Caulfield United Cobras is a club going places in a hurry. Within a span of two seasons, the Bentleigh-based Cobras has won two successive promotions, to climb from State League 3 SE into State League 1 SE for the first time in its history.

The Greek-based, south-eastern suburban club has been around since 1985, but is starting to make its mark following its league successes and two successive strong Dockerty/FFA Cup runs.

“We’ve certainly got Cobras on the map. I think we’re going to be here to stay for a while,” says senior coach Mike Kupinic, appointed at the end of season 2015 when promotion-winning coach Gus Caminos departed to take up a coaching position at NPL 2 E club Springvale White Eagles.

“When we had our meeting (prior to the start of the season), it was discussed that it’s a very ambitious club, and the objective was to try and win promotion,” Kupinic says. “The club didn’t want it to take too long. They were hoping it was going to happen this season and fortunately we were able to achieve that.”

Reflecting back on the season, Kupinic says he wasn’t surprised that the team won promotion so quickly. He’d inherited a good squad which required only a couple of additions, and the team put in a strong pre-season, which included a good cup run.

“I recall we played against Whittlesea Utd in the cup,” he says. “It was one of those days where you say to yourself, ‘if we can get out of this we can get out of everything’. Everything was stacked against us. But the boys just pulled out all stops and won it comfortably in the end. I remember speaking to them as a group after the game. ‘After today, I’m pretty confident we should be in for a really good season’.”

Coach Kupinic’s confidence was well placed, as the team overcome a slow start to string together eight wins in a row before hitting another slight snag.

But as the experienced coach says, “you’ll find at all levels these things can happen. But what’s important is how you get out of it. So we had a little bit of work to get them back up again. Boy did they ever, and the rest is history.”

One area on the park that the Cobras of 2016 improved on was its goals tally, increasing the tally from 37 in 2015 to 58 in season 2016, helped no doubt by striker Steve McRae, whose individual tally of 24 goals was the second highest in the league.

As well as league success, the Cobras are making a habit of enjoying good Cup runs. In 2015 they reached Rd 6 of the Dockerty/FFA Cup and in 2016 they got to Rd 5, bowing out in both years to NPL powerhouse Heidelberg United at Olympic Village.

The experience has no doubt been a positive one for the club, allowing it an insight into what it takes to be a top-tier club.

“At the moment, the goal is basically to sustain first division status,” coach Kupinic says. “I’m pretty sure we’ve got plans to grow. They are ambitious without a doubt.”