Australia Cup: Olympic Kingsway eye Adelaide United win after ending 44-year league title hoodoo in NPL WA

How do you follow up a rapid rise up the WA football pyramid, culminating in an emotional and historic first league title in almost half a century?

In Olympic Kingsway’s case, a win over A-League opposition to reach the last eight of the Australia Cup would do just the trick.

Fresh off winning a fairytale NPL WA league win on the weekend — the club’s first top-tier title in 44 years — Olympic now have their sights on a giant-killing when they take on Adelaide United at Kingsway Reserve on Tuesday night.

The former home of Socceroos Stan Lazaridis and Richie Garcia and ex-Glory star Daniel De Silva, Kingsway sealed top spot on the NPL ladder with a 3-1 win over Balcatta Etna on Saturday.

Far from an established, long-time NPL powerhouse, Kingsway were promoted from State League Division Two in 2018, won Division One titles in 2020 and 2022 and now stand atop the mountain after their league title over the weekend.

But before the looming NPL finals series, Olympic have bigger fish to fry in the form of Adelaide, who finished eighth in the A-League Men last season.

Coach David Tough said they had spent the past week focusing on winning the league moreso than the Australia Cup tie, which they saw as a “free hit”.

“All we spoke about was Balcatta, we didn’t really say anything about Adelaide. We spoke about it when the draw came out,” he said.

“We were totally 100 per cent focused on Balcatta, tying this league up and then Adelaide.”

Kingsway boast plenty of former A-League talent in the form of Aryn Williams, Joe Knowles and Ryan Lowry, and only Besart Berisha has scored more Australia Cup goals in the round of 32 onwards than striker Liam Boland, who joined Kingsway from Victoria in the off-season.

Captain Mitch Oxborrow will miss the tie and potentially the rest of the season through a calf injury, which Tough admitted was a blow, but backed the quality in his squad to give Adelaide a good game.

“We’ve got a strong squad. This is strongest one I’ve ever had at the club in the four years I’ve been there,” he said.

“They’re massive favourites, an A-League team, we’re just going to put out a good performance.

“We’ll give Adelaide the most respect you can give them, but obviously, try to win the game.

“We’ll go for it, but it’s a free hit. Just getting through to the last 16 is massive — we’re only the second (NPL WA) team to do it, the last team was Sorrento in 2017. It’s just brilliant for the club.”

“When I took over, we were fourth-bottom in State League Division One, it’s been a four-year journey to get to where we are at the moment today, to put the squad together.”