The Delivereasy Chatham Cup and Delivereasy Kate Sheppard Cup preliminary round draws for 2026 have been finalised.

The first fixtures in both competitions are scheduled to be played over the ANZAC Day weekend (24–27 April). Dates and kick-off times for those preliminary fixtures will be confirmed tomorrow. 

The draw for both the men’s and women’s cup competitions was held yesterday and was conducted at New Zealand Football headquarters by Kevin Forde (Competitions and Events Manager), Jamie Mew (Competitions and Events Manager) and was overseen by Stephanie Brown (Community Competitions Manager, Northern Region Football).

The Delivereasy Chatham Cup is the oldest men’s football trophy in New Zealand with the competition dating back more than a century to 1923.

The Delivereasy Kate Sheppard Cup was founded in 1994 and has been contested annually every year apart from 2020, which was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Defending champions Auckland United and Wellington Olympic will be aiming for cup three-peats this year.

Auckland United won their second consecutive Delivereasy Kate Sheppard Cup crown last year after a 4-1 win over the Wellington Phoenix Women’s Reserves in the 2025 final at North Harbour Stadium. 

Wellington Olympic also went back-to-back in the Delivereasy Chatham Cup in 2025, defeating Auckland United 4-2 in last year's final at North Harbour Stadium.

More than 120 teams entered the Delivereasy Chatham Cup for 2026 with 17 matches scheduled for the men’s preliminary round.

This year’s Kate Sheppard Cup saw more than 50 teams enter this year’s competition with 5 matches scheduled for their preliminary round.

According to the competition regulations, in order to have 32 teams remaining in Round 2, New Zealand Football can award byes to certain teams:

“All teams shall be allocated to their respective Regional Group and shall be ranked by the competition by which they are competing in in the current winter season.

In the event that the progressions require the allocation of byes within a Region, byes shall be allocated to teams based on their current winter competition ranking that the team competes in. For example, a bye will be awarded to all the NRFL Premier Women’s competition teams, then all NRFL Women Championship competition teams.

If all teams from an entire competition cannot be awarded a bye, then all teams from the respective competition are added to a Pot and the required number of byes are drawn randomly from the Pot.

The remaining teams not drawn for a bye are returned to their region for the round draw proper”.

As with every season, New Zealand Football will conduct draws for cup rounds every Tuesday following the completed round. Should a Monday fall on a public holiday, the draw for the following round of the competition will be done on a Wednesday.

Chatham Cup – Preliminary Round Fixtures

Northern Region

West Auckland vs Papakura City FC

Uni-Mount Bohemian vs Hillcrest United FC

Waitkato Unicol vs Otahuhu United AFC

Thai Warriors vs Mangawhai FC

Papatoetoe AFC vs Huntly Thistle AFC

Otorohanga AFC vs South Auckland Rangers

AFC Bohemian Celtic vs Te Puke United

Eden United vs Waiheke United

Zamantix Rovers Duece vs Internationale FC

Mangere United vs University of Auckland

Central Region

 Greytown FC vs Victoria University

Naenae FC vs Wellington Marist

Carterton AFC vs Lower Hutt City

Wellington United vs North Wellington

Southern Region

FC Twenty 11 vs Parklands United

St Albans Shirley FC vs Mid Canterbury United FC

Halswell United vs Universities of Canterbury

Kate Sheppard Cup - Preliminary Round Fixtures


Northern Region:

East Coast Bays vs West Auckland

Pukekohe AFC vs Waitemata FC

Te Awamutu AFC vs Thames FC

Southern Region:

Selwyn United vs Feryymead Bays

Queens Park AFC vs Green Island AFC

Article added: Wednesday 15 April 2026