Big News coming out of Maitland.
Cowburn has quit .
Personally I still think Buds is one of the better set ups as a small suburban ground. Small but good grandstand close to the action and good viewing from all round the field. Sadly not the force they used to be.
And if we were being honest - Lakes’ splintery grandstand full of rust and not substantially touched in 30 years - would not make the grade either.
Most of the grounds in NNSW NPL are held together by gaff tape and cable ties or their lights (eg adamstown) need urgent attention. this is not a dig at clubs or committees who are doing their best with little support from a self serving federation.
Our facilities are a poor illustration of what is needed - if you look at what some of the NPL players are being paid, facilities should be given equal attention (eg valentine).
NNSW have zero interest in progressing the game beyond their own financial bottom line, do not advocate for the clubs to facilitate The games progression and are too scared rock the boat (eg who helped Olympic with Sports Grants debacle?)
Speaking of how many new fm teams have better facilities on current NPL clubs, any update on when NNSW are going to allow relegation to occur or even teams coming up to make a 12 team comp? I personally struggle to get behind the comp too much with the current 18 game season and no promotion/relegation.
The ideal structure for me would be a 10 team comp with 18 games, followed by another 4 games depending on your standings (bottom group for relegation and top group for finals). Otherwise what is being done this year with the 13 games structure is an alternate option but obviously a 22 game season.
Ideally 27 rounds but the clubs don't want to pay their players that much (pay them less than FFS), and there is a legitimate issue with the quality of grounds not lasting this long.
Kids aren't playing enough games, particularly the U18s to kids coming through reserve grade. NNSW need to fix this.
Unfortunately clubs are a part of the problem but as they "need" to pay the Mitch Oxborrows of the comp an arm and a leg, hence less games is better for them. This money comes out of the pockets of juniors. Pretty much kid's parents are paying upwards of a grand (over a $100 a game when you do the maths) to play in the local comp.
Football in this region is diseased.
Valentine are in a difficult position Barry with the new development not that far away why would you pump any money into the current facility and grounds? They are swapping grounds with the rugby league so any improvements also benefit another code. Council do didley sqat and have not spent anything there for years.
Yes, I see they posted due to ‘work commitments’ think the truth is closer to he not getting on well with coach and playing group
From a sauce in the club. The reason he left was because he was on the bench against Magic on Saturday. Due to " work commitments", he had only attended one training session in 8 weeks and was dropped for the match.
I am told he requested a termination of his contract the next day.
Signed for edgy
Olympic 4 Maitland 0
Maitland missing Cowburn already by the look of it.
Maybe the coach is the problem and not him