The Great Save launched as Football NSW celebrates 140 years

Staff Writer
The Great Save

Football representatives from across New South Wales came together to celebrate 140 years of organised football in NSW on Wednesday evening at Parliament House.

Hosted by Football NSW and Northern NSW Football, the milestone event saw the launch of ‘The Great Save’ initiative, aimed at preserving and celebrating the game’s proud history.

The evening witnessed some of the greats of the world game including Ron Lord and Kevin O’Neill, along with Trixie Tagg, Leigh Wardell, Julie Dolan, Heather Garriock and Mara Watts from the women’s game.

Members of Parliament – including The Hon. Stuart Ayres MP, The Hon. Mark Coure MP, Guy Zanguri MP, Sonia Hornery MP, Julia Finn MP and Lynda Voltz MP – were also present amongst a throng of football administrators and media personalities, joined together by their shared recognition of football’s historical significance across NSW.

Football NSW Chairman Gilbert Lorquet paid a glowing tribute to legends that helped shape what we see today in our game.

“Over the past 140 years, the game has seen so many highs and lows, witnessed an inordinately high number of games, and we can all be pleased and proud of where football currently stands in the state’s sporting landscape,” he said.

“It was amazing to have seen so many players, coaches and administrators, who have in their own way played a part in making football in NSW the highest participant sport.”

Football NSW CEO Stuart Hodge recognised the hard work and efforts that were put together to form ‘The Great Save’ project.

“We were delighted to launch a new initiative to formalise our efforts and ensure that we hold on to the past, and recognise the many wonderful people, clubs and organisations that have all contributed to make the sport what it is today,” he said.

“The Great Save is an initiative that first began in England, and we are delighted to be working with a group of enthusiastic, volunteer ‘football aficionados’ and historians who have been able to breathe life into the concept here in Australia.

“A big thank you to Greg Werner and Greg Stock, in addition to the likes of Noel Donna, Ian Holmes, Travis Faulks and Phil Mosely, who have all supported and contributed to this wonderful cause.”

Northern NSW Football CEO David Eland supported the collaborative efforts in preserving our rich history.

“Football NSW and Northern NSW Football are pleased to support The Great Save as the respective governing bodies and provide a structure and formal framework for this initiative.

“Our commitment to this area can be best summarised in its objective; Archiving, preserving, recognising, and celebrating our great game’s history for now and the future.”

Football NSW and Northern NSW will now continue the work being undertaken with historians, Associations, Clubs, and the wider community, to collect, archive and preserve artefacts, documents, trophies, photos and other memorabilia from the game’s 140 years of history.

In weeks and months to come, what will be rolled out is how the community can help preserve the game’s treasures before they are lost forever.

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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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Image Credit: Shutterstock

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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