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There were about 100 of us on the south hill on a lazy Sunday afternoon at McKellar Park watching some of the best women footballers go round.
The weather would have appeared perfect on the ABC broadcast, but TV doesn’t show how cold the wind is up at 650m.
The afternoon started abysmally, the PA system failing horrendously as it mangled both anthems, with only the English version played of the New Zealand anthem.
This just the tip of the total snubbing the women’s game still faces.
Not many people know of the 1-0 win Australia recorded on Thursday night against New Zealand at the AIS Athletics Track, nor do they know the penalty shoot out win continues Australia’s 19 year dominance over the Football Ferns.
Not many people know the Matildas are ranked ninth in the world (as of March 22 – a new set of rankings to be released June 21).
Not many people know Tameka Butt has a contract with one of the top German clubs, that a host of Australians are playing in the NWSL in the US, playing alongside other top international players.
Not many people knew the Matildas were playing on Sunday.
The standard of football I saw at McKellar Park, the home of Canberra United W-League team and Belconnen Soccer Club, was at a consistent state of quality.
Crisp ground passing, incisive through balls, precise set piece plays, and that was all in the first 20 minutes or so.
There was nothing but quality gracing the surprisingly decent playing surface. Yet the grandeur of what was occurring was lost among the near amateurish of how it was being treated.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a long way to go, but the whole thing didn’t seem to have the full and proper attention it deserved.
And then it hit me, the Socceroos.
Okay, so they’re one game away from qualifying for a third straight World Cup. It’s been a long road and they’ve appeared to have pulled a rabbit out of the hat.
But there is a women’s national team too.
I draw comparisons to the US men’s national team and US women’s national team.
On Sunday, the US women played South Korea at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. They drew around 20,000 to their game. Tom Sermanni (does that name sound familiar? It should, because he was the last Australian women’s team manager) had them humming.
They systematically disposed of a much weaker Korean side. Nothing flashy, just went about their work in front of a great crowd.
Less than 12 hours later the Matildas won in a penalty shoot out against New Zealand in front of 2248 people at McKellar Park.
It’s a rare case, but in the US, their women’s and men’s teams are put on an equal level. And it needs to be done in Australia. There is no excuse.
We have a flourishing women’s league which has achieved stability, something the US only just achieved. Every game of the NWSL is available to be watched on YouTube.
In Australia, we get an hour of one game on a Saturday afternoon after the hour of WNBL on ABC.
We share another similarity with the US, our women’s teams are ranked higher than our men’s.
The US women are first in the world, have been for the last five years. Their men are 28th.
The Matildas are ranked ninth in the world, the Socceroos are 47th. The argument that the men are better than the women holds no weight.
Speaking to noted women’s football journalist Ann Ondong, she is all too aware of the disrespect shown to women’s football in Australia. Her disgust at what transpired on Thursday night was easy to hear.
When players are told they’re not allowed to promote themselves playing for their nation, something is not right.
Australian women’s football has never been better placed, and will only improve if nurtured the proper way, to the point where we could really give a World Cup a shake. But incidents such as those which occurred this week will do nothing to help its growth.
Get behind the Matildas, and treat them with the respect they so rightly have earned, and never let an incident like Thursday night or Sunday happen ever again.
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