David Naylor retired but gives back to football

I was born in January 1953, in a place just outside Manchester. My early childhood years in England were spent in a place called Newton-le-Willows. I became an ardent Manchester United fan from a tender age and was a regular visitor to Old Trafford on game day from age 11. My father (George) and mother (Mavis) made the tough decision to migrate to Australia in February 1966 with three sons in tow - David (13), Martin (11) and Steven (18 months). When we settled in Balgownie in 1970, another son, Andrew was born.

Football has been in the DNA of the family for many years. George was a highly credentialled referee before becoming president of the old Illawarra Soccer Association in 1978 and subsequently served in that role for 18 seasons. He is an ISA life member. He actually changed the face of the Premier League in this area. The foresight he had in the 1970s and many of his ideas in terms of improving facilities were actually pinched by Football NSW at the time. My mum Mavis is also a life member of ISA after serving as a board member and doing a number of administrative roles. Steven has been a volunteer with Balgownie Rangers and Tarrawanna for more than 20 years. Andrew was a player for 30-plus years before following in the footsteps of dad and me with the whistle, culminating in refereeing the Illawarra Premier League (IPL) grand final in 2014, becoming the third member of the family to achieve the feat.

I have been involved in football here for 40-plus years. My first senior club was Unanderra in 1974. We won the league and cup double in 1975. Casey de Bruin was the coach and Larry Gaffney was part of the team. I moved to Tarrawanna in 1976 and we won the league. My five-year playing spell at Tarra from 1976 was definitely a highlight. We won the league, won a grand final, played in a couple of other grand finals, won a Bert Bampton Cup and I also represented Illawarra. After work (Commonwealth Bank) took me to the Shoalhaven area, I was a player-coach for Shoalhaven in the 1981-82 seasons.

We moved back to Wollongong in 1985 and I took up refereeing for a short while, before having another spell at coaching with Balgownie Rangers for four years from 1991. I then took up refereeing again. In 12 seasons of refereeing I refereed three IPL grand finals. Phil Torpey and I ran the lines in a National Youth League grand final at Parramatta Stadium and I refereed a NYL grand final as well. In 1999 I returned to coaching, but this time with Tarrawanna. During my five years there, winning the old first division grand final and securing promotion to the premier league was a highlight. I also had the opportunity to give my son Mathew his first start in first grade back in 2000. It was great to see Mathew win the league with Bulli in 2014.

In 2004 I was elected president of the old Illawarra Soccer Association. The first thing I did was change the name to Illawarra Football Association. The best thing that has happened in recent years is unification. I tried unsuccessfully to get the juniors on board in 2004. It's great Eddy De Gabriele and his FSC board have been able to get everyone under the one umbrella - it has created pathways right across the board from grassroots all the way to elite level. It's great that we are now being mentioned for A-League, W-League and NYL teams. I'm not sure if we will get the opportunity to be home to an A-League team but it would be great for the region if it happened.

In October last year I decided to retire from working full-time with FSC. I plan on working one day a week with them this year and possibly two if required. I also hope to do some youth-grade refereeing if my fitness is good. I also got back into long-distance running when I turned 60. I had run three marathons in the '80s and did my first one back last year. The first part of my move into retirement was a five-week trip to New Zealand with my wife Margo, who I've been married to for 37 years. We have two children (Sheree and Mathew) and three grandchildren, with another due any day now. Once the baby is here we plan on going to Thailand for a holiday.