Here we go!! Senior football kicks off across all the Hawke's Bay grounds tomorrow afternoon and on Sunday morning.

Hopefully, you all have your boots cleaned, have put in that extra effort into pre-season training and have the ice packs and strapping tape ready to go! It looks like our summer temperatures are going to continue but the forecast is for a bit of rain which will no doubt be to the relief to many!

We would like to say a massive thank you to you all for your perseverance and patience in dealing with the new registration process via My COMET. We realise that it has not all been plain sailing and do appreciate you and your clubs support in getting this necessary process done. Hopefully, we can now get into the real business of getting some decent football underway.

Throughout the season we will look at producing a weekly article previewing the weekend’s football across all our senior competitions. This will be released on our website HB news page and on our Central Football – Hawke's Bay Facebook page.

This week we focus on the Pacific Premiership and HB Women’s League and we are grateful to again have the support of Computer Care as the sponsor of our Men’s Pacific Premiership again this season. We have a 10 team competition this year with the welcome addition of Gisborne Thistle and Gisborne United and the return of Maycenvale to the Premiership. We have a full round of fixtures in the Premiership with some interesting first up clashes. 

Duke of Gloucester Napier City Rovers host Gisborne Thistle at Bluewater Stadium in what will be a good test of Thistle’s squad. Both teams are under new coaches with City Rovers stalwart Stu Wilson at the helm there and Garret Blair taking charge at Thistle. 

As mentioned, Cru Bar Maycenvale United make a welcome return to Premiership football and host the other Poverty Bay team in Gisborne United. Maycenvale performed strongly in the HB Div 1, now Premiership Reserve League, in 2017 and were Knock Out cup finalists also. It’s great to see them back in the Premiership and they will no doubt face a fired up Gisborne United team who will want to get their campaign off to a good start at the Hastings Sports Park.

The other three fixtures are no less interesting with a couple of tasty clashes between two formidable teams in BM Accounting Port Hill United and Eskview United at Marewa Park, Taradale face Western Rangers at Taradale Park and reigning Premiership champions Alexander Electric Napier Marist will host Building King Havelock North Wanderers at Park Island. Jamie Dunning has had quite an overhaul of his Napier Marist team from last season losing a large chunk of his squad out of the area to university. He can still call on a number of younger talented players and will rely heavily on the experience of the likes of Jonty Underhill and Tai Barham.

All games kick off at 3 pm and it would be hard to pick a winner amongst any of these clashes.
This year we have the introduction of a Men’s’ Masters League. This league effectively replaces the Division 4 competition and is open to players of 35 years and older. We have eight teams entered which is a great start and hope to grow this number going forward.

Sunday will see the start of the HB Women’s Premiership and the GR Engineering Women’s Federations League. Taradale is the sole Hawke's Bay representative in the GR Engineering Women’s Federation League in 2018 and as reigning champions will be looking at getting their season off to a flyer with a home clash against Moturoa from New Plymouth. This game kicks off at the earlier time of 11 am on Sunday morning and I’m sure the Taradale girls would love some good sideline support. In the HB Women’s Premiership, we have an 11 team league that we will look at splitting after one full first round. Sunday’s first up games are all at 10:30 am and see Eskview Blue take on Havelock North Wanderers at Petane Domain, Burger Fuel Port Hill Reserves host Rothbury Insurance Port Hill Utd in a club derby at Marewa Park. Indigo Port Hill host Hastings Hibernian also at Marewa and the final clash is another club derby with Taradale Development hosting Taradale Ladies at Taradale Park.

We wish all teams and players the very best of luck for this weekend and the season ahead and thank you all for your support of the beautiful game in Hawke's Bay.