New Era for Para Hills Youth Football

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Image Credit: Para Hills Knights

The Para Hills Knights have announced a new partnership with Adelaide United for the upcoming 2026 season.

Adelaide United will support all Para Hills coaches and players starting from U6 upwards, providing them access to programs, games and opportunities to attend various interstate and international tournaments.

Para Hills Junior Technical Director for the upcoming season, James Jackson, spoke to Soccerscene about how important the partnership will be for Para Hills’ youth development.

“It will give our coaches more tools to coach better and develop the best youth programs,” he said.

“There’s nothing really like it in the state, to be honest with you.

“I think just word of mouth between the partnership with the club will drive better players and attract more players, but also provide better exposure for all players in the general area, not just Para Hills players.”

Jackson is a former Para Knights player at both the junior and senior levels. He has been coaching junior football for the last five years and has represented South Australia as a Junior and U18.

The partnership will give Para Hills access to the coach-better program used by multiple top clubs in Europe, including PSV Eidenhoven.

“We’ve seen over the past few years in the YCC, players hopping clubs between the tier one and tier two,” he continued.

“We thought in order to be competitive, being a tier two club at the moment, we have to offer our juniors something else a bit more tangible to get them at the club.”

Additionally, Adelaide United will supply coaching workshops for Para Hills, including bringing PSV coaches throughout the year to share their knowledge at a grassroots level.

Marcelo Carrusca, Head of Football Development at Adelaide United, helped oversee the nine-month development of the partnership alongside Rocco Fimmano, Andrew Kossakowski and James Jackson.

“A lot of our coaches are Mum and Dad’s, especially with the JSL compared to the YCC, all the YCC stuff is with ex-players because they want to be involved after being with the club for years,” Jackson said.

“We thought that that was a great opportunity to try and up-skill them to provide better coaching, especially the format they (Adelaide) are going to give us.”

This is an exciting deal between an NPL club looking to improve its grassroots program and an A-League club that merits football development as one of its main values. Both parties perfectly align and the growth for kids in South Australia will only keep improving.

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Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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Image credit: Melbourne Victory

The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

Marie-Louise Eta makes history as new Union Berlin head coach

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Image credit: FC Union Berlin

In an historic appointment, Eta will take over as head coach of Union Berlin until the end of the season.

History in the making

Previously the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history with Union Berlin, Eta will now take the reigns of the men’s first team on an interim basis.

Currently, the club sit in 11th place in the Bundesliga table, but with only two wins so far in 2026, relegation appears an all-too-real prospect, and one which the club is desperate to avoid.

“Given the points gap in the lower half of the table, our place in the Bundesliga is not yet secure,” said Eta via official media release.

‘I am delighted that the club has entrusted me with this challenging task. One of Union’s strengths has always been, and remains, the ability to pull together in such situations.”

Eta will begin as Union’s new head coach with immediate effect, and will be in the dugout for the club’s matchup against Wolfsburg this weekend.

 

A step into an equal future

Eta’s appointment signals a major step towards a more level playing field in the football landscape.

Furthermore, Eta joins other coaches including Sabrinna Wittmann, Hannah Dingley and Corinne Diacre who, in recent years, have blazed a trail for female coaches to step into the men’s game.

Wittmann currently manages FC Ingolstadt in Germany’s third division, and was the first female head coach in Germany’s top three divisions.

In 2023, Dingley became caretaker manager of Forest Green Rovers, and thus the first woman to lead a men’s professional team in England.

Diacre, now head coach of France’s women’s national team, managed Ligue 2’s Clerment Foot between 2014 and 2017.

 

Final thoughts

The impact therefore, is that Eta’s appointment will show future generations of aspiring female coaches that men’s football is an equally viable and possible pathway as the women’s game.

The time is now to level the playing field.

And while it may be a short-term role, its effect on attitudes towards equality and fair opportunities in the game will hopefully resonate long after the season ends.

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