When? Saturday 7 November, 12 pm kickoff

Where? Massey University, Palmerston North

What happened last time the two sides met? WaiBOP defeated their southern neighbours twice in 2019, although the margin of victory significantly narrowed. The first encounter saw a late flurry of goals for WaiBOP as they won 5-2, while a single Lisa Evans goal separated the two teams in the return leg.

What they say

Barry Scullion, Central Football head coach:

“We knew the competition was going to be tough with the new rule to include international players and players that are still here from COVID that haven't travelled back overseas, even though with the youngest and least experienced squad in the competition, we know we can compete better. We’re all eager to get on the pitch this weekend and perform at a higher level. WaiBOP will be another tough prospect, however, the team has worked hard during the week and are looking forward to playing in front of our home crowd.”

Nico Girard, WaiBOP head coach:

“There's always challenges when players come from different environments, different clubs, and also it's a difficult time with players, having school and all the social events they're trying to coordinate along with the football. So there's definitely been some challenges. This year, some of the successes of preseason would be having the likes of the FFDP girls, Grace [Wisnewski] and Kelli [Brown] coming back in, and also a lot of the more senior players from the NRFL teams in our region coming in as well.

“Heading into Central this weekend away, the players and the coaches are looking for three points. For me, anything else is disappointing. The players are very confident, they're very ambitious heading into this weekend and we want to see that carry over into performance on the pitch.

Squads as at Friday 6 November

Central Football

1 Brooke BENNETT (GK) 2 Charlotte LANCASTER, 3 Samantha WOOLLEY, 4 Florence MACINTYRE, 5 Gorgi VAN LIENEN, 6 Kaitlyn WATTS, 7 Georgie FURNELL, 8 Eve BARRY, 9 Mikaela (Boxy) BOXALL (C) 10 Aniela JENSEN, 11 Jessie FALLOON, 18 Amelia SIMMERS (GK) 12 Grace SMITH, 13 Natalie OLSON, 14 Abby RANKIN, 15 Holly KLEINSMAN

WaiBOP

23 Aimee FEINBERG-DANIELI (GK), 2 Manaia ELLIOTT, 3 Serena MURRIHY, 5 Michaela FOSTER, 7 Emma CAWTE, 8 Kate LOYE, 9 Kelli BROWN, 10 Grace WISNEWSKI, 12 Shannon TREBES, 16 Maddison OLLINGTONGBR, 20 Chelsea ELLIOTT, 6 Sarah CARPENTER, 11 Olivia HOOPER, 13 Stella NEEMS, 15 Lilly MUSPRATT, 17 Caitlin BYRNE

Article added: Friday 06 November 2020