It’s an incredible situation that we’ve got ourselves into where four separate teams held their grand final fates in their own hands ahead of the penultimate weekend. Any combination of Western Springs, Auckland City, Wellington Olympic, or Miramar Rangers could end up in the top two

Despite the reputation that Auckland United bring with them, making them favourites everywhere they go, there was actually nothing between them and Eastern Suburbs during the National League regular season

The blokes still have another fortnight to go. That means that there wasn’t quite the same desperate jostling for spots in the top two... although there will be soon because this whole round was bonkers.

Sorry to say this but we’ve come to the end of the Women’s National League. This was the final round of the regular season (with just the grand final next week to follow)

On Friday night at Fred Taylor Park we witnessed one of the most consequential games of the entire season. Eastern Suburbs were five games unbeaten. West Coast Rangers had won five of their last six.

While it does seem like Western Springs and Wellington Olympic are headed towards a grand final showdown, having pulled away from the chasing pack, there’s still time for that to change

Old mates at Wests had gone loss, win, loss, win, loss this season so it stood to reason that they’d beat Auckland FC Reserves... except for the pesky fact that AFC were buzzing after a 3-0 win against Birko

With the way that the last couple weeks of results have broken, Wellington United are right back in the mix for the final. They’re also smack bang in the middle of a run of fixtures that sees…

The parity around this competition meant that Christchurch United and Auckland City were both within three points of second place as this game kicked off so technically they are both still title challengers... but the vibes have been peculiar.

Last Saturday, Auckland United nearly got stuck against a magnificent defensive display from West Coast Rangers until a controversial late penalty maintained their 100% record... and it wasn’t going to get any easier having to play four days later, on a Wednesday night, away against an Eastern Suburbs

Birkenhead were grand finalists last year. Wellington Olympic just won the Chatham Cup. Both have intentions of getting back to North Harbour Stadium (or wherever the final happens to be) in a few weeks but they also both lost last in round four. Gotta bounce back.

Now, this was one of those games that you circle on the fixture list. The premier dynastic club in the country against the team that pipped them to the NRFL Premiership title.

It’s taken this long for Eastern Suburbs to finally have a home game... their men didn’t qualify so Madills Farm has been solely for the dog walkers over the past month. But the club flags were up on Sunday as Canterbury United came to town

Western Suburbs won 8-0 against Coastal Spirit two weeks ago in the biggest Men’s National League victory for a decade... and yet managed to bookend that record win with a pair of defeats….

Unstoppable force. Immovable object. Through the first two weeks, no team’s games have involved more goals than Western Springs (15 goals: 8 for, 7 against)... and no team’s games have involved fewer goals than Petone (3 goals: 1 for, 2 against)

Fresh off the Derby win last week, Auckland FC were back to familiar territory as they ran into a fellow Northern Leaguer for the first time in this competition. In other words, a team that’s faced them before and understands how they play

It’s a weird one when you can say that both teams scored four goals last week yet the outcomes were completely different. Wellington United scored four but conceded five as they fell short in defeat away to Western Springs…

Okay, settle in now, grab yourself a cuppa, because we’re reached the round’s headline act: the derby has arrived in the National League. Three times these clubs met in the A-League last season and three times Auckland FC came away victorious…

The last time these two teams met was in the Chatham Cup quarter-final in late July, when Christchurch United, playing at home, blew a 2-0 lead with ten minutes to go and ultimately lost 4-2 after extra time.

On a relatively nice and only mildly windy Saturday afternoon at Petone Memorial Park began a brand new National League season... and immediately we saw an upset.