The Football Ferns Have Named A Very Intriguing Squad For Their Costa Rica Tour
It’s been six long months since the Football Ferns last took the pitch. Six months in which a couple of players have retired, some have gotten injured, plenty have had club transfers, and a bunch more have put themselves into the big selection pot. But what they haven’t done in that time is hire a new head coach. Following the dissolution of the Jitka Klimkova Era, JK herself has already signed on to coach her native Czechia (whom the Ferns drew 0-0 with early in JK’s tenure) however New Zealand Football doesn’t move that fast so Michael Mayne remains the interim boss after leading the Fernies at the Olympic Games and the Japanese tour before it.
This upcoming series will take place away against Costa Rica. It’ll be the first time NZ has ever played them in women’s football, though the respective men’s sides did of course meet in a game of gargantuan significance a few years ago... which Costa Rica won 1-0 to book a place at the 2022 World Cup. Both matches are in San Jose. These should be winnable fixtures against a lower-ranked opponent - although the home-field advantage might swing that back around to even stevens – and the Football Ferns certainly need some wins amidst a run of just one in their last 14 matches against non-Oceania sides. Although it’s also gotta be understood that this is the first tour of a brand new cycle after a six-month break.
Results are important but the only person who should be sweating on them is Michael Mayne as he auditions for the full-time gig in much the same way that Darren Bazeley did with the All Whites. Frankly, it’s hard not to picture him getting it at this point. It’s (mostly) worked for the men so NZF will probably just use the same playbook. Mayne definitely doesn’t seem to be talking about this as a temporary role, nor does a grand unveiling of a brand new coaching staff suggest that he’s about to be replaced. But we’ll see how it goes.
The main question about this squad naming is: Where are Katie Bowen, CJ Bott, and Rebekah Stott? All three are amongst Aotearoa’s most high-profile and high-performing players, with CJB and Bowen doing so in two of the strongest leagues on the damn planet. There is no possible conception of this team that doesn’t include all three of them not only as squad members but with at least two of them in the first eleven. Yet they’re not here at all. Why is that? Probably because of that thing about this being a largely inconsequential series, on top of heavy workloads at their clubs. We know what they can do so this is a chance for Mayne and company to check out the depth behind them and nurture some of those other players along (whoever grabs the opportunity) – something that the Ferns have notoriously failed to do in past eras. That certainly seems to be what Mayne is hinting at in his media stuff...
Michael Mayne: “Yeah look, there’s an opportunity here, with it being a new cycle, to test some new ideas that I have, to look at some new players. A big part of this is building some real competition in the team. We plan to be quite busy this year so there’s going to be lots of opportunities for players who aren’t in this squad to be revisited and looked at in different tours. But for me, right now, I think there’s a real nice balance in this squad and I can understand where our strengths lie within this squad and how they can help us go forward.”
He was saying the same stuff prior to this squad being announced. For example, this was Mayne speaking to the NZ Herald about a week ago:
“We need the best players in the system. I don’t think my role initially is anything to do about changing the guard — It’s just we need to understand who the players are that come in and fight for each position and that is, in turn, the standard on the training pitch and hopefully the results. We’ve got experienced players that I know are determined to continue to stay in good shape and perform and be called up when they get the opportunity and also we’ve got new players, young players, that have been in the system that are really eager to come back in.”
Nothing about those words suggest that he’s trying to get rid of anyone. Especially not quality experienced players in world class club situations who’ve been among the team’s top players for several years and who continue to show the required drive and application. There’s just one wee pesky little issue here... that being how MM keeps talking around that point rather than just straight-up saying: yeah, we’re resting them for this one. Lots of coach speak. Not enough direct honesty.
Now, if you’ve made the bold call to drop three of your best and most experienced players in one fell swoop then you’re probably pretty sure of yourself, right? Sure enough that you wouldn’t be afraid to admit it. This is where the tinfoil hats come in handy, because it wasn’t that long ago that NZF were made to look pretty stupid while they kept an unwanted coach on gardening leave when there didn’t seem to be any point in doing so. That’s what happens when you take the corporate route of letting an independent workplace investigation (confidential, of course) determine the moral directives of the matter, rather than accepting that the situation wasn’t worth fighting for. The investigation cleared Klimkova of any illegalities but the damage had been done. The “restorative process” was head-in-the-sand stuff.
You don’t have to have broken any rules to lose the dressing room. Usually it happens because of crap results rather than crap behaviour. But maybe, just maybe, NZF felt the need to send a subtle message to a few of the bigger personalities in the group about who the bosses are. In which case... okay, fine, message received. As long as they’re back next time - do what you feel you need to do but make sure it’s a clean slate afterwards. That would explain why Mayne was kinda shifty in explaining things. Then again, it could be pure unhinged hypothesising so don’t take any of that literally. Tinfoil hats off now.
Growing competition for places was already a focus of these squads prior to the Olympics and six months of club progression has only blown that out further. Mayne has mentioned a few times that he’s got a group of around 40 players that he’s been speaking to and tracking closely. We’ve got 23 players in this squad. Let’s add in Bowen, Bott, Stott, Riley, Steinmetz, and Leat. Question marks over whether Ali Riley will even play international football again at this point but until she retires she deserves to be in these conversations. That takes it to 29.
Gabi Rennie, Murphy Sheaff, and Ally Green also went to the Olympics so they take it to 32. Not sure where Olivia Chance and Betsy Hassett are at post-motherhood, they’ll need to play some club footy before even being considered for international returns so we’ll leave them aside for now. But we can count Ava Collins, Kiara Bercelli, Grace Wisnewski, Maggie Jenkins, Deven Jackson, Alyssa Whinham, Emma Main, Lara Wall, Rebecca Lake, and Marisa van der Meer as being in and around that group. Maybe Olivia Page and Suya Haering have earned their way in there already. A couple of those ladies are injured at the moment (Jackson, Lake, MVDM) but we’re talking about a whole World Cup cycle here not just this one tour. That’s 44 plus the two mums. You get the idea.
These are the women who were in the World Cup Squad but are not in this squad:
Anna Leat, Erin Nayler, CJ Bott, Ali Riley, Rebekah Stott, Katie Bowen, Ria Percival, Malia Steinmetz, Daisy Cleverley, Betsy Hassett, Olivia Chance, Paige Satchell, Gabi Rennie, Hannah Wilkinson
And these are them who were in the Olympic squad but not this squad:
Anna Leat, Murphy Sheaff, Katie Bowen, Rebekah Stott, CJ Bott, Ally Green, Ali Riley, Malia Steinmetz, Gabi Rennie
Another thing Mayne’s mentioned is that he wants to implement a slightly different system with more evolution in how the team plays in possession and in attack. A different look on the ball. That’s good stuff... except we can’t actually discuss it until we see them play. Take note of the positive intentions but judge them on performances.
There are five uncapped women here with three of them called up for the first time. Emma Pijnenburg was an injury replacement for the Thailand games for her first senior Ferns camp while Manaia Elliott had a similar experience getting to go to Colombia before that. Neither of them have played yet. As for Geo Candy, Kelli Brown, and Maya Hahn these are their first summons. Slightly weird given that Candy’s only made one professional appearance and that was a few years ago with the Wellington Phoenix. She’s been sitting on the bench for Melbourne Victory for the past 12 months. Kelli Brown was doing great with Perth but has been injured since before Christmas. And Maya Hahn... well, she walks into this side but a few weeks ago she wasn’t even eligible. All three were part of the U17 World Cup bronze medal side that Mayne was an assistant coach for... though don’t get to thinking of biases because he’s also dropped Gabi Rennie and hasn’t called up Grace Wisnewski or Maggie Jenkins when he easily could have.
Maya Hahn’s reincorporation into kiwi football has been a clever and fortuitous one. Smart to stay alert to a possibility... lucky that the possibility existed at all. Hahn switched allegiances to Germany for her U20s wave and left with some mild critiques about the style of play that was being promoted in NZ. Nothing bridge-burning. In all honesty, she just took the better footballing situation and you can’t really argue with it. She’s equally eligible for both. Thing is, she never actually got to play for Germany. She was called up into their U20s and trained with them in preparation for the U20 World Cup... only for covid to happen and suddenly there was no U20 World Cup. Then she aged out of the youth scene and obviously there’s a huge gap between making U20s squads and making senior German squads.
Since then Hahn’s done some USA college stuff and she’s played for a couple of clubs in Germany. She’s currently at Turbine Potsdam in the Bundesliga (at least until they get relegated) where one of her teammates is NZ prospect Suya Haering, formerly of Auckland United - as it happens, this past weekend was the first time they were both in the same starting eleven. Back to the point, FIFA usually don’t let you swap allegiances twice but there is a cheeky rule in the lengthy FIFA Eligibility Guidelines that says this...
“A player that was: a) granted a change of association; and b) was not fielded in a match in any (official or unofficial) competition in any kind of football by the new association, may request a change of association back to his former association provided he continues to hold the nationality of such association.”
In plain English, that means she’s allowed to switch back because she never played for Germany. She’s allowed to so she has. Fair enough and we’re stoked to have her. Bit more creativity in the midfield. As soon as NZF made a song and dance about the eligibility switch it was obvious that she was going straight into the squad for the Costa Rica games... as she very much should on merit. Starting games in one of the top five leagues in Europe makes that an easy decision (unless you’re CJ Bott or Katie Bowen but we’re assuming that’s a one-off).
THE COACHING STAFF
Michael Mayne took this team to the Olympics working within Jitka Klimkova’s old structures. American coach Keri Sarver remained alongside as his assistant, although Natalie Lawrence was brought in to take Mayne’s old spot. Duncan Reed was the goalkeeping coach.
This time there’s an entirely different look to things. Jenny Bindon has been hired as one of the assistants. As a legendary former player with good coaching experience, this runs parallel to Simon Elliott being brought into the All Whites system. Bindon had previously been working at London City Lionesses (Grace Neville’s club) as a goalkeeping coach but then came the takeover and a new coach and she didn’t survive the staff turnover... but she landed on her feet with a gig at Reading where her son Tyler Bindon has been playing. Tyler joined Reading after his family relocated to London from Los Angeles due to Jenny getting that LCL job. Tyler’s influence then seems to have helped Jenny get a job (albeit one she was already very qualified for). Now Jenny Bindon’s with the national team and it seems like an ideal appointment to have an ex-Ferns perspective on the staff. Someone who can relate to the players. Someone who has been around multiple professional environments on the female side. Sweet as.
Joining Mayne and Bindon as the other assistant will be Sam Wilkinson. Very well known name in kiwi football circles, he’s worked professionally in English systems, as an assistant for NZ age grade sides, a little bit within the Wellington Phoenix academy, and also had a hugely impressive stint as head coach of Melville United. Both he and Mayne have pretty strong Waikato football connections. Not sure how much women’s football experience Wilkinson has but he’s always seemed a very clever thinker of the game with a practical edge and a willingness to learn and evolve so he should be good. Another astute appointment.
Finally, Englishman William Britt has been named as the goalkeeping coach. A former pro keeper himself, he came up the ranks with Southampton and won the FA Youth Cup on loan with Norwich. Didn’t progress into much of a senior career, therefore got into coaching very early. He’s still only 29 years old and has been the keeper’s coach with Southampton women for several seasons already. He would have been there while Ashleigh Ward was playing for the club. He’s the only non-kiwi of the new coaching quartet (Bindon’s a naturalised citizen), meaning that there’s going to be a much more kiwi-flavoured coaching staff moving forward. As it ought to be. Granted, this could all change with a new head coach hire... but, again, these don’t feel like the kinds of appointments you make for a one-off tour, right?
GOALKEEPERS
Geo Candy – Melbourne Victory, AUS (0 caps/0 goals)
Brianna Edwards – Sydney FC, AUS (1/0)
Victoria Esson – Rangers, SCO (24/0)
Vic Esson started all three games at the 2023 World Cup. Anna Leat started all three games at the 2024 Olympic Games. In between they jostled back and forth, often splitting starts within windows, but while Leat does seem to have moved clear as the national team’s number one... she’s not available for this tour. In fact, she hasn’t played since the Olympics. A head injury suffered in preseason with Aston Villa has kept her out for a long time and it’s still unclear whether she’s fully recovered - she did return to training in early November but that doesn’t mean she was cleared for games. Since then she’s left Aston Villa for personal reasons and it seems she might just need a break from everything for a wee bit. Understandable.
So Esson’s got an open road ahead of her. Conveniently, she happens to be in one of her upswings at Rangers, having started a bunch of important games lately, and is usually excellent in these types of tests. Most of the non-OFC games where the Footy Ferns have avoided defeat in the past few years have involved Vic Esson between the sticks. That’s all very straightforward... but filling out the rest of the three GK spots looks like it might have been tricky.
Bri Edwards moved from the Wellington Phoenix to Sydney FC where she replaced Jada Whyman for the defending champs. However, the defending champs are second-to-last right now and there was a good chunk of the term where Edwards found herself on the bench behind 19yo Tahlia Franco. Fortunately for us, Franco made a couple mistakes and Edwards has since won that starting spot back and that’s enough to get her into this selection. In fairness to Edwards, her numbers have been pretty good so not sure what shenanigans they were up to by dropping her in the first place. Nothing wrong with three clean sheets in eight starts. Nothing wrong with allowing 1.18 goals per ninety minutes (that’s slightly better than Carolina Vilao at the Nix). Nothing wrong with a 76.9% save percentage (second best in the A-League). Edwards missed the last two tours, including Olympics, as she took some time away from the game. Glad to see her back.
As for the available third spot... Geo Candy’s gotten the nod with her one career ALW appearance. That came for the Welly Nix a couple years ago. Since then she’s moved to Melbourne and gotten the Victory backup role, initially as an injury replacement last season but they kept her around this time (without ever announcing anything) and she’s continued to sit on the bench waiting her chance. Word is that she trains the house down so that’s a good sign. Candy is also someone that Mayne knows from the NZ age grade stuff, having been Leat’s backup at the U17 World Cup.
This pick is in keeping with the desire to build out the depth because there’s not a lot of it in this position beyond the two mainstays. At least, not with any serious experience. There is Murphy Sheaff who went to the Olympics as number three while Edwards was unavailable, she’s playing college stuff in the USA. Aimee Danieli of the Welly Nix has been called up once before... though she missed the most recent A-League game with injury thus is potentially unavailable. Then there’s Una Foyle who nobody seems to think of but she spent last year with Cork City in Ireland (and will hopefully be back in 2025) where she looked very impressive. Long time Canterbury United goalkeeper. In terms of pure immediate talent she’d be the best shout behind Leat, Esson, and Edwards. But, admittedly, she’s older than the other 3GK candidates and perhaps doesn’t have as much long term potential. Thus Geo Candy it is.
DEFENDERS
Liz Anton - Canberra United, AUS (20/0)
Mackenzie Barry – Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (20/1)
Claudia Bunge – Melbourne Victory, AUS (31/0)
Michaela Foster – Durham, ENG (22/1)
Meikayla Moore – Calgary Wild, CAN (67/4)
Grace Neville – London City Lionesses, ENG (9/0)
Kate Taylor – Dijon FCO, FRA (21/2)
This doesn’t feel like a lot of defenders. Usually NZF squads are chock-full of defenders. S’pose that’s what happens when you don’t select your entire top choice back four.
It’s very possible that Manaia Elliott has been chosen as a right-back so keep that in mind. Otherwise we’re looking at Grace Neville and Mack Barry in that spot. Neville’s at a very ambitious London City Lionesses whose new owner is determined to get them into the WSL as soon as possible and turn them into a force in women’s footy. They’re challenging for promotion though Neville is only a reserve option for them now, having started just three league fixtures. She’s the only RB specialist here. Mack Barry’s having another strong year for the Welly Nix as a central defender and RB still feels like her best path towards Ferns minutes so we’ll see how that transpires. Also, Emma Pijnenburg did play a lot at right-back for Feyenoord last season so that’s an option too... and if we’re going with wing-backs then Indi Riley enters the conversation having gotten plenty of work there for Crystal Palace.
The right side of defence will be owned by CJ Bott for another five years so this isn’t an area of desperation. The left side... that’s way more fluctuating. Ali Riley is no guarantee to every pull on a Ferns jersey again given her injury and her age and there are heaps of lefties in contention for her spot. At the Olympics, we witnessed two starts for Mack Barry and one for Mickey Foster. Liz Anton has played a lot at LB. Grace Neville can cover there and that’s without looking at the likes of Ally Green or Suya Haering who haven’t been picked. Green’s absence is especially harsh, albeit she hasn’t had a lot of football lately. Foster feels like the frontrunner but the thing about that is she doesn’t play left-back for Durham... she plays as a defensive midfielder. And the one who’s been playing CDM for the Ferns recently, Kate Taylor, doesn’t play there for Dijon – instead reverting to central defence. To be honest, those seem like better long term positions for both of them. Especially Taylor. In which case... left-back is wide open pasture.
Anton’s having a great campaign with Canberra United. The move from Perth, where she perhaps plateaued a bit last term, has proven to be a very clever one. Like Barry, most of her Ferns games have come as a wide defender whereas most of her A-League games are spent in the middle. Hopefully without Bowen and Stott she gets a chance to plead a case at CB. Same deal with Kate Taylor after her midfield excursions, no matter how useful they were it’s at centre-back where Taylor has the most potential. Claudia Bunge is another who has drifted somewhat over the past year or two but a move back to Melbourne Victory seems to have reasserted things after she was only an alternate player in the Olympic squad.
Meikayla Moore has won her way back into regular selections since being dropped for the World Cup. That dropping was as a result of limited club minutes and she had a brilliant campaign with Glasgow City to change that trajectory... though despite the recall she’s only made one Ferns start since February 2023 and that was in a 4-1 loss to Japan (our biggest defeat of that timeframe). Moore left Glasgow City in mid-2024 and has joined Calgary Wild in the new Canadian league. Same competition that Milly Clegg and Ally Green are playing (Green and Moore will be teammates)... only it hasn’t kicked off yet. Because of those timings, Meikayla Moore has not played a club game since last May and that means she’s seriously lucky to have been picked based on match fitness alone. Perhaps they felt they needed the experience in light of who isn’t here.
The best back four from these players would be: Barry – Bunge – Taylor – Foster. Whether Mayne and company feel the same way is something we’ll soon learn. Expect plenty of rotation between the games with that focus on depth opportunities.
From outside of this squad, the injured Phoenix duo of Marisa van der Meer and Rebecca Lake have Football Ferns potential down the line. Lara Wall’s probably arrived too recently for this tour but you can’t argue with what she’s done in year one of her ALW career and that’s as a left-back at a time when that position is getting a reshuffle. Zoe McMeeken’s got to focus on winning a regular starting spot at the Nix before thinking beyond that... which is what Olivia Page seems to be doing at Sheffield United. Page is a tall and athletic centre-back who was part of the most recent NZ U20s. Our defence was crap at that tournament but Page didn’t play nearly enough so maybe that’s why. She’s still on the way up but the former Eastern Suburbs player is one to watch. Same deal for ex-Auckland United leftie Suya Haering who has made a couple of Bundesliga starts with Turbine Potsdam. Coincidentally, Page is teammates with Jacqui Hand and Haering is teammates with Maya Hahn. Direct links to this squad.
MIDFIELDERS
Macey Fraser – Utah Royals, USA (6/2)
Maya Hahn – Turbine Potsdam, GER (0/0)
Katie Kitching – Sunderland, ENG (14/5)
Annalie Longo - Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (136/15)
Emma Pijnenburg – Feyenoord, NED (0/0)
There were no key players dropped from the midfield brigade... there didn’t need to be. Malia Steinmetz tore her ACL late last year in a brutal blow to a side that’s also seen the retirements of Ria Percival and Daisy Cleverley in recent times. Betsy Hassett and Olivia Chance are still on maternity leave. And, honestly, this was never a position of great depth anyway. At least we do have Annalie Longo who has been superb for the Wellington Phoenix lately, getting back to peak fitness and running rampant. The next most capped played in this squad is Meikayla Moore with 67, slightly less than half the tally that Longo’s ammassed.
There’s a good chance that Kate Taylor/Mickey Foster spend plenty of time in the midfield so there are quite a few options to try here. Being that Taylor and Foster are the two predominantly defensive-minded choices available, they might benefit for the sake of balance. Meanwhile, the other four are passers and creators and that should be hugely exciting for us Ferns fans longing to see a team that can control games with the ball and create chances from structured play.
Macey Fraser is finally over her lingering ankle injuries, recently telling reporters in Utah that she’s full go for their preseason. That means full go for the national team as well. Fraser has a great workrate, she’s a deceptively good tackler/presser, she can beat defenders with skill, she has shooting range, and she creates for others. Probably the most complete skill set among any Ferns midfielder for a very, very long time... and so far we’ve only seen glimpses of it for the national team. Not only that, but here she’s going to get to combine with Maya Hahn for the first time since they were 15-16 year olds. That alone is a tantalising prospect (even if we don’t really know what Hahn will bring to the table yet)... and when you chuck in the unicorn prospect of Milly Clegg up front it makes for an attacking trio that the Football Ferns can build their next generation around.
Not to mention Katie Kitching who has left an excellent impression on kiwi fans whenever she’s played for the Ferns and, guess what, she’s gone to a whole other level with Sunderland this season. Goals and assists to compare with any other name in the division. She’s been superb. Emma Pijnenburg hasn’t gotten nearly as many opportunities this year as she did last year when she filled a need at right-back and helped spur her team into a wicked run of results. They’ve been able to get a specialist in that role since then so EP’s minutes shrunk almost to nothing... until just recently when she’s begun to force her way back in there. She’s one for the future and here’s a little jump start on that journey.
Outside of these selections (and the known absentees), we’re probably digging around the Wellington Phoenix for players like Daisy Brazendale and Amelia Abbott. Grace Wisnewski is back playing after her ACL but has only gotten 94 minutes for Lexington SC so far and that’s clearly not enough to say she’s ready for a national team return. Midfielders aren’t easy to find and that’s probably why so many of ours seem to be converted from other positions. Probably also why Emma Pijnenburg’s gotta be nurtured along. She’s someone with the ability to pick a killer pass and that’s a rare talent.
FORWARDS
Hannah Blake – Durham, ENG (6/0)
Kelli Brown – Perth Glory, AUS (0/0)
Milly Clegg – Halifax Tides, CAN (12/1)
Manaia Elliott - Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (0/0)
Jacqui Hand – Sheffield United, ENG (31/8)
Grace Jale - Wellington Phoenix, NZ/AUS (35/9)
Ruby Nathan – Canberra United, AUS (5/1)
Indiah-Paige Riley – Crystal Palace, ENG (27/6)
Ah yes, the forwards. The most debated area of the pitch, often to the point of unfairness considering that strikers do need service (just listen to any Chris Wood post-game chat and notice how emphatically he heaps praise upon the teammates who set his goals up). Fortunately, this midfield has more creativity than usual. Between Kitching, Fraser, and Hahn there’s enough class that there’ll even be replenishing options on the bench to maintain ninety-minutes of intensity. Should be plenty of options on the wings too.
We don’t yet know how Mayne will set this team up. Could be that a fresh shape is on the way. Could be that there needs to be because even with our top choice defenders all absent (with leave) the attack still feels like the most vulnerable section of this squad. Then again, you could argue that this vulnerability makes this the most competitive area within a tour where the whole focus is on growing out the depth. There’s a lot to be gained. When a team has struggled in front of goal as badly as this team has, anybody who comes along and bangs a few in could suddenly become a key player out of nowhere.
A few of these forwards already have pretty tasty goal-scoring records. Only drama there is that it mostly all came from the Oceania Olympic Qualifiers. There’s heaps of potential amongst this crew but there’s basically nobody, except maaaaybe Jacqui Hand, with a track record of scoring non-confederation goals. To further illustrate the point, here are all the goal-scorers from the last five years, excluding Oceania games...
Hannah Wilkinson – 5
Jacqui Hand – 3
Katie Kitching – 3
CJ Bott – 3
Olivia Chance – 2
Gabi Rennie – 2
Betsy Hassett – 2
Katie Rood – 1
Rosie White – 1
Sarah Gregorius – 1
Own Goal – 1
Ria Percival – 1
Paige Satchell – 1
Anna Green – 1
Meikayla Moore – 1
Ali Riley – 1
Milly Clegg - 1
Mackenzie Barry – 1
Kate Taylor – 1
That’s spanning 58 games of football so yeah it’s not great. Grace Jale and Indi Riley have never scored against non-OFC sides. Plus it’s not like many of them are prolific at club level. Jale has scored a couple of superb goals for the Nix this season, both long-range bangers, though that came after a spell where she went a full calendar year without an ALW goal. Her recent form surge is hugely encouraging, without it she might not even be here, but even then the Nix just lost consecutive 1-0 games where they failed to turn good performances into goals. That’s also probably why Alyssa Whinham isn’t here: we can all see how talented she is but there are a lot of players in contention so you’ve got to going above and beyond and for Whinham that means goal contributions. She’s close. But she won’t make the Ferns until the ball’s rippling the net a little more often.
Indi Riley’s not been sighted for Crystal Palace recently so there could be an injury situation here to ponder. When she has played it’s mostly been wide on the right, sometimes as a winger and sometimes as a wing-back. She’s been good for an embattled side though. Scoring two WSL goals is a big deal. This comes after a prolific time with PSV Eindhoven, thus making her arguably the most pedigreed of these forwards. Even Milly Clegg, as much potential as she has, can only boast four professional club goals. Lots of great age-grade work but beyond that it’s only the haul she grabbed at the Phoenix. She played once for Western Sydney and got injured. She didn’t debut for Racing Louisville until the last match of the NWSL season. We’re talking two club games in 15 months and they don’t even total ninety minutes. That’s why she’s gone out on loan to Halifax Tides in order to get some games, get some rhythm, and get some goals. She doesn’t turn 20 until November so nothing to panic about.
Jacqui Hand scored her first Sheffield United goal on the weekend and it was a mint header at the back post, earning her side a 1-1 draw against Durham. Mickey Foster scored Durham’s goal (an Olimpico, naturally). That was an iconic game for kiwi football with four compatriots involved (Blake at Durham, Page at Sheff Utd) and both goals coming courtesy of the Land of the Long White Cloud. However, the fact that this was Hand’s first goal of the season, in January, isn’t ideal. Especially after she only scored once in ten games for Lewes FC last term. Put simply, Hand hasn’t translated her productivity from Finland to England yet. She’s mostly used as a striker for The Blades so it’s not like she’s not in the right position. Hopefully things flow now that she’s off the mark because she’s been playing well besides that.
Hannah Blake has a couple of goals for Durham so that’s cool. She’s been ripping in alongside Mickey Foster (and also more recently ex-Nix goalkeeper Rylee Foster who has joined them) and is thoroughly deserving of this call-up. Honestly, she should have been picked last year while she was with Adelaide Utd. Good on her for making it undeniable. Blake debuted for the Fernies way back in November 2017 as a teenager and got a few more games early in Klimkova’s reign (during the travel restriction stuff) so those six caps have come sparsely. Blake isn’t necessarily someone with a superpower in attack but she’s a smart player without any obvious weaknesses and can play across the frontline or even, at a pinch, in midfield. Bit surprised not to see Maggie Jenkins here though. Four goals and two assists, including some very timely ones, for ALG Spor in Turkey’s top flight wasn’t enough. This is her first year as a pro, so perhaps she needs to build up more of a track record.
That leaves a trio of A-Leaguers. Kelli Brown’s been injured for the past month, gotta think this means she’s close to a return. She did score three times for Perth Glory prior to that and she’s been unstoppable in the NPL for the past two years. This isn’t a selection out of the blue, especially considering her importance in that U17 WC squad once upon a time. But it could be seen as premature in light of Jenkins missing out... and also in light of Gabi Rennie being dropped. Poor old Rennie was picked way before she was ready, struggled to make an impact at a time when our forward depth was pretty skint, and has now been dropped when she least deserved it after the best year of her career. Albeit she’s in-between seasons and just moved clubs so the match fitness won’t be there. Granted, it’s hard to say if that matters when Moore’s been picked without a club appearance for eight months and when Brown and Riley are both injured.
As far as Brown goes, and the same applies to Ruby Nathan, this is about profiles. Both are number nines like Milly Clegg. Others in this squad can play there (Blake, Hand, Jale) but these three are the specialists in a post-Hannah Wilkinson environment. Nathan’s selection is a stretch though. She’s not even a regular starter for Canberra United and so far has zero goals and one assist this season. Would rather have seen Jenkins in this spot with Nathan allowed to continue her development organically. Nathan’s been a favourite on this website for a few years so you know it’s not a lack of belief that leads a writer to say that it kinda feels like her international career’s getting rushed along.
Not so for Manaia Elliott. She’s earned this one, not only with some fantastic moments for the Phoenix of late but also due to her unique ability to drive to the byline and get the ball into the middle. She’s got a knack for giving the ball just enough of a nudge in those situations. She’ll also be an option at right-back but it’s on the wing that she offers something different... and very useful.
The funkiest thing is that there are so many players on the outside looking in who should believe that they are every bit as good as those who’ve been picked. Maggie Jenkins and Gabi Rennie have been mentioned. Emma Main is one of the most underrated kiwi footballers. Kiara Bercelli’s still raw but she’s been getting games in Serie A and you can’t ignore that. Ava Collins is a starter in the top-flight of Denmark. Everybody’s forgotten about Jana Radosavljevic but she’s doing alright in Portugal these days. Deven Jackson would have gone close on with her Newcastle Jets form except that she suffered multiple fractures to her face in the game against Wellington not long ago so sadly she’s due a lengthy spell on the sideline. This is the tour to test the depth... and there’s still so much depth left over. Now we just need to see who steps up.
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