In a statement, FFA said today that due to funding issues the Mariners were axed from the new W-League season kicking off in November.

Roche was fuming after he was told of the decision.

"I'm gutted for the players more than anything," he told au.fourfourtwo.com. "Shattered. They do shitty jobs like working at Maccas, move from place to place to save money to enable them to do this for no money.

"They put their lives on hold, relationships, study, the lot and bust a gut to train at the level they do for the W-League. Now this."

It's believed funding issues have been around for a while but Roche believed that this late in the season the team would be safe for another year.

Yesterday he had the difficult job of telling his players their dream was over.

He forecast that some players may be lost to the game all together, such would be the level of disappointment felt amongst his squad.

"It'll be almost impossible for many of the players to find spots in other clubs this late on," he said.

"Sydney is well organised but there are the Jets, otherwise they'd have to travel interstate. But that's very difficult when there's no money in it."

The club said in a statement today that women's football was booming on the Coast and they hoped the side would return as a W-League force, although there was no prediction of how or when.

The statement added: "Steve, his support staff and the players have done a great job over the last two seasons which culminated in qualification for the semi finals last season.

"We would like to thank everyone who has been involved and acknowledge the support provided by Football NSW who provided the majority of funding and resources to operate the team.
 
"Football is enormously popular on the Central Coast, something that is reflected both in our own crowd demographics and in Central Coast Football's registrations, and we would certainly hope we could be involved in the Westfield W-League in the future."