Following the successful establishment of North West Sydney Football from the merger of GHFA and North West Sydney Women’s Football Association, the boards of NWSF, Spirit and Koalas are now excited to confirm the forthcoming merger of our two representative clubs - NWS Spirit FC and NWS Koalas FC.
The formalities of merging the clubs will take place during 2021 with the intention of entering all NWS teams in the 2022 FNSW Competitions under the new entity.
Whilst NWS Spirit and NWS Koalas currently operate as separate club structures, the two clubs have collaborated in 2020 and 2021, sharing resources and coaching support across all teams as well as having joint training activities. More efficient use of the excellent facilities at Christie Park has also resulted.
A number of initiatives such as the joint 2020 shirt presentation have already occurred successfully, and more are planned in 2021.
As major stakeholder, the NWSF board saw the merger as a logical next step and are delighted on the collaborative approach. A working party has been established to drive the merger with representatives from both clubs and the NWSF Board.
The benefits of a merged entity include pooling of resources, reduced costs and consolidated workload for volunteers and will result in a more cohesive club for our representative players and a consistent pathway for our Association players. The benefit in combining the men’s and women’s programs will be as quoted by Sport Australia, that “mixed training and competition can foster mutual respect; improve both boys’ and girls’ social skills; enhance resilience; and provide experiences that will help them in their broader lives.”
At this stage, the name of the new entity is yet to be established, and the working party is actively seeking suggestions from players and parents.
For any questions or suggestions on a name, please email nwsf@nwsf.com.au

Leigh played in the first international Matildas matches and has been coaching at NWS Koalas for the last 15 years.
A great story outlining her playing and coaching history is here

The final AGM for GHFA was held on Tuesday 19 November at The Governor Hotel. Clubs and Life Members were in attendance to celebrate the GHFA history and award winners on the night.
Life Membership was awarded to Grahame Bateman from Pennant Hills FC in recognition of his outstanding service to the club and the Association over 23 years, including 22 years on the Pennant Hills committee as well as his service to GHFA on the GPT. His most notable achievement was securing the first ever synthetic field for GHFA at Pennant HIlls.

Association Medals were awarded for service to their club and the Association to:
Craig Black (West Ryde Rovers), Lindsay Donald (GHFA Board), Mark McLaren (Epping Eastwood) and Gary Ohanian (Ryde Panthers)

The Roy Maggio Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Chris Goddard from West Ryde Rovers

Click here for a copy of the 2019 Annual Report

Videos of the 2019 Div 1 and PL & SL Grand Finals are available via the links below:
U12 - West Pennant Hills v Epping FC
U13 - Epping FC v West Ryde Rovers
U14 - West Pennant Hills v Epping FC
U15 - West Ryde Rovers v West Pennant Hills
U16 - Epping FC Blue v Ryde Panthers
U18 - Hills Hawks v West Ryde Rovers
U21 - Epping Eastwood v West Ryde Rovers
AA1 - Ryde Panthers v Macquarie Dragons
O35 - Gladesville Ravens v Eastwood St Andrews
O45 - Epping FC v Epping Eastwood
PL First Grade - West Pennant Hills v Eastwood St Andrews
PL Reserves - West Pennant Hills v Hills Hawks
SL First Grade - Redbacks v Ryde Saints Utd
SL Reserves - Epping FC v St Patricks

​At Special General Meetings held on 18 July 2019, members of GHFA and North West Sydney Women's Football Association overwhelmingly voted in support of resolutions to merge to establish North West Sydney Football Ltd.

GHFA (originally called the Hornsby-Epping Soccer Football Association), had its origins in 1952 with the foundation club of Epping (now known as Epping Eastwood FC).  In 1956, the Association changed its name to Northern District Football Association to accommodate the teams joining from beyond the geographical boundaries of Hornsby to Epping.  The growth was so rapid to the south that in 1959 it was necessary to again change the name to the current day Gladesville Hornsby Football Association.
 
Since those early days, GHFA has grown to its current 30 clubs and 12,400 members.  GHFA is a mixed competition with girls and boys playing together in MiniRoos and in junior age groups.  While GHFA has some older female players, the majority have preferred to play in the women’s only competition conducted by NWSWF.
 
NWSWF (originally called Gladesville-Hornsby Women’s Soccer Association (GHWSA)) was formed in 1981.  Clubs in that area had played in the Kuringai competition for the previous eight years as there was no local women’s competition.  A Steering Committee was formed in 1980 to establish GHWSA.  The Association’s name was changed to NWSWF in 2000 to more accurately reflect its player distribution.  At that time, NWSWF had 23 teams but has now grown to 103 MiniRoos teams, 61 Junior teams and 68 Senior teams.  The NWS Koalas have NPL Women’s/Girls’ teams competing in U14s, U15s, U17s, Reserve Grade and First Grade competitions as well as SAP teams in the U10s, U11s, U12s and U13s.  NWSWF also runs an all abilities program called PINK (PLAY, INTERACT, NETWORK, KICK).
 
With 22 of the 28 NWSWF member-clubs also being member-clubs of GHFA, there are sound reasons for the two Associations to merge, including simplified administration and economies of scale for member-clubs and for the Associations themselves. NWSF Ltd becomes operational on 1 October 2019.