Details of the Football Queensland junior representative programme have now been released and are available from the Football Queensland website here.  Trials will be held on Sunday 2nd and Sunday 9th March at a still-to-be-determined location.  We will post further details as and when they become available. 

The Rebel Sport Junior Premier League (JPL) replaces the previous representative programme in the Boys’ U12, U13, U14 & U15, and the Girls’ U13 age groups.  It will be a season-long series of home and away fixtures between the representative teams in each age group of Brisbane Zone (2 teams), South-West Queensland, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, and Far North Coast (New South Wales).  Following an impasse in discussions between Football Brisbane (FBI) and Football Queensland (FQ), the Brisbane Zone teams will now be administered by Football Queensland directly, though Football Brisbane will still contribute substantially to the teams. 

The first trials will be held on Sunday 2nd March, with selected players being invited to return for final selection trials on Sunday 9th March.  The first trials are “open” trials, the only proviso being that all players trialling must be registered with a club in the Brisbane Zone.  However, we would recommend that in order to avoid undue disappointment, players and their parents should be realistic about the standard expected by the selectors.  All players who wish to trial should monitor the FQand FBI websites for updates to the times and locations of trials.  We will also try to post them here as soon as they become available. 

As the JPL training and playing commitments will be very intense, players will not be permitted by FQ to play for their clubs on the same weekend as a scheduled representative fixture.  Whilst it is still theoretically possible for players to play JPL games in addition to occasionally playing for their clubs, we at The Gap want all our players to have a long and enjoyable playing career, and believe that it would be impractical and possibly risky for players’ long-term fitness and well-being to be expected to play both JPL and club fixtures.  It is also expected that representative training will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, which will prevent most players from training with their club squads.  Therefore, with the exception of “shadow” players who will mostly train and play with their club team, it will be our policy that any players selected for JPL representative teams will not be expected to play on their assigned club team.

Finally, we’d like to wish all those players who are going to give it a go every success.  And if you are successful, whilst we would be sad to lose your significant abilities, commitment and loyalty for the season, we want to assure you that the club values highly your past contributions, and would support your decision to take up this valuable opportunity to progress your football education.  We would look forward to welcoming you back in future seasons.