A review of Football Belongs – Australia’s football history

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Football Belongs is an exploration into the passion of the people who make up the World Game within Australia. Featuring interviews with football aficionados, players and coaches, the documentary is an excellent reminder of how the immigrant communities have contributed to the success and survival of football in Australia, but also to the national identity as well.

The strength of the documentary lays in its vast catalogue of interviews. Countless legends of the game describe how football clubs and the communities that underpin them have contributed to their lives. The insight from these interviews – over 150 in total – reveal how these football clubs became bastions of their respective ethnic communities. “It’s not about football, it’s about getting people together” is the quote that most perfectly encapsulates the heart of this film.

One of the greatest successes of Football Belongs is its authenticity. Anybody who has spent time around a football club in Australia, particularly any ethnic club, will feel instant nostalgia. The culture these clubs create, the memories they form, and the players they develop can’t be ignored. Nobody ever forgets the feasts these football clubs put on after (and during) a game.

Rarely will you see a production on Australian football that has so much respect for the rich achievements of Australian football pre-2006 World Cup. From coaches and players from Australia’s first-ever World Cup in 1974 to mainstays from clubs that haven’t been on the national stage since the National Soccer League, the documentary shows reverence to an often-overlooked history.

A common sentiment from the countless people interviewed is that their lives would not have been as rich, or their careers as successful, without the clubs that form the Australian football community. Socceroos coach Graham Arnold talks about the impact that Sydney United, and its Croatian community, had on him after the loss of his mother. Mark Bresciano, John Aloisi, and Sasa Ognenovski – great servants to the game in Australia – discuss their upbringing in the game and the careers that followed. Others describe how football allowed them to experience different cultures and experiences, for their betterment.

While watching Football Belongs, it was an ecstatic surprise to see a young Jackson Irvine scoring goals for Ringwood City, wearing the same kit that I played in as a 13-year-old boy. Seeing a club I spent so many hours of my formative years at, having played there from under 14s through to the senior team, in such an important time of Australian football history was a beautiful moment.

One of its most impactful moments comes in the finale, when Indigenous footballer and artist John Moriarty is interviewed. He describes how he was accepted through football in a point in history where he had no rights in his own country, after experiencing the direct impacts of being a part of the Stolen Generation. The filmmakers have gone to great lengths to highlight the multiculturalism that sustains the world game in Australia.

This review barely covers the countless number of interviews within Football Belongs. The team behind it has delved deep into footballing history while highlighting the roots that were formed in the past that remain today. Football Belongs is a love letter to the multiculturalism that has helped not just the world game, but Australia as a whole. It is without doubt essential viewing for those who love football, and it is truly a part of Australian footballing history.

Football Belongs can be viewed on Optus Sport. You can also read more about the making of the documentary here.

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Football Victoria’s Female Football Week Awards Recognise the People Empowering Women’s Football

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Image Credit: Football Victoria

Football Victoria has named its 2026 Female Football Week Award winners, recognising five women whose contributions across playing, coaching, refereeing, volunteering and community leadership represent the human infrastructure behind the most significant period of growth in Australian women’s football history.

The announcements come in the final days of Female Football Week, a ten-day national celebration that has taken on particular resonance in 2026 following a record-breaking AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Australian soil. The tournament filled stadiums, broke attendance records and generated a level of public enthusiasm for women’s football that governing bodies are now under pressure to translate into something lasting. These five recipients are among the people who will determine whether it does.

Brooke Wyatt of Trafalgar Victory FC has been named Volunteer of the Year. Her contribution was coordinating the MiniRoos, managing match days, organising club events and driving recruitment efforts that have helped the club field new junior teams. Wyatt’s work is the kind of work that keeps community football functioning without ever appearing in a match report. Wyatt has also been central to strengthening Trafalgar’s women’s program, building the welcoming environment that determines whether female players feel the club was built with them in mind.

Karishma Wijeyesinghe of Victoria Park FC has been recognised as Community Champion of the Year. Serving simultaneously as Senior Women’s Liaison Officer, voting committee member and club captain while maintaining a demanding professional career, Wijeyesinghe has built the women’s program infrastructure that clubs across the country require. Her presence at the decision-making table at Victoria Park is precisely the kind of representation that shapes whether female players feel the game is for them from the moment they walk through the door.

The cost of showing up

Chelsea Phillips of Mt Eliza SC has been named Player of the Year in a recognition that goes well beyond her captaincy of one of the club’s most successful Under-18 groups. Over the past year, Phillips faced a serious neurological health condition that temporarily affected her vision and mobility. She continued attending training and matches throughout, supporting teammates from the sidelines and maintaining a leadership presence during a period when most people would have stepped away entirely. Her club has described the impact on those around her as profound; a reminder that what players model for each other in difficult moments shapes the culture of a program far more than results alone.

Hannah Riess has been named Referee of the Year for her rapid progression to NPL Women’s Under-20 officiating level and her active mentorship of emerging referees across Gippsland. Female referees remain significantly underrepresented at every level of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that is built by people like Riess, those experienced enough to progress, invested enough to bring others with them rather than simply move ahead alone.

Building the pipeline that sustains the boom

Natasha Groves of Darebin Falcons has been recognised as Coach of the Year for her work across junior, senior and women’s social football programs, including her delivery of Football Victoria’s PlayHER initiative and her completion of advanced coaching accreditation. Groves has consistently created environments at Darebin where women and girls new to the game feel genuinely welcome, addressing the retention challenge that sits directly behind every participation surge the women’s game generates.

Taken together the five recipients illustrate something the attendance figures from the AFC Women’s Asian Cup cannot. Record crowds are the visible outcome of decades of invisible work, by volunteers, coaches, referees and community builders who showed up long before the cameras did, and who will still be there long after the tournament has moved on.

Blacktown District Soccer Football Association Launches Youth League and Poaching Program

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Image Credit: Football NSW

Blacktown District Soccer Football Association has outlined a package of initiatives for the 2026 season centred on youth development, coach education and the celebration of female participation, as the Western Sydney association moves to raise standards across community football and strengthen pathways into state-level competition.

The centrepiece of the association’s development agenda is the Blacktown Youth Development League, a new competition structure spanning all youth Division One competitions in the Under-13 to Under-18 age groups, including Phoenix League female competitions involving both BDSFA and GDSFA clubs. The league applies a benchmarking framework adapted from Football NSW‘s junior competition standards, with clubs encouraged to implement structured training environments including a minimum of two sessions per week where possible.

BDSFA General Manager Owen Liiv said the initiative responded to clear demand from within the football community for more substantive development environments.

“It is pretty clear that people want more and better football experiences,” Liiv said. “The measure for us is high-quality youth football competitions within Blacktown and ultimately, stronger performances in state-wide competitions such as the Football NSW State Cup or Football NSW Champion of Champions.”

The referees branch will support the league by prioritising Division One fixtures and providing three-person match control where available, an operational commitment that acknowledges the role officiating quality plays in the overall development environment.

The Managerial Infrastructure

Running alongside the youth competition is a free coach education program, with Foundation of Football courses delivered across BDSFA’s 24 member clubs by permanent association staff. With more than 1,000 registered coaches across the district, BDSFA has set a target of 85 percent achieving Foundation of Football accreditation within three years. Removing cost as a barrier to accreditation is a deliberate structural choice, reflecting growing recognition across Australian football that coaching quality at community level is inseparable from participation outcomes.

The association also launched Female Football Week with a “Cocktails on the Pitch” event at Blacktown Football Park, attended by close to 100 players, coaches, referees, administrators and volunteers. Former Matilda Leah Blayney addressed the gathering, speaking about her pathway from Wentworth Falls to international football. BDSFA has indicated the event is likely to become an annual fixture on the association calendar.

Taken together, the initiatives reflect an association investing deliberately in the structural conditions that determine whether community football grows sustainably rather than opportunistically.

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