Can the A-League Women keep the Matildas’ flame alive?

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Image Credit: Melbourne Victory website

In the winter of 2023, the Matildas didn’t just play football, they made history. More than 11.5 million Australians watched their World Cup semi-final against England — the most-viewed TV program in Australian history, according to OzTAM data. Streets filled with fans, fan zones overflowed, and for a fleeting moment, women’s football wasn’t a niche sport, it was the beating heart of the nation.

But now, over a year later, the energy has waned. Despite record participation rates in grassroots football, the A-League Women (ALW) has struggled to capture and sustain the public’s attention.

According to a recent Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) report, only 50% of ALW players are on full-time contracts, and nearly one in five players are considering early retirement due to financial instability.

Melbourne Victory star Beattie Goad announced her retirement at just 27, citing the competition’s part-time nature as unsustainable. She’s a three-cap Matilda and a title-winner with both Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory.

She wasn’t alone. In March 2024, her teammate and seven-time Matilda Emma Checker declared she’d retire at 28 to secure a job outside football. And in October, former Matilda’s great Elise Kellond-Knight also stepped away after 16 years in the game, again, due to financial strain.

These are elite athletes juggling second jobs and uncertain futures in what should be a thriving professional league. For a competition that should be riding a wave of national pride, this is more than disappointing, it’s a structural failure.

While the Matildas ignited the country, the ALW is still fighting for visibility. Despite the Matildas’ extraordinary success, there’s been little impact on league attendance and broadcast numbers. The average ALW crowd size in 2023–24 was just over 2,400 people per game,  a modest increase from previous years, but nowhere near what the World Cup buzz should have fuelled.

Even the launch of the 2024–25 season came with a whimper. The Guardian described it as having a “quiet build-up,” reflecting the broader issue of under-promotion. Where was the media hype, the marketing campaign, the sense of occasion? The stars are there with players such as Cortnee Vine, Michelle Heyman, Alex Chidiac. But without consistent media presence, they remain invisible to casual fans.

Then there’s scheduling. Too many A-League Women matches are tucked away in poor time slots or played in hard-to-access suburban grounds. This isn’t just a football issue; it’s a visibility issue. Fans can’t attend games they don’t know about, or can’t get to. Doubleheaders with men’s games, while well-intentioned, often result in women’s matches playing second fiddle. They deserve standalone stages, not shared spotlights.

And while Football Australia has confirmed a new men’s National Second Tier launching in 2025. There’s no equivalent plan for women, no national second-tier league, no promotion and relegation pathway. The development pipeline for female players ends abruptly at the elite level. That’s not just short-sighted — it’s neglectful.

So, what needs to happen?

Full-time professionalism must become the standard. As the PFA has made clear, a semi-professional structure will only deliver semi-professional outcomes. Better wages, longer contracts, and post-career planning are essential if we want athletes to commit long-term.

Football Australia and the APL must lead with vision. As Football Australia unveils a new national second-tier men’s competition in 2025, the glaring lack of a second-tier pathway for women is striking. How can we build depth without structure?

Media partners and broadcasters must treat the ALW like a premium product. That means storytelling, promotion, and regular prime-time coverage, not burying games on digital-only platforms or at inaccessible hours. ALW matches should be promoted with the same energy and visibility as the men’s games. Tapping into streaming platforms, pre-match content, and post-game analysis can help generate interest beyond the core fan base.

Clubs must step up, not just in funding but in identity. Women’s teams cannot remain side projects or afterthoughts to the men’s program. Equal access to training facilities, medical care, and media teams should be the norm.

And fans must keep showing up. If you cheered for the Matildas, consider turning up for Western United or Melbourne Victory. Bring your kids. Buy the jersey. Follow the league. Push your club to do more. The spark lit by the Matildas can’t burn without fuel. Attending games, engaging online, and demanding better from the institutions that govern football will keep the pressure on.

I saw it for myself—during the World Cup, families with young girls packed into fan zones, strangers high-fived over goals, and jerseys sold out nationwide. That kind of cultural moment doesn’t come around often. We can’t afford to treat it as a blip.

The Matildas lit the fire. Now it’s on the A-League Women — and all of us — to keep it burning.

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Grassroots Clubs Want to Grow – But They Need the Tools to Do It

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Image Credit: One-Nil Media

Across Australia, grassroots football clubs are doing extraordinary work to keep the game alive in their communities. Volunteers line fields, coordinate registrations, organise sponsorships and manage finances – often all at once. But new survey insights suggest something deeper: clubs want to grow commercially, yet many lack the knowledge and systems required to do so.

The results point to a clear reality. Community football’s commercial potential exists, but it remains largely untapped.

When asked about their club’s commercial strategy, confidence was strikingly low. Half of respondents (50%) said their club has only a limited commercial strategy, while 25% admitted there is no clear strategy at all. Only 25% described their approach as somewhat confident, and notably no respondents felt “very confident” about their club’s commercial direction.

Image Credit: One-Nil Media

For a sport that prides itself on being the most participated in Australia, that figure should give administrators pause.

Community clubs are often expected to behave like small businesses – raising revenue, managing stakeholders and investing in infrastructure. Yet the data suggests many are navigating these expectations without a clear roadmap.

The question then becomes: where are clubs currently generating revenue?

The survey shows that sponsorship and memberships dominate equally, each accounting for 50% of the primary revenue sources identified by respondents. Events, often seen as a key opportunity for community engagement and fundraising, accounted for 0% of responses as the main income generator.

Image Credit: One-Nil Media

This reliance on two core streams highlights a structural vulnerability. Sponsorship and memberships are important pillars, but they are also susceptible to economic pressures and local community fluctuations. Without diversified revenue, such as events, partnerships, digital engagement, or merchandising, clubs risk stagnating financially.

However, perhaps the most revealing insight from the survey relates to the barriers clubs face in expanding their commercial capabilities.

A significant 75% of respondents identified a lack of commercial knowledge as the biggest barrier to growth. The remaining 25% pointed to volunteer capacity.

Image Credit: One-Nil Media

This distinction is crucial. It suggests the issue is not simply about manpower, but also expertise.

Volunteers remain the lifeblood of grassroots football, but expecting them to also function as marketing managers, sponsorship strategists and commercial analysts may be unrealistic without proper support. In many cases, passionate community members are asked to perform professional-level commercial tasks with limited guidance.

That challenge becomes even clearer when examining how clubs track their commercial performance.

Only 25% of respondents said their club tracks return on investment consistently, while 75% said they do so only sometimes.

Image Credit: One-Nil Media

Without consistent measurement, it becomes difficult for clubs to demonstrate value to sponsors, justify investments, or refine strategies. In modern sport, data-driven decision making is not a luxury; it is essential.

For community clubs competing for attention and funding in crowded local markets, the ability to measure impact could be the difference between securing long-term partnerships and losing potential sponsors.

Encouragingly, the survey also highlights where clubs believe solutions may lie.

When asked what support they need most to grow revenue, 50% of respondents identified commercial education as the priority. Meanwhile 25% called for better commercial tools, and another 25% highlighted the need for stronger media and content capabilities.

Image Credit: One-Nil Media

Taken together, these responses paint a consistent picture: grassroots clubs are not asking for handouts, they are asking for knowledge, systems, and support.

This presents a major opportunity for football’s governing bodies, commercial partners and industry stakeholders.

If the sport is serious about strengthening the foundations of the game, investing in commercial capability at the community level must become part of the strategy. That could mean workshops for volunteers, accessible sponsorship toolkits, digital platforms that simplify partnership management or better storytelling frameworks that help clubs showcase their value to local businesses.

The demand clearly exists.

Community football already delivers enormous social return by bringing people together, supporting youth development and strengthening local identity. The challenge now is ensuring clubs have the commercial frameworks required to sustain that impact.

Because the truth is simple: grassroots clubs are willing to do the work.

They just need the tools.

And if Australian football wants to unlock the full potential of its largest participation base, empowering community clubs commercially may be one of the most important investments the game can make.

Five Matildas figures recognised Among Australia’s Most Influential Women in Sport

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Mary Fowler walks out onto the pitch during Australia v Korea in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. Image Credit: Rachel Bach; By The White Line

Code Sports‘ annual list of the 100 most influential women in sport is one of the more closely watched measures of where women’s sport in Australia stands. This year’s edition, released against the backdrop of a record-breaking home Women’s Asian Cup, features five women connected to Australian football across its top 100. Their collective presence on the list reflects a sport that is, by almost any measure, in the midst of a significant moment.

Mary Fowler has been ranked the most influential woman in Australian sport for the second time in three years, topping Code Sports’ annual list of 100 as the CommBank Matildas compete in a home AFC Women’s Asian Cup that has already rewritten the record books for women’s football globally.

Fowler’s ranking comes after a year defined as much by what happened off the pitch as on it. An ACL injury in April 2025 threatened to rule the Manchester City forward out of a home tournament with ten months to recover. She returned to club football in February 2026, was named in Joe Montemurro’s squad, and scored on her first start for Australia in 332 days, finding the net in a 4-0 win over Iran at Stadium Australia in front of a capacity crowd.

Sarah Walsh, ranked 14th, has been central to that shift as Chief Operating Officer of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Local Organising Committee. The former Matilda has overseen a tournament that has surpassed 250,000 tickets sold, demolishing the previous all-time record of 59,910 set across the entire 2010 edition in China. The opening match in Perth drew a record-breaking attendance of  44,379 fans at a Women’s Asian Cup. It lasted one week before 60,279 people filled Stadium Australia on International Women’s Day for Australia versus Korea Republic.

Those numbers carry weight beyond the scoreboard. They make the commercial and strategic case for continued investment in the women’s game in a way that advocacy alone cannot.

From the Pitch to the Boardroom

Captain Sam Kerr enters the list at 17, having returned from a 634-day ACL absence to score two goals in the tournament, including the opener in Perth on the first night. Kerr’s presence in the squad, and her continued ability to perform at the highest level, reinforces the argument that the Matildas’ 2023 World Cup run was not a ceiling.

Heather Garriock arrives at number seven having become the first woman to lead Football Australia, appointed Interim CEO in 2025 before transitioning into a newly created Executive Director of Football and Deputy CEO role following the appointment of Martin Kugeler as permanent CEO in February 2026. The role was designed to retain her influence within the organisation. With the Socceroos preparing for a sixth consecutive FIFA World Cup and the Matildas mid-tournament, Garriock’s position at the executive level of the sport’s governing body is not incidental.

At number 84, Lydia Williams enters the list in retirement. A proud Noongar woman and recent recipient of Professional Footballers Australia’s Alex Tobin Medal, the organisation’s highest honour for career-long contribution, Williams made her international debut in 2005 and retired in 2024 with more than 100 caps, becoming the first Australian female goalkeeper to reach that milestone and only the second Indigenous footballer after Kyah Simon to do so. She now sits on the board of the Australian Sports Commission.

The transition from player to policymaker matters because the decisions shaping Australian sport in the next decade will be made in rooms that have not always had people like Williams in them. Her presence there is part of the same story the rest of this list is telling.

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