NATHAN SILVY has been appointed the head-coach of Coffs City United Lionesses for the 2023 season, the club he represented from the age of six.

It’s a big coup for the club and a natural progression for Silvy who has won everything in local football as a player and a coach.

“I’ve been involved with Coffs United pretty much all my life,” he said.

“I started as a six-year-old and played right through to senior men and also coached from MiniRoos to senior men and now moving towards the women.”

Last year Silvy guided North Coast Football under 16s to the Boys NPL Northern NSW premiership.

“We had a great team, they were certainly very well committed to the process and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at North Coast Football.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge of coaching the women’s team and I think it’s going to be a really exciting year.

“We’ve got some good young players coming through and there’s players who have been there from past seasons that are very good players.”

Jordan Maddalena broke into the senior team aged fifteen and now at the age of 20 is the club captain and helping the next generation of players make the transition to senior football.

“It’s going to be exciting, there’s gonna be a few new faces so it’ll be different from last year, hopefully it’s a good difference,” she said.

The women’s competition has been dominated by Urunga and Boambee over the past few years, a fact which the captain is acutely aware of.

Last year the Lionesses lost to Boambee in the semi-finals after extra-time, but this season they are looking to go one step further with the help of juniors breaking into the senior team.

“There’s a lot of encouragement for the younger girls coming through.

“The future of the club needs to start somewhere and we’ve gotta build it up somewhere.

“I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job of that so far, and hopefully for the years to come, it’ll be a very strong competition for us girls,” said Maddalena.

Prolific striker Ally Gadd is looking forward to the challenge of breaking the status quo in Women’s League One.

“There’s definitely gonna be some changes which will be good for the club.

“I would love to see us beat at least one of those (Urunga or Boambee) teams.

“I’m hoping to play striker again and yeah, definitely working with the team more and getting more goals,” concluded Gadd.

By David WIGLEY