Imagine Football Led Through the Eyes of the 51%
An International Women’s Day reflection on leadership in football
Today is International Women’s Day.
A day to celebrate the achievements of women, but also a moment to reflect honestly on the systems we operate within.
Football offers an interesting lens for that reflection.
Spend any time around grassroots football and you will notice something very quickly.
Women are everywhere.
The grassroots reality
They organise teams.
They manage age groups.
They coordinate competitions.
They volunteer week after week so that children can play.
Across Australia, grassroots football relies on thousands of volunteers. Many of them are women.
Without that contribution, the weekly rhythm of the game would look very different.
Yet when you look at leadership across the sport, the picture often changes.
Then the ladder changes
Move up the football structure and the number of women becomes smaller.
Club boards.
Federation leadership.
Executive roles.
The higher the ladder goes, the more male the leadership tends to become.
This is not unique to football. It happens across many sports.
But football is particularly interesting because women and girls are now one of the fastest growing parts of the game.
Participation is accelerating.
Leadership is changing much more slowly.
Imagine something different
So today, on International Women’s Day, it is interesting to imagine something different.
Imagine if Tasmania decided to lead the way.
Imagine a woman elected President of Football Tasmania for the first time.
Imagine a woman appointed as Chief Executive Officer for the first time.
Leadership looking through the eyes of 51 percent of the population.
Leadership setting the tone from the very top.
Leadership leading by example.
What might that look like?
Would the football world end?
Would players suddenly forget how to pass a ball?
Would competitions collapse overnight?
Of course not.
Football would still be football.
Clubs would still run.
Kids would still play.
Matches would still take place every weekend.
The difference would simply be that leadership might begin to reflect the people who already sustain the game.
A personal reflection
After more than twenty years around football administration, I sometimes find myself reflecting on how much has changed.
And how much has not.
Participation has grown enormously.
Women’s football has gained visibility and respect.
But when it comes to leadership, progress has felt slower.
In those twenty years I have not seen as many younger women stepping forward into leadership roles as I might have hoped.
That saddens me a little.
Not because women are not capable of leadership. Far from it.
But because football would benefit from more voices, more perspectives and more people willing to step forward and help shape the future of the game.
Recognition tells a story too.
Last year saw the introduction of the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame.
It was an important moment, recognising people who have made lasting contributions to the sport in this state.
But looking through the inaugural list of inductees, one thing stood out.
There were no women among those honoured.
I understand that at least one woman may have been nominated but declined the honour.
Even so, it raises an interesting question.
After more than a century of football in Tasmania, are there really no women whose contributions deserve to be recognised at that level?
Or does it simply reflect the same leadership gap that still exists across the game?
A quiet hope for the future
Leadership shapes culture.
It signals what is possible.
And sometimes that matters more than we realise.
Imagine a young girl walking into a football club in Tasmania.
She sees women coaching.
Women governing the game.
Women chairing boards.
Women running the game.
Not as something unusual.
Just as football.
Sometimes change begins with something as simple as seeing what is possible.
After all, 51 percent of the population sees the game through a slightly different lens.