National Premier Leagues Capital Football 2

The National Premier Leagues Capital Football 2 (also known as NPL ACT 2 or simply NPL2) is an association football competition contested by clubs affiliated to Capital Football. The league is the second highest level (level 2) competition in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region. It is a subdivision of the National Premier Leagues and sits in Level 3 in the overall Australian league system. Prior to 2019, the league was known as the Capital League and was the top division of the ACT State League system.

National Premier Leagues
Capital Football 2
Founded1967 (1967)
(as Division 2)
2019 (2019)
(as NPL2)
Country Australia
State ACT
NSW
ConfederationAFC
Number of teams10
Level on pyramid3
Promotion toNPL ACT 1
Domestic cup(s)FFA Cup
Federation Cup
Current championsANU FC
(2019)
Current premiersCanberra White Eagles
(2019)
WebsiteNPL Capital Football 2
Current: 2020 season

History

Established in 1967 as Division 2 the level 2 division in the ACT has been competed every year except a three-year gap between 1984 and 1986, The league has been renamed three times prior to 2019 with the original Division 2 title changed to State League One in 1992 before becoming the Capital League in 2013.[1]

1 August 2018, Capital Football announced a major overhaul of the local football structure with the top two divisions (level 1 and 2) linked with the introduction of promotion and relegation between the top two men's divisions. The top two leagues were re-branded from NPL Capital Football and the Capital League to NPL1 and NPL2.[2]

3 August 2018, a group of current NPL clubs in the ACT raised concerns regarding the structure changes and the introduction of promotion and relegation. In particular the concern around governances was raised by Woden-Weston president Steve Rohan-Jones. While Canberra Olympic coach, Frank Cachia, raised the issues around juniors and the sustainability of an inter-state team if it gets relegated.[3]

31 August 2018, Capital Football opened the application process for interested teams to apply to join the NPL1 and NPL2 leagues.[4]

28 September 2018, Capital Football announced the successful applications for teams for the 2019 NPL season. NPL1 would consist of nine teams with seven teams selected for NPL2. Out of the ten teams that competed in the 2018 Capital League season, seven teams were successful in gaining NPL2 status while three teams, Narrabundah FC, Monaro Panthers reserves, and Canberra Olympic reserves were all unsuccessful. The bottom team of NPL1 in 2019 would be relegated to NPL2 for the 2020 season but no team from NPL2 would be promoted to even the two leagues to eight teams each.[5]

Narrabundah FC lodged an official appeal supported by a number of other Capital Football affiliated clubs.[6] Narrabundah's appeal was successful, and on 8 November 2018 Capital Football released a new declaration of leagues for the 2019 NPL level that included Narrabundah FC as an NPL2 participant.[7]

15 November 2018, NSW regional club, Wagga City Wanderers, announced it was transferring from NSW State League to Capital Football and would join the NPL2 and NPLW leagues.[8] This move resulted in both NPL1 and NPL2 leagues having nine teams each for the 2019 season.[9]

Format

The regular season runs between April to September each year and consists of 16 rounds with four matches played each round and one team sitting out a bye. Each team plays each other twice (home and away) and sits out two byes over the course of the season. The top four teams qualify for the finals series (finals). The team that finishes first in the league standings is crowned league premiers and, from 2020, will be promoted to NPL1.[10]

Finals is run over three weeks with the major (1 vs 2) and minor (3 vs 4) semi-finals held in the first week. The winner of the major semi-final progresses to the grand final in week 3 and the loser progresses to the preliminary final in week 2. The winner of the minor semi-final progresses to the preliminary final and the loser is eliminated.

Current Clubs
Current NPL1 ACT based clubs
Current NPL1 NSW based clubs

The inaugural season of NPL Capital Football 2 was originally planned to only have seven clubs, as published by Capital Football on 1 August 2018. After a successful appeal by Narrabundah a revised declaration of clubs for NPL level was released by Capital football on 8 August 2018 that increased the number of clubs from seven to eight. In November 2018, Wagga City Wanderers announced the club was leaving Football NSW and switching affiliation to Capital Football so the club's first grade team was added to NPL2 to bring the overall number up to nine (equal numbers with NPL1).

Eight of the inaugural season clubs were members of the previous ACT level two league (Capital league) in the previous season (2018). All nine inaugural season clubs were making their first appearance in the National Premier Leagues system, having previously competed in NSW and ACT State League systems.

As of the 2020 Capital Football season, there are ten clubs competing in the NPL2.

2020 NPL 2
Club Location State Home grounds Founded Joined league 2019 Position
ANU FC Acton ACT ANU Willows Oval 1962 2019 3rd
Brindabella Blues Calwell ACT Everlast Enclosed 1990 2019 9th
Canberra White Eagles Phillip ACT Woden Park 1992 2019 1st
HNK O'Connor Knights O'Connor ACT O'Connor Enclosed 1997 2019 1 2nd
Narrabundah FC Narrabundah ACT Narrabundah 2 1976 2019 8th
Queanbeyan City Queanbeyan NSW Riverside Stadium 1966 2019 4th
Riverina Rhinos Griffith NSW SolarMad Stadium 2014 2019 –
Southern Tablelands United Goulburn NSW Cookbundoon 2 2017 2019 7th
Wagga City Wanderers Wagga Wagga NSW Gissing Oval 2014 2019 6th
Weston-Molonglo FC Waramanga ACT Waramanga Playing Fields 1971 2019 5th

Honours

NPL2 seasons (2019–present)

A snapshot of the NPL Capital Football 2 seasons since its inauguration in 2019.[1]

SeasonRegular seasonFinalsTeam promoted to NPL1
League PremiersLeague Runners-UpChampionsScoreFinalists
2019Canberra White EaglesO'Connor KnightsANU FC5–1O'Connor Knights–
2020No Premier declared.Wagga City Wanderers2–2 (5-4 (p))Yoogali SC–



NPL2 all-time record
Premierships
ClubPremiershipsYears
Canberra White Eagles12019
Championships
ClubChampionshipsYears
ANU FC12019
Wagga City Wanderers12020

Pre-NPL Honours

Pre-NPL seasons (1967–2018)

A snapshot of each ACT division two season between 1967 and 2018 before being aligned with the NPL in 2019.[1]

Legend: BOLD = first league or finals title a club secures

Season Competition Regular season Finals
League PremiersLeague Runners-Up ChampionsScoreFinalists
1967Division Two Inter MonaroKosciusko Inter Monaro1–0RAAF
1968Division Two Season standings & results unknown
1969Division Two Season standings & results unknown
1970Division Two Season standings & results unknown
1971Division Two Season standings & results unknown
1972Division Two Season standings & results unknown
1973Division Two Queanbeyan MacedoniaANU FC No Finals Series held
1974Division Two ANU FCBelconnen United No Finals Series held
1975Division Two Season standings & results unknown
1976Division Two Season standings & results unknown
1977Division Two Canberra UnitedANU FC Canberra United3–1ANU FC
1978Division Two Queanbeyan MacedoniaRMC Queanbeyan Macedonia3–1RMC
1979Division Two Kambah UnitedConcordia Phillip Concordia Phillip2–1Kambah United
1980Division Two Polonia White EaglesJAT United Polonia White Eagles2–1Canberra North
1981Division Two Croatia DeakinUnknown Canberra North3–2Croatia Deakin
1982Division Two Cooma FCRMC Unknown Finals Series results
1983Division Two RMCNarrabundah Unknown Finals Series results
No Division 2 league run between 1984 and 1986
1987Division Two Weston CreekCanberra City ANU FC1–0Weston Creek
1988Division Two Queanbeyan MacedoniaCanberra City Queanbeyan MacedoniaUnknownANU FC
1989Division Two ADFAANU FC Downer Olympic3–0ADFA
1990Division Two Downer OlympicCondors Queanbeyan Macedonia3–1Condors
1991Division Two ADFAQueanbeyan Macedonia ADFA4–1Condors
1992State League One Latin AmericaUnknown University of CanberraUnknownLatin America
1993State League One Queanbeyan CityUnknown Unknown Finals Series results
1994State League One Canberra White EaglesANU FC ANU FCUnknownCanberra White Eagles
1995State League One Queanbeyan CityANU FC Queanbeyan CityUnknown score and losing team
1996State League One ANU FCBurns FC Cooma FC2–1ANU FC
1997State League One Capital City SunsCooma FC Burns FC2–1Capital City Suns
1998State League One Season standings & results unknown'
1999State League One O'Connor KnightsUnknown Unknown score and winning teamO'Connor Knights
2000State League One Unknown league standings ANU FC1–0Canberra White Eagles
2001State League One Cooma FCUnknown Cooma FCUnknown score and losing team
2002State League One Cooma FCCanberra Olympic UCU Pumas1–0Canberra City
2003State League One O'Connor KnightsCanberra City Canberra White Eagles2–1O'Connor Knights
2004State League One Canberra White EaglesANU FC Canberra White Eagles2–0ANU FC
2005State League One ANU FCQueanbeyan City ANU FC4–1Queanbeyan City
2006State League One Queanbeyan CityTuggeranong United Queanbeyan City1–0Tuggeranong United
2007State League One Cooma FCSouthern Tablelands Canberra White Eagles3–1Cooma FC
2008State League One Southern TablelandsCooma FC Canberra White Eagles3–2Narrabundah
2009State League One Canberra White EaglesSouthern Tablelands Canberra White Eagles1–0Cooma FC
2010State League One Canberra White EaglesQueanbeyan City Queanbeyan City1–0Canberra White Eagles
2011State League One Canberra White EaglesO'Connor Knights Canberra White Eagles5–1ANU FC
2012State League One Canberra White EaglesQueanbeyan City Canberra White Eagles2–1Queanbeyan City
2013Capital League Canberra White Eagles (Group A)
Narrabundah (Group B)		ANU FC (Group A)
Queanbeyan City (Group B)		 Narrabundah0–0
(5–3)		Queanbeyan City
2014Capital League ANU FCCanberra White Eagles Weston Molongo2–0ANU FC
2015Capital League Monaro PanthersANU FC ANU FC1–1 (4–3)Canberra White Eagles
2016Capital League ANU FCCanberra White Eagles ANU FC6–3Queanbeyan City
2017Capital League ANU FCO'Connor Knights ANU FC5–1O'Connor Knights
2018Capital League Queanbeyan CityCanberra White Eagles ANU FC6–1Canberra White Eagles

Pre-NPL all-time record

Pre-NPL era Division 2 honours since 1967 till 2018, prior to the transition to NPL in 2019.

Premierships
ClubPremiershipsYears
Canberra White Eagles
7
1994, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Queanbeyan City
7
1973, 1978, 1988, 1993, 1995, 2006, 2018
ANU FC
6
1974, 1996, 2005, 2014, 2016, 2017
Cooma FC
4
1982, 2001, 2002, 2007
ADFA Vikings
2
1989, 1991
Monaro Panthers
2
1967, 2015
O'Connor Knights
2
1999, 2003
Burns FC
1
1977
AIS
1
1992
Balkan
1
1956
Burns FC
1
1984
Canberra FC
1
1981
Canberra Olympic
1
1990
Capital City Suns
1
1997
Latin America
1
1992
Narrabundah FC
1
2013
Polonia White Eagles
1
1980
RMC
1
1983
Southern Tablelands
1
2008
Tuggeranong United
1
1979
Weston Molongo FC
1
1987
Championships
ClubChampionshipsYears
ANU FC
8
1987, 1994, 2000, 2005, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
Canberra White Eagles
7
2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012
Queanbeyan City
5
1978, 1988, 1990, 1995, 2006
Burns FC
2
1977, 1997
Cooma FC
2
1996, 2001
UCU Pumas
2
1992, 2002
ADFA Vikings
1
1991
Canberra North
1
1981
Canberra Olympic
1
1989
Concordia Phillip
1
1979
Monaro Panthers
1
1967
Narrabundah FC
1
2013
Polonia White Eagles
1
1980
Weston Molongo FC
1
2014

See also

References
  1. "ACT Capital League Premiers and Champions list". www.socceraust.co.uk. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  2. Tiernan, Eamonn (1 August 2018). "Capital Football introduce NPL2 and promotion-relegation next season". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  3. Tiernan, Eamonn (3 August 2018). "NPL clubs slam Capital Football for introducing NPL2". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  4. "2019 NPL Applications open to clubs". Capital Football. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  5. Roberts, Lachlan (28 September 2018). "Capital Football announce teams for NPL1 and NPL2 with mixed reception from clubs". www.the-riotact.com. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  6. "NPL2 Appeal". Narrabundah FC. 8 November 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  7. "DECLARATION OF LEAGUES2019 NATIONAL PREMIER LEAGUES SENIOR" (PDF). Capital Football. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  8. Grey, Lachlan (15 November 2018). "Wagga City Wanderers formally depart Football NSW State League, shift to Capital Football NPL competition". www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  9. "National Premier Leagues – Mens". Capital Football. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  10. "Capital Football NPL Senior League Structure" (PDF). Capital Football. 1 August 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.