When Melville finished runners-up in the U17 boys tournament at Western Springs in December, it equalled the club’s best return at that event (matching the effort of the 2022 team).

U17s coach Jet Lim – who is expanding his role with Melville this year to also be U23s coach, alongside his job as director of football at St Paul’s Collegiate and futsal coach of the Waikato Rapids – described it as a worthy but bittersweet outcome. (Meanwhile Melville U17 girls made it to the semifinals before losing 0-1 to Tauranga Moana in a match they perhaps should have won.)

“When you're working with a group of people, especially with the culture that we have at Melville United, where we're passionate, committed, and have the ambition of trying to achieve the highest possible results that we can, of course it was bittersweet that we lost the final,” Lim said.

“But in looking at the group, the journey that we went on and all the preparation that went into going to that tournament, I think we can be super proud.

Melville U17 coach Jet Lim

“The boys had had such a long year of football, and for them to battle and fight their way all the way to the final, before going down 1-0 against Fencibles United, who have been a very impressive team throughout the whole year, I think every single one of our players, while disappointed at the final whistle, came away proud of our performance and our journey.”

Lim said his team had nicknamed themselves “Passion FC” for the 3-day tournament.

“In tournament football, everything can go wrong, or everything can go right. But you get tested so many times in your abilities on the field, in your ability as a cohesive team, and you get tested in your own personal character.

“But what we built really well together as a group was togetherness and camaraderie, and we nicknamed ourselves to reflect the passion - the passion of representing each other, the players representing themselves, representing the badge, just competing at our highest possible calibre.”

Lim only got the U17 coaching gig about a month in advance of the tournament, but knew a lot of the players from when he first started coaching at Melville back in 2021 with the U12s..“It was kind of a nice full circle moment where I'd coached them for a couple years, didn't really see them for two or three years, and then got to work with them in their later age.”

Lim was unfazed by being called upon to work with the squad at short notice.

“That’s just part of sport. What I try to teach on the field is you've got to be flexible, you've got to be able to problem-solve and take challenges as they come at you.

“And that's kind of what my coaching career has been, taking on new challenges, whether I've had plenty of notice or almost no notice at all. I pride myself on being super flexible and able to deal with anything that comes my way.”

In the semifinals Melville beat a strong Christchurch United team 5-4 on penalties after it finished 1-1 (with Melville’s goal coming from skipper Tomas Blackhall).

It wasn’t lost on the squad that it was Christchurch which had beaten Melville on penalties in the 2023 Chatham Cup final.

“The boys framed it for themselves as like a rematch of the Chatham Cup final, a chance for us to get a little bit of revenge.

“We went into the game thinking. ‘this is a club that we're coming up against which has taken something from us, and we want to have the chance to take it back’. We knew that they were a strong team to have made the semifinals.

“Their threats were their attackers, while they were consistent with their midfielders and backline. We also knew that they would get super frustrated the longer the game went on, if they didn't score.

“Tactically I think we set up well to neutralise their threats and also to express our strengths.

“But the thing that I think drove us across the line was just the passion and the boys having learned the lessons throughout the whole tournament of just staying locked in, staying focused right until the very end, making sure that the actions and decisions they were making on the field weren't tainted with frustration or with the feeling of, ‘Ah, we're down, we're going to lose’. 

“It was always, ‘Nope, we're in this until there's nothing else that we can do’.”

The penalty shootout was nervy but Melville had a lot of faith and confidence in keeper Kobe Taylor, given his positive track record in saving penalties, and he ultimately did save to win.

Kobe Taylor

“As soon as we knew it was penalties, multiple boys were super confident in putting their hand up to take a pen.”

The tournament structure was based on the top two from group play qualifying for a further group, from which the top team qualified for the semifinals. In Melville’s final second group match they needed a draw against Tauranga Moana, and drew 0-0.

A number of Melville players impressed throughout the tournament, and Lim was particularly impressed with skipper Blackhall.

“I think Tomas’ time with the first team, and his time with the New Zealand U16s over at the OFC tournament really helped open his eyes to what the level should be and what the mentality needs to be like in a successful team. 

Tomas Blackhall

“And he was one that just emulated that throughout the whole tournament, both on the field and off the field, making sure the boys weren't being idiots and were fuelling themselves properly, doing their recovery properly. 

“He was just an absolute leader right down the spine of the team at centreback. And in terms of his actual playing performance as well, he never ever dipped below average. It was always consistent. He still has another year of U17s to go, but just the type of personality and character he was, combined with his ability on the field made him a clearchoice to be captain. And he really executed that role throughout the whole tournament.”

Max Mitchell also left his mark, scoring in the 2-1 win over Birkenhead United, the 4-1 win over Western Springs White, and the 2-2 draw with West Coast Rangers, with a hat trick of  astonishing free kicks.

Max Mitchell

“Through his time with the first team Max has been able to see the difference between being a men's player and a youth player and the sort of behaviours that are unacceptable when you're trying to compete and be successful as a team.

“It almost felt like every time we got a free kick, we were like, ‘Oh, it's a goal. Max is going to score it’. And he scored whenever we needed him to, which was wicked.”

Butros Beqain, Melville Reserves Jordanian-born player of the year, also caught Lim’s eye.

“This kid is next-level technical player. Likes to dribble, loves to take on players.

“Some people don't like that, some people love that. Personally, I saw it as a key strength to our team - having someone that you can just trust will beat players. 

“I let him do his thing and express himself, but made sure that I guided the end product. 

“All the stuff he does beforehand of getting on the ball, beating players one-on-one, he's got that and I can't coach him to be better than what he is. 

“But I can coach him in the next part of his game and decision-making. The question is using the skills at the right time and in the right situation. And the U17s is not the same as a Chatham Cup final or the northern league and we shouldn't be trying to hamstring players and completely crack down and say, ‘you can't do this, you can't do that’. 

“The whole point of youth tournaments and youth football is to build up what they have then when they go into a men's first team environment, that they have the individual skills and it gets moulded into what the team dynamic looks like.  There are going to be coaches that love it and coaches that hate it.”

Others to impress were midfield playmaker Jackson Porter, a Hamilton Boys’ High student, and the team’s youngest player, Colombian-born Santiago Castillo.

“Jackson's got so much potential that I can see him becoming a first-team player within the next year or two. 

“And Santiago, at 15, was not only able to keep up but was one of my key starters in midfield.

“He's so versatile, his defensive abilities are he's aggressive, he's hungry for it, he's got good body shape and good timing for when to put in tackles or how to use his body to seal off players and win the ball.

“His dribbling skills are not as efficient as Boutros’, but enough so that it's almost impossible to get the ball off him.

“I believe that he will become a professional player. He's got so much potential for such a young player that the sky's the limit for that kid... I think it's only a matter of time before we see him push through the ranks and get some opportunities.”

Melville U17s: Tomas Blackhall (C), Kobe Taylor, Sam Woods, Finn McCabe, Jackson Porter, Milad Alamshah, Santiago Castillo, Samuel James, James Booker, Ashton De Roo, Callan Fraser, Liam Behrent, Max Mitchell, Papa Bosu, Butros Beqain, George Williams, Kristian Bates, Benjamin Waters.

Futsal update

Lim was first introduced to the code as a 13-year-old in Mike Groom’s futsal programme at St Paul’s and proceeded to represent Waikato Rapids at U16s and U19s level and then after his school years began coaching. He first applied for the Rapids coaching job in 2021 and then again in 2022, but was unsuccessful, before finally getting the gig in 2023.

Lim holds a C licence in both football and futsal, and is currently completing his final B licence modules, expecting to be qualified to that level by mid-2026.

With the Rapids, Lim has had Melville chairman Wayne Bates – himself a former Rapids head coach – as manager or assistant coach and he described the new futsal pilot programme under Melville as a learning experience.

“WaiBOP did things the way they've done it for years because that's how they learned how to do it their way. Currently we are learning how to do it the Melville way. 

“And that is natural. It was always going to happen as we change over leadership and how things are run. There's going to be rough edges that need to be smoothed out, but the whole point of this pilot is to figure it out.

“I now come to Melville for all the questions and stuff that I need in my capacity as head coach.”

The Rapids have a strong squad again this year. They have lost Ethan Martin to the Netherlands premier league, and Davis Vhavha to spending more time with his young family. But they have got Rapids veteran Logan Wisnewski back, which is an excellent pick-up, and also another Futsal White with star power in Jordi Ditford.

The Rapids have also got Futsal Whites keeper Patrick Steele, as well as Corban Fell, who was called up for a tournament in China in September, taking the tally of Rapids players with national team caps to six (with Cooper Wink and Casey Sharplin being the others).

Article added: Friday 30 January 2026