Wollongong Wolves U20

That ground is Collegians Sports Centre in Figtree, still called Lysaghts Oval by people who have watched football there long enough. It holds 5,000, though only 1,250 of those are seated and under cover in the main stand.

The shirts are red and black with white trim. A player who comes through the under-20s is meant to arrive in the first-grade dressing room already knowing what the colours mean.

The 2026 season has them mid-table, seventh, in a competition that runs alongside the senior fixture list rather than beneath it. The coaching job is advertised through Football NSW, with applications going to the club's own office — a small detail, but it places the age group inside the club structure rather than at arm's length from it.

All of it traces back to 1980, when the club was founded as Wollongong City, in a steel town that wanted a football side of its own. The name changed, the ground kept its old one, and the youth team now carries both.