Contact Football Is Coming To Nelson

Currently our club does not run a tackle/contact american football program, even though we have players who have been selected in the New Zealand Steel Blacks Squads.

The reason why we have not jumped directly into it is because the contact version of the sport requires a lot of extra resources. Like personell for coaching, funding and equipment (Most of which needs to imported from overseas), not to mention somewhere to store all this equipment! We are working closely with the local councils and businesses, in conjunction with American Football Canterbury and The New Zealand American Football Federation who run these programs and leagues throughtout the country. To begin a league of our own in the next year or so. But rest assured this is something we have been working towards and has been one of our main goals since the club was officially founded in 2015.

Building a solid club foundation using the non-contact version, flag football, is vital to our goals and vision. Most new players to our club have never played american football before. Even though bringing with them a wealth of skills and attributes learned from other contact and non-contact sporting codes. We want to establish the core foundations of the sport first using the non-contact version, flag football.

What most people don't realize is that american football differs greatly from most other contact sports and there is a common mis-conception that you can make contact with anyone at anytime without consequence. The many habits learned from years of other contact sporting codes and these mis-conceptions need to be 'tamed' and new skills aquried in order to prevent injury to themselves or others, and to play the game effectively and of good quality. This is not to say that skills from other sports cannot be transfered and used effectively. 

We want to provide our members and the Tasman region with a high quality program, coaching and equipment. And the ability to be very competitive against other clubs national and internationaly, like we are currently with flag.

When we do launch our contact program, we plan to have teams for both male and female, across all grades.

If your keen on playing contact but not sure about playing flag, We encourage you to come along and see what the club offers. The skills you will learn will only help you become a better contact player in the long run. And even without an official contact program running currently, we maybe able to help you get started sooner than you think.

For more infromation on our leagues, programs, and what we can offer, contact the club manager

​​​​​​​