Whanganui football clubs ready for Yorb Western Premiership season

Wanganui City Football Club head coach Daniel Campbell is excited for the start of the Yorb Western Premiership. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown

With the inaugural Yorb Western Premiership approaching, Whanganui football clubs are “itching” to get started.

The 2025 season will mark the first time Whanganui Athletic Football Club and Wanganui City Football Club will compete in the same competition since 2019.

In 2024, Central Football announced that its Federation League would disappear under a proposed new format for clubs aiming to climb the competition ladder.

It would be replaced by eastern and western conferences, essentially a reworking of the three premierships that have sat immediately below the Federation League.

City head coach Daniel Campbell said his side had a “relaxed” preseason and had not played a lot of competitive matches.

Despite this, he was pleased with the efforts and look of the club after a resurgence in numbers.

“We’re really positive at the start of the season,” Campbell said.

“The first few games are tough. Fitness is a big thing for us, we’ve just got to push through those few games.

“We’ve been training for two months. It’s been about getting the new boys knowing each other and meeting new people - it has been good.”

Campbell said until recently the first team had 15 to 20 players but now up to 40 players were in contention and a reserves side had been formed for the first time in five years.

Whanganui Athletic Football Club has added international talent to their roster with Ryan Noon (left), Victor Nwankwo and Dragiša Eraković. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown

“The next five to 10 years are really promising for City as a club.

“We’ve got big, big numbers so we’re trying to keep the juniors rolling and young adults playing footy every weekend,” he said.

Campbell believed City could be near the top of the newly-formatted competition.

“Once our match fitness kicks in, we are going to be pretty tough to beat. We are definitely looking at top six.”

Athletic have had a near perfect preseason, going unbeaten by winning five and drawing one.

Comfortable wins were secured over Levin AFC (4-2), Moturoa AFC (4-1) and Hāwera FC (6-0).

Athletic drew 0-0 with Palmerston North United and secured narrow wins against FC Western (2-1) before clinching a last-minute 2-1 win against Wanganui City in the Charity Cup match on March 29.

Whanganui Athletic Football Club appointed Aaron Folan as director of football and first team head coach in January. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown

Aaron Folan, Athletic director of football and first team head coach, said the club was in “quite a good place” and looking to peak when they play their first match against City on April 12.

“We are extremely looking forward to the season. I can tell you first-hand, the boys are absolutely itching to get competitive matches started,” Folan said.

“We’re ahead of schedule with where I thought we’d be in terms of the way we want to play and the team we want to be.

“We are in a very good space - we are at the point where we need to get into some competitive fixtures.”

City will start their campaign against Palmerston North United at Wembley Park at 2.45pm on Saturday, April 5.

The following weekend, Athletic will host City in front of their new clubrooms at Wembley Park to kick off their season.