MELVILLE UNITED AFC

Melville United AFC were formed in 1972, initially as Melville District Schoolboys AFC.

Founders Bob Owens and Tony Tatler sought to combine the strengths of all the schools in the Melville area and originally operated from a home base at Te Anau Park.

In 1981 the shift was made to the current headquarters at Gower Park, with clubrooms initially based on private land at the south-western corner of the park on Kahikatea Drive. Since then the clubrooms have been relocated and are now adjacent to the council amentiies block at the park.

Over the last 15 years over $120,000 has been spent on facility improvements at Gower Park. This has included redevelopment of the carpark, erection of floodlighting and a public address system, construction of a crowd barrier fence around the No 1 pitch and perimeter fencing.

Our No 2 training pitch is fully floodlit with a further floodlit training area at Kahikatea Park. There are six full-sized pitches at Gower Park, with a number of various-sized junior pitches.

On the playing front, Melville United AFC steadily worked their way up the soccer ladder, winning the northern league third division in 1991, the first division in 1993, and the northern premier league in 1995.

In 1996 new criteria for the national league meant near neighbours Waikato United were no longer allowed to operate as a one-team entity at that level. They amalgamated with Melville to form Melville United, and it was under this name that the new entity contested the summer national league in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

Waikato United had been founded in 1988 with the specific objective of contesting the National League. Waikato United continued to operate from Muir Park until 1996 when the club was forced to sell its headquarters. (Waikato had previously amalgamated with Hamilton AFC, and among their combined honours were Northern League winners (1972, 1976, 1979, 1984 and 1987), Air New Zealand Cup Winners 1976 and Chatham Cup Winners (1964, 1988, semi-finalists 1970 and runners-up 1992).

Meanwhile a further bout of restructured competitions in soccer at national level led to Melville United contesting the North Island league in 1999. But midway through that season an arbitrary decision was made to revert to a national league, and Melville were excluded on the basis of their North Island league position being too low.

The club then entered a rebuilding phase and bounced back as northern premier league runners-up in 2000.

Melville continued to carry the flag for Waikato soccer when they burst back to national prominence in making the final of the Chatham Cup in 2003.

While they were beaten in the final 3-1 by Uni-Mt Wellington, they set the competition alight by beating three national league clubs. They also re-established the spirit of the competition as a loud vibrant occasion for supporters, with thousands making the trip to Albany for the final.

They had the consolation of returning home with the Bob Smith Memorial Cup, for the Chatham Cup runners-up. Melville were duly named as Waikato Club team of the Year by Sport Waikato, the first time this award has been won by soccer.

However the financial strain of such an exercise duly showed in 2004, and Melville were relegated from the premier league. In 2005 they finished seventh in the 12-team northern league first division.

In 2006 Melville finished third in the northern league first division. After having set the pace for half the season, it was frustrating to finally miss promotion by one point. However it was good to have Steve Williams, the most successful coach in the history of the club, back on board.

In women’s competition, Melville United AFC won the Waikato women’s championship in 2004 and were runners-up in 2005.

Melville Old Boys won their Waikato B division in 2006.