Northern NSW Football boss David Eland says better facilities for Newcastle Herald WPL will be a focus in 2021

As NNSWF launched their premier competitions at No.2 Sportsground on Wednesday, boss David Eland said the use of better grounds would be a feature for this Herald Women's Premier League.

Four WPL games will be played at No.2 Sportsground in the first four rounds of competition. They include the grand final rematch between champions New Lambton and Merewether on Sunday as well as back-to-back fixtures there on March 28 and 29.

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NPL clubs Newcastle Olympic and Broadmeadow Magic will field WPL teams this year after taking over the licences of Wallsend and South Wallsend respectively, meaning premier grounds Darling Street Oval and Magic Park will also be used for women's matches.

Eland said female participation had grown by 50 per cent in NNSW in five years and the region were "dragging the chain" by not having a women's competition of NPL level.

"To have Magic Park, Darling Street, Macquarie Field, No.2 Sportsground, Arthur Edden all hosting WPL is fantastic," Eland said. "The top-flight women's competition deserve access to the best facilities and this is massive progress, which is great."

Eland applauded the Olympic-Wallsend and Magic-South Wallsend NPL-WPL mergers and expected them to "lead to other discussions".

At least seven games, including the grand final, will again be livestreamed through BarTV.

There have been plenty of on-field changes between teams but perhaps the biggest for the league is the departure of several big names leaving WPL to play in NSW NPL Women's.

They include Jets players Tara Andrews, Lauren Allan, Cassidy Davis, Libby Copus-Brown and Gema Simon plus former W-League talent Ash Brodigan and Tara Pender.

"Of course you'd like to have the best players in your competition but when you've got the best NPL in Australia on your doorstep, it's natural that the best players want to test themselves in that environment," Eland said.

WPL opens Thursday night when Magic host Warners Bay at Magic Park from 8pm.

In other round-one action on Sunday, Adamstown host Thornton and Mid North Coast play Olympic in Taree.

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