Football NSW Women’s and Girls’ Competition Structure Announced

The Board of Football NSW has confirmed the structure of the FNSW Women’s and Girls’ Competitions from 2022.

The Women’s Competition Review (WCR) started in March 2020. Its outcomes were intended to be finalised before the Declaration of Leagues last year and to apply for the 2021 season. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the WCR was placed on hold for several months. When reconvened in September 2020, the review timeline was necessarily altered with outcomes to then be applied from the 2022 season.

In arriving at the new competition structure, one aim was to consolidate the current women’s competition structure and provide flexibility for the future, whilst continuing to provide a quality pathway for talented players. A key consideration of the restructure was to balance this consolidation of the competitions with the imperative to not overly dilute the player talent pool.

Another key consideration was to support Football Australia’s recommendations to increase the match minutes available during a season for female players, an outcome of the Women’s Performance Gap report.

In arriving at the new structure, FNSW is also seeking to continue to:

• Develop players, coaches, referees and clubs;
• Improve technical standards;
• Provide consistent and clear development pathways;
• Increase the number of participation opportunities for players, coaches, referees and clubs;
• Ensure a strong and competitive environment; and
• Enhance club culture.

The key changes to the competition structures for 2022 are below.

Structure

The Board of FNSW resolved that the following structure for the women’s competitions will apply from the 2022 season

Two divisions:

• NSW National Premier League Women’s (NPLW) and
• NSW National Premier League Women’s 2 (NPLW 2)

NPLW:

• 14 Clubs which provides home/away 26 round matches.
• Divisions: First, Reserve, U18, U16, U15, U14 and Girls SAP (U10, U11, U12, U13).
• 2 Clubs will be promoted from NPLW 2 from the 2021 season.
• FNSW Institute and Newcastle Jets will remain in NPLW for development, as recommended by Football Australia.

NPLW 2:

• Up to 15 Clubs in total, comprised of the remaining current NPLW 2 Clubs plus those from Girls Conference League (GCL) who apply and are compliant with the application process to enter NPLW 2.
• Season length will depend on the final number of Clubs – however if there is 15 Clubs, it will be home/away over 30 weeks with two bye rounds per Club.
• Divisions: First, U18, U16, U15, U14 – and Girls SAP for existing licensees only.
• U18 teams will be permitted to have 3 over-age players (up to age 23), due to the absence of Reserve grade.

Girls Conference League:

• To clarify, the GCL will no longer operate from 2022, as the competition was deemed to not meet its original intent.
• Current GCL Clubs will be given the opportunity to apply for NPLW 2.

Girls Skill Acquisition Phase (Girls SAP):

• Girls SAP age groups will remain as U10, U11, U12 and U13.
• Clubs entering NPLW 2 will not be automatically given a Girls SAP licence at this stage. However, there will be a phased approach in the future to ensure every NPLW Club eventually has a program in these age groups.
• To clarify, there will be no changes to the Girls SAP competition at this time.

Additional Details

• This new structure meets Football Australia’s recommendation of 25-30 regular season matches, which supports a key outcome of its performance gap analysis by increasing the match minutes during a football season for female players.
• As demonstrated by the data analysis, a large exit rate of players exists at the 15- and 16-year-old age bracket. To combat this, an U16 age group has been added, and the older age group revised to U18, to help encourage retention amongst talented players in these age brackets.
• Open-age Reserve grade has been retained only in NPLW 1.
• The final’s series structure for both NPLW 1 and NPLW 2 is to be determined, but it is likely to be a top-4 and 2-week finals series.
• Club Championship and promotion and relegation arrangements from 2022 will include performance phase youth age grades as well as First and Reserve grades, noting divisions and weightings will be determined soon, now that the competition model is confirmed.
• Other competition operational issues, such as regulations, PPS, Girls SAP operations and other such matters will be updated in due course.

Entry into Competitions in 2022

• There will be no relegation from the 2021 NPLW season
• The top 2 Clubs from the 2021 NPLW 2 season, based on the Club Championship ranking as defined in the 2021 Competition Regulations, will be promoted to NPLW for the 2022 season.
• NPLW 2 Clubs that finish ranked 3 to 11 will remain in NPLW 2 in 2022.
• GCL Clubs that apply for and are compliant with the application process will enter NPLW 2 in 2022.
• Given that up to 6 new senior programs will commence in 2022, this competition structure will remain at a maximum of 29 Clubs for seasons 2022 and 2023 (that is, new Clubs will not be considered for entry at this time).

Next Women’s Competition Review

• It was acknowledged that with the current 3-year review cycle, Clubs do not have sufficient time for long-term planning and for development outcomes to manifest.
• A benchmarking exercise will be conducted in 2023 to assess the first 2 years of this new competition structure and consider the impact of any factors beyond the control of Football NSW (e.g. timing of W-League).
• The next full women’s competition review will commence in 2026 and be completed prior to the start of the 2027 season, to then apply from the 2028 season.
• Having a longer period of time before the next complete review will allow Clubs to plan for and invest in programs for an extended period.