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The Australian Championship 🇦🇺🏆

NicCarBel said:
Will you be including Capital League Divisions 1 and 2 as tiers 3 & 4 (given that there's no direct P/R between them and works much more like... well, let's say the metro leagues in Melbourne in that respect)
Click to expand...

I had the CPL and CLO last year, but there isn't a CPL this year and we have that disconnect. And Capital Football just threw all their pro/rel out the window during the season, what a joke.
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
I can't believe Victoria have 3 relegation spots in a 14 team competition and we only have 1.5 relegation spots in a 16 team competition in NSW. So stupid.
Click to expand...
It keeps things super competitive and having a 3rd team drop adds more interest (and anxiety) to the end of the home and away season. You effectively have the top 8-9 clubs challenging to make finals football (top 6), and the bottom 4-5 teams trying to avoid relegation.
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
I can't believe Victoria have 3 relegation spots in a 14 team competition and we only have 1.5 relegation spots in a 16 team competition in NSW. So stupid.
Click to expand...
Yeah NSW is overly protective of their NPL teams.

As far as ranking the pro/rel systems across the nation, in my opinion:

The Vic pyramid is the envy of all. Rewards more winning teams moving up. They could probably change it to 2.5 relegation spots, but 3 is close enough.

SA, WA, and NNSW are similar and done well for their size. Where you have 12 team divisions, I'd prefer 2.5 relegation spots instead of 2 or 1.5. I like WA's 2nd to 4th playing for promotion instead of SA's 2nd to 6th (it's too much). NNSW is probably as good as they will get, 1.5 rel spots makes sense here as they only have 10 teams in tier 3.

Queensland with 2 straight up and down is clean but lazy. Not much enthusiasm in the season once spots are out of reach.

NSW is too rigid. 1.5 spots for 16 teams is poor.

Tasmania is getting there and battling the bane of distance. There are calls to split back to north/south (a backwards move IMO), some say 10 teams in NPL are too many, some await the return of the north vs south pro/rel battle. But for now, the clubs outside their NPL don't want to travel, so there's no point having pro/rel there.

ACT, chuck it in the bin 😂 It was better before.
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
We should just have the teams in the ACT in the NSW competition. It would be better for those clubs and it suits NSW to have more clubs.
Click to expand...
How did the Sydney teams feel during that stretch when there was essentially always 1 Canberra team in what is now the NPL? My understanding is Monaro (Queanbeyan) through most of the 80s/90s, and Belconnen in the early 2000's - I believe Canberra Croatia/Deakin were around for a few years in the 90s as well?

If I had my way with football governance, Capital Football would absorb from NSW the following associations:
  • Southern Tablelands (Goulburn)
  • Wagga
  • Griffith
  • Albury (although - give them the choice whether to go VIC or ACT - at the moment it now seems they're one foot in both camps anyways, with Murray United being VIC, but the league itself being NSW)
  • South West Slopes (they generally play within Wagga anyways)
  • Lachlan (Cowra/Young, etc - Young plays in Wagga, Cowra I think plays in one of the more northern associations)
Each association still keeps their league, referee association, etc etc - but are allowed to, should they have the numbers, a Rep team (a la Wagga City Wanderers, Griffith FC/Riverina Rhinos - I think association clubs work well for regions, not so much for city teams like in Sydney) that is part of the NPL pyramid etc. Probably would get them close to 20 teams from a Senior Mens perspective, and 2 leagues of 10 with P/R
 
HappyGuus said:
I had the CPL and CLO last year, but there isn't a CPL this year and we have that disconnect. And Capital Football just threw all their pro/rel out the window during the season, what a joke.
Click to expand...
Yeah, essentially it's just CLO1 and CLO2 that would be seen as the 3rd and 4th tiers. No P/R confirmed for this season - but from next season onwards it's conditional P/R between NPL and CLO1. P/R between CLO1 and CLO2 probably depends on player numbers etc for the following season (I assume most of the lower metro divisions across the country work in a similar manner).
 
HappyGuus said:
I have all the tables for tiers 2 to 4 across the nation for viewing it all in one go:



View attachment 6851
View attachment 6852

I had the A-League on there last year but that's easily found everywhere else, so I've left it out now.
Click to expand...
Imo the nsw table basically supports what I said about a year back, the nsw clubs who have been chosen for the championship arent purely based upon nsl nostalgia, for the most part they’re basically still the stronger clubs in nsw in the post nsl era.

Obviously Olympics issues are well documented, but by and large they’ve also been there or there abouts most years up until recently
 
NicCarBel said:
How did the Sydney teams feel during that stretch when there was essentially always 1 Canberra team in what is now the NPL? My understanding is Monaro (Queanbeyan) through most of the 80s/90s, and Belconnen in the early 2000's - I believe Canberra Croatia/Deakin were around for a few years in the 90s as well?

If I had my way with football governance, Capital Football would absorb from NSW the following associations:
  • Southern Tablelands (Goulburn)
  • Wagga
  • Griffith
  • Albury (although - give them the choice whether to go VIC or ACT - at the moment it now seems they're one foot in both camps anyways, with Murray United being VIC, but the league itself being NSW)
  • South West Slopes (they generally play within Wagga anyways)
  • Lachlan (Cowra/Young, etc - Young plays in Wagga, Cowra I think plays in one of the more northern associations)
Each association still keeps their league, referee association, etc etc - but are allowed to, should they have the numbers, a Rep team (a la Wagga City Wanderers, Griffith FC/Riverina Rhinos - I think association clubs work well for regions, not so much for city teams like in Sydney) that is part of the NPL pyramid etc. Probably would get them close to 20 teams from a Senior Mens perspective, and 2 leagues of 10 with P/R
Click to expand...
I might actually try and get something made up on Google Earth for how I personally think the best way to restructure this is in reality without changing too much. How?

Well, what I'll do is I'm get to set a pinpoint on the CBD of all 9 member federations:
  • NSW - Sydney
  • VIC - Melbourne
  • QLD - Brisbane
  • SA - Adelaide
  • WA - Perth
  • TAS - Hobart
  • NNSW - Newcastle
  • ACT - Canberra
  • NT - Darwin
Actually, I will be leaving Tas out of this, because Tas is pretty simple and just include any club from anywhere in the state.

But with the other 8, I'm going to extend a radius from each city, until it meets another, and essentially that would (in my perfect world) mean any club in that area that meets whatever the NPL (or connected pyramid) criteria is, they should be provided entry, travel be damned. Will be interesting to see the QLD, NNSW, ACT, NSW, VIC, SA overlap

As a starting point - this is 500km around each of the listed cities (1000km for Perth though)
1778741194545.jpeg
 
Last edited:
NicCarBel said:
I might actually try and get something made up on Google Earth for how I personally think the best way to restructure this is in reality without changing too much. How?

Well, what I'll do is I'm get to set a pinpoint on the CBD of all 9 member federations:
  • NSW - Sydney
  • VIC - Melbourne
  • QLD - Brisbane
  • SA - Adelaide
  • WA - Perth
  • TAS - Hobart
  • NNSW - Newcastle
  • ACT - Canberra
  • NT - Darwin
Actually, I will be leaving Tas out of this, because Tas is pretty simple and just include any club from anywhere in the state.

But with the other 8, I'm going to extend a radius from each city, until it meets another, and essentially that would (in my perfect world) mean any club in that area that meets whatever the NPL (or connected pyramid) criteria is, they should be provided entry, travel be damned. Will be interesting to see the QLD, NNSW, ACT, NSW, VIC, SA overlap

As a starting point - this is 500km around each of the listed cities (1000km for Perth though)
View attachment 6855
Click to expand...
Found a website that automatically does this - it's apparently called a "Voronoi Diagram" and creates partitions in a map into regions based on distance to points in a specific subset of the plane. For each point (seed), there is a corresponding region consisting of all points closer to that seed than to any other.
1778743352281.jpeg
 
NicCarBel said:
Found a website that automatically does this - it's apparently called a "Voronoi Diagram" and creates partitions in a map into regions based on distance to points in a specific subset of the plane. For each point (seed), there is a corresponding region consisting of all points closer to that seed than to any other.
View attachment 6860
Click to expand...
What would change in this system for each state? I'm basing this off my 2025 version of the Football Pyramid Database map I had created.
  • Western Australia
    • Losses
      • Broome Association
      • Kununurra Association
    • Gains
      • None
  • Northern Territory
    • Losses
      • None
    • Gains
      • Broome Association (WA)
      • Kununurra Association (WA)
      • Gulf Region (QLD)
  • South Australia
    • Gains
      • Mildura
    • Losses
      • Portland Panthers goes back to Victoria technically
  • Victoria
    • Gains
      • Portland Panthers (currently playing in SA, would now be back part of South West Victoria)
      • Hay Rams (currently playing in NSW, would now be part of Bendigo again)
      • Deniliquin Wanderers (technically already is there as part of Bendigo, but this would make it official)
    • Losses
      • Mildura (SA)
      • The Albury association (with the exception of Wangaratta City, Cobram, Benalla and Myrtleford Savoy that will be in Victoria) to South-Western NSW) - I will be counting this twice, as Murray United play in the Victorian Pyramid, whereas the league itself is part of Football NSW.
      • Mallacoota (South-Western NSW) - already part of NSW, but being situated in Victoria already, this would make it official.
  • Queensland
    • Gains
      • Far North Coast (Northern NSW)
      • Will also gain some of the Northern Inland and North Coast regions of current Northern NSW. More info on that later
    • Losses
      • Gulf Region (NT)
  • Northern NSW
    • Gains
      • Coonamble from the Western NSW branch of NSW
      • Some of Central Coast from NSW - will break that down later
    • Losses
      • Far North Coast (QLD)
      • Will also lose some of the Northern Inland and North Coast regions to QLD. More info on that later
  • New South Wales
    • Gains
      • None
    • Losses
      • Central Coast Football split into Northern NSW (details at the end)
      • Coonamble (Northern NSW)
      • Manyana and Ulladulla from the Shoalhaven Association (South-Western NSW)
      • All of Western Plains Association except for Gilgandra (which sits about 600m south of the new NSW and Northern NSW border) - the rest of Western Plains would now be within South-Western NSW)
      • Cowra from the Bathurst Association (South-Western NSW)
      • Narromine from the Dubbo Association (South-Western NSW)
      • The entire Albury, Griffith, Wagga, South West Slopes, Southern Tablelands, Eurobodalla, Far South Coast, Lachlan and Orange Associations (to South-Western NSW, and parts of Albury to Victoria)
  • South-Western NSW (this is my rebranded Capital Football)
    • Gains
      • Manyana and Ulladulla from the Shoalhaven Association of NSW
      • All of Western Plains Association except for Gilgandra (which sits about 600m south of the new NSW and Northern NSW border)
      • Cowra from the Bathurst Association of NSW
      • Narromine from the Dubbo Association of NSW
      • The Albury association (with the exception of Wangaratta City, Cobram, Benalla and Myrtleford Savoy that will be in Victoria)
      • The entire Albury, Griffith, Wagga, South West Slopes, Southern Tablelands, Eurobodalla, Far South Coast, Lachlan and Orange Associations of NSW
How Northern Inland and North Coast regions of current Northern NSW would now be split:
Moving to QLD from Northern Inland
  • Guyra
  • Moree
  • Glen Innes
  • Tenterfield (I think they are currently split as Juniors in NNSW and Seniors in Queensland, or vice versa)
Staying in Northern NSW from North Coast
  • Dorrigo
  • Urunga
  • Nambucca
  • Macksville
  • Scotts Head
  • Sawtell
    • This is one that would probably get the choice to choose, as my border literally places them 500m from the border of the other Coffs Harbour clubs - so they could probably have benefit of the doubt from my measurements and go to QLD with the rest of Coffs Harbour.
Central Coast NSW
  • Based strictly off the border (which runs inbetween Ourimbah United and Central Coast United, at an angle that leaves Mountain District just south of the border remaining in NSW) the following clubs currently in Central Coast Football in NSW would be moved to Northern NSW
    • Ourimbah United
    • Berkeley Vale
    • Tuggerah United
    • The Entrance
    • Killarney District
    • Wyong Emus
    • Kanwal
    • Toukley-Gorokan
    • Woongarrah Wildcats
    • Budgewoi
    • Boyalson-Wyee
    • Gwandalan Summerland Point
 
Last edited:
NicCarBel said:
What would change in this system for each state? I'm basing this off my 2025 version of the Football Pyramid Database map I had created.
  • Western Australia
    • Losses
      • Broome Association
      • Kununurra Association
    • Gains
      • None
  • Northern Territory
    • Losses
      • None
    • Gains
      • Broome Association (WA)
      • Kununurra Association (WA)
      • Gulf Region (QLD)
  • South Australia
    • Gains
      • Mildura
    • Losses
      • Portland Panthers goes back to Victoria technically
  • Victoria
    • Gains
      • Portland Panthers (currently playing in SA, would now be back part of South West Victoria)
      • Hay Rams (currently playing in NSW, would now be part of Bendigo again)
      • Deniliquin Wanderers (technically already is there as part of Bendigo, but this would make it official)
    • Losses
      • Mildura (SA)
      • The Albury association (with the exception of Wangaratta City, Cobram, Benalla and Myrtleford Savoy that will be in Victoria) to South-Western NSW) - I will be counting this twice, as Murray United play in the Victorian Pyramid, whereas the league itself is part of Football NSW.
      • Mallacoota (South-Western NSW) - already part of NSW, but being situated in Victoria already, this would make it official.
  • Queensland
    • Gains
      • Far North Coast (Northern NSW)
      • Will also gain some of the Northern Inland and North Coast regions of current Northern NSW. More info on that later
    • Losses
      • Gulf Region (NT)
  • Northern NSW
    • Gains
      • Coonamble from the Western NSW branch of NSW
      • Some of Central Coast from NSW - will break that down later
    • Losses
      • Far North Coast (QLD)
      • Will also lose some of the Northern Inland and North Coast regions to QLD. More info on that later
  • New South Wales
    • Gains
      • None
    • Losses
      • Central Coast Football split into Northern NSW (details at the end)
      • Coonamble (Northern NSW)
      • Manyana and Ulladulla from the Shoalhaven Association (South-Western NSW)
      • All of Western Plains Association except for Gilgandra (which sits about 600m south of the new NSW and Northern NSW border) - the rest of Western Plains would now be within South-Western NSW)
      • Cowra from the Bathurst Association (South-Western NSW)
      • Narromine from the Dubbo Association (South-Western NSW)
      • The entire Albury, Griffith, Wagga, South West Slopes, Southern Tablelands, Eurobodalla, Far South Coast, Lachlan and Orange Associations (to South-Western NSW, and parts of Albury to Victoria)
  • South-Western NSW (this is my rebranded Capital Football)
    • Gains
      • Manyana and Ulladulla from the Shoalhaven Association of NSW
      • All of Western Plains Association except for Gilgandra (which sits about 600m south of the new NSW and Northern NSW border)
      • Cowra from the Bathurst Association of NSW
      • Narromine from the Dubbo Association of NSW
      • The Albury association (with the exception of Wangaratta City, Cobram, Benalla and Myrtleford Savoy that will be in Victoria)
      • The entire Albury, Griffith, Wagga, South West Slopes, Southern Tablelands, Eurobodalla, Far South Coast, Lachlan and Orange Associations of NSW
How Northern Inland and North Coast regions of current Northern NSW would now be split:
Moving to QLD from Northern Inland
  • Guyra
  • Moree
  • Glen Innes
  • Tenterfield (I think they are currently split as Juniors in NNSW and Seniors in Queensland, or vice versa)
Staying in Northern NSW from North Coast
  • Dorrigo
  • Urunga
  • Nambucca
  • Macksville
  • Scotts Head
  • Sawtell
    • This is one that would probably get the choice to choose, as my border literally places them 500m from the border of the other Coffs Harbour clubs - so they could probably have benefit of the doubt from my measurements and go to QLD with the rest of Coffs Harbour.
Central Coast NSW
  • Based strictly off the border (which runs inbetween Ourimbah United and Central Coast United, at an angle that leaves Mountain District just south of the border remaining in NSW) the following clubs currently in Central Coast Football in NSW would be moved to Northern NSW
    • Ourimbah United
    • Berkeley Vale
    • Tuggerah United
    • The Entrance
    • Killarney District
    • Wyong Emus
    • Kanwal
    • Toukley-Gorokan
    • Woongarrah Wildcats
    • Budgewoi
    • Boyalson-Wyee
    • Gwandalan Summerland Point
Click to expand...
Have finalised the border changes now (strictly) - I may make a list of clubs that are.. let's say within 25km of a border, because they might be given a choice of which federation in this world.

In the meantime, a more zoomed in kind of map that shows a bit more in depth of where the borders would be. This version uses the cities as the edge of the square, hence why it doesn't go completely to the edge, but these would be a straight line anyways.
1778767888597.png
1778767937239.png
 
NicCarBel said:
How did the Sydney teams feel during that stretch when there was essentially always 1 Canberra team in what is now the NPL? My understanding is Monaro (Queanbeyan) through most of the 80s/90s, and Belconnen in the early 2000's - I believe Canberra Croatia/Deakin were around for a few years in the 90s as well?

If I had my way with football governance, Capital Football would absorb from NSW the following associations:
  • Southern Tablelands (Goulburn)
  • Wagga
  • Griffith
  • Albury (although - give them the choice whether to go VIC or ACT - at the moment it now seems they're one foot in both camps anyways, with Murray United being VIC, but the league itself being NSW)
  • South West Slopes (they generally play within Wagga anyways)
  • Lachlan (Cowra/Young, etc - Young plays in Wagga, Cowra I think plays in one of the more northern associations)
Each association still keeps their league, referee association, etc etc - but are allowed to, should they have the numbers, a Rep team (a la Wagga City Wanderers, Griffith FC/Riverina Rhinos - I think association clubs work well for regions, not so much for city teams like in Sydney) that is part of the NPL pyramid etc. Probably would get them close to 20 teams from a Senior Mens perspective, and 2 leagues of 10 with P/R
Click to expand...
Having some of the clubs past Wollongong join NPL ACT wouldn't be a bad idea. I also like the idea of some teams in Northern WA and Northern Qld potentially joining NT. The maps above are interesting - I wouldn't move any teams in Victoria to ACT or SA though.. state is small enough.
 
theFOOTBALLlover said:
Having some of the clubs past Wollongong join NPL ACT wouldn't be a bad idea. I also like the idea of some teams in Northern WA and Northern Qld potentially joining NT. The maps above are interesting - I wouldn't move any teams in Victoria to ACT or SA though.. state is small enough.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's about right I think. I mean.. the basis of those areas going out of Vic are mostly based off the distance to Melbourne - both Mildura and Albury are essentially almost at the halfway point for each of them, so could be a case either way.

I've updated my Google Earth to show these fully extended to the coastline now.
 

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NicCarBel said:
Yes, that's about right I think. I mean.. the basis of those areas going out of Vic are mostly based off the distance to Melbourne - both Mildura and Albury are essentially almost at the halfway point for each of them, so could be a case either way.

I've updated my Google Earth to show these fully extended to the coastline now.
Click to expand...
FYI Football NT on your map actually doesn’t gain much at all. It only gets really remote areas plus Broome and Mount Isa. No Cairns, no Townsville, no Mackay, no Port Hedland. It does however lose half of Alice Springs and a remote chunk of the outback to SA (which appears to be the only state entirely in one federation).

Maybe we could do it like England and France and rather than having state federations have smaller regional ones with regional first and second tiers provided they all have one big city in them (e.g an entire federation based around Coober Pedy or Tennant Creek wouldn’t work). The only problem that could arise is flights but I suppose the smaller clubs would be in more localised subregional tiers anyway.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
FYI Football NT on your map actually doesn’t gain much at all. It only gets really remote areas plus Broome and Mount Isa. No Cairns, no Townsville, no Mackay, no Port Hedland. It does however lose half of Alice Springs and a remote chunk of the outback to SA (which appears to be the only state entirely in one federation).

Maybe we could do it like England and France and rather than having state federations have smaller regional ones with regional first and second tiers provided they all have one big city in them (e.g an entire federation based around Coober Pedy or Tennant Creek wouldn’t work). The only problem that could arise is flights but I suppose the smaller clubs would be in more localised subregional tiers anyway.
Click to expand...
Alice Springs juuuuuuuust sneaks in when I zoom in properly on Google Earth (that's how I made my full list), but yes - WA and NT doesn't have much change to it. Same with SA. Even Victoria doesn't change much, as all the populated areas with clubs (except for Mildura, Albury, and once club that already competes in NSW Far South Coast) fall within the new borders.
 
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