On October 6, 2000, at Bill McKinlay Park, I was watching Auckland’s first game while covering the Northern Region U-17 Women’s Soccer Tournament. Inside the first ten minutes of the match, against Thames Valley, I said to those alongside me on the balcony, "I’ve just seen the natural successor to Michele Cox". Cox’s skill, vision, passing prowess and all-round game made her unquestionably the finest midfielder of her generation, a fact not done justice to by national selectors over the course of a decade from 1988. Eighteen caps is all Cox has to show for her international career. Little wonder the former Frauen Bundesliga professional chose to quietly step away from top-flight football in 1999, after captaining Three Kings United to a then unprecedented National Women’s Knockout Cup "three-peat" and guiding Auckland to heights never scaled before nor since at that year’s National Women’s Tournament. Her departure left a sizable void in the New Zealand women’s game. It also presented a not inconsiderable problem - how do you replace the best player of a generation? Because there simply wasn’t anyone around who boasted that unique mix of craft, guile, flair and finesse which contributed greatly towards making Michele Cox the crème de la crème of NZ women’s football during the last fifteen years of the twentieth Century. So to the aforementioned date, and the moment when I knew I’d seen someone do something just a little bit special a la Coxy at her very best. I noted the number, and quickly scanned the programme listing what was to prove a highly talented Auckland U-17 squad. It was chock-full of future New Zealand senior and age-grade internationals - Kim Rowney, Hannah Rishworth, Tess Murphy, Priscilla Duncan, Amber Hearn, Melissa Ray, Rachel Doody, Saskia Bullen … 14, Hayley Moorwood. I’d seen her play before that year, most notably as a late substitute in Lynn-Avon United’s 6-0 romp over Wairarapa United in the National Women’s Knockout Cup Final, but this was the first time I’d seen Hayley on the pitch from the start of a game … suffice to say, Thames Valley weren’t the only ones on whom she made quite an impact that day! Nigh on a decade later, and nowadays a precociously talented 26-year-old national captain who has proven herself a natural successor to ‘Coxy’ as the pre-eminent midfielder of her generation, Hayley Moorwood stands on the threshold of another significant milestone in an already highly decorated career. When she leads the Football Ferns onto the field against Scotland at the Cyprus Cup on Tuesday morning, NZ time, she will become just the fourth player in the history of New Zealand women’s football - and the youngest - to make fifty appearances for her country. Maureen Jacobson was the first to achieve the milestone, against Australia on 14 October 1994, at the age of 33. Five months later, again against

Australia, 32-year-old Wendy Sharpe made her fiftieth and final appearance for her country, while Wendi Henderson’s footballing renaissance saw her clock up the fiftieth of her record 64 appearances for her country against China on 16 November, 2006, aged 35. Hayley is thrilled to be in such illustrious company, especially so soon after having first graced the world stage, in a goalscoring debut against Samoa on 7 April, 2003. "I knew I wanted to stick around for a while after making my debut, but I didn’t think I would make it to fifty caps so soon", she said, prior to the recent home series against Australia. "It is a huge achievement, and one that I am very proud of. To be classed in the same category as Wendi Henderson, Maureen Jacobson, and Wendy Sharpe, is a great honour". Just over two years after making her international debut, Hayley was entrusted with the captaincy of her country, aged just 21. The role is one she has grown into, both on and off the park, with the Scotland match marking the 28th time she has donned the armband no-one has worn more often. It’s a responsibility she greatly respects. "Every time I get to wear the silver fern, I feel proud to be a New Zealander. Every time I get to wear the armband with the silver fern, I feel honoured". When she does, she is at the heart of a vibrant young team which is on the threshold of making a significant statement on the world stage - victory over Scotland could well result in the Football Ferns progressing to the Cyprus Cup Final. That certainly fits in nicely with Hayley’s vision - "To be a confident, dominant, entertaining, winning team" - for a squad she is proud to be leading towards their twin objectives, the quarter-finals of both the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals and the 2012 Olympic Women’s Football Tournament. She is similarly focused where her own career is concerned. "My ambition is to play in the WPS (Women’s Professional Soccer) in the USA. This would mean playing against the world’s best players every week". That would indeed be a fitting international stage for "Coxy"’s natural successor to grace.