Gisborne United first-team coaches Blake Mulrooney (left) and Kieran Venema. Photo / John Gillies
Kieran Venema was a 7-year-old Mangapapa School student when Blake Mulrooney became his first football coach.
Now they share the coaching duties for Gisborne United’s first team.
Their goal is to win the Eastern Premiership and earn promotion to the Central League second division.
Last season’s player-coach, striker Josh Adams, had signalled last year that he wanted to step away from coaching and concentrate on playing.
Mulrooney, 58, said that about six months ago he was asked if he was interested in coaching United, and at first said it wasn’t his “thing” any more.
“I like to go to Auckland to watch my daughter Dara play for Western Springs in the Northern League,” he said.
But with the possibility of Venema coaching in tandem, he reconsidered and became excited at the potential in the United squad.
“Blake rang me and asked if I wanted to coach the team with him,” Venema said.
“He coached me from the age of 7 to 16 and had a big influence on me as a player. I was at Mangapapa School with his son Conner, and Blake coached our rep teams all the way through.
“I didn’t really want to coach this year, but with Blake it was a ‘yes’ straight away. We think alike on football.”
Venema, 33, said he would play “a little bit”, perhaps coming on from the bench.
“The body isn’t handling it as much these days.”
Venema first played senior football with Lytton High School. In 2011 he was with Wellington United as a member of their first-team squad in the Capital Premier League, but was getting most of his football with the reserve team a division below. Both teams were promoted that year.
In 2012 he had half a season in the Central League with Hawke’s Bay side Maycenvale, then had four seasons with Team Gisborne.
Spells with Gisborne Thistle and United followed. He coached United for a season, introducing a more possession-based style of play, while keeping the ball over the top in the team’s armoury.
He returned to Thistle for what he thought might be his last chance for an extended run in higher-level football – at that stage, Federation League.
Injuries affected his season, and the following year he was back at United, providing solidity in either defensive midfield or back-four roles.
Mulrooney had half a season in Len Cudd’s 1992 Gisborne City national league squad, usually wide on the right. He played for Thistle for a few years, then returned to City, playing and coaching mainly at Eastern League level, and was made a life member.
For two years he coached the first team and, during that time, they won the Central Federation Cup, beating Havelock North Wanderers in the final at Childers Road Reserve.
He had a season and a half with United, then he and a few mates revived the Riverina name in Gisborne football (Mulrooney’s father Mike played for Riverina in the 1960s).
Those in the Riverina revival “really enjoyed” the first two years but automatic promotion and relegation put them in the Eastern League first division, where they were overrun by younger sides.
Blake Mulrooney stopped playing at “53 or 54” but continued coaching. His first coaching role had been with women’s team DGS (Dave Gooch Spraypainting) for two years in his late teens. Then he was player-coach of Lytton High School in his early 20s.
For 10 years – the first six months as a volunteer – he was Central Football’s Gisborne community development officer.
“It was the best job I ever had,” said Mulrooney, whose job these days is “self-employed painter”.
“I think I’m community-focused. I just wanted the football for kids to be as good as it could be.”
In recent years, a two-season spell coaching with Wainui kept Mulrooney in the club scene.
His first big football influence was his father.
“He never, ever refused to kick a ball with me,” Mulrooney said. “His thing was always ‘technique and repetition’.
“I’ve always had a soft spot for Les Todd (who coached at Thistle). It didn’t matter to him if you were small. If you were good enough, you were big enough.
“And my first rep coaches – Ron Higham and Keith Evans – coached a group of us who went on to higher levels ... Jason Lexmond, Andy Evans, Paul Thompson, Shane Mitchell, Stuart Veall, Earl Walker.
“Through it all, I’ve made lots of friends, and the players at United are right up there with them ... quality, nice young men.”