The new 2026 Junior Women’s League has seen Whakatāne become the first team to have its name stamped on the trophy after a 5-3 win over Hamilton’s Northern United.

With demand growing for an expanded women’s league, Whakatāne Football Club embraced a new U15 Girls format, with team places quickly filling to capacity highlighting the need to fill the gap between secondary and woman’s league football.

When the new league kicked off, it quickly proved both popular and highly competitive, with Whakatāne trading blows with Hamilton’s Northern United throughout the season. Going into the final encounter, the two teams were separated by just one point.

Whakatāne went into half-time one goal down, prompting coach Gavin Rothwell to step in with some calming words and remind the team of what they were capable of.

“We weren’t playing our best football, so I wanted to calm the team down and let them know we were playing the second half with a wind advantage.

“Throughout the season, the girls have been seen as a very capable team, but the challenge has been making them believe that so they play the game they are capable of playing.

“I told them they had a chance to make history here by being the first to put their name on this trophy,” said Rothwell.

Two minutes into the second half, Whakatāne found themselves 2-0 down. However, a free kick by Cassandra Rouse curled into the top corner of the net, putting Whakatāne back in the hunt.

“I saw the girls just lift with the confidence we knew they could play with. At times we were second to the ball, just standing and watching.

“Now we were dominating every ball and making the tackles.

“We knew the goals were going to come, and the next was a penalty taken by Keely Rothwell, followed by two great goals from the corners, using the wind to push the ball over the goalkeeper’s head,” said Rothwell.

The nail in the coffin for Hamilton came with a long-range goal in the final five minutes.

Coming back from 2-0 down to eventually win 5-3 resulted in a team overjoyed to claim the inaugural league title, with Rothwell reporting that songs could be heard coming from the changing room.