Football NSW Launch Junior Development Leagues

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Image Credit: Football NSW

Football NSW successfully launched its Junior Development Leagues (JDL) in early February with a two-day event at Valentine Sports Park, drawing over 200 coaches from across the state.

With a focus on rebranding the Skills Acquisition Program (SAP) to the JDL, Football NSW delivered youth-focused, player oriented sessions, presenting approaches which could be adopted to assist players in decision making and technical execution.

Praise for the Launch

Inter Lions’ Girls JDL Head Coach, Troy Cook, praised the launch, highlighting its numerous benefits.

“The chance to connect with other clubs, share ideas, and see different approaches in action was valuable.

“The atmosphere was positive, and it’s clear that Football NSW is putting a lot of effort into supporting clubs and making the JDL a strong development platform,” Cook stated.

Focus on rebranding SAP to JDL

The implementation of the JDL from SAP aims to create a stronger focus on Club capability building, the sharing of best practice program elements and the accountability of Clubs and Football NSW to each other. 

Initially introduced throughout the 2024 season, the Club Standards & benchmarking Framework will drive this achievement.

Football NSW’s Coach Education Manager Chris Adams stated how crucial this launch was in further upskilling clubs and coaches.

“The highlight of the weekend was seeing all our JDL clubs coaching staff connect and learn in the same environment.

“This in itself showed that the clubs are not alone in their role of a JDL coach and that they are a part of football development within NSW,” Adams concluded.

Bonnyrigg White Eagles’ Mixed JDL Head Coach, Enzo Palumbo, highlighted the launch’s role in fostering valuable networks and knowledge.

“The 2025 JDL launch from Football NSW was informative for us coaches, it was well-structured, and we stayed focus on the key interventions.”

“Some key points that we found useful was the different session styles that can be used such as more streamlined methods and incorporating some fun within the team,” Palumbo said.

Future Outlook 

The Junior Development Leagues and Club Standards and Benchmarking Framework will officially launch following a 2024 pilot process where benchmarking outcomes remained unpublished.

In 2025, these outcomes will be reset, and the results will be published at the end of the season.

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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.

Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

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