The National Women’s League is the premier domestic competition for women’s football in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Yet as is sadly standard for the women’s game, it gets nowhere near the coverage it deserves. So if you are a new fan to the game with no idea where to start, fear not. Here is your beginner’s guide.
Which clubs participate?
Trick question! There are no clubs. Weird, right?
Unlike most leagues well, anywhere, it’s not a club based competition. Rather the teams are run by the regional football federations as this ensures all parts of NZ are able to participate. This is why teams have fairly bland names; e.g Capital Football, Central Football, WaiBOP, etc. That said it’s not entirely federation controlled. Southern and Canterbury United are now run under the same banner for both the men’s and women’s competitions, but for the most part, this is a federation’s game. And those federations/teams are:
- Northern Lights
- Auckland Football
- WaiBOP
- Central Football
- Capital Football
- Canterbury United Pride
- Southern United
How does this all work?
The 2020 season will be completed in a single round-robin tournament, with each team playing each other once.
The top two sides will then meet in a grand final on the 19th of December to decide the ultimate NWL champion. This is a sad change from recent years; the 2018 and 2019 seasons saw a proper home and away schedule for the first time, however COVID-19 means for the moment we will be regressing back to a shorter season.
How about some history?
The NWL began in 2002, flicking between having seven and eight teams.
The seven sides already mentioned have always been there, but the eighth was an age group team, and the league went through a few of them.
First came the NZ U-19 side in 2005 who were replaced by the NZ U-18 team the following year. Then there were a few years without a development side, before the glorious return of a national age-group franchise with the U-17s competing in 2009.
Next, we took it regional when an Auckland U-20 squad replaced the U-17s in the 2010/11 season. They were never seen again, and the Northern Region Development team who took their place managed to last a little longer, surviving from 2011 to 2012.
Then a Young Ferns side arrived on the scene for a single season but were given the boot when we got the second coming we all wanted with the U-18s rejoining the competition between 2014 and 2016. Ever since it has been just the seven teams previously listed. Confused? No. Good.
Oh and just to add to it all, between 2010 and 2014 the league was mostly an U-20 competition with the majority of squads required to be 19 and under.
Ok. But what about the teams? Who’s hot and who’s not?
Led by coach Alana Gunn since 2018 and by attacking midfielder Annalie Longo until her switch to Melbourne Victory in 2019, the Canterbury United Pride have been the club to beat in recent years. It’s impossible to understate their dominance. The Pride have been involved in every grand final since 2012/13, losing only two of those; to Northern in 2016 and Auckland in 2018. Those two have been the main challengers to the Pride, with this triplet of teams having taken the top three positions in the table since 2018.
At the other end of the ladder, Southern have had something of a renaissance since coming under the Southern United umbrella; they had earned a total of one point between 2015 and 2017 but have finished 3rd, 5th, and 4th over the past three seasons. That means Central are the new strugglers, having garnered nothing but wooden spoons since Southern’s rise.
Has anyone I know played there?
Of course! This is the football competition for Kiwi women with a youth tint, so it’s only natural some of Aotearoa’s biggest names have come out of here. You only have to look at Auckland’s 2007 winning side; Abby Erceg, Ria Percival, Annalie Longo, Anna Green, Betsy Hassett, and Sarah Gregorius. Yeesh!
Players also tend to return home near the finale of their careers, which is why Green and Gregorius – among other older players across the league – were turning out for Capital in 2018.
But perhaps the jewel in the NWL’s crown is the team which went to Uruguay in 2018 and won bronze. Stars like Grace Wisnewski, Anna Leat, Marisa Van Der Meer, Mackenzie Barry, and Aneka Mittendorff were all NWL players beforehand and are the testament to the NWL’s success.
When does it start?
31st of October. Still got an annoyingly long wait ahead of us!
This article would have not been possible without the amazing amount of help received from Ella Reilly.
Also check out Ferns Abroad.
