New Napier City Rovers signing Matt Jones hails from a tiny South Island farming village. Ahead of the Central League kickoff, he talked to Neil Reid about the travels and sacrifices he has made to play football.
Footballer Matt Jones has already been on the go for 15 hours by the time he’s midway through Napier City Rovers’ pre-season training sessions.
The 23-year-old new signing is already shaping up as a key member of coach Bill Robertson’s squad in the upcoming Central League.
The team kick off their 2024 campaign against defending champions Wellington Olympic on March 31 at Bluewater Stadium.
And over the past six weeks, it’s not just on the training field that he’s putting in the hard yards in his new home city of Napier.
Jones - who has a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship from Missouri State University - has recently begun a multi-year traineeship programme at global freight business Mainfreight.
Inductees rotate through a range of roles within the company and in his current role Jones starts at 4am five days a week at the firm’s Napier depot.
“The trucks are coming in in the morning and we’re sorting that out and then getting the trucks out in the mid-morning,” he said.
If there ever was a time when the early starts and long days got tiring, the former New Zealand age-grade international’s desire to lay the foundations for life after football fired him up.
“My overall vision is where I see myself in the next five or 10 years,” he said.
“Obviously, football is a massive part of it.
“But with the whole university pathway [I have] aspirations outside of football.
“Kind of my whole childhood really has just been you’ve just gotta do what you do... try and crack on with it.
“The whole kind of business thing is something I aspire to.”
Jones’ childhood and formative years were spent in the Canterbury village of Swannanoa.
With a population of just over 1000, it is about 750km south of where the central defender is set to play his football in 2024.
“It’s got a school and that’s about it,” Jones said.
“My cousins have a farm there and I spent a lot of time on it. And my parents own an agricultural business.
“My upbringing is very rural, I enjoy the outdoors a lot and obviously there’s a bit of hard work at the same time.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m super grateful for that.”
Life on the land has been a world away from some places football has taken Jones in recent years.
He has studied and played football at American universities in Pennsylvania and Missouri.
“It helped me grow a lot as a person, I think that’s probably the best thing that the US gave me,” he said.
“You’re on your own, you’re in your late teens and early twenties... you just have to deal with it. Your parents are on the other side of the world... the biggest thing that I learned over there was growing overall [as a person].”
The relaxed rural surroundings of Swannanoa were also a world away from what Jones experienced in 2017 when he travelled to India as part of New Zealand’s team at the Fifa Under-17 World Cup.
Three of the team - Liberato Cacace, Elijah Just and Max Mata - have now secured All Whites selection.
While Jones played in the qualification matches, he didn’t see any game time at the tournament, played in New Mumbai and New Dehli.
“It was a good reality of what football is like on an international stage and what other players around the world are like,” he said.
“I’m pretty fond of that experience.”
Jones said the lure of playing Central League had seen him make the footballing journey to Napier.
Robertson’s team finished third last season, in the process qualifying for New Zealand Football’s National League for a second successive year.
Last year, after completing his studies in the US, he played for Melbourne club the Eastern Lions.
“[This year] I hope to play in all games, hopefully be a decent team player for the Rovers and make the National League,” Jones said.
“I hope to have a good, successful season and get 30-plus games under my belt. I do like to help people on the team and hopefully lead by example, the best I can.”
Inside the Rovers videos:
Episode One: Back to Work
Episode Two: The Darkest Days
Episode Three: Skin Deep
Episode Four: Good as Gould
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.