Aotearoa Flag Ferns Media Day: Get To Know Your Newest Olympic Eligible Sports Team

The Aotearoa Flag Ferns, New Zealand’s National Women’s Flag Football Team, are to host their pre-Flag Football World Championship media day from 10.00am - 12.30pm on Sunday 11th of August at Conifer Grove Primary School, Takanini, providing an opportunity for sports and cultural media to learn more about the team and sport before they leave on 19th August.

Hot off the announcement of Flag Football being included in the 2028 LA Olympics, and the NFL School's Flag Programme being introduced to New Zealand, the 2024 Flag Football World Championship in Lahti, Finland in August (25-28th) is the perfect opportunity to not only improve on their current 15th place in the world ranking, but to test themselves against opposition outside of the Asia-Oceania region.

New Zealand has been placed in Pool E of the 5 pool, 23 team Women’s competition, alongside 4x European Champions Austria (ranked 5th in the world), runners-up in the 2023 European Championships Spain (ranked 6th), and Switzerland (ranked 17th).

“Being only our second international tournament, with the first being an Asia-Oceania Intercontinental to qualify for the World Championship, we are looking forward to seeing what the other countries are doing" said Head Coach Ethan Clark.

The 12 player, 5 coach/management/support squad represent a unique cross section of professional and athletic backgrounds, coming from 5 clubs from around the North Island – Hamilton Hawks, Tauranga City Tridents, Hutt Valley Spartans, Papatoetoe Wildcats, and the Metro Lions.

“The natural ball-skills most kiwis get through playing the likes of rugby, league, netball, and basketball are easily translated to Flag Football” said Clark, “Given Women’s flag football at a club level has only been played in New Zealand since early 2020, we are really punching above our weight.”

The team qualified for the World Championships after placing third in the Asia-Oceania Flag Football Championship held last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, beating Malaysia in the bronze medal match after losing to eventual championship winners Japan (ranked 3rd in the world) in the semifinals.

The Flag Ferns squad was selected from members of the High Performance Unit, which was formed after three trials held across the North Island and the National Clubs Championship, which were completed throughout March. The remaining 12 members of the High Performance Unit who were not selected for the World Championship squad make up the Wahine Toa development team, who are set to partake in the Capture the Flag tournament on the first weekend of November (2nd/3rd) in Melbourne.

The travelling squad for the 2024 World Champs is:

• Amorangi Ngata-Atkins (Metro Lions)
• Ellie McManaway (Tauranga City Tridents)
• Emma Johnson (Tauranga City Tridents)
• Isabeau Short-Wilcox (Metro Lions)
• Jorja Mouat (Tauranga City Tridents)
• Rosa Maanaima Matautia (Metro Lions)
• Sarah Monteith (Tauranga City Tridents)
• Shanaye Tissingh (Hamilton Hawks)
• Shirley Lam Sam (Hutt Valley Spartans)
• Shona-Leigh Matiu (Metro Lions)
• Sia Matai (Papatoetoe Wildcats)
• Taylor Le’au’anae (Metro Lions)
• Head Coach - Ethan Clark (Hamilton Hawks)
• Offensive Coordinator - Ben Freeman (Hamilton Hawks)
• Defensive Coordinator - Peter Copsey (Tauranga City Tridents)
• Team Manager - Alex Hatwell (Tauranga City Tridents)
• Physio - Georgia Harris (Bespoke Physiotherapy)

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