Yeah I’m on board with this. A weekend away during the season will be great. It’s the norm for teams in rural areas to travel hours for their fixtures every second weekend so I reckon us Newy folk could handle doing it once a year.
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My major concern will be that Southern United will be too strong for zl2. Considering that they made the Grand Final in the Coastal Premier League. Teams in this competition normally play off against NNSW NPL teams in the Australia Cup quater finals.
One of these teams was only beaten 3-1 by broadmeadow magic, I can't see any zl2 teams getting a result close to that.
I think if they come in they should start in a higher grade.
Too many clubs have come into zl3 lately and been pumped by teams that shouldn't have been in the bottom division. The result is that clubs drop out of zone league which isn't good for anyone
Sometimes you just shake your head......
Look our guys will take on anyone put in our competition next year and try and win.
The fact is the competitions are supposed to be ranked, so the best should be in ZPL. So we are never going to play the 'best'
My point is these competitions have been rearranged for next season, some things like relegation has gone out the window. There is a rule, That all teams must start in the bottom grade. But in previous years it's been quite clear that teams like Minmi, Lakes and Newcastle croatia were going to be too good for the bottom division. My information was that one of these clubs asked to skip the bottom grade as they knew they would be too good for the division.
Southern United are coming into Zone League Football only because the Coastal Premier League has folded as the teams around Coffs Harbour didn't want to travel to Taree or Foster.
I'm happy for them to compete in the zone league but I'm not sure a team that made the Grand Final in the Coastal Premier League should be put in the bottom zone league division. Foster is a decent sized place, I'm sure they will have a lot bigger pool of players to select from then other zl2 teams.
If they are strong I'm sure you will see a few forfeits from lower teams towards the end of the year for away games. That will definitely not be the case in our squad but it's happened before and will likely happen again.
Any truth to the whisper that Minmi are off to ZPL
One thing that has been noticeable for years is the guy that runs these comps has little interest in zl2 or zl3 competitions. This was highlighted by his decision to play both grand finals this year at the same venue on the same day. They would have just taken their application without asking too many questions.
For mine, I agree they probably should be in zl1.
I not sure why they have expanded the competitions. ZPL is a decent competition, but the bottom 2 teams last year struggled. Were they just looking for a way to keep swansea up? Reward the mediocrity.
10,10, 8 and 6 should have been the way they went.
well the guy that ran these comps is handing the batten to Steph from Newcastle Football. RH is not well and is stepping aside, maybe a bit of a puppet master, but Steph will be the one.
We could have went with 10, 10, 10 and 4 maybe, i can see what they trying to do with the 12 team comps.
They probably need more junior clubs to promote ZL football, move some of their AA sides into the lower divisions.
ZL is their premier comp and needs to be promoted as such, maybe a sponsor?? i dont know but it needs to be at the top of the list.
The draft draw will be released in the New Year according to latest email.
I was at the meeting last week and they did mention midweek games will be scheduled for ZPL and ZL1 since they are 12 team comps. Season to start 31 Mar, 1/2 April weekend. Potentially earlier for teams that could host earlier matches.
Confirmed changes to divisions of Zone League 2023
New to Premier League (12 Team Comp): Newcastle Olympic FC (League One 2022 Premiers), Minmi Wanderers FC (2nd in League One 2022)
New to League One (12 Team Comp): South Maitland FC (League Two Premiers 2022), Bolwarra Lorn SC (2nd in League Two 2022), Hamilton Azzurri FC (League Three Premiers 2022), Newcastle Croatia FC (2nd in League Three 2022)
New to League Two: Lambton JFC and Mid Coast
Raymond Terrace and Charlestown clubs were the two to drop out for next season.
What actually happened at Raymond Terrace was the long time serving coach decided it was time to move on and spend time watching his grandchildren play football, and many long serving players also decided that was the time for them to stop playing or take a step back and play all age. Myself and another player took over the coaching roles and with the amount of players leaving and not much coming through the youth at the time we made the decision to drop down the ZL2. Covid then hit and the club made the tough call to not play that season we did try and convince them to allow the zone league team to continue as allowing players to go else where would make it hard to get them back. Which turned out to be exactly what happened as myself and the other coach took up other opportunities so there was no one to get everyone back the following year. This season gone the president did make efforts to try and get some of the former players back but to my knowledge none returned.
It is a shame that Raymond Terrace are no longer apart of zone league.