From what I heard they had decent amount of players chose not to trial and requested to play in Community Teams instead of NPL or went to other NL1 teams. Most of the 2021 players that were keen, were retained in the NPL teams for 2022.
Looks to me like a lot of kids were happy being toward the top of the table in 2nd division teams and weren't that interested in being NPL up agasint the traditional powerhouse teams.
To be fair a quick look at the 2021 ladders show why:
u13s W GD
9th 1 -64
10th 2 -67
11th 0 -125
u14s W GD
9th 3 -60
10th 3 -59
11th 3 -67
u15s W GD
9th 1 -31
10th 2 -58
11th 1 -72
u16s W GD
9th 3 -46
10th 1 -55
11th 1 -52
Thats alot of teams/players having very rough years, and it happens year on year. I can see why so many kids/parents would be happy playing NL1 at clubs like Cooks Hill where they know theyll be fighting for top of the table.
Thats great if thats all you ever want to do with your football and theres certainly no problem with that.... As long as their parents aren't selling them that they will be superstars doing it, and thats certainly the attitude I came across every time we had to deal with New Lambton. Terrible player behaviour, followed up by their parents, who had obviously been drinking all the same koolaide. Glad it's a VERY rare occurrence we've ever had to play them.
Don't discount the development opportunities that working hard gets you even if you aren't at the top. Theres still kids from the bottom team in 13/14/15's ladder there you posted that are in TSP and moving upwards from there as well. You might be coming first at New Lambton in 2nd DIV but walking into a win every weekend only gets you so far. The rest is just bloody hard work.
The coast is delisted by fa aren’t they?
Central Coast United & the Mariners aren’t part of the rebel comp & are still affiliated to FNSW at that level
Azzurri vs Valo trials this weekend.
Season hasn’t even started.
Usually found New Lambton parents to be the worst but the players act entirely differently which is a good things.
In terms of NL1 teams beating NPL clubs, yes it does happen and indeed happened this past weekend. The sooner Northern separate the youth comps from the seniors into three tiers with promotion and relegation the better it will be for all the players. And actually force struggling NPL clubs to improve what they provide.
I wonder if that's what will happen or if kids just move every year to the team that goes up from the team that goes down - I think cooks coming in is an example, mostly they all just shuffled around again for the most part.
In regards to my previous response, I know I got a bit frustrated but I hate that we write off (or speak about) our developing players like that constantly, how can we expect more from them if we have written them off right from the start, we need to change the conversation around football development in the area. The recipe for success exists but players are just either working it out on their own or falling into it, most of it is up to parents who have to work out the system really quickly or make the right connections or just hope for sheer luck that they are doing the right things. I think there are things that we can do as parents / volunteers / members of the football community to help things change for the better - one of those is passing on knowledge to parents who are just coming through the system in JDL, we assume that everyone knows football, but the reality is not all parents understand the landscape of football development and maybe there are kids missing out because of it.
anyway, lets at least hope they get a full season this year - that would be a great start!
And that might happen, but I can't imagine whole teams switching between the promoted and relegated ones, particularly if the tiers are now tighter in competition. Big different going from best of 8 to now play against only 7 teams which you're competitive against compared to joining a group of 13 of which half you're not competitive against.
De-coupling the youth should also happen in line with a competition re-shuffle.
There are a possible 24 teams (including Mid Coast, Nth Coast and Nth Inland).
3 groups of 8 with club championship pro/rel seems like a no brainer.
Realistically a few teams should not be required to field Jr's and you could get away with 2 groups of 10 or 11.
All opinions expressed here are my own.
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin