New Northern NSW Football deputy chair Mark Trenter has the return of promotion-relegation, the involvement of homegrown legend Craig Johnston in a junior development revamp, and giving the Jets academy cheap access to the federation's Speers Point facility high on his agenda after Friday night's extraordinary general meeting.
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Trenter was the only survivor of an overthrow of the NNSWF board led by five of the seven member zones. Chair Helene O'Neill was removed with a 16-1 vote after fellow directors Bill Moncrieff, Peter Dimovski and Mansell Laidler resigned.
Mike Parsons, who became chair, was elected as a replacement along with Paul Sandilands, Lisa Evans, David Willoughby and Lauren Edwards. Trenter, a former KB United player, was not targetted for removal.
Long-serving chief executive David Eland also departed after briefly attending the EGM. His employment's termination by mutual consent with the now former board was announced only via an email press release at 6:31pm, around which time he left the meeting. Trenter said "everyone was in shock" after Eland's sudden exit without notice.
Trenter said finding a new CEO was a top priority.
"I personally want to make sure we get a CEO that actually comes from a football background and has an affinity with the area," Trenter said. "David Eland is a great operator, but David Eland is not the right fit for Newcastle anymore."
The upheaval ended a 15-week battle started when the Newcastle, Macquarie, Hunter Valley, Mid North Coast and Far North Coast zones moved to oust five of the six NNSWF directors. That came a day after NNSWF-endorsed recommendations from an independent review were released to the zones.
Among the proposed changes was empowering clubs to move to an aligned administration structure under NNSWF which would effectively dissolve the zones who run community football.
Trenter indicated the review was the trigger for the overthrow.
"It was the whole process, and then coupled with getting nowhere with promotion and relegation," he said. "I think it was the icing on the cake, the final review report, but prior to that there was a lot of stuff going on."
As for the report recommendations, which were unanimously endorsed by the former board, Trenter said: "There's certain parts of that that have a lot of merit.
"But the one part that was a concern was it was like Russia taking over the Ukraine here. Bringing in all this new staff and company cars and running it from Newcastle. I thought, are they doing this bad of a job? Can we do it any better? The major subject about the review was the cost of the game, and it never got addressed once in the final outcome."
He said the board would look at streamlining measures.
"The zones are good at running community football but there's plenty to be looked at there, and it will be," he said. "For example, I can't see anything wrong with Macquarie, Hunter Valley and Newcastle merging. That would be significant. As directors of a board, we'd have to look at the capitalisation there that could be used for an astro-turf ground rather than these [zone] buildings that we don't quite know what they are servicing."
Trenter's focus, however, was football development.
He said the board would bring back promotion-relegation between the NPL and second-tier Northern League One from 2024.
"The clubs need at least 12 months to know what's happening and to get prepared for it," he said. "But there will definitely be promotion-relegation. There's going to be accountability."
As for a junior development revamp, Trenter wanted to bring "proper football people together" to help end what was seen as a "money-grabbing monopoly".
He also flagged free or heavily subsidised use of the synthetic fields at Speers Points for the Jets juniors.
"The Jets are a major customer of NNSWF, and I know there's been history of the ownership of the Jets, and sometimes they've left debts, but we should be, as a federation, supporting our national league team properly," he said.
"You can't keep thinking about the past.
"We don't want kids from our area going down the road to the Mariners. We want to develop professional footballers that can go on to the Socceroos or that we can keep in our region."
Trenter said "Newcastle can be a pilot for change" in junior development and he wanted to involve Johnston and others football experts locally and from further afield to help improve pathways and access to them.
He said he wanted to put football ahead of business.
"KPIs are not all about that," he said in reference to NNSWF's strong financial position under Eland.
"They are not all about finances. Up until today it has mostly been about finances and at the end of the day, it's supposed to be a not-for-profit organisation. I get sick to death of board meetings talking about how rich we are.
"But I'm very respectful of the way we need a clever businessman to transition that through."
Saturday: The return of promotion and relegation between the men's NPL and second-tier Northern League One from 2024 is high on the agenda of the new Northern NSW Football board confirmed on Friday night.
Football Mid North Coast stalwart Mike Parsons was voted onto the board and elected the new chair at an extraordinary general meeting where Lisa Evans, Lauren Edwards, Paul Sandilands and David Willoughby also became directors. Mark Trenter, the only director not targetted in the overthrow, was elected deputy chair.
Parsons replaced Helene O'Neill as chair after she was removed from the board 16 votes to one. The other directors, Bill Moncrieff, Mansell Laidler and Peter Dimovski, resigned before the meeting.
It was announced via a statement about 6.30pm on Friday that long-serving chief executive David Eland would leave his position immediately after he and the now former board had come to a mutual termination agreement. Eland served in the role for more than 13 years.
The Herald understands Eland was signed to a four-year contract extension shortly before the zones' move against the directors.
Also leaving NNSWF is chief financial officer Annette Hervas, football operations administrator Margaret Wand and finance assistant Kaitlin Radstaak.
The campaign to overthrow the board started on August 23, a day after zones received NNSWF-endorsed recommendations for change from an independent review report into the game's administration and governance in the region. Among the recommendations was facilitating a club-driven move to an aligned structure under NNSWF which streamlined administration and effectively dissolved the zone bodies which run community football.
Despite the upheaval on Friday night, Parsons said in a statement that it was "business as usual".
He was positive about the opportunities presented by a change in leadership at the member federation.
"We wish to thank the members of Northern NSW Football for their vote of confidence last night," he said.
"The new Northern NSW Football Board will come together shortly to commence planning for season 2023, future structure and direction of football within northern NSW.
"At this stage it is business as usual, we have excellent staff within Northern NSW Football and much of the planning for 2023 is complete."
The statement said the new board have indicated their intentions to prioritise grassroots football, achieve a dynamic NPL structure with NPLW, NPL and NL1, with promotion and relegation, from 2024 and reassess junior development pathways.
Promotion-relegation was abandoned several seasons ago because of the small number of clubs in the second-division which met NPL criteria.
In a press release on Friday night, Eland said: "I have been fortunate throughout my long tenure to have been supported by volunteer directors who selflessly dedicated their time and expertise to the game's best interests. The current board is no exception. I respect their determination to address the challenges constraining the game's continued growth and prosperity.
"It has been a privilege to lead football throughout northern NSW. I'm satisfied that I'm leaving the member federation in a sound position. The last couple of years have been very challenging, however, I could not be happier with how the governing body responded to the unprecedented challenges of the global pandemic."
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