with the Blues.

“I’m really loving being at Sydney Olympic, the coaching staff and the players have been fantastic and so welcoming, I’m feeling very settled within the team.

“A lot of the girls this year haven’t played together so I think it’s taken us a couple of rounds as a team to understand each other and gel but I can tell we are getting better as each week passes by.

“Our round six match against the Northern Tigers just showed how talented the players at Sydney Olympic are. We had players playing in different positions, positions they haven’t played in for a very long time and some players learning how to play new ones as well. It makes me very excited to be playing with such a talented team.

“It’s great to know that a lot of the girls I’m playing with in the current NPL NSW Women’s competition, I’ll be playing with as teammates at Sydney FC in the upcoming W-League season.”

Currently leading the Golden Boot chart alongside Football NSW Institute’s Bryleeh Henry, Vine has been very impressed with the standard of the NPL NSW Women’s competition as well as the amount of talented players running around at various clubs.

“I have to say that the standard of the NPL NSW Women’s competition this year has been great.

“Many of the clubs have some new faces that haven’t played in the league before and I think that’s really made a difference to the quality of the competition.

“Also having eleven rounds has made each match a lot more intense.

“It feels like every game is a Grand Final and it also feels like every team this year is in the running to take part in this year’s final series, it’s ultra competitive and tight.”

The 22-year-old former Peninsula Power junior is hoping that prior to donning the Sky Blues kit in the W-League in the new year, she will be taking part playing for some silverware this season.

“Our expectation as a team this year is to be Premiers and to win the Grand Final. I expect nothing less from our Girls.

“My own personal objective is to have fun and enjoy playing with a great team – Oh and win some silverware of course.”

Vine and co will be on show this Sunday evening at Lynwood Park as Olympic travel to Rams territory set to face Macarthur at 6:30pm.

The former Australian Under 20’s international understands that the Blues will be in for a tough match against a side hoping to get back to winning ways, recently reeling from a 6-1 devastating loss at the hands of the Football NSW Institute last weekend.

“Macarthur Rams have a very experienced team, they always put up a fight so it’s definitely not going to be an easy match.

“It’s great that we will be closing the round on Sunday night so I am eagerly looking forward to game day hoping I can do my bit in helping our team achieve victory taking all three points back to Belmore.”

You can watch Sydney Olympic’s round 7 NPL NSW Women’s clash against the Macarthur Rams exclusive only on NPL.TV

Determination, dedication, and passion for the game, those are the traits Sydney Olympic’s NPL NSW Women’s shotstopper Jada Mathyssen-Whyman has lived by preparing for more football in 2020 following her recovery from injury that sidelined the star from W-League action with the Western Sydney Wanderers.

The talented 20-year-old keeper had been looking forward to the recent W-League season but playing for two and a half years with a tear in her patella tendon meant she required surgery – fast forward months of rehabilitation and Whyman is bursting at the seams ready to make her long awaited entrance onto the football pitch once more.

“I’ve missed everything about the game. The family culture you have when being part of a team, having your family and friends come out and watch your team, the excitement of game day, trying to nutmeg people – all this and so much more but I honestly cannot wait to make my comeback with Sydney Olympic.

“When restrictions eased, being able to go out and see people again brought back a feeling I probably took for granted pre-COVID-19.

“The first session back for us at Olympic was awesome, I think the girls were over the moon to see one another again. It was good to see everyone with a big smile on their faces and there was so much laughter. The banter was top level, we were all glad to be back but are all working hard hoping to get some competitive football under our belts very soon.”

The recent COVID-19 lockdown gave Whyman more opportunity to recover and push through rehab ensuring she was coach George Beltsos’ number one pick prior to the NPL NSW Women’s season commencing.

The break also allowed the promising Matilda to take up a couple of new hobbies keeping her busy and occupied.

“For me, COVID-19 had actually given me the time to focus on my rehab.

“When you’re injured, you have this feeling of missing out, but with sport being put on hold, it took away that pressure of needing to get back quickly.

“Given that I was at home more often, I took advantage of it and really knuckled down with my studies as well.

“Also not having that social aspect of being around your teammates, there were plenty of opportunities for video calls to keep in touch with some of the girls.

“On the other hand, since I couldn’t kick a ball around due to limits with rehab, I took on some new hobbies like shooting hoops down at my local basketball court, cooking which I loved as well as learning how to play the guitar which was a massive fail.

“Work wise, I was fortunate enough to be able to work from home. It was a bit of a learning curve as we had to change up the way we approached connecting with our clients at headspace and changing a lot of things to online, but it was a good experience nonetheless.”

Known as a bit of a social media queen with over 4000 followers, the former Football NSW Institute graduate and Wagga Wagga born star recently took part in a special football project led by the FFA’s Digital Content Manager Ann Odong that saw the keeper pose for photos albeit inspired by Basketball Icon’s greatest ever, Michael Jordan and the successful Netflix series ‘The Last Dance’.

“That’s right, Ann Odong had messaged me saying she was doing a piece on athletes in isolation through her Instagram page “Futbol X Stories” and was wondering if I’d like to do a shoot with her.

“I told her I wasn’t doing too much other than rehab and having the occasional trip to the basketball court to shoot some hoops.

“Ann was pretty keen for it and it turned out to be a pretty fun shoot to be honest.

“To tell you the truth, I did go buy a basketball after watching the first episode of the last dance on Netflix.

“You kind of forget to enjoy other sports sometimes when you get caught up in training and playing all the time, so after watching the last dance I was like yeah I can shoot hoops (laughs).

“I ended up being pretty crap at it but it’s still pretty good fun.

“I really enjoyed the series, I got a lot out of it in terms of the mental side of things and challenges you can come up against in sport and life and I highly recommend giving it a watch if you haven’t yet.”