Club Update.

A record number of Burwood teams are contesting Grand Finals and further investment in junior football.

We have a Club-record nine teams contesting Grand Finals this Saturday and Sunday.

The draw and venues are below, including back-to-back Burwood FC finals at Bennett Park this Sunday. Get along if you can and support all our teams – they will really appreciate it.

Good luck to all our Grand Finalists!

U14 Girls

Grand Finals Draw

Investing in junior football – new Coaching Director and structure in 2026

In 2026, we will have a new coaching and coordinating structure to support further our junior teams and the dedicated coaches and managers who work with them.

Tony Dunn has been appointed Coaching Director, bringing three decades of experience coaching players and teams of all ages. He will focus on our Under 6 to Under 12 boys and girls’ teams in supporting coaches with technical skills development.

Hebbat Manhy and Aideen Gallagher will be age coordinators for this group, with Meraj Huda supporting our teen boy teams on game and technical development. We expect to make an announcement regarding that role for our girls’ teen teams shortly.

Our aim is to support our coaches with any technical or training advice they want, boost junior player development, technical skills and have two teams in every division for boys and girls Under 13-19 football by 2028.

As part of that, we will be holding trials for Division 1 teams in November with details to follow.

Weather interruptions

The last few weeks of the season highlighted why the Club is pushing for an all-weather surface at Centenary.

The only training or games being played in recent weeks have been on all-weather surfaces. I have had one or two senior players at the Club tell me this season they’re not in favour of all-weather, but then happily play their games on other clubs’ all-weather surfaces.

Please remember it’s our junior players who miss out and don’t have games rescheduled when grounds are constantly closed - they are the future of our Club. We continue to talk with the Inner West Council to push for change.

Finally, on behalf of the Club committee and as the season concludes, I wanted to thank our 100 plus coaches and managers, the parents and supporters who set up, packed down and helped out and of course the 700 players across our Club.

Michael Makaritis

President – Burwood FC