Bathurst District Football: Macquarie United to return to men's Bathurst District Football first grade in 2021

Macquarie's first grade team is expected to feature a majority of the team that went through the entire 2020 second grade season undefeated, with Kyle Passeri captaining the team to a thumping 5-0 win over Eglinton in the grand final back.

Kevin Allen, who has been coaching at Macquarie for over two decades, will manage the team in its return to the top division and he's hoping he can oversee the club's return to the Western Premier League in the near future.

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"I coached the first and second grade Macquarie team that played in the old Central West league back when it was on in the 1990s," he said.

"That's where I'd like to get them but a lot of them are doing year 12 this year, so I might lose them to Wollongong or Sydney for university and things like that. It's difficult once they finish school but the aim is to keep them together and I've got three to four young ones that have approached me to play.

"I'm hoping this year we'll have a first grade and a second grade squad."

Three-quarters of the team Allen coaches has been together since a young age, coming through the junior grades over the years, winning the under 15s, under 16s and under 17s competition, before winning the men's third grade competition in 2019.

There was also a strong contingent of Macquarie players in the Bathurst District Football squad that won the under 16s Football NSW Country Cup in 2019.

"Three-quarters of the team have only got their red Ps this year, so most of them are 17," he said.

"There are a couple of oldies, maybe five or six, but the rest of them are young ones.

"They're good kids, very good kids. They live and breath soccer. When it's not training day, I'll drive by the fields because I live out that way and see them down there, kicking the soccer ball and doing things like that. They just love their soccer."

Allen believes his Macquarie team has the potential to be competitive in first grade this season.

"I was a little bit worried because they're so young but last year's president reckons if we were to play half the first grade teams that were in the comp in 2020, we may have not made the finals but reckons we would've just missed out," he said.

"What he said is we won't have a problem because we shift the ball so quickly. They're fit and they're young, so I reckon they'll be some guys that will hit them pretty hard but because they move the ball so quick, that's what makes such a big difference with them."

Macquarie played five seasons in the Western Premier League from 1995 to 1999, playing in one grand in 1996 against Bathurst '75, which they lost 3-0.

The club would ultimately withdraw from the competition at the end of the 1999 season, moving back to Bathurst District Football.

They won the grand final in their first year back at the local level, defeating Mudgee 2-0 in 2000, with their most recent success in first grade coming back in 2010, with Aaron Kilby's goal the difference in a 1-0 win over of Young Lions.