When
Kate McShea, the captain of the inaugural premiership team in the
new W-league, raised the premiership trophy to conclude the first season of the new national womens competition it wasn’t just the crowd cheering.
For women players, and the entire football community, it seemed that Australia had finally established a successful domestic female football competition. But many questions are being asked about whether this success will last and how to ensure its sustainability.
The
Westfield W-league is the national womens football competition run by the Football
Federation of Australia’s (FFA). It was launched in July 2008 and the ten game season commenced three months later with seven teams linked to an A-league club plus
Canberra United.
The
Queensland Roar were the eventual winners in the inaugural season defeating
Canberra United 2-0 in Brisbane in front of 4,554 fans, a record number for a womens game.
The local team,
Melbourne Victory, finishing fifth and just missed the play offs.
The competition was hastily put together and
Melbourne Victory W-league coach, Matt Shepherd, said despite only having two months to get his squad together he believed the first season was a success.
“It was thrown together in a very short period of time, with a lot of great support (sic), we had to make it happen and I think it’s a good basis to build on,” he said.
“It opened up a lot of peoples eyes in terms of what the potential is for the league overall.”
Tal Karp, captain of Melbourne Victory W-league, described the competition as the biggest step forward that womens football has seen in Australia.
“While we missed out on the finals we achieved a lot,” she said.
“Victoria, in womens soccer (terms), has been the underdog so, to make it to the top five was an achievement.”
She said the W-league players were welcomed into the Melbourne Victory club and evidence of this is their inclusion in the team medal night on the 6 March and invitations to attend all the local A-league games.
The competition also raised the profile of the sport with ABC TV broadcasting one match each week.
It was rumoured that the ABC achieved around 125,000 viewers per game and 1.3 million cumulative viewers, which, if true, would make it more watched than the A-league which is only shown on pay television.
ABC TV W-league commentator,
Steve Robilliard said getting the women access to good grounds and increasing main stream media interest in the competition would see the quality of the league improve.
Coach of the highly successful
Matilda’s, Tom Sermmani, was also very impressed by the competition. He told Robbilliard that after ten weeks of tough competition he could see that the skill level and standard of play among some of his national players had improved.
All those interviewed agreed that the major shortcoming of the competition was that the players were not paid in the inaugural season of the W-league.
Recently retired Matilda captain, Cheryl Salisbury, who played for the
Newcastle Jets, told
SBS TV of the hardship of playing and also having to earn a living outside football.
“The last twelve months have been the hardest for me. To try and work full time, train full time and have free time and try to recover as well. If we want to go forward we have to be professional,’ she said.
The teething problems that need to be sorted out next season include a more organised and streamlined approach between the states and the FFA, more media coverage and sponsorship to increase its professionalism.
But the players are enthusiastic, womens football participation is growing and with the support all football fans we could be looking at another FFA success story.
Other stories which you might find of interest:
We Can Be An Oz Superpower - Four Four Two, 20 Jan 2009
Salisibury Say Goodbye with a Goal - Football Federation Australia 29 Jan 2009
