As well as saying goodbye to our team mates at the end of the 2025 season, OJFC are sadly saying goodbye to two of our coaches – Merrick Keenan and Hayley Gotlieb.
Merrick has been with the Club for several years – originally supporting Milan with his school holiday player development programmes (PDP) and providing coach support for regular season teams. Later Merrick stepped in to coordinate and lead our holiday programmes and in season development programmes while continuing his support of our volunteer coaches. In the last three years, Merrick has also been a much appreciated presence in our Fun Football spaces (First Kicks, U7 and U8) supporting many of our first time coaches as well as helping our youngest players engage, get touches on the ball and develop a love of the beautiful game! In the off-season Merrick took over the running of our Friday twilight 2v2/3v3 competition and has gone the extra mile organising sponsorship and prizes to acknowledge the realisation of our Onslow RISE values on and off the field.
We thank him for his mahi.
We wish Merrick well with his next exciting opportunity. He assures us he remains passionate about OJFC and we know he will always make room for our community alongside his beloved LFC.
Hayley joined us more recently in a newish role but instantly was a smiley presence we will find hard to replace. Hayley’s passion in our girls’ football space has been instrumental in the growth of player numbers and opportunities. We now have a successful girls PDP thanks to her which also provides a vehicle for the mentoring of our female youth coaches. This programme is a supportive space for our girls to grow their game in a meaningful environment. Hayley’s school holiday programmes have also been in hot demand. Hayley’s support was fundamental to NZF naming OJFC as a Fantails hub. This is a foundational programme for girls who are new to the game or may not have the opportunity to be part of a team.
We wish Hayley every success as she leaves to focus on the completion of her Masters as well as her final teaching placement. Following which she will then be seeking a full time teaching position!
