With the 2024 Lotto Northern Premier Women's League season about to commence, it's timely to reflect on the 2023 campaign, and acknowledge the stars whose performances stood out throughout the course of the season. Normally, these season awards are revealed at the conclusion of the campaign, but due to personal circumstances - my mother was in the final weeks of her life, since when football duties have rather taken a back seat for obvious reasons - it's only now that attention is turning once more to what, for this writer, is usually priority one where the code in this country is concerned, the women's game. So, without further ado, let's firstly acknowledge the Golden Boot winner, Ellerslie's Britney-Lee Cunningham, whose match-winning goal eight minutes from time in "The Ponies"' 2-1 last round win over Hibiscus Coast not only clinched a place in the National Women's League for Ryan Shiffman's charges, it earned her the trophy as the league's top markswoman, with eleven goals, just edging out the 2022 winner, Eastern Suburbs' Juliette Lucas. Now to the Most Improved Player award, which is usually quite a challenging one to determine - not in 2023! Take a bow, West Coast Rangers' Marissa Porteous, who had a terrific season, and was a driving force behind the West Auckland outfit going desperately close to securing a National Women's League spot in just their second campaign of top-flight football. The Jeremy Ruane Trophy, awarded for Meritorious Achievement by a team or individual from the Northern Women's football region, was also an easy one to decide in 2023. When a long-time NPWL player gets the call-up which fulfils her life-long dream, then makes her Football Ferns debut against the reigning world champions, entering the fray to the biggest cheer heard at Eden Park in many a January … take a bow, Eastern Suburbs' Tayla O'Brien. On to the Young Player of the Year award, an honour which has a hugely impressive list of past winners, almost all of whom have gone on to play for the Football Ferns in subsequent years. It would surprise immensely if Western Springs' Ela Jerez didn't follow in the footsteps of her predecessors in this regard. She's a special talent, this lass, and given she only turned sixteen in December, should be a contender for this award for a few years yet. So to the premier individual award of the season, the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League's Player of the Year. It's unusual for this honour not to be won by a player from the title-winning team, and there'll be no exception to that practice in 2023. Auckland United certainly had plenty of contenders for this award, but few played with the consistency and all-round influence of Chelsea Elliott, who capped off a solid season at the heart of their defence by scoring a hat-trick in the title-clinching tussle with Western Springs on the last day of the season - her long-range free-kick in that match was well worth the admission money and then some! Revealing these award-winners on the eve of the 2024 season also allows me to advise that there'll be a reduction in my coverage of domestic women's football over the next two campaigns. I'll still be attending as many matches as possible, taking photos and compiling round reviews and match reports on the showpiece fixtures, but the sheer volume of work which compiling a book covering the history of NZ women's football entails means the reduced NPWL coverage is essential in order to do justice to the project and to the efforts of all who've contributed to the women's game in this country over the past six decades. Spotcha on the sidelines, and enjoy the season!

Britney Cunningham-Lee - Golden Boot winner Marissa Porteous - Most Improved Player Tayla O'Brien - Meritorious Achievement Ela Jerez - Young Player of the Year Chelsea Elliott - Player of the Year