National Premier Leagues Western Australia

National Premier Leagues Western Australia

Country	Australia
Founded	1896
Number of teams	14
Level on pyramid	2
Relegation to	State League 1
Domestic cup(s)	FFA Cup WA State Challenge Cup
Current champions	2016 Perth
Current premiers	2016 Perth
Most championships	Perth SC (Azzurri, Italia) (22 titles)
Website	http://www.footballwest.com.au/
2016 National Premier Leagues

The National Premier Leagues Western Australia is a regional Australian semi-professional soccer league comprising teams from Western Australia. The league name is often abbreviated to NPL Western Australia or NPL WA. As a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues, the league is sits at the highest level of the Western Australian league system (Level 2 of the overall Australian league system). The competition is administered by Football West, the governing body of the sport in the state. In 2014, the league, formally known as the Football West State League Premier Division was rebranded into what exists today.

History

Several of the clubs currently playing in the league were formed as the soccer arm of cultural associations of recently migrated Australians, with certain teams having associations with particularly nationalities e.g. Swan Italian Club (now Swan United), Bayswater Inter (now Bayswater City) and Perth Italia (now Perth SC) with Italian Australians, Morley Windmills with Dutch Australians, Floreat Athena with Greek Australians, Benfica United (now Fremantle Spirit) with Portuguese Australians, Inglewood Kiev (now Inglewood United) with Ukrainian Australians, North Perth Croatia (now Western Knights) and Spearwood Dalmatinac (now part of Cockburn City) with Croatian Australians, Shamrock Rovers with Irish Australians, Dianella White Eagles with Serbian Australians and Stirling Macedonia (now Stirling Lions) with Macedonian Australians. In 1994 clubs were forced by the sport's governing body to remove all references to ethnicities from their names, which resulted in several name changes. It is only recently that clubs have begun to be based geographically, with Mandurah City and ECU Joondalup recently established clubs.

The West Australian National Training Centre included a team for the 2011-2013 seasons. They did not play for competition points, and were mostly used for development of the upcoming youth players.

Current format

In 2013 Football Federation of Australia introduced the new second tier competition for football in Australia, the National Premier Leagues. In 2014 Football West then reorganised the former State Premier League league into the National Premier Leagues Western Australia conference and the State League (Division One and Division Two). The NPL WA competition fields a Senior first team, as well as youth teams in the U20, U18, U16, U15, U14, U13 and U12 age groups. The Perth Glory FC Youth team competes in the Senior category - effectively as Perth Glory's reserve side - and has additional age restrictions.^[1]

Provisional promotion and relegation between the NPL and the State League Division 1 became possible for the first time at the end of the 2015 season, however the winner of the 2015 Division 1, Mandurah City FC, did not meet Football West's promotion requirements.^[1] Multiple decisions on promotion occurred after the 2016 season, with Football West stating the system would again be reviewed in the future.^[2][3]

Clubs

Club	Location	Ground	Capacity
Armadale	Armadale	Alfred Skeet Oval	500
Balcatta	Balcatta	Grindleford Reserve	1,000
Bayswater City	Bayswater	Frank Drago Reserve	5,000
Cockburn City	Cockburn	Dalmatinac Park	2,000
ECU Joondalup	Joondalup	ECU Joondalup Football Stadium	2,500
Floreat Athena	Floreat	Litis Stadium	10,000
Inglewood United	Inglewood	Inglewood Stadium	5,536
Joondalup United	Joondalup	Forrest Park	500
Mandurah City	Mandurah	Peelwood Reserve	2,000
Perth Glory Youth	Perth	Inglewood Stadium	5,536
Perth	West Perth	Dorrien Gardens	2,000
Sorrento	Sorrento	Percy Doyle Reserve	5,000
Stirling Lions	Stirling	Macedonia Park	7,000 [4]
Subiaco AFC	Subiaco	Rosalie Park	250

Honours

Competition and Year Premiers 1896 Fremantle Wanderers 1897 Fremantle Wanderers 1898 Civil Service ^U 1899 Fremantle Wanderers 1900 Fremantle Wanderers 1901 Fremantle Wanderers 1902 Perth ^U 1903 Fremantle 1904 Fremantle Corinthians ^U 1905 Perth 1906 Rangers ^U 1907 Rangers 1908 City United 1909 Training College ^U 1910 Claremont 1911 Rangers ^1 1912 Claremont 1913 Perth City United 1914 Thistle 1915 Thistle 1916 jointly Claremont and Thistle 1917-1918 No competition due to World War 1 1919 Claremont 1920 Perth City United ^U 1921 Thistle 1922 Perth City United ^U 1923 Claremont ^U 1924 Perth City 1925 Thistle 1926 Fremantle Caledonian 1927 Fremantle Caledonian ^U 1928 Victoria Park ^U 1929 Victoria Park 1930 Northern Casuals 1931 Victoria Park 1932 Northern Casuals 1933 Caledonian 1934 Victoria Park 1935 Victoria Park 1936 Victoria Park 1937 Victoria Park ^U 1938 Victoria Park 1939 Victoria Park ^1 1940 East Claremont 1941 Caledonian ^U 1942 - 1944 No competition due to World War 2 1945 Jolly Rogers ^U 1946 Caledonian ^1 1947 Caledonian ^2 1948 North Perth ^2 1949 Caledonian 1950 Perth City 1951 South Perth 1952 North Perth 1953 Azzurri ^U 1954 Perth City 1955 North Perth 1956 North Perth 1957 Swan Athletic 1958 East Fremantle Tricolore 1959 Azzurri

Competition and Year Premiers Champions (or Top Four/Top Five Cup) 1960 WASF : Azzurri WASFA : North Perth-Osborne - 1961 WASF : Windmills WASFA : Swan Valley ^U East Fremantle Tricolore 1962 WASF : Azzurri WASFA : Perth City-Inglewood Morley Windmills 1963 East Fremantle Tricolore Azzurri 1964 East Fremantle Tricolore ^U North Perth-Osborne 1965 East Fremantle Tricolore Swan Athletic ^3 1966 Cracovia Azzurri ^3 1967 Azzurri ^U Azzurri ^3 1968 Azzurri Kiev 1969 Azzurri East Fremantle Tricolore 1970 East Fremantle Tricolore East Fremantle Tricolore ^3 1971 Azzurri Bayswater United 1972 East Fremantle Tricolore Azzurri 1973 Windmills - 1974 Ascot Azzurri 1975 Azzurri Floreat Athena 1976 Azzurri Azzurri 1977 Athena - 1978 Olympic Kingsway Olympic Kingsway 1979 Spearwood Dalmatinac Olympic Kingsway 1980 Olympic Kingsway Olympic Kingsway 1981 Perth Azzurri ^U Forrestfield United 1982 Spearwood Dalmatinac ^U Spearwood Dalmatinac 1983 West Perth Macedonia West Perth Macedonia 1984 West Perth Macedonia Floreat Athena 1985 West Perth Macedonia - 1986 Spearwood Dalmatinac Stirling Macedonia 1987 Stirling Macedonia - 1988 Floreat Athena Floreat Athena 1989 Floreat Athena Perth Italia 1990 Floreat Athena ^U Perth Italia 1991 Floreat Athena Perth Italia 1992 Perth Italia Stirling Macedonia 1993 Perth Italia Perth Italia 1994 Stirling Macedonia Stirling Macedonia 1995 Stirling Macedonia Stirling Macedonia 1996 Inglewood Falcons Stirling Macedonia 1997 Floreat Athena - 1998 Western Knights Western Knights 1999 ECU Joondalup Sorrento 2000 Fremantle City Perth 2001 Sorrento Perth 2002 Perth Perth 2003 Perth Perth 2004 Western Knights Western Knights 2005 Perth - 2006 Sorrento - 2007 Floreat Athena ^U - 2008 Sorrento Perth 2009 Western Knights Perth 2010 Western Knights Perth 2011 Balcatta Perth 2012 Bayswater City Sorrento 2013 Stirling Lions Bayswater City 2014 Bayswater City Bayswater City 2015 Bayswater City ^U - 2016 Perth Perth

¹ after championship playoff.

² after zone playoff.

³ round-robin format.

^U undefeated league season

References :^{[5] [6]}

References

1. http://www.footballwest.com.au/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=2013&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=08&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=756&cHash=4f4f7d9ec97a8f8a2afeff0d0fc0c2bf
2. "NPLWA unchanged in 2017 season". www.footballwest.com.au. 12 November 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
3. "NPLWA expansion for 2017". www.footballwest.com.au. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
4. http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2014/07/15/lions-coach-aims-silence-roar
5. Kreider, R.N. (2012) Paddocks to Pitches. The Definitive History of Western Australian Football. Published by SportsWest Media
6. http://www.foxsportspulse.com/comp_info.cgi?c=1-8273-0-240246-0&pool=1001&a=LADDER

External links