Supporting Women Coaches Through Matchday Learning

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Football Australia and CommBank are collaborating to expand opportunities for female coaches.

As part of the Growing Football Fund, groups of female coaches are being invited to attend CommBank Matildas matches live at the stadium but the experience goes beyond simply watching the game.

The coaches are supported by experienced Coach Education Tutors who help deliver a learning-focused experience. Often early in their coaching journey, participants take part in a pre-match workshop before being encouraged to view the game through a coaching lens.

The initiative provides female coaches with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the game, connect with others, and build confidence in a supportive and inclusive setting.

The Female Coaches Experience has been delivered on eight occasions across the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Bunbury, and more recently in Gosford and Adelaide, with plans to reach additional locations as the CommBank Matildas continue their national match schedule.

Ahead of the CommBank Matildas’ clash with Brazil in December 2024, Elisa Brito and the Football Queensland Coach Education team delivered a tactical and technical presentation to a group of 12 coaches.

“This is only going to grow the female game, and more opportunities like this are just going to get more female coaches in the game,” she said via Football Australia media release.

Robina City FC coach Jeni Wright highlighted the Growing Football Fund–supported initiative delivers benefits not only for the coaches involved, but also for the players they support.

“Today is going to help us – when we go back to our own little teams – to look at things differently,” she said via press release.

“A big thank you to CommBank, Football Australia and the Growing Football Fund for bringing us all together and giving us this opportunity.”

By learning from the country’s leading coaches, CommBank and the Growing Football Fund are supporting the growth of the game at every level, from grassroots to elite.

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Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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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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