"The time has come, the walrus said, to speak of many things: Of shoes, and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings". That famous phrase from Lewis Carroll's signature poem, "The Walrus And The Carpenter", is rather fitting for New Zealand's Football Ferns at this moment in time, given the aftermath of another Women's World Cup Finals campaign which promised plenty but ultimately ended once more in disappointment, yet another failure on the world stage uppermost in the thoughts of many. The Football Ferns have reached the crossroads, their very own Royal Oak Roundabout, one of the country's most challenging intersections. For the best part of fifteen years now, the national side has been formed around a core group of players who first came together in 2006 as the Junior Ferns and conquered all before them in Samoa before going on to contest the finals in Russia, losing narrowly to the host nation before drawing with Brazil at that event. The promise of those inaugural finals, allied to a strong showing - a loss, a win and a desperately unlucky draw - at the Chile U-20 Finals two years later suggested that there would be plenty to look forward to in the years to come at senior level with this group of players, especially given they'd be combined with the cream of the senior crop who had served the nation well throughout the bulk of the decade. The first hint of that promise at senior level came at the 2007 Women's World Cup Finals. In front of 55,832 fans - the biggest crowd a NZ women's team had ever played in front of - and with Chinese Army helicopters circling overhead throughout the match, holding host nation China scoreless for 56 minutes in Tianjin before going down 2-0 was quite a feat at this early stage of the team's development. The next hint came at the 2008 Peace Queen Cup, via a win over Argentina - our first triumph over non-Oceania opposition for twelve years. This was soon followed by a draw with Japan at the Beijing Olympics, and fourth and second placings at the 2009 and 2010 Cyprus Women's Cup, with second our lot at the 2011 Matchworld Cup as well. Narrow losses to Japan and England, followed by a draw with Mexico, left us wondering what might have been at Germany 2011, especially when a win over Cameroon at the 2012 Olympics propelled the Football Ferns into the quarter-finals, the first New Zealand team to reach that stage of a senior level FIFA tournament. 2013 saw great feats realised - draws with Australia, Japan and the USA, a third placing at the Cyprus Cup, and victory in the Valais Women's Cup, with victories over Brazil and China achieved in the shadows of the Swiss Alps. Since then, however, the Football Ferns haven't moved forward, unlike other nations. Luck wasn't on our side at Canada 2015, where draws with the hosts and China meant our opening loss to Holland, who would go on to win Euro 2017, meant progressing out of our group at the Women's World Cup Finals was a target not met. A fourth placing at the Algarve Cup was as good as it got in 2016, when drawn in an Olympics group alongside reigning world champions the USA and the hosts of France 2019 - that's one "group of death" from which we were never likely to progress, and so it proved. Following this, of course, the Football Ferns encountered their personalised version of the San Andreas Fault - emphasis on the last two words, and the upheavals arising from the tremors prompted by that particularly unpleasant episode in our recent history are still impacting on the game over eighteen months afterwards. There are only two top-level coaches in the women's game boasting the necessary knowledge and experience to get a team back on an even keel following the sort of upheavals endured by the Football Ferns, one of whom, Pia Sundhage, has now retired, but proved her suitability to such a situation by getting the USA back on track ahead of the 2008 Olympics, which they went on to win. The other is Tom Sermanni, whose coaching pedigree in the women's game is par excellence, his CV including stints with Australia and the USA. Through those ties with two of our more regular opponents, he already had a fair idea of the Football Ferns' players, thus when appointed to the post by NZ Football, could hit the ground running in an effort to sort out the issues arising from Herr Heraf's shortcomings. What he was faced with upon taking over the team ahead of the Oceania Women's World Cup / Olympic Women's Football Tournament qualifying event was a group of players whose trust and confidence had been compromised by the actions of his predecessor. Therefore, re-establishing those attributes, along with a sense of order and calm, were the priorities. Fast forward eight months, during which time the Football Ferns have played some seventeen matches under Sermanni's watch, including wins over Argentina, Norway and England, and losses to the USA, Korea Republic, and the old enemy across the pond - twenty-five years on from last doing so, will we ever beat Australia again? There were three other losses in that sequence of matches, however, inarguably the three games which mattered most of all - those which took place in Le Havre, Grenoble and Montpellier at France 2019. Against Holland, the Football Ferns played to the level expected of them, and on another day could well have scored on three occasions. Instead, they went down to a stoppage time strike, a 1-0 loss which was tough to take, but tolerable - they certainly hadn't disgraced themselves in defeat. Which wasn't the situation after their next match, make no mistake! Canada's 2-0 win flattered the Football Ferns, no question, because the Canadians found themselves playing a team which was a shadow of their usual selves, and there is no hiding from that fact, nor this one - we didn't even compete. In a World Cup Finals fixture. GRRRRRR … So to the clash with Cameroon, where a Football Ferns win would have earned them a place in the last sixteen - the team's long-touted target from the very outset of this campaign. But while there was a notable improvement on the Canada performance - let's be honest, merely raising a finger would have satisfied that requirement! - it still wasn't good enough to achieve the objective of finally winning a game at the Women's World Cup Finals. Instead, a 2-1 loss - in which Cameroon scored all three goals - condemned the Football Ferns to twentieth place at France 2019, an early flight home and the unwelcome prospect of another heated discussion over funding requirements for Tokyo 2020 with High Performance Sport, who, it must be said, have certainly aided the cause in recent years, despite results not being all that they could be. It's results and performances on which the Football Ferns are judged, however, and their efforts at France 2019 were, to be blunt, much worse than anticipated. To head home from the game's quadrennial celebration of the women's game with no points to their name for the first time since China 2007 - when one point would have been as good as a win, such were our circumstances at the time - was hugely disappointing. And the onus, on this occasion, falls largely on the players. They under-performed. To his credit, Tom Sermanni has done what was asked of him - right the ship; get SS "Football Ferns" back on an even keel and sailing to windward once more. And he's clearly enjoying the task, because he's been given an extension on his contract to take the team through to the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics next August. But he'll be as frustrated as this writer and doubtless many readers by the fact those whom he charged with rising to the challenge of "walking the

talk" - delivering on that desire to go beyond the group stages of the Women's World Cup Finals for the first time ever - ultimately failed to do so, particularly against Canada and Cameroon, the latter opponents we were well capable of beating, but didn't. It would be very easy to point to the Andreas Heraf chapter as the prime reason for our failure at France 2019. But that is far too simplistic - the problems are far more deep-rooted than that. Thirteen members of the squad which went to France this year were in our 2011 Women's World Cup Finals selection in Germany. Indeed, four of them came out of retirement to be in contention for this year's squad, and were duly called upon to serve the cause. Which rings the first alarm bell - if four players can come out of retirement and be selected for a World Cup squad, what's happened to their potential successors since they originally called time on their Football Ferns' careers? For that, a few former employees at NZ Football need to take responsibility. Whoever introduced the practice of sending letters to age-grade internationals following their participation at age-grade Women's World Cup Finals advising that an international future for said individuals was no longer envisaged, i.e. we don't see you as a future Football Fern … this is not being made up! With this in mind, have you noticed how few "mature" players, i.e. those in their mid-twenties and older, are playing Premier Women's League club football these days? Or National Women's League football, for that matter? No matter your age, you should always harbour hope - no matter how remote - that your chance to represent your country or your federation will come. No one should be "past it" at 23! Our code is too small both playing numbers-wise and resources-wise to be able to kill off players' ambitions, particularly in the aforementioned manner. Those resources, however, particularly in terms of elite coaches, are limited, and it means that relocation to Auckland, where the NZ women's football elite coaching programme is based, needs to be a serious consideration for those players from south of the Bombay Hills who harbour hopes of sporting the silver fern on their chest while kicking a ball in anger. For those reluctant to do so, it shouldn't be a reason for NZF to ignore/overlook their claims to represent their country on the world stage, although it must be said those outside Auckland who opt to stay close to home rather than base themselves in the city which is NZ's home of women's football aren't aiding their cause greatly. Having our elite home-based players from all around the country based in Auckland and regularly training and playing together under the candlesticks on North Harbour Stadium's outer fields was a critical element of the Football Ferns' development from 2006 right through until what was arguably their peak year, 2013. Since that time, given the majority of the senior squad had earned contracts overseas, those sessions were put on ice for a period, but have now been revived in the form of the Future Ferns Development Programme (FFDP), a set-up which is almost entirely comprised of players based in the northern region, a handful of whom have already secured contracts to play abroad, most notably in Germany and Norway. The FFDP, as the name suggests, channels resources towards developing the next generation of Football Ferns, controversially taking those selected out of their club environment and into a concentrated coaching environment, much in the mould of the programme referred to two paragraphs ago. The FFDP squad's games against U-17 boys squads kick off at 1pm on Sundays, which is the same time play gets under way in the country's strongest women's club-based league competition, the Lotto Northern Premier Women's League (NPWL). Why the FFDP matches can't take place on Thursday nights, thus freeing up the elite squad players to return to their clubs and play for them on Sundays, escapes my logic. To my mind, the FFDP and the NPWL should be working in conjunction with each other, so the players - not only the elite group - enjoy the benefits of both worlds. Surely the presence of the FFDP players in the NPWL each week would benefit both team-mates and opponents at that level, players who would get to test themselves alongside and against those receiving the intensified levels of elite coaching which the FFDP players enjoy. Premier Women's League football should be, and be regarded as, an elite level of competition - a finishing school, if you like - in which the cream of the local crop can test themselves against their peers, week in, week out. The elite performers among these players can graduate from here to the next levels of the game, while those who aren't quite at that level, age regardless, should still be able to compete and enjoy their football at the highest level available to them, while still having the chance to reach for the stars. What it should not be, or become, is a development league, in which - as happens in some areas of the country - five substitutes per game are permitted, and often played, while those players above a certain age are made to feel that their face no longer fits, and they're wasting their time - and that of others - playing at this level. What is outlined above isn't rocket science. After all, almost to a woman, the current crop of Football Ferns spent time playing in our local Premier Women's Leagues at some stage early in their careers. It clearly worked for them, given a fair few of them are now playing in some of the world's top women's leagues. But that supply line from our local top-level competitions to our country's elite representative side has definitely dried up in recent times, with the Football Ferns being widely regarded as something of a "closed shop" by the football fraternity, an impression which having thirteen players from the 2011 Finals in our 2019 squad merely underlines. Some of the reasons why have been outlined above. There are others, such as the practice of fitting square pegs in round holes, an example of the current squad being Steph Skilton. Through her developmental and early senior years, she was a striker with a nose for goals - the second highest scorer in Glenfield Rovers' history, no less. Until it was decided that she would better serve the national cause as a defender … To her credit, she's made as good a fist of it as she can. But you don't need to be Einstein to know she'd far rather be - and is better suited to - scoring goals than stopping them! Another case of like ilk is Hannah Wall, unquestionably one of the most exciting talents to have emerged on the NZ women's football scene so far this century. A naturally attack-minded player who operates on instinct - not someone you shoe-horn into a wing-back role and expect to defend first and foremost! That was what was expected of her at national level, however. Little wonder she has retired prematurely from playing the game she loves - not being able to represent her country in the manner she regularly performed at at both club and at National Women's League level was doubtless a contributing factor to that decision. Then there's the lure of the US scholarship, which in reality is a minefield negotiated only by the very best of the best. How many NZ-sourced players have gone on to greater things football-wise having left these shores with that scholarly incentive as their inspiration? The answer is very few indeed. Most head north-east with big dreams and promising football careers ahead of them, yet you rarely see them playing the game they left these shores with such love for again. Or if you do, certainly not to the level one would

expect of them. There must be something in the water over there … In other words, it's not an avenue down which many should travel. It might be great from an education perspective, but football-wise, the pitfalls to be had are plentiful, the prospects of success far less so. Don't be fooled by the hype! As the likes of Martine Puketapu can testify following her recent adverse experiences which have prompted her premature retirement from football, it's not like it says on the tin! As well as these issues which are hampering our collective progress, the old selection chestnut can't be overlooked either. Everyone will have their own opinion on who should and shouldn't be in any given squad, as is their right, but ultimately it's the coach's prerogative, and there are things besides form which influence the make-up of a squad, rightly or wrongly. New Zealand is well served for goalkeepers at present, which is somewhat in keeping with our defence-focused mindset - we are well catered for in this regard, that's for sure! There is still scope for adding to the mix, however. Emily Jensen and Laura Merrin instantly spring to mind, while Claudia Bunge, Mikaela Hunt and Saskia Vosper should also be considered sooner rather than later at senior level. It's at the other end of the park where we have some serious concerns. If one ignores the Oceania qualification ties, matches in which we should dip our bread regardless, the Football Ferns have scored just 17 goals in 21 internationals since the 2016 Olympics, five of them in one match. Excluding that 5-0 win over Thailand, in which Katie Bowen, Amber Hearn, Annalie Longo and Ria Percival (2) scored, our goalscoring roll of honour reads: Hearn and Rosie White (2-3 Scotland) White (2) and Jasmine Pereira (3-1 Hungary) Hannah Wilkinson (1-3 USA) Meikayla Moore (1-3 Japan) Catherine Bott and Katie Rood (2-0 Argentina) White (1-0 Norway) Sarah Gregorius (1-0 England) a Cameroon "oggie" (1-2 in France). Against Austria, Korea Republic (twice), Scotland (twice), Team USA (twice), Thailand, Australia, Wales, Holland and Canada, we haven't troubled the scoreboard operator, although we did go close on a few occasions in some of those games. What's happened to our supply lines? Wherefore art our finishers? Of the names mentioned above, Pereira is another who has retired prematurely, Wilkinson is coming back from the dreaded ACL injury, Hearn unsuccessfully tried a non-surgical ACL recovery, while Moore was injured just prior to and Bott during France 2019, a tournament for which Rood was overlooked. There's no denying we need a goalscorer to take over the mantle from Hearn, the most prolific striker in NZ women's football history with 54 goals in 125 internationals, and Wendy Sharpe, the striker she succeeded in that regard. Rood, Emma Rolston and Aimee Phillips know where the net is. So, too, Jade Parris and Tessa Leong, two young strikers in the NPWL who I've no doubt would blossom in the Football Ferns environment. So it's not that there aren't options - they just need to be entrusted with the task, and given a run of games to prove themselves fit for purpose. It's the supply line which requires closer attention still. For the best part of thirty years, New Zealand has been well served by three fine playmakers. Maureen Jacobson and Michele Cox were hugely influential in this role throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Just as the latter's career drew to a close, Hayley Moorwood (later Bowden) emerged on the scene to carry the creative torch well into the 21st Century. Sadly, the Football Ferns haven't really replaced her since her injury-prompted retirement prior to the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals. No surprise there - Jacobson, Cox and Bowden will always be hard acts to follow. It's also no coincidence that "Football Ferns nil" has become an oft-repeated portion of a scoreline since that creative element of our game has disappeared - it's become far easier for our opponents to counteract our game plan and restrict us to scoring via set-pieces or the somewhat primitive and guileless "hit and hope" approach. Who out there could fill this void, a role not easily occupied? For it requires vision, flair, "X factor", all things which, let's be honest, aren't exactly encouraged in a senior environment in which caution has become something of a watchword in recent times. (Hence so many defence-oriented personnel). Wall would have been a strong contender for the playmaker role in the Football Ferns, but in her absence, what about the likes of Kate Loye, Briar Palmer or Shontelle Smith? A few dark horses in there, I'm sure you'll agree, but exactly the type of players necessary to rid the Football Ferns of the modish straitjacket by which they seem bound at present, and get them playing in a far less predictable and more flamboyant fashion than is currently the case. Look at the teams which reached the FIFA Women's World Cup quarter-finals as evidence of how we should be looking to play the game. Every single one of them has someone in their starting line-up well capable of influencing proceedings via their spontaneity - Kosovare Asllani (Sweden), Amandine Henry (France), Lieke Martens (Holland) and Megan Rapinoe (USA) are four who instantly spring to mind. New Zealand needs to follow the lead being shown us by these nations and others. If we aspire to reach those levels, we need to change what we're doing, 'cause it clearly ain't working on the evidence of France 2019, never mind beforehand. It's not wholesale changes that are required, though. Just prudent pruning of the apple tree to make it blossom again. Part of that pruning will see some of those who've served our cause so well over many years needing to consider their long-term futures at international level and, resultingly, call time on their distinguished Football Ferns careers before Tokyo 2020. It's not for me to name names - I've always maintained that those who serve a cause for lengthy periods, be it in sport or employment, should be allowed to bow out on their own terms - but let's just say it wouldn't be in the Football Ferns' best interests if all thirteen 2011 veterans are still in contention for Olympic selection this time next year. "It seems a shame", the Walrus said, "to play them such a trick, after we've brought them out so far, and made them trot so quick!" Changes are necessary, however, both in terms of personnel and our style of play. Over to you, Tom Sermanni! The Young Ferns showed that all is not doom and gloom, of course, capturing the imagination of the nation at Uruguay 2018 via an effervescent brand of football which led them to an unprecedented third placing at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Finals. It'll be a few years before those players boast the necessary experience to shine at senior level, however. Meantime, the Football Ferns need a quick fix in order to recover at least some of the ground we have to make up in global terms ahead of next year's Olympics. The evidence has been there for all to see at France 2019 of the path down which we much travel to get things back on track, something which Holland and the USA, two of the teams to whom we've lost in our last six internationals, will underline when contesting the FIFA Women's World Cup Final, the game's holy grail to which we can only aspire for now.