The NSFA recognises, that each club may service its communities in different ways, so understanding each clubs objectives is paramount. The NSFA will approach each club and document our understanding of their programs, objectives and vision. This information will be used to tailor and customize our support.

The NSFA recognises that the sharing of information and collaboration between clubs is a key enabler of progress and growth. With permission and via the Monthly Executive Club Newsletter, we will share case studies of excellence from different clubs as they arise.

The NSFA will provide a dedicated help line to support club volunteers with the administrative requirements of the registration period and the ongoing organizational requirements associated with participating in NSFA Competitions.

Our Winter Competitions retain their rightful place as our core product. The NSFA continuously seeks ways to create balanced, competitive leagues that are run with integrity, fairness and equity. The NSFA will continuously review competition structures to pursue this goal, with the objective of running the best Winter Competitions in NSW as measured by FNSW player retention rates across associations.

The NSFA recognises that clear and consistent communication with players, parents, coaches, managers, club administrators and volunteers is critical to the smooth functioning of our association. Through our website, social media and the use of Newsletters and feedback we will strive to ensure that our communication channels are clear, concise and engaging.

Coach and Player Development

NSFA Community Coaches are well supported by our Community Football Manager and the INSPIRE Program. (Our Community Coach Support Program).

We will measure the impact of INSPIRE through regular PULSE and NPS Surveys, as well as taking on board regular feedback from participants. The NSFA will strive to continuously improve the INSPIRE Program. We will have more than 300 active members of INSPIRE by season 2019.

The NSFA will build deep coaching capability and offer it to clubs and players via our Club Coaching Program, Football Schools, Holiday Clinics, Goalkeeping Academy and Small Group Coaching Programs. (These programs will be collectively branded as XLR8).

Powered by Northern Tigers, this enables every player in the association an opportunity to have access to FFA curriculum-based coaching from an accredited coach and meets one of our key responsibilities as a football association – Player Development. We aim to have more than 50% of our association clubs utilizing some element of our Club Coaching Program by season 2019.

Referees

To the extent that we can contribute, we would like to ensure that referees have a consistently positive experience and are retained in large numbers.

The RESPECT campaign has been embedded as part of the NSFA vernacular. Referee coverage continues to increase and the NSFA collaborates closely with the KDFRA to attract new referees to the game.

The NSFA seeks to invest in and build a genuine “Home of Football” for the association. Having a facility such as this will increase our commercial and other revenue opportunities. It also provides a hub for community football events and a home for our representative team – Northern Tigers Football Club. We aim to have this completed before the beginning of season 2021.

By season 2021, our objective is to have ten synthetic pitches in operation across our association (currently six). We will actively pursue and support projects that drive the conversion of fields to synthetic surfaces. The NSFA will consider all investment requests and work with all levels of government, FNSW and FFA to create a collaborative and aligned business case that pulls together multiple sources of funding.

Utilising the inaugural 2016 NSFA Facilities Audit, data from the NSW Office of Sport, and regular club input, the NSFA will maintain an up to date list of our facilities investment priorities. These priorities are not limited to synthetic pitches and will include projects of all sizes. The NSFA will proactively communicate with Local Councils to seek some form of alignment between NSFA priorities and Council’s long term Capital Works planning.

The NSFA maintains outstanding and influential relationships at all levels of government. We measure relationship strength through a proven methodology and seek to improve our outcomes year on year.

The NSFA will continue to invest in a dedicated Facilities Manager to drive strategic decision-making, the pursuit of grants, funding for projects large and small and general operational excellence. The Facilities Manager will proactively assist clubs with facilities improvement grants and lobbying.

The NSFA will maximise the usage of facilities for game play by implementing the flexible scheduling of competition matches across all available time slots during a weekend i.e. from Friday night to late Sunday afternoon.

All potential pathways are identified and clearly communicated to all NSFA players and coaches.

The NSFA is committed to ongoing financial and administrative support of the Northern Tigers Football Club.

Northern Tigers seeks to demonstrate a consistently positive club culture and a sense of belonging for all members. Furthermore, all NSFA representative programs are professionally run, have development as a core reason for being and have an outstanding reputation with both FFA and FNSW.

Northern Tigers is a development focussed football club that seeks to develop better players for tomorrow. The ultimate manifestation of this policy and the NSFA’s objective is to have both the Senior Men and Senior Women’s programs participating in NPL 1. This would mean that no footballer residing in the NSFA boundaries would need to leave our district to pursue their football ambition, until they are selected for the domestic A-League or W-League competitions (or beyond).

The NSFA has an objective that > 70% of our senior representative footballers are homegrown, developed and nurtured within the NSFA by local clubs, the Northern Tigers Football Club, Youth and SAP Programs.

Using the INSPIRE program as the foundation, the NSFA seeks to provide opportunities for talented coaches to develop their craft, deepen their experience and network with other like-minded coaches. This will include facilitating contact with FNSW and FFA technical and coach development resources.

In order to reduce the financial burden on grassroots footballers, we will seek to become more commercial in our thinking and our actions and create new and sustainable revenue streams for the NSFA. These could include XLR8 Player / Club Development Programs, INSPIRE Coach Development Programs, Tournaments and Gala Days, Summer Football Growth and the establishment of the NSFA Foundation. Having non-fee related revenue streams is critical to the NSFA’s ability to reinvest into the NSFA Community.

We will strive to enhance the quality of our Summer Football Competitions and increase participation rates year on year.

We will introduce more non-traditional football formats to increase participation and to maximise the use of available facilities.

The NSFA will become an outward looking organisation and actively seek to build relationships with other associations. We will relentlessly benchmark ourselves to our peers. These relationships will also form the basis for strong and productive inter-association collaboration.

To create a genuine culture of Creativity and Innovation, the NSFA would like to reinforce that ideas and progress should be generated from multiple sources. The NSFA actively invites clubs to present new proposals and concepts. We commit to treating each with an open mind, based on merit and with the principle of “What is Best for Football” as our guiding motivation.