United women on premier quest

NEW COMP: The Rotorua United women's team will make the step up to a new WaiBOP women's premier league this season. Pictured are Maddi Ollington (left), Kim Maguire, club president Daniel Gibbs, coach Ron Cane, Caitlin Smith, and manager Denise Smith. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

The Rotorua United women's team will compete in a new premier competition this year which will feature clubs from Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

United have signed a new coach, Ron Cane, to help them this season, in the WaiBOP women's premier league, as they compete against top teams from Hamilton and Tauranga.

Bay of Plenty had its own women's competition last season which has merged with Waikato this year to make a stronger division.

Cane said they had a long way to go as a premier side but it was good for women's football in Rotorua.

"It is very much a rebuilding stage for the club and we want to try and lay a platform for next year and years ahead," Cane, originally from England, said.

"This new league will be quite strong I would think, particularly playing against the likes of Claudelands Rovers and some of those other sides from Hamilton."

The competition starts next Sunday and Cane said they were still light on numbers.

"I'm hoping I get a few more numbers and hopefully we can attract more quality players back to the club. So we are just looking to build from the bottom to the top again."

The new competition will feature seven teams including five from Hamilton and one each from Tauranga and Rotorua. The winning club at the end of the season will contest a playoff match to qualify for the Northern League premier women's competition, based out of Auckland.

Cane has more than 30 years of experience coaching football and moved to New Zealand from England in the late 1970s.

He has coached all over the country and moved to Rotorua in 2000, coaching at Ngongotaha AFC and the now defunct Rotorua City.

"I've been out of the game for a few years now to recharge the batteries," he said. "But I bumped into [Rotorua United president] Daniel Gibbs and listened to what he was saying, and I thought I would be quite interested to pull the boots on again and help out in some way.

"Daniel is a lovely man, and a young chairman of the club, and said what the club was trying to do and I liked that."

Cane is trying to bring a more professional culture into the women's side, where players turn up to each training and work hard to be part of something they can be proud of.

The Rotorua United women's team will play Northern United (Hamilton) at home in round one at Neil Hunt Park next Sunday.

The WaiBOP Premiership men's competition also begins next weekend with Ngongotaha playing at home, against Tauranga Old Blues, and Rotorua United playing away against Katikati in round one.