Women's HMRI Charity Shield
Charlestown Azzurri 0 – 7 Maitland FC
Maitland FC coach Ben Horgan was thrilled for his side after they dominated Charlestown Azzurri 7–0 to claim the 2026 Women’s HMRI Charity Shield.
The Magpies were commanding from the first whistle, determined to start their season on the right note.
It took them just five minutes to take the lead after a run from Georgia Amess beating Laura Ng on the byline sent the ball to Renee Pountney who wasted no time to tap the ball past Azzurri goalkeeper Danielle Bartels.
New recruit for Charlestown Ellie Jones had the closest attempt for the Blues in the first half when Jess Gentle crossed the ball to Jones at the top of the box but the ball narrowly flew past the goal post.
Maitland doubled their lead in the 17th minute after Elodie Dagg swung the ball from the corner into the box, finding Tahlia Gossner who calmly headed the ball into the back post.
The Magpies were determined to extend their lead before half-time and did just that when Ceanna Frost sliced the ball into the goal.
Intensity did not slow down in the second half, as the Magpies hunted for their fourth goal of the evening and Azzurri searched for their first.
Hopes looked alive for the Blues in the 49th minute when Sienna Denholm found the ball at the top of the box but sent it over the crossbar.
Maitland extended their lead to 4-0 in the 57th minute after a failed clearance by Azzurri’s Isabelle Budden made it’s way to the feet of Pountney who found the far post.
Bartels denied the Magpies their fifth of the evening moments later when she blocked Maitland’s Willow Neal’s attempt and quickly bounced back to save the second shot.
The ball bounced back onto the path of Amess but Bartels quickly smothered the ball.
But the Magpies did not back down and found their fifth in the 72nd minute when Neal crossed the ball across the box and found unmarked Georgie Williams who calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net.
Amess got a goal of her own, extending the lead to 6–0 in the 77th minute. After Williams beat Bartels outside the box and sliced the ball toward goal, Amess tapped the scraps into an empty net.
A second goal for the night was on the cards for Amess after Sophie Johnson forced a deflection off Bartels, sending the ball straight to Amess, who put the nail in the coffin and secured her side’s 7–0 victory.
Amess was named Player of the Match.
“The girls have put in a massive preseason and they said their goal was to try and win everything this year. I wanted to get the right start and just head into the league in a couple weeks' time with a pretty strong performance,” Horgan said.
“I'm just really happy for them.
“It's a club [Maitland FC] that's invested a lot into developing the women's program and you want to start to see the rewards. You can see the young girls that have come out tonight, so it's exciting to be able to feel like you're starting to build something and you want to see the trophies.
“That's the ultimate sign of progress, so hopefully it's just the start of things.”
Horgan wanted to see his side showcase their attacking skills and was impressed with five goalscores across the board.
“We know we've got players that can score goals, so it was nice to get so many different players contributing and just a lot of the movement,” Horgan said.
“The combinations were starting to look good, it’s still a little bit of work to do just on the quality of the final ball, the quality of the finish and I thought we probably could have had some more goals tonight.
“When it gets really, really tight when we get into the season, we can't probably be as wasteful.
“But you can't complain about 7 goals and 5 goalscorers, and we want to have lots of different avenues to goals and we have that tonight, which is nice.”
Charlestown Azzurri’s coach Alicia Ferguson was disappointed with the result but was proud of her side’s determination to keep going.
“What a tough match, huge congratulations to Maitland. I know Azzurri and Maitland have had such a rivalry over the years, so they're going to be very happy with the win and also the scoreline,” Ferguson said.
“But we're just rebuilding, so this match was always going to be really tough. We're still building the depth of the squad, but I'm so proud of the players.
“They just grinded it out, even after conceding that many goals. It is not a fun game to be in when that's happening, but I'm really proud of what they put in.
“We haven't had a huge amount of time together to really work on that cohesiveness. But I feel like, as the game went on, we had a better understanding of each other and better communication.
“The girls just have to keep going, it's such tough conditions. I’ve been there before, I feel it, but they kept going all the way to the end.”