# 2023 National Premier Leagues NSW

The 2023 NPL NSW Men's is the eleventh season of soccer in New South Wales under the banner of the National Premier Leagues and the first season under the revised competition format. The season began on 3 February 2023 and is scheduled to conclude on 27 August.
Sydney Olympic are the defending premiers and Blacktown City are the defending champions.

## Promotion and relegation

Teams promoted from the 2022 NSW League One
* Central Coast Mariners Academy
* St George City
* Western Sydney Wanderers Youth
* NWS Spirit FC

### Stadiums and locations

| Team | Head Coach | Location | Stadium | Capacity |
| APIA Leichhardt | Franco Parisi | Leichhardt | Lambert Park | 7,000 |
| Blacktown City | Mark Crittenden | Blacktown | Blacktown City Sports Centre | 7,500 |
| Bulls FC Academy | Zeljko Kalac | Northbridge | Sydney United Sports Centre | 12,000 |
| Central Coast Mariners Academy | Abbas Saad | Gosford | Pluim Park | 2,000 |
| Mt Druitt Rangers | Stewart Montgomery | Mount Druitt | Popondetta Park | 2,500 |
| Marconi Stallions | Peter Tsekenis | Fairfield | Marconi Stadium | 9,000 |
| Manly United | Patrick Zwaanswijk | Dee Why | Cromer Park | 5,000 |
| NWS Spirit FC | David Perkovic | North Sydney | Christie Park | 1,000 |
| Rockdale Ilinden | Paul Dee | Rockdale | Rockdale Ilinden Sports Centre | 5,000 |
| Sydney FC Youth | Jimmy Van Weeren | Moore Park | Valentine Sports Park | 4,000 |
| Sydney Olympic | Labinot Haliti | Belmore | Belmore Sports Ground | 20,000 |
| Sutherland Sharks | Damir Prodanovic | Sutherland | Seymour Shaw Park | 5,000 |
| St George City | Mirko Jurilj | St George | Peakhurst Park | 1,000 |
| Sydney United | Miro Vlastelica | Edensor Park | Sydney United Sports Centre | 12,000 |
| Western Sydney Wanderers Youth | Andrew Christiansen | Blacktown | Wanderers Football Park | 4,500 |
| Wollongong Wolves | David Carney | Wollongong | WIN Stadium | 22,000 |

### Managerial changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
| Bulls FC Academy | Mile Sterjovski | Promoted to full time | 23 January 2023 | Pre-season | Zeljko Kalac | 28 January 2023 |
| CCM Academy | Luke Wilkshire | Signed by Socceroos | 14 February 2023 | 12th | Lucas Vilela (interim) | 17 February 2023 |
| CCM Academy | Lucas Vilela (interim) | End of caretaker spell | 24 February 2023 | 13th | Abbas Saad | 25 February 2023 |

## Foreign players

| Team | Visa 1 | Visa 2 | Non-visa foreigner(s) | Former players |
| APIA Leichhardt | Florent Indalecio | Jason Romero | | Diego Celis |
| Blacktown City | Charles Mendy | Tatsuya Kato | Danny Choi$^1$ | Mitchell Mallia$^2$ |
| Bulls FC Academy | | | | |
| CCM Academy | | | Zac Zoricich$^2$ | |
| Mt Druitt Rangers | Júnior Sena | Kotaro Katsuta | | |
| Marconi Stallions | Hiroaki Aoyama | | | |
| Manly United | Seiya Kambayashi | Bruno Mendes | Marcus Lal$^2$ | |
| NWS Spirit FC | Kôta Odakura | Luiz Lobo | Musashi Kokubo$^2$ | |
| Rockdale Ilinden | Diego Celis | Loïc Puyo | Nicola Kuleski$^2$ Iain Ramsay$^2$ | |
| Sydney FC Youth | | | | |
| Sydney Olympic | Ziggy Gordon | Fábio Ferreira | Roy O'Donovan$^1$ | |
| Sutherland Sharks | Takahide Umebachi | | Fumoto Kamada$^2$ | |
| St George City | Pedro Ferrari | Franco Maya | | |
| Sydney United | Taisei Kaneko | | Leroy Jennings$^2$ | |
| Western Sydney Wanderers Youth | | | | |
| Wollongong Wolves | Banri Kanaizumi | Takumi Ofuka | Chris McStay$^1$ | |
The following do not fill a Visa position: $^1$Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian citizenship $^2$Australian citizens who have chosen to represent another national team;

## Regular season

The 2023 season is a double round-robin format, with each team playing 30 games. The season started on 3 February, and is scheduled to conclude on 27 August.

### Table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | APIA Leichhardt (C) | 30 | 20 | 5 | 5 | 64 | 35 | +29 | 65 | |
| 2 | Rockdale Ilinden | 30 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 60 | 45 | +15 | 59 | |
| 3 | Blacktown City | 30 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 59 | 33 | +26 | 57 | |
| 4 | Marconi Stallions | 30 | 17 | 5 | 8 | 64 | 35 | +29 | 56 | |
| 5 | St George City | 30 | 14 | 9 | 7 | 62 | 40 | +22 | 51 | |
| 6 | Sydney FC Youth | 30 | 14 | 4 | 12 | 49 | 52 | −3 | 46 | |
| 7 | Wollongong Wolves | 30 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 57 | 43 | +14 | 43 | |
| 8 | Manly United | 30 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 41 | 43 | −2 | 42 | |
| 9 | Sydney Olympic | 30 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 51 | 53 | −2 | 39 | |
| 10 | Sydney United | 30 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 42 | 48 | −6 | 39 | |
| 11 | NWS Spirit | 30 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 40 | 53 | −13 | 39 | |
| 12 | Central Coast Mariners Academy | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 42 | 57 | −15 | 33 | |
| 13 | Western Sydney Wanderers Youth | 30 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 52 | 61 | −9 | 31 | |
| 14 | Sutherland Sharks | 30 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 21 | 35 | −14 | 31 | |
| 15 | Mt Druitt Town Rangers (R) | 30 | 6 | 5 | 19 | 31 | 61 | −30 | 23 | Qualification to Relegation play-off |
| 16 | Bulls FC Academy (R) | 30 | 3 | 6 | 21 | 24 | 65 | −41 | 15 | Relegation to 2024 NSW League One |

### Fixtures and results

| Home \ Away | APT | BCT | BUL | CCM | MAN | MAR | MTR | NWS | ROC | SOL | STC | SUD | SUT | SYD | WSW | WOL |
| APIA Leichhardt | — | | 2–2 | 1–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 5–0 | 6–0 | 3–0 | | 1–2 | 1–0 | | 2–1 | 3–0 |
| Blacktown City | 2–4 | — | 4–1 | 4–1 | | 3–1 | 4–1 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 5–1 | | | 2–0 | 3–0 | 0–0 | |
| Bull FC | 1–2 | | — | 1–1 | | 1–4 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 1–1 | | 1–1 |
| CCM Academy | 1–2 | 0–1 | 4–2 | — | | 2–0 | 1–4 | 4–2 | | 2–2 | | 2–1 | 2–2 | 2–1 | 1–3 | 2–2 |
| Manly United | | 0–2 | 3–2 | 2–0 | — | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 2–0 | 2–1 | | 2–1 | | 0–3 |
| Marconi Stallions | 1–1 | 2–0 | | | 3–1 | — | | | 3–1 | | 2–3 | 2–1 | 0–2 | 5–0 | 3–3 | 1–0 |
| Mt Druitt Town Rangers | 1–2 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 1–2 | | — | 0–0 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | |
| NWS Spirit | | 3–2 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 0–2 | 3–1 | — | 0–1 | 0–0 | 2–2 | | 2–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 5–4 |
| Rockdale Ilinden | 1–2 | | | | 2–0 | | 1–0 | | — | 3–1 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 2–0 | 4–2 | 5–1 | 0–4 |
| Sydney Olympic | | 1–3 | 1–0 | 1–3 | 2–2 | 2–4 | | 1–1 | 0–2 | — | 0–0 | | 3–0 | 1–2 | 3–1 | 2–2 |
| St George City | 1–2 | 2–2 | 4–1 | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–2 | | 3–0 | 3–4 | 1–0 | — | 0–1 | | 3–4 | 4–2 | 5–3 |
| Sydney United | 1–3 | 1–0 | 0–0 | | 2–0 | 3–1 | | 2–2 | 3–3 | 0–1 | | — | 2–1 | 0–1 | 3–6 | |
| Sutherland Sharks | 0–1 | 0–1 | | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | — | 0–0 | | 0–3 |
| Sydney FC Youth | 4–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 4–2 | | | 2–3 | 2–2 | 1–0 | | — | 0–1 | 2–1 |
| WSW Youth | 2–2 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–4 | | | 3–3 | 3–2 | 1–2 | 3–4 | 0–1 | | — | 2–2 |
| Wollongong Wolves | 2–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | | | 0–4 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 1–3 | | 1–2 | 0–0 | 2–0 | | | — |

### Festival of Football

The third edition of the Festival of Football was played on 23 April, featuring Inner West rivals and former NSL clubs APIA Leichhardt and Sydney Olympic with their playing against each other. This featured youth, women's and men's matches. Additionally, a legends match was also included, which featured former players such as Ernie Campbell, Marshall Soper, Jean-Paul de Marigny, Milan Blagojevic, John Buonavoglia, Nick Rizzo, Mark Byrnes, Robert Younis, Peter Katholos, Pablo Cardozo, Robbie Hooker, Zlatko Nastevski and Paul Henderson.
The feature match was the Men's NPL match, part of Round 12 of the National Premier Leagues NSW. Coming into the match APIA had won all eleven previous league matches.

## Relegation play-offs

All times are AEST (UTC+10).

### Second leg

St George FC won 2–1 on aggregate. Therefore, St George are promoted to the NSW NPL, while Mt Druitt Town are relegated to the FNSW League One.

## Regular season statistics
### Top scorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Alec Urosevski | Rockdale Ilinden | 27 |
| 2 | Roy O'Donovan | Sydney Olympic | 18 |
| 3 | Jak O'Brien | Blacktown City | 17 |
| 4 | Jordan Swibel | Marconi Stallions | 15 |
| 5 | Jack Armson | APIA Leichhardt | 14 |
| 5 | Jack Stewart | APIA Leichhardt | 14 |
| 5 | Patrick Antelmi | Sydney United | 14 |
| 8 | Lachlan Scott | Wollongong Wolves | 13 |
| 9 | Christopher Payne | Sydney United | 11 |
| 9 | Presley Ortiz | St George City | 11 |
| 9 | Travis Major | Blacktown City | 11 |

### Hat-tricks

| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
| Jason Romero$^4$ | APIA Leichhardt FC | Rockdale Ilinden FC | 6–0 (H) | 12 February 2023 |
| Jak O'Brien | Blacktown City FC | Mt Druitt Town Rangers FC | 4–1 (H) | 5 March 2023 |
| Sean Symons | APIA Leichhardt FC | NWS Spirit FC | 5–0 (H) | 6 May 2023 |
| Harry McCarthy | Manly United FC | APIA Leichhardt FC | 4–0 (H) | 22 July 2023 |

#### Notes

* $^4$ Player scored 4 goals
* (H) – Home team
* (A) – Away team