Mr Parsons, from Taree, has pledged to visit every club in zone’s area by the end of January. Football Mid North Coast takes in clubs from Gloucester to South West Rocks. Mr Parsons and FMNC general manager Bruce Potter were in South West Rocks recently and he said they will work their way down the coast.

“Gloucester is am important member of our zone and they are certainly in our plans,’’ Mr Parsons from Taree said.

“We’ll certainly heading over there.’’

He was re-elected chairman at the FMNC annual meeting held on Sunday at Laurieton.

“John Hughes from Gloucester was at our annual meeting and we’ll be paying him a visit to see what we can do for our game in the Avon Valley area,’’ Mr Parsons confirmed.

He said it is possible that Gloucester could one day be represented in the Football Mid North Coast Premier League – the zone’s flagship competition.

Ten clubs from Forster-Tuncurry to Kempsey take part in the premier league. This began as the Oxley-Manning Premier League in 2000 before the merger of the Oxley and Manning associations. It is played in first and reserve grade.

Gloucester has never played in the competition.

“If Gloucester thought they had a strong-enough playing roster they would be well within their rights to apply,’’ Mr Parsons said.

He concedes there would be ‘geographical difficulties’ with a team from Gloucester but said this wouldn’t impact an any application from the Avon Valley.

The FMNC board has already limited the number of clubs in the premier league to 10. Clubs applying for inclusion have to comply with strict criteria and in the past have had to take part in promotion-relegation process.

Mr Parsons has described his drive to improve facilities throughout the zone – including Gloucester – as a ‘personal crusade’

“I will lobby local, State and federal governments for funding and allocation of more playing fields, funding to improve playing surface standards, more lit fields and far more recognition of the fact that our registered players out number some of the other football codes 6 to 1,’’ he said in his annual report to the FMNC annual meeting.

Mr Parsons was returned as chairman at the meeting as were directors Mark Woodward and Jonathon Newman. Incumbents are Michael Wallice, Jason Ryan, Tony Hill, Paul Berg, Paul Sandilands and Rick Naylor.  

Mr Parsons believes football has been the ‘poor cousins’ in terms of recognition of infrastructure and facilities locally.

“Despite being Australia’s number one participant sport continue to be out funded by other interests,’’ he claimed.

“To  further assist in that aim we have set up a grants assistance program headed by director Jason Ryan and will be developing templates, keeping clubs up to date with grant availability and assisting clubs in the preparation of applications if required.

“We have involved clubs from the largest to the smallest in the northern competition zones and southern competition zones in our working parties as we finalise our strategic plan for the future of our game in the short, medium and long term.’’