Central League 2020 Liquid IT Petone FC vs Miramar Rangers Saturday June 13 | 3pm | Memorial Park Proudly supporting Petone FC liquidit.nz Chairman’s Corner elcome to the 2020 football season, at last! Two-and-a-half months later Wthan normal, but great to have a full season ahead of us playing through to October. The last few months have been crazy and I do hope everyone has kept active and well during this period. I also hope our Men’s and Women’s First Team squads have kept up their fitness, which they all worked so hard on up to lockdown – we’ll see how they hold up in the next few weeks :-) The club has assembled a great Men’s squad again who will be tested in the Central League this year and, as always, our ambition is to do well backing up our glorious promotion success last year. We welcome back old and new players to our squad as well as our new First Team coach Charlie Howe and his assistant Kieran Cripps. Our Women’s W-League Team has been strengthened with some new players enhancing our solid base from last year. We have strong ambition to also do well in the W-League and with coach Kevin Torres we are excited about the year ahead. We have had a good start, last week beating Wellington United 1-0 in the quarterfinal of the Kelly Cup – a good sign of things to come. Our Women’s Reserve Team has also strengthened this year to compete in the Capital Premier League with coach Roger Torres. We additionally have a great Women’s U18 development squad, with all players in our Women’s senior programme being coached at a high standard and competing for spots in the highest team they can play in. Our Men’s Reserve Team is looking strong this year too. Although we did not get off to a winning start in Capital 2 last weekend, with new coach Ben Feld onboard we will be driving hard for promotion! I feel we will see some great winning football from this talented group, which has a nice mix of younger and older club players. With some great support from Steve Davey and Chris Hosnell, we have a solid group of payers in our Third Team playing in Capital 3 and the Untouchables in Wellington 6 – both teams had a win on opening day. This group of players form part of our senior football programme and will be treated as such this year with the opportunity to advance into higher teams on merit. We have a true “squad culture” this year. The Powerex Hilton-Petone Cup was well run by Barry Pickering again, with Tawa winning the First Division final against Lower Hutt. Unfortunately, the Division 2 competition was halted before the semifinals were played due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Thank you again Barry and other volunteers. Our junior development programme has now been approved by Capital Football and we have a great new sponsor in support. The Mitre 10 MEGA Petone Settlers Talent Centre has three talent development programme teams in Grades 13, 15 and U17 and I will keep you updated on their progress! Our Junior Club is huge again this year with so many volunteers making it enjoyable and fun for players and their families. The dedication to keeping children within our football community engaged and improving their skills is awesome to see. Our club is very proud of the opportunities we provide our young players and hope to see them do as well as they can and advance into our senior football programme. A big thank you to all of our dedicated volunteers and committee members that make this club function – as well as our sponsors who have stood by us over this difficult period. We are so lucky to have a strong community support base to enable us to be successful on so many levels. I am looking forward to another enjoyable and successful season, both on and off the field. Matt Bliss Chairman [email protected] Website Update ith the start of the 2020 playing season, it is time to unveil an update to Wthe Petone FC Website. The existing site has been in place from around the beginning of the 2011 season and has been expanded and extended many times over the years, by many different volunteers. The old site has served the club well. However, the online landscape has changed. Information is more often delivered to mobile devices and social media is a far greater factor in people’s lives. Consequently, we needed to revamp the site in order to better address the information needs of today’s players and supporters. We had intended to roll out the new-look site at the start of this year. However, in part due to issues around COVID-19 and the lockdown, this has been pushed back until now. The new Website should be live by the time of this publication. Thanks to an updated framework, we have more flexibility to add features to the site and consequently will be further extending it as the season progresses. We hope to be able to give you more up-to-date and relevant information, along with improved integration with various social media feeds. It should also allow better opportunities for sections of the club to contribute content relevant to their areas of interest. Keep an eye out for further updates to the site over the coming weeks. http://www.petonefootball.org/ Jeremy (Jez) Bowen Website designer [email protected] Petone FC Programme Info content co-ordinator – Clare Ladd <[email protected]> sub-editor/designer – Iain MacIntyre (MacIntyre Public Relations) <[email protected]>, 021 991 016 photographs predominantly courtesy of Jeff Bell <[email protected]> and Angela Eglington <[email protected]> thanks also to club stallwarts Ray Bell, Barry Pickering and Matt Bliss as well as our other contributors Shirt Sponsorship ur club has introduced a new supporters’ package this year, whereby Osponsors have the opportunity to advertise on the back of player shirts in both the Petone FC Liquid IT Men’s First Team and Powerex Women’s First Team. These much-appreciated financial supporters will also be named match-day sponsor for one game per year, in which their business and the players proudly wearing their shirts will be profiled in the following pages of this programme. Hospitality will be provided to the sponsor at that game and, additionally, framed pictures will feature in the club stairwell during the season. A few shirts are still available, so any businesses who may be interested – and any club members who have any potential contacts – please advise club chairman Matt Bliss <chairman@ petonefootball.org.nz>. Our first sponsor is Sign Foundry, whose name features on the shirts of all four of our senior goalkeepers. Sign Foundry ign Foundry is one of Wellington’s largest signage manufacturers and Sinstallers, with branches in Auckland and Christchurch (head office in Alicetown). We are a team of skilled and passionate signage experts who create bold and engaging signage solutions. We never settle for ordinary or okay, we strive for awesome and get results. We are all about building partnerships and making the process easy – this means thinking beyond a one-off project. We take time to understand what is important to you and look at the long-term vision. We use established systems and processes to provide ongoing servicing and support. We believe this is why clients return to us with each new project. Sign Foundry is the difference between okay and awesome! Delivering projects on time, within budget and to the highest quality is simply the baseline for us. Our confidence is based on delivering big results time and time again for our clients, thanks to our powerful, multi-disciplinary and experienced team. Our clients see us as more than a signage contractor – instead, a strategic partner that gets results. But don’t just take our word for it – we are happy to provide references! Duncan Rourke 483 Hutt Road Creator of opportunities/director Alicetown Sign Foundry 04 212 4760 027 666 0774 www.signfoundry.co.nz [email protected] Ariana Gray Women’s goalkeeper Why have you chosen football over other codes? Although football is my main sport, I still play other codes (netball, touch, futsal). Do you have a lucky charm or ritual that you observe before playing? I always have a hot shower before I head to the grounds. I like to amp up in the car on the way to the grounds listening to songs with lots of DnB (drum & bass). I also have a specific order I follow when shoe-ing up – left sock first then right sock, right boot, left boot. What do you do outside of football? I am Year 12 at Hutt Valley High School. I like going to the gym and hanging out with my friends. What is the song you like to train to? My favourite tune currently is Unleashed by Tantrum Desire. Favourite takeaway? Subway – wheatmeal foot-long meatball sub with lettuce, tomato, olives, honey mustard, salt and pepper. Who is your favourite team in any other league? I don’t watch other teams play football regularly. I do watch the Football Ferns when it’s televised. What footballer do you most admire and why? United States goalkeeper Hope Solo – she’s dominant and a great talker from the back. What did you learn from COVID? “It’s grind season baby” – I can now do more push-ups on my toes.