2021 HIT Northern League One

[matmoncrieff]

So the two Clubs that have gone up have been the best two Clubs overall for the last five years, yes? ON and OFF the park? The Club Championship probably agrees. The clear message is that just because you lease a facility with a fence and a ramshackle old grandstand, doesn't make you a Premier Club. Those in NPL who have been Fat Dumb and Lazy for too long should finally wake up because CH and NL won't go up comfortable to finish 11 and 12. Those FDL clubs in NL1 bemoaning how poorly they have been treated should ask themselves what can we do to be better. The minute Toronto and Singleton and now Wallsend were allowed to play without filling Youth teams the entire comp was a basket case and both CH and NL were the only ones smart enough and strong enough to climb out of it. I stand by the fact that the two new teams in NL1 were the first to get out after they both dominated it. That's all Northern need to reply with when the rest demand answers.

No-one I have spoken to is begrudging NL going up, its actually brilliant that they have as it was when Cooks Hill got promoted. If a club dominates in a 2nd Division competition they deserve to be promoted that's how all the best leagues in the world work. If clubs like Cooks Hill and New Lambton can't get promoted with all their on field success and strong back of house and hard work over many years then there would be absolutely no hope for any of the remaining NL1 clubs to be promoted. I believe it was 3 years ago NNSW come up with a plan to get to 12 teams which they now have reached. There are clubs such as the one I am at and there are others that are progressing in the back ground to tick all the boxes as Cooks Hill and New Lambton have. At some clubs for varying reason it takes a lot longer to get things done to their grounds etc to meet the requirements of NPL as CH and NL have done.

So now we and some other clubs are now asking what's the next plan, surely in the past 3 years you have worked out a plan of what will happen when you reach 12 teams. Is there any further opportunities to be promoted? Are the teams that are perennially non-competitive in NPL ever going to be relegated? Do clubs such as ours keeping working towards reaching all the standards required of an NPL club continue with their plans and if so how long for?

The only information we as NL1 clubs know is what we read in NNSW press release that said we will be a 9 team comp next year. 9 teams just doesn't work, 18 rounds with 2 byes or 27 rounds with 3 byes if you want to have a fair competition . One is not enough games for a premier competition in my opinion and the other just makes the season way too long.

I have been trying to get time with Peter Haynes for a long time and the bloke just brushes you, if your not an NPL club he doesn't give you the time of day. So how do we plan for next season? Are we really going to tell all our senior players that fees are going to be the same next year but you are only playing 16 games and it doesn't matter if we dominate the comp or don't win a game nothing will change.

Some may class this as whinging, but I see them as reasonable questions and expectations from someone who has been in and around this competition for many years and also have a passion for Newcastle Football to be the best it can be. I like many believe NNSW are killing Senior Football in Newcastle by not having promotion and relegation which is contributing to the ridiculous amounts of money being paid to players. They are doing some good work in the youth area with the introduction of JDL and hopefully de-coupling but its all a waste of time if you don't have a competitive senior league where teams not competing can't get relegated and if you don't pay 'overs' for players you can't compete and i'm hearing NPLW is going along the same lines.