Northern NSW Football has announced that all 2024 NNSWF premier competition seasons will be extended.
The decision was made due to wet weather causing multiple postponements across all premier competitions. The extension of the competitions will allow extra time for all rescheduled fixtures to be played.
NPL Women’s NNSW, NPL Men’s NNSW, HIT106.9 Northern League One and Premier Youth League Girls competitions will be extended by one week.
The Premier Youth League Boys competition will be extended by one week, with the Knockout Cup and Knockout Plate finals rescheduled to be played the week after.
NNSWF General Manager Football Operations Liam Bentley said the extension of competitions will benefit all premier clubs.
“With the increase of consequential matches across all levels of our game on top of promotion and relegation across our competitions, it is important that we do everything we can to ensure all matches get played where possible,” Bentley said.
“We believe that these changes will provide the biggest assistance to clubs while also reducing the burden on volunteers to arrange or change further matches.
“Thank you to all clubs for providing feedback and their overwhelming support for extending the season.”
NNSWF also announced that it will hold two additional Junior Development League gala days at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility, which clubs will be able to opt in, on the two weekends after the final JDL rounds. These matches will be at no further cost and will be fixtured by NNSWF.
OUTLINE OF CHANGES
NPL Men’s NNSW
- Extension of the season by one week
- Addition of catch up week on weekend of 3/4 August in which all matches postponed from 1/2 June are placed on that weekend.
- The NPL Men’s grand final to be moved back one week to 14 September
- Promotion Relegation Play-Off to be moved back one week to 7 September.
NPL Women’s NNSW/Premier Youth League Girls
- Extension of the season by one week
- Addition of catch up week on weekend of 17/18 August in which all matches postponed from 1/2 June are placed on that weekend.
- The NPL Women’s grand final to be moved back one week to 15 September.
HIT106.9 Northern League One Men’s
- Extension of the season by one week
- Addition of catch up week on weekend of 3/4 August in which all matches postponed from 1/2 June are placed on that weekend.
- Promotion Relegation Play-Off and reserve grade grand final to be moved back one week to 7 September.
Clubs may be directed to move home matches to Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility to ensure they are played where possible so as to not add unnecessary additional catch up weeks to the fixtures for other clubs.
Premier Youth League Boys
- Start of phase two pushed back until the weekend of 6/7 July
- The inclusion of extra catch up weekends on 22/23 June and 29/30 June plus the availability of those midweeks.
- Grand finals to be moved back one week to 30 August/1 September
- Moving the PYL Knockout Cup and Plate Finals to 8 September
- Inclusion of a changed phase two calendar which includes one scheduled catch up round in August, one scheduled double header weekend for all clubs (round five and six of phase two in the week prior to the catch up round allowing clubs to adequately prepare for a double headers. Clubs can agree to move round six matches into the catch up weekend the following week if no matches are scheduled into the catch up round prior to the week of the double header. Clubs can also agree to play their round six matches midweek during the day during school holidays.
As per regulation 6.6 (d) and (e), if there are any matches which are not played by 30 June, NNSWF may be required to implement a points per game method to ensure promotion and relegation can be fairly implemented.
