'We want to hear what they want': players lead Yoogali FC Association jump

With back-to-back men's premierships under their belts and a hunger to play in a stronger competition, Football Wagga approved the club's bid to join the association last week.

Vice president Ross Marando said players led the charge to move competitions.

Listening to what players in both the men's and women's teams were calling for, Marando expects the move to be a positive one.

"It's very important for the players to also have a voice, it's not just that we're delegating what to do, and [saying] this is what you've got to do and that's it," Marando said.

"We're a very young club, both on the field and off the field, me only being 34 and being the vice president and coaching, we're a very young team and we try to work together to see what [players] want us to do for them.

"We want to hear what they want to do and what will make them better.

"Then we try and make that happen because when I was playing, I had a lot of help from older people doing this for me, so we're all working together to make it a really strong club.

"We've had a couple years now where we've tried to get in and now we've had a successful application which is great."

After being accepted into both women's and men's first grade, and men's second grade, Yoogali is the eighth out-of-town club admitted into the association.

With Griffith clubs in rival codes already playing in Wagga-run competitions, he said joining Football Wagga was an obvious choice.

"We feel it's a different competition and a different challenge for us to go towards, we're seeing competitions evolve into Riverina competitions when we look at AFL, Grififth and Wagga have now combined," he said.

"It gives a stronger competition, you've got more teams, more people to play, more opportunities, it's something we thought was the right time for us [to do] and we're happy it's finally come about.

"Our men's team... they're excited and ready to go, built around a very young squad around 22 and 23-year-olds and our women's team is now back this year which is really exciting.

"They've been asking to go back to 11-a-side and they're really excited, our girls have always said that we have fun doing it, but we love to play competitive soccer as well, but they haven't had that the past year or two."

While the coaching line-up is yet to be officially formalised by the club, Marando is confident he will fulfil a promise made several years ago.

"I did make a promise to the boys that if we ever did get into here, that I would try to lead them out there and the club and the players have really got around me," he said.

"It's a very exciting time for us, we're very happy to be a part of it, we're really happy to join the Wagga competition."

The club first applied for access to the competition in 2020.

Yoogali will not be alone as additions to either the Leonard or Pascoe Cup competitions in 2024.

Henwood Park announced in mid-2023 they would return to both top grade competitions this season, while Charles Sturt and Lake Albert will also join the women's first grade fixture.