Football is never far from Tony Woods’ mind. In autumn he will lace up the boots for his 71st consecutive season. Christchurch Star reporter Sam Coughlan catches up with him.

“ I don’t see any sense in changing. It’s just part of the blood,” Tony Woods says of his passion for the beautiful game.

He will turn 80 in May and has played for Western every season since he was nine – a true club man.

He first picked up the sport at Mairehau Primary School, playing with a group of mates at lunchtime.

They would later form a team at Western, managed by one of their parents, to play in the under-9 competition at Hagley Park.

Seventy years on, he features in midfield for and coaches one of Western’s two 50-plus masters teams, is officially club patron and also helps organise the club’s summer 5s programme with junior convener Arron Stewart.

“The only thing I haven’t been is president,” he said.

“And I don’t want to.”

So what keeps a man nearing his ninth decade coming back to the sport?

“ I think it’s good for you,” he said.

“I don’t want to just sit down and die, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.

“If I can run around, why not?”

But Woods concedes he is not sure how much football he has left in him.

“ It scares me, you know, it really does. Sometimes I sit here and I think, the time’s coming and I’m scared of it, and it’s coming really fast.

“But I suppose the other thing is there are always things I can do, as long as I’ve got plenty of energy. I like getting down there and helping Arron out, setting up the park for the kids five-a-sides.”

Woods never played at the top level – his favourite team to play for was Tony’s Tuggers, named after the man himself, which were formed in 1975 and played in division 2.

“ They were out of this world.  We won quite a few (division 2) titles.  I don’t think I was ever the star.

“ We used to go on away trips at the end of the year, we’d take two busloads – not one bus, two, mainly supporters. We’d book out a whole hotel in Wellington, they were good days.”

Woods has well and truly passed on his love of the game – his son Reuben played for Western’s first team, and Reuben’s nine-year-old daughter Lulu plays at Ferrymead Bays.

“ She (Lulu) is the love of my life at the moment,” Woods said.

He watches all of her games on Saturday mornings before heading to his own in the afternoon – only missing one game for Western, when Lulu was playing in Oxford.

Woods jokes that Lulu was always going to play football – her mother is Alana Gunn, the former Canterbury United Pride and current New Zealand under-17s coach, and Gunn’s partner is Football Fern and Wellington Phoenix captain Annalie Longo.

“ Lulu, she’s got no chance in life. With me, her dad, of course, is involved in football and then there’s many more. So it’s in her blood.”

Woods also ran the Christchurch Summer League for 30 years at Hagley Park on weekday nights – up until the earthquakes in 2011.

“ We had four grounds at Hagley, so eight teams a night over four nights.”

Looking back on his years in football, he reminisced on some of his favourite moments.

“Those were great years, with the club and being club captain, managing the senior team, coaching the Tuggers, playing and coaching, involvement in juniors, putting up football posts and marking out grounds for years and years.

“Plenty of memories.”

Article added: Monday 13 January 2025