How the Illawarra Premier League grand final champs plan to defend their title

Captain Lukas Stergiou, man of the match in the grand final Sam Matthews, Takayuki Kayano, Jason Zufic, grand final goal-scoring hero Matt Floro, Nic Tomasiello and Cassidy Tanddo. Those are the names of the Coniston grand final heroes that have now moved on.

It was already confirmed that Matthews and Zufic would be playing with Rob Jonovski at United in 2024, as well as Kayano moving on for an NPL opportunity at Macarthur Rams. Stergiou will play for Wollongong Olympic, Floro will join newly-promoted Shellharbour, Tomasiello will play for Port Kembla and Tanddo joins St George City.

The Illawarra Premier League grand final champions will also be without goalkeeper Kaydin Harrison after he suffered an ACL injury in the win against Cringila on the final day of the season which will rule him out for the entire 2024 campaign.

In sport, going back-to-back is no easy feat. As a result these player changes to the squad makes it an even tougher task for club legend Franc Pierro.

But big things are planned for Cono in 2024. The club confirmed via social media that there will be a range of signings announced in the new year, including two NPL players, two visa players, four returning players and two of the brightest young talents in the IPL.

Whilst those names are yet to be announced, coach Pierro said he was extremely confident of challenging for silverware once again next year.

"It was always bound to happen after winning a grand final, other clubs come bidding in for your players," he said.

"They served the club with distinction and won the club its first piece of silverware for 22 years. So I always kind of predicted it was going to happen.

"But we're building nicely into the new year. We've got some former players returning to the club and a lot of fresh faces. We're putting it all together and it's exciting."

Pierro had time to reflect on the historic grand final win in the months afterwards, but said that was in the past. He would take the same mantra into next season which heralded such success in 2023.

"There's memories there forever for the players and everybody at the club. Every time we will look back it will be great, but now it's a new challenge," he continued.

"We're the IPL champions now. We're going to have to be up for it because every team is going to be looking to peg us down. But it's the same mentality for me again. It's one game at a time and we can only focus on what's in front of us.

"We're not looking too far ahead. We'll definitely still have the same philosophy."