Dwindling numbers threatening to force Narrabri Elevens FC to pull the pin on the 2023 campaign

A player shortage is threatening to derail Narrabri Elevens FC’s hopes of fielding one team, let alone two, in the 2023 Namoi Soccer League campaign as the season quickly approaches.

The club has lost an abundance of players from last year’s senior squad who have either moved to other clubs in the competition, relocated to other towns or have simply decided to stop playing.

Club officials organised a barbecue at Gately Field on Sunday evening and invited anyone interested in joining the club to come along.

They were left disappointed as the turnout was a lot less than what was hoped for, and now they have told The Courier that they may have to make a tough call in the coming weeks.

They will host another kick around and barbecue dinner at Gately Field this Sunday, which they are hoping some more new faces come along to.

“It’s important to (enter at least one team in the Namoi Soccer League competition this year) because it’s quite hard to get it going again,” club vice-president and stalwart Chris Simmonds said.

“We’ve found it hard getting players this year, but hopefully there are some people out there hiding in the woodwork who might come out.

“We’ll try again this weekend, and it’ll probably be our last try, I think.

“It’s getting towards the business end now, and we’ll be leaving it too late otherwise. We need to get all the organisation, such as shirts and other things, sorted now.

“If you want to come and have fun and meet people, well that’s us really.

“We try and put fun first and then winning second.”

Narrabri Elevens FC club president Phoebe Schwager said that as well as players, the club was also in search of two coaches, one for first grade and another for reserve grade, along with a secretary and some more general committee members.

The club’s committee currently has just five people on it after it had a low turnout to the annual general meeting late last year.

“We held the barbecue to try and get some new recruits and encourage people to come down and play with us,” she said.

“It was a good afternoon, but it wasn’t the turnout that we hoped for.

“We’ll try again to try and get some more interest in the club and try to get some more players.

“Come along and have a go, and get to know us.

“We all like to think of each other as family, and as much as we like to be serious, we love to have fun.”

Schwager said that anyone of any ability was welcome to come along on Sunday.

She said that ideally, the club would enter two grades in the 2023 season, but it was pushing hard to make sure it could field at least one side.