league in 2012, competing in the Sydney AFL for the next four seasons, before returning to the BDAFL in 2016. The Maitland Saints also entered a senior side in 2012. From 2012, the competition was restructured to allowed clubs to enter teams across Premier, 1st, 2nd and 3rd divisions. This allowed smaller or newer clubs to field their firsts against the reserves or even third senior side of the stronger clubs. Further clubs have joined the league in recent years, including Muswellbrook Cats and The Entrance Bateau Bay both entering senior sides 2014. Muswellbrook had competed from 1988 until 1994 in the Newcastle AFL, and then later in the Tamworth AFL until 2013. A women's competition started in 2015. Wyong Lakes was the first and only Central Coast club to enter the inaugural women's competition, along with Hunter-based clubs Newcastle City, Nelson Bay, Maitland, Warners Bay and Lake Macquarie. Killarney Vale and Gosford fielded their inaugural women's teams the following year. In 2018 the Ladypies, as the team came to be known, became the first and only Central Coast team to make the grand final in the women's competition. In 2018, junior club Port Stephens fielded a Women's team, their first senior team in the club's history and Wallsend was revived as Wallsend-West Newcastle and fielded a team in the Women's competition and a team in the Black Diamond Plate. The league was renamed AFL Hunter Central Coast following the conclusion of the 2018 season under the banner of AFL NSW/ACT. The 2019 season saw Lake Macquarie, with only one senior team, drop down to Black Diamond Plate (Reserves) and Nelson Bay was also reduced to just one senior team but still continued to play in the Black Diamond Cup. Newcastle City also fielded one women's team that same year, as the club had previously fielded two women's teams for two years. 2020 saw the league indefinitely suspended due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic. Originally intending to start on April 4th, the pandemic prevented football from going ahead in the region until July 18th. The league was restructured with two women's divisions, respectively named Black Diamond Cup and Plate Women's, and a third men's competition, the Black Diamond Shield, introduced. The Black Diamond Plate will now consist of Terrigal-Avoca and Newcastle City's reserves sides and clubs with a single men's team with the Black Diamond Shield being the reserves competition