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The Warkworth Association Football Club (AFC) has been unable to field a first or reserve team this year.
Club president Cameron Gray says after losing a number of players, their senior mens team has been reshuffled from division one to division five – essentially a social league.
It was a disappointing outcome given that Warkworth once played at the top level of senior football.
“We didn’t have a goalkeeper so we couldn’t play competitive football,” Gray says.
Earlier in the year, he approached Puhoi Soccer Club proposing a joint venture that would see their first and reserve teams merge for the AFF/NFF conference league.
It would have provided Warkworth AFC the numbers it needed to play and given Puhoi a position in the conference.
“Ideally, we would have formed as Rodney United. We were also talking to Hibiscus Coast about how things could work,” Gray says.
However, last month, Puhoi SC were invited by the NFF to enter the conference league – a move which immediately saw the club’s fortunes rise with new signings of players from across the district including Warkworth.
“That’s football. I would have done the same thing in [Puhoi’s] position. But, I don’t believe that decision from NFF was in the best interest of the sport in the area,” Gray says.
Despite its decline at the senior level, Warkworth AFC is still in good health as a club with around 260 junior players.
Gray says Warkworth has been struggling to retain senior players for some years and the loss of a first and reserve team has not happened over night.
“Because we are close to Auckland, we lose our talented players to clubs on the North Shore where there are more coaches. We have been consistently pillaged.
“The area can’t fix that problem until we can get a better base and build up. That has been the focus of my tenure as president.”
Gray says that growth in the area over the next 20 years and his goal is to have two new dedicated football turfs in the town.
“If we had two turfs, we could play 40 hours a week. But at present we can’t have lights on at Shoesmith Domain.”
He has been in discussion with the Mahurangi Sport Collective to see what options could be considered for the future.
Meanwhile, Puhoi SC is straight into the conference league and what would have been its division two team will become its first team and its division three team will be its reserve.
Head coach Luke McIntyre says the club has a healthy squad of 36 players to draw from when the season starts.
“It’s going to be competitive and a test for the boys, but having had new experienced players join us is going to help.”
Coach McIntyre says the club isn’t going into the conference league with any expectations for its first year.
“We just want to be competitive on the field each week and see where we are at the end of the season.”
However, both Warkworth AFC and Puhoi SC express their doubts as to whether the season will go ahead due to Covid-19, despite it being scheduled to resume on May 2.
Northern Football Federation competitions manager Terry Hobin says anything is possible at this stage and the NFF will continue to respond to the situation.
“If the season starts on May 2, then that’s only a loss of three rounds and we will deal with that. If the quarantine lasts longer, there are a number of options on the table, including cancelling the season,” Hobin says.
