Head coach Michael Mayne has named 24 players, with six changes to the squad named for October\u2019s Mexico and USA games.<\/p>\n
Wellington Phoenix\u2019s CJ Bott, Kolbotn IL\u2019s Olivia Chance, Calgary Wild FC\u2019s Ally Green, Stjarnan FC\u2019s Betsy Hassett, and Newcastle Jets\u2019 Anna Leat all return, as well as Wellington Phoenix FC\u2019s Lara Wall being formally named for the first time after joining as an injury replacement last month. <\/p>\n
Head coach Michael Mayne is keen to use the two games as a final test of the year for his wider squad ahead of FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2027 qualifying starting in 2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing our challenging but purposeful matches against Mexico and the USA, which, in many ways, showed the team exactly what we needed to see at this point in our campaign, it\u2019s good to quickly have another strong test against Australia. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis continues our strategy of facing sides we know we must compete against, and beat, if we want to achieve our ultimate goal of qualifying for, and progressing from our group at, the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2027. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spent the past six months putting together a campaign plan we believe will put us in the best position to finish 2025 with a clear understanding of the strengths and potential within our wider squad, and move into the new year focused on cohesion and refining our team ahead of qualifying in early 2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important for me to bring some fresh faces back into this camp and continue providing opportunities to players who deserve a recall and may bring new and welcomed competition for places. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith players like Liv Chance, Grace Wisnewski and Anna Leat performing well in recent club matches, as well as CJ Bott returning to the pitch, they\u2019re all players I\u2019m pleased to welcome back for these important games. <\/p>\n
\u201cI also want to congratulate Lara Wall on being formally named for the first time, after impressing as an injury replacement to earn her spot. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it reinforces the importance of being ready to take opportunities when they arise, and shows that I\u2019m open to bringing in new energy going forward. <\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate there are players not selected for this tour who want that opportunity, which is only healthy for our future in this campaign. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve made good progress this year, but were tested significantly on the last tour, so our job now is to continue that work in Australia, take all the positives we can from those performances, and get back to work quickly.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both games against the Matildas will be available live and free on FIFA+ and TVNZ.<\/p>\n
The full squad is: <\/p>\n
Liz Anton (24 caps\/0 goals) Kolbotn IL, Norway<\/p>\n
CJ Bott (50\/3) Wellington Phoenix FC, Aotearoa New Zealand<\/p>\n
Kelli Brown (7\/0) Newcastle Jets, Australia<\/p>\n
Claudia Bunge (36\/0) Melbourne Victory, Australia<\/p>\n
Olivia Chance (47\/2) Kolbotn IL, Norway<\/p>\n
Milly Clegg (18\/2) Halifax Tides FC, Canada<\/p>\n
Victoria Esson (31\/0) Wellington Phoenix FC, Aotearoa New Zealand<\/p>\n
Michaela Foster (28\/1) Durham FC, England<\/p>\n
Ally Green (18\/2) Calgary Wild FC, Canada<\/p>\n
Maya Hahn (6\/1) FC Viktoria Berlin, Germany<\/p>\n
Jacqui Hand (37\/9) Kolbotn IL, Norway<\/p>\n
Betsy Hassett (159\/16) Stjarnan FC, Iceland<\/p>\n
Deven Jackson (5\/0) Melbourne City, Australia<\/p>\n
Katie Kitching (21\/6) Sunderland AFC, England<\/p>\n
Anna Leat (22\/0) Newcastle Jets, Australia<\/p>\n
Annalie Longo (142\/15) Auckland United, Aotearoa New Zealand<\/p>\n
Meikayla Moore (73\/4) Calgary Wild FC, Canada<\/p>\n
Emma Pijnenburg (6\/0) Feyenoord Rotterdam, Netherlands<\/p>\n
Gabi Rennie (43\/2) Eskilstuna United DFF, Sweden<\/p>\n
Indiah-Paige Riley (32\/7) Crystal Palace, England<\/p>\n
Alina Santos (0\/0) University of Denver, USA<\/p>\n
Kate Taylor (28\/2) Dijon FCO, France<\/p>\n
Lara Wall (1\/0) Wellington Phoenix FC, Aotearoa New Zealand<\/p>\n
Grace Wisnewski (3\/0) FC Nordsj\u00e6lland, Denmark <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Michael Mayne has named 24 players, with six changes to the squad named for October\u2019s Mexico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,5432,10541,5213,48164,1019,4960,111,139,69,213,7245],"class_list":{"0":"post-157832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-between","10":"tag-ferns","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-gosford","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-live","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-updates"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}