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Good Evening & Happy Easter, The Ford Football Ferns are playing in Hamilton in 10 days time, and we hope our region can show them a warm welcome and plenty of support. There's a special ticketing offer in this email, plus a way of making group reservations so you can organise club groups to be able to sit together. We have Annalie Longo (ex Ferns Captain) coming up for the day to lead a Milo Fantails training session & 10 of our girls aged 11-14 will get a chance to go behind the scenes. Milo Fantails Hubs will be sent more information directly, and the nomination form for the behind the scenes is below. There is lots of football happening locally & away this weekend, with our men’s Dettol Northern League & LOTTO NRFL Championship teams playing Friday and Monday. The LOTTO NRFL Southern Conference as well as the women's LOTTO NRFL Premiership and LOTTO NRFL Championship, and the NRFL Youth Leagues all play as well, over Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully we can all get out and watch some great football. Any great photos or video can be sent to rachel.l@waibop.co.nz or Whatsapp to +6421443566 A big shout out to all our Junior Co-ordinators who will be pulling together and finalising team entries, due on Monday. Also in this update:
Enjoy the weekend, Rachel Lilburn, Marketing & Communications Manager ps Senior Draws are being finalised and will be up on the website by Monday 6th.  |
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The Ford Football Ferns are coming to Hamilton! 🇳🇿⚔️🇫🇯 NZ v Fiji Special Easter Offer: Buy an Adult Ticket and redeem two child tickets. Click here for the special offer. Group Bookings: If your club wants to make a group booking, but have individuals buy their own tickets, we can do this behind the scenes with Ticketek. If your club would like to do this, send through the number of seats you'd like to reserve and if there is a specific section you want to book in, and we'll get Ticketek to place the seats on hold and give us a multi-use code. Email rachel.l@waibop.co.nz |
Go behind the scenes at the Football Ferns! Girls 11- 14 Years Old We’ve got an opportunity for 10 girls to join us at FMG Stadium Waikato on Sunday 12 April 2026 for a special behind the scenes walk through at the stadium, plus spend 2 hours with former Football Ferns Captain, Annalie Longo. We want girls aged 11-14 who love football! Please pass this opportunity on to any girls in your club who you think might enjoy it. At this stage, we're just sending this to clubs / schools. We'll publish on the WaiBOP Social media channels on 4th April if we do not get to 10 girls before then. |
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New Goals The Whole of Football goals are being delivered over the next week across the region. Emails have gone out directly to all clubs receiving new goals. If you have't had an email, contact alida.s@waibop.co.nz Remember, you have 14 days to check your delivery and make sure everything is there. |
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Training for Junior Coaches We encourage all new and returning coaches to sign up for Coaching Courses. All of the Community Coaching Courses are FREE. Theory is online, then practical sessions are run throughout the region. Here are all the sessions we have booked in for April. The full calendar is here. https://www.waibopfootball.co.nz/coach-education 13 Apr 2026 Junior Level 1 Fergusson Park, Otumoetai 6.30pm If your club hasn't booked in any courses yet, talk to Scott (Waikato) or Nico (Bay of Plenty. |
Coaching Packs (Small Whites Packs for Junior Players) Coaching packs arrived in the region late today! They'll be distributed to clubs over the next two weeks.
We encourage all Junior Football coaches to download and use Coachmate, the official coaching and team management app of New Zealand Football. Please look out for & share social media posts from us about Coachmate (or get in touch with rachel.l@waibop.co.nz for social media graphics you can use) Note: The game rules for each grade/format can now be found in Coachmate (they were previously in the Junior Handbook and on our website). |
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Goalkeeper Development - Back for Term 2, 2026 7-week goalkeeper programme for boys and girls aged 8–16. This programme is for young players who are already showing a love for being in goal, and is designed to help sharpen their skills, strengthen their technique and grow their confidence. Each session will cover key areas of Goal Keeping — including positioning, shot stopping, handling, communication and decision making. Hamilton (Galloway Park) Monday (Starts 4th May) - Coach Max Tommy |
Introduction to Refereeing Our Junior Leagues (and many of our youth leagues) do not have allocated referees. Games are refereed by volunteers - often a parent, older sibling, or sometimes the coach. The online referee courses available through NZF Learn give some fundamental knowledge for each level of the game. These courses are all free to do. Please encourage your volunteers to register and complete these courses. Game Day Leaders Award – for volunteers leading game day for 4-9 year olds |
Youth Referee Academies The WaiBOP Youth Referee academies are run in Tauranga, Rotorua and Hamilton, and offer a supportive environment for teenagers to develop skills to referee both Football and Futsal. These are free for participants, and start in Term 2. Sign up is open now. https://www.waibopfootball.co.nz/youth-referee-academies |
Level 1 Referee Practical |
Club Admin Dashboard Our club admin dashboard is the place to bookmark for all club communication. https://www.sporty.co.nz/waibopclubadmindashboard |
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Why am I getting this email? This email is for club contacts. This has been sent to all Main Club Contacts and anyone who is a Girls and Women's contact for your club or school. Please share relevant information within your club. We’ll email you when there’s significant information you should know. It’s part of our commitment to keeping you in the loop. If there’s anyone in your club that you feel should be getting these Girls & Women emails, please send us their email address and we’ll add them to the distribution list. |
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