Northern Lakes Warriors take aim at Rugby League Central Coast over axed team

One Central Coast rugby league club has taken aim at administrators after one of its teams was blocked from playing football in 2025.

The Northern Lakes Warriors have hit out at Rugby League Central Coast after being told they could not enter a team in the 2025 reserve grade competition. Picture: supplied

The Northern Lakes Warriors rugby league club has taken aim at Central Coast rugby league officials after being told that it would not be able to enter a team in this year’s reserve grade competition, labelling the decision a “kick in the guts”.

The Doyalson North-based Warriors, who competed in open grade last year and had planned to enter an additional team in Rugby League Central Coast’s reserve grade in 2025, received a phone call from an RLCC official on Friday who outlined that the application to play reserves would not be granted due to a shortage of referees.

“It was just a kick in the guts for us. After everything that we’ve worked towards, just to turn around and say no is tough,” said Northern Lakes president Troy Jackson.

“We spoke to Central Coast Rugby League about our plan for the next few years, how to build our club. We wanted to play reserve grade, we’ve got all the players registered and now they’re telling us that we can’t play reserve grade.”

He added: “They reckon they don’t have enough referees but there are no more teams added than last year because Dora Creek have gone back to the Newcastle comp. The numbers are all the same but they’re saying to us that we can’t go into reserve grade this year.

“They also said they don’t want teams to have a bye but every year there’s a bye. Their excuses are pretty piss-poor, to be honest.”

The Warriors competed in open grade last year. Picture: supplied

According to Jackson, the club was told that the Umina Beach Bunnies would be the only club without a first grade side granted the opportunity to enter a reserve grade team in 2025.

Although the Warriors will have a team in open grade, Jackson said the RLCC’s decision would leave more than 20 players without a team for 2025 and could jeopardise existing sponsorship agreements.

“We’ve generated a lot of funds in the club, new players have come in because they want to come and play reserve grade for us and now there’s a good chance we won’t be,” he said.

“We’ve generated nine club sponsors that are funding the club and we’ve also got 18 player sponsors this year.”

Following several years in the Newcastle and Hunter Rugby League association, Northern Lakes rejoined the Central Coast division last year after being forced out of the NHRL on account of being outside of its geographical zone.

And while the club only entered one open grade side in 2024, the addition of a reserve grade team was seen as an important step in the Warriors’ plan to eventually return to the top level of Central Coast footy.

“We’ve got the players to do it, we’ve got the talented players to do it. We’re not going there to make up the numbers: we want to compete, build and move forward to first grade hopefully in the next two to three years,” said Jackson.

The club plans to re-enter the first grade competition in the next few years. Picture: supplied

The latest decision also comes amid broader frustration with RLCC management since rejoining the division last year.

“They’re leaving us out of all their decisions: they only gave us three home games last year, when other teams are getting, six, seven, eight and nine. We missed out on over $40,000 revenue and profitmaking because they reckon they didn’t have the referees to allocate to come up to our home games. We got the raw end of the deal.”

The club will meet with RLCC officials early next week to try and find a solution.

“Hopefully something will come out of it but to us they’ve already made their mind up,” said Jackson.

The RLCC was contacted for comment but did not respond before publication.