Developing in ‘leaps and bounds’
A YEAR ago Renee Bacon scored what turned out to be a hugely significant goal for women’s football in the South.
Her 84th minute matchwinner against Auckland ended Southern United’s fouryear winless streak in the national women’s league.
It sparked a campaign in which the side made the playoffs for the first time.
That triggered more success for the region over the winter and Southern has now started its 2018 campaign with a win and a draw.
It has been quite a turnaround.
Tomorrow the 22yearold will line up for Southern against Auckland again.
The confidence last year’s win brought remains plain to see and the aim is to put on a competitive showing at Tahuna Park.
The women’s game as a whole has come on in ‘‘leaps and bounds’’ since Bacon arrived to begin her physical education degree four years ago.
‘‘It’s progressed so much,’’ she said.
‘‘When I came down here, all I had was playing against them once a season and that was all I knew of them. Noone really talked about Southern at all.
‘‘Then last year we started being the talk of the country as soon as we won our first game. They’re like ‘OK, Southern’s here to play’.
‘‘The development of women’s football and girls football has been fantastic.’’
For someone so young, Bacon has plenty of experience at this level.
This is her ninth year in the national league.
She first linked with the Capital side as a 14yearold alongside several others as part of a development plan.
There she would train with the team and the development players would all receive small opportunities to play each season.
That valuable taster stood her in good stead when she was thrown straight into the starting lineup for the former Football South women’s team.
Her pace is a key weapon up the wing, while she has proven to be clinical in finding the back of the net.
That is evident both for Southern and over the winter, when she regularly is among the southern women’s league’s top goalscorers playing for Roslyn Wakari.
Playing for Southern, she slots into a team dominated by players from the Kate Sheppard Cup champion Dunedin Technical side.
However, she said it was ‘‘easy as’’ for the others to mix in with that group.
‘‘This is my fourth season, so most of those girls have been playing that whole time.
‘‘Even the Tech girls that haven’t been playing that time, I’m from the same region as some of them.
‘‘We’re all friends, it’s not like we’re enemies or anything. What happens on the field stays on the field during the winter season and we’re all laughs and friends afterwards.’’
It was something she hoped to continue.
She plans to return to Dunedin next year to complete a postgraduate diploma in performance analysis at Otago Polytechnic.
Bacon was expecting a tough game from Auckland, which won last year’s competition.
It was a talented side and had won its opening match 40 over WaiBOP, although it had a bye last week.