80-year old footballer Ernie Hall (far left) in action for Onehunga Workingmens Club.

Ernie Hall has been playing football for 73 years - and is still going strong.

You read right. The Octogenarian, who has 11 great grandchildren and will celebrate his 81st birthday later this year, still played every week of the latest season for the Onehunga Workingmans Club's Sunday football team.

"I love getting out there on the weekend," says Hall. "I like the tackling, the running and the chasing. I look forward to it every week."

Hall is New Zealand's oldest regular player - and he may be the oldest footballer in the world. He puts his longevity down to a genuine love of the game, genetics and a life of moderation.

"I've always been naturally fit and I take it easy with food and drink," says Hall. "The boys have two or three pints to my one and I only eat when I'm hungry - I don't live to eat, I eat to live. And I guess I have good genes; my father was fit all his life and lived until he was 99."

Hall was also profoundly affected by an relative's rapid decline after an inactive retirement, and vowed not to make the same mistake.

"My uncle was a coal miner all his life until he retired," remembers Hall. "He had been very active but basically stopped doing anything and just started sitting around and watching television every day. Within a year he was gone - I vowed to learn from that."

His wife May remains understanding of his sporting passion that has spanned most of the last six decades, since they were married in 1952.

"At times she wondered what I was doing," laughs Hall. "Especially when I kept on playing while most of my friends had long retired. She threatened a few times to burn my boots - but that would have been instant divorce."

Hall was born in Durham, in the north east of England. Like his father and grandfather he went to work in the coal mines after he left school at the age of 14. He had first played football as a seven year old for the local boys brigade team, then for various school and village teams. Marriage and three children put sport on the back burner but he resumed playing regularly after emigrating to New Zealand in 1962.

As well as Sunday football for the Workingmans club, Hall for a time played for a wharfies team that would compete against the crews of visiting cruise ships.

In 1985 Hall (then 53) also starting playing occasionally in the over-30's grade for the Onehunga Mangere club. In subsequent years an over-35's grade was introduced and Hall continued to play until the age of 70.

He says reaction from opponents over the years has been respectful, mixed with a little surprise.

"They like to see an old bugger out there still trying his hardest," says Hall. "Maybe sometimes they take it a little easy on me but I don't hold back."

Hall also started a family team - 'Ernie's Mob' - that plays in seven a side summer football, mainly comprised of his children and grandchildren.

As fabulous as it is, Hall's is not the only tale of sporting longevity in this country.

Three hours up State Highway One, Barry Thorne, who played for the Black Sticks in the early 1970s, is still representing his province and country in hockey.

Two years shy of his 60th birthday, Thorne plays reserve grade hockey in Northland and competed in senior club grades until 2011. He has been a regular at masters level (over 50s) for New Zealand, more than 40 years after first wearing the Silver Fern.

Similar to Hall, Thorne, puts his ongoing achievements down to lifestyle, genetics and pure desire.

"My father is still running marathons at the age of 89," says Thorne. "For his 90th birthday next year he wants to do the Rotorua marathon, which will be his 50th marathon. I eat well, try to avoid refined sugar and have always been active. At this age it's easy to get stuck on the couch - so I like to push myself."

And he has to. His Northland club side sometimes face high school teams, with opponents more than 40 years his junior.

"You think you are going fast but you are not," laughs Thorne. "But it is all about timing and reading the game. Some of the young ones tend to be show-ponies - us old guys have to try and outfox them."

Thorne started playing hockey as a seven year old and was a natural. Apart from starring for Kamo high school, Thorne was selected for his province as a teenager and was also made captain of the New Zealand Colts team. He achieved the ultimate - representing New Zealand in 1974 - but missing selection for the 1976 Olympic team was a bitter pill.

A serious back injury put his career on hold for he maintained his fitness and resumed playing hockey five years later.

The advent of masters hockey fired his competitive streak - "it was a chance to play for my country again" - and he has also been heavily involved in coaching at club and provincial level.

Thorne, who runs a dairy farm (200 cows) which necessitates a 3.45am alarm most mornings, has also been fortunate to find a kindred spirit in wife Sheryl.

"She has been very understanding," says Thorne. "She doesn't think I am some mad old bugger. She still plays too and we have been able to play Masters' hockey together."

Like Hall and Thorne, rugby league's Aaron Noble has put a new spin on the definition of 'senior' player.

As prop for the Hikurangi Stags, this season he won the Northland rugby league division one title for the third year in a row. It's a credible feat but becomes incredible when you discover Noble, playing one of the physically toughest sports in the world, is 43 years old.

"They don't always say it but [the opposing players] often think they have got me," says Noble. "Maybe they think I will be the weak link, or they can target me. But you earn respect pretty quickly out there and having game smarts and plenty of experience always helps."

Noble has played premier grade league for over two decades, representing the Takahiwai Warriors , Portland Panthers and latterly the Stags, with whom he has won four premierships since 2009.

Aside from pure enjoyment, Noble keeps returning for the challenge and the camaraderie.

"My body feels up to it and I still have the urge to get out there," says Noble. "You need to work hard to be ready; the key is conditioning your body in the pre-season for what it is going to face."

Retirement, which may be coming soon, has been put off several times over the last few years, generating some friction on the home front.

"You don't want to know her reaction," laughs Noble of his wife's response when she was told last March the boots were coming out again. "We were meant to be doing some things around the house over the last few years but they have been postponed."