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🇦🇺 Australia /Sports

Wests Tigers Owners Throw Financial Lifeline to Central Coast Mariners Women's Team

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • The Wests Tigers' owners, Holman Barnes Group (HBG), have provided a financial lifeline to the Central Coast Mariners women's soccer team.
  • HBG will take over the operation of the women's team, including its coaches and staff, after it faced an uncertain future.
  • The deal ensures the team's place in the upcoming A-League season, though securing sponsors remains a challenge.

The Central Coast Mariners women's soccer team has received a crucial financial lifeline from the Holman Barnes Group (HBG), a majority stakeholder in the National Rugby League's Wests Tigers. This intervention comes after the A-League squad faced an uncertain future, having been excluded from a previous takeover deal in June that only secured the men's team and academy.

We're super excited we can make that happen.

— Daniel PatonHBG chief executive, expressing enthusiasm about securing the team's future.

HBG's commitment involves taking over the operation of the women's team, including its coaches and staff. This move was essential to meet the A-League's July 31 deadline for securing an owner to guarantee the team's participation in the upcoming season, which begins in October. HBG chief executive Daniel Paton expressed excitement about making this happen, emphasizing a vision for a sustainable, high-performance program on the Central Coast.

Our vision is to establish a sustainable, high-performance A-League women's program on the Central Coast … while embedding long-term participation and development pathways for female footballers across NSW.

— Daniel PatonOutlining the goals for the women's team under HBG's ownership.

Despite the positive development, challenges remain. Paton acknowledged that the team is starting without any sponsors and will need to actively seek support from the local community. He also indicated that most games might be moved from Central Coast Stadium to a smaller, nearby venue. However, the plan is to keep the team's operations local, leveraging the large base of young players and existing academies on the Central Coast.

We're going into this without any sponsors at this stage.

— Daniel PatonAcknowledging the immediate challenge of securing financial backing.

This new deal brings renewed certainty to the club, which had been under the management of the Australian Professional League (APL) earlier this year after its former owner returned the license. Both the men's and women's teams had struggled in the previous season, finishing 9th and 7th respectively, although the women's team were the defending champions after winning the 2025 grand final. The decision has been welcomed by local officials, including Central Coast Mayor Lawrie McKinna, who highlighted the importance of the team as a pathway for young female players.

I guess I'm going reach out to local community and see how [it] can get behind this … because that's going to be the next challenge.

— Daniel PatonStating the need to engage the community for support.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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