Hi, I’m Tim Ragg your New Director of Football.  When I first saw the role advertised at OMUAFC there were several big reasons for me to come to OMUAFC;  the opportunity to coach our men’s 1st team, to grow and develop the Girls/Women’s space at the club, to further develop the Mountaineers Academy and to develop and support the Junior/Youth players and Coaches.  These are all the areas I am very passionate about and Onehunga Mangere’s vision aligns with my own vision and philosophy.  I am someone who likes to be involved in club life, I once received a shirt as a secret Santa gift… it said:

“Life without Soccer is like….  Well I actually don’t know” (it should have been football, but they are forgiven). 

This is me to a T, I love to see young players smiling and enjoying themselves playing this fantastic game at the level that they WANT to be playing at. 

I currently have an OFC/NZF B Licence and have coached for over 20 years at various clubs around Auckland from 5th Grade to Senior Men’s and Women’s, as well as being a Director of Football for the past 2 years.  Our Academy and Junior team trainings will be a big focus of mine during the week as we look build on the Director of Football role.  This year will also will include GK Coaching sessions on Wednesdays (more details to follow shortly). 

To have the opportunity to be Head Coach of our men’s 1st team is a privilege, I have seen from the side lines and also heard great things about our NRFL team and their team spirit and I aim to build upon the success of last year.  This season, we are looking to strengthen both Teams (1st and U23’s) to ensure we finish higher than last season and establish a pathway for the U23’s to transition into the 1st team environment.  The new players we have coming to Onehunga Mangere are exciting attacking players and will show the club and supporters my philosophy on how I like football to be played.  I am also a fan of ensuring that our representative teams give back to the club during the season, such as helping with the Academy, attending other team training sessions during the week or watching junior games on Saturday.  A big reason why I will be pushing this as it will help inspire our Juniors and Youth to look at our pathway from 5th Grade to Senior’s (as we develop this over the next several years) and therefore stay at the club longer and also hopefully get them along to watch our games so we can enjoy that club spirit. 

With the Women’s World Cup in NZ this year, the women’s 1st team have a fantastic opportunity to push for higher honours.  Our aim is to be established in the NRF Conference League by the end of next year, and create a Women’s Reserve Team so that we can push for promotion into the NRFL Championship.  The World Cup gives Women’s football great exposure and Onehunga Mangere want to use this exposure to attract new players to the club so that we can complete our Pathway and have Teams in all age groups.  This season will also provide some experience for our 16th Grade Girls team as they will train beside our Women’s 1st Team, again looking to develop for the future and build strength within the club.