With the introduction of the National Women's League in the final quarter of the year for teams which occupy the top four placings in the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League, 2022 has seen some of our local "Stars on Sunday" enduring the longest football season of their careers to date. Throw in age-grade FIFA Women's World Cup Finals action for the Junior Ferns and Young Ferns, and it's safe to say this year has been an extremely challenging one for many players, both physically and mentally. But the time has come to recognise those who've consistently performed at or above the standards expected of players who grace what is without question the country's foremost club-based football league, the evidence of which can be seen in the NWL at present, with the cream of the crop in the central and southern regions struggling to foot it with the crème de la crème from up north. We'll begin with the Lotto NPWL Player of the Year. In recent seasons, league management has invited public voting to assist in determining this award, but in 2021 they opted to discontinue that process, meaning the only individual recognition afforded by league management is now the Golden Boot winner. For mine, this lack of recognition is something of an insult to players who collectively put their heart and soul into training then performing week in, week out, anytime from mid-February onwards - and now, as we're seeing for some in the NWL, into mid-December, with the Grand Final of that competition scheduled for the weekend before Christmas. Hence since 2007, this writer has continued to recognise the achievements of those so deserving by way of these media awards, specifically in the categories of Young Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, Meritorious Achievement and, now, the Player of the Year as well. We'll begin with the last-mentioned honour. While an educated guess could be made from my reports and round reviews, it would be inappropriate to announce a Player of the Year for 2021 so long after the horse has bolted, so that year will forever sport the caption "not awarded" next to it on the honours list. Not so 2022. One player stood out head and shoulders above all-comers in the past season, with her move from Hamilton Wanderers to Northern Rovers seeing her grow exponentially as a player. It's a move which has made Michaela Foster's career, as she has now signed an A-League scholarship with Wellington Phoenix. While it means we'll no longer see "Fozzie" in action on Sundays, her move underlines both the importance, significance and standing of the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League competition in the overall scheme of things in NZ women's football. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - this league is finishing school. When you play in the NPWL, you're not in it solely for enjoyment - that's only part of the package. This league is the only one in NZ for female footballers which will guarantee you're playing highly competitive football virtually every week, and which will properly prepare you for the next levels of the game, i.e. playing professionally, or for NZ, or abroad. Michaela is living proof of this. She was the Young Ferns' captain in 2016, a year after winning the league with Claudelands Rovers, a feat she repeated this year with Northern Rovers, one of two teams for whom she appeared in the Kate Sheppard Cup Final in 2022, the other being Hamilton Wanderers in the delayed 2021 final, a club to whom she transferred in 2018, and with whom she could well have won the league again had Covid not intervened in 2020. She joins distinguished company. The players who've gone from playing in the NPWL to making their present felt in the world of women's football are too numerous to mention. Claudia Bunge, the league's Most Improved Player in 2018, is the most recent graduate in this regard, now playing for Melbourne Victory in the A-League, and a regular starter for the Football Ferns, of course. Doubtless more will follow. From Player of the Year to Young Player of the

Michaela Foster (Northern Rovers) Danielle Canham (Northern Rovers) Chloe Bellamy (West Coast Rangers) Juliette Lucas (Eastern Suburbs) Milly Clegg (Auckland United) Martine Puketapu (Auckland United)

Year, and the winner comes from the same club, Northern Rovers. Had I not been aware of the background to it, her absence from the Young Ferns squad would have been a glaring omission in my eyes, particularly in light of Danielle Canham's consistently strong performances in 2022. In footballing parlance, she's got a terrific engine, and her box-to-box marauding was a prominent feature of Rovers' outstanding season. Danielle chipped in with more than her fair share of goals, too. In a league in which midfielders should be looking to net at least five goals during the campaign, she bagged eight, all from open play. A great season, "DC", laden with displays fully deserving of this recognition. The Most Improved Player award is always a challenging one to determine, given you're looking at performances year on year. Adding to the mix in 2022 were players from the newest entries to the Premier Women's League, Tauranga City and West Coast Rangers, and it's the latter of those clubs from whom this year's winner hails. While she will be disappointed to have missed out on playing in the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup Finals, having represented the Junior Ferns earlier in the year against Australia, what has earned Chloe Bellamy this award is her ambition, her obvious desire to continue to improve herself as a footballer - something I love to see in emerging talent, gender regardless. Having scored a team-leading six goals for Rangers, which made a darn good fist of their first season in the NPWL, she could have hung up her boots for the year halfway through September, like so many other players from teams who finished outside the top four, thus missed out on playing in the National Women's League. Instead, Chloe has her sights set on finishing as Canterbury United Pride's leading markswoman in the NWL, a feat I wouldn't bet against her achieving. A really promising prospect, this lass, and, like her West Coast Rangers team, a welcome addition to the best women's league in the land. As we know, Juliette Lucas was this season's "Capocannoniere", or, for those who don't follow Italy's Serie A, the Golden Boot winner. But it's two fellow goalscorers whose feats we're recognising in the final award, the full title of which is "The Jeremy Ruane Trophy, awarded for Meritorious Achievement by a team or individual from the Northern Women's football region". The fairytale-like story of Martine Puketapu - coming out of retirement to propel Auckland United to Kate Sheppard Cup glory, after scoring her 100th goal for the club on the occasion of her 100th appearance for them en route to concluding her club career with better than goal-a-game statistics - meant she was a shoe-in for this honour. But she's having to share it with her Auckland United team-mate, Milly Clegg. When you score a total of three goals for your country in the FIFA U-17 and U-20 Women's World Cup Finals within two months, while helping your team win the domestic game's highest honour, the Kate Sheppard Cup, in between times, you cannot not win this award - it's there to recognise Meritorious Achievement, after all. Thus we can finally bring to a close the fiftieth - Golden Jubilee - year of Lotto Northern Premier Women's League football, by recognising the individuals who've stood out in a campaign dominated by Northern Rovers' impressive title-winning efforts. Player of the Year:           Michaela Foster (Northern Rovers) Young Player of the Year:      Danielle Canham (Northern Rovers) Most Improved Player:      Chloe Bellamy (West Coast Rangers) Golden Boot:                Juliette Lucas (Eastern Suburbs) Meritorious Achievement:      Milly Clegg and Martine Puketapu (Auckland United - shared) Trophies for these winners will be organised and presented in due course, along with those for the 2019 and 2021 winners. A listing of all the individual honours winners over the fifty years of the Northern Premier Women's League can be found here.