Deep Roots and Big Ambitions: Interview with Adamstown Rosebud FC JDL Coordinator Chris Dale

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Image credit: Adamstown Rosebud Football Club

Adamstown Rosebud Football Club is a proud, community-driven team with deep roots and a long history in Northern NSW Football, having experienced considerable growth and transformation over the years. 

The club, founded in 1889 and based in the Newcastle suburb of Adamstown, is one of Australia’s oldest continuously operating football clubs, competing in the Northern NSW National Premier League. 

Speaking to Soccerscene, former president of Adamstown Rosebud FC and current coordinator for the Junior Development Program (JDL) Chris Dale, shared insights into his role within the club and its growth from a small senior-focused structure to a comprehensive youth development program. 

In our interview, Chris highlights the importance of community engagement, key sponsorships, infrastructure upgrades and a strong future-focus on nurturing and developing young players to become senior footballers who are also well-rounded individuals who contribute to society and the local community – including giving back to the club. 

Can you share some insight into your role at the club, and how Adamstown Rosebud has evolved since you first stepped into that position? 

Chris Dale: When I first came to the club as a player in 2011, we had three senior teams (1st grade, reserve grade and under 19s). Now, nearly 15 years on, the club has grown and now includes comprehensive junior and youth programs. 

This transformation first started in 2012 with Northern NSW Football introducing Premier Youth League (PYL), with an under 13s through to under 18s program. In 2019 this was then expanded to include the Junior Development League (JDL), which is an under 9s to under 12s program. 

In my current role, I am heavily involved in the coaching and player development at the club, with a specific current focus on the JDL program. I have had other roles over my time, such as technical director, board member and also club president. 

My scaled-back role allows me to also focus on my young family, which can be difficult when you are carrying the responsibility of a senior leadership position at the club. So far, I am really enjoying working with our younger players; it’s rewarding to see them develop as players and individuals.

Overall, we are working hard as a club to develop robust and well-rounded players in our junior and youth programs to feed into our senior football teams to provide a bright future for the club. 

Image credit: Adamstown Rosebud Football Club

Have there been any challenges that the club has faced on or off the field? How did the club deal with them? 

Chris Dale: We have two main challenges that are top of mind. One is the cost of football and how we best manage it to avoid over-charging families while still providing an excellent offering. 

We do this through a sponsorship program and ongoing fundraising that helps us absorb as many costs as we can before it impacts player registrations and the back pockets of mums and dads in our community. 

In general, football in Australia is a user-pay sport with limited financial support from the code, which is different to other sporting codes like AFL and NRL. With limited capacity to financially support grassroots football, it means clubs have to be very resourceful through sponsorship, fundraising and utilising volunteer services as much as possible. 

Also, there is a real push for semi-professional competition, which contributes to what I see as the second major challenge, which is getting volunteers and people to help deliver on increasing expectations. 

Families are busy – in most households both parents work and time is tight. People are getting kids to multiple trainings a week, as well as other commitments. On top of all of that, notwithstanding the registration fees families pay for their children to be in our program, we then want – need – them to volunteer their time to help us. 

It’s a big ask and we have a fabulous community at Adamstown Rosebud FC with lots of families who are happy to be in the canteen, Dads who are happy to run the line, siblings who are happy to be ball boy and individuals who are happy to keep rubbish under control so the club looks its best. 

But it is that push towards semi-professional football, the push towards everything being more elite, that’s probably been the hardest part because it means we need more volunteers to actually administer the ongoing additional requirements that are set. 

At our core we are a volunteer-based club. So getting people’s time – and we really appreciate it when we get it – is really hard and it can be a struggle to get people with the required skills and time into those larger roles within the club.

I think in terms of solving those challenges, it’s a case of having business development plans, trying to have a five-year club plan and key strategies for how we spend money on player development and club uplift. 

There are sponsors at our club that allocate money to certain areas, which I think is a positive thing. If funds are allocated specifically for the JDL program or to the youth program, then that really helps us to try and drive down those costs. 

In terms of recruiting players, a big focus for us is always keeping players at the club for as long as we can. We invest early in strong club culture and development plans for player growth. We aspire for this to translate into our senior teams, where we know our investment will translate to outcomes. 

A lot of key volunteers we have at the moment are mums, dads and grandparents who have been with the club for 5, 6, 7 years. This helps to build club culture and people feel involved and invested in the club, which is something we really focus on and value greatly. Retention of players – and their families – is pivotal in creating that family-based culture that the broader community hear about, and want to be part of. 

In what ways does Adamstown Rosebud FC connect with and support its local community, both on and off the field? 

Chris Dale: When you go to a match day for us it’s very much an inclusive space. We really enjoy hosting people and we enjoy people coming to the ground. We’re pretty lucky in terms of our space at Adamstown Oval, it’s a beautiful venue with good amenities that makes it easy to bring families, friends and supporters together – including the opposition! 

Our annual ANZAC Day event has become an important fixture on our club calendar. We were delighted to host Weston FC for our 2025 game. Over the last 5 to 6 years it’s been a really important day for us where we work with 211 Army Cadets to host an ANZAC celebration and bring the community together, including the supporters and families of the team we are playing. There is a strong sense of comradery and I personally really value what it represents. It is important to the club that we strive to be a pillar in our community. 

 Image credit: Adamstown Rosebud Football Club

Have there been any new sponsors or partnerships this season, and how are they helping Adamstown Rosebud grow both on and off the field?

Chris Dale: In recent years we’ve been very lucky to have 3 prominent local businesses in Newcastle sponsor and actively engage with us. The McCloy Group has been fantastic in providing funds and resources to develop our programs. 

KCE also came on board and they’ve been engaged in our youth program, helping it develop and become stronger. Last but definitely not least, Avid Project Management, a Newcastle company that continues to go from strength to strength, is a valued sponsor of our JDL program. 

These 3 businesses have been huge for us. I can’t say that enough. Through their support, we have increased our service offering across all three levels of football at the club, reduced the cost of football for our teams and our families, and connected with a business community that genuinely cares. 

The club is working towards upgrading Adamstown Oval’s training pitch to an all-weather synthetic surface. How will this development benefit the club moving forward? 

Chris Dale: A key area of our club footprint is our training space. It’s where we lay the foundations and spend the majority of our time. Last year we renamed this key area Peter Stone field, which is in recognition of one of our famous old boys who passed away not too long ago. 

Peter was really connected to our youth players and youth development. He was a former school teacher and was very committed to growing the player education side of our club for our young men. 

Week-long use of this space across JDL, PYL and NPL takes its toll. Add in the significant wet weather we’ve had and it creates an environment that cannot sustain its intended use. 

I believe it’s critical that we start to work with our local councils and our local stakeholders to invest in all-weather surfaces and upgrade existing facilities. 

We are working with our local council and we do have some plans in place, but once again, it’s all about having funding to really drive it forward. 

An all-weather surface would be a significant game-changer for the club. Even in situations like our current one, it’s been 10 weeks that players haven’t been able to train on the field due to conditions. We are proactive and shift our sessions to private all-weather facilities, but that then has a significant impact on our budget.

 Image credit: Adamstown Rosebud Football Club

What’s on the horizon for the club in 2025 and beyond? Are there any new plans or projects you’re looking forward to? 

Chris Dale: Player development is key. Personally for me, moving into a focused role in the JDL space, I see enormous potential to work with our 9 to 12-year-olds and develop core skills and attributes to see them progress. 

Part of that is trying to build a club culture where the kids are not only playing football and having success on the field, but also they’re growing as young boys and young men. That’s always been a focus for us, making sure we’re not just developing footballers, but also developing good people. 

Our player development programs are a big focus in the next 12 to 36 months. We have a really good crop of young players who are now in our senior squad. 

In 2024 and 2025 over 50% of our senior players played youth football for the club. That’s great and we are really proud and excited by the talent coming through and contributing to club culture and success at a senior level. 

So, continuing to bring that next wave of Rosebud players from our junior and youth ranks into our senior football is a major focus for us over the next short to medium term. And so is continuing to provide a culture that people choose to volunteer their time to be part of. We are a volunteer-led club with a passion for develop quality players who contribute to – and give back to – our community.

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Football NSW: South Coast grassroots clubs receive welcome funding boost

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Image Credit: Football NSW

Three Football South Coast clubs are the latest recipients of the NSW Government’s ‘Active Regional Communities’ package, a community program which seeks to invest in facilities in the hope that safer, more accessible playing environments will lead to increased participation across the board.

The purpose of the package, as per Service NSW’s website, is to enhance liveability, resilience and long-term sustainability in rural NSW by championing events that support social cohesion and improve amenities in the region.

It is comprised of 3 streams:

1.⁠ ⁠Regional Events and Partnerships – with grants of up to $2 million available for either the development of new events, or to improve on existing events, via upgraded infrastructure.

2.⁠ ⁠Community Participation – grants of up to $1 million, with a focus on greater accessibility. This funding could go towards sports grounds, safe transport and supervision, or staffing for events that boost local wellbeing and connection.

3.⁠ ⁠Local Priorities – Covers grants of up to $100,000, targeted at upgrading safety and equipment, hiring and training skilled staff, introducing and funding new groups, and/or increasing the frequency and range of existing activities.

On October 9, Football NSW announced upgrades would be received by Fairy Meadow United FC, Woonona Football Club and Albion Park White Eagles Soccer Club, as part of a comprehensive $7 million investment which will support a total of 24 community-led projects across the South Coast.

The clubs have secured $177,566, $18,182 and $46,297 respectively, which will support improvements to club awnings, goalposts and ball stop fences  in a bid to enhance matchday experience safety.

Football NSW’s Infrastructure and Club Development Coordinator Lachlan Mainwaring congratulated the clubs on this essential period of growth.

Mainwaring described the regional funding projects as ‘fantastic examples’ of how the impact of grassroots investments can reverberate through wider communities, assisting players, volunteers and families alike.

To ensure the sport remains sustainable for future generations, Football NSW welcomes ongoing partnership between clubs, association, government and councils.

‘We’re on our own’: Malvern City’s fight for a fair go

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Image Credit: Malvern City FC

At Malvern City Football Club, the problem isn’t finding girls who want to play football.

It is finding appropriate facilities for their growing cohort of young girls to play at.

The club now has close to 100 girls in its female program, built up over the past six years. But at Sir Zelman Cowen Park, which Malvern City has called home for decades, there are no dedicated female change rooms or toilets.

Instead, there are shared facilities, public toilets and, according to club President John Hatzis, situations in which parents, coaches and team managers have had to effectively stand guard so girls can use the toilets without others entering.

“The problem we’ve got is that the public toilets are often locked, or they’re just not accessible,” Hatzis told Soccerscene

The result, he says, is a bizarre and frankly uncomfortable workaround: adults physically blocking the toilets so girls can use them.

That is the human face of what has become a much bigger argument about sporting infrastructure in the City of Stonnington.

It is the sort of arrangement that might have been observed decades ago.

Not something we see in 2026.

Malvern City isn’t a small club asking ratepayers to build it a palace.

It has more than 800 registered players. Its female program is approaching 100 participants. Its junior high-performance program is thriving, while its senior men’s side just earned promotion to VPL1.

And yet its president says the club has spent years being told, essentially, to wait.

“We’re doing everything right as a club,” Hatzis says.

“But every year around this time, we get teams of girls, we get teams of boys coming over to us and we’re saying, ‘We can’t help you. We just don’t have the facilities.’”

That should concern more than just football people.

Where Stonnington chooses to spend

Stonnington is not a municipality that pinches its pennies on sport – far from it.

The council recently completed the Stonnington Sports Centre at Percy Treyvaud Reserve, a $49.9 million project described by council as its largest-ever investment in community sport. The project delivered new facilities for tennis, lawn bowls, cricket, lacrosse, netball and basketball, as well as four indoor courts and more than 200 undercover car spaces. A project where the council contributed $45.9 million.

There are also millions more in the current and forward capital programs.

The 2026-27 budget includes $600,000 for maintenance and renewal works at Malvern Valley Golf Course. Sports-ground asset renewal and oval reconstruction programs amount to about $13.5 million over the forward program to be carried over the next decade. Pavilion renewal is worth roughly $7.3 million over the same period, while outdoor tennis facilities have a forward renewal program of about $3.3 million.

There is a roughly $10.4 million forward program attached to Central Park Pavilion and about $7 million for Waverley Oval Pavilion.

None of this means football is entitled to an equal slice of every dollar.

Many of these facilities are shared between sports. A cricket oval can also be an AFL ground. A sportsground renewal program can benefit soccer as well as football. Money allocated to floodlights or pavilions cannot simply be stamped with one sport’s logo.

A $66 million gap — and a question of priorities

There is no doubt Stonnington, too, has a legitimate argument on the other side.

Council has identified an enormous backlog of sporting infrastructure needs. Its own figures suggest about $124 million in required investment, with only about $58 million currently funded over the coming decade.

That leaves a gap of roughly $66 million.

The council cannot fix everything at once.

But that is precisely why the argument over Malvern City is worth having.

Hatzis does not dispute there are competing demands. In fact, one of the more revealing parts of our conversation was his admission that football itself bears some responsibility.

For years, he says, football clubs have simply found a way to survive.

“The squeaky wheel receives the oil,” he said.

“Obviously, we haven’t been squeaking enough over many decades and we’ve just made do with what we’ve got.”

That is a remarkably candid admission from a club president trying to make a case against his local council.

But Hatzis believes patience has run out.

A decade of planning, but no clear timeline

Malvern City has been at Zelman Cowen for almost half a century. The club says the pavilion dates back to the late 1980s, and despite repeated approaches to council, there is still no funded redevelopment of the facility in the current budget.

The council is now undertaking a 10-year Sport and Recreation Plan for Zelman Cowen, following consultation with more than 400 community members. The park contains five sports fields covering roughly 47,500 square metres and caters for football, Australian rules football, baseball, cricket, athletics and ultimate frisbee.

Council acknowledges that the precinct is under increasing pressure and that its future planning needs to consider accessibility, safety, gender equity and universal design.

But planning is not building.

And a plan without funding is a very long way from a toilet that actually works.

That is Hatzis’ frustration.

“We’re being constantly told that there’s a plan to redevelop Zelman Cowen,” he says.

“But the problem is that there is no funding.”

His estimate is that Malvern City could be seven-to-ten years away from seeing meaningful redevelopment.

Fair Access in policy, barriers in practice

That is where the council’s own rhetoric around women’s sport becomes important.

Stonnington’s sports infrastructure planning recognises that many older sporting facilities were not designed for equitable participation by women and girls.

That is not an abstract policy problem at Zelman Cowen.

There are girls standing outside a toilet.

There are parents being asked to intervene.

And there are young players who, he fears, could eventually decide that the inconvenience isn’t worth it.

“If they’re not willing to fund it, then how long can clubs fund it?” he asks.

That is the question Stonnington needs to answer.

Not because Malvern City should automatically jump to the front of the queue, but because the council needs to be able to explain why it has placed this particular queue in the order it has.

The comparison with other sporting facilities is inevitably going to be uncomfortable.

Hatzis points to the state-of-the-art facilities available to some AFL and cricket clubs. He points to major investment at Toorak Park and the new Stonnington Sports Centre.

His argument is that Malvern City would be prepared to meet council halfway.

Malvern City is willing to meet council halfway

The club would lobby state and federal governments. It would seek private funding. It would even ask its own support base to contribute.

“We’d be happy to go and lobby the state and federal government to help us with the funding,” Hatzis says.

“And even creating some private funding. I’d be happy to get our support base to help with that also.”

That matters, because this isn’t simply a demand that ratepayers write Malvern City’s club a cheque.

It is a demand for a pathway. Give us a plan. Give us a timeframe. Give us something to work towards.

Instead, Hatzis says, the message from council has become increasingly difficult to accept.

“The communication coming down the line that we don’t have any funding is absolutely wearing thin.”

Football’s missing support

One of the more damning parts of our conversation wasn’t even about the council.

Hatzis says he has repeatedly contacted Football Victoria seeking support. He says he has been told someone would contact him to begin an engagement process and that Malvern City is an important part of the fabric of Victorian football.

That call is yet to come, which raises an uncomfortable possibility: perhaps Malvern City’s problem isn’t just that it has failed to convince Stonnington; perhaps it’s that football itself has historically been too willing to accept second-best facilities and making do.

Football has grown enormously in the past 25 years, while girl’s and women’s football in particular has exploded across the past decade. Clubs are increasingly expected to provide pathways from junior participation to elite competition.

Yet the infrastructure beneath that growth has not kept pace.

A story bigger than one club

That is where Stonnington’s own Fair Access Policy becomes particularly difficult to reconcile with what is happening at Zelman Cowen.

The council says the policy is designed to address “known barriers” experienced by women and girls in accessing community sport facilities, before acknowledging in its budget that implementing Fair Access will require “significant new funding”.

It is a remarkable admission: the council recognises the barriers, recognises that its sporting infrastructure needs to change, yet the girls at Malvern City are still being asked to wait for the money to make that change happen.

Malvern City’s story is therefore bigger than one pavilion.

It is about what happens when a sport grows faster than the facilities designed to accommodate it.

And it is about whether councils can continue to promote female participation while asking girls to accept facilities that would be considered unacceptable in other parts of community life.

Stonnington says it has limited resources.

That is undoubtedly true.

But scarcity does not remove the responsibility to explain the choices being made.

If there is $600,000 available for one year’s renewal and maintenance at a golf course, if millions are flowing through tennis, pavilion and sports-ground programs, and if a $49.9 million flagship sporting centre can be delivered, then telling Malvern City simply that there is “no funding” is not really an answer.

It is only the beginning of the question.

Why that facility?

Why now?

Why them?

And why not Zelman Cowen?

Malvern City has spent decades making do.

Its president admits the club has not always been loud enough.

But over the last decade, that has changed.

“We’re doing everything right as a club,” Hatzis says.

“We need to be heard”

Perhaps the real test for Stonnington now is not whether it can find enough money to fix every sporting facility in the municipality.

It clearly cannot.

The test is whether, when the council sits down to decide who waits another decade and who moves forward. Malvern City, a club with more than 800 players, a senior men’s program that is among Victoria’s elite, and a growing cohort of girls can make a convincing enough case to finally move up the list.

Because asking girls to wait years for a proper place to change is not a particularly convincing way to build the future of women’s sport.

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