Briony Fisher	Hannah Wall
Renee Leota	Priscilla Duncan
Rosie White	Annabelle Bramwell
Chelsey Wood	Rebecca O'Neill
Grace Vincent	Liz Milne
Abby Erceg	Jesse Verdon
Leanne Tiffen	Western Springs

2005:  Maiden season in the Northern Premier Women's League 2006:  National Women's Knockout Cup finalists. 2007:  National Women's Knockout Cup winners. 2008:  Northern Premier Women's League champions. 2009:  gone, but not forgotten. The sudden and spectacular demise of Western Springs, from 2008 Northern Premier Women's League champions to non-starters in 2009, was even more dramatic than their emergence from nowhere just four seasons earlier. One wonders how a team packed with so many talented players - those pictured left are just an example of the plethora of potential which graced "The Hoops" colours in the 2007-8 seasons - could just, to all intents and purposes, disappear virtually overnight! The only previous occasion when the reigning champions didn't enter the league the year after was following the 1987 season, when the fabulous Eden team, which had completely dominated the competition, broke up, their numerous NZ stars  disbursing to all-comers both at home and abroad. Reflecting on what happened twenty-one years on, the Western Springs situation was not dissimilar. The Eden team comprised the bulk of the New Zealand women's squad which had a season-long objective - an impressive showing at the end-of-year Women's World Invitational Tournament in Taiwan. Once that mission had been accomplished, the national team had no pressing engagements on the horizon - this was long before the days of the FIFA Women's World Cup, it should be remembered. So the players went their separate ways and spread their talents across the women's game, with some going to South Auckland Rangers, some to West Auckland, some to Ellerslie ... Eden took a couple of years to recover from that setback, and the situation at Seddon Fields a generation on may well prove similar for the Western Springs club. The link at the bottom of the players' photo montage will take you back to the introduction page for the Western Springs section of this site, and a team photo of their 2005 squad, virtually all of whom were born and bred Springs' stalwarts. Three years on, and not a single Springs player from that maiden campaign was involved in the championship-winning team, the only long-time club members now in the mix being the uber-talented Rosie White (who was injured for the bulk of the season) and rising midfield general Nadia Pearl, young teenagers both. The players from 2005 had either moved on, or had dropped down to the reserves, replaced by an array of the country's top international talent, the bulk of whom, like Springs' coaching staff, would be involved in the FIFA U-20 and/or U-17 Women's World Cup Finals, both of which were taking place in the final quarter of the year. New Zealand was hosting the latter tournament, so a strong showing by the host nation's representatives was seen as imperative for it to be considered successful overall. To some extent, Western Springs became a "sacrificial lamb" for the greater good, a club whose largely untapped resources were utilised for the purposes of ensuring New Zealand performed with aplomb on the world stage, when the world came to our doorstep in late 2008. It's not hard to sympathise with the long-serving Western Springs club-folk, who found themselves enjoying the benefits to be had from fielding a successful team on the national stage leading up to, to date, New Zealand's busiest year yet in international women's football, only to discover in the early weeks of 2009 that their shop window women's team was no more. The only players remaining from the title-winning squad were the youngsters who'd known no other club, Rosie White and Nadia Pearl, both of whom were forced to leave for pastures new because Western Springs was ultimately unable to retrieve the situation before the start of the season - they certainly tried to, make no mistake! The rest of the squad had gone their separate ways, much like the Eden squad a generation before them, players whose involvement with that club was primarily linked with international activities which were being overseen by the club's coaching staff at the same time as they were garnering silverware and recognition for the club ... sound familiar? At the end of the day, what occurred was a concept with merit aplenty, but which was effectively run as a hidden agenda, i.e. from the outside looking in, it would appear that the Western Springs club was largely a victim of subterfuge. It's a difficult issue, because there is no doubt, for mine, that from an international perspective, the idea of having the bulk of the NZ squad members playing and training together on a regular basis minus the pressures that come with a World Cup campaign is invaluable, and, frankly, needs to happen if we are to be competitive on the world stage, particularly at age-grade level. At the same time, the club itself needs to garner long-term benefits from playing such a pivotal role in serving our national interests - it can't be used for a solitary project then left to fend for itself following the campaign's conclusion, which is what has happened in this case. Western Springs is now faced with the task of rebuilding their entire women's programme at senior (as opposed to social grade) level - that is, if they are prepared to (once bitten, twice shy, etc.), and haven't been alienated by the events which have effectively brought short-term gain and long-term pain to a club which has been a solid supporter of the women's game for many years, and has played a pivotal role in developing talented youngsters such as Poppy Binning, Penny Chapman, Nadia Pearl, Hannah Valentine and the undoubted jewel in the crown, Rosie White.