SOUTHERN DISTRICTS SFA

The winter football season, like most outdoor sports, was heavily affected by the significant rainfall in 2022.

While a lot of Council fields were not playable, Southern Districts Soccer Football Association (SDSFA) managed to get through the whole season by manipulating fixtures and using neutral grounds for those who couldn’t provide venues.

Some clubs were affected more than others depending on the field drainage and number of fields that they use and there were many midweek catch up rounds played to enable the Association to give the clubs and players the best possibility to play out their respective seasons.

Inadequate floodlighting of Liverpool grounds meant playing more midweek matches in the Fairfield LGA, also utilising synthetic playing surfaces, of which Liverpool has none suitable for football.

Despite the recent weather and COVID-19 complexities, SDSFA still managed to maintain and even slightly improve player numbers from the previous season. The Association almost returned to previous levels of participation, with just short of 9,000 participants across Association clubs.

It is pleasing to report the significant efforts that have been dedicated towards the women’s game, with female football back on the rise, representing almost 20% of player participants across the District. SDSFA would like to thank all of the club volunteers within the 38 clubs for their persistence, tenacity and flexibility in getting through these challenging times.

SDSFA, unlike many others, managed to play out the whole season and after some ‘thinking outside the box’ completed all finals for the season as well as the 2022 Knock Out Competitions, thus giving all of the players the best opportunity to play their chosen sport.

SDSFA, in conjunction with Macarthur Association, ran a pilot program joining some competitions to provide a competitive platform for some of our Association teams. The pilot was run successfully for the respective teams and both Associations, so much so that there will be an expansion of the joint structure for selected division one competitions in season 2023. This will provide these teams stronger competition and broaden their environment to enhance the teams’ playing experience.

Everyone at SDSFA are looking forward to a pandemic and El Niño free season in 2023; the sport deserves that.