Today (17 June 2022) marks 100 years since the first ever men’s international football match between Australia and New Zealand. The game was the first full international match for both teams and the first international match ever in held in Oceania.

In the run up to September’s game between the two sides at Eden Park, New Zealand Football will be celebrating the centenary of trans-Tasman football with a series of announcements over the coming months to mark the occasion. 

The first ever game took place at Carisbrook Park in Dunedin. While a New Zealand team had previously played games against sides representing Australian states, this was the first official international fixture between the two countries. 

The match itself was played in front of over 10,000 fans, with New Zealand coming out on top as 3-1 winners. The team was Reg Craxton in goal, defenders Rewi Braithwaite, Robert McAuley, Bill Brownlee, Jock Corbett, Dan Jones and attackers Walter Brundell, Bill Knott, Ted Cook, George Campbell and Charles Ballard. Goals were scored by Cook (x2) and Knott, with William Maunder getting the only goal for Australia. 

You can read the original match report from 1922. 

The game was followed by a second fixture in Wellington on 24 June 1922 which ended in a 1-1 draw, before a final match in the series at Auckland Domain on 8 July 2022 which finished in a 3-1 win for New Zealand. Ted Cook scored in all three games, his only the caps for the national team.  

In the subsequent years the two teams played over 110 matches against each other across the men’s and women’s game, most recently with the Football Ferns facing the Matildas in April. Both sides will get to see each other again on 25 September at Eden Park which will be the first time the All Whites have played the Socceroos in over 10 years. 

Article added: Friday 17 June 2022