The positives and negatives of inaugural women's Premier League

Football South Coast created the new competition earlier this year in a landmark move away from the old format which did not give a direct pathway for girls from youth to seniors.

FSC floated the concept to local clubs last December, which received positive feedback. That plan was turned into a reality, and six clubs were confirmed for the inaugural competition - University of Wollongong, Albion Park White Eagles, Bulli, Shellharbour, Thirroul and Woonona.

The main idea behind the competition was to align it similar to the mens premiership with three grades (first, reserve and youth) at all clubs.

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The original announcement was met with great joy.

"It's definitely very exciting to see. I know Sydney has a comp like this - which is great - but it's good to have it locally now," Bulli's Claire Falls said in February.

"It all means that girls in the Illawarra a proper pathway program to go through, rather than not having anywhere to go after doing the junior grades."

After Woonona claimed the league championship the competition will now move into the finals format with the Sharks facing UOW and Shellharbour hosting Albion Park.

Woonona captain Morgan Anderson said she would have liked to have seen a different format, a four week system which is deployed in the mens.

"Unfortunately they've decided to go for a two-game finals series. So it will be first versus fourth and second versus third. Then the winners of those games will go through," she said.

"It is disappointing that it doesn't reflect the mens competition which is a three game series. I think that would be a better way for us to go moving forward. So hopefully they look at that moving forward and realise they've I think made a mistake with that."

Despite this, Anderson said overall that the Sharks had loved every minute of the new league on the journey so far.

"It's been awesome. We've always had a really good relationship across all three grades. That has been a strength of Woonona. So it's been a lot easier this year to have that squad mentality to be able to share across all three teams," she said.

"I think we've seen the womens competition take it up another gear. We're already a really strong competition in the Illawarra but this new format has enabled all clubs to see that improvement across grades and the quality has definitely improved when you watch all three grades.

"It's been great."

Shellharbour's coach Ron Fogerty agreed there were plenty of positives from his team's point of view.

"I think the fact that you've got all the grades playing back-to-back each weekend really provides a platform for that culture to be build in womens football in the area," he said.

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"We've been able to rotate and give those young players some experience within reserves and firsts, to develop them professionally but also it builds a strong relationship with their senior players."

The format has reaped the rewards in the lower grades with Shellharbour's youth team being crowned Football NSW State Champions last month.

Thirroul's squad made it to the semi-finals of the all age division in the knockout tournament. Speaking ahead of their eventual loss in the last four, Chloe Hocking she said that the change in format had helped their cup run.

"It's definitely helped us in State Cup," she said.

"A lot of the teams [in NSW] are still playing the old format with interchange rather than subs. A lot of our players are fit enough to run the 90 and then more if needed because we are used to it.

"We're now training as a squad rather than in separate teams. I think that it's been good especially for our women's club and how no matter what grade you are playing you can back up for either team. You're just building a large squad rather than individual teams and everyone gets along.

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"Everyone wants to help the team that needs players so some girls are playing two or three games a week when people are off. It's just good to see."

The finals will kick-off this weekend (August 27) with both games playing at the same time at Myimbarr Park. Shellharbour up against Albion Park and Woonona facing UOW.

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