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The Warkworth 17th grade football team has taken out the Second Division Championship and managed second place in the Knock Out Cup last month.
The side won all but one of their league season games to finish three points clear of second-placed East Coast Bays.
“I’m really happy the hard work paid off in winning the championship. I knew we had a squad that could do it,” coach Gavin Webb says.
Gavin says the side set a goal of winning the competition. Beating East Coast Bays 5-3 in round two showed the team they could do it early on.
“They were the highest ranked team to drop down from division one, so beating them let us know we had the quality to compete for the title.”
Gavin says it’s pretty hard to be critical of the team this year, but would look to have them play wider next season with such good wingers and full backs available.
“We tended to go through the middle too much and look for a through-ball with our pace up front, but that’s where all the traffic is and against quicker defences we struggled a bit.”
He noted mid-fielder Ben Morley as a standout player this season and says his captaincy was very mature and analytical, always providing the right comments at half time.
Other players to make a big impact were defender Logan Ross, mid-fielder Cas Hannink and top goal scorer Luke Stevens.
Gavin says they were simply outplayed in the cup final, but that winning the league was more important to them.
He thanks the Warkworth club and, in particular, Lorna Lewis for assisting the team throughout the season and managing communications with the Northern Football Federation.
