New era beckoning for North West Sydney Football
North West Sydney Football might be a new name to the local community, but it brings together two great soccer institutions of Sydney’s north-west to deliver brilliant sporting programs to the local community.
Formed by the merger of the Gladesville Hornsby Football Association and North West Sydney Women’s Football, the new body is focused on delivering more playing opportunities for men and women in 2020.
“With all the men’s and women’s competitions and clubs coming under the one roof we’re able to provide a more holistic approach,” NWSF CEO Mark Lockie said.
“We’re now able to provide much more opportunities for players with competitions, clubs and teams catering for all age groups from under-six right up to over-45s.
“The merge also offers more choice of players. Girls for instance will now have access to Saturday competitions as well as the usual Sunday football programs which were on offer.”
NWSF has 36 clubs under its banner, as well as representative sides for the talented players coming through the ranks.
North West Sydney Spirit FC is the association’s men’s representative club, whilst the North West Sydney Koalas FC are the women’s representative club. Both compete in their respective National Premier Leagues NSW competitions.
Whilst representative football is an important avenue for the association’s talented players, a key component of NWSF’s growth strategy is making football available to people of all ages and abilities.
“We’re looking at an over-40s competition for the women,” Lockie said.
“We’ve had the over-30s competition for a few years now but we’re seeing that there’s a growing group of women who are getting to that over-40 mark and looking to keep playing so we want to ensure that there is the opportunity to keep playing.
“To supplement that we have a couple of other programs on offer as well this year, with Walking Football coming into play as well.
“We’re really looking at expanding that program and we’re also going to continue the successful Master 9s competition we ran last season.
“That’s a competition aimed at over-45 men and women who want a more social game on Friday nights on a smaller field.”
At the other end of the scale, NWSF’s academy program continues to go from strength to strength.
“It’s been quite successful, so we’ll be looking at running a girls only academy as well,” Lockie said.
With such a wide variety of competitions and programs, there is certain to be a team in a club perfect for players of all ages and abilities.
To learn more about the available competitions and clubs in your area, head to http://www.nwsf.com.au/ to find your closest club or enquire about one of the many competitions and programs run by the association or check out the graphic below for more details.
