WANGANUI Athletic women's coach Dave Downes will be lobbying Central Football to bring the Federation Cup final to town after his girls did the business with a 5-0 win in Sunday's semifinal over Palmerston North Marist.
And he wants to go big with the marquee women's match by having it on the Cooks Gardens turf in September.
The undefeated Wanganui Athletic booked their place in the Cup final with a strong second quarter at Wembley Park, where despite the drizzling rain conditions accurate cross kicks opened up the visitors for three straight goals.
Play really bogged down in the fourth quarter for both teams, but by then the job was done.
In the other semifinal, Taranaki's Moturoa disposed of Manawatu's North End 6-0, so Downes will now start the campaign for his team to host the Cup final.
Athletic treats Cooks Gardens as their second home after Wembley Park as they train under lights there, and Downes said they would love to bring "something different" to the town's major sports ground.
"I'm just going to send an email out and see what they say.
"If we get a home final, fantastic, but it's in the hands of Central."
Much will depend on fitting the game around the Pink Batts Heartland Championship rugby campaign, although Steelform Wanganui will be playing away games on the September 14 and 28 weekends.
At Wembley on Sunday, PN Marist were steadfast in the opening exchanges but had their hands full with Wanganui's German connection as Ella Wiebe and Tanja Grunworld were able to open them up on either side.
Marist were forced to cover in numbers so were left with forwards like Anna Francis and Brianna Sutherland trying to go alone on breakaways, which didn't work with Wanganui defender Sheena Kahl up to the task.
"Their midfield tends to drop and ends up being in the backline," said Downes.
"Up front, [Wiebe and Grunworld] are the two most experienced players and they create havoc and it lets the others like Jordy [Kahl] and Vanya [Hodgkinson] come forward.
"The girls, once they get one goal they get a sniff."
Indeed, Kahl is likely to remember the two first half goals she scored but for mostly bemusing reasons.
Facing plenty of defenders, Wiebe, Grunworld and Hodgkinson found the best tactics were cross kicks and one Wiebe strike found Kahl's cheekbone for a most ungraceful, but effective, header goal.
"Jordy one of our most vertically challenged players in our team, but she got up there and challenged," laughed Downes.
Wiebe would show her how to do it properly from a Grunworld pass, then Kahl couldn't believe her luck as she put up a seemingly harmless lob kick, only to watch the Marist keeper make a hash of it for a 3-0 lead at the break.
In the second stanza, Hodgkinson would score from a penalty corner and then Grunworld, perturbed that Wiebe is the one always getting on the goalsheet, finally added her name to the tally.
Downes said the weather made the final 20 minutes nothing to write home about for either team.
As well as the Cup, Athletic has three more games remaining in the Manawatu league's Top 4 and are sitting well on top with their undefeated record.