Ben joined Olympic aged 20 at the start of the 2019 season from Papakura City in the Northern League. He had previously played National League with Wellington Phoenix Reserves in 2016/17 and had represented New Zealand at Under 17 level.
He made his debut on 30th March 2019 in the 10-0 demolition of Wairarapa United in Masterton and scored his first goal in the equally emphatic 11-1 win against Wellington United in the following match on 6th April 2019 at Wakefield Park.
He immediately became an ever present member of the team missing only four of the 67 matches Olympic played in his first three seasons. He scored three goals in 22 matches in 2019 and 5 goals in 18 matches in 2020 including a brace in an 8-1 win against Waterside Karori on 27th June 2020. Most were headers using his significant aerial presence at set pieces. During those first two seasons he played National League for Team Wellington during the summer before the National League reverted to a club based format.
2021 was a watershed year as he took over the captaincy from Alex Palezevic, then the penalty duties after Hamish Watson joined the long list of players to miss a penalty in 2020 and 2021, played his 50th match in the 2-3 loss to North Wellington at Wakefield on 12th June 2021 before finishing the season by lifting the Central League trophy as Olympic edged out arch rivals Miramar Rangers 1-0 in the league decider. In all, Ben hit home 11 penalties (with two misses) in 23 matches.
2022 was another successful year as Ben gained his first international cap for the Cook Islands in their Oceania World Cup qualifier in Qatar before the team had to withdraw due to Covid. He captained Olympic to the Chatham Cup semi-finals, to their first ever National League final and once again lifted the Central League trophy. Despite losing first call on penalty duties to Kailan Gould, Ben managed 7 goals in the 30 matches played (three from the spot).
On 11th March 2023 Ben captained Olympic in their first ever Oceania Champions League Qualifier against Auckland City at Martin Luckie Park. A late collapse in the second leg in Auckland, including a red card for Ben, saw Olympic lose out on a trip to Vanuatu.
On 28th May 2023 Ben became the 34th Olympic centurion after a couple of months beset by injury and suspension. Now back on penalty duties he marked the occasion by scoring two in a 5-2 win against Western Suburbs. This is the first time someone has scored more than one goal in their 100th match. As of end May 2023 Ben has 31 goals in 100 matches (including 19 penalties) putting him 22nd on the all time goal scoring list for Olympic.
Credit to Photomac for the photos
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