It’s been the question on everyone’s lips lately (if not then it should have been): Is Anna Leat actually playing as an outfielder for Hibiscus Coast? The answer is yes.

Last week we got the two Northern competitions (properly) underway and this week the rest of the country got its turn with the other four top tier comps all kicking off

The Northern League actually began a week ago as Auckland City crammed in a couple quick fixtures to clear up space for their imminent trip to the Oceania Champions League. With a Club World Cup jaunt in June, it’s shaping to be a very busy year for Auckland City.

We just had one of the most open, competitive, and unpredictable Men’s National League seasons we’ve ever witnessed and would you believe it the damn thing ended with Auckland City as champions

After another thrilling season of National League football... the expected outcome prevailed for Auckland United to complete their quadruple and make it through the entire calendar year undefeated

The Men’s Grand Final didn’t have the same clearly defined champ and challenger dynamic as the Women’s one did. For starters, the defending champs were Wellington Olympic and they didn’t even come close to qualifying this time

The stage was set at North Harbour Stadium, with Auckland United one game away from an absolutely unprecedented achievement. Not only were they on the brink of a quadruple but they were also ninety minutes (maybe more) away from going through the entire calendar year undefeated

The Men’s NL had four teams still with hopes of qualifying for the final as week nine began and none of them were playing each other so almost all of the games had ramifications. The WNL did not have such consequences

Right around the same time that the Cashmere-Birkenhead game reached it’s midpoint, this one was kicking off. Last year’s champions Wellington Olympic were at their Martin Luckie Park home trying to finish the season on a high

The Phoenix Reserves have found some recent form as first team players have been freed up to participate. But like the Men’s Reserves, the academy goes way beyond those prospects with A-League contracts

Wellington Olympic didn’t get their best case scenario with those other results but a win against the WeeNix would at least keep them in with a mathematical chance of defending their 2023 championship

You know it’s going to be a good game when the bouncy castle is up. Western Springs hosted Cashmere Technical in the second game of a club double-header, their WNL side having earlier beaten Central 6-0…

It’s been a tricky campaign for Western Springs, dealing with a few too many injuries amidst what was already something of a rebuilding season, and that’s been reflected in a lot of close games delivering merely a single victory

Big time footy over here. Wellington United suffered their first loss last week and more dropped points this week would take them out of the running for top two... and their opponents were Auckland United who haven’t lost a game all year

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon at Linfield Park... ripe for some footy. Coastal Spirit have been a surprise package this year, continuing their magnificent year of achievements by nestling into a final contention in the Nats

David Ball was left out of the Wellington Phoenix’s A-League squad for the trip to Perth this weekend and Giancarlo Italiano said the reason for that was to get him some minutes for the reserves. Instead of Perth he got to go to Auckland’s North Shore

Someone may have forgotten to alert the groundskeepers about the weekday footy because four minutes into the match they had to hit the pause button when the automated sprinklers went on. Look, we’ve all been there.

Ah yes, the Southern Derby. Logan Park in Dunedin was the venue. For years the Canterbury United dynasty owned this league with Southern hovering around the very bottom of the table and the results reflected that chasm. But in recent years the results have flipped.

At the beginning of this round, Western Suburbs were last with comfortably the worst defence while Auckland City were first with the equal-best defence. Winless versus undefeated.