Step inside the Hamilton Wanderers clubrooms at Porritt Stadium and the first thing you see is the club’s honours board.  

The first female name on the board under the internationals section is Michaela Foster’s – celebrating her selection for the Junior Football Ferns, when she made the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup squad.

Her name is listed amongst other illustrious club alumni – Chris Wood, Marco Rojas, Grace Wisnewski to name a couple of other capped senior New Zealand internationals who once plied their trade at this proud Waikato club. And now Michaela Foster is a fully-fledged member of that group, making her debut for the Ford Football Ferns last month against Argentina.

The tour was a homecoming of sorts for the rookie defender, whose first training sessions with the Ferns came on her home turf of Porritt Stadium.

“To be back on it, and to see all those renovations happening, it's really exciting!

“I got a message from the club chairman wishing me luck and I said it's been very exciting to step back on that Porritt Stadium turf to train, and I think it helped with nerves a bit as because you just feel at home on that familiar field and setting.”

Facility and resource upgrades are a key legacy area of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. In September 2022, the New Zealand Government confirmed an investment of $19 million into 30 of the 32 facilities earmarked for the tournament – a mixture of stadia used for the games, and community grounds used as training sites.

Porritt Stadium is one of the training sites, and has received upgrades to the pitch, floodlights, and gender-neutral refurbishments to their changing rooms, such as individual shower cubicles with change seats and hooks, individual toilet cubicles rather than urinals.

Foster knows first-hand what these mean for the Waikato football community, particularly the upgrades to playing facilities.

“I worked at Hamilton Girls High School last year in the sports department, did a bit of teaching and worked a lot with the football. Even having that connection between schools and clubs and being able to use those sorts of facilities is huge for young girls.

“Even just to try something like night games, which don’t happen in Waikato at all. I know other regions do it, but it's something that I know WaiBOP and the high schools have been working on, so to have the facilities and the lights to be able to do that, it's huge and a bit of a gamechanger,” she says.

Speaking of game changers, it’s fair to say Foster has had a whirlwind 12 months.

Her last appearance for Wanderers, who she joined in 2018 after coming through the ranks at rivals Claudelands Rovers and Hamilton Girls High School, and played for when home from her football scholarship at the University of San Diego, was on 27 March 2022 in the Football Foundation Kate Sheppard Cup final; creating history as the first senior Hamilton Wanderers team to make the final of a national competition.

Since then, each step Foster has taken in her career has been two at a time. She picked up a scholarship contract with Wellington Phoenix, and after becoming indispensable member of the side, playing every minute so far this season, her contract was upgraded to a fully professional deal. She was in the stands when the Ferns played the USA in Wellington in January. Now she’s our newest Ford Football Fern, number 203. Her first Ferns call-up, initially as a training player, then she was upgraded to a full squad member, and then made her debut at Waikato Stadium on Monday 20 February, 2023.

It’s not something she’s taken for granted: Foster is also unique in that she is the first player in a long time to get her first call up and have her first experiences training with the senior team in her hometown at one of her home clubs, and then to make her debut at a stadium with such significance to her family.

It's a ground that’s particularly significant to her family, especially her dad, All Blacks coach Ian Foster, and former Waikato and Waikato Chiefs player.

“He loves that stadium, we all do,” she said.

“I always used to call it the Ian Foster stadium, because he still has the most caps for Waikato Rugby. I said that to him the other day and he said ‘no, it's all yours’”.

Just after the hour mark, Michaela made her international bow, the Waikato crowd roaring as one of their own stepped onto her home turf.

“It’s my stadium now, Dad!” she laughed afterwards.

“It was special being at Waikato Stadium: it's home, and I have a lot of good memories, family memories, there (mostly with rugby!) but it's still a home stadium. It was pretty special just to walk out before the warmups and take it all in.

“Even putting on the training jersey the day before, it had been about five years since I'd worn a New Zealand football shirt with the U-20s. To be back amongst it and have the Fern on your chest again, and then to put your strip on with your name on it, it was emotional.

“I’m extremely honoured to be back amongst it, especially at home. It couldn't be any more perfect.”

Article added: Tuesday 07 March 2023.

Photo of Michaela playing against Argentina courtesy of Photosport; photo of Michaela playing for Hamilton Wanderers supplied; photo of Michaela with her family courtesy of FIFA.