First ever NZ National Tournament for Powerchair Football

​Two member of the Bay of Plenty Powerchair Football club (Toby Lipinski & Jacob Lane) joined forces with two from Northland Powerchair Football club (Brennan Massey & Barry de Geest ) and entered as BOPLAND
 
Taupo 7th 8th 9th July
 
Photos on Face book page (new Zealand powerchair football)  day 1, day 2, day3  Paced in By Gavin Lee
 
Day one of NZPF Nationals. 7th July
Opening game was Bopland (Bay of Plenty & Northland) v's Canterbury. Unfortunately, we went down 0-4. It was nil all at half time but we'll done to Canterbury who stepped it up a gear scoring 4 goals in the second half.
Our second game of the day was against Waikato where we managed a 2-0 win. Yay!!!
 
North Auckland 4 - 0 Waikato        North Auckland 0 - 3 Canterbury
 

​Day two of the Nationals has been another thoroughly entertaining day, as we moved from round robin towards the finals. The final round robin results were:
Canterbury 8 v 0 Waikato           Bopland 1 v 2 North Auckland.
 
The semi finals were a repeat of the final round, producing two highly competitive matches.
A constantly improving Waikato side held Canterbury to only be down by 1-0 at halftime. However, Canterbury ended up taking the match 5-0, and booked their place in the final.
Bopland and North Auckland played a nail-biter in their semi final. Ending 1-1 at the end of regulation time, the game went into extra time. Neither team managed to break the other's defence, so the game went to a penalty shoot-out. North Auckland ended up being victorious, winning 1-1 (3-2 p).
 
This means that Final's games will be,
Bopland v Waikato in the third-place playoff, and
Canterbury v North Auckland in the final.
Day three is set to be an exciting day as players also get their final chance to push their cases for national selection.
 
Finals results
3rd Bopland v Waikato   4th.             1st Canterbury v North Auckland 2nd.
 

After a great Nationals the Selectors are pleased to announce the NZ Representative and Development Squads as below:
NZ Representative Squad Players:   NZ Development Squad Players:
Sandra Wilcock                                    Logan McColl
Pat Edmonds                                                     Rhys Vermeulen 
Luke Alderton                                                   Cooper Pulini
Toby Lipinski                                                    Barry de Geest 
Michael Wheeler                                              Diane Williams
Brennan Massey                                               Will van Vroohoven

Head Coach, Steve Alderton                         Coach: David Ireland
Assistant Coach, Paul Massey                      Assistant Coach: Murray Lipinski
Manager, Bronwyn Davies   Asst: Sean McColl
 
The National team will travel to Brisbane in September to participate in the 2018 Australian Nationals and a 3 Match Ditch up competition.
All this while building towards the APO cup in October 2019 and the World Cup in 2021 (in AU)