Touch Football Australia (TFA) is pleased to announce its captains for the 2016 Trans Tasman Series in New Zealand.

Following the retirement of the three Open’s captains following the 2015 Touch World Cup - Steve Roberts (Men’s), Louise Winchester (Women’s) and Kylie Hilder (Mixed) - three new captains will lead the Australian teams for the upcoming series.

Nicholas Good, Lizzie Campbell and Cameron Nicholls will lead the Men’s, Women’s and Mixed teams respectively, with the appointments being announced to the teams at last weekend’s camp.

Good progressed through the National Youth Program and first represented Australia at the Open’s level as an 18-year-old in the Men’s Open division at the 2010 Trans Tasman Series in New Zealand. He has been a constant inclusion in the side ever since, including the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, as well as the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Trans Tasman Series.

Good said it’s an honour to be named captain, one that hasn’t sunk in just yet.

“I’m still lost for words, I can’t put it into words. At the moment it’s just something I’m so proud of. To do it with the group that I’m in and the coaching staff that have appointed it, is something when I retire I’ll look back a lot on, but for now it’s just a little captaincy on the end of the name, but until then it’s definitely an honour,” Good said.

Campbell has been another product of the TFA High Performance pathway, representing Australia in the 2009 and 2011 Youth Trans Tasman Series events before making her debut for the Australian Women’s Open team at the 2014 Trans Tasman Series before being a part of Australia’s successful 2015 World Cup campaign.

Campbell said she is ‘excited and proud’ to be named captain and is hoping to continue on the legacy of the Australian Women’s Open team.

“I think the biggest thing is I’m really excited to try and make the previous captains proud. They are obviously people that I respect, Louise Winchester and even Peta Rogerson, the Vice Captain, they are girls that I’ve looked up to for a long time. I am very excited to hopefully be an inch of what they were in this position,” Campbell said.

Nicholls has been a familiar face in the Mixed Open team over the past cycle, debuting at the 2012 Trans Tasman Series in Mudgee, before playing in the 2013 and 2014 Trans Tasman Series, as well as the 2015 World Cup.

Nicholls said that while being named captain is a ‘massive honour’, there are various leadership roles in the team.

“Thinking when I started playing this game a long time ago as a youngster running around with Dad, I would never have thought that I’d get to this level,” Nicholls said.

“In our team there is various levels of leadership, so someone has to have that ‘C’ next to their name but it’s a combined and collaborative leadership approach.

“It’s a massive honour for myself, but I don’t take on the leadership role wholly and solely. It’s something special but I look forward to doing it with some of my closest friends in leading this team to hopefully a victory on New Zealand soil.”

Stay tuned to the Touch Football Australia website and social media channels in the lead up to the 2016 Trans Tasman Series for all of the latest news and information:

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