Wendi Henderson sploshing her way through the Taiwanese defence in the 1989 Oceania Cup Final in Brisbane ... and they call it the Sunshine State? The end of an era in New Zealand women’s soccer is nigh following the announcement of her retirement from playing by SWANZ legend Wendi Henderson on October 12. Her decision means that of the New Zealand representatives who took the field during the inaugural Women’s World Cup Finals in China in 1991, just one, Terry McCahill, is still playing the game at the highest level available to her. It was somehow fitting that Henderson chose to announce her retirement from the playing side of the game on this particular weekend for two reasons. For it was a weekend which saw the Wellington representatives she coaches score a deserved 1-0 victory over arch-rivals Auckland, a side captained by McCahill. And there is a certain irony in the curtain coming down on the fourth Women’s World Cup Finals this weekend, for it is at that tournament that Henderson would almost certainly have recorded her fiftieth appearance for New Zealand had the SWANZ qualified for it. So what prompted her decision? "Really, where I’m at in soccer right now. The time’s right for me to pass on the baton to the next generation, although in saying that, neither a recent achilles tendon injury, nor an ankle injury incurred during the recovery process, have helped my cause. "But the game’s been really good to me, and I’ve got some fantastic memories from it, such as the Women’s World Invitational Tournament in Taiwan in 1987, when we finished second-equal. I made my SWANZ debut as a substitute against Hawaii on the opening day of the tournament. "Following on from that, winning the Oceania qualifying tournament for the 1991 Women’s World Cup Finals is, without question, one of my greatest

memories. And it should go without saying, the finals themselves! "Domestically, winning the National Tournament for the first time in 1994 was a fantastic achievement, and repeating the dose seven years later, in the very last National Tournament, this time as player-coach, was special as well". "Weed", as she is known game-wide in New Zealand, has hinted that she might have one last run before finally calling it a day, in Wellington’s final match in this season’s National Women’s Soccer League, on November 2 at Bell Park, Lower Hutt. Meantime, the 32-year-old, who has represented either Wellington or Wairarapa without fail since 1986, finishes her career having accrued any number of league and cup winners’ medals at club level during her years at Miramar Rangers, Petone, Wairarapa United and Seatoun, not to mention four runners-up medals in the Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup. As well, the two-time New Zealand Players’ Player of the Year - in 1996 and 1999 - also won the country’s Player of the Year award in the latter campaign, but to best represent the impact Henderson’s retirement will have on New Zealand women’s soccer, it is appropriate to recap her achievements in the number nine jersey of her country. She is currently the national team’s fourth most prolific markswoman, with fourteen goals to her name, and has concluded her career as the third most-capped SWANZ international in history, just two shy of the magic fifty mark. The significance of her 48-cap tally can be put into context when one considers that New Zealand has only played ninety-seven women‘s soccer internationals since first taking the field in 1975. Sixty of those matches have taken place since Henderson made her debut in December, 1987. Since that time, with the exception of the Jayalalitha Cup tournament in India in 1994, and the M-Wey Services Tri-Series tournament in Auckland in 1996, she has been involved in every SWANZ squad, and been chosen as a member of New Zealand’s starting line-up on forty-one occasions. "Weed" - a SWANZ legend indeed!