After finishing the 2023 season as the Capital Premier League champions, Yoogali SC have started the 2024 campaign as the newest addition to the Capital Footall National Premier League fixture list.

Established in Griffith back in 1954, the club has now achieved their greatest milestone to date. As a result of their recent promotion comes a wave of new challenges for Yoogali as they take on the tiop tier of the Capital’s NPL teams.

With this promotion brings the return of Darren Bailey to the NPL also. After returning to Yoogali, the team that originally introduced him to the Australian football scene back in 2015, Bailey is now Assistant Coach of the team and has expressed his excitement for progression throughout the season.

“It’s exciting. It’s a big move for the club,” Bailey said. “Obviously, we’re taking that step up from the Capital Premier League and we are seeing that in the first few games. You can see it is a lot quicker, harder, and more intense, and the boys are now understanding of the level and where we have to go to get there.”

With every new opportunity and challenge comes a period of adjustment. After playing their first few rounds in the NPL, Yoogali have quickly realised that there is no room for error. Mistakes that could have passed in the CPL will now not go unpunished according to Bailey.

“The teams are always in it,” he revealed, “You make a mistake and they’re going to punish you and that’s been shown this week and last week. We make mistakes and the team will punish us.

“Having played at this level before you know that’s what to come. The boys are all seeing that and you know, hopefully we can take the positives out of a negative result, but the boys didn’t stop going and we managed to get the goal at the end which pushed us forward.”

Despite falling short early in the season, the Yoogali SC is determined to show off their ‘never say die’ attitude by reflecting on their past matches to improve for further rounds. The team acknowledges how important it is to not only worry about the opponent, but to also take a deeper look into their own side too.

“I think we just need to look at ourselves,” Bailey admitted. “Obviously you’re playing the opponent, but we have to focus on what we’re doing wrong to better ourselves in the future and move forward and do whatever is best for the club.”

In order to be a part of the competition, the long-distance team has had to make the sacrifice and commitment to travel a nine-hour round trip each fortnight. This not only shows dedication to their game, but also a devotion to make their hometown proud.

Moving forward, the up-and-coming team from Griffith are eager to prove that they aren’t just a bunch of small fish in a big pond. They want to prove that they can be a competitive force in this next level of the game.

“We hope to get results,” Bailey said. “We want to play good football and get good results that put the team back in winning form. It’s always what we all play for, everyone plays to win. We don’t just play to make up numbers.”