A review of Football Belongs – Australia’s football history

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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The Spreadsheet Is Dead: Majestri’s Fix for How Clubs Actually Assess Players

If you’ve ever sat through a club’s end-of-season review, you’ll know the drill. A coach pulls out a folder of notes, someone half-remembers what a player was like back in Round 3 and a parent quietly wonders what they actually got for their rego fees beyond a team photo. Football club platform Majestri says it has a fix for that, and it’s built directly into its Player Assessment module.

Why clubs bother assessing players in the first place

According to Majestri, clubs run player assessments for one of three reasons – usually more than one at once. Some are chasing genuine development, using the data to lift the level across their high-performance squads. Others are after a fairer way to pick teams, putting every player on the same measurable scale so selection is based on evidence rather than a coach’s gut feel about who “looks the part.” And for clubs operating under a Football Australia or state federation licence, assessments at set intervals often aren’t optional – they’re a compliance requirement, with the paperwork to prove it when asked.

Whatever the motivation, Majestri’s pitch is the same: don’t let that assessment data die in a spreadsheet on someone’s laptop.

Build your own assessment, your way

There’s no one-size-fits-all template here. The Assessment Designer lets technical directors set their own criteria, sort them into whatever categories their coaching staff already use – think core skills, possession, defending, attacking – and decide what each point on the rating scale actually means. Crucially, every criterion also gets a comment field, because a bare number rarely tells the full story of a player’s development.

The Assessment Module Builder for an NPL Juniors assessment
The Assessment Module Builder, showing an NPL Juniors assessment with a 1-10 rating scale banded from under performing through to excelling and role-specific criteria grouped into core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

Build it once and it’s reusable every time that assessment cycle comes around, so every player and every coach – is working off the same yardstick.

Something for the parents to actually take home

One of the more relatable pain points Majestri is targeting: most families never see much tangible return from a season of fees beyond a team photo. Player Assessment addresses that with report cards – colour-coded against the same scale coaches used, grouped by category with averages calculated automatically, and delivered as a PDF or an interactive web page a parent can read without needing a coaching badge themselves.

A player report card for an under-15 player
A report card for an under-15 player, colour-coded from under performing to excelling, with a score for every criterion and a group average across core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

 

Turning the numbers into something useful

The real value, though, sits in what Majestri calls the Player Analysis Lab. This is where clubs can plot a player against their team-mates or an entire age group across two categories at once, spotting clusters and outliers at a glance. Every score gets read against the group average – so a “7” actually means something in context – and clubs can report at the broad category level or drill into individual fields underneath. The results can be filtered down and exported for selection meetings or grading purposes.

The Player Analysis Lab comparing players in an under-15 and under-16 squad
The Player Analysis Lab comparing seven players across under-15 and under-16 squads, with a scatter plot, a sortable table of scores against the player average, and controls for choosing which categories and fields to report on. Source: Majestri.

The admin side nobody enjoys, made easier

Beyond the flashy analytics, there’s a practical layer built for the volunteers actually running the process:

  • Sweep monitoring – a quick view of which assessments are done and which are still outstanding, organised into defined assessment periods so progress can be tracked against peers.
  • Individual development plans – every player gets a personalised plan, and clubs can group common improvement areas to run cross-team training sessions that lift the whole club rather than just one squad.
  • Access control – coaches and technical staff can only see assessments for the teams they’re responsible for, and completed assessments are only visible to people linked to that player’s registration.
“Hard numbers to draw on when you review coaching staff and curriculum – and something tangible for the players and parents who pay the fees.” – Majestri

 

The bigger picture

Majestri frames all of this as sitting on top of the club’s own data – assessment results live on each player’s profile inside the platform rather than in a spreadsheet that walks out the door when a technical director moves on. For committees, it also means hard numbers to lean on when reviewing coaching staff or curriculum, rather than relying on anecdote.

It’s a fairly clear read on where club administration software is heading: less about digitising paperwork for its own sake, and more about making the data clubs already collect actually work for player development, team selection and compliance  without adding to the workload of the volunteers who run the show.

For more information on Majestri’s Player Assessment module, visit majestri.com.au/player-assessment.

Football Has the Audience. Does It Have the Commercial Strategy?

Soccerscene has launched Survey 4: Commercial Confidence in Football, calling on clubs, sponsors, governing bodies, commercial leaders and football industry professionals to assess whether the game is making the most of its enormous commercial potential.

Football has the audience, participation base and community reach to be one of Australia’s most powerful commercial platforms. But does the industry have the commercial strategy, professionalism and infrastructure required to turn that potential into sustainable growth?

That is the question at the centre of Soccerscene’s latest industry research.

The survey examines how attractive grassroots football is to potential commercial partners, what industry professionals believe is limiting football’s commercial potential, and whether clubs are presenting themselves professionally enough to sponsors.

It also explores what sponsors value most when engaging with football – from community reach and participation scale to brand alignment, values and purpose – as well as whether improved facilities could directly contribute to stronger sponsorship outcomes.

Is football fully capitalising on its commercial opportunity?

Football continues to provide brands with access to highly engaged communities across grassroots, community and elite environments. Yet the commercial landscape remains fragmented, with clubs operating with vastly different levels of resources, capability, governance, media infrastructure and commercial expertise.

Soccerscene’s survey is designed to capture the industry’s perspective on where the opportunities exist – and where football may be leaving commercial value on the table.

The research will look specifically at four key areas:

  • Commercial attractiveness – How attractive is grassroots football as a commercial partnership?
  • Commercial barriers – What is holding football back from reaching its full commercial potential?
  • Club professionalism – Are clubs presenting themselves effectively and professionally to sponsors?
  • Sponsor value – What are sponsors really looking for when they invest in football?

The survey also asks whether better facilities would have a direct impact on sponsorship outcomes, highlighting the potential relationship between infrastructure, commercial presentation and investment.

Have your say

Soccerscene is encouraging football clubs, sponsors, commercial professionals, governing bodies, administrators, media professionals and industry stakeholders to participate.

The findings will contribute to Soccerscene’s ongoing program of industry research, designed to provide a clearer picture of the challenges and opportunities facing football and the organisations operating within it.

Take the Survey: Commercial Confidence in Football

Complete the Commercial Confidence in Football Survey here

The survey will close on 30 August 2026 at midnight, with responses received before the deadline included in the final analysis.

Football has the audience. The question is whether it has the commercial strategy to match.

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