Stuart McDonald: Bream Bay United head coach on the team entering the Chatham Cup

Bream Bay United has entered New Zealand's premier national knock-out competition for men's football — the Chatham Cup. 

It's the club’s first appearance in the tournament since 1986, and they will take on West Auckland club 'Colo Boys FC' in their opening match. 

D'Arcy Waldegrave catches up with head coach Stuart McDonald to talk about the team's return to cup football. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk zed B.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Seven forty four of that says that news Talk at
zed B he's come over from the other side of
the world, or about fifteen years ago. He's a Celtic faned.
But more importantly, Stut McDonald's the coach of brem Bay.
First time since nine ninety six that bream Bay have
anything to do with the Chatham Cup, one of the
best trophies, one of the best prizes in New Zealand sport.

(00:34):
It's a big and prelim round this afternoon, breen Bay
United taking on the Carlo Boys and Stuart McDonald joins us. Now,
good morning morning, Darcia. How are you very well? Probably
not quite as keen as you and your men are.
You played Chatham Cup but for the first time in
wa since nineteen eighty six. It's a long time between drinks, mate,

(00:56):
what happened.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Nineteen eighty six? Yeah, to be honest, I don't know
why we haven't played for nearly thirty years, but we
decided this year was our time to to go and play.
Playing this this an amazing cup and see where it
took us. So yeah, so we're excited hopes aspirations.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
What realistically do you think you're going to achieve because
we are only problems at the moment. An'm we this
is right at the start.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yes, and we now know who will be playing if
we win today, so we're very you know, so the
so we were we were kind of hoping for a
cup run. We were hoping to end up in christ Church.
But we've got home game today and then if we win,
we've got a home game next week potentially against Monica United,
which is a very high level team compared to Wi Reset.

(01:44):
So so we're we're excited by the challenge.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Welcome to the Chaum Cup. That's a nice wed to go.
Tell us about brain Bay look off sailed through it,
I know where it is. We're a cockout area. What's
your home ground like? What are your expectations as far
as a turnout's concerned.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Well, we're we're a kind of semi rural club, so
we cover ru Kaka y poo hoo. Many people will
know from the from the beaches and holidays and one
Tree Point, so very much a community club. We're actually
now the second largest and we believe we're second and
third largest in Northland by numbers, so the necessarily by seniors.

(02:24):
We were very lucky to get funding and we had
our number one pitch finally completed at the start of
last year. We had some other pitches done, so we
now have a really high quality pitch with after after
all the years, so the fifty years the club has
been insistence, we didn't have an irrigated pitch and it
started start of the year in April. It would be

(02:45):
horrendous because it would be really hard and then by
by July it would be soaking wet. So now we've
got a high quality pitch which enables us to play
our style of high quality carpet football or grass football
if you like.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
So that the money once they turned out for the
World Cup recently.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
No, it wasn't It wasn't FIFA, it was the local
council actually, so we're very grateful we finally got We
finally got the funding, and part of it was because
the club was growing too so much and even even
during COVID we're one of the few football clubs that grew.
So we got the funding about eight or nine years ago,
but it took a while to auch to get the
pictures to get done.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
So yeah, why selling, sorry, why the swelling in numbers?
Why so many people standing to play the game and
bring back.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
I think the clubs. The club's been well run for
the last few years and I think that there's been
a population increase and the popularity of the sport generally
has has also increased. So we get a lot of
kit I mean we got hundreds of kaid well not hundreds,
but we've got a lot of kids coming and it's
great to see. So it's great for the future of
football in Northend and New Zealand as well. Football is

(03:56):
definitely more popular now in New Zealand and it ever
has been.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, on their rise, like basketball, people returning from from
lad and rugby union. It's not dead yet, it's still
got a while ago. Yeah, football is really accelerating. Who
are the cowl Oud Boys? The Coloud Boys, it's your opposition.
What do you know about them?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Well, funnily enough, when we found out we were playing them,
I decided to travel to Auckland to watch them. So
I went down introduced myself to the coach before the
game turned out he knew our old coach and I
got the opportunity to watch them, so that was really
beneficial for me, although he did say that that they
lost the game, and he said it wasn't their normal

(04:34):
way of playing. But for my benefit, I've been able
to do a bit of planning with our team based
on my understanding as to how they play and the
formation they're probably going to have. Although I'm hopeful that
they're not going to listen to this today before they
come up, but I stood behind him the whole game.

(04:54):
So yeah, so I got the chance to watch them,
So it's going to be interesting. We play a very
different formation to them, so it's going to be quite
interesting to watch how the two teams match up. But
they're a good football team. I was actually quite impressed
with with the with the way they played, so it's
going to be an interesting game. We were we were
a slightly different style of football, and I would say

(05:16):
that we're we're very spirited. That we've got a reputation
for being a very spirited team.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
So but that what is spirited me is that a
nice way of saying aggressive.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
No, I wouldn't say aggressive. I would say that we're
we like to compete in every game, that we play,
so we give everything we've got.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
So that'd be a strong point. That would be what
you you you're building around. Is there any other particular
aspect of the game where you think you maybe have
the app a hand on other times? Early?

Speaker 3 (05:49):
I mean, and this is my first year as the
coach of the first team, so I'm trying to put
in a philosophy of attacking football and trying to keep
the ball moving and get it into the opposition. You know,
we want to be not losing goals. We want to
be scoring goals. So my philosophy is around and moving
up the patch at usual peace and creating problems for

(06:10):
the other team. So that's that's kind of my philosophy.
Owned it so well.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
We hope that philosophy works out for it. It's super interesting,
first time since nineteen eighty six having a crack bream
Bay up against Kolo Boys and that's a nakaka. What
time is a kickoff? Stuart, two o'clock, get a monks
go and have a look. Support the lads. Stuart McDonald,
thanks very much for your time, mate, play well.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
What a lovely man. Here's the coach of bream Bay
first Year prelimit match and the Chatham Cup. That's it.
I'm a Bream Bay fan.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Now for more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk said Be on Saturday mornings,
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