The Northern Inland Premier League football competition will be expanded to take in the current Namoi League clubs in 2012 and will be played in two conferences.
The decision was made after extensive consultation and discussion over the last three months by the board of Northern Inland Football, with the final decision based on a poll of the clubs which played in the Namoi and Premier League competitions this year.
The southern conference is likely to be made up of three clubs from Tamworth, two clubs from Gunnedah along with the Wee Waa, Narrabri and Moree clubs.
The core group in the northern conference will be the four Armidale clubs, and the Inverell based Joeys FC with high hopes that they will be joined by the Glen Innes and Guyra clubs with the possibility of a UNE/TAS combination making the eighth team in each division.
It is proposed to play some crossover games between northern and southern conference teams during the season which could be played at central venues. The NIF board also has plans for a pre season cup competition which would involve teams from the north playing teams from the south.
The finals series will be an eight team play off between the top four teams from each conference. There is also the possibility of a “plate” finals series between the bottom four teams in each division.
President of Northern Inland Football, Alex McDonald said that it was impossible to come up with a format which was going to please every club.
“The best model would be a single competition but travel distances of up to 325km between towns made it very difficult in terms of both cost and time,” said Alex McDonald.
“Some players work on Saturday mornings and many of the senior players and officials are involved in organising and coaching in junior competitions on Saturday mornings.
“It is important that they can continue to do this,” Mr McDonald said.
“I think the north and south conference format will work very well with the inclusion of the new clubs to add interest.
“The Namoi clubs have built their competition from a single team “pub competition” five years ago to a much stronger competition with first and second division teams.
“They are keen to test themselves against the teams which played in premier league this year. Likewise, Glen Innes and Guyra played off in the grand final of the Armidale and District open competition this year so are ready to test themselves at a higher level.
“Premier League will be very different in 2012 to the 2011 format but I believe the expansion of the Premier League will take football forward in the Northern Inland Zone. “
The success of the new format will be reviewed at the end of the 2012 season, Mr McDonald said.
