In recent years, we have not had enough teams to run competitions for our older junior boys. Given numbers in our Boys 15s competition in 2023, it is unlikely that we will have enough for a stand-alone Boys 17s competition in 2024. We have not opened up registrations for the older boys division at this stage but you can still express your interest as follows:

• If you think you have enough (or thereabouts) for a team in Boys 17 years & under, please send an email to  newcastlejuniors@gmail.com so we can see if there is enough interest.
• If you are an individual (or a small group of friends) who is 16 or 17 in 2024 and would like to play, please follow the instructions under the players looking for a team section to register your interest.

If you are interested, please express your interest as soon as possible so we can consider all options. This might include combining Boys 15s and 17s into a single competition to allow our older junior boys to play.

Note: In limited circumstances, we may consider allowing a 16-17 year old to play in a 15 years & under junior team. Please send your request to newcastlejuniors@gmail.com for our consideration.

Alternatively, for those older juniors who are looking for an extra challenge, we do welcome you to consider joining teams in our senior competitions. Junior players who are 17 or under receive a reduced registration fee when registering into a senior team. See Seniors for more details on the senior competitons.

We have reserved dates on Sunday afternoons for potential make up games. These will only be used if there are excessive washouts. Any games on these afternoons would generally be played from 4pm or later. Please see our Draw section for more details on our washout policy.

In terms of location:

• 7s: Round 1 & 2 will be played at our main fields, Rounds 3 – 10 will be played at the extra fields and Round 11 will finish at our main fields.
• 9s: Most rounds and Finals will be played at our main fields. Some 9s games after the school holidays will be played at the extra fields but the Round 11 will finish at our main fields.

Fields for each game will be included on the draw. Please see our Location section for more details on where each field is located.

Games times for your team will be provided when the draw is finalised, however:

• Main fields: Any 7s or 9s games played at our main fields will be played at 4:45pm, 5:15pm or 5:45pm.
• Extra fields: Any games played at the extra fields will be played at 4:30pm, 5pm or 5:30pm.

MySideline is the official administration system of Touch Football Australia. It is used for team & player registrations, draws and results.

Prior to 2023, player registration involved a single fee but this is now represented as two separate fees: annual membership fee and player registration fee.

Annual membership fee

Touch Football Australia (TFA) is the governing body of touch football in Australia. They organise a number of things at a national level, including insurance for participants in touch football competitions. In the past, clubs have had to collect and pay TFA for insurance as part of our player registration fee. From 1 July 2023, this is paid directly to TFA during the registration process in MySideline. All participants will need to pay for their annual TFA membership before registering in a team. One benefit is for those that play in multiple competitions, you only need to pay this annual membership fee once per year. If you want more information about the new national membership model, please refer to:

• https://touchfootball.com.au/news/2023/04/05/tfa-announces-a-new-national-membership-model
• https://touchfootball.com.au/membership/membership-faqs/

Player registration fee

The remaining player registration fee is paid to Newcastle City Touch during the registration process. This covers our costs in running the competition. You can use an Active Kids Voucher to partially pay for this fee.

In order to manage within available capacity, we have limited the number of teams in all divisions. If there is no Register button available, it means that we have reached the limit in that division. You will need to add yourself to the waitlist for the division by either using the Get In Contact button or sending an email to newcastlejuniors@gmail.com

We will make any slots available to teams on the waitlist based on a first-come, first-served basis. Either way, we will let teams know as soon as possible whether we can include them in the competition or not.

During the team registration process, there is a screen shown which allows you to invite players to register. Don’t worry if you didn’t do that as you can do it later as well.

You will need the email sent to you from MySideline when the team was registered. It will look something like the following. The link will take you to a screen where you can enter the email details of your players and it will then send them a link to register into the team. Simple!

Some team managers like to use group chat tools like WhatsApp to keep in contact with their players but may not have their email addresses. To invite these players, refer to the previous question which includes an example of the team registration email. This email contains a link you can copy and post into your group chat.

If your team manager has invited you to register into the team, you will have received an email like this:

Clicking the link will take you to a MySideline page displaying the team you are invited to register into. Follow the instructions to register.

In 2020, Touch Football Australia implemented a new administration platform called MySideline. If you have previously registered on this platform, you will be able to reuse your profile. All others will need to complete a new player registration.

The team manager is our main contact to organise teams. Before the competition, you will help get players registered. As the competition progresses, you will ensure you can field a team each week.

For extra tips on team management and coaching of junior teams, please see Team Managers / Coaches of Junior Teams.

If we do not have enough teams in a division to run an independent competition, we may need to combine divisions. If so, we will do our best to ensure games are as evenly matched as possible.

The numbers of players on the field varies based on the age group:

• 7/9 Years & Under = 5 players on the field on a half size field.
• Older ages = 6 players on the field on a full size field.

Inevitably, not all players can make all games. To ensure that your team can play every week, we require the following minimum player registrations per team:

• 7/9 Years & Under = minimum 7 players (recommended maximum 9 players)
• Older ages = minimum 8 players (recommended maximum 10 players)

Teams are allowed a maximum of 14 players to be registered, however we suggest you do not exceed the recommended maximum to ensure that everyone gets sufficient game time each week.

You can register your team before you have confirmed the minimum number of players. Please let us know if you need more players at newcastlejuniors@gmail.com. If we have players looking for a team, we will ask teams to accept additional players if possible. If we reach full capacity with teams, we will expect teams with only the minimum number to accept an additional player if requested.

Please note: In touch football, players may substitute on the sideline at any time. Therefore, you can ensure that all players receive similar game time.

Team managers do not currently receive notifications as players register. However, MySideline does have a feature that allows access to the list of players registered in your team. When you register a new team, you will automatically be granted access as team manager. Please refer to this link for details on how to access MySideline Manager.

The age groups in our Junior Competition are specifically set to be aligned with the junior touch representative season.

For example, to be eligible to play in the 10s representative team in 2024/25, you must be 10 or under as at 31st December 2025. This means that everyone who is eligible to play in our 9 Years and Under competition (i.e. 9 or under as at 31st December 2024) is also eligible to try out for the 10s representative team.

Our preference is that all teams in a given competition are as evenly matched as possible. This provides a challenge to both teams in a game and is more enjoyable for all. For this reason, we are limiting the number of representative players able to register in a single team. We hope that team managers understand the purpose of this policy and ask that you assist when inviting players to join your team.

The policy is based on any player that represented Newcastle or another affiliate at the 2024 Peter Wilson Memorial Championships and/or 2024 Junior State Cup. Registrations are limited to no more than 4 representative players registered in any given team.

Notes on this policy:

• If a player registers in a team above the age group they are currently eligible for, they will not count towards the limit of representative players. For example, if a player was in a 12s rep team but is 12 this year, they are considered a representative player in the Junior Competition age group they are currently eligible for (i.e. 13s). If they choose to play in a higher age group (i.e. 15s), they are no longer considered in the representative player quota for that team.
• Selection of players in the current junior representative teams does not affect the current Junior Competition. However, if more than 4 players continue on to represent at JSC, this will restrict the ability of the team to play together in the next Junior Competition. The team would either need to split into two teams to ensure each team is within the representative player limit or play in a higher age group. If no higher age group is available in the junior competition, the team may consider joining a senior competition (subject to any entry criteria for that competition).
• If a team exceeds the limit during registrations, the options to resolve are to split into two teams to ensure each team is within the representative player limit or play in a higher age group.
• Individual circumstances may be considered on request in limited circumstances and depending on team registrations in a given age group. For example, if we only have four teams registered in a given age group, it may be necessary to increase the quota for this age group only.
• If you have read this far through the policy to check whether your team complies with it, please consider if it would be better for everyone to spread talent across more than one team. Entering a team that will win every week does not help to develop your players and is no fun for your opposition.

1. Register for your first team. This is the only team we can guarantee you will play in.
2. Send an email to newcastlejuniors@gmail.com with your name, the team you are registered in and the extra team you wish to register in. The committee will review and advise if you can register in the second team. You will still be entitled to the early-bird fee as long as your request is submitted before the close of the early-bird discount. There are no discounts for registering in a second team.

MySideline supports partial payment of the player registration fee using an Active Kids Voucher. You should be aware that Active Kids Vouchers can only be used once and that under no circumstances can we refund fees paid using an Active Kids Voucher.

No, there are no family discounts for multiple registrations.

There are no formal training times scheduled for teams in our junior competition. Some teams may wish to train but this will be organised as required by the team manager. Many teams do not train, however we do recommend a session or two for new teams to learn more about the game and each other.

We currently run one junior competition per year from September to December. Registrations for this usually open from late June.

Our senior competition in winter does sometimes offer juniors the opportunity to play social games with their families. Please like our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleCityKnightsTouch) to get updates on the upcoming competitions.

Organising a draw is very complicated. The draw can only be determined once team registrations are finalised so it is expected to be published in the week leading up to the first game. We will not know what divisions are playing at which times until then.

You should also be aware that game times either side of the school holidays may be different as we get access to extra fields after the school holidays.

For indicative purposes only, if we had the identical team numbers per gender / age as last year, the schedule might look like the following. Again, this will be entirely dependent on registrations:

• 7s: 4:30pm, 5pm, 5:30pm
• 9s: 4:45pm 5:15pm, 5:45pm, 6:15pm
• 11s: 4:45pm, 5:15pm, 5:45pm, 6:15pm
• 13s: 6:15pm, 6:45pm, 7:15pm
• 15s: 6:45pm, 7:15pm, 7:45pm
• 17s: 7:15pm, 7:45pm

You should be aware that requests for specific times due to other commitments are almost impossible to accommodate so please don’t be disappointed if we cannot meet your request.

Please see our location page for a field map.

We have surveyed participants in the past to understand their thoughts on our washout policy and, not surprisingly, there are a number of opinions on what we should do with washouts. This ranges from just cancelling rounds entirely if it rains compared to doing everything we can to make up games. However, the vast majority are happy with a policy where we try what we can to make up games within reasonable limits. We have designed our policy around this majority view.

For your reference, here are some other possibilities for make up games and why they are not considered in the policy:

• Double headers. We are already at full capacity on Tue nights, even with the extra fields. There is not enough capacity on Tue nights to play double headers.
• Another day. It is generally not practical to play on another day during the week due to other commitments. The best weekend option is later on Sunday afternoons, as per our policy.
• Extending further into December. From past experience, by extending further into December we would increasingly clash with other end-of-year activities, leading to mass team withdrawals.
• Extending into new year. Again from past experience, by extending into the new year we would increasingly clash with the commencement of winter sports, leading to mass team withdrawals.

We hope this explains why our policy is set as it is.

The way it works is simple for every game: