Its Friday 25th June, preparations are well underway for Round 12 of the competition. Just 3 points sits between 1st and 5th in the Men’s Premier League whilst a congested table between 3rd and 8th battle to stay in Semi Final contention with the two pacesetters Kellyville Kolts and Winston Hills in the inaugural Women’s Premier League. They are amongst the over 800 teams and a record-breaking 12,800 players participating in the largest ever Hills Football season.
Unfortunately round 12 was never to be played and we were presented with another COVID-19 lockdown resulting in the suspension of football. During the ever-extending lockdown the opportunity presented itself to engage via different means and platforms within the community. Over the course of this 5-month period, HFI coordinated over 14 Coach and Referee webinar series featuring a wide range of special guests and topics to further engage our community during this time.
Hundreds participated in the HFI Coach Education Webinars over the 3 Series. Special Guests included the likes of Warren Grieve and Nadine Shield (Football NSW), Lachlan Wales (Western United FC and Olyroos), Jake Goodship (Brisbane Roar A League Women), Kai Lammert (Pararoos), Pete Nowakowski (Australian Blind Football) and Peter Turnbull (NSW/Australian/Hills United Powerchair Football) to name a few.
The Referees Q&A series that were facilitated cover a variety of both development and educational courses delivered by HFI Referees Administration Officer Chris Codling but also featured special key speaker sessions with Football NSW’s Rob Nienenhaus, Emma Kocbek, A-League Assistant Referee Bradley Wright, and A-League Referee Kurt Ams. A total of 215 registrations were seen across the series.
Whilst no doubt they would have preferred to be on the pitch, the junior players were kept engaged by the HFI Development team and Western Sydney Wanderers Keanu Baccus encouraged our juniors to stay active and development some new and old skills. Skills sessions and challenges were provided via social media and general physical activity was encouraged by all. Including these activities and our Coach Development and Referee webinar series, HFI saw the highest ever engagement rates across all platforms.
HFI General Manager Matt Rippon is thrilled about the engagement levels stating that “it was important to continue engaging with all our members throughout the lockdown period. Football is all of our passions and whilst the preference was certainly to be out on the pitch; this provided a unique opportunity to showcase and expose all stakeholders to the various facets of the game with some memorable key speakers”
Hundreds across the community collectively came together to submit their support for the areas proposed Home of Football. Over 300 submissions from the broader football family were submitted in support of this exciting proposal and we thank the community for their efforts.
As the return to football commences; nearly 5,000 players across hundreds of teams will participate in the HFI Summer Football competitions across both HFI and Kellyville Kolts competitions. The HFI Men’s and Women’s Premier Leagues competition nominations have also been released; looking to pick up where 2021 left off with the some of the highest quality football in the region.
The Association is also excited to announce the ‘HFI Connect’ Series which will continue to provide insight and upskilling opportunities from our Coaching, Referees and Player Development areas. Webinars over the course of 2022 will be released soon so be sure to keep a look out.
