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Elaine Lee
Vale Elaine Collins (nee Lee)
by Jeremy Ruane
New Zealand women's football is in mourning at present following the death of one of the members of the 1975 Asian Cup-winning squad, the first women's football team to represent the nation on the world stage.
Elaine Collins, known as Elaine Lee in her playing days, died on November 14 after being diagnosed with a rare and terminal brain cancer in July this year. She was 67.
Born in May, 1957, in Bromborough, a town on the Wirral which forms the western bank of the River Mersey, she emigrated to Auckland with her family in 1971, taking up residence in Epsom and attending Onehunga High School.
Elaine's involvement in football started with her kicking the ball around with her brother, Stephen, who joined the Blockhouse Bay Soccer Club in 1972. His sister followed suit the following year, and was a member of the club's first women's team, winning the Northern Premier Women's League and Auckland Women's Knockout Shield double with Bay in 1974.
She was also a member of the first Auckland women's team, wearing the number six shirt in their first-ever home game against Wellington at Newmarket Park on Sunday, September 30, 1973. The teams had clashed in the capital three weeks prior in the country's inaugural interprovincial women's fixture.
Her brief profile in the Auckland Soccer Weekly programme covering that encounter reads: "Elaine Lee, link. Aged 16. Elaine is a delicatessen assistant. A recent arrival from England, with a real peaches and cream complexion, Elaine plays for
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Blockhouse Bay, and is a strong defence or attack player".
She went on to score 29 goals in her 26 games for Auckland between 1973 and 1979, while in 1975, she was named in the inaugural New Zealand women's squad which was invited to compete in the Asian Cup in August-September that year.
Elaine had the distinction of being New Zealand's first substitute when she entered the fray against Hong Kong in the team's inaugural fixture on August 25, and in the 59th minute scored her only goal for her country in what proved to be her lone appearance - Football Fern #12.
After returning home, she transferred to Eastern Suburbs, and won multiple league titles and Knockout Shields with "The Lilywhites" throughout the remainder of the decade, before retiring from football in her early twenties in order to have a family with her husband, Tony Collins, to whom she was married for over forty years.
Three children - who for many years didn't know about their mother's footballing history - and what will soon be a football team of grandchildren are the familial legacy of that happy union.
One of Elaine's proudest moments was receiving her New Zealand cap in 2023, some 48 years after earning it, when NZ Football took the opportunity - presented to them by co-hosting the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals - to recognise the contributions made to the code by all those who had previously represented the country on the world stage.
Elaine Collins (nee Lee), Football Fern #12. May she rest in peace.
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