Team and individual Registrations are open for our Summer 2026-27 touch football (also called touch rugby) competition, located in Melbourne’s heart: Princes Park on Wednesday and Thursday evenings

Full information on the season is available here:

https://princesparktouch.com/about/summer/

To enter a team or join as an individual follow these instructions:

Individuals

If you are an individual or small group without a team, wishing to be placed into team please use our Individual Players form and follow the instructions.Every year we place large numbers and there is no cost for placement.

New Teams

To enter a new team (i.e. a team that has not played with us before). Please ensure you have familiarised yourself with this seasons competition. Then download and complete the following Team Registration Form and email it to: info@princesparktouch.com.

If you have not collected all your players details do not worry (we will send you a link where you can add additional names later), just ensure the following are details are recorded:

• Team name
• Captains or primary contacts details (phone number and email)
• Approximate standard of team, note your actual grade will be determined over the grading round(s)

Once we have received your form we will hold a place for you in the competition.

Please note team entries of new mens teams are temporarily on hold while I confirm with long standing existing teams (as we always preference long standing teams as they are current members).

Existing teams

Please send us an email and we will reactivate your team for the upcoming season.

Or for any other enquiries please contact Pete on:

• Peter Shaw (Mob) 0414 315 957
  E-mail: info@princesparktouch.com

All teams play

The most important point, for those teams who are new, is that if your team misses finals, your season is not over. All teams play in week 17 and week 18, whether they are playing finals or not (those missing finals are playing friendlies), as per the player members faq we fixture and expect all teams to play as participation and socialising are far more important than the result.

Draws

The draw for week 17 – mixed semi finals and friendlies (for everyone else) is here:

Draw: https://princesparktouch.com/social-competition/wednesday-draw/

Uniforms

Please make sure your team is in uniform, we will be making sure referees are enforcing the penalty provisions for teams not in uniform in finals (as they should have been since week 3).

https://princesparktouch.com/membership/#lh_faq_shortcode-list-62177

Team Lists

If you are team captain of a team playing finals please review your team list. It can found like this. Only those on the team list, who’ve played 4 games, and are a member of Princes Park Touch Association can play finals matches (exemption may be granted on request).

I suspect many teams have players who have not yet done their membership onboarding, those who have not should start here:

https://princesparktouch.com/register/

I strongly advise you to get everyone to do it as they will be removed from the field until they have. If someone believes they have completed but are not appearing on the team list feel free to get them to reach out to me directly.

Get along to the pub

A reminder to socialise after the match, either bring some refreshments to drink in the park, or grab a voucher , they are available win or lose, and get along to our Winter sponsor the Wild Geese Hotel

End of season breakup/presentation night

Please schedule a team dinner now for our final week (week 18 – Wednesday the 02nd of September). Attendance is expected for all mixed teams playing in grand finals and highly encouraged for everyone else. All teams will be playing that week, and we shall likely arrange an extra field to avoid the late slot. Presentations and will kick-off at the end of the night.

So lock in dinner at the Wild Geese that night, it is always a great night.

See you all on the field

Week 17 and 18

This is week 16, weeks 17 and 18 are our last two weeks. A grade finals have already started a hybrid arrangement, B grade finals start tonight, and C, D grade start next week. The structures are detailed on the website. Most importantly we emphasise participation so teams not playing finals still play in week 17 and 18, so this is not the final week for any team.

We also suggest you lock in a team dinner at the Wild Geese Hotel for week 18 for our presentations. It is always a great night.

SWITCH

Also of a reminder of our amazing women’s program, SWITCH. For any female that may want to learn the game or just improve.

Details are on the website: https://princesparktouch.com/individual-players/switch/

Spread the word!

We all wish you all the best amigo

However we are also conscious of the distance factor from our Winter fields. Our ideal venue is one where we can all socialise together within walking distance and the Wild Geese Hotel has approached us to be our Winter pub sponsor. It is 400 metres away and offer a similar jug arrangement to the GNH.

We shall be offering vouchers to BOTH pubs tonight and next week before we make a final decision

As we want all teams socialising together and to take ownership of this decision, so I the below poll.

Please understand:

1. team captains are required to vote (ie for them its not optional), everyone else is also welcome to vote too (but not required).
2. Comments are encouraged and a vote with a comment may be weighed more heavily
3. Your vote is confidential (only the committee can see it)

She has her a hobby/business making crochets and other crafts and she’s usually around the fields helping out. So you want your own amazing beanie reach out to her

Summer 2025-26

All in all a great season, here are the things I want to touch on.

Membership

This season we embraced membership legally and I think it was largely it was a success. 629 people spent 5 minutes to understand what we are about and agree to support that. That is a little short of the 700 odd regular players over Summer but nevertheless huge and given its once per lifetime most of the main is behind us.

That being said the process need to change to become less boring and more straight forward. My startup will work on that and like everything it is a work in progress where feedback helps.

Growth

Was our largest every season and combined with Winter 2025 we are now comfortable the largest touch organisation in the state. 10 years ago we were the 04th biggest. This fills me with both joy, sadness, and worry.

Joy because we’ve almost tripled in size in 10 years. From around 23 teams playing only in Summer to over 60 in Summer and depending on how you count it 24 or 32 in our last Winter season. Being the biggest was a long term aim and we’ve achieved it.

Sadness because at the same time adult touch in this state (outside of PPT) has been shrinking and in some cases dramatically. There are many reasons for this but two I’ll touch on are that the the governing body has had huge staff turnover and secondly has not prioritised participation amongst adults outside of the higher levels.

Worry because PPT has always attracted players from elsewhere are we have a much better culture and environment. This however will not happen as much if people are not playing at all

Culture

This is for me the most important aspect. And the aspect we may have gone backwards this season. As you hopefully appreciate our aims are not touch. For us touch is the tool for fun and friendship. Yet this season I did get an inkling for many the emphasis was more on touch. This was not based on much beyond a general vibe and the fact that mixed team numbers were down (men’s were well up) But it is a slight concern

I’d really be interested on your thoughts on this, what can we change or do better?

Photos

I have not publicised them as much this season (my bad), but we captured every team formally and informally as is our tradition. To summarise this I have created galleries of each night and the team images link through to an archive of all the teams photos. These archives go back many years for some of the longer standing teams.

Wednesdays are here:

https://princesparktouch.com/2026/03/25/formal-photos-of-all-wednesday-teams-2025-26/

Thursday mens are here:

https://princesparktouch.com/2026/03/25/formal-photos-of-all-thursday-mens-teams-2025-26/

and Thursday mixed are here:

https://princesparktouch.com/2026/03/25/formal-photos-of-all-thursday-mixed-teams-2025-26/

Anyway thanks for being part of our Summer season, as someone who organises a team I know it can be challenging but rewarding. There were some issue with field markings and not everyone understood the expectations of membership but overall a success I think

But there is no point blowing smoke up our own backside. So if there is anything that you or your teammates think we can improve upon or any feedback we REALLY want to know. Email or call is fine or call or you anonymous feedback form here:

We are a competition that is run for and by its members (which includes the current players and referees) so please pass it on to your teammates. At the start of the season you all agreed to provide 5 minutes feedback but my startup has not completed the technical side on this. But I’d strongly urge you/anyone on your team to let us know and we are going to incentivise this a bottle of sparkling for every team that has someone provide feedback

I am a huge believer in constructive criticism so don’t hold back.

Now onto the future:

SWITCH Autumn 2026

The second module of our women’s program SWITCH starts on Wednesday the 15th of April. The free program teaches basic fitness, ball skills and an introduction to game play with the emphasis on having fun in what we believe is the best game. We supply everything, all participants need to bring is their boots. More info and rego here:

Please circulate to the women in your team or the women in your life as it is an amazing program.

Winter 2026

Rego’s are open for our Winter season, all the details are on the website:
https://princesparktouch.com

Three important things though

If you have not yet registered, start rallying troops. Best not to leave this to the last moment. If you are not entering a team but have players who are still keen to stay involved please put them in touch with me and I´ll find them a home. This is important as we are a touch community here in the inner north.If you are considering entering a team and need extra players let me know and I’ll send some through (I have a long list already).

Regardless hopefully see you over Summer as we fire up the BBQ in Summer back in Princes Park.

Pete

All teams shots from our Thursday 2025-26 mens Summer season. Each image links through to a gallery that contains all photos for that team over all seasons. Many great ones for the longer standing teams

As our Summer 2025-26 season draws towards the climax we acknowledge our major sponsor StoreLocal.
Hopefully you noticed the flags of StoreLocal Northcote flying on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Everyone needs storage at some point in their lives (even touch associations), these guys are the best in the business. 10% off for PPT members.

This week we are going to address membership again, just slightly different!

Membership

As regular players in our competition you are expected to become members of Princes Park Touch Association.

Teams are already missing bonus points due to not having enough on boarded and when finals start only members will be able to play in finals.

This is urgent so get it done if you’ve not already. The whole process takes 5 minutes which is nothing in the scheme of the season you are playing or the 20 seasons we hope you play.

Any questions?

Therefore if you’ve not done so already please start the onboarding process here.

https://princesparktouch.com/register/

The whole process end to end takes 4-6 minutes and only need to be done once ever. All captains have already done this so most bugs should be ironed out. But it is by no means a finished product. So any feedback psychologically for our association and technically for my startup is much appreciated.

Who needs to do this?

Every regular player in our mixed and men’s competitions.

Please parents should onboard their children. We suggest the use of plus emails for children so that all communications are directed to the parent, more info here.

Is this new?

Only in an administrative sense. The purpose of our association has not changed nor have the principles and processes listed in the FAQ. Previously captains would undertake to ensure the whole team were familiar with them. We are now making that agreement explicit

Why are we doing this?

There are two main reasons (and many other minor ones) namely:

1. To be legally compliant with the law and our constitution. Whilst most clubs don’t do this properly that is no excuse we aimt to be (and believe we are) the best social sporting organisation in Australia. Part of that is proper compliance
2. To ensure every player is actually aware of and supports our aims and processes. Whilst most captains did a reasonable job on ensuring this, it has not been 100% and that was not ideal.

How are we going to enforce this?

This will be hard as we will need to onboard another 500 odd regular players to the 120 who have already done so. This will require the assistance of our captains. To enforce and incentivise this there will be a number of approaches.

• Once I’ve done the final grading split in the new year any team with at least 8 players will get a bonus point every week until finals
• All fixtures and some other content will require the user to be logged in and a member.
• We will periodically check games and any team with more than two players who are not members are have not previously flagged this with the committee will not be able to win the game.
• Only teams that have at least 8 PPT members will be allowed to play finals and only PPT members will be allowed to play finals.

I actually hate having to use a carrot and stick approach as my general view is that everyone at PPT should always do what is asked of them/the right thing but this is an important step for us and it can’t drag out.

They are seeking athletes aged 18+ of ALL levels to take part in this research. Click this link for more information and to participate in this important work:

https://monash.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_beIA3RO6hOXPjtc

This is important work and Casey Gilbert from SWITCH, Pink Panthers, and Only Phans is doing this study as part of her PHD. Get involved

Women’s

This Thursday night is the last night of our women’s competition. With a grand final and third place play-off If you are playing Wednesday come down tomorrow night and watch. If you are playing tomorrow grab a slab and watch the grad final with your team (some of your team mates may be playing).

Christmas split round

Over Christmas we run a split round. It is explained in the fixture area of the website. Please get your captain to advise us your team preference asap. Those advsing early are likely to get their preference.

Any questions?

Announce to all teams all timeslots.