National Premier Leagues Western Australia

National Premier Leagues Western Australia

Founded	1896
Country	Australia
Number of clubs	12
Level on pyramid	2
Relegation to	State League 1
Domestic cup(s)	Football West State Cup Australia Cup
Current champions	Olympic Kingsway (2024)
Current premiers	Olympic Kingsway (2024)
Most championships	Perth SC (Azzurri, Italia) (25 titles)
TV partners	Streamer TV
Website	Football West NPL
Current: 2024 NPL Western Australia

The National Premier Leagues Western Australia (NPL WA) is a regional Australian semi-professional soccer league comprising teams from Western Australia. As a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues, the league is 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 – formerly known as the Football West State League Premier Division – was rebranded into what exists today.

History

NPL WA traces its origin to the formation of a league by the Perth British Football Association in 1896. ^[1] By the 1950s, the association was known as the Western Australian Soccer Football Association (WASFA). In, 1960 eight teams formed their own association, the Soccer Federation of Western Australia (SFWA). The WASFA and SFWA ran rival leagues between 1960 and 1962 before the SFWA prevailed. ^[2] Ahead of the 1991 season, 11 SFWA clubs broke away, forming the Soccer Administration of Western Australia (SAWA). The SAWA ran the rebel Professional Soccer League (PSL) in parallel with the SFWA first division until merging before the 1993 season to form the Professional Soccer Federation of Western Australia (PSF). ^{[3] [4]}

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) with Croatian Australians, Spearwood Dalmatinac (now part of Cockburn City) with Yugoslavian Australians, Shamrock Rovers with Irish Australians, Dianella White Eagles with Serbian Australians and Stirling Macedonia 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 forced name changes. Some clubs reverted back to their former names after 2019, when the National Club Identity Policy was revoked. More recently, new clubs have begun to be based geographically, such as with Armadale SC and Cockburn City.

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.

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 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 from U12 to U20 age groups. The Perth Glory FC Youth team competes in the Senior category and has additional age restrictions. ^[5]

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, provided the winner of the State Division 1 met Football West's promotion requirements. ^[5] Two teams were promoted after the 2016 season to expand the league into a 14 team competition. ^[6] After a further competition review the 2019 NPLWA season returned to a twelve-team competition. ^[7] In 2020, promotion and relegation was suspended for the season, due to the impacts on the competition from the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. ^[8]

Clubs

The following 12 clubs will compete in the 2025 NPL WA season.

Club	Location	Ground	Capacity
Armadale SC	Armadale	Alfred Skeet Oval	500
Balcatta	Balcatta	Grindleford Reserve	1,000
Bayswater City	Bayswater	Frank Drago Reserve	5,000
Fremantle City	Fremantle	Hilton Park	1,000
Floreat Athena	Leederville	Litis Stadium	5,000
Olympic Kingsway	Madeley	Kingsway Sporting Complex	2,500
Perth Glory Youth	Queens Park	Sam Kerr Football Centre	2,000
Perth RedStar	Joondalup	RedStar Arena	2,500
Perth SC	West Perth	Dorrien Gardens	4,000
Sorrento FC	Duncraig	Percy Doyle Reserve	5,000
Stirling Macedonia	Balcatta	Macedonia Park	5,000
Western Knights	Mosman Park	Nash Field	1,000

Honours

Year	Premiership	Champions	NPL Finals Representation
2014	Bayswater City	Bayswater City	Bayswater City – Quarter Finalist
2015	Bayswater City [a]	–	Bayswater City – Runners up
2016	Perth SC	Perth SC	Perth SC – Semi Finalist
2017	Bayswater City	Bayswater City	Bayswater City – Quarter Finalist
2018	Perth SC	Perth SC	Perth SC – Quarter Finalist
2019	Perth SC	Perth SC	Perth SC – Semi Finalist
2020	— [b]	ECU Joondalup [c] Floreat Athena [d]	— [e]
2021	Perth SC	Perth SC	— [f]
2022	Floreat Athena	Perth RedStar
2023	Perth RedStar	Stirling Macedonia
2024	Olympic Kingsway	Olympic Kingsway

Honours pre-NPL (1896–2013)

Year Premiers 1896 Fremantle Wanderers 1897 Fremantle Wanderers 1898 Civil Service [a] 1899 Fremantle Wanderers 1900 Fremantle Wanderers 1901 Fremantle Wanderers 1902 Perth [a] 1903 Fremantle 1904 Fremantle Corinthians [a] 1905 Perth 1906 Rangers [a] 1907 Rangers 1908 City United 1909 Training College [a] 1910 Claremont 1911 Rangers [g] 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 [a] 1921 Thistle 1922 Perth City United [a] 1923 Claremont [a] 1924 Perth City 1925 Thistle 1926 Fremantle Caledonian 1927 Fremantle Caledonian [a] 1928 Victoria Park [a] 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 [a] 1938 Victoria Park 1939 Victoria Park [g] 1940 East Claremont 1941 Caledonian [a] 1942–1944 No competition due to World War 2 1945 Jolly Rogers [a] 1946 Caledonian [g] 1947 Caledonian [h] 1948 North Perth [h] 1949 Caledonian 1950 Perth City 1951 South Perth 1952 North Perth 1953 Azzurri [a] 1954 Perth City 1955 North Perth 1956 North Perth 1957 Swan Athletic 1958 East Fremantle Tricolore 1959 Azzurri 1960 WASF : Azzurri WASFA : North Perth-Osborne

Year Premiers Champions (or Top Four/Top Five Cup) 1961 WASF : Windmills WASFA : Swan Valley [a] East Fremantle Tricolore 1962 WASF : Azzurri WASFA : Perth City-Inglewood Morley Windmills 1963 East Fremantle Tricolore Azzurri 1964 East Fremantle Tricolore [a] North Perth-Osborne 1965 East Fremantle Tricolore Swan Athletic [i] 1966 Cracovia Azzurri [i] 1967 Azzurri [a] Azzurri [i] 1968 Azzurri Kiev 1969 Azzurri East Fremantle Tricolore 1970 East Fremantle Tricolore East Fremantle Tricolore [i] 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 [a] Forrestfield United 1982 Spearwood Dalmatinac [a] 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 [a] 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 SC 2001 Sorrento Perth SC 2002 Perth SC Perth SC 2003 Perth SC Perth SC 2004 Western Knights Western Knights 2005 Perth SC – 2006 Sorrento – 2007 Floreat Athena [a] – 2008 Sorrento Perth SC 2009 Western Knights Perth SC 2010 Western Knights Perth SC 2011 Balcatta Perth SC 2012 Bayswater City Sorrento 2013 Stirling Lions Bayswater City

References : ^{[10] [11]}

See also

• National Premier Leagues WA Women

Notes

1. undefeated league season
2. Premiership not awarded.
3. NPL Season Champions.
4. Top Four Cup Grand Final Champions.
5. NPL finals series cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. ^[9]
6. Not held
7. after championship playoff
8. after zone playoff
9. round-robin format

References

1. "British Association". Inquirer and Commercial News. Perth. 20 May 1896. p. 2. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
2. "WASFA Records". footballwa.net. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
3. "1991 Results". footballwa.net. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
4. "1992 Results". footballwa.net. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
5. "Home Page | Football West". 19 February 2020.
6. "NPLWA expansion for 2017". www.footballwest.com.au. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
7. "NPLWA Review Report to guide future". www.footballwest.com.au. 18 September 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
8. "Bayswater-Perth to kick off revamped season". Football West. 11 June 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
9. "Coronavirus forces FFA Cup to be cancelled". The World Game . SBS. 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
10. Kreider, R.N. (2012) Paddocks to Pitches. The Definitive History of Western Australian Football. Published by SportsWest Media
11. "Competitions at Football West".

External links

• Football West website