Black Sticks veteran Charlotte Harrison has been left out of the international team. Photo / Brett Phibbs
For the first time in a long period, there's no one called Harrison in the Black Sticks women's squad for the next year.
Northland sisters Charlotte and Samantha Harrison have racked up 183 and 93 caps respectively. However, 22-year-old Samantha made herself unavailable for the squad, and is playing in
Belgium at present.
Charlotte, two years older, an eight-year veteran of the team and with 50 goals among the alltime scoring leaders for New Zealand, has been omitted on form.
"Over the last 12 months we've felt the younger players have caught up and started to move in the right direction for us," New Zealand women's coach Mark Hager said yesterday. "Charlotte has plateaued a little and we believe it's time to give an opportunity to some of the other players."
Hager said she remains in the national development group and conceded she took the news hard, "as you'd expect. But you'd be disappointed if it didn't mean anything to them".
