Epic shake-up for Gold Coast football

GOLD Coast football will undergo a massive change in 2019 that will spell the end of one big competition.

BROADBEACH, Robina, Southport and Coomera will join the Brisbane Women’s Premier League in 2019 in a move that will signal the end of senior female weekend competitions on the Gold Coast.

Twelve months after plans for a groundbreaking southeast Queensland league fell over at the 11th hour, Football Gold Coast today confirmed their top four women’s teams would head up the M1 next season.

Each club will field Premier League and reserves teams in Brisbane.

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The withdrawal of the clubs from the Gold Coast Women’s Premier League has prompted FGC to disband the competition, with the midweek metro leagues now the only option for senior players wanting to ply their trade locally.

Musgrave was the other team in this year’s Gold Coast Premier League, while sides from Palm Beach, Nerang, Kingscliff, Southport, Robina and Broadbeach made up the Coast League.

FGC general manager Damien Bresic said the governing body hoped the absence of weekend football would be only a temporary scenario.

Broadbeach’s Mariana Lauff and Robina’s Jessica Crowley do battle in the Gold Coast Women’s Premier League grand final in September. Picture: Richard Gosling

“We’re going to take a step back to hopefully go two or three forwards. Over the next few years we’d like to work closely with our clubs to develop the junior girls coming through so we can get back to where we once were and have our own competition (on weekends),” Bresic said.

“(Disbanding the league) was a decision that wasn’t made lightly but with the best interests of the game at heart, we felt it was the only decision that we could make. I’d like to think with this in place, we have that pathway on the Gold Coast.

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“It may not be at the club of your choice, but there’ll be the social competition on a Wednesday night, if you’re above social you’ll be able to go and play in the Brisbane Premier League, and there are two NPL sides on the Gold Coast.

“With us not having anything on a Sunday, hopefully it will help the NPL competition a little bit as well. That way we’re not directly competing with the NPL on the Gold Coast.”

Bresic said the entry of Coast teams into the Brisbane competition was an important step forward for female football.

Southport’s Kate Webb (right) shoots past Coomera defender Jessica Shipley. Picture: Glenn Hampson

“It’ll be a better competition, more variety, more everything … we think it’s a win-win situation. The local sides will still host 11 games at home, there’ll be six Gold Coast derbies (for each local team).

“We ended up with five in the (Coast) Premier League this year and Broadbeach went through undefeated, which on one hand is great for Broadbeach but there wasn’t the competitiveness that that bunch of girls deserved. With something like this, they’ll be able to challenge themselves and have to be up every week.”

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Football Brisbane general manager Craig Morris said he was “very excited by the addition of the Gold Coast teams”.

“I know that the standard of competition will be very high but I also anticipate that it will be highly competitive, which is always our priority,” Morris said.