Coniston and Albion Park prepare to battle for inaugural Joe Moreno Cup

Hosted by the Warilla Wanderers, the inaugural pre-season tournament began in mid-January and has been held in honour of club and Illawarra footballing legend, Joe Moreno, who passed away in late 2021 after a short battle with Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The Cup action has taken place weekly and featured teams from both the Illawarra Premier League and District League.

The competition will conclude with IPL powerhouses Coniston and Albion Park meeting in Wednesday's grand final, while District League sides Warilla and Shellharbour will meet in the third versus fourth encounter following that game.

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Wanderers coach Steve Miceski said this year's Cup had been a great success.

"The two Premier League clubs are deservedly in the final. They both have great squads and are well coached," Miceski said.

"It's (the tournament) been excellent, we've seen some really good football. The Premier League guys have been able to rotate their squads and the people that have known about it have turned up and enjoyed it, and they keep coming back.

"Joe Moreno was a great stalwart of the Illawarra football community. If it wasn't for Joe, our club probably wouldn't exist in the tough times, so he was very important to us.

"He coached in the Premier League and at this level, and he was just one of those people that everybody liked."

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Warilla club president Michael Clout recently told the Mercury that it was an "honour" to recgonise a legend of their club.

"It's massive for the club and the supporters," he said.

"Warilla has a large Spanish background as a football club when it was first established. It was a meeting place for all the Spaniards when they immigrated over from Europe they were able to play the game they loved together.

"Joe is a club legend, there is no one else in the club history that is more worthy of a Cup named after them just with what he's done from 1967 when the club was founded."

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