New Zealand’s Flag Football Ferns catch case of Olympic fever

Flag Ferns co-captain Sia Matai. Photo / Niko Meredith

Paris may be parked in the rear-view mirror, but Olympic fever remains in the air for members of the New Zealand women’s flag football team, ahead of their long road to Los Angeles 2028.

Flag football – making its Olympic debut in less than four years – is the five-a-side, non–contact and fast-paced younger sibling of the gridiron form.

Players wear two vinyl flags attached to their waist, with a “tackle” being made if a flag is removed.

The Flag Ferns – ranked 15th in the world – will compete at the World Championships in Finland, starting on Tuesday night. It’s a big step towards achieving the dream of many athletes.

“I think as soon as they dangled that carrot out there of letting us know that it will be in the Olympics [in] 2028, we’re watching the Paris Games with a different lens on, thinking, ‘wow, that could actually be us if we keep training and we keep growing our own game here,’” says co-captain Ellie McManaway.

The sport remains in its infancy for New Zealand women, with the first national club tournament taking place in 2020.

The Ferns finished third in the Asia-Oceania Championships in Malaysia last year in what was their first international tournament, helping them qualify for the World Cup.

“Any opportunity to play international sport is phenomenal and we’re unbelievably lucky to have the opportunity,” McManaway says.

“We hadn’t been exposed to any international games before, we’d just played a few games in San Diego last year against some club teams, but going over to Asia and seeing the quick, fast-paced game plan they had over there, especially Japan and their insane speed.

“I’m looking forward to Finland and seeing some other variations and styles of play and a lot of the teams that we’ll come up against will have a lot more experience than we do, so it’s about learning as we go each game.”

It will be all-European opposition in the group stages for the Kiwis, placed in a pool alongside Austria (ranked fifth in the world), Spain (sixth) and Switzerland (17th).

Their 11th-ranked male counterparts will tackle Panama (sixth), Czech Republic (22nd) and Korea (27th) early on.

Head coach Ethan Clark is doing his best to avoid getting carried away with the Olympics chat.

“It gets mentioned here and there. There’s a lot of hype around it, with the Olympics just being on,” Clark says.

“Heading into the world champs, everyone’s wary of international rankings, but for the most part, we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping our focus on the upcoming tournament.

“Once we get through that, then we can really look at where we’re placed and what our strengths and weaknesses are heading towards the Olympics.”

The Olympic module for flag football is yet to be released, but Clark wants his side to be in the best position when spots are up for grabs.

“If we manage to make the top seven, we automatically qualify for the World Games in China next year, so that would be a great step.”

Clark has high hopes for the sport in New Zealand.

“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had contact football for women before that, so we had a lot of players coming through that avenue.”

One of those players who has made the switch is fellow co-captain Sia Matai, an established gridiron player, before opting to swap her pads for the flags.

“It all started for me in 2017, crossing over from rugby to American football. I had my first game and literally fell in love with the sport.

“Then I started playing flag just after Covid and I really love the sport – there’s so many fundamentals to it and I love the experience as well.”

Matai admits playing in the Olympics may not be on her radar but hopes to still be involved in the game to guide the next generation of female athletes.

“It is nice to think ahead with the Olympics, but I’m more so thinking about the coaching side of things, not so much as a player.

“I think I’ll be a bit old by the time the next Olympics comes around, but we have a lot of youngsters that are interested and are willing to give flag football a go, so it’s an opportunity for us to pave the way for them.

“As a captain, it’s important to me to set the tone for my teammates to follow, to be compassionate, to embrace vulnerability and to help the youth and develop them to become leaders.”

For McManaway, flag football was another feather to her sporting cap.

“I’ve played netball, basketball, volleyball, cricket, rugby, everything in my time.

“A friend of mine played for the local American football club in Tauranga and suggested that I come along to a training, so I rocked up and they wanted to get a women’s team going. There were three of us that showed up to one training.”

McManaway was encouraged to trial for the national flag football team, despite having never played the game before.

“I went along and trialled terribly to be fair and I was pretty nervous, but it didn’t matter that you didn’t know all of the rules, it was more are you keen to get stuck in, are you coachable, do you have the basics skill-wise and the rest can flow on from there.”

McManaway hopes athletes from other codes can follow her path into flag football.

“The skills for flag football, we’re definitely going to look at poaching some netballers – agility and speed is really key for the sport.”

The Flag Ferns kick off their World Cup campaign against Austria on Tuesday night.

NZ Flag Ferns schedule (all NZT)

Game 1: v Austria, Tuesday 27th August, 8.45pm

Game 2: v Spain, Wednesday 28th August, 4.15am

Game 3: v Switzerland, Wednesday 28th August, 8.45pm