While some of her other New Zealand team mates had the advantage of coming up through well-established club teams, McGhie had to build a roster to play alongside and become competitive after the Rollers were established in 2010.
She is the sole local in the World Cup squad, with teammates coming from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and elsewhere, along with four expats living in Australia and Portland, USA respectively. McGhie had been chosen for the wider training group in January and attended a weekend training camp every month from April onwards.
"We had to do a whole range of things - from different skills, to strategy testing, everything."
The inaugural Roller Derby World Cup was in 2011 and McGhie said this year there will be 30 national teams taking part. "In comparison to the last one, it's doubled in size."
The Blood and Thunder organisation runs the event so the Kiwis do not yet know the exact tournament structure, but there will be games with two halves of 20 minutes as opposed to the regular 30 in order to get through more matchups.
"You just work your way through those pools over the first two days," said McGhie.
Also, unlike the domestic leagues, all 20 players suit up to play whether they are in the official 14-strong starting squad or not. In domestic competition, if one of the 14 players fouls out of the game or is injured, the team carries on with one short. Yet for the world cup the coach may bring in one of the six spare players to cover that loss or even replace someone performing badly. "Everyone may get game time within a game," said McGhie.
The New Zealand team flies out for Dallas on November 30.
