Aotearoa Domestic Football Roundup – September 1
Men’s Northern League
It all came down to this. Two teams challenging for the title. Four teams challenging for the last two National League spots... and they were all playing each other in the final round of the Men’s Northern League. The place to start is Seddon Fields where Western Springs hosted Auckland United, with the home side being the only team in that top six that completely controlled their own destiny: if they won then they’d be champions, breaking Auckland City’s four-year stranglehold on this trophy (the stranglehold was already broken, it was just a matter of by whom).
Western Springs took the lead, and with it control of the title race, just before half-time when Daniel Normann got to where he needed to be for a Reid Drake cut-back. Crucial first goal in a game where Emiliano Tade had earlier hit the post for AUFC. Auckland United weren’t going to roll over though, they also needed to win (for National League sakes) and subsequently ramped up the pressure in the second spell. That led to an Emiliano Tade penalty to level the scores after 64 minutes... and then an Otto Ingham goal to win it after 78 minutes. Those two had been threatening all game and they proved the difference. 2-1 to Auckland United. The Chatham Cup finalists will be competing in the National League after all, securing a third-placed finish thanks to this comeback victory. Meanwhile, Western Springs had to run and check their phones at the final whistle.
That’s because Birkenhead United were at home against Eastern Suburbs where a win would, in light of AUFC’s defeat, give them the trophy instead. Granted, Eastern Suburbs had the same motivations as Auckland United. These games all kicked off simultaneously so if anyone was keeping track, they’d have known that not only did Eber Ramirez pounce on a rebound save to put the Lilywhites up 1-0 after about thirty seconds, but that Jake Mechell was also on target with a chest and volley in the box to make it 2-0 after only 12 minutes. Try as they might, Birko just couldn’t find a way back. Suburbs have one of the best defences in the competition and they ground out another clean sheet to win 2-0. Once the Western Springs players got word of that, the celebrations could begin. Both of the title contenders lost on the final day therefore Western Springs claimed the silverware by the margin of a single point.
Funnily enough, the Swans tally of 42 points was actually four points fewer than they got last year when they finished second. In fact, 42 points would not have even been good enough for top four in two of the previous three seasons. It’s a smaller points haul than what Auckland City won with in 2021 (46 points) in the season that was abandoned a month early because of covid. At the same time, the sixth placed team (you’ll find out who that was in a sec) had the highest points tally for that position in any of these five Northern League campaigns, showing what a crazy and competitive season we just had.
Thanks to that win against Birko, Eastern Suburbs rose to 40 points – only two off the lead – and yet their top four dreams were also sweating on other results. With Auckland United rising up to win, that left Auckland City vs East Coast Bays as the other game of relevance. Suburbs would crack the quartet with anything other than an Auckland City victory... hence they’d have been pretty stoked to get a peek at the line-ups beforehand and see Santino Escolme (17yo) and Mason Shaw (18yo) in the starting line-up with Areya Prasad (18yo), Kaio Martinez (18yo), and Manraj Singh (20yo) taking up 3/5 bench seats.
Those guys all started in the Chatham Cup defeat to Waiheke Island that ACFC had to play with a makeshift squad while the entire first team was in America for the Club World Cup. As did Paris Domfeh (17yo) although he’s been a common presence in the Northern League squad recently. The others... they were mostly making their first league appearances in a game that was absolutely essential for Auckland City to win. Either there was food poisoning ravaging the regular lads or someone had done the accounting and realised they still needed more U20s minutes. Thankfully, they’re talking about getting rid of that unnecessary rule in the near future.
It didn’t even matter because Auckland City still won 2-0 thanks to goals from Myer Bevan (30’) and David Yoo (86’). ECB had Matt Matanyayire sent off after 83 mins. As hard as they’ve made it for themselves, as disrupted as this season has been... Auckland City still scraped into the top four and will get the opportunity to defend their National League title. But first there’s a trip to Egypt for the FIFA Intercontinental Cup where they’ll face Pyramids (Egypt) in a knockout game with Al-Ahli (Saudi Arabia) on the line if they progress. That’s in two weeks. Quick jaunt to Africa and then back for the Natties. This result also means that East Coast Bays had to settle for that record sixth-place effort while poor old Eastern Suburbs helped decide the title destination but they missed out on top four by goal difference. They scored the same amount of goals as Auckland City but conceded three more. Their season is over despite finishing two points behind the leaders.
For those wondering, Auckland City used a total of 37 different players in the Northern League alone (more if you count the Chatham Cup). Myer Bevan and Christian Gray were the two stalwarts, rested a little bit to begin with but then each starting every single league game for the past four months. There was that infamous instance where they had to pick two unique starting elevens on the same day... turns out that was taking it easy on them. They could have picked a third if they’d needed to.
Poor old West Coast Rangers and Manurewa AFC would have had this fixture circled ages ago on the calendar as a potential relegation decider... only for the date to roll around with both clubs already relegated. Bummer. Goes without saying that they played out a 0-0 draw in this deadest of dead rubbers. It was either gonna go that way or the way that Tauranga City vs Fencibles unfolded with shackles off and goals galore. Colby Brennan made it 1-0 to TC after eight mins. Dylan Laing-McConnell (12’) and Ryan Revill (23’) turned that into a 2-1 lead for Fencies. Campbell Higgins made it 2-2 on 29’. Onward and onwards. Laing-McConnell scored a second (81’) to have Fencibles plotting one last victory only for Liam Knight to equalise almost immediately (82’) as the game came to a halt for a very hectic 3-3 draw. No goals for Morgan Wellsbury in amongst. With Tade scoring for Auckland United, he and Wellsbury will share the Golden Boot with 14 goals each. Michael Suski (Birko) was next with 13 goals.
Finally, Bay Olympic bounced back from being two goals down at half-time against Auckland FC Reserves to draw 2-2. James Mitchell (3’) and Jonty Bidois (28’) had started things off confidently for AFC, who along with Bidois had Adama Coulibaly and Finn McKenlay involved from their scholarship group. Plus they handed out a first appearance to 17yo goalkeeper Liam Hill who’d been a mid-season signing from Fencibles. Hill becomes the fourth keeper used by AFC Ressies this season: Joe Knowles (6 games), Blake Callinan (8 games), Eli Jones (7 games), and Liam Hill (1 game). But an own goal (53’) and a Jesse Gage effort (68’) earned Bay Olympic a share of the spoils. Nevertheless, the AFC Ressies have only lost one of their last seven matches and that was against champions Western Springs. Very decent form to be carrying into their first National League campaign.
Women’s NRFL Premiership
It’s been Auckland United vs West Coast Rangers all season for the trophy in these parts. Auckland United won their first six games in a row before losing 2-0 away to Rangers. WCR went on to win their first nine games in a row but were comfortably beaten 4-1 away against United to swing momentum back the other way. It seemed that Rangers were right back in it after beating AU 1-0 in late-July only for recent draws against Western Springs and Fencibles to threaten that work. Until Auckland United themselves were beaten by Eastern Suburbs to keep the title race going into the final day of the season.
It was a simple task for Auckland United: they just needed to avoid defeat. Even a draw would be fine supposing that WCR didn’t win by twenty goals in their own one. And yet... six minutes into their match against Fencibles they found themselves trailing 1-0 to a Rossie Missen set piece special. They were only behind for twenty minutes before Chloe Knott banged in a very valuable goal (27’) to make it 1-1 and that would have been fine. They could have coasted all the way to another trophy with a 1-1 draw. Problem was, the weather was absolutely horrific at Riverhills Park. The heavy rain was one thing. The brutal headwind that AUFC found themselves running into in the second half was another, making it hard to get out of their own half (and the bouncy artificial turf didn’t help matters). Even goal kicks were tricky because the ball wouldn’t sit in one spot long enough to swing a boot through it.
Auckland Utd dealt with that as well as they could but with fifteen minutes to go, Fencibles sent a corner kick high into the breeze. The swerve and dip had everyone fooled before Mikaela Bangalan (NZ U16s rep last year) smacked it into the net from close range to cause chaos in the title race. Suddenly Auckland United needed a goal. They subbed on their secret weapon Kelli Brown (yet another late season addition from the pros – joining Ava Collins and Zoe McMeeken who started this game)... but it wasn’t enough. Fencies claimed the 2-1 win. Unbelievable scenes.
And so West Coast Rangers were left in a position where the trophy would be theirs supposing that they beat Eastern Suburbs away. These games happened concurrently and the late-ish goal from Fencibles meant that WCR weren’t to know how things were progressing, although their task didn’t change. They needed to win to have any hope... and win they did. Sienna Higinbotham put them ahead after 33 mins. Laney Strachan then scored immediately after half-time (46’) before Ella Findlay responded in kind to make it 2-1 (48’). Next goal would be decisive, so who else should provide it but the player who has scored more than anyone else in this competition. Shannon Henson scored her 19th of the term to make it 3-1 on 75’, right about the same time that Auckland United conceded in the other game. A brief passage of time that completely flipped the title race. West Coast Rangers won 3-1. They had to wait for news of the final whistle of the other game before they could celebrate but once it came through you’d better believe they were ready to party.
What else happened? Well, Western Springs won 5-0 against Tauranga Moana although it took them until almost half-time to finally break through thanks to a Liz Savage goal (45’). Then it was only in the last twenty that they scored the rest of them, starting with Savage’s second (71’) and ending with Tiana Hill (79’), Sienna Makwana (84’), and Nanami Omasa (90’) goals. Nice way for the Swans to wrap things up ahead of National League – they finish on an island in fourth place, 11 points behind third and six ahead of fifth. Only won 1/9 against the three teams above them but they do have a deep squad that ought to regroup well for the WNL. As for Tauranga, they played their final last week when they beat Hibiscus Coast to avoid relegation so they made sure to get their entire bench out there for at least ten minutes.
Hibiscus Coast are heading back to the Championship but at least they’re going down with a victory after Aneka Mittendorff’s second-minute goal (and a very long defensive stand) earned them a 1-0 win against Ellerslie. Only the second win of the season and the first clean sheet for the Coasties... hence why they got relegated. Still, they did get Mittendorff (a former age grade star for NZ) back into top level football and they also gave us the legendary vision of Anna Leat playing as a striker for half the season. The streets will not forget.
Men’s Central League
The only thing still up for grabs heading into the last week of the Men’s Centrals was relegation. North Wellington needed at least a point, probably three, in order to stay up. They were facing fellow drop candidates Upper Hutt City and for a few shining moments they were on track after Miles Woodall, a half-time substitute, gave them a 74th minute lead. But five mins later that was cancelled out by Mick Reid’s equaliser and the game ended 1-1 despite everyone’s best desperate efforts. With that result, Upper Hutt City survive to fight another season in the top flight.
That draw was only going to be enough for North Welly if Island Bay lost by seven goals though. To be fair, IBUFC were away against Western Suburbs so there was some conceivable potential of that happening... however that potential shrunk drastically when NZ age-grade international Rakshan Suresh was red carded for Wests after six minutes. Bit hard to score seven times when you’re playing 90% of the game with a man disadvantage. In the end, they didn’t score at all. Neither did Island Bay United. The game finished 0-0 which was perfectly fine for all involved as Island Bay United joined Upper Hutt City in preserving their Central League status for at least another twelve months, relegating North Wellington in the process.
The Wellington Phoenix Reserves flipped the switch for their finale away against Waterside Karori. Awesome to see Nathan Walker return following the injury he suffered in the Aussie Cup playoff at the end of last season... and a few of his other first team cohorts were also involved. Specifically Luke Supyk and Xuan Loke, while Eamonn McCarron, Fergus Gillion, and Lachlan Candy joined them having all gotten minutes during the Aussie Cup run. This was the strongest team that Chris Greenacre has picked in ages... and they smoked the Wharfies. Supyk scored a hat-trick in a 7-0 WeeNix triumph. Goals went: Supyk (14’), Ryan Watson (34’), Lachlan Candy (37’), Supyk (43’), Anaru Cassidy (45’), Supyk (61’ pen), and Xuan Loke (81’). Big boost in confidence there for a group that’s likely to form the bulk of what they roll out in the National League. Shout out to 16yo Marcus Commisso who started alongside all these older and more recognised blokes – could be one to watch.
That WeeNix win means that they finish fourth ahead of Napier City Rovers, who weren’t able to match that result. They went down 1-0 to champs Wellington Olympic with Tor Davenport-Petersen scoring the only goal after nine minutes. That’s a good hit out for the Greeks as they prepare for next week’s Chatham Cup final, while NCR’s season ended with the final whistle – there will no National League for them this year, better tell the children.
Finally, there was big drama at the end of Petone vs Miramar Rangers. Xavier Coleman’s goal after 26 mins had Rangers leading most of the way until Bray Whitecliff tied things up after 87 minutes. Kieran McMinn then appeared to have won it for Petone in stoppage time only for Nicolas Bobadilla to score even later for a 2-2 draw. Doesn’t make much difference to either team but an exciting game nonetheless. Miramar did take a huge risk subbing Martin Bueno off midway through the second half, leaving the door open for McMinn to possibly catch him in the Golden Boot race. But one wasn’t enough. Bueno finishes top with 19 goals and McMinn finishes second with 18 goals. Hamish Watson and Seb Barton-Ginger were tied third with 12 each.
Women’s Central League
Entering the last round of the WCL, there were still two teams challenging for the last National League qualifying spot and three teams in danger of being relegated. On top of that there was also Wellington United trying to turn their championship season into a perfect season by winning 18/18. Lots of stuff up for grabs.
It began at 11am on Saturday morning with concurrent kickoffs for the two Natty League challengers. Waterside Karori hosted the Wellington Phoenix U18s, needing to better the result of Petone at home against Victoria University. The Wharfies scored first when Sherize Concessio put them up after seven minutes but Matilda Smith, in her first WCL appearance of the year, made it 1-1 after 13 mins. This was a more youthful WeeNix team than usual with a few of their regulars no doubt moving up into U20s activities ahead of the National League and also in preparation for next week’s Kate Sheppard Cup final. Against an in-form Wharfies side, that didn’t cut the mustard Renee Bacon (16’) and Amelia Abbott (23’) each scored to make it 3-1 to WKAFC. Midway through the second half, the Nix managed to concede consecutive penalties which Samantha Senior (60’) and Bacon (64’) converted for 5-1. Maisy McDonald then pulled one back with her fifth of the campaign to have it at 5-2 after 71 mins only for Isabella Ismail-Snaders (76’) and Renee Bacon (87’) to wrap it up with a bow on top for a 7-2 Waterside Karori victory.
The Phoenix U18s had only conceded eight goals in 15 previous games and then here comes this fixture where they almost doubled that count. Meanwhile, this was Renee Bacon’s second hat-trick in a row to extend her scoring streak to seven consecutive games. She’s bagged 13 goals in those seven games. Enough to raise her up to second on the Golden Boot charts with 21 overall.
That was all that Waterside Karori could do and it wasn’t enough because Petone won 5-0 against Victoria University. Goals for Phoebe Gray (17’, 30’), Jazz Shailer (35’), Kate Marra (51’), and Jessica Owens-Blackmore (72’). Mission accomplished for Petone: they are National League bound. The last two years have seen Petone finish behind both Wellington United and Waterside Karori to be in the position of having to loan their best players to those clubs in order to give them that precious WNL experience. This year they’re the ones who’ll be phoning around asking who’s keen for some extra games. Alas, this hefty defeat did mean that Vic Uni got relegated. They needed to win to stay up and clearly that didn’t happen.
Because of that, the would-be relegation playoff between Moturoa and Palmerston North United became a game without consequence when it kicked off shortly after those first two fixtures had ended. The teams drew 1-1 with Shania McIntosh scoring first for PNU (39’) and Anna Hinton promptly replying for Moturoa (40’). That’s all. The following day provided another match of little consequence when Taradale won 3-0 away against Palmerston North Marist. It was 0-0 at half-time and then Abby Winterburn scored on 49’. It wasn’t until the last five minutes that Ruby Gilbertson (87’) and Winterburn (89’) added a couple more. These four teams will form the bulk of the Central Football squad in a few weeks.
That only leaves the Wellington United quest for perfection. They were away against Miramar Rangers and guess what? They won 8-1. Never in doubt. Summer Laskey scored twice (1’, 35’), Natalie Olson scored twice (45’, 56’). Hannah Pilley scored three times (25’, 75’, 90’). Farina Anchico got one (30’). Somewhere in between all that, Liv Donovan-Grammer briefly made it 1-1 with a 22nd minute strike so it wasn’t a complete washout for Rangers. Even if it had been, they would hardly have been the first to get outshone by the Diamonds this year. 18 wins from 18 games with 97 goals scored and only six conceded. They’ve been streets ahead. Hannah Pilley’s three goals here take her to 16 overall, good for fourth in the comp. First, of course, belongs to Natalie Olson whose brace makes it 35 goals in 16 games. Add in the three she scored in the KS Cup and she might be batting for a half-century when the National League comes around... supposing that Chelsea or Lyon or Kansas City Current haven’t snapped her up on a pro deal by then. Of the ten teams in the Central League, Nat Olson outscored six of them all by herself... and that’s without even counting the assists.
Men’s Southern League
As the dust settled after all the swirling madness of the last few weeks down south, Coastal Spirit were left needing one more win to claim the championship. They got that win after goals from Liam Cotter (45’) and Max Chretien (71’) gave them a 2-0 result against Universities of Canterbury, crowning Coastal Spirit as the 2025 Southern League champions to break up the Christchurch United/Cashmere Technical back-and-forth we’d experienced over the past four years. 2024 was the best in history for the Coastal Spirit men's team. They qualified for National League, made the semis of the Chatham Cup, and won the English Cup (competed for by Christchurch clubs). They didn’t go as far in either cup this year but they’ve gone one better in the league, making this an even more glorious season than the last one. Hip hip hooray. Release the confetti.
Okay then, that went as expected. Below them Christchurch United’s sloppy previous fortnight left them needing to win twice (they have a catch-up game scheduled next week) and then hope against hope that Cashmere Technical did not win their fixture. First things first, Christchurch United won 7-0 away against Wānaka FC to take care of that part of the equation. Shogo Osawa scored a hatty (39’, 43’, 65’) alongside goals from Jackson Cole (20’) and Travis Graham (75’) before a pair of own goals both credited to poor old Michael Johnson (86’, 90’) polished things off. Coincidentally, that’s the same scoreline that the Rams beat Wānaka by in the reverse fixture.
Elsewhere, Cashmere Technical hosted Dunedin City Royals and went 1-0 up inside of a minute thanks to Charlie Peacocke. Ideal way to begin a must-win game. It then got a lot less ideal when a deflected Tom Milton free kick found its way into the net (13’) and then Jack Julian scored to put the Royals ahead (18’). Peacocke buried another one again after half an hour to make it 2-2 and then Technical reclaimed their lead when Garbhan Coughlan got his obligatory goal early in the second stanza (56’). Back on track... until a silly penalty allowed Milton to make it 3-3 with ten minutes remaining. There was time for Coughlan to hit the crossbar but there wasn’t time for a winning goal. 3-3 final score. Cashmere Technical are still in second place for now... though the Rams will overtake them if they win their rescheduled game. The one consolation for Cashmere is that Chch Utd are away against Nelson Suburbs who’ve only lost once all season at Saxton Fields. A draw will not be enough for Christchurch Utd.
Nelson Suburbs are awesome at home and not so good outside of Marlborough. However, they did win 5-2 away against last-placed Selwyn United this week. Selwyn needed to win to avoid relegation and they were good for one equaliser as Hyuma Nogami (25’) cancelled out Lennon Whewell’s earlier strike (15’). Alas, Ben Polak (28’, 42’) and Dauntae Mariner (45’) produced a flourish before half-time which spoiled that work. Jamie Carrodus did eventually get one back for Selwyn (74’) but Ben Polak had the final say with an 83rd min goal to complete his hat-trick. Down goes Selwyn.
And in the other game, Ferrymead Bays won 2-1 away against Nomads United. Chris Murphy (9’) and Treye Butler (60’) scored for Bays. Harry Bushell (69’) scored for Nomads. That leaves those two teams with exactly the same points tallies, though Nomads are fourth by virtue of their superior goal difference. They’ll both drop down a spot if Nelson Suburbs get a point or better from their reschedules. There are three games still unplayed but so far only Nelson Subs vs Christchurch United has a date... they may just skip the others given that there are no major implications for Wānaka vs Nelson Subs or Wānaka vs Dunedin City.
Women’s South Island League
A couple of months ago, give or take, Cashmere Technical brought back a few of their favourite daughters from Wellington Phoenix duty: Lara Wall, Rebecca Lake, and Annalie Longo... and they’ve pretty much been unbeatable ever since. They did lose late to the Wellington Phoenix U20s in the Kate Sheppard Cup semi-final but they’ve embarked on a huge winning streak in the league over that time. That continued into a seventh game on Wednesday night when they won 7-2 against Universities of Canterbury. They were 5-0 up early in the second half before Erin Roxburgh (50’) finally put UC on the board and it wasn’t until stoppage time that Kelsey Barrett scored the other goal for the students. Cashy Tech’s haul came courtesy of: Kate Loye (16’), Sara Mann (24’), Anya Stephan x2 (30’, 67’), and Ruby Luxton x3 (45’, 48’, 61’). Productive evening’s work, even without Wall or Longo (Longo hasn’t played since the cup defeat so we’ll see if Canterbury United can coax her back for anything National League related).
Universities of Canterbury took that defeat on the chin and then went and pumped Halswell United 5-0 on the weekend to balance out their goal difference hit. Liv Deane scored four times (27’, 45’, 66’, 75’) while Tessa Burns got the other (33’). Halswell were relegated with this defeat, to the surprise of nobody given that they’ve got a -74 GD from 15 games. Even if they’d won, they’d still have needed to beat Dunedin City in a catch-up game next week and let’s be honest.
With that problem out of the way, NW United didn’t have to worry about losing 6-0 away to Coastal Spirit. Britney-Lee Cunningham was on form with three second-half goals (52’, 87’, 90’) after Margi Dias (25’, 45’) had done the damage in the first spell. Frankie Morrow also scored along the way (58’). Solid way for Spirit to wrap things up – and the same applies to Otago University who made the trip from one end of the South Island (almost) to the other to face Nelson Suburbs and returned with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Sofia Zame (42’) and Rosie Hayman (52’). Those were their first goals of the season for each of them. This win for Otago Uni ensures they’ve narrowly managed to avoid the ferocious chase of Cashmere Tech to hold onto second place in the standings.
Speaking of Cashmere Tech, they had long since loomed as the biggest remaining threat Dunedin City Royals’ quest for perfection and it turns out those were worthy fears. Sara Mann gave Tech the lead after four minutes, her second goal this week. Rebecca Lake then doubled that advantage after half an hour before Amy Hislop made it 2-1 shortly before the interval (42’). DCR had won 14 league games in a row and they pressed for the goals that’d keep that streak going. They didn’t find them though. Instead Jemma Wilson (84’) and Anya Stephan (85’) scored late as Tech claimed a 4-2 win. DCR’s winning streak ends at the penultimate hurdle (they also have a catch-up game next week away to Halswell). Cashmere Tech’s winnign streak extends to eight matches. Tech have swept the second half of the season, scoring 48 goals and conceding a mere five in those eight games. They’ve been unreal... but their slow start means they only finished third overall.
Another factor here is that there’s also a Nelson Subs vs Coastal game happening next week. Could be a tricky game for Coastal but it could also be a chance for Nicholson (16 goals) and Dias (15 goals) to have a crack at the Golden Boot which is currently leaning towards Amy Hislop of DCR with 17 goals. Assuming that Hislop doesn’t score a bundle against Halswell the day prior to move out of sight.
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