Cowra Senior Soccer Club has closed the book on a successful 2026 season, with president Drew Willis praising the players, coaches and committee members who kept the club competitive across its grades.

From another grand final appearance for the women to the continued development of the club’s other senior sides, Willis said there was plenty to be pleased about when looking back on the year.

“The whole season was a success, really,” Willis said.

“Obviously, you had the women go into another grand final, and then all the other teams did really well in their respective seasons as well.”

The Women’s A Grade side again provided one of the major highlights, reaching its third consecutive grand final after winning back to back premierships in the previous two seasons.

While the women were ultimately unable to complete the three peat, their return to the decider came during a rebuilding season in which several familiar players were unavailable.

Willis said the club remained competitive despite those changes.

“We lost a few of the women, with some recruits kind of falling through during the season as well,” he said.

“But all in all, we remained competitive and everybody had fun.”

Elsewhere, the club’s A Grade men missed out on progressing further but Willis believed there were still plenty of positives from their season under coach Adam Gambrill.

“Unfortunately, A Grade didn’t make the cut, but they still had a successful season under coach Adam,” he said.

The club’s C Grade ranks also benefited from new coaching involvement, with Ed Galea coming on board to guide the side.

Willis said having a strong group of people willing to take responsibility for the different teams had been one of the highlights of the year.

“Having a good coaching array with Mitchell and Adam, and then Ed coming on as coach as well for the C Grade boys, was good to have somebody in charge,” he said.

The club’s C Grade players remained competitive and were also able to experience finals football through the Orange District Football Association’s divisional finals system.

“The boys had a lot of fun,” Willis said.

“They were competitive a lot of the season, which just unfortunately didn’t make the cut for the top of their grade final.

“But they still got to experience the finals sensation with the C2 final system that the ODFA run.”

While much of the attention throughout a soccer season naturally falls on what happens on the field, Willis said his greatest source of pride in 2026 came from behind the scenes.

A change in his own work commitments meant he was unable to be as heavily involved throughout the season as he had been in previous years.

Instead, other members of the committee stepped forward.

“Probably just the committee, really,” Willis said when asked what made him most proud.

“Obviously, it’s been a pretty busy year for myself, and I’ve had to kind of put soccer on the back burner this year personally.

“Just having everybody around the committee pick up the slack has been really good.”

Those commitments also meant Willis did not see every stage of the playing groups’ development firsthand, but the feedback reaching him throughout the season remained consistently positive.

“I haven’t been super present during the year, but I’ve heard really good things week in and week out,” he said.

“Just good reports from spectators and committee members and players and coaches and stuff like that.

“It’s just been a really great year all round.”

Off the field, Willis described the club’s membership and volunteer involvement as relatively stable.

The core committee has remained largely unchanged over recent seasons, while encouragingly, new faces have begun emerging through the junior ranks and into senior football.

“We’ve had pretty much the same committee for the last few years running, and then obviously a few new faces coming up through the junior sport and the C Grade, which is good,” Willis said.

“We want to keep those juniors flowing through.”

Maintaining that pathway will be particularly important as the club begins looking beyond 2026.

Willis said keeping player numbers coming through the system would be one of Cowra’s main priorities heading into next season, alongside improving the club’s training arrangements.

“The main goal would probably be organising a better training situation, and then obviously just keeping the numbers flowing into the next coming years, really,” he said.

Like many regional sporting organisations, Cowra also encountered challenges during the year.

Among them were issues surrounding referees, which Willis said the club worked through alongside the Orange District Football Association and its referee body.

“There’s referee issues and stuff like that, but we just worked with the ODFA and the ODFRA, which is the referee committee, on the best way to navigate those systems,” he said.

“We still managed to have a successful season out of it.”

Willis was particularly keen to recognise the people who helped make that season possible.

He thanked the club’s coaching group, including Gambril, Mitchell Thompson and Galea, for their work with their respective teams.

He also acknowledged Courtney Booth, who helped coordinate the women’s side while contributing to the wider committee.

“Courtney Booth, she coordinated the women’s team this year, she did a great job, and she’s also done a lot of the committee stuff as well this year,” Willis said.

Caity Brown was another who took on additional responsibilities, particularly while Willis was balancing his work commitments.

“Caity Brown, my fiancée, she picked up a lot of my slack this year with organising training and getting gear to games and stuff like that,” he said.

Those contributions summed up what Willis considered one of the greatest strengths of Cowra Senior Soccer Club in 2026.

Results varied between the grades and not every team finished the year where it had hoped, but strong participation, competitive football and a committee willing to share the workload kept the club moving forward.

With another season now complete, attention will gradually turn towards 2027 and the challenge of retaining players, welcoming the next group coming through the junior ranks and giving Cowra’s teams the best possible environment to continue developing.

For Willis, however, the foundations are already there.