All Whites striker Chris Wood. Photo / Photosport
All Whites striker Chris Wood is calling for a regular transtasman series in football, despite the complexities of the international match calendar.
The Newcastle United forward hopes the upcoming home and away fixtures will be the start of something, after a long drought.
Thursday's game in Brisbane (10pm) will be the first meeting with the Socceroos since 2011 and only the third encounter since 2005.
Whole generations of All Whites never got to feature in an Anzac battle and of the squad only Wood, Winston Reid and Michael Boxall have taken the field against the green and gold.
Wood, who featured in the last two matches (2010 in Melbourne and 2011 in Adelaide), feels that situation needs to change.
"It should be done on a more regular occasion," said Wood. "Every four years there should be a home and away competition or something like that - no matter what. It has been way too long since we have played Australia. It's something we should push for to make it happen in both our calendars going forward."
Wood added that the paucity of All Whites' match play in general needed to be addressed, with no games yet scheduled for November or next March.
"Going forward this squad needs to be playing consistent football," said Wood. "We need to make sure we are optimising every window that we have got."
Transtasman competition is taken for granted in other sports, particularly rugby and netball.
The All Blacks have faced the Wallabies 38 times since 2010, while across the same period the Silver Ferns and Australian Diamonds have crossed paths in more than 60 games.
Fixtures with the Socceroos used to be commonplace (16 matches in the 1980s; 10 in the 1990s) but have become rare since Australia's move to the Asian Football Confederation in 2006, while New Zealand stayed in Oceania.
This series has been arranged as a centenary celebration, commemorating the first clashes back in 1922 when New Zealand and Australia met in Dunedin (3-1), Wellington (1-1) and Auckland (3-1).
That's a compelling reason, but Wood wants more.
There is some hope on the horizon, as the relationship between the two federations has grown closer in recent years, particularly as a result of the successful joint Fifa Women's World Cup bid.
All Whites coach Danny Hay echoed Wood's views.
"There is something special about the chance to play against the Aussies," said Hay. "With them being in a different confederation that makes it quite difficult because their calendar is so full, but it would be fantastic for the game, particularly for New Zealand."
Wood has fond memories of the intense 2010 clash in Melbourne, a match sullied by the injury to Tim Brown that ruled him out of the subsequent Fifa World Cup.
"That was a very heated match and extremely good to be a part of it," said Wood. "We want this more and more, so then this feeling can come around a lot."
Like most of his teammates, Wood is battling jetlag and lack of training time, after only arriving in Brisbane on Monday evening, but is confident the All Whites (ranked 103rd by Fifa) can perform to their potential against the world No 39 ranked Socceroos.
"We are coming here to win the game and do extremely well, both home and away," said Wood. "We have the side capable of doing so. We know Australia are a good side – they are in the World Cup for a reason – but we are coming here to cause an upset."
Australia have won the previous four clashes (2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011) though three were by single-goal margins.
New Zealand last beat Australia in 2002 (1-0 at Mt Smart), while a Mark Burton goal provided a shock 1-0 result four years earlier, in the last encounter at Suncorp Stadium.
A crowd of up to 30,000 is expected, for the Socceroos last appearance on home soil before the World Cup.
All Whites v Australia matches
1970s: 8
1980s: 16
1990s: 10
2000s: 6
2010s: 2
All Whites v Socceroos 2022
Brisbane, Thursday 10pm
Auckland, Sunday 4pm