Perth Glory ALW to play at Sam Kerr Football Centre next season

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Image credit: Perth Glory website

Perth Glory has confirmed that its A-League Women’s team will host their home games for the 2024/25 season at the Sam Kerr Football Centre.

Situated in Queens Park, this cutting-edge venue, which opened in July 2023, served as a training hub for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and welcomed several international teams.

Sam Kerr is the Glory’s best ever player and the world class striker produced incredible goal scoring numbers, with 57 goals in just 71 appearances for the Glory, becoming their all-time record scorer. It was a period of her career that launched her into Europe.

The world-class facility was developed with funding from both the State and Australian governments, with contributions of $34.55 million and $16.25 million, respectively, and was specifically created with the purpose of becoming the main training facility for the Matildas in Perth on top of hosting women’s NPL matches. It will now introduce A-League Women’s fixtures for the first time.

The centre includes two full-size elite pitches, three five-a-side pitches, seating for approximately 700 spectators, change rooms, office and meeting spaces, and extensive parking.

Perth Glory Women’s team spent the last three seasons at Macedonia Park, home of NPL WA club Stirling Macedonia. It is the same ground used by Glory’s men’s team in the 2022/23 season whilst HBF Park had ongoing renovations.

Glory CEO Anthony Radich believes that the new venue will provide an ideal home for the club’s ALW side and potentially to become a new fortress.

“We’re excited to be playing at the Sam Kerr Football Centre and are very appreciative to Football West and VenuesWest for their support in making this move possible,” Radich said in a club statement.

“We will always be grateful for the support we received from Stirling Macedonia during our time at Macedonia Park hosting both our Men’s and Women’s games.

“They were incredible hosts who were genuinely committed to the betterment of our game.

“I would like to sincerely thank President Luke Pavlos, Vice-President Chris Velios and everyone involved at the club for all of their hard work and contribution over the last few years.

“We are also very appreciative of the support the City of Canning provided for our move to the Sam Kerr Football Centre.

“With the incredible growth and professionalism of the women’s game, the Sam Kerr Football Centre now offers our players, Members and fans state-of-the-art facilities which will only help to elevate the game and take it to new levels.

“We cannot wait to get our 2024/25 ALW campaign underway in November.”

Football West CEO and Glory legend Jamie Harnwell is excited at the prospect of the terrific new facility hosting ALW matches.

“The Sam Kerr Football Centre was designed to be the home of football in WA and hosting the Glory Women here serves to reinforce that aim,” Harnwell mentioned in the Perth Glory statement.

“It provides an opportunity for the community to come together in a family-friendly environment and support our elite-level women on the national stage.

“This move is another example of Football West and Perth Glory working collaboratively to drive the game forward here in WA.”

This move to the Sam Kerr Football Centre is a smart one, making use of the new world class facility used by four international teams during the 2023 Women’s World Cup and situated in the heart of Perth, making accessibility easy for new potential fans.

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Capital Football Introduces Pink Armband to Protect Junior Referees

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Image Credit: Marist Canberra FC

Capital Football has launched a visible identification program for referees under 18, requiring them to wear a pink armband during matches. It’s intended to build awareness surrounding the concern across Australian football about the abuse driving young officials out of the game.

The Pink Armband Initiative, effective immediately across Capital Football’s competitions in the ACT and surrounding region, makes junior referees identifiable to players, coaches and spectators. The federation says the marker is designed to set clear behavioural expectations and signal that many match officials are minors still developing their skills.

Capital Football acknowledged a referee crisis as far back as 2022, at which point it restructured its entire referee department in partnership with Football Australia. The pink armband program is the latest layer of that response; this time by targeting the cultural conditions on match day rather than systems of recruitment and pay.

A problem that spans codes and states

Research has consistently linked referee abuse to declining retention rates, with officials quitting in growing numbers due to sustained mistreatment, a trend researchers warn will reduce the pool of skilled match officials available at all levels of the game. Studies also show that young, less experienced referees are disproportionately likely to be subject to abuse.

Capital Football is not alone in reaching for a visible solution. Similar programs operate across Football Queensland, Football South Australia, Football South Coast and several other federations, while Basketball Victoria and Basketball South Australia have adopted comparable measures through the Green Whistle initiative. The spread of these programs across codes and states reflects a shared administrative problem: many grassroots referees are teenagers and volunteers who do not officiate for money but because they love the game, and abuse is eroding that foundation.

For a federation overseeing nearly 29,000 registered players, fewer referees means fewer matches. Fewer matches means reduced participation. The pink armband is a low-cost intervention with structural consequences if it works.

Football Victoria Backs Campaign to Shield Junior Players from Gambling Harm

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More than 600 sporting clubs across Victoria have enrolled in a state government program designed to limit young players’ exposure to gambling, with Football Victoria now urging its community clubs to join before a late-July registration deadline.

The Love the Game initiative asks clubs to formally commit to a set of principles: refusing sports betting sponsorships, developing internal harm prevention policies, and building environments where coaches, parents and players are equipped to discuss gambling risks with children.

The program’s public health rationale has a sharper statistical edge than its community-facing materials suggest. A 2025 study of Victorian secondary school students aged 12 to 17 found that nearly 30% had gambled at some point, and among those who had gambled in the past year, 7.5% met the criteria for problem-gambling and a further 26.8% were classified as ‘at-risk’. The research, commissioned by the state government and published earlier this year, also found that students exposed to gambling venues and advertising were more likely to gamble or to do so in a risky manner.

The most recent Victorian Population Gambling Study found that Victorians aged 18 to 24 are the group least likely to gamble overall, yet carry the highest rates of harmful gambling across all age groups. Young people aged 18 to 34 are around five times more likely to bet on sports than older cohorts.

When the data lands at the clubhouse door

Football Victoria’s support for the program reflects a broader recognition within community sport that participation rates and club culture are connected. The environments clubs create shape whether young people stay in sport and what norms they carry with them into adulthood. For football specifically, which draws participants across a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, that responsibility is not evenly distributed. Approximately 440,000 Victorians, or 8.5 per cent of the state’s population, are classified as being at some risk of experiencing problem gambling.

The Victorian Government’s program gives clubs more than symbolic membership. Registered clubs receive practical tools to develop governance frameworks around gambling harm, resources for coaching staff and volunteers, and standing as part of a growing network of clubs taking a formal position on the issue.

Researchers have described the current framing of gambling harm as a matter of personal responsibility as inadequate, arguing it is a public health issue requiring a systemic response. Community football clubs, with their reach into households across the state, are one of the institutional levers available to make that response visible.

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