Northern AFC

Two clubs called Northern and Southern took shape in Dunedin, and Northern's line runs unbroken from 1888, played out first on Brown's paddock in the north of the city. Thin playing numbers forced a merger with Maori Hill in 1972, under the name North End United, and the club did not take back its own name until 1991. It marked 125 years in 2013.

The Chatham Cup came twice, in 1959 and 1961, and the National Rothman Cup followed in 1962 — eight final appearances across the club's history, by its own count. Nothing since matched that spell until this year: Northern went through the Southern Premier League unbeaten across all 16 matches in 2025, taking the title for the first time and a trophy for the first time in 49 years, with promotion to the Southern League attached to it.

Supporters call the side the Mighty Badgers, a name that lives in fan writing rather than on any crest, and the crowd draws heavily on students from the University of Otago, giving the club an ultras following unusual for a side its size. Matches are played at the Caledonian Ground, which holds 7,500, while the clubrooms sit apart from it, at the Garden's Pavilion on Bank Street. Dunedin City Royals and Dunedin Technical supply the closest rivalries, in a city small enough that local derbies come round often.

Northern go into the Southern League for the first time carrying the form that won them promotion, against clubs that have played there for years.