Opinion
I want to discuss what I see as one of the biggest gains emanating the recent Women’s World Cup – the perception of Football.
I’ve got two mates: Peter, a hard core rusted on NRL Wests Tigers fan and Ian, a hard core rusted on AFL Sydney Swans fan.
Peter has always in a general sense watched Football, all the big once-every-four-years Men’s World Cup qualifying matches and some Men’s World Cup matches, while Ian never really watched but started from the Matildas’ game against Canada.
(Photo by Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images)
Some basic things impressed them and I am surprised they made it such a point. They were hugely impressed with the match officials, commenting on how consistent and mistake free on the whole the match officials were.
Secondly it was the media commentary they saw as brilliant, in that they called what was going on and never went over and over potential mistakes or rule interpretations.
(As a side note to the above, they believed the short statement by the ref on VAR decisions, i.e “Number 2 hand ball”, again was very informative, straight to the point and made a lot of sense.)
Peter in particular who has Optus watched most games, and he followed the Matildas closely. He told me he has a new understanding of Football he has never had before. He now understands Football is not ‘soft’ and it’s very fast. But most of all, he understands how difficult it is to score and the excitement a goal produces.
Peter even reckons some NRL games appear slow compared to the speed in the World Cup. He also conceded he saw hardly anyone dive – most players who went down were for real.
Ian, the Swans fan, had never watched a Football game before and what impressed him aside from the officials was the excitement of low scoring which he’d never believed possible.
Both said they were amazed at the speed of the games, and how it was in one half and then the other, and both were impressed at the skill and ball control players displayed.
Ian made an interesting comment – and remember he had never watched a Football match before. He said the lack of time a player on the ball has to attempt a goal and the defensive structures protecting the goal were fascinating. By comparison, AFL players had an age to attempt a goal.
Fundamentally, they now understand Football a lot better than they did before. It was heartening to see the stereotyping of Football as soft, slow, repetitive and so on has been replaced by an appreciation of the game.
Why do I think this is so important?
Because when the stereotypes disappear, much of the criticism goes out the window and for those under 40 it will more than likely never be a problem in the future.
I asked both Peter and Ian whether they would take a interest or watch local women’s or men’s A-League games. Ian said he was unlikely but he would start watching the Socceroos and Matildas, while Peter has agreed to come with me to a Central Coast Mariners game next A-League season.
Obviously I can’t have a real idea of how representative Peter and Ian are of their respective codes’ attitudes towards Football.
But having said that, neither of them had any knowledge or appreciation of Football before the Women’s World Cup and they do now, which I think is a massive achievement.
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