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NPL Seniors

President’s Address – NPL seniors’ season finale

JUFC President Stephen Martin is encouraging all members and supporters to attend Saturday’s final game of the National Premier League (NPL) season at Percy Doyle Reserve.

JUFC President Stephen Martin is encouraging all members and supporters to attend Saturday’s final game of the National Premier League (NPL) season at Percy Doyle Reserve.

Dear members and supporters,

Although Saturday’s fixture marks our last game as a National Premier League (NPL) senior club, we want this to be a day of celebration and not a day of dwelling on what could have been.

Our visitors Perth Soccer Club are one of the biggest clubs in Perth and still have a shot at winning the league if they secure victory over JUFC and Perth Glory slip up.

It’s a great way to see out the season and they are sure to bring with them a large crowd; we would like to do the same and make it a great day out for the JUFC family.

Entry will be free for all JUFC members wearing club gear.

Our first NPL game against ECU in 2017 was one of the biggest crowds witnessed at an NPL senior match so let’s go out in similar fashion and get down to support the guys for one last time.

Although we have officially been relegated from the NPL at a senior level we still retain our Junior NPL status.

Granted it’s not been the greatest season for the senior sides but that did not come as a surprise given the predicament that the City of Joondalup Council left us in.

Saying that though, outside of the NPL seniors there are still lots of positives to focus on throughout the club as we close out season 2018 and look toward 2019.

As most would have seen on our social media channels recently our Division Two 18s team were recently crowned league champions and are eyeing up more silverware before the season finishes.

The Top Four Cup campaign kicks off next week and the Junior Cup Final takes place this Saturday at 3:15pm at Ashfield.

It’s great having 18s of this calibre so well done to the coach Clive O’Brien, team manager Melinda Lewis and all the players involved; top effort so far and best of luck on Saturday and next week.

Without putting a mocker on it, our Belt Up Amateur Division One side are vying for promotion to the Premier Division again this season and with only a handful of games to go can achieve that goal with a win over third place Stirling Panthers this Sunday.

It was so close yet so far for Ben Williams and the lads last season as they conceded a goal in the last minute of the second last game of the season to thwart their promotion to the top flight.

With that in the back of their minds, the lads will be keen to get the result on Sunday and secure promotion so for all club members who are not playing at that time the Amateurs would love to have your support down at Stirling.

Our NPL juniors continue to make massive strides forward and the improvement on last season has been remarkable.

We are now reaching the time where our top junior NPL development sides are starting to come through the ranks and each year going forward, like this season, we will see a team enter the NPL 13s that will be a contender for the league.

Two years from now, if we can keep hold of current squads, we will have some of the top teams competing in the 13s to 16s NPL Junior leagues.

NPL Junior trial dates for season 2019 will be announced soon so please keep an eye out for that.

As the club continues to grow and the workload increases we are continually striving to improve on previous seasons and add people to the committee that can really add value.

Preparations are currently underway for next season and there will be even more changes in the coming months as we look to restructure major parts of the club in 2019, especially our State League set up which has been ongoing for a number of weeks now.

The 2018 presentation evenings will begin in earnest with the Junior presentations taking place on September 23rd at the Woodvale Tavern.

The full club presentation evening will take place on October 20th at the Breakwater Tavern and is open to anyone.

It’s a great way to round out the season so we look forward to seeing you all there for another night of celebration.

JUFC is more than just an NPL senior team, it’s a progressive club catering to all age groups and abilities with over 550 current playing members.

It’s not often we have the opportunity to all get together so let’s all get down on Saturday, farewell the NPL season, and celebrate the end of an era for the club while marking the beginning of another.

Stephen Martin
Club President

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