Football West secures $1m to boost female football in regional WA

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Image credit: Perth Glory website

Female football in regional Western Australia is set to receive a significant boost nearly $1 million investment from the Federal Government.

Football West has secured $997,339 through the Federal Government’s Play Our Way program, aimed at breaking down barriers for women and girls in sports and physical activities.

The Australian Government is providing $200 million for the Play Our Way program and this set of funding is the first of many for state football federations.

The program will run over 3 years from 2024–25 to 2026–27 with the money spread out to help provide safe, inclusive, quality and sustainable facilities, equipment and initiatives as well as help women and girls to remain involved in sport and physical activity for life.

The grant will fund Football West’s Our Game WA initiative, which focuses on two main components:

Leading Our Game: A new coaching course exclusively for women.

Growing Our Game: A series of initiatives designed to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for women and girls in football.

Football West Manager – Female Football & Advocacy Tash Rigby expressed her excitement at the positive news for women’s players in WA.

“This is incredible news and we can do so much good for female football with this kind of investment,” she said via press release.

“Interest in female football right across the state is at an all-time high. We want to make it as easy as possible for women and girls to participate in our game and fulfil their potential, be it as players, coaches, match officials, and in any other capacity.

“It is extra special that the money will be invested in regional WA. Regional football is close to my heart –  I am from Margaret River and know the passion around the state for football.”

Football West CEO Jamie Harnwell extended on Rigby’s points by discussing the importance of this deal for regional women’s football.

“We are delighted to have been successful in our application and thank the Australian Government for supporting our proposal,” Harnwell said via press release.

“Our commitment to female football over the past decade is well documented and this grant will enable us to give more girls and women the opportunity to develop a love for the game.

“Regional football caters for around a quarter of our registrations and so it is great to invest funding of this kind across the State.

“We are currently hosting the 2024 Country Week carnival at Kingsway Reserve, which is our biggest celebration of regional football, so the timing of this announcement could not be better.”

This is fantastic news especially for regional football in general which is often neglected but remains one of the key factors in WA’s strong participation numbers in 2024.

Football West is creating a space that can help girls and women play in a safe, inclusive environment in an extremely inspiring time for women’s football in Australia.

More information on the Play Our Way Grant Opportunity can be found here.

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Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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Image credit: Melbourne Victory

The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

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