Helping drive women's football forward

Melville United’s women's football programme is making enormous strides under the leadership of Tarena Ranui, having evolved from one team of about 16 girls operating inaboysleague,toanacademyof80girlsforthe2023season

But Ranui, the club’s director of women's football, says this progress has only been made possible thanks to critical support in the form of a sponsored Hyundai car and fuelcard.

Hamilton football supplies retailer Soccer United, based in Alexandra Street, has coordinated a sponsorship package in conjunction with football apparel brand Lotto, and Research Motors in Hamilton East. Meanwhile fuel is supplied courtesy of Harrisons Carpet & Flooring (Waikato North), a flooring retailer specializing in carpet, hardwood,vinyl,laminatesandrugs.

This year Melville is fielding U14 and U16 girls academy teams in the Lotto NRFL and U13s in the WaiBOP federation-wide league. And a group of under 18s form the backboneoftheMelvillewomen’sfirstteam,contestingtheW-League

“It’s massive,” Ranui said of the sponsorship. “I probably couldn’t do it without the vehiclesupport

“The car and the fuelling of it is enormous. Obviously we are playing across Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua and NRFL goes all the way up the Whangarei Sometimes we (girls andwomen’steams)areinthreedifferentcitiesinoneweekend.”

Soccer United proprietor Brooke Macdonald said Ranui had developed a girls football programme that was unmatched within the wider region and her contribution to the codewas“quiteremarkable”

“As a result we have a nucleus of football-playing girls here who just now assume that there has always been this energy and sophisticated planning around the girls game,” Macdonaldsaid.

“Tarena’s drive and vision has created immense possibilities for the girls who have comewithinherorbit.”

Lotto Sports principal Blair Dawkins said it was encouraging to see a relatively young coachmakingsuchbigstrideswithfemaledevelopmentprogrammes.

“Within our wider support for the northern league, we are pleased to see Tarena’s development as a coach and happy to assist her on her journey and see where it leads,”Dawkinssaid

Girls now represent almost 50 per cent of the Melville United Football Academy, wherethetotal2023intakeis190

Meanwhile Ranui said the biggest challenge this season would be trying to win the WaiBOPFederation’sWLeague

While Melville would be a young team, her vision for Melville was to also be a space where older players could return to the game after having kids or having settled with mortgages

“They can still experience the sport at a level they enjoy and can contribute to, and eventakementorshiprolesindevelopingyoungplayers

“But overall it is still a place where our young players can hopefully move beyond us. For instance, I’m really happy we were the club that produced the most homegrown playersinthelastNewZealandU-17team(withthree).

“SoIthinkwe’vefoundsomethingthatworksreallywell”

Melville U14 Girls Academy and U16 Girls Academy kicked off their northern league campaigns a fortnight ago, and enjoyed big wins over Eastern Suburbs last weekend 8-5 (U16) and 8-0 (U14). Eastern Suburbs are of course new Zealand’s reigning senior women’schampions

Meanwhile, the women's first team begin their W-League campaign with a home fixtureagainstOtumoetainextweekend

# On April 3 Soccer United moved permanently across the road to larger premises in AlexandraStreet