On The Up: Inside the provincial football team taking on and beating cashed-up big city clubs
– For the past three years Napier City Rovers has been the only provincial-based football team to qualify for New Zealand Football’s elite National League.
– Some of their rivals provide top players contracts to coach their junior teams on deals worth more than the entire first-team budget Napier City Rovers operates on.
– As they chase a fourth successive qualification, coach Bill Robertson opens up on a remarkable sporting underdog success story.
Napier City Rovers might not have the big bucks of their rivals for league silverware.
And they certainly don’t have a playing roster featuring some players who are paid enough by their respective football clubs to coach junior players so they can forget about having to do a day job.
Napier City Rovers’ playing stocks include two painters, two ice truck drivers, a plumber, a builder, an outdoor pursuits trainer, and several teacher aides.
What they also have is a record of making the most of what they have and defying the odds in taking on their big-city rivals.
Since 2022 – when they ended a 20-year absence from New Zealand Football’s (NZF) National League – they have been the only provincial-based club to make the top-tier domestic football competition.
From 2022-24, the Jim Hoyle-captained team is one of only five clubs to have made the 10-team league over the three successive seasons.
The National League during that period has been made up of: the top four finishers in the Northern League; the Wellington Phoenix Reserves and the top three from the Central League; and the Southern League’s top two sides.
To make Napier City Rovers’ achievement even more profound, one of the five other clubs – the Wellington Phoenix Reserves – are guaranteed a National League spot regardless of where they finish in the Central League via their participation agreement with NZF.
As Napier City Rovers hunt a hoped-for fourth successive qualification to the competition, coach Bill Robertson has opened up on how his side has bucked the otherwise big-city domination of the league spots.
“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into our success,” he said.
“There’s no stone unturned in terms of how we train, how we prepare for oppositions, and how we travel. Don’t forget the amount of travel we have to do.
“We’ve looked at how we make sure we have the best preparation we can for the players so we’re able to get the results on the road.”
The travel factor is huge for Napier City Rovers.
As the only non-Wellington-based team in the Central League, the side face almost 6000km of mini-van travel to and from away games in the capital every second weekend.
Before the 2023 season, the team used to travel both ways on game day to Wellington.
For the past two years, the side have driven south the night before game day. The club’s investment in hotel accommodation has paid off with consistently strong results on the road.
Using precious dollars wisely is a must at Napier City Rovers.
While the history of the club is rich – having previously won five Chatham Cups and four National League titles – financially some of the other teams they face in the Central and National leagues are in a different ballpark.
Auckland City pull in around $1 million solely from gaming trusts; a figure further increased by sponsorship deals.
Napier City Rovers’ entire first-team season budget is less than 10% of the gaming trust sum received by the national champions.
NZF regulations cap weekly player payments to $150 a game.
But some sides offer their top players high five-figure contracts as youth coaches; some of those deals are also richer than the budget Napier City Rovers’ entire side operates with.
Napier City Rovers don’t complain about the at-times uneven playing field they’re faced with.
In some ways, it has added to a strong resolve and culture that has grown in strength in recent seasons.
That culture is paramount when it comes to Robertson recruiting players from outside the region.
“We haven’t got a huge budget like some other clubs have to sign any player I want. We have to be strategic with our recruitment,” he said.
“We’ve got a good track record of bringing in good players and, most importantly, good people that buy into what we’re trying to achieve here. It’s not an easy task, but we’ve got a model here that seems to be working well for us.”
Napier City Rovers hope to take another step towards the hoped-for fourth successive National League qualification on Sunday when they host Wellington team Western Suburbs in round-10 Central League action.
Robertson’s team go into the match in fourth place, two competition points ahead of their weekend rivals.
The coach is after his team to concentrate on their “processes” rather than the points table; saying if they do that successfully, the results will follow.
But there’s no mistaking the burning desire throughout the coaching, management, and playing group to again reach the National League.
“That would be an incredible achievement,” Robertson said.
“The consistency we’ve shown to perform at a high level and secure the results we need to qualify for the past three years is fantastic. We’re obviously trying to do that again.
“We’re in the hunt.”
The side’s achievements over the past three seasons have helped financially.
Billboards of returning and new sponsors surround the playing arena at Bluewater Stadium.
Crowds have also been dramatically on the up, especially over the past two seasons.
Game day at Bluewater Stadium is now a “must-do” day out on a Sunday for a growing number of families, including hundreds of kids decked out in Napier City Rovers replica kit.
And the scenes that happen post-match at the venue are a throwback to the amateur era of sport in New Zealand, where crowds are welcome to flock on to the pitch and a line of autograph hunters stretching dozens of metres await the players before they can head to the changing rooms.
“We always speak about the players being role models in the region and trying to inspire the future generations of young players,” Robertson said.
“It’s absolutely fantastic to see the crowds and the number of kids here that are at games watching. At the end of the game, when you see the kids lining up for autographs with their heroes, it is a really powerful sight.”
It was another big crowd that flocked to Bluewater Stadium last Sunday to watch the side claim a deserved 3-1 win over the Wellington Phoenix Reserves in the second round of the knockout Chatham Cup.
The goals came via a double to Jordan Annear, while another from Sam Lack takes his 2025 tally to six from 10 games.
Robertson took the chance to rotate his squad.
The changes included captain Jim Hoyle, fellow defensive rock Matt Jones and impressive English import Mason Johnson starting the match from the substitutes bench.
In came Annear – later rightly judged man of the match after a storming performance – Kaeden Atkins, and Jack Albertini.
Like Annear, Atkins and Albertini also took their chance to remind Robertson of just how well they can contribute.
“The boys that came in did well,” Robertson said.
“There’s good depth in the squad and we need that.
“All the other games we’ve played, aside from the Central League loss to the Wellington Phoenix, we’ve been very competitive.
“And I think we can improve in the second half of the season which is a positive. There’s definitely more to see from us in the second half of the season.”
>> Inside the Rovers video series:
Episode 1: Match Fit
Episode 2: Teen’s Dream
Episode 3: New Beginnings
Episode 4: For Keeps
Episode 5: Kiwi Steve
Episode 6: Capital Punishment
Episode 7: Bouncing back
Episode 8: The Centurion
Episode 9: The Running Man
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience.
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