Gatorade Premier League expanded with three new teams

Capital Football’s footprint has expanded well beyond the ACT’s border with three teams from the Capital Region to be included in next year’s expanded Gatorade Premier League.

Cooma (Cooma Tigers), Monaro (Monaro Panthers) and Goulburn (Goulburn Strikers) will all be represented in the ten team competition for 2010 season following a review of all Premier League licences at the conclusion of last year.

“It’s important from a strategic point of view that we look outside the border of the Australian Capital Territory,” Capital Football CEO Heather Reid said.

“We are Capital Football representing the Capital region and it shows the depth of our sport across the region.

“It’s a really important part for us to expand our competition into the capital region so we can demonstrate to not only our ACT and regional sports fans but also the FFA that Capital Football is not Canberra centric but rather focused on the capital region.

“Of course it’s not just the Premier League teams but these clubs have to field teams in all four divisions from Premier League down to Premier 16’s so it’s important that the clubs have got the community support and depth within their own clubs or underpinning clubs.”

Queanbeyan City was the sole club outside the ACT to contest last season’s Premier League however the club opted not to resubmit while O’Connor Knights was the only existing club not to be reissued with a licence.

“They’ve got some challenges in terms of their junior pathway, they don’t have many junior players within their own club structure and this requires further development," Reid said.

“This is a chance for O’Connor to go back to the drawing board and take some inspiration from Cooma who missed out on a licence but assessed their situation and are now making a return to the competition.”

Despite Queanbeyan deciding not to reapply for entry into the league, the region will still be represented with the Monaro Panthers to contest men’s top flight football for the first time in over a decade.

“We’re also very pleased to be welcoming Monaro back into the Premier Legaue,” Reid said.

“They’re a very important founding club for football in the ACT many years ago and they’ve got terrific depth in their juniors, a great relationship with Singok in Korea and I don’t think they’ll have any trouble putting together the senior teams.

“It’s very important for the Monaro-Queanbeyan community to have a presence in the Premier League given that Queanbeyan City didn’t reapply.

“We would expect this would be the start of some integration and community building within that region.”

Along with the Panthers, Cooma make a welcome return to Premier League football after being granted with a provisional one year licence. The club initially missed out on a Premier League licence following the league’s restructure after their Grand Final victory in 2006.

“It’s great to see Cooma coming back into the league, on a one year licence, they’ve got a bit of work to do with their underpinning networks for their junior base but we’re confident they’ve got the numbers there in Cooma,” Reid said.

The Strikers will make their Gatorade Premier League debut in 2010 after the development club for the Southern Tablelands spent the past couple of years contesting Capital Football’s Division One competition with great success

“They’ve been playing in the men’s competition for a number of years and have good junior depth,” Reid said.

“They’re a big district association, the Southern Tablelands Football Association, now coming into the competition as the Goulburn Strikers, almost a representative team from a number of clubs in the region.

“They’ve got tremendous capacity for a big reach of players and now stepping up into Premier League will be very interesting to see how they go.”

Along with the new teams for 2010, Capital Football is also delighted to announce that football company Derbystar will become the official ball supplier of both the Men’s and Women’s Premier League competitions along with the High Performance Program.

Derbystar is the third major sponsor Capital Football has signed ahead of next season’s Premier League with Gatorade and TigerTurf already on board.

“Three big sponsorships for the Premier League with Derbystar as the ball supplier, Gatorade providing sponsorship and cash incentives for the clubs and TigerTurf coming on board for the Men’s and Women’s Club Champions,” Reid said.

“Things are really looking up.”

The 2010 Gatorade Premier League will kick off early April.

2010 Gatorade Premier League teams:
ANU FC, Belconnen United, Canberra FC, Canberra City, Canberra Olympic, Cooma Tigers, Goulburn Strikers, Monaro Panthers, Tuggeranong United, Woden Valley