FOOTBALL SOUTH COAST

After two years of COVID-19, Football South Coast (FSC) was looking forward to some normality, however mother nature had a different idea.

As a result of heavy rain across the Illawarra, many clubs lost their home grounds for the duration of the season. What resulted was a huge effort across the FSC football family to schedule an average 75% of games across our community competitions and a near full complement of games in our Men’s Premiership competition.

This would not have been possible without the efforts of clubs to find alternative training and playing venues, embracing constant scheduling changes and the armies of volunteers that equipped themselves with mowers and whipper snippers in an attempt to get fields ready.

For FSC, it was another year of contingency competition planning and significant use of the regions only synthetic pitch which was used by schools and clubs.

The disruption with the wet weather was also compounded by Wollongong hosting the UCI Road Cycling World Championships at the business end of the season. This meant the season could not accommodate Grand Finals for our Junior and some of our community competitions.

It was also a historic year as Ian McLennan Park was shortlisted as a Training Base Camp (TBC) for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™. Funding has been obtained to facilitate significant improvements and enable this to be the home base for our Association.

There were a number of fantastic achievements via our competitions in 2022 starting off with the naming of the regions first ever Matilda, the inaugural Julie Porter Cup (Women’s Division 1) which was won by the Albion Park White Eagles.

It was a huge year for the Wollongong United Men’s senior side who made history by becoming the first ever Association side to reach the Australia Cup Round of 32.

Football NSW’s Champion of Champions was next on the achievement list as Shellharbour Junior Football created history by taking out the Under 14 Boys, Under 15 Boys and Under 16 Girls categories in what was a monumental tournament for the club and region.

The University of Wollongong FC were crowned winners of the first ever live streamed Women’s Division 1 Grand Final, ending the Albion Park White Eagles’ six-season winning streak.

Finally, the Men’s Premiership Grand Finals held at WIN Stadium saw Wollongong Olympic claim its first Grand Final win in 37 years defeating League Champions Wollongong United.

There were also key wins in the Football Development at FSC. The Association announced the appointment of a Female Football Development Manager to focus on increasing the number of females participating in all areas of football. Numerous ‘Come and

Try’ sessions were facilitated across grounds and schools, which has been a key focus point for the Football Development Manager.

Pre SAP and SAP Development programs continued, despite the grim weather disruptions, and a highly successful Female Only Program was also introduced which proved to be a huge success.

There was a continuation of development programs across all ages and FSC’s partnership with Sydney FC for the Skills Training Program and School Holiday Clinics continued to blossom.

Finally, FSC continued to support The Disability Trust through the Annual Sports Ready Gala with over 230 students from nine Illawarra schools in attendance.