Words: Michael Flynn
Image: Albert Perez/Football Queensland

2014 PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland Most Valuable Player Chris Lucas will be farewelled by Palm Beach SC later this week after signing with Victorian club Bentleigh Greens.

Lucas was the runaway winner of the MVP award after netting 35 goals in 26 PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland matches for Sharks this season – helping guide the Gold Coast club to the Premiership-Grand Final double, as well as a Westfield FFA Cup Quarter Final appearance.

The 22-year-old striker returned to Sharks - his former junior club - after being left high-and-dry following the demise of Hyundai A-League club Gold Coast United in early 2012.

However, Sharks will again have to make do without one of their favourite sons next season after Lucas accepted an offer from PlayStation 4 NPL Victoria club Bentleigh Greens for the 2015 campaign.

“I had four different clubs offer me contracts in Melbourne – Hume City, Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and Bentleigh Greens,” Lucas explained.

“I had to have a pretty long think about all of it because it’s a massive move down to Melbourne and to leave everything here on the coast, but it’s what I have to do to further my career.”

“With Bentleigh they came up with the best offer. They have a good club, good facilities and a good side because obviously they are still in the FFA Cup Semi-Finals.”

Lucas said the move to Melbourne will see him end an association with Palm Beach that started when he first played for the club as a junior at only five years of age.

“This was my seventeenth year at Palmy. So it’s a pretty massive achievement and I’ve been there a long time.”

In acknowledgement of his years of service – which has included working behind the bar in the Sharks clubhouse – Palm Beach officials have organised a fair well function for Lucas later this week.

In an age when club transfers are part and parcel of football, Lucas said he was humbled by the gesture from the club.

“I’m honoured. Everyone at the club is behind me with my move and they know it’s important that I keep on with my career,” Lucas explained.

“It will be good to have a farewell and to have everyone important in my life down there and have a few drinks and celebrate the career that I’ve had with Palmy.”

Lucas’ most recent spell at Sharks started in the Gold Coast Premier League before the club was accepted as one of 12 inaugural PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues licensees in Queensland in 2013.

He said he doubted he would’ve been able to get the exposure required without the advent of the state-wide competition.

“The NPL is getting bigger and bigger and it’s helped my name get out there and helped other players get their names out there,” Lucas explained.

“If I was playing in the Gold Coast Premier League for the past two seasons then I wouldn’t have been looked at as much as I have, so it has definitely helped me.”

However, he was adamant that he didn’t intend his new club to be the last stop in his career progression, with aspirations to continue pushing for another chance in the top flight.

“I want to get back into the A-league,” Lucas stated.

“After being with Gold Coast United and getting one appearance against Sydney FC it gave me the hunger to go for more.”

“Hopefully I will have a good season for Bentleigh next year and get my name out there and get looked at again by some A-League clubs,” he concluded.

Sharks coach Grae Piddick conceded it would be hard to replace Lucas but that he wished him all the best in his Hyundai A-League ambitions.

“I’m devastated that he’s not playing for Palm Beach but he hasn’t really had any opportunities with Roar so now’s possibly the time to have a look somewhere else,” Piddick said.

“As a club we definitely hope he does well. He’s a Palm Beach product and there are a lot of people wishing him all the best,” he added.

Bentleigh Greens finished the 2014 PlayStation 4 NPL Victoria season in fourth place and are the last club outside the Hyundai A-League remaining in the Westfield FFA Cup.