2026 Premier Youth Leagues

[sapdad]

Ive been told the competition proper kicks off early Feb.No official pre-season trials/cup/comp.My sons club hasnt announced anything yet has anyone heard otherwise?The plan is to do the split comp and two leg 2nd half of the year again.

[Izzy]

I will be surprised if NCF don't get relegated this year. A huge turnover of players, and they will struggle to get a U18s squad together.

[Goatscheese]

Very poor communication from your club.

Yes that is correct, no preseason cup straight into the League from the first weekend of Feb.

16s and 18s will play Friday night until March.

From March teams will play the below times

U18s 9am
U16s 10:40am
U13s 12:20pm
U14s 2pm
U15s 3:40pm

There is a mid-season cup again to be played in the 3 weeks between End of Phase 1 and start of Phase 2, which will be cancelled if any teams need to play catch up games

Phase 2 will be full home and away.

Lastly only the bottom 3 of Div 1 will go down to League B, so mediocrity gets rewarded by Northern and some clubs are counting themselves lucky to not have strong teams but still get to play in League A.

[Goatscheese]

On another note, Lakes have removed their Sporting Director/Youth TD/JDL TD from the club.

[Aegon]

On another note, Lakes have removed their Sporting Director/Youth TD/JDL TD from the club.

"Removed" ?

[Eastwest]

Lastly only the bottom 3 of Div 1 will go down to League B, so mediocrity gets rewarded by Northern and some clubs are counting themselves lucky to not have strong teams but still get to play in League A.

So 9 teams in A will create a bye. derp

[Izzy]

Lastly only the bottom 3 of Div 1 will go down to League B, so mediocrity gets rewarded by Northern and some clubs are counting themselves lucky to not have strong teams but still get to play in League A.

Any idea why that is the case and they will carry 9 teams through to phase 2 for Div A? Seems odd.

[northern_swan]

Any idea why that is the case and they will carry 9 teams through to phase 2 for Div A? Seems odd.

At a guess, given the addition of Dudley, there will be 25 clubs so phase 1 would look like:
Div 1- 12 teams
Div 2- 13 teams

Phase 2:
League A- 9teams
League B- 8 teams
League C- 8 teams

[Bremsstrahlung]

Interesting game times.

Is it to facilitate 18s potentially going to fill in for reserve grade?

Otherwise, not many opportunities for players to sit on bench for next age group.

[The Hacker]

Interesting game times.

Is it to facilitate 18s potentially going to fill in for reserve grade?

Otherwise, not many opportunities for players to sit on bench for next age group.

It's like they are doing it so 18's get a chance to play up for the sake of several other ages.

Here is a novel thought play 18's before reserve grade. I wonder has that ever worked before 🤔

[sapdad]

Interesting game times.

Is it to facilitate 18s potentially going to fill in for reserve grade?

Otherwise, not many opportunities for players to sit on bench for next age group.

Its more to do with getting referees for these age groups and having more refs available for 13/14/15.Previously refs didnt want to work in the morning before playing,but now play early and will be more willing to work after.Im probably not explaining it too well but some thinking has gone into it and maybe its worth a try until they get more referees.But I agree I would rather see 18s played on seniors matchday.I also saw clubs promoting a subsidised refereeing course in order to get more players taking up the role.Good inititive and hope its promoted at every club and theres instantly another 50 refs available every weekend it cant be a bad thing.

[Goatscheese]

Interesting game times.

Is it to facilitate 18s potentially going to fill in for reserve grade?

Otherwise, not many opportunities for players to sit on bench for next age group.

More to do with older refs who have said they don't want to ref and then play but will play then ref. Which will be interesting should it be refs from one of the teams that are playing that hang around and ref the younger age groups.

But will be a pain when a club wants 16s playing up who have to sit on the bench before hand. And 15s will either have to stay for 2 games (not a bad thing to support your club) or go home and come back again.

This idea that 18s need to play before reserves won't work now we have Friday night football (and should is an idea that should be put to bed along with the dinosaurs). 18s will have plenty of chances to also sit on the reserve bench now they will be playing Friday nights for the first 3 months of the competition.

[sapdad]

16s and 18s will play Friday night until March.

From March teams will play the below times



Is there any clarity on how Nth Coast, Mid Coast and NIAS factor into this idea?

[sapdad]

So 9 teams in A will create a bye. derp

I assume they want to make it fair by giving Div 2 a bye first round then Div A a bye in round 2.Sure some clubs will not end up getting a bye but it means no clubs will get 2.

[KFC16s]

Kahibah Fc u16s have a couple spots available for anyone interested please email the club to kahibahfc@outlook.com.au