In all seriousness, what do you expect NNSWF to do?
Performance wise, there needs to be a loser, a winner, and a mix in between. At the moment they are a poor team, and have been for a number of years, but there has been no motivation to improve. You finish last and still turn up next year to NPL and reap the sponsorship bonuses of being in NPL.
NNSWF tried to help clubs. They thought that the pressures of promotion/relegation was preventing clubs from looking at the bigger picture and focussing on quick fixes of splashing cash for a year to avoid relegation and not really paying any attention to facilities or development of youth. So they axed relegation. Gave clubs the last 10 years to put programs in place, to set up their junior and youth pathways, implementing JDL, youth etc and taking some pressure off on field performance.
I’m sure NNSWF would’ve put out some kind of framework for the implementation of youth, JDL etc. But NNSW can’t choose who clubs employ or the direction clubs want to take.
We’ve seen Edgy reap the rewards of a decent coach and what youth can do with decent recruitment, scouting and coaching.
Most clubs have some kind of success story over the 10 years.
Eg. Charlestown performing well in NPL. But their youth is poor.
Cooks Hill and New Lambton have made the jump to NPL in recent years and are developing and adapting.
Even Olympics whose NPL is not quite where they would want to be, their youth is doing great.
Jaffas were once a NPL first grade only club, now their youth is top of youth championship.
The struggling clubs over the last 10 years have been Adamstown, Lake Macquarie and Valentine. And hopefully for their sake, Valentine look like they are turning a corner with some good youth performances and NPL mid table (maybe not mid, but not bottom).
While I don’t want to see any clubs in particular get relegated, it’s necessary to improve the competition and keep clubs accountable and also to give clubs in NL1 something to work towards.
Not all clubs have a good sponsorship income or location or club prestige. But each club needs to figure something out, need to find what works for them. Maybe it’s a long path Eg waiting for their JDL to come through to youth and NPL. Maybe it’s relying on your sponsors to fork out good $$$$ so you can get the best players to your club, if it’s sustainable, fair play. If it’s not, you’ll soon learn.