Women’s sport has long played Little Sister to men’s sports Big Brother. We all know the Little Sister, trailing behind in your shadow and given token affection or attention. One of the best examples of this is women’s football.
While football in general struggles to garner weekly media attention and find print space, the coverage of women’s football, and in particular the Matildas, has been negligible at best, but most often non-existent.
The Matildas have been playing consistently on the world’s greatest stage for nearly two decades.
When the men endured painful and heartbreaking attempts to qualify for World Cups, the Matildas made it to all but the first FIFA Women’s World Cup. Granted they couldn’t get out of the group stage, but they were there nonetheless.
Earlier this month the Socceroos were lauded for reaching the lofty heights of number 14 in the world. Rightly so. With a relatively smooth path to qualification, we have been one of the form nations in the world.
However, I doubt there are many who could tell me the Matildas current FIFA ranking (14). Nor are aware that they have been ranked as high as 12.
On those achievements, nary a word was printed. Yes, there are more countries on the men’s side of FIFA, but there are still over 100 women’s national teams in the world.
So Cheryl Salisbury and the girls went on virtually unnoticed until 2007 when it took a quarterfinal result in the 2007 Women’s World Cup for the public to register that Australia had a world-class football team right on its doorstep.
Lisa De Vanna made her way into the FIFA Team of Tournament, and on the back of their World Cup performances, Lisa was short listed for the FIFA World Player of the Year and Collette McCallum was the third best AFC female footballer.
Yet here in Perth, where I live, no one would know who these two phenomenal footballers are. Could you imagine any of the men nominated for World Player of the Year being able to walk down the street without being mobbed?
Women’s football is the fastest growing participation sport in the country.
Thankfully, the Football Australia hierarchy acknowledged that they needed to capitalise on the wave generated by the World Cup success and created the Westfield W-League.
While the first edition was hastily launched, it was still a great success with the fans as evidenced by ABC’s television ratings.
With a greater lead in time, season two should be much better organised and I look forward to some fantastic football from the ladies who play it with style.
* Brisbane Roar v Canberra United, Ballymore Stadium, Saturday 3 October, 3.00pm AEST
* Melbourne Victory v Perth Glory, Etihad Stadium, Saturday 3 October, 4.45pm AEST
* Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners, Sydney Football Stadium, Monday 5 October, 12.15pm AEST
* Adelaide United v Newcastle Jets, Hindmarsh Stadium, Monday 5 October, 1.45pm local (2.15pm AEST).
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Was a better game too and deserved to win :) I don’t want too sound condescending but there’s a bit more space in Women’s football that means if you have teams with playmakers or good strikers it’s quite entertaining.
Joe Novella
Roar Rookie
Great article. You only have to go to a place like the "Total Girl" tourno in Ballarat to see just how huge Girls and Women's Football is becoming in this nation. The sport needs people like you to champion it and bring it to the attention of others, our achievements with the W-league and at a national level have been nothing short of outstanding. Keep blogging and commenting on the women's game, the sport needs people like you just as much as it does a Lisa De Vanna.
Midfielder
Guest
Chomp Chomp ... use a nice sauce ... Australia V Fiji in Rugby on Ch 10 .... and Matildas V Barzil in the Women's WC... Best to give it a clean first ...
BigAl
Guest
If that is true I will cut my left foot off and eat it.
In the Game
Roar Rookie
Thanks for opening your mind Raider. Hopefully the girls will be on song.
Raider
Guest
I'm planning on watching the W-League game this saturday afternoon on ABC1. I'm not a soccer fan and never have been. I'm a long-time NRL fan, and I'm starting to gain an appreciation of AFL as well. I'm occasionally open to auditioning sports I don't usually watch. I've tried watching rugby union and found I honestly don't enjoy watching those games. I find them highly frustrating, and the fact that such a high percentage of the scoring comes from arbitrarily-awarded penalty kicks seems rather incredible to me. NRL and AFL have it all over union in my opinion. I have attended women's basketball matches on several occasions, including witnessing the Canberra Capitals win last year's grand final in the AIS Arena in Canberra. Still, the game of basketball doesn't really grab me. I've never been a men's basketball fan either. It's soccer's turn to get my attention now. I've tried to watch it sometimes in the past but I didn't enjoy the games. I'm genuinely interested in trying again now, so why not the women's comp? The W-League is on free-to-air TV and has a Canberra team. So I'll be watching on saturday afternoon.
Midfielder
Guest
The W-League averaged 123, 000 last year on the ABC and was there highest average rating for their sports broadcasting... The Matildas in 2007 went head to head with the Wallabies ... Womens World Cup V Rugby World cup ... SBS & Ch 10... the Matildas won...
sam.gilbert
Roar Rookie
i dont think that if, for example, tim cahill was nominated for fifa player of the year he would get mobbed. first of all he rarely comes to australia and secondly not everyone would even care- football is far from the most followed sport. yes the matildas are talented and deserve recognition i suppose, but the same could be said for any number of sportspeople in australia that dont get recognition. lets not sugar coat this or try to be politically correct- women's football is rubbish compared to men's. its the way it is, so obviously they won't get as much attention. the same reason the mls or a-league gets less attention worldwide as la liga or epl- its nowhere near as good.