Comet Competition Codes

Use these codes when entering teams into the various competitions:

This page is a guide for all participants, parents, caregivers, coaches, and clubs participating in NRF Community Junior Competitions. 
We want you to have a comprehensive understanding of how these competitions operate within Northern Region Football, and promote an inclusive and enjoyable football environment for junior players. 
Junior football is delivered to tamariki by clubs in the northern region, and aims to give every child a fun and enjoyable experience to foster a lifelong love of football. 

Under 9-12 football 

NRF provides fixtures for U9-U12 gamedays. Teams play on a home and away basis between 8.00am-1.30pm on Saturday mornings. 
Junior football teams are grouped by their Regional Sport Organisation, ie Northland, North Harbour, Waitakere, Auckland and Counties Manakau - you can find fixtures for each region here
U9/10 play 7v7 for 2x 25 minute halves. U11/12 play 9v9 for 2x 27.5 minute halves. 

 
NRF website junior homepage 

The junior homepage is your one stop shop for junior football information, including: 

• Junior handbook - details how junior football operates, and why. It’s designed for all adults involved in junior football including parents and coaches. 
• Junior calendar - The 2025 Northern Region Football Junior Calendar – match weeks, festivals and holidays 

  
Junior team formation

McDonald’s Mini Football team formation guidelines include no single ‘top team’ should be selected at these ages. Please check the team formation guide in the Junior Handbook before the season starts to help understand the aims and philosophy of junior sport, namely: 

• Fun: Is the environment fun for all?  
• Retention: Are the participants returning each season? We want to keep as many children in the sport as possible. 
• Lifelong engagement: How will these processes aid the long-term retention of this athlete? Is the participant experience encouraging lifelong engagement in the sport?  
• Equal opportunity for development: Are all players receiving equal development opportunities?  
• Challenge point: Are the participants getting an appropriate level of challenge in their environment? 

Creating teams in tiers so there’s no single top team or no single bottom team not only aligns with all research and literature on what is optimal for retaining players year on year, but creates more depth within the competition to avoid large score differentials and also avoids playing similar teams constantly because of lack of depth within challenge points. 

Fluid fixtures 

There are no public facing results, standings or divisions in junior football. The main goal of junior football is to give each and every child a fun and enjoyable experience to foster a lifelong love of football. 
Clubs submit match results so NRF can assess each team’s challenge point. If we identify fixture/s are no longer at an appropriate correct challenge point, we can make adjustments to correct for the future.   

Junior Festival days 

Festivals provide a different football experience for children and everyone participating, playing at different venues against other clubs they’ve not seen before, and playing three or four different teams on a single day. 
NRF has run junior festivals for many years in Northland, including the popular Aimee Lindsay Memorial event, which will continue in 2025.  
After a successful pilot last year, we will keep building Auckland junior festivals in 2025, with teams coming together in hubs of s-x to eight teams teams to play three to four mini-games of 25 minutes each. Watch out for more information closer to Festival weekends. 

Home team field change requests 

Home clubs can request changes to field and kickoff times, but this must be done by the Friday the week before the game (ie 8 days before kickoff) at the very latest. Requests made seven days or less before kickoff will be declined. 
 
Thank you for being part of our football community, and we look forward to another successful season!