With the year rapidly heading to its end, we thought it would be timely if we provided some updates around Central Football workings.  

We have picked out what we believe to be the topics of most interest but welcome any questions on any other things not covered here. 

Central Football team 

Over the 2023 year we have had a few departures from our team, all of whom have been with us for several years and have contributed significantly to our game and to the regions they were based in. 

Aleesha Heywood (Hawkes Bay Community Development Officer), Brent Youngson (Taranaki Operations Manager), Kylie Campbell (Whanganui Operations Manager) and Matt Calvert (Whanganui Community Development Officer) left us during the year and have all left some big shoes to fill.  

To date, we have replaced Aleesha’s position with Steve Hoyle who will join the team in the New Year. Steve is a well-known and respected player and coach who most recently was the Women’s Director of Football at Eastern Suburbs FC in Auckland. In terms of how we replace the other vacancies, we are working hard behind the scenes to determine the best approach to how we do this considering the specific needs for both the Taranaki and Whanganui regions and more will be revealed in the New Year.  

Earlier this year we welcomed Mikaela Bouwmeester (Boxall) to the Community Development Officer role in Manawatu. As we expected, Mikaela has become a huge favourite with the Manawatu football community and is doing a fantastic job. 

Central Football Board 

The Central Football Board had some personnel changes over the year. Firstly, we welcomed Belinda Mackay to the Board in a co-opted role to replace the retiring Rod Pelosi. Belinda is a business owner based in Gisborne/Tairawhiti and has already made a very positive contribution to our governance team. The 2023 year has also seen the retirement of longstanding Board member and former deputy Chair, Gary Mackenzie. Gary was based in Whanganui and was a strong advocate for the region over many years. 

Rod Pelosi ONZM stood down at our AGM in May after 22 years and as a founding member in 2001 and it is hard to remember him missing a meeting over that time. These 22 years included a four-year term as Chair from 2006 to 2010 and we are indebted to Rod for his wise counsel and sage advice over the past two decades. Rod will continue to have input and involvement as our honorary President. 

At the time of writing this update, our Board is in the process of considering some expressions of interest for the vacancy on the Board left with Gary Mackenzie’s retirement and will hope to have this filled by the end of the year. 

Our Board are: 

• Jamie Hall – Chair 

• Rebecca Scott – Deputy Chair 

• Garrett Blair 

• Belinda Mackay 

• Rachel Ingram 

• Rori Moore 

• Samantha Bolton 

• John Sigurdsson 

Match Officials 

Coming off a couple of years where we had several changes in our Referee Development team, we had a really solid 2023 in terms of recruitment of match officials. Our Referee Development Officer, Russell Jones, worked tirelessly over the year to get around the Federation and work with prospective match officials. The good news is that over 2023 we recruited 59 new match officials across the Federation, a net increase of 39 and had 80% of senior games with at least one match official on it. Granted, some regions had higher coverage than others but it’s a solid and positive step in the direction we want to be heading and a sound base to work from in 2024. 

Our focus in 2024 will be to keep on the recruitment drive plus do further work around the development of our existing match officials. To aid this, we will be adding to our staff resource to support Russell in achieving that lift in the quality and quantity of our match officials. 

If you are interested in finding out more about being a match official, please get in touch with Russell Jones at russell@centralfootball.co.nz . He will be happy to speak to you about what is involved and regardless of your football background and knowledge of the game, we would love to have you onboard. 

Competitions and Programs 

There are a couple of things that I would like to cover here, namely: 

Competition Review 2024 – Over the 2024 season, we will be undertaking a review and potentially a refresh of our competition structure. This includes the proposed introduction of a Men’s Central League Division 2 competition in 2025 which will, as part of the proposal, replace our existing Lotto Men’s Federation League. The clubs that this proposal will impact have been part of the consultation process over the past six months or so and we look forward to being able to share more around this in the new year. In terms of other competitions, one of our key strategic pillars is to ensure we have meaningful competitions in place for all stakeholders – from our first kicks programs through to our senior masters and aspirational competitions. We will be looking to engage with as many of our clubs, players, coaches, and administrators in 2024 as we can to ensure we understand what “meaningful” is to you. 

Central Football Representative Teams – over the 2023 year, we had some changes across some of our representative teams and programs where we looked to engage with some of our clubs to partner in the delivery of programs. We took this approach to help support the growth of these clubs and enable them to participate in national programs and competitions. A quick summary of our key programs for 2023 is:  

• U17 Boys National League Football – We partnered with FC Western (New Plymouth), Whanganui Athletic, Palmerston North Marist FC and Napier City Rovers to manage teams in this competition. All clubs put a fantastic program together for the players and performed credibly against some top opposition and we were desperately unfortunate to have both Palmerston North Marist FC and Napier City Rovers miss out on qualifying for the National Championship phase of this program by goal difference. Our congratulations and thanks to all four clubs for their work in providing a quality experience to the players and coaches through this competition. 

• Super League Futsal (Men and Women) – In the 2023 version of this program, held in February – April 2023, Central Football partnered with Hawkes Bay Futsal to deliver the men’s team whilst the Federation ran the women’s program. This partnership worked extremely well and, as a result, we have extended this for the 2024 program to a partnership with Palmerston North Marist FC to run both a men’s and a women’s team and continued our relationship with Hawkes Bay Futsal to run a men’s team in this program. Our thanks go to both entities for their passion and work to promote and deliver futsal across our Federation. 

• National Women’s League/Girls Youth League 2023 – both of these teams were proudly managed by the Federation again in 2023 and both performed exceptionally well. Whilst some may argue that the “table doesn’t lie”, the Women’s team were competitive and got better week by week playing some fantastic football. Our Youth team had an outstanding campaign finishing second, playing a great brand of football and supporting the senior team admirably. Our sincere thanks to coaches Jamie Dunning (women’s team) and Donald Piper (youth team) and support staff for your dedication and support of the players. Both programs were extremely well run, with a really positive approach both on and off the field.  

Women’s World Cup – Legacy Starts Now 

The 2023 football year will be remembered for a certain World Cup that was co-hosted by New Zealand in July – August. What a massive and memorable month that was and a true celebration of football and women’s sport in general. Whilst our Federation were unfortunately not able to host any of the World Cup matches, we did have the Football Ferns play a pre-tournament game against Vietnam in Napier – a confidence building win that the Ferns took momentum into their first World Cup game against Norway and that kicked off the tournament in a huge way. 

As part of the hosting of the World Cup, the Federations, alongside New Zealand Football, launched a program called Legacy Starts Now. This program was designed to use the impact of the World Cup to create lasting legacy for the game, provide opportunities and great experiences for girls and women through football, and ensure there is a permanent reminder of the success of the World Cup with facility improvements across the country. We were fortunate to be able to engage Alisa Schlierike as our Women’s Legacy and Inclusion Manager and she did a great job over the past 10 months or so of managing and delivering some fantastic programs across the Federation such as Fantails – a junior girls program designed to increase participation and active leaning, Kōtuitui – a football in schools program with some in class learning and football related activities,  and a Women in Leadership program attended by 25 dynamic, passionate and hugely motivated females from our game within the Federation. Much of this great work will continue to be led by Alisa across 2024 too so keep an eye out for more details around this. 

Club Survey 

You may have seen a survey via our social media pages over the past week or so. We are keen to hear from players, coaches, match officials, administrators, and supporters about what they would like to see around our competitions and also what and how you would prefer us to communicate with you. The survey closes on 22 December and the feedback will be used to help form our planning for 2024.  

The links to the surveys can be found here: 

Senior Survey: https://forms.gle/cL47tDirScTwZRf79 

Junior/Youth Survey: https://forms.gle/PUYAoaXjxMWFPWUK6 

Artificial Turfs 

Artificial turfs are a topic often mentioned, but with what seems to be very little progress. The management of Central Football continue to work hard with local Councils, project teams and other entities to realise turfs in New Plymouth, Palmerston North, and Napier. Whilst progress around these is slow, there actually is progress however and our commitment to these projects remains as strong as ever. Funding and the method of obtaining this, particularly from Councils, is often where delays creep in but we need to be respectful of the process Councils need to take when spending ratepayer money. 

Whilst we would love to be able to commit to 2024 being the year where we start the build on one of more of these turfs, at this stage that is unlikely. As mentioned, you can be assured that we continue to push hard for progress and will endeavour to keep you all up to date with any progress throughout 2024. 

Closing 

In closing I firstly want to thank every one of our members for your support and commitment to our great game. Our team are privileged to work in football and don’t take that privilege lightly. We are here to help ensure that the experience that you, as stakeholders of our game, have is as good as it possibly can be. We won’t get everything right along the way, but I can assure you that everyone of our team is committed to making decisions that are in the best interests of you and our game. My thanks again to all of you that have contributed, no matter how big or small in 2023. 

Finally, our best wishes to you all for a safe, enjoyable, and prosperous Christmas and New Year break. The 2024 is just around the corner and we look forward to seeing everyone back and firing to go in the New year. 

Darren Mason – CEO Central Football 

Article added: Thursday 14 December 2023