2025 Junior Development League Club Standards Assessment Scores Announced

Football NSW is pleased to release the 2025 Junior Development League (JDL) Club Standards Assessment scores.

Now in its second year of implementation, the program has shown strong progress, with clubs achieving an average 18% improvement in their scores against the Club Standards Framework.

The Club Standards & Benchmarking framework is the Football NSW benchmarking, quality assurance and club support process to provide better services for our players, coaches and Clubs across the state by empowering improved football environments.  At the heart of the Club Standards are three themes that Football NSW strives to deliver; Accountability, delivery of Best Practice and the ongoing Capability Building of Club Technical staff.

“Clubs have demonstrated notable improvements from 2024 to 2025, with more clubs reaching higher ratings and putting strong systems in place. This is a credit to the people behind the scenes – the committees, technical staff, coaches, and volunteers who continue to put in the time and effort,” said Football NSW’s Club Technical Development Manager, Neil Mann.

“The challenge for 2026 is to keep that momentum going. No matter what rating a club holds today, there’s always room to improve. The framework is there to guide that growth step by step.

“The benchmarking process isn’t an endpoint. It’s a means to help clubs keep moving forward, to make small but meaningful changes, and to create environments where football can continue to thrive.”

Arguably the most important factor of the Club Standards is the ‘Delivery’ component, where the rubber hits the road and players are engaged in age-appropriate player centric development environments.

Football NSW recorded a 9% increase on average, rising from 58% (Bronze rating), into the Silver rating category of 67%. This is a great outcome and one that indicates the improvement of training and matchday environments to cater for individual player development which is vital at the critical age grades of JDL.

Football NSW applauds Clubs in their significant improvement within the ‘Planning’ component of the Standards which directly evaluates four core components within a Club. The Youth Development Plan focuses on the Clubs vision and roadmap to develop our youngest talented players, Football Operations focuses on the organisation of the Club, Player Services & finally Coach Education, to support the coaches that bring the football to life and are key influencers in our players enjoyment and development within football.

In 2025, we saw a remarkable 20% increase in the planning scores on average, reaching the Bronze category and creating a solid foundation for Australian football to stand on moving forwards.

The achievement of this score has been influenced by Football NSW monthly Capability Building workshops delivered to JDL Clubs, however the main recognition for this improvement is attributed to those within our Clubs that have worked hard to improve the above-mentioned criteria – thank you.

The Club Standards aims to not only create a great development environment, but one that is safe and trusted.

Each Football NSW Club must be accountable to ensure they meet minimum eligibility criteria, ensure all staff and volunteers meet child protection requirements and technical staff have the correct qualifications. Football NSW continues to stretch the education of our technical staff, with an improved result in 2025 and the appointment across many Clubs of a new ‘Head of Program’ to elevate the support provided to players and coaches.

Player development is a long-term focus and as such, the retention of players and coaches forms a critical component of the Club Standards assessment. Pleasingly, our Clubs know this as much as we do and have responded with another highlight improvement of 22% in retention rates on average. Development is not linear, nor can it be strictly plotted on a timeline and we are pleased to see our Clubs not only create great developmental age-appropriate environments but also recognise and implement key findings of global research around long-term player development.

Each Club at the conclusion of the 2025 season has received a Club Standards & Benchmarking Assessment score out of 100, based on the publicly available Club Standards & Benchmarking Framework Information Pack.

The score provided allocates Clubs into a category, which has been published below, ranging through Development Committed, Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Football NSW is delighted at the progress that has been made to date and is satisfied to receive an average Club program score within the Bronze category, at 54%.

The Club Standards & Benchmarking framework has been designed to stretch Clubs and not a simple ‘tick box’ exercise whereby each program receives a high score. The Framework has been designed to create a clear roadmap for Club improvement and a defined support mechanism for Football NSW to build capabilities over the next 6 years. In 2025, Football NSW aimed to achieve a Bronze category rating and applauds all Clubs that achieved this milestone and above. In 2026, Football NSW will continue to work with Clubs to raise the bar and support all Clubs to achieve a Bronze rating minimum and empower those to progress beyond.

In 2026, the Club Standards & Benchmarking Framework will continue to be implemented across the Girls Youth League and will be introduced into the Boys Youth League. During the season Clubs are required to submit their ‘Planning’ and ‘Technical Qualifications’ with Football NSW for evaluation, with Football NSW Technical staff then completing Club visits during training and matchday, to evaluate each program.

“Our Talented Player pathway in NSW has responded in the best possible way to the introduction of the Club Standards & Benchmarking Framework which shows the true passion, desire to improve and commitment of our Clubs to creating the best possible environment for our players to develop within,” said Football NSW’s Head of Football Development Ed Ferguson.

“I congratulate all Clubs in their dedication towards their members and the energy shown over the past 24 months to align our programs with those of ‘best practice’ globally.

“I am confident that the improvement shown will continue over the coming years and position the NSW football pathway in a strong position that will allow us to support our National teams compete on the international stage.

“It all starts at JDL and we must ensure the players are enjoying their football, engaged with their coaches and within a safe environment. This is key to our governing body and the future of football in Australia.”