The temperatures are rising, footy pitches across the nation are finally starting to dry out, and the best domestic players in Aotearoa are preparing for another National League. The Women’s preview is already in the bag, now it’s time to breeze through what the blokes have to offer.

No format changes here. It’s the same competition as last year, just with a couple different clubs joining the fun for 2023: Manurewa and Petone have replaced Melville United and Miramar Rangers. This will be the second year in which the MNL has been entirely composed of club teams (woulda been three but the 2021 edition got canned – although respect to the South Central Series for carrying us through that year amidst the pandemicry). Ten clubs. The best in the land. Four from Northern. Four from Central. Two from Southern. Let’s do this.

Auckland City

The defending National League champions won the quadruple last season but this year hasn’t been quite so glamorous. Western Springs tripped them up in the Chatham Cup fourth round to allow Christchurch United to swoop in and take that title instead. Although Auckland City remain Auckland City and a less glamorous year for them still involves going undefeated through the Northern League to win that trophy as well as claiming another Oceania Champions League. Perhaps not as emphatic in the OCL as they’ve been in the past but they still got the trophy so no complaints.

The Navy Blues did have one major Northern League threat in the form of Eastern Suburbs, who also went through the campaign undefeated. Those two drew both times they met: 0-0 back in April and 2-2 in August (Ryan Verney with an 87th min equaliser for Suburbs that day). However City only dropped points in one other match, a 1-1 draw with West Coast Rangers in their fourth game, whereas Suburbs had a couple other draws hence City took the trophy by four clear points. Not many blowout wins this year but they were also borderline impenetrable with 14 clean sheets from 22 games. We’re talking 64 goals scored and only 9 conceded. Guess who the favourites are gonna be for the 2023 Nats?

Ryan De Vries hit some golden resurgent form during the OCL stuff which led into a streak in which he scored in an amazing 11 consecutive games (across all competitions). He ended up tying Hamilton Wanderers’ Derek Tieku for the Northern League top scorer title with 19 goals. As if that’s not enough firepower all on his own, they’ve also got NZ U23s wingers Joe Lee and Liam Gillion doing good things while U20s World Cup striker Oliver Colloty has joined them after spending most of the year doing the trial circuit in the UK. Of course Emiliano Tade is still there and picking his moments. Michael den Heijer has been a brilliant addition covering both midfield and defence. Dan Morgan is back at ACFC. Throw in a few other elite domestic football names like Cam Howieson, Adam Mitchell, Gerard Garriga, Mario Ilich, Conor Tracey... scary thing is we could go on and on. ACFC is stacked, mate.

The biggest threat to Auckland City’s ongoing dominance might end up being the prospective Auckland A-League club. If they come into existence and gather up the best local talent then Kiwitea Street will be the first port of call. In the meantime Western Springs have proven that this team is not invincible but there’s no doubt that Albert Riera’s men are the team to beat. They’ve been setting the standard for a long time. They look down whereas everyone else looks up. This National League title is theirs to defend. Then as soon as that’s done they’ll be off Saudi Arabia for a Club World Cup match with Al-Ittihad (with Karim Benzema, Fabinho, and N’Golo Kante) in early December... which is probably why the National League is finishing a couple weeks earlier this year.

Eastern Suburbs

Imagine going through an entire season undefeated and you don’t even win the title. Unfortunately for Eastern Suburbs, Auckland City did the same thing with more wins and them’s the breaks. Still, you have to give immense credit to what the Lilywhites achieved having gone from tenth place with 20 points in 2022 to second place with 56 points in 2023. They avoided defeat against Auckland City on both occasions this year and their only loss in any context was away to Christchurch United in the Chatham Cup semi-final.

Obviously some fine recruitment went along with that change in fortunes. Suburbs have a quality production line of talent but they also made a point of snapping up more from other regions too. Aaryan Raj, Jackson Jarvie, and Ryan Verney are examples of their own lads who’ve been capped as youth internationals lately. But they also picked up Luis Toomey and Adam Supyk from the Wellington Phoenix after they aged out of the U20s just as they picked up Josh Galletly from Melville. Toomey in particular had some great moments... although none of them seem to have played recently. Supyk is definitely in the UK doing trials, dunno about the others. You can see the strategy though.

However their best signing, arguable the best signing any team in the country made this year, has been Francis De Vries. The All Whites fullback’s time in Sweden ended with a serious knee injury and he’s been getting back up to speed in the Northern League where his defensive prowess has only been exceeded by his remarkable set piece abilities.

Suburbs became a more free-scoring team as the season progressed but initially there were a lot of 1-0s. New head coach Kane Wintersgill has had them on lock in defence, where the likes of Adam Thomas, Tyler Lissette, and Kelvin Kalua have been lurking alongside FDV (all either former pros or internationals). Joe Knowles is an excellent young keeper who experienced National League footy with Miramar Rangers last year. Hopefully U23s defensive mid Campbell Strong hangs around for the Nats, Seattle University may beckon again but considering their season has already started it would seem not. The National League’s a superior pathway anyway, no dramas there. Uruguayan forward Martin Bueno returned to the club from overseas to top score with 10 league goals... but he’s since moved on to CSM Alexandria in Romania so we’ll forget about him for now.

Eastern Suburbs did win this thing in 2019 back in the old Premiership days. Only a handful of players remain from that grand final squad (Kalua, Strong, Thomas) but that’s because the rest of them pretty much all went on to play professionally. Last year was a blip. This year the Lilywhites have re-established their credentials as both one of the best clubs in the country as well as one of the best production lines in the country. Maybe it’ll be third time lucky when they meet ACFC again... however their first task is some week one revenge against their Chatham Cup vanquishers Christchurch United.

Auckland United

Surely one of the most consistent clubs in Aotearoa. Auckland United’s women’s team are NRFL Premier Division champions after also winning the Kate Sheppard Cup in 2022, while their men’s team just finished a commendable third place in the Northern League (behind a pair of undefeated clubs) to make it three top three finishes in a row. Chuck in a good number of representatives in U17s and U20s squads (both men and women) and these are beautiful days for the merger club. Their home ground, Keith Hay Park, was also the World Cup base for the Football Ferns.

Many of the traits from last year remain for Jose Figueira’s side. They’re defensively excellent having only conceded 24 goals in 22 games, despite having lost a few key contributors there. Michael den Heijer and Reggie Murati are at Auckland City. Kurtis Mogg is out injured. Midfielder Oli Fay is over in Sweden playing professionally. But that’s how it goes at this level and one thing AUFC are very good at is finding sneaky transfers. Getting winger Xavier Green when he returned from USA university was a great one. Same deal for midfielder Daniel Atkinson who’d been over in the Netherlands. Noah Billingsley has moved in after a year at Christchurch United. These are fringe pro level dudes. Same goes for Japanese veteran Hideto Takahashi except get rid of the word ‘fringe’. Plus they’ve brought in high calibre domestic folks like ex-Auckland City ballers Dre Vollenhoven and Yousif Al-Kalisy, as well as Sione Fa’apoi who’s been doing nice things in defence. And NZ U20s fullback Everton O’Leary is joining specifically for the MNL from Birkenhead.

There’s a reliable spine in place with Mack Waite in goal, Ross Haviland at CB, and Nicolas Zambrano further forwards. 22yo striker Joshua Redfearn has reached new peaks with 12 goals during the winter season. Keep an eye on teenaged midfielder Oliver Middleton, he’s had some age grade call-ups, while Matt Conroy spent some time playing professionally in Sweden and was part of the 2019 U20 World Cup squad (the Bell/Cacace/McCowatt era squad) but missed almost all of the last National League season due to a bad injury. He’s back in business now.

One thing that’s eluded them since this year is their Auckland City kryptonite status. In 2022 they were the only team to beat ACFC in the Northern League and then they were the only team to beat them in the National League too. But City have beaten them all three times they’ve met in 2023: twice in the league and also in the Chatham Cup. Luckily they will get (at least) one more chance this year to fix that Dominion Road Derby pattern.

Manurewa AFC

South Auckland represent. Fresh from promotion, Manurewa came surging out of the blocks with some high scoring wins as well as a very commendable draw against Auckland United. The question then became: could they sustain it? At times it seemed perhaps not, as a couple of long suspensions and some injuries curtailed their momentum... but in the end a run of four straight wins from late-July through August, combined with a few stumbles elsewhere, saw Rewa guarantee fourth spot with two weeks to spare. Incredible from a team that finished second in the NRFL Championship last year. Not sure if it was fitting or not but the team they beat to secure their qualification was fellow South Auckland side Manukau United... who ended up being relegated. Several of these Rewa boys are ex-Manukau players.

One thing that’s definitely fitting is that it was their experienced coach Paul Marshall who led them back to the National League. He was a player for this club back in the 80s when they were last on this stage. But despite that long absence they do have a decent cohort in this squad who know how this summer stuff goes. Capped NZ international Monty Patterson is one of them. He’s settled smoothly at this club scoring insane quantities of goals over the past few years. The Python had 13 of them this term, despite a few injuries, which was third in the comp. Tino Contratti and Shuaib Khan have each excelled as MNL defenders in the past. Nicolas Bobadilla is an Argentine compatriot of Contratti’s and he scored 10 goals at close to a goal per game – Rewa were the only Northern club with multiple scorers in double digits.

There’s a big Fijian presence at the club. Already mentioned Shuaib ‘Sammy’ Khan. Beyond him there’s full Fijian international James Hoyt. Recent U23s call-ups Aydin Mustahib (goalie) and Mohammed Nabeel (left-back) too. Winger Caleb Prasad has played for Fijian age grade sides. Plus a lot of their young lads have Fijian heritage too. Bula vinaka.

There is a worry about consistency since Rewa had several games where they won by scoring 4-5 goals but they also had a couple of clunky defeats – most notably a 7-0 hiding by Auckland City. Manurewa only gained one point against fellow National League sides and were knocked out of the Chatham Cup by Eastern Suburbs, with those seven games only providing them with four goals scored (and three were in a 4-3 defeat to Eastern Suburbs back in April). But at the same time they were able to ground out consecutive 1-0 clean sheet wins when they most needed it – in the Manukau game and also the week before against Western Springs, their main rivals for fourth place. Monty Patterson scored the only goal in each of those games. It won’t be an easy road ahead for them but this lot are gonna be scrappy and chaotic and will absolutely adore being underdogs. Rewa Hard.

Wellington Olympic

The Greeks didn’t enter 2023 thinking about how they could further enforce their Central League monarchy. They entered 2023 targeting Auckland City’s national crown. It was in that light they they further bedazzled their already glittering squad ahead of their Oceania Champions League playoff against ACFC back in March. Alas, it still wasn’t enough. A 1-1 draw in the first leg was followed by a thrilling second leg at Kiwitea Street in which Olympic led 3-1 with thirty minutes left only for Emiliano Tade to lead the comeback in a 5-3 win for Auckland City (6-4 on aggregate).

A few of the guys that Olympic signed for those games then transferred away again when the Club World Cup dream evaporated but the best of them remained: Joel Stevens and Hamish Watson. Two absolutely elite domestic goal scorers/providers to make up for the absence of a few of last year’s icons. Except that two of those absentees, Gianni Bouzoukis who’d been trialling in Finland and Kailin Gould who was playing in Aussie, ended up returning to the team during the year anyway. Gavin Hoy was another very useful addition. Jack-Henry Sinclair remains as sizzlingly good as ever. The attacking options that this team has are jaw-dropping.

Ben Mata is a penalty-specialist central defender. Scott Basalaj has long been one of the nation’s best keepers. Tor Davenport-Petersen is a battering ram in midfield. Tam Dimairo can play anywhere. Theo Ettema is a tower in either defence or midfield and recently had an U23s call-up. We know this team is good. It’s just about whether they’re National League champions good.

Rupert Kemeys’ team won 15 out of 18 Central League games, scoring 79 goals and conceding 29. Probably a few too many concessions in there but that’s part of how they play – this lot are much more likely to win 5-2 than 3-0. Olympic kept just four clean sheets in the Central League this year and all of them were wins by at least five goals. At the same time they scored 29 goals more than any other team in the comp... and those goals were spread out evenly. JHS got 14. Watto had 13. Mata and Gould each pocketed 11 of them. That’s four guys in double digits.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing because they did lose two games along the way: 3-2 to Stop Out in May and 4-0 to Petone in July, although both games involved Olympic red cards (two in the case of the Stop Out one). They were also beaten in the quarter-finals of the Chatham Cup by Eastern Suburbs. A 3-2 extra time defeat with Francis De Vries supplying the 118th minute winner for the Lilywhites. But the Greeks still won the Central League by nine clear points without ever having to go into overdrive. Make that three titles in a row.

Olympic lost 3-1 to Auckland City in the 2022 Chatham Cup semis. They then lost 2-1 to Auckland City in the opening round of that year’s National League before going down 3-2 in a wonderfully entertaining grand final. They did draw with them in the home leg of OCL qualifying in March but then lost the second leg. The Mediterranean Cup hasn’t been kind to them lately – there was a controversial disallowed goal in that first National League clash while they were unable to break down ten men in the grand final and blew a second half lead in that last OCL match. But they’ll soon get another chance... perhaps even two. Wellington Olympic will not be making up the numbers. They’re coming for the crown.

Wellington Phoenix Reserves

These are heady times for the Wellington Phoenix Academy. New first team coach Giancarlo Italiano has made it his mission to reinforce the professional pathways at the club, giving senior contracts to Lukas Kelly-Heald, Fin Conchie, and Isaac Hughes whilst promoting Alex Paulsen to starting goalie and putting Finn Surman in contention for the same honours at centre-back. Sam Sutton, Ben Old, and Oskar van Hattum all seem likely to have bigger roles this time around (fitness permitting). Not to mention the Aussie Cup debuts handed out to Kelly-Heald, Hughes, Kaelin Nguyen, Josh Rudland, Luke Supyk, and Ben Wallace.

That’s what the club wants to see. That’s what these players are aspiring towards. However it does come at the risk of slicing the top off the reserves team. Once the A-League lads began pre-season training we started to see much younger teams being rolled out by the Central League side. But there’ll probably be more priority given to the National League with fringe first teamers involved alongside those cup debutants who should form the bulk of the squad alongside guys like Dan McKay, Charlie Beale, Joshua Tollervey, Noah Karunaratne, and Alby Kelly-Heald.

But also take note of the next generation of players whom coach Chris Greenacre will want to ease into this level before they take over next year when the older guys age out of the team. It is an under-20s selection after all. There are a few folks to watch out for in that category. Luke Supyk is one of them having top scored for the NZ U17s in Oceania qualifying at the start of the year. Also standing tall on that U17 World Cup scene (which takes place in November so that’ll limit their MNL availability) are lads like Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues, Anaru Cassidy, Raphael Conway, Fletcher Pratt, and Luke Flowerdew.

In the past, the WeeNix’s fates have depended a lot on how many A-League players were available for any given game. These days they can win without them. The academy is humming and in 2022 they finished sixth out of ten teams with three wins, three draws, and three defeats. With a large chunk of that side still young enough to partake in another National League campaign, and legitimate first team opportunities to compete for, the WeeNix are going to be a tricky prospect once again.

Napier City Rovers

Good old Napier City Rovers out here flying the flag for the regions. Four clubs from Auckland, three clubs from Wellington, two clubs from Christchurch... and the mighty Rovers in amongst them after a third-placed finish in the Central League. It was a journey that went all the way down to the wire with NCR needing to make sure of things against North Wellington in the final game and they were 1-0 down at half-time before goals from Stefan Karajovanovic, Alex Mort, and Deri Corfe sorted them out for a 3-1 win (though in the end they’d have qualified anyway thanks to results elsewhere).

Bill Robertson’s team took 33 points from 18 games and with 50 goals scored they were the second most prolific team in the league. They did tend to struggle against the other top teams, with the exception being a 4-1 win against a very youthful and understrength WeeNix team late in the campaign, but they regularly did what they needed to do against the teams beneath them and that’s how you qualify for the National League. Rovers won 9/12 against non-MNL clubs, taking 29 of their 33 points from such fixtures.

Those three goal-scorers from that last game may not be recognised names to everyone reading this. All three were fresh signings for 2023. Corfe is an Englishman (25yo) who spent six years in the Manchester City academy before going to university in the USA – he scored 15 goals to be runner up for Central League Golden Boot. NCR always seem to have a slick import striker and Corfe, with his size and finishing, looks like he could be a standout this year. Also Karajovanovic is a Canadian forward (24yo) whose parents were Yugoslavian refugees from modern-day Serbia and Mort’s an attacking midfielder who joined from North Wellington, a kiwi lad.

Those guys are the shiny additions meant to: a) get this team back to the Nats, and then b) do better than then eight-game winless streak they ended the 2022 edition with after beating the WeeNix 1-0 in week one. Only a few major transfers on top of a consistent set of lads. Oscar Mason is a great young goalkeeping prospect who was in the wider picture for this year’s U20 World Cup squad. Sam Lack is an exciting local midfield creator. Kaeden Atkins a classy central defender. Looks like they may also have a few other youngsters nudging through, while fellas like Ta Eh Doe, Liam Schofield, Jonathan McNamara, and Christian Leopard will set the tone. Englishman McNamara scored 10 goals while Leopard has also played first class cricket for Central Districts. Same deal as usual for NCR: their locals will determine their floor, their imports will determine their ceiling.

Petone FC

Three of the Central League representatives are the same as last year. One of those, the Wellington Phoenix Reserves, are guaranteed a place regardless while Wellington Olympic are the dominant force so they were always gonna make it. Napier City Rovers had to work hard for it but they managed to qualify again. But Miramar Rangers got stuck in a rebuilding phase which opened the door for another club to take their spot... and despite a great start from Western Suburbs it was ultimately Petone Football Club that got it done. A 2-1 win over Stop Out in the final round confirmed it. Matt Brazier scored the winning goal in the 79th minute (although Wests lost anyway so, same as NCR, they’d have made it regardless).

If you don’t know Matthew Brazier then get cracking on that one, mate. Brazier scored 18 times for Petone this season to win the Central League Golden Boot. He’s not someone who has had a glittering youth career. Didn’t come out of the Phoenix or Ole Academy. He’s 26 years old and used to feature for Green Island down south, plus he lived and played in Australia for a number of years. Brazier is a Futsal Whites international so there’s that on his resume but mostly this season has been a complete bolt from the blue (Petone blue, of course). He’s found a good fit on a good team and scored copious goals. Now we see if that can translate into the National League.

Petone were sixth last year with a -15 goal difference, losing exactly half of their games. This time they finished fourth with a +12 goal difference and twice as many wins and draws as they had losses (10-2-6). A 13 point improvement on the ladder. That includes wins over Napier City and Wellington Olympic too. It’s been a superb improvement, with the likes of Jared Eglinton, Jack O’Conner, and Samuel Pickering also proving influential. Pretty sure Jared Eglinton is the brother of Alyssha Eglinton – an ex-Petone rep now with the Wellington Phoenix academy and currently away with the NZ U16s at the Oceania Women’s Champs – while the Pickering whanau are multi-generational Petone legends (there are three Pickerings in this squad – Ollie and Jordan being the others). Goalkeeper Oscar Boyce led the Central League in clean sheets. It’s quite an achievement to have the Golden Boot and Golden Gloves both coming from the fourth-placed team.

A lot of this Petone squad will be unknowns at this national level although it will help them that their first game is against familiar foes Napier City. Petone happen to be celebrating their 125th anniversary this year and they have an active and passionate social media presence which, to be honest, sets a standard for teams outside the usual National League cohorts. Seems like a proud club that’s earned this shot by doing things the right way. Hail, hail, Petone’s here.

Christchurch United

Yeah sure they’ve got Russian millionaire money... but Christchurch United didn’t get to be Southern League and Chatham Cup champions by buying up everyone else’s best players. They did so by prioritising good coaching, an environment that promotes player development, and an increasingly strong academy. They do have a couple of strong imports in the form of Irish defender Aaron O’Driscoll, Scottish forward Daniel MacLennan, and Irish forward Eoghas Stokes, sure. Yet the majority of their squad are natives of the Garden City and these days it’s not at all uncommon to see Rams youngsters popping up in national age grade teams.

Christchurch United are still getting accustomed to being a dominant club again. They’ve won consecutive Southern League titles and this year went undefeated through the first seventeen rounds before losing to rivals Cashmere Tech in a final-round dead-rubber – and they made up for that last week in the English Cup final, beating Cashy Tech 3-2 thanks to a 90th minute Ben Lapslie winner (English Cup is the knockout cup for Christchurch clubs). They also triumphed for a first Chatham Cup title since 1991 – a run which included eliminating fellow MNL sides Eastern Suburbs (2-1 in the semis) and Cashmere Tech (3-0 in round four). But they did struggle a bit in the previous National League winning only twice (and one was then overturned against them) with just a single clean sheet in nine games. A 7-1 loss to Wellington United was the low-point. Plus they ended up needing penalties to get their hands on the Chatham Cup despite having been 2-0 up with twenty minutes to go against Melville Utd.

That’s what it looks like when a good team tries to progress into being a great team. The aim is surely to establish themselves as the Auckland City of the South Island (but with a Western Suburbs level of academy) and the struggle is in overcoming the leap in standard from regional league to National League. But they’re getting there. And after what they’ve achieved so far this year they ought to have designs on making that grand final. Whether they do or not, the point is that this team has expectations.

Already mentioned a few imports but this squad runs deep. Sam Philip scored 29 goals in the Southern League, including six in one game (a 15-3 win vs Green Island) to claim the league golden boot. Philip is a former Wellington Phoenix academy guy who went away to uni in the States and is now back in his hometown doing good things. Eddie Wilkinson spent most of the year playing NPL in Aussie but he was their star player last year and he’s back now. Matt Todd-Smith, who scored the decisive penalty in the cup final shootout, is a leader and a facilitator from midfield. Those homegrown lads go alright too. Scott Morris played goalie for the NZ U23s in Olympic qualifying recently. Jackson Cole and Nicholas Murphy were in the U17s for the OFC champs. And on the other side of the scale there’s a small chance that coach Paul Ifill might lace the boots up himself for a wee cameo.

Cashmere Technical

Finally, it’s the other team from the Southern League. A year ago only goal difference could split United and Technical after a ridiculously dramatic final day full of goals atop goals. This year the Techies fell back towards the chasing pack. At times during the first half of the campaign it even felt like Dunedin City Royals might push them for this second spot but nah DCR fell off and Coastal Spirit and Ferrymead Bays couldn’t make up the ground and Cashmere Tech are back in the Nats.

And in the final week of the Southern League they laid down a statement with a 3-1 win away to Christchurch United. Maybe CUFC had one eye on the impending Chatham Cup final... but it was still a strong team that they picked yet Cashmere dealt them their first defeat of the year in any competition. The Rams did gain revenge in the English Cup final last weekend... but only just. Don’t underestimate these Cashmere hombres. They’re battle-hardened and savvy dealers.

There really hasn’t been much player turnover from the 2022 Nats apart from Kian Donkers moving to the Netherlands. Tom Schwarz. Andrew Storer. Yuya Taguchi. Luke Tongue. Lyle Matthysen. Declan Tyndall. Alex Ballard. Jacob Richards. All your favourites are still there... including Garbhan Coughlan who scored 28 goals in an 18 game season and somehow still missed out on the golden boot to Sam Philip. You just know there were a heap of assists that would’ve gone with those goals too. Coughlan’s just that good. Aidan Barbour-Ryan was second top scorer for the club with eight. Matt Foord in goal is the main emerging lad to watch for, he’s a good bet to make the U17 World Cup squad so we’ll see if he gets any game time in the MNL.

Cashmere Tech won three and lost six last time, although their last round defeat to Christchurch Utd was overturned due to an ineligible substitute (every season there’s one of those ones, aye?). They have enormous experience and possibly the best striker in the country. No team’s going to enjoy playing them. But the main target will be to finish ahead of Christchurch United again.

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