On Saturday, New Zealand Football held the annual NZF Awards evening, with a number of Auckland Football Federation representatives being recognized for their efforts in the 2017 calendar year.

A total of 18 members from across the AFF Region were nominated for separate award categories on the evening, with some nominees going up against each other for specific honours.

AFF Chairman John Macleod was delighted for the many hardworking and talented Auckland Football based players, teams, coaches and referees acknowledged on the night.

“It was great to see the AFF nominees and award winners gathered together to celebrate their respective successes in our game on and off the field,” Macleod said.

“The number of AFF based nominees and winners signifies the strength of football in the Auckland region and on behalf of all involved in the game in our Federation I congratulate everyone on their fantastic achievements in 2017.”

In the NZF Men’s Footballer of the Year category, Onehunga Sports and Auckland City FC Skippers, Jo Dawkins and Angel Berlanga were nominated for the award, but fell short to the ever-impressive New Zealand International, Chris Wood, who had a stellar of a season in 2017 for both club and country.

Eastern Suburbs and Auckland Football forward, Jacqui Hand made the list of nominees for the NZF Women’s Player of the Year award, but Football Fern, Rebekah Stott came out on top.

However, the Futsal awards were the turning point of the evening for Auckland Football, with the region being recognized for a successful season of Futsal in 2017.

AFF Representative and Futsal White, Kareem Osman was awarded Futsal Men’s Player of the Year after positive displays for both federation and country. Flanker, Jess Verdon was up against her AFF team-mate, Shivy Anthony for the Futsal Women’s Player of the Year award and came out on top, taking home the prize.

To add to that, Futsal Ferns coach, Nic Downes won the award for Coach of the Year after his successes with both the National team and the AFF Representative side.

Among other awards, Auckland Football’s Britney Cunningham-Lee and former Onehunga Sports and Auckland City FC midfielder, Clayton Lewis were both nominated for the NZF Young Player of the Year award. But it was Lewis who would take home the prize after significant performances at both the FIFA U20 World Cup and FIFA Confederations Cup last year.

After guiding Onehunga Sports to the double in achieving both the Lotto NRFL Men’s Premier Division and the ISPS Handa Chatham Cup, Head Coach, Hiroshi Miyazawa won the award for Coach of the Year.

Miyazawa was up against Auckland Football’s Gemma Lewis and Auckland City FC’s Ramon Tribulietx. With Tribulietx taking out the OFC Champions League in 2017 with Auckland City FC, Gemma Lewis also achieved top awards in the National Women’s, after guiding the AFF Women’s National League side to top spot, defeating Canterbury United Pride in the final by 3-2.

In the Referee space, Anna-Marie Keighley and Nick Waldron were nominated for their outstanding efforts in the middle of the park for both domestic and international competitions for the Referee of the Year award. However, it was Central Football Referee, Matt Conger who took out top honours for this category.

In the Futsal Referee of the Year category, AFF’s very own Antony Barnes was credited as a nomination for the award but lost out to Chris Sinclair.

And finally, in the team space, Auckland Football Women, Onehunga Sports Men and Auckland City FC Men were all nominated for Team of the Year but lost out to the New Zealand Football U20 Men’s side.

New Zealand Football Awards – Members marked with * are AFF Affiliated

Men’s Player of the Year

Stefan Marinovic (SpVgg Unterhaching/Vancouver Whitecaps/All Whites)
Winston Reid (West Ham United/All Whites)
Ryan Thomas (PEC Zwolle/All Whites)
Chris Wood (Leeds United/Burnley/All Whites)
Justin Gulley (Team Wellington)
Jo Dawkins (Onehunga Sports)*
Angel Berlanga (Auckland City)*

Futsal Men’s Player of the Year 

Lucas Da Silva (Capital Futsal/Futsal Whites)
Kareem Osman (AFF Futsal/Futsal Whites)*
Michael Sannum (Southern United)

Women’s Player of the Year

Erin Nayler (Girondins Bordeaux/Football Ferns)
Ali Riley (FC Rosengard/Football Ferns)
Rebekah Stott (Seattle Reign/Melbourne City/Football Ferns)
Rosie White (Boston Breakers/Football Ferns)
Eleanor Isaac (Southern United)
Jacqui Hand (Auckland Football)*
Kate Loye (Glenfield Rovers)

Futsal Women’s Player of the Year

Shivanthi Anthony (AFF Futsal/Futsal Ferns)*
Britney-Lee Nicholson (Canterbury United Pride/Futsal Ferns)
Jess Verdon (AFF Futsal/Futsal Ferns)*

Young Player of the Year

Dane Ingham (Brisbane Roar/All Whites)
Clayton Lewis (Auckland City/Scunthorpe United/All Whites)*
Anna Leat (East Coast Bays/Football Ferns)
Malia Steinmetz (Forrest Hill Milford United/Football Ferns)
Taylor Schrijvers (Team Wellington)
Britney Cunningham-Lee (Auckland Football)*

Coach of the Year

Anthony Hudson (All Whites)
Darren Bazeley (New Zealand U-20)
Jose Figueira (Team Wellington)
Gemma Lewis (Auckland Football)*
Hiroshi Miyazawa (Onehunga Sports)*
Andy Clay (Glenfield Rovers)
Ramon Tribulietx (Auckland City)*

Futsal Coach of the Year 

Nic Downes (AFF Futsal/Futsal Ferns)*
Darren Hart (Southern United)
Ronan Naicker (Canterbury United Pride/U-18 Futsal Ferns)

Referee of the Year

Matt Conger
Simon Lount
Anna-Marie Keighley*
Antony Riley
Nick Waldron*

Futsal Referee of the Year

Antony Barnes*
Antony Riley
Chris Sinclair

Team of the Year

All Whites
New Zealand U-20 men
Team Wellington men
Auckland Football women*
Onehunga Sports men*
Glenfield Rovers women
Auckland City men*

Futsal Team of the Year

Southern United men
Futsal Ferns
U-18 Futsal Ferns

For the Full New Zealand Football Press Release, click here

Article added: Tuesday 11 September 2018