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History
The WSANZ Knockout Cup has been contested since 1994, and is women's soccer's national club knockout competition, which effectively determines the premier women's soccer club in the country.
Because of New Zealand's geographic spread, the competition has, to date, been played on a regionalised basis right up to the final. Two Northern Region teams play each other in one semi-final, while the Central Region winner plays their equivalent from the Southern Region in the other semi.
The final is played on a weekend in September, usually as part of a double-header, with the Chatham Cup Final, the equivalent competition for men's club teams in New Zealand, following it, as part of the traditional ending to the New Zealand soccer season.
Because the strength of the game in New Zealand lies very much in the Northern Region, this part of the country has largely dominated the competition to date, but the only team from the area to enter the competition in its inaugural season was Waikato Unicol.
The inaugural tie saw Halswell United down New Brighton 2-0 on 12 June, 1994, while the final took place at Christchurch's English Park on 11 September, and saw local team Nomads United emerge as the first winners, beating Unicol on penalties after a scoreless final.
The following year would see the Waikato club pick up the silverware, before the start of the Auckland-based dominance, initially at the expense of Wellington club Petone.
In four consecutive finals from 1995, they were the beaten finalists. Come 1999, however, the capital’s leading club team was beaten in the quarter-finals by Wairarapa United, who subsequently succeeded Petone in the role of competition bridesmaids.
Lynn-Avon United were the first team from the Queen City to win the cup, their 1996 triumph emulated a year later by Three Kings United, who went on to retain the most prestigious honour in New Zealand women's club soccer in 1998, and recorded a "three-peat" in 1999.
The trophy returned to Lynn-Avon’s cabinet at the end of the 2000 season, as they notched a record cup final victory, 6-0 over Wairarapa United at North Harbour Stadium.
SWANZ international Amanda Crawford became the third player to score a hat-trick in the final in that match, following in the footsteps of Three Kings’ Beth Clark and Petone’s Maureen Jacobson, who both achieved the feat in the 1997 extravaganza, the only year the WSANZ Knockout Cup Final has featured on television, in the form of a ten-minute highlights package shown a fortnight after the event.
In 2001, Lynn-Avon’s grip on the trophy was prised loose by Ellerslie. In the first all-Auckland final, following the move to make the semi-finals an open draw affair in light of the one-sidedness of the showpiece of the previous season, the debutant finalists upset the holders 1-0.
The only two-time winner of the final’s Most Valuable Player honour until the 2007 event, Maia Jackman, collected a then unprecedented fourth winner’s medal from as many appearances in the final of the competition with this result, having been a member of Lynn-Avon’s first cup-winning side in 1996, before helping Three Kings to victory in both the 1998 and 1999 finals.
The 2002 affair was a cracking contest, again featuring Ellerslie and Lynn-Avon. This time, it was United's turn to savour the silverware, for the third time in the competition's history, after one of the best scoreless draws you could wish to see. United won 5-3 on penalties, with both finalists going through the entire competition without conceding a goal.
A year on, and the pair traded blows once more, but this was the most one-sided contest of the final trilogy, with Lynn-Avon completely dominating their opponents. 4-1 could easily have been an awful lot more, but as it was, Sara Clapham bagged a hat-trick for the winners, on a day when only three Ellerslie players truly did justice to the shirt, compared with all eleven members of the cup winners, who claimed the trophy for a record fourth time with this win.
The 2004 final saw the clash of the clubs who had won the cup most often in its history, with Lynn-Avon aiming to repeat the "three-peat" achievement of Three Kings United by downing them in the final. They prevailed 1-0 in a battle royal, a dubious Rebecca Parkinson penalty separating the sides, and leaving Lynn-Avon as five-time winners of the cup.
A year on, and the juggernaut which is Lynn-Avon made it four consecutive cup wins, a brace of goals from Michele Keinzley clinching a 2-0 win over Eastern Suburbs, who were making their maiden Uncle Toby's Women's Knockout Cup Final appearance.
That was also the case for Western Springs in the 2006 final, in just their second season of senior level women's football. They more than matched Lynn-Avon throughout the first forty-five minutes, but the perennial winners changed gears in the second half to win the cup for the fifth straight year with this 3-0 triumph.
A year later, Springs were back, a year older and with a sprinkling of experienced players in their ranks, who helped them to overcome maiden finalists Glenfield Rovers 2-1 in the first final not to be played on neutral territory - Western Springs had home advantage.
Cup Final MVP Nicky Smith won the award for a second time thanks to her two-goal haul, while Maia Jackman equalled Terry McCahill's record of eight cup final appearances, and set a record which is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon, Western Springs being the fourth club with which she has won the trophy.
Terry McCahill and Lynn-Avon set another record in 2008, as eight-time winners of the competition. Western, the first South Island finalists since fellow Christchurch club Nomads United won the cup in 1994, copped a 6-2 hiding from the nine-time finalists.
A year later, the margin of victory was the same, as were the victors, Lynn-Avon downing first-time finalists Claudelands Rovers 5-1, led by two-goal heroine Amber Hearn and MVP Katie Hoyle.
Claudelands were back again in 2010, and together with Three Kings United they served up a storm - a breathtaking final which saw
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National Women's Knockout Cup
Biggest Scorelines (15 goals +)
 The National Women's Knockout Cup MVP Trophy,
retitled the Maia Jackman Trophy from 2012
Cup Final Venues (Auckland unless stated)
Leading Markswomen
an incomplete record, based on available records
as at the end of the 2024 season
Most Successful Clubs
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Rovers prevail 5-4 after extra time, three of the victors' goals coming from MVP Olivia Chance.
Another new name graced the trophy in 2011, as Glenfield Rovers proved too strong for Christchurch side Coastal Spirit, 3-0 the outcome.
But the holders were ousted by Three Kings in 2012, and after a thirteen-year hiatus, they finally got their hands on the Cup again, fifteen-year-old Martine Puketapu scoring both goals as they prevailed 2-0 over Massey University.
In 2013, a repeat of the 2011 final was seen, this time in Christchurch, the host venue of the inaugural final. But the result was markedly different, Coastal Spirit delighting the locals with a last-gasp winner to edge Glenfield 1-0.
That defeat served as a massive spur for Rovers, who came from behind to down Forrest Hill-Milford United 3-2 in the 2014 "North Harbour Derby" final, the tie decided by the second successive Cup Final own goal, with United's Emma Rolston and MVP winner Katie Rood each scoring twice.
One year on, and Glenfield retained the trophy, comfortably accounting for Massey University 4-0 in a final which saw three of the goals emanating from Estelle Harrison corners, the first of them seeing the taker scoring direct from her set-piece delivery.
They were denied a 'three-peat' in 2016, however, Tessa Berger leading her Forrest Hill-Milford United team to a penalty shoot-out triumph over their near neighbours, avenging the 2014 Glenfield inflicted on "The Swans".
This time round, the teams shared four goals, Berger's thirty-five yard snorter turning the tide United's way, with their captain going on to claim the Maia Jackman Trophy in the first women's final to be televised live in New Zealand.
Berger was on target again in the 2017 final, this time for Glenfield as they came from behind to down Eastern Suburbs 5-4 in a televised thriller at North Harbour Stadium.
Rovers hit the crossbar four times, while Georgia Brown and Dayna Stevens both struck twice for the Kate Loye-inspired victors, with youngster Hannah Pilley bagging a brace for the vanquished, who felt the absence of key attacking personnel far more than their conquerors did their first-choice goalkeeper.
The 2018 season sees the Cup being contested for the 25th time. How it has grown from its fledgling days in the mid-nineties, when there was next to no media coverage of the event initially - it really was a case of 'need to know' in th first couple of years of the cup's existence!
To mark the Silver Jubilee, the trophy took its first trip to the deep south, with Dunedin Technical taking the trophy home after handing Forrest Hill-Milford United a 4-2 hiding - but for the crossbar, it could have been six!
The southerners bossed the game from the outset, with Mikayla Gray heading home two Shontelle Smith free-kicks, while a splendid solo goal from Lara Wall was supplemented by an Emily Morison strike on a day Jane Barnett's brace of goals wasn't enough to earn a second triumph in three years for "The Swans".
The trophy returned north in 2019, as Eastern Suburbs, runners-up two years earlier and three times the bridesmaids in the last three Lotto Northern Premier Women's Leagues, dominated Coastal Spirit 4-0 in the final to clinch the first league-and-cup double since 2011.
Hannah Pilley and Tayla O'Brien struck twice apiece, with the latter sharing the Maia Jackman Trophy with Erinna Wong - the first time the MVP award has recognised the efforts of two players in the game's showpiece fixture.
The coronavirus pandemic which swept the world prompted NZ Football to cancel the competition in 2020, and while it resumed in 2021 - with a record 57 teams taking part, and the record scoreline being equalled when Marist Palmerston North hammered Upper Hutt City 20-0, further Covid-19-related issues meant the final didn't take place until the final weekend of March 2022.
Somewhat appropriately in these topsy-turvy times, the formbook was torn asunder, with no Auckland team reaching the final for the first time since 1995! Instead, two first-time finalists had their day in the sun, and it was an Emma Main-inspired Wellington United who brought the cup to the capital for the first time ever after overcoming Hamilton Wanderers 1-0 in a hard-fought encounter.
Wellington's grip on the trophy was short-lived, to put it mildly. Within six months, the 2022 final took place, and saw Auckland United, formerly known as Three Kings United, clinch the trophy for a fifth time, edging Northern Rovers 1-0 in a tight, tense affair - a proper final between two well-matched teams.
Martine Puketapu and Katie Duncan both came out of retirement during the season to bolster United's ranks, and were rewarded with the winning goal - ten years after bagging a brace in the 2012 final - and the Maia Jackman Trophy - for the second time, her first win coming in 2009 - respectively.
The win denied Northern the league and cup double, and a shot at a till now unprecedented treble, with the top four teams in the Northern Premier Women's League now contesting the National Women's League, along with the four federation teams from south of Taupo.
The defeat was especially tough to take for Chelsea Elliott and Michaela Foster, who were on the beaten side in successive finals in the same year, having endured disappointment in Hamilton's loss in March.
2023 saw one of the handles come off the trophy in the post-match celebrations as Western Springs overcame Wellington 2-1, the winner scored by fifteen-year-old Ela Jerez, the youngest Cup Final goalscorer in the competition's history.
The winners of the past two finals met in the 2024 affair, and as the game entered eleven minutes of stoppage time, Charlotte Roche rifled home a 25-yarder to win the Cup for Auckland United, in doing so making them the first club to hold all four senior honours available in the NZ women's game - the OFC Women's Champions League trophy, the National Women's League trophy, the Kate Sheppard Cup and their regional league title.
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