By Joan Grey
With promotion and relegation decided in the Lotto NRFL Women’s Championship, the focus shifts to club pride and rivalries in Sunday’s final round.
Last weekend, Tauranga Moana dominated Manukau United 17-1 and secured the Championship crown and promotion to the 2025 Women’s Premiership.
Having finished bottom of the Championship ladder, Manukau will drop into the NRF Women’s Conference league next season.
This weekend, the spotlight falls on the match between second-placed Franklin United and third-placed Onehunga Sports.
The rivalry between these sides has been a hallmark of the Championship in recent seasons, with the two teams consistently battling for runner-up and third-place finishes, neither quite managing to secure the top Championship spot.
Franklin heads into Sunday’s fixture in red-hot form, having scored 21 goals in their last three matches. Chloe Marthe has been a standout, contributing eight of those goals.
The South Auckland side also boasts two of the league’s top goalscorers: Britney Cunningham-Lee, leading the Championship with 25 goals, and Sarah Carpenter, tied for second with 18.
Onehunga, on the other hand, hit a rough patch in the tail-end of the season, losing both recent games including a narrow 3-4 defeat to Melville last weekend.
At Kiwitea Street, Central United will lookj to bounce back from their heavy 1-10 defeat to Franklin when they host Birkenhead United.
Birkenhead should arrive in good spirits, buoyed by their 1-0 victory in a North Shore derby against Northern Rovers.
READ MORE: Birkenhead triumph in in NRFL Championship local derby >>>>
Elsewhere, newly-crowned champions Tauranga Moana, riding a 14-game unbeaten streak, visit Northern Rovers, and Melville United welcome Manukau United to Gower Park.
Golden Boot
27 — Britney Cunningham-Lee (Franklin United)
25 — Briana Osborne (Tauranga Moana)
22 — Grace Duncan (Tauranga Moana)
19 — Sarah Carpenter (Franklin United)
18 — Laura Bennett (Melville United)
15 — Chloe Marthe (Franklin United)
12 — Annie Byrne (Onehunga Sports), Ivy Calonne (Northern Rovers)
10 — Abi-Witney Collins (Tauranga Moana)
9 — Pip Meo (Onehunga Sports), Robyn Fisher (Onehunga Sports)
8 — Holly Patterson (Onehunga Sports), Sylvia McDougall (Central United)
7 — Kerri-Ann Jones (Tauranga Moana)
6 — Abby Chad (Birkenhead United), Jaime Govind (Birkenhead United), Anita Gross (Central United)
5 — Kate Mori (Tauranga Moana), Mia Humphrey (Melville United), Ella Golding (Tauranga Moana), Stevie-Lee Tiller (Melville United)
Fixtures
Games to be played on Sunday March 24, 2024
Central United v Birkenhead United
Kiwitea St, Sandringham, 1pm
Onehunga Sports v Franklin United
Waikaraka Park, Onehunga, 1pm
Melville United v Manukau United
Gower Park, Hamilton, 1pm
Northern Rovers v Tauranga Moana
McFetridge Park, Glenfield, 1pm
Joan Grey
Friends of Football writer Joan Grey loves playing and writing about football.
More football stories
