Hawke’s Bay triumphs in fledgling flag football competition

The Hawke's Bay Heat celebrating their 20 - 14 win over the American Football Canterbury Tamarins to claim the national flag football title.

Not many people in Hawke’s Bay will have heard of the variant of American football called flag football, and even fewer people would expect to find the national champions in their backyard.

Now, the number of people who know the sport is growing as the sport’s participation gains momentum, and the demonstration of the local talent on the national stage may help it grow further.

The Hawke’s Bay Heat beat the American Football Canterbury Tamarins in the NZ American Football Federation (NZAFF) 2023 Flag Football National Championships men’s final over the weekend, 20 points to 14.

They clinched the victory with a last-second touchdown.

The players on the winning team were Jordan Cox, Joel Cox, Reuben Hinton, Harvey Godwin, Jason Muir, Chris Jablonski, Max Jamieson, George Kilsby and Adam Blake.

Adam Blake, coach and player for the Hawke’s Bay Heat, said the sport is essentially American football, but with flags at the hips like ripper rugby, and it is starting to pick up momentum with regard to participation.

“It is pretty much all the American football without the blocking and the running into each other and stuff like that - all the highlight plays condensed into a five-a-side.”

Blake said this was the first time the club had won this iteration of the national event, after reaching the finals twice before and the quarter-finals last year.

“For us, it has been a bit of weight on our shoulders, because we knew we were one of the best clubs in the country, but until you get that title, it kind of means nothing.”

He said the Hawke’s Bay club was founded by Jordan Cox and started with a group of boys “throwing a ball around” during breaks at school and on Sundays circa 2014 - 2015.

“We had enough guys to play five-on-five, six-on-six, seven-on-seven, and then we thought we would go to one of these tournaments that Auckland runs, and we went as a sort of unofficial team,” Blake said.

“We went up there, got absolutely smoked by every team, loved it, then we dug in, and there were more tournaments going on around the country, and we just kept going to them until we got better.”

The group became affiliated with NZAFF to participate in national competitions and became the Hawke’s Bay Heat around 2018.

Ages of the players in the club range from 14 to around 50, including a father-and-son duo who have played together since 2018.

“It is great because, being a non-contact sport, you can have all shapes, all sizes, all ages, and you don’t have to be the fastest. Everyone can find their own little niche within the game and play it to their strengths,” Blake said.

He said the club used to struggle to gather 10 players, but they were able to field a Hawke’s Bay club competition with five teams of about 10 players each near the end of last year.

Blake said there was now a big push for flag football to be in the 2028 Summer Olympics because of the event being hosted in America, and he was hopeful of seeing some Olympic athletes come from Hawke’s Bay.

They are currently on a break, but usually meet at Windsor Park in Hastings and have weekly sessions - on Sundays during the summer, or once every few weeks during winter - which are open for people to join in and learn.