The saga of Capital Football's banishment of regional football
It's been yet another disappointing removal of Riverina from football pathways, after Capital Football have elected to remove Griffith's Yoogali Soccer Club from the NPL Men's competition from 2026, and Wagga City Wanderers from the CPL Men's competition as well. Wagga City's youth academy (U13-U18) were granted an exemption to continue in the NPL Boy's competition from 2026.
It astounds me that Capital Football has elected to make this move. In 2017, they appeared as a saviour for football in the Riverina. The Riverina Rhinos - a representative team for the Griffith and District Football Association - were accepted into NPL2. This role was completed again in 2019 when they accepted Wagga City Wanderers into NPL2 following their banishment from NSW State League 3 following the restructure by Football NSW.
In fact, across the 2017 and 2018 football seasons, three of the four association's in Football NSW's Riverina Branch all had a representative senior mens team competing within the NPL Pyramid. The kicker? All three clubs were competing in three different states:
It astounds me that Capital Football has elected to make this move. In 2017, they appeared as a saviour for football in the Riverina. The Riverina Rhinos - a representative team for the Griffith and District Football Association - were accepted into NPL2. This role was completed again in 2019 when they accepted Wagga City Wanderers into NPL2 following their banishment from NSW State League 3 following the restructure by Football NSW.
In fact, across the 2017 and 2018 football seasons, three of the four association's in Football NSW's Riverina Branch all had a representative senior mens team competing within the NPL Pyramid. The kicker? All three clubs were competing in three different states:
- South West Slopes - senior clubs generally compete under the Football Wagga Wagga umbrella
- Albury-Wodonga - Murray United in Victoria's NPL2
- Wagga Wagga - Wagga City Wanderers in NSW's State League 3
- Griffith - Riverina Rhinos in Capital Football's NPL1
Griffith's footballing pedigree
Griffith United vs Forrest United - ACT Federation Cup final - Sunday 29 August 1971
The two major clubs of Griffith - Yoogali SC, and Hanwood FC, which were both formed in the 1950's - united as one to play within the ACT Premier League through the 1970's, culminating in a league and cup double in 1971, before being voted out of the competition after the 1972 season. The Canberra Times at the time described the the decision:
In 1981 and 1982, Hanwood, Yoogali, Wagga and Albury all competed in what was known as the NSW Southern League, alongside other Canberra clubs. The full list of clubs in the final season in 1982 were:
NSW Southern League
Both seasons
1981 only
In 1983, the league disbanded, and the ACT Premier League was split into two divisions:
CITY
From 2008-2010, Griffith football had a thriving local competition, with Leeton, West Griffith, East and North Griffith (initially separate, but merging into Griffith City FC during this period), Yenda, Yoogali SC, Yoogali FC, Hanwood FC and Hanwood Juniors all competing in the first grade league, and further regional teams such as Hillston and Hay throwing themselves into the mix in the reserve grade competition.
In the early 2010's - hungry for some stronger competition from outside the region, the Regional Premier League was formed in a new alliance with Goulburn Valley clubs, but this quickly fell down the wayside as competing priorities plagued the competition. Not to mention, any efforts to compete in State or Waratah Cups were met with last-minute forfeits by travelling teams from Sydney. Today Hanwood, Yoogali FC, Leeton and Griffith City compete in the Wagga Wagga competition, with West Griffith, Yenda, Griffith City and two Yoogali SC teams competing in the Griffith competition.
Following this, the Griffith FA put together the Riverina Rhinos - a representative side - to compete in the NSW Youth League from 2014. After a few years, due to concessions granted to the team such as additional home games, the teams were removed from the NSW competition, but added a senior team to apply for a position in the Capital Football National Premier League, bringing us full circle back to the beginning of this article.
In 1981 and 1982, Hanwood, Yoogali, Wagga and Albury all competed in what was known as the NSW Southern League, alongside other Canberra clubs. The full list of clubs in the final season in 1982 were:
NSW Southern League
Both seasons
- Hanwood FC
- Yoogali SC
- Wagga City (unknown)
- Croatia Deakin (Canberra Croatia)
- Makedonia Queanbeyan (Queanbeyan City)
- Downer Olympic (Canberra Olympic)
- Albury Hotspurs
1981 only
- West Woden Juventus (Gungahlin United)
- Belconnen United
- Kooringal Lions (unknown)
- Wagga United
- Goulburn Workers
- Cootamundra
- Kambah United (Tuggeranong United)
In 1983, the league disbanded, and the ACT Premier League was split into two divisions:
CITY
- Kambah United (Tuggeranong United)
- Canberra United (appears to be Burns FC based off Capital Football's current records)
- Narrabundah
- Concordia (Canberra City)
- Queanbeyan City
- Luso (folded in 1985)
- ANU
- West Woden Juventus (Gungahlin United)
- Downer Olympic (Canberra Olympic)
- Croatia Deakin (Canberra Croatia)
- Belconnen United
- Yoogali SC
- Weston Creek
- Hanwood FC
- BSC Albury (unknown if still Albury Hotspurs)
From 2008-2010, Griffith football had a thriving local competition, with Leeton, West Griffith, East and North Griffith (initially separate, but merging into Griffith City FC during this period), Yenda, Yoogali SC, Yoogali FC, Hanwood FC and Hanwood Juniors all competing in the first grade league, and further regional teams such as Hillston and Hay throwing themselves into the mix in the reserve grade competition.
In the early 2010's - hungry for some stronger competition from outside the region, the Regional Premier League was formed in a new alliance with Goulburn Valley clubs, but this quickly fell down the wayside as competing priorities plagued the competition. Not to mention, any efforts to compete in State or Waratah Cups were met with last-minute forfeits by travelling teams from Sydney. Today Hanwood, Yoogali FC, Leeton and Griffith City compete in the Wagga Wagga competition, with West Griffith, Yenda, Griffith City and two Yoogali SC teams competing in the Griffith competition.
Following this, the Griffith FA put together the Riverina Rhinos - a representative side - to compete in the NSW Youth League from 2014. After a few years, due to concessions granted to the team such as additional home games, the teams were removed from the NSW competition, but added a senior team to apply for a position in the Capital Football National Premier League, bringing us full circle back to the beginning of this article.
Capital Football's NPL Review
Yoogali Soccer Club celebrating their 2023 Capital Premier League Premiership and Championship double - Sunday 24 September 2023
The removal of a pathway to the NPL for these footballers and clubs strongly goes against recent developments by Football Australia.
In 2024, Football Australia unveiled their National Talent Development Scheme (NTDS), headed by the FA's Chief Football Officer Ernie Merrick, and developed in part by analysis of FIFA's Technical Development Team in 2020.
One of the recommendations of FIFA's analysis was to:
There's always talent out in the sticks. Capital Football have closed off an avenue for talented footballers to fall through the cracks. Not only that, they've further cemented the perception that the NPL in Canberra is of low quality. Moreso after the runaway leaders Canberra Croatia were heavily defeated in the Australia Cup Round of 32 by South Australian premiers MetroStars - a club that actually travelled to the Riverina region for a pre-season competition in 2024 (and actually lost to Yoogali SC).
Even on the girls/womens side - which has no representation in the NPL setup after Wagga City's relegation from Capital Football NPLW - the region has always shown talent.
Tom Sermanni used to regularly hold training camps in Griffith during earlier stints as the Matildas' coach.
Joey Peters, capped 110 times, hails from Leeton. Only 13 other women have been capped more.
The most recent Junior Matildas squad announced for the 2025 ASEAN U16 Championship features two players from Griffith, with both of them needing to have uprooted to Sydney to get to this level.
Sure, in that instance, maybe Griffith hasn't done enough to provide an avenue closer to home for these girls to showcase their skills, but the changes (now ratified) by Capital Football close off any chance of this happening.
It's always been said in the region that Football NSW doesn't care about anything west of the mountains. Is it time for South-Western NSW to have it's own NPL/federation (like NNSW)? Perhaps, but the population doesn't suffice that level of governance.
Is a 'Western Premier League' format for the Riverina the answer? Also a possibility, but then the region will find itself in a position similar to the early 2010's. Griffith probably needs to put their internal politics aside to finally land the plane. It's a large reason why I left Riverina Rhinos and joined Wagga City Wanderers for a year. Capital Football certainly have turned off the lights in the control tower, and that's before the integrity concerns have even been addressed.
In a flurry of recent social media posts, Yoogali SC have condemned individuals for influencing (and implementing) the review process.
On paper, the removal of Riverina clubs was cited in the final review report as:
It also was revealed in this document that Hanwood FC had applied (and been rejected) for multiple years, despite having an even stronger youth base than Yoogali SC, and an extensive women's/girls program as well.
If Yoogali SC were to have been kept in an expanded 10 team competition, there would actually be less travel for clubs (as this would now be a double round-robin, rather than a triple), however the review also recommended a pre-season competition with the Illawarra Premier League take place, which would indeed amount to more travel for clubs than one return trip to Griffith each season for competition points:
In addition, of the 14 remaining Canberra based clubs in the NPL Pyramid, four of them will be relegated from the soon-to-be-disbanded Capital Premier League, with a much more convoluted promotion/relegation process. Despite the review championing the effect promotion/relegation has had on their competitions in recent years:
In an attempt to communicate issues with the review, Yoogali SC and 11 of the 15 other member clubs of the NPL Pyramid of Capital Football signed off an email outlining their issues with the review, asking for the process to be paused until the off-season, and not affecting the 2026 season.
At least one of the 4 clubs that did not partake in this communication process had one current management committee member sitting on the review panel (again - both confirmed via publically available documents and websites), and is now currently in a position to be promoted to the expanded 10-team NPL despite finishing in the lower half of the ladder.
It was also revealed by Yoogali SC's flurry of posts that this email addressed to Capital Football was not passed on to those ratifying the review process, until after the review process had been ratified. A delay of up to one month.
In 2024, Football Australia unveiled their National Talent Development Scheme (NTDS), headed by the FA's Chief Football Officer Ernie Merrick, and developed in part by analysis of FIFA's Technical Development Team in 2020.
One of the recommendations of FIFA's analysis was to:
There's always talent out in the sticks. Capital Football have closed off an avenue for talented footballers to fall through the cracks. Not only that, they've further cemented the perception that the NPL in Canberra is of low quality. Moreso after the runaway leaders Canberra Croatia were heavily defeated in the Australia Cup Round of 32 by South Australian premiers MetroStars - a club that actually travelled to the Riverina region for a pre-season competition in 2024 (and actually lost to Yoogali SC).
Even on the girls/womens side - which has no representation in the NPL setup after Wagga City's relegation from Capital Football NPLW - the region has always shown talent.
Tom Sermanni used to regularly hold training camps in Griffith during earlier stints as the Matildas' coach.
Joey Peters, capped 110 times, hails from Leeton. Only 13 other women have been capped more.
The most recent Junior Matildas squad announced for the 2025 ASEAN U16 Championship features two players from Griffith, with both of them needing to have uprooted to Sydney to get to this level.
Sure, in that instance, maybe Griffith hasn't done enough to provide an avenue closer to home for these girls to showcase their skills, but the changes (now ratified) by Capital Football close off any chance of this happening.
It's always been said in the region that Football NSW doesn't care about anything west of the mountains. Is it time for South-Western NSW to have it's own NPL/federation (like NNSW)? Perhaps, but the population doesn't suffice that level of governance.
Is a 'Western Premier League' format for the Riverina the answer? Also a possibility, but then the region will find itself in a position similar to the early 2010's. Griffith probably needs to put their internal politics aside to finally land the plane. It's a large reason why I left Riverina Rhinos and joined Wagga City Wanderers for a year. Capital Football certainly have turned off the lights in the control tower, and that's before the integrity concerns have even been addressed.
In a flurry of recent social media posts, Yoogali SC have condemned individuals for influencing (and implementing) the review process.
On paper, the removal of Riverina clubs was cited in the final review report as:
However, whilst applications for exemptions were reviewed, Wagga City were given an exemption to compete in the NPL from 2026, but only at a youth level, which is contradictory to the reasoning to remove Riverina clubs initially provided.
It also was revealed in this document that Hanwood FC had applied (and been rejected) for multiple years, despite having an even stronger youth base than Yoogali SC, and an extensive women's/girls program as well.
If Yoogali SC were to have been kept in an expanded 10 team competition, there would actually be less travel for clubs (as this would now be a double round-robin, rather than a triple), however the review also recommended a pre-season competition with the Illawarra Premier League take place, which would indeed amount to more travel for clubs than one return trip to Griffith each season for competition points:
In addition, of the 14 remaining Canberra based clubs in the NPL Pyramid, four of them will be relegated from the soon-to-be-disbanded Capital Premier League, with a much more convoluted promotion/relegation process. Despite the review championing the effect promotion/relegation has had on their competitions in recent years:
In an attempt to communicate issues with the review, Yoogali SC and 11 of the 15 other member clubs of the NPL Pyramid of Capital Football signed off an email outlining their issues with the review, asking for the process to be paused until the off-season, and not affecting the 2026 season.
At least one of the 4 clubs that did not partake in this communication process had one current management committee member sitting on the review panel (again - both confirmed via publically available documents and websites), and is now currently in a position to be promoted to the expanded 10-team NPL despite finishing in the lower half of the ladder.
It was also revealed by Yoogali SC's flurry of posts that this email addressed to Capital Football was not passed on to those ratifying the review process, until after the review process had been ratified. A delay of up to one month.
Silencing the protests
A media release by Capital Football cited that a formal investigation is underway into Yoogali SC's conduct on social media whilst fighting for their livelihood, which ended with the following statement:
Despite my staunch opposition to Yoogali SC in the past, I have protested this decision by Capital Football as I want to see Griffith, Wagga and Riverina's football pedigree thrive as it should. It is vital to work with the goodwill presented to the region by former CEO Phil Brown in accepting these regions into the (expanded) Capital Football region.
I have only referred to publicly available documents in commentary on Facebook. And definitely did not stoop to the level of some other active members on Facebook.
The silence from Capital Football was defeaning. On the morning of July 30th, I was beginning to write one last plea for Riverina football to continue to have a pathway in Capital Football. My aim was to tag every club in Capital Football in the post (among some other organising bodies/clubs in Griffith and Wagga's recent history), and Capital Football itself. Lo and behold, Capital Football no longer appeared in my searches...
I'd been blocked. Why? Well, I'm unsure.
The Capital Football Social Media policy states that:
I wrote to Capital Football that evening asking for evidence of my apparent harassment/defamatory behaviour, and let them know that I fully intended to take this to Football Australia's Integrity Unit.
I was not contacted. I had no warning. I had no evidence provided. I have however been unblocked.
While I was typing my thoughts online about being unblocked, ironically enough, I did finally receive contact from Capital Football. No evidence. Nothing pointing me towards what exactly I've done wrong. Just a note that as they couldn't find a record of my membership towards a club in 2025, the Social Media Policy did not apply to me. I'd been granted a 'gesture of goodwill' that I've been unblocked.
No, 'Sorry we did the wrong thing.' No, 'Here's what you've done wrong.' Just a deflection.
I have since replied still asking for evidence of my behaviour that warranted this from Capital Football with no warning, and am yet to hear a reply.
I may not be Yoogali, and I may not be Wagga. However, I was the loudest voice in the room from Canberra. Capital Football tried to take that voice from me. No notes. No warning. No apology. With a perception that this was conveniently timed to coincide with the final announcement of their review that I strongly disagreed with.
Other than the referees (yet another stable of Canberra Football I've spent time with), this organisation doesn't deserve that respect from me, if they aren't going to communicate or apologise. There are certain people in the organisation that I do still have that respect for. I'm not going to name them on either side.
I guess this will go against the 'gesture of goodwill' gracefully thrust upon me once I informed Capital Football of the processes within their publicly available Social Media Policy.
But anyways, happy birthday to me from Capital Football I suppose - I'm no longer censored...for now.
Despite my staunch opposition to Yoogali SC in the past, I have protested this decision by Capital Football as I want to see Griffith, Wagga and Riverina's football pedigree thrive as it should. It is vital to work with the goodwill presented to the region by former CEO Phil Brown in accepting these regions into the (expanded) Capital Football region.
I have only referred to publicly available documents in commentary on Facebook. And definitely did not stoop to the level of some other active members on Facebook.
The silence from Capital Football was defeaning. On the morning of July 30th, I was beginning to write one last plea for Riverina football to continue to have a pathway in Capital Football. My aim was to tag every club in Capital Football in the post (among some other organising bodies/clubs in Griffith and Wagga's recent history), and Capital Football itself. Lo and behold, Capital Football no longer appeared in my searches...
I'd been blocked. Why? Well, I'm unsure.
The Capital Football Social Media policy states that:
Yoogali SC and Wagga City (as far as my knowledge extends) were not contacted about any of my social media activity. I personally was not contacted either. I received no warning, so I gather that it's been deemed that I was a 'serious offender'.
I wrote to Capital Football that evening asking for evidence of my apparent harassment/defamatory behaviour, and let them know that I fully intended to take this to Football Australia's Integrity Unit.
I was not contacted. I had no warning. I had no evidence provided. I have however been unblocked.
While I was typing my thoughts online about being unblocked, ironically enough, I did finally receive contact from Capital Football. No evidence. Nothing pointing me towards what exactly I've done wrong. Just a note that as they couldn't find a record of my membership towards a club in 2025, the Social Media Policy did not apply to me. I'd been granted a 'gesture of goodwill' that I've been unblocked.
No, 'Sorry we did the wrong thing.' No, 'Here's what you've done wrong.' Just a deflection.
I have since replied still asking for evidence of my behaviour that warranted this from Capital Football with no warning, and am yet to hear a reply.
I may not be Yoogali, and I may not be Wagga. However, I was the loudest voice in the room from Canberra. Capital Football tried to take that voice from me. No notes. No warning. No apology. With a perception that this was conveniently timed to coincide with the final announcement of their review that I strongly disagreed with.
Other than the referees (yet another stable of Canberra Football I've spent time with), this organisation doesn't deserve that respect from me, if they aren't going to communicate or apologise. There are certain people in the organisation that I do still have that respect for. I'm not going to name them on either side.
I guess this will go against the 'gesture of goodwill' gracefully thrust upon me once I informed Capital Football of the processes within their publicly available Social Media Policy.
But anyways, happy birthday to me from Capital Football I suppose - I'm no longer censored...for now.
