Football: NFF announce women's squad

Northland FC captain Nicole Stratford will kit up for Northern in the National Women's League. Photo/Laurence Berry

Only two members of the dominant Northland FC team have made final selection for higher honours.

Northern Football Federation has named its squad for this year's National Women's League, which kicks off on Sunday against Central Football in Palmerston North.

Northland FC standouts Nicole Stratford and Leah Botica are the ones who made it through the trials.

The current National Women's League Champions have had a change in coach from last season's campaign, with Korouch Monsef overseeing the technical staff which includes
Chris Acott, Sarah Bell and Ben Bate.

After an intensive identification and training process over the past weeks, the Northern Women's League Squad has been confirmed for the 2016 season.

Players from a number of our region's prominent clubs and a small number of developmental players from Northland's promotion winning team joined the training squad to gain valuable experience at this level.

With the first National Women's League match against Central Football only a week away, the Northern squad completed the last of their pre-season preparations with a friendly match against the New Zealand U-20 Women last Sunday 9.

Northern's Head Coach Monsef is very pleased with the focus and application of all the players which accepted the invitation to be part of the initial training squad.

"The region has a number of strong club's which will contribute to a very competitive Northern squad this year meaning we will certainly be aiming to defend our title" said Monsef.

Assistant Coach Chris Acott is also pleased with the progress the squad has made during pre-season and is looking forward to the first game of the season.

"With a number of players returning from the U-17 Women's World Cup to strengthen the squad further we believe we have found the right balance to allow the group to achieve both the team and individual goals this summer" said Acott

Northern Squad: Anna Leat (East Coast Bays FC), CJ Bott, Tessa Berger, Saskia Vosper, Malia Steinmetz, Sam Tawharu, Arabella Maynard, Aneka Mittendorff (Forrest Hill Milford), Nicole Stratford, Leah Botica (Northland FC), Claudia Bunge, Liz Milne, Emma Turnbull, Katie Rood, Stacey Hallford, Danya Stevens (Glenfield Rovers), Catherine Pretty, Libby Boobyer, Jane Barnett, Cara Lonergan, Vegas McCarroll (Norwest United), Kate Loye (unattached)