Matamata Swifts AFC is my club because Matamata is where I’m from. Simple really. I played my junior football at the club. I played football there as a callow youth. I played most of my senior football there. And I’ve held just about every committee position known to man there. It’s fair to say I’ve done my time and I’ve done it willingly. Matamata Swifts is a small country club that has occasionally punched above its weight. Often...
Read MoreEvery time I visit a match I’ll take a minute long movie so readers can get a feel for the venue. In the latest in our One Minute At… series we’re at Bluewater Stadium in Napier. We were there for the ASB Premiership between Hawke’s Bay United and WaiBOP United, played on Saturday January 25, 2014. The game finished 3-2 to Hawke’s Bay United.
Read MoreSometimes, even if you’re quite heavily involved with a team, it’s nice to be able to sit back and analyse a game of football as objectively as you can and appreciate it for what it was – a decent game of football. As annoying as WaiBOP United’s 3-2 loss at Hawke’s Bay United was I thought it had pretty much everything you could hope for in a match of ASB Premiership standard – goals (and some...
Read MoreI run Google Analytics on this blog as well as its’ sister-site the Northern League Forum and, like any website owner I guess, I’m fascinated by the numbers it spits out at me. I don’t usually have the time to dig too deep but it’s fun to occasionally have a good look at the numbers and try to figure out what they mean. Here’s a brief analysis of my 2013 according to Google Analytics. The Matamata Bus The...
Read MoreI took more than 7000 photos during 2013. Most of them were while I was at the football. Almost all were rubbish. But amongst all the dross I did manage to squeeze out a few decent shots. During my holiday down time I skimmed through my efforts and pulled out the best thirty. Here’s the final part of the trilogy. These photos come with a heavy WaiBOP United focus, which is not surprising given my involvement with that franchise...
Read MoreI took more than 7000 photos during 2013. Most of them were while I was at the football. Almost all were rubbish. But amongst all the dross I did manage to squeeze out a few decent shots. During my holiday down time I skimmed through my efforts and pulled out the best thirty. Here’s the middle batch of ten photos, which were taken through the middle part of the year. Each photo comes with a little story that helps define my 2013...
Read MoreI took more than 7000 photos during 2013. Most of them were while I was at the football. Almost all were rubbish. But amongst all the dross I did manage to squeeze out a few decent shots. During my holiday down time I skimmed through my efforts and pulled out the best thirty. Why thirty? It’s a good round number and lets me put up three blog posts with ten photos in each. As any blogger will tell you, the more posts you can get...
Read MoreIt’s been a very long footballing year for me. Even though you’d be tempted not to believe it due to the lack of recent posts on this blog. Putting my laziness aside, and as 2013 comes crashing down amongst all the Christmas/New Year madness, I think it’s worth reflecting on a busy year, if only as a way to tidy things up and give something for my handful of followers to chew on over the summer. I set this site up...
Read MoreGiven that I’ve not posted on here for a good number of weeks (since late-September, in fact) you could be forgiven for thinking that I’ve packed up and headed for the beach for the summer. In a way, that’s true. Although it’s a footballing ‘beach’, not a sandy one, one that’s played across our New Zealand summer and from one end of the country to the other. My role with WaiBOP Football...
Read MoreUnfortunately it’s taken me a few days to get anything posted about Sunday’s Wellington Phoenix v New Zealand A match in Rotorua, so pretty much all the words that could be written about that game have been written. And everyone’s moved on. But wait, I have here something a little different. Yes, there are the usual photos, but I also have some movies for you. It’s not quite like being there, but given the...
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