THE NEWSLETTER OF WAIUKU AFC
MARCH 2, 2007

Extreme makeover – waiuku edition

As promised, here’s the all-new, bigger, brighter and better e-newsletter for players, supporters, sponsors, families and associates of New Zealand’s finest football club.
We’ll be bringing you all the news and views around the club, plus details of upcoming matches, the odd training tip, maybe a joke or two and whatever else I have time to fit in around trying to earn a living.

There seems to be a groundswell of opinion that we should have an agony aunt column, so in future editions look out for our all-new “Ask Robbie” in which you can get your answers to life’s thorny questions. We will state right now that we do not in any way condone, support, encourage or even slightly recommend that anyone take his advice on anything. However, feel free to email your questions or comments to waiuku.editorial@xtra.co.nz  Ensure you note on the email that these are issues for Blues News to consider, as this is the same email as the Waiuku Post, and you don’t want your personal questions splashed throughout the region’s local paper!

Lots of stuff in this week’s issue so read on, and as always, see ya at the park!

A Festival of Football – George Street this Saturday!

The Waiuku teams seem to be popular these days, with a rush of teams wanting to test their skills against us in pre-season. As a result, we have some great match days coming up.
After our fine efforts against Northern League Manurewa recently, the next phase of preparation for the new season comes on Saturday, with three matches, all at George Street, and the first silverware of the season up for grabs.

First up is a 10.00am match for the Waiuku Senior Reserves against Drury United, and there’s the traditional Waiuku v Drury Challenge Trophy on the table. This should be a cracking game, with our Reserves in the best pre-season form we have ever seen, and Drury fielding a young and ever-improving side which could hold a place in any of the top three or four Auckland divisions.

Next up is 11.40, when a combined Waiuku Thirds and Over-35s formation take on Huntly Reserves. This one’s an unknown factor – we understand the Huntly Reserves are a bit of a makeshift unit as well – but the Waiuku formation has never played together before and will be introducing themselves to each other in the warm-up! Still, we want to set a good tone for the main game, so the Blues will be out to put the shivers up Huntly before the Prems take the field.

The main event is 1.15pm, or thereabouts, when Waiuku AFC meets Huntly Thistle in a rematch of last year’s titanic Chatham Cup clash down there. As you may recall, the Anzac Day fixture saw the teams battle into extra time and with just minutes until it was going to go to penalties, Logan slotted the winner and we got away with a 1-0 win.

There’s an annual challenge trophy in place for this match now, and we want to start on the right foot with an addition to the trophy cabinet.

Get along and support the Waiuku teams and enjoy the post-match event and prize giving at the Kentish.

Coming Attractions

• This weekend: George Street, three matches as above.
• Next Thursday (March 8) at 8pm, Club AGM. Get along, vote for your choices for our glorious leaders, and think about what you can do to help the committee or sub-committees that are around.
• Next weekend: March 10: Two matches at George Street, starting 11am, with the Prenms versus our nemesis from last year, Western Springs, and the Reserves up against the Manurewa team they played in the quarter-finals of the Counties Cup last year. Couple of great games, don’t miss them.
• March 17 (Saturday) possible pre-season match or maybe a bit of a break for the lads – depends how well they do this weekend!
• March 18 (Sunday) 11am, Kentish Hotel. Sponsors Function. This is a chance for the club and players to meet greet and thank the local companies that have thrown their collective weight behind the Blues for 2007. We are hoping for a great turnout of players. There’s a BBQ and the odd free drink. Still need helpers for the BBQ, thanks to the TWO people who have said they will help. I’m really trying to change and support freedom of choice, so choose to help or I’ll return to my preferred role as dictator.
• As always – trainings Tuesdays and Thursdays 6.30pm.

Training tip of the Week

Training should be something you do all the time, not just on a Tuesday and Thursday, but it’s often impractical to find the time for a full session especially if you are at work or have a million things to do of an evening.

Here’s a handy tip though that you can do whenever, wherever you want.

Have a tennis ball handy, and during your morning tea break, between vacuuming or in an ad break during your movie, try balancing it on the top of your foot, with your foot a few inches off the ground. Once you’ve got the hang of this, move your foot laterally about 18 inches each side and up, keeping the leg straight and then repeating with other leg. You can try it sitting down as well if you’re an especially lazy trainer! It’s good for co-ordination, and strengthens the thigh on the lifting leg and the calf on the standing leg. If you don’t have a tennis ball, a rolled-up sock will do.

 Football Joke of the Week

A chap turns up to the New Zealand Knights first home match of the season and hands over $30 to the turnstile operator.
“Two please,” he says.
Turnstile Operator: “Certainly sir, will that be defenders or strikers?”

In Conclusion….

That’s about it for this week; there’s still a couple of changes to make to the newsletter – notably the addition of our sponsors page which is still in development, but should be ready for the next issue. As always, email back with suggestions or tips, letters to the editor (that’s me by the way, haha, the power!) and anything you would like to see included. I wouldn’t mind someone running a few notes on how the ladies side of the club is coming along as I’m mostly involved with the senior men at this stage of the season but I know the ladies have been training their hearts out as well.

Anyway, seeya at George Street on Saturday, at the Kentish in the afternoon, and as always,

Go the Blues!

Nigel