By Kirra Livingstone
FOOTBALL Queensland’s annual Female Football Week (FFW) will be held on May 3 to May 12 to celebrate women in the sport.
As part of the special week, there are a number of awards that recognise the state’s best female football players, coaches and volunteers.
Beerwah Glasshouse Football Club (BeeGees) club’s premier women’s coach, Amy Higgins said it was an important week in the footballing calendar.
“Female football week is huge. It’s a timely reminder of how far we have come in the women’s game and how far we still have to go,” she said.
“It’s an exciting time for the club to get the opportunity to acknowledge all the women in our community that play a role in keeping football alive here at BeeGees.
“We have a lot of great women in our club who all deserve to be nominated.
“From our president Amanda, to the girls who not only play but coach some of the young teams like Molly McCaughey, Kirra Crouch, Emily Gripske and Abbie Topfer.”
She said that the work done behind the scenes from admin roles to the coaches and players, all played a vital role in keeping the club motoring along.
Amy added the Matildas’ success at the recent World Cup had helped shine a spotlight on women’s football.
“The Matildas have played a huge part in the growth of women’s football in the last few years,” she said.
“The world wide promotion and advertisement of women’s football has been so important.
“Girls that didn’t know who the Matildas were, are now running around in their jerseys.”
She added the Matildas had a snowball effect on women’s football, right down to an increase in junior girls signing up.
Amy finished by bringing attention to just how much the sport has grown for girls and women in the past five years.
“In the last five years we have seen significant growth in female football,” she said.
“I personally have seen more young females coming through the ranks each year and more interest into our senior teams with this year.
“We had so many numbers, we could create a third senior women’s team for the first time in a few years.”
