For the last 28 years and counting, week in, week out, I've had the pleasure and privilege of doing what I regard as the best unpaid job in football - watching and endeavouring to do justice, by way of the written word, to the deeds of some of the best players to have ever kicked a ball in anger in this country. I refer, of course, to NZ's female footballers, whose dedication to the game they love playing is such that they make a helluva lot of sacrifices to be the best they can be, often away from the spotlight, and despite the fact next to no recognition is afforded them by "mainstream media". Michele Cox. Monique Van de Elzen. Maia Jackman. Hayley Moorwood. Wendy Sharpe. Debbie Pullen RIP. Donna Baker. Kirsty Yallop. Amanda Crawford. Amber Hearn. Marlies Oostdam, or Marlies James, as she is now known. Pernille Andersen. Jennifer Kelley. Zoe Thompson. Simone Ferrara. Priscilla Duncan. Annalie Longo. Rosie White. Hannah Wall. Olivia Chance. Those are just twenty - there are at least as many more again - of the specially talented female footballers it's been my pleasure to see in action both locally and on the world stage over the years, and who have inspired me, and continue to inspire me, to do what I do for the women's game in this country. More often than not, we haven't had to pay a cent to watch these stars on Sunday strut their stuff, but I tell you this - I'd happily pay to watch players of that calibre in action, make no mistake. Why? Without fail, every single one of those players I've mentioned could, at some stage during a game, do something a wee bit special which would leave you going, "Wow! Did I just see that?" The promise of witnessing that moment of magic from one or more of the most exciting players this country has ever produced makes heading along to a game on any given Sunday well worth your while - the chance to see that X factor which renders the women's game so special and, for mine, significantly superior to the men's game as it's played by the majority of teams in this country. Let's be honest. The vast majority of male players you see in this country can only dream about producing some of the things which their female counterparts execute on a regular basis week in, week out. Which brings me nicely onto the subject of the 2014 Lotto Northern Premier Women's League Young Player of the Year. A few years ago, when the structure of the Northern League was revamped, the overseers of the league did away with a couple of awards which had been staples of the Premier Women's League competition over the course of its history, the Young Player of the Year award being one of them. Needless to say, that didn't go down at all well with me, so in my capacity as NZ's women's soccer writer and unofficial women's football historian, and the Executive Member of the NZ Soccer Media Association, I've maintained the tradition of those awards by presenting three media-chosen Premier Women's League awards in the years since. The first two of those honours were presented at the after-match function at Becroft Park on September 14. The recipient of this season's Lotto Northern Premier Women's League Young Player of the Year award is a player whose on-field qualities are such that she fully merits mention in the same breath as those outstanding footballers I named earlier. Some of the things this lass does during a match are downright audacious! A deft flick here, a back-heeled pass there, measured crosses galore, and in one game against Eastern Suburbs, a touch of keepie-uppie followed by a flick over the head of the opponent behind her, whom she promptly ran around to regather possession and set off on another run. You just don't do that sort of thing in any match, never mind a top-of-the-table clash. But when you're a special talent, you can, and this one often does. The 2014 Lotto Northern Premier Women's League Young Player of the Year is Briar Palmer. The second award is The Jeremy Ruane Trophy, an excellence award made to recognise Meritorious Achievement by a team or individual from within the northern region. The Junior Ferns' achievements in reaching the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup quarter-finals are, of course, unprecedented, and made deciding this award easy. A fair few members of that squad, of course, play in the Northern Premier Women's League. Indeed,

nine of them are found at Forrest Hill-Milford United, a team which won the league with a game to spare - a game they lost, and which suffered just one other loss all season, albeit narrowly in the ASB National Women's Knockout Cup Final. To do what those players have done for their club, in tandem with all their efforts for their country, deserves recognition of this nature, for mine, so this year The Jeremy Ruane Trophy is awarded to the Forrest Hill-Milford United members of the Junior Ferns squad. A week later, the opportunity to present the Northern Premier Women's League's Most Improved Player for 2014 materialised. Fencibles United's Sonia Lovemore has enjoyed a most impressive debut season in the competition, scoring nine goals for a team which has endured a season-long struggle in the lower half of the table. A deserving winner. The day after the final game of this most drawn-out of Premier Women's League campaigns - it's a very long time indeed since league matches were being played in the last week of September - the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League's Player of the Year was announced by Auckland Football Federation, following the counting of the public votes in the two-tiered system they've introduced to determine that award. Glenfield Rovers' Katie Rood has taken out the title again, having first won the award in 2009, a year in which she also claimed the Young Player of the Year honour. This award, together with the Maia Jackman Trophy she won as ASB National Women's Knockout Cup Final MVP, has capped off a memorable season for Rood, who has too often been struck down by injury in past campaigns. Not this season - cue a Player of the Year award which is well deserved for the scorer of 32 goals in league and cup action for Glenfield in 2014. Award Winners: Player of the Year:   Katie Rood (Glenfield Rovers) Young Player of the Year:   Briar Palmer (Forrest Hill-Milford United) Most Improved Player of the Year:   Sonia Lovemore (Fencibles United) The Jeremy Ruane Trophy:   Forrest Hill-Milford United's Junior Ferns squad members