Northern NSW Football’s flood support road trip delivers $40,000 worth of equipment

Staff Writer

A team of Northern NSW Football staff travelled north as part of a two-day road trip to deliver flood relief equipment to help clubs replace damaged or lost gear.

NNSWF Head of Football Development Peter Haynes, Community Football Manager Ross Hicks and Club Development Officer Phillip Andrews packed up three vans with $40,000 worth of equipment – including size three, four and five Mitre footballs, ball bags, cones, bibs, pop up goals, bownet goals, corner posts, boots and socks.

NNSWF’s major partner of community football – Newcastle Permanent – also provided goals and cones.

Haynes outlined NNSWF had worked hard to provide assistance to affiliated clubs hit hard by the floods.

“The road trip was just the latest part of the plan and the $40,000 worth of essential equipment I know will be well received and put to good use when clubs are ready to get back on the pitch,” Haynes said.

“NNSWF would like to extend its appreciation to Newcastle Permanent and Mitre for their generous contributions. And thank you to our suppliers including Umbro, Alpha, Summit and Eagle Sports who have provided equipment at cost or at a discounted rate.”

Hicks explained NNSWF understood the plight of clubs and the suffering they had endured.

“We have worked really closely with Steve Mackney at Football Far North Coast and Andrew Woodward at North Coast Football right from the outset,” he said.

“That ongoing communication and collaboration meant we understood the devastation was well beyond damaged infrastructure and lost equipment. Some members of the football community have lost everything.

“We want to assure everyone affected in the Football Far North Coast and North Coast Football regions that they are vital members of our football family. And NNSWF are here to tangibly assist clubs to restore their facilities and get back on the pitch when the time is right.”

The effect of flooding on South Lismore Celtic FC

Newcastle Permanent’s Chief Customer Experience and Delivery Officer Paul Juergens added the organisation was pleased to be able to contribute.

“Newcastle Permanent’s purpose is to be here for our customers and here for good. And that extends to our local communities impacted by these devastating floods,” he said.

“The recovery effort faced by these townships has been immense but we hope that by helping clubs replace essential equipment and get back to training we can get kids back on pitches and bring a little joy to local communities.”

The gear was transported from the Home of Football at the Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility to Maclean on Thursday, where the team met with representatives from North Coast Football clubs Maclean FC and Yuraygir United FC.

The team then travelled to Woodburn where they met Football Far North Coast General Manager Steve Mackney and Woodburn Wolves FC president Cameron Taylor-Brown.

The final stop for the day was Tumbulgum, with gear delivered to Tumbulgum Rangers SC and Uki Pythons.

After an overnight stay in Ballina, it was an early start on Friday to get to Dunoon to deliver gear for Dunoon United, Lismore Thistles, Lismore Workers FC, Kyogle FC and Lismore Richmond Rovers.

South Lismore was the next stop to meet State Lismore MP Janelle Saffin and Steve Towner from South Lismore FC.

There were three more visits to Italo Stars FC at North Lismore, Lismore Thistles and Casino RSM Cobras FC on Friday before heading back to Newcastle.

NNSWF CEO David Eland believes while the initial response had been to ascertain as much information as possible, the next phase of NNSWF’s Flood Recovery Plan was about tangible help and support.

“As the waters have receded the flood recovery has shifted gears,” he said.

“Our team and I have been in daily contact with Football Far North Coast and North Coast Football to ensure members of the football family are supported when it matters.

“Through this consultation we are now able to move from assessing the damage to rallying support and providing tangible assistance. This road trip that Pete, Ross and Phil have embarked on was just the next step.

“The $40,000 worth of equipment is part of our Flood Recovery Package worth more than $130,000. But we’ve also set up a Boot Drive and a fundraising portal through the Australian Sports Foundation which enables businesses and individuals to make tax free donations.

“And through our Flood Recovery Hub there is information for clubs on financial relief, support, fundraising, mental health and community initiatives.

“There are several grants and funding packages available to impacted clubs and our NNSWF team members have worked directly with government on behalf of clubs to access some packages. We will also engage a grant writing specialist to assist clubs with other opportunities.

“NNSWF is also working closely with Football Australia and Football NSW to lobby government at all levels for support because a coordinated approach provides focused lobbying to government decision makers that will maximise outcomes for clubs.”

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Northern NSW Football’s Leadership Program Reaches 98 Graduates as Sport Moves Toward 2027 Gender Parity Targets

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Image Credit: Football Northern NSW

Northern NSW Football has concluded its 2026 Women’s Leadership Program, with 13 participants taking the total number of graduates to 98 women across the region since the program launched in 2023. The five-week program combined online modules with a two-day conference at Rydges Resort in the Hunter Valley, bringing together club volunteers, committee members, administrators and NNSWF staff from Newcastle, Macquarie, Northern Inland and Football Mid North Coast zones.

The program’s growth has been uneven year to year. It launched with two intakes in 2023, drew 25 scholarship recipients in 2024,then settled to 12 in 2025, which brought the cumulative total to 85 before this year’s cohort of 13.

The program was facilitated by Ann Odong, who founded The Women’s Game, Australia’s first dedicated women’s football website, in 2008,and later spent six years as Football Australia’s Media and PR Manager steering the Matildas’ program through multiple World Cups and Olympic Games,before moving into independent consulting work.

A pipeline built against a 2027 deadline

The program fits within a wider set of national targets football and the broader sport sector have committed to reaching within the next twelve months. Football Australia’s Our Game initiative, launched in 2021, set a goal of 50:50 gender parity across players, coaches, administrators and referees by 2027.Separately, the federally backed National Gender Equity in Sport Governance Policy requires all funded national and state sporting bodies to reach 50 per cent women or gender-diverse board directors by 1 July 2027, with funding to be withheld from organisations that fall short.As of the most recent Australian Sports Commission data, 22 per cent of chief executives and 25 per cent of board chairs across 65 federally funded national sporting organisations were women.

Programs built around confidence, networking and committee-level skills, the model NNSWF has run since 2023, are the mechanism most sporting bodies are relying on to close that gap, since board and executive vacancies typically draw from an organisation’s existing pool of committee members, volunteers and administrators rather than external recruitment.

This year’s cohort

University of Newcastle FC’s Charlotte Carey, one of this year’s participants, said the program had given her the confidence to pursue a career in football while developing skills applicable across other areas of her life. Fellow participants included representatives from Cooks Hill United, Westlakes Wildcats, Newcastle Olympic, Lake Macquarie City FC, Western Wolves, Gunnedah and District Soccer Association, Wauchope FC and Stockton Sharks, alongside three NNSWF staff members.

NNSWF Participation and Women’s Football Officer Jamie Bressan said the program had continued to provide women across the game with an opportunity to connect and build leadership skills, with topics covering effective communication, personality styles and team dynamics. Bressan pointed to the network the program builds among participants, drawn from clubs and committees across the region, as one of its central functions rather than the training content alone.

The 2026 cohort’s spread across four zones, Newcastle, Macquarie, Northern Inland and Football Mid North Coast, continues a pattern of the program drawing participants from outside the Hunter region’s largest population centres, consistent with its original design to make the conference and online components accessible to women in regional and remote parts of northern NSW through funded travel and accommodation.

Football SA Extends Sammy D Foundation Partnership Into Third Year for Violence Prevention Round

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football South Australia will run its fifth consecutive Violence Prevention Round in partnership with the Sammy D Foundation from 3 to 5 July, with junior teams again asked to wear blue armbands throughout the weekend.

The arrangement was formalised in March 2022, when Football SA and the Foundation signed a three-year agreement, funded by SA Power Networks, to deliver the Foundation’s Monkey See, Monkey Do program to more than 7,500 junior members across 52 clubs.The program is a 90-minute session delivered by Sammy D Foundation facilitators focused on changing players’ attitudes toward bullying and violence and educating parents and club members about the impacts of inappropriate sideline behaviours, built around the story of Sam Davis, the 17-year-old South Adelaide junior footballer whose death in a one-punch assault in 2008 led his parents to establish the Foundation.Football SA general manager George Georganas and Foundation chief executive Brigid Koenig confirmed the partnership at its 2022 launch, framing it as a mechanism for improving club culture from junior sidelines upward.

The round has run every season since, expanding in 2023 to incorporate the Federation Cup Final at ServiceFM Stadium,a weekend Football SA dedicated as the Sammy D Violence Prevention Round alongside the Federation Cup Final Day continuing through the 2024 season,when it was again scheduled as a designated round ahead of that year’s Federation Cup Final and shifting from an early blue tape design to the blue armbands used in 2025 and again this year.

A prevention model funded outside government

The Foundation’s programs, including its work with Football SA, are financed through corporate and philanthropic support rather than recurring government funding. Its rollout with Football SA was backed by SA Power Networks, and separate school-based programs in the state’s Far North have relied on grants from philanthropic trusts.Both the Perpetual Foundation’s Kevin Barnes Gift Fund Endowment and the Fred P Archer Charitable Trust have funded the Foundation’s work in that region.

The State Government’s response to the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, released in December 2025, commits $674 million over ten years to a 136-recommendation reportstructured around themes spanning structural reform, workforce and community education, crisis response, and establishing a foundation for prevention, delivered by Commissioner Natasha Stott Despojaafter four women were killed in the state within a single week in November 2023. The Commission’s focus on domestic, family and sexual violence is distinct from the youth bullying and alcohol-related violence at the centre of Sammy D Foundation programs, but its response includesan expansion of abuse prevention programs to support behavioural change for people who use violence, alongside prevention and awareness activities aimed specifically at young people.

Separately, the Department for Education’s own violence prevention program, developed after a 2022 ministerial roundtable, has directed a $6 million Safe and Supportive Learning Environments Plan of Action toward schools, afterreported violent incidents in South Australian public schools rose 50 per cent in 2023, with more than 13,000 critical incidents recorded that year. The department has since reportedits first decline in secondary school critical incidents in 2024, a 4.5 per cent reduction from 2019 levels, along with a 7.3 per cent fall in suspensions and a 20.8 per cent fall in exclusions in 2025. It also noted thatviolence in primary schools has continued to rise since the pandemic, and that physical violence against teaching staff, the large majority involving primary-aged students, climbed from 273 incidents in 2021 to 662 in 2024.

Evidence from earlier rollouts

Sammy D Foundation programs delivered through junior sport have previously reported strong self-assessed outcomes. An earlier three-year rollout of a related program through SANFL Juniors, a separate competition to Football SA,reached up to 12,800 young players and their families, with 98 per cent reporting increased awareness of the impact of one-punch violence and 89 per cent reporting they avoided a violent situation because of the program.

A national evidence guide on preventing violence through sport, compiled by Our Watch, notes that69 per cent of Australian children and 87 per cent of adults took part in sport or physical activity over a twelve-month period, while also pointing toa lack of research assessing the effectiveness of such approaches, and the need for more robust evaluation of primary prevention programs within sport settings.

Clubs taking part in this year’s round have again been supplied with blue armbands for junior teams, with Football SA and the Foundation asking clubs to share images from the weekend under the round’s official hashtag.

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