Posted June 02, 2026 08:04
· last edited June 02, 2026 08:17
For those who haven't experienced a Northern AFC game, it was pretty cool to be a part of it. Here's my take...
We got there early due to it being a public holiday and no pubs close were open. The pitch is inside an athletics running track, and has a decent sized grandstand. The manager and coach of Northern came over and introduced themselves and made us feel welcome, invited us to the clubrooms after and were really hospitable. Then their fans started arriving, which would probably total around 60, all singing and cheering on their team and any mistake from us. A few of them came over and chatted, talked about the season and team, also invited us to the clubrooms post match, and were good fellas. They had chants, songs and some excellent banter. My favourite song was to our keeper who had played with some of the Northern players before, and called him "Ron Weasley" which went down well with the Coastal team. Great to see an 18 pack of Double Brown come in the door, which once was a staple diet of a younger Coastal whānau. The addition of bag pipes as the teams entered was pretty cool too.
As for the game, we were dominant first half and shoulda had more but for some poor finishing and great clearances. Second half they were stronger and coulda had some of their own. A late winner made for the long drive home a whole lot more fun.
The Northern clubrooms was also great, a proper football version with photos, scarves and shirts all adorning the walls. Everyone was very welcoming to us outsiders, seems like they were happy to have some away fans there.
All in all a great weekend in Dunedin, long live Northern.
I will just add that it is a real shame the Fifa+ camera is not at this ground as it would be great to share this experience for those from outside of the region. The fact the camera is at a pitch 100 metres away that neither of the Southern League teams play at unless it's super wet makes it even worse. IMG_3353.JPG5.54 MB
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VimFuegoedited June 02, 2026 08:17
For those who haven't experienced a Northern AFC game, it was pretty cool to be a part of it. Here's my take...
We got there early due to it being a public holiday and no pubs close were open. The pitch is inside an athletics running track, and has a decent sized grandstand. The manager and coach of Northern came over and introduced themselves and made us feel welcome, invited us to the clubrooms after and were really hospitable. Then their fans started arriving, which would probably total around 60, all singing and cheering on their team and any mistake from us. A few of them came over and chatted, talked about the season and team, also invited us to the clubrooms post match, and were good fellas. They had chants, songs and some excellent banter. My favourite song was to our keeper who had played with some of the Northern players before, and called him "Ron Weasley" which went down well with the Coastal team. Great to see an 18 pack of Double Brown come in the door, which once was a staple diet of a younger Coastal whānau. The addition of bag pipes as the teams entered was pretty cool too.
As for the game, we were dominant first half and shoulda had more but for some poor finishing and great clearances. Second half they were stronger and coulda had some of their own. A late winner made for the long drive home a whole lot more fun.
The Northern clubrooms was also great, a proper football version with photos, scarves and shirts all adorning the walls. Everyone was very welcoming to us outsiders, seems like they were happy to have some away fans there.
All in all a great weekend in Dunedin, long live Northern. IMG_3353.JPG5.54 MB
