NPL heavyweights have national champions Wollongong Wolves in sights as new season kicks off

The NPL NSW Men’s top tier kicks off this weekend and while the action will be intense on the field, the whole landscape of football just below the A-League is on the verge of big changes.

SYDNEY, NSW - APRIL 7: APIA Leichhardt striker Chris Payne in the FNSW NPL1 Men's between APIA Leichhardt Tigers and Rockdale City Suns at Lambert Park (Photos: Damian Briggs/FNSW)

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The big kick off is here, after weeks of pre-season – but the goals being targeted are on the field and off it.

When the NPL NSW Men’s top tier kicks off this weekend, players and coaches have reputations to build and titles to win. But around them, the whole landscape of football just below the A-League is on the verge of big changes.

With a national second division still in the pipeline, there could be quicker ways of expanding the NPL’s national footprint beyond the national play-offs that are over in a couple of weeks.

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Football Federation Australia’s new CEO, James Johnson, wants to look at options including a Champions League-style format involving the best handful of teams in each state going into a group stage.

“We need to play more games, at a higher level,” Johnson said. “I see three competitions we need to talk around – the FFA Cup, the NPL and the (proposed) second division – and how we play more regularly at a national level.

Striker Chris Payne will lead the line for APIA Leichhardt.

“Does that mean changing the format of the NPL, so in the final stages can we have a group stage? Or could we do that with the FFA Cup with a Champions League format? “The objective needs to be more football at a national level more often.”

For Sydney United coach Zeljko Kalac, in his first head coaching position after a successful playing career in Europe and with the Socceroos, that kind of change would benefit the players more than anything.

“Everyone seems to be on the same page and talk the same language about this, finally,” he said. “NPL sides have a lot of good players with nowhere to go, they just get blocked.

“With 11 A-League teams for now, that’s still only 250 positions. Maybe we need to look at the best NPL teams in each state joining some sort of national competition.”

Former Socceroo Luke Wilkshire would also love to see such a move – “For players, there can’t be too many games,” he said. But Wilkshire has a more pressing challenge, in trying to defend the national NPL title his Wollongong Wolves side won last season, in his first year as a head coach.

Wollongong coach Luke Wilkshire the national title last year. Photo: Brendan Radke

“That was last year, and it seems a long time ago now,” he said. “We’ve recruited well, and I like to think the boys we have are just as motivated and hungry as me. After all, no one has gone back to back yet.”

Across the league there are teams with a belief they can shoot Wolves down. Sydney Olympic have a trio of ex-A-League talent including Sebastian Ryall, Fabio Ferreira and Charles Lokolingoy. Champions APIA have kept almost all of last season’s squad together.

United have something of a new look under Kalac, but he won’t accept that as an excuse.

“I’m loving this,” he said. “I’ve been out of the state league for so long – so to come back to the club I played at, but as head coach, is such a buzz.

“Especially when I see the players’ dedication, doing the same things I did to get my opportunity. I went to work all day, came to training of an evening.

“The players and staff are unbelievable, they’ve brought into everything, all the attempts to lift the professionalism. These people love football.”

Originally published as NPL heavyweights have national champions Wollongong Wolves in sights as new season kicks off