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If you want to join Warkworth Association Football Club (Warkworth AFC) next season you’ll need to get in quick.
The club has enjoyed a surge in popularity and seen its membership double over the past two years, growing from 228 players in 2022 to 476 in 2023. On top of that, they had more than 250 juniors and seniors playing summer seven-a-side soccer.
Warkworth club president George Moore says three years ago the club made plans to increase membership and they’re now starting to come to fruition.
“We’ve got some very strong footballers in our community, and we are really focused on being here for them,” he says.
The club had an influx of female players when Warkworth AFC was selected to be a Fantails programme provider for 2024 and 2025 by New Zealand Football (NZF) and Northern Region Football (NRF).
Fantails piggybacked on the success of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup – co-hosted by NZ, the tournament increased the visibility of women’s football, which led to an uptick in female participation.
“Fantails was introduced to provide more opportunities for young females to play football in New Zealand by delivering a high-quality football experience that results in girls falling in love with football,” Moore says.
“As we grow this girls-only programme, it will assist with the creation of future female teams within our club. We hope to have this up and running around February/March, with March coinciding with girl’s football month at NRF,” Moore says.
The club also got a boost from the Matakana Football Club open grade team, who joined Warkworth AFC recently becoming Warkworth Reserves.
“In the last year we’ve had three teams come over from Matakana, including their men’s senior team and two junior teams, and it’s been great to have them as part of our club now.”
Moore says he also anticipates an additional three teams to come through from last season’s junior grades and if all 2024 Saturday community teams continue next season, the club will have 19 club teams.
“With the huge growth in players, we’ve been very lucky with our generous sponsors, which has enabled us to kit out all our players in brand new Adidas gear, as well as training/away kits for our teams ninth grade and above,” he says.
Sponsors have also enabled the club to fund training courses to develop current coaches and to also encourage new coaches to join.
“We’ve got a great club and have had some wonderful support. But there’s only so much certain volunteers can do, everyone works these days. It’s the same usual suspects that help out, which is fantastic but we’re just struggling to keep up with everything.
“We need someone in the community who has got some good governance experience to help lead our committee as a chairperson.”
Moore says ultimately, Warkworth AFC is a community club.
“That’s who we are here for, but we need help from the community to help us grow.”
Next season will kick off on the weekend of April 5 and 6 and run for 18 weeks. Registration period will be January 1 to February 28.
Anyone interested in volunteering as a coach, or with web/social media expertise, all governance/chairperson experience, please get in touch with the club president George Moore on 027 570 6216.
Info: https://warkworthfc.org/
Warkworth AFC highlights
• Senior men’s team finished third in the NRF men’s division six.
• The ninth grade Red Knights notched up 15 wins from 17 games.
• The U13 Sunday conference team finished just one point behind Auckland United FC’s U13 team to place second in their inaugural year in the NRF conference, which has 14 teams competing.
• In the U15 NRF championship, the club placed sixth out of 13 teams – again, the club’s first time playing in this competition and the first year the team had all played together.
