Knights NPL hopefuls progress along magical pathway

THE Gold Coast Knights’ blossoming partnership with junior club Magic United TFA could hold the key to their NPL fortunes in 2019 and beyond.

With the Knights ramping up preparations for their NPL introduction next year, the Football Gold Coast heavyweights joined forces with Magic at the beginning of the season to form a pathway from junior to senior ranks.

The relationship shapes as a key plank in the Knights’ blueprint for sustained success, with president Adrian Puljich hoping Magic can produce the club’s next generation of NPL stars.

“The beauty of our relationship is we are a genuine grassroots NPL feeder club set-up,” Puljich said. “You hear a lot of other NPL clubs talk about having affiliations but that’s just purely symbolic, we are actually intertwined with Magic United and our players come from that nursery.

“Magic United have the best coaching staff in Queensland, if not Australia. They have the best coaching programs, they have the best player development.

“A lot of the juniors that were at Magic last year and some of the senior players are now at Gold Coast United, so we wanted to tap into the resources of Magic United and capitalise on their programs and involve them in everything we do.

“Players don’t just come to the Gold Coast Knights and play, they actually have to go through the Magic program and from that program you then get selected to play for the Knights.

“The relationship we have incentivises players to achieve more because if you are playing well you do get promoted to the Knights and if you’re not or you’re injured you start back at Magic in the local competition and build yourself back up.”

The Knights will launch junior NPL trials next month.