Hi Peter,
A typically thoughtful summary. I'll put on my anorak and numpty hat and argue a couple of points of detail, however.
Uni-Mt Wellington also won the national league in 2000. And we should also note that in two season East Auckland (2003) and Central (1997) only missed out on the title on goal difference.
And there is no reason to discount the 1999 title, it was touted as the national club championship.
Further, in the early 90s Waitakere City were based at Western Springs, which geographically made them as central Auckland as you can get.
So, anyone so inclined could equally argue that it is exceptionally rare for Auckland not to have had a club in at least the top two nationally over the past 30 years - which would conspire against the proposition that club strength in central Auckland is a post-2004 phenomenon.
Not that I want to be aligning myself with Aucklanders, mind. (Apart, perhaps from Wombat, if he is reading this).
Some good points Bruce - except I don't think Uni-Mt Wellington won the National league in 2000 - it was Napier City Rovers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_National_Soccer_League
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_City_Rovers
"Napier City Rovers have... won the old New Zealand National Soccer League in 1989, 1993, 1998, and 2000. They represented New Zealand at the Oceania Club Championship in 2001, finishing third."
Uni-Mount Wellington's last national league win was 1986 according to their own website: http://www.sportsground.co.nz/unimtafc/47785/
I still reject the 1999 "National Club Championship" as being a proper national league title - was just a one-off game between North island & South Island league winners. Quite different to the slog of contesting a whole season.
So I'm sticking with "only one national league title for a club that was clearly a central Auckland region club 1986 - 2004."
(Christchurch United won the league three times in that period - but hummmffff...I'm reluctant to mention not since 1991...
Bruce, you'll have to make allowances for us grasping at reasons to denigrate Auckland football success down here...)
That's an interesting point about Waitakere City playing at Western Springs - but just how "central Auckland" were the club? Wasn't the club otherwise based in Waitakere in terms of administration, its other teams and support? Where did the spectators come from? My mother's family's club Charlton Athletic played its games at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park in the late '80's - early '90's when the Valley was derelict but that didn't make it part of that geographical area of London (remained firmly SE London and Charlton suburb, rather than South London).