Jorja Mouat from Te Puke is a member of the Flag Ferns, New Zealand’s national women’s flag football team
Te Puke’s Jorja Mouat has always wanted to be an Olympic athlete.
She may get her chance in 2028.
On Monday, Jorja jetted out of Auckland airport with the New Zealand women’s flag football team — the Aotearoa Flag Ferns — bound for Finland and the 2024 Flag Football World Championship in Lahti, starting on Sunday.
Flag football will be part of the lineup at the 2028 LA Olympics, and Jorja would like nothing better than to be there.
“That’s the goal, 100 per cent,” she says.
“Ever since I was little, I’ve always wanted to be an Olympian - ever since I watched the London Olympics. Even Rio, I was at intermediate [school] and thought, ‘I’d love to do that’. It’s such a dream of mine.
“Now one of the sports I play is in the Olympics, it’s such a big opportunity.”
The Aotearoa Flag Ferns qualified for the world championships with third place at the Asia-Oceania Flag Football Championship held in Malaysia last year.
Jorja wasn’t there as she was at Camp America, but was drafted into the world championship squad and will be representing New Zealand for the first time in Finland.
“I think it will be a whole lot of emotion,” she says as she anticipates the competition. “A whole lot of the experience is going to be massive, going to another country for a sport that’s not really big around New Zealand. It’s so young at the moment.”
Since the team for the worlds was announced, players and coaches have attended several camps.
“We’ve had a lot of team building, strategising and game playing - things like that - but the key thing that we did was team building.
“We’ve also been doing our own stuff at home — going to the gym and keeping fitness up.”
Jorja plays for the Tauranga City Tridents and has three teammates with her in Finland — Ellie McManaway, Emma Johnston and Sarah Monteith.
The club’s Peter Copsey and Alex Hatwell are the national side’s defensive co-ordinator and manager respectively.
Flag football is a pared down, non-contact version of American football, where players wear tags which are targeted by opposite players. Players are more interchangeable, but there are defensive and offensive units.
“I’m playing defence,” says Jorja. “I can play anywhere, but my main position will be defence.”
At just over 1.8m (6ft) Jorja’s height is an advantage, as are the skills she has from playing other sports like rugby and netball.
“It’s fast-paced and strategising, changing direction, stuff like that, can come from other sports.
“It’s nowhere near as technical as full contact, but once you watch and, especially if you know the basics of American football, it’s quite easy to watch and see what the happs is.”
She says agility is crucial, but it can be hard on the body.
An offensive player has to learn all the team’s plays, but playing defence is more about reacting to the opposition’s formation and working as a team on defensive patterns.
The world championships will be played on three different surfaces, so the first task of the team on arrival will be to have training sessions on artificial turf, grass and an indoor surface.
The national side will be looking to improve its world ranking of 15th and test itself against opposition outside of the Asia-Oceania region.
New Zealand has been placed in Pool E of the five-pool, 23-team competition, alongside four times European Champions Austria (ranked 5th in the world), runners-up in the 2023 European Championships Spain (ranked 6th), and Switzerland (ranked 17th).
“Being only our second international tournament, with the first being an Asia-Oceania Intercontinental to qualify for the World Championship, we are looking forward to seeing what the other countries are doing.’ says head coach Ethan Clark.
The squad represents a unique cross-section of professional and athletic backgrounds, coming from five North Island clubs, the other four being Hamilton Hawks, Hutt Valley Spartans, Papatoetoe Wildcats, and the Metro Lions.
“The natural ball skills most Kiwis get through playing the likes of rugby, league, netball and basketball are easily translated to flag football,” says Ethan.
“Given women’s flag football at a club level has only been played in New Zealand since early 2020, we are really punching above our weight.”
The Flag Ferns squad was selected from members of the high performance unit formed after three trials held across the North Island and the National Clubs Championship in March.
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