Team Taranaki

Team Taranaki

Team Taranaki Emblem
Founded	2003
Ground	Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth
Manager	Ian McGrath
League	Central Premier League

Team Taranaki is an amateur association football composite club based in the Taranaki region of New Zealand which draws its players from the 13 local football clubs. After winning promotion in 2016 Team Taranaki will contest the Central Premier League in 2017.

The core of the team is made up from local club based players and is supplemented with some overseas amateur players. The concept is contractually supported by all of the senior men’s clubs operating in the Taranaki Province and the selected players are drawn from these 13 member clubs. Originally adopted and introduced in 2003, the concept is aimed to provide elite football opportunities to all players who want to achieve and play the best possible standard without having to leave Taranaki.

The club was formed in 2003 as a composite team for Central Premier League competition, involving players from individual clubs in the Taranaki region. The club plays its home matches at Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth.

In 2006, they were promoted to the Central League and enjoyed four successful seasons competing against some of the most prestigious club teams in the country including Miramar Rangers, Napier City Rovers, Wellington Olympic and Western Suburbs.

The club was relegated from the Central League in 2007, to be replaced with Gisborne City. However, Gisborne City elected not to exercise their right to promotion as part of a club rebuilding strategy, and as such Team Taranaki were allowed to remain in the competition.

In 2010, the team was relegated to the Central Football region Federation League and commenced a rebuilding program involving a new generation of young talent, which has seen incremental improvement in successive seasons, finishing 5th in 2011, 4th in 2012 and 3rd in 2013.

In 2014, Team Taranaki finished Runners Up to Wanganui Athletic losing narrowly in the final game of the season, having led the competition from the start. However, they had the satisfaction of reversing that disappointment by beating them 1–0 in the inaugural Federation League Cup final a few weeks later.

In 2015, Team Taranaki secured the Federation league title and was declared Champions after dominating the competition, but was unsuccessful in gaining promotion to the Central League, narrowly losing to the Wellington Phoenix Reserve team over a two leg play-off series.