The Women's Game in Victoria
The birth of Women’s football in Victoria is one of perseverance and struggle, sprinkled with moments of growth and decline, until a group of pioneers thrust the sport into organised existence almost half a century ago.
There are documented matches between clubs before then, particularly in regional Victoria. As early as 1960, Coburg were hosting matches against visiting teams at Cole Reserve, while Cobram and Geelong Scottish were playing friendly matches too. State League giants and Australia Cup champions Slavia famously had a Women’s team in the mid 1960s, sponsored by a cigarette company no less, but they simply ran out of opponents and ultimately, existence.
While teams were gradually forming in fits and starts, the Victorian Amateur Soccer Football Association put its stamp on Women’s football by essentially banning Girls from Junior Boys competition in 1960, suggesting that girls would need to find enough players to field a team before they could be registered. Then secretary, Stuart Beaton, was “glad to supply information to any individual or institution interested.” The impact of that ruling was significant, as it would be more than a decade before enough girls would be able to cobble together the numbers necessary to not only form a team but find others they could compete against.
Trailblazer Lynette McKernan, encouraged by her daughter’s interest in the game, began a Women’s team in 1972, with Doveton Ladies playing its first match against Morwell Pegasus in July. Later that year, McKernan organised a Gala Day which brought together six teams in total, the majority from the south-east of Melbourne, where it appeared the Women’s movement was gathering momentum.
By 1973, the Victorian Soccer Federation could see the potential on offer and organised for Doveton and Bayswater City to play in the curtain raiser to the Victoria v Cruzeiro tour match at Olympic Park. The more than 10,000 crowd which witnessed the second half of the encounter (referred to as a “gimmick” in the press) remains the largest attendance for a Women’s club football match in Victoria and set the tone for what would follow in December.
The inaugural meeting of what would become the Victorian Women’s Soccer Association (VWSA) was held at the Princes Gate Conference Centre in Flinders Street and involved ten clubs representing more than 120 women keen to play regular competition. Fred Habbe, Kip Sumner and Jaqui Ager were elected as office bearers, with Lynette McKernan joining them on Committee. Come 1974, the first ever league season was contested across two divisions separated on geographical grounds. The record books show that Melton won the Grand Final over Greensborough, with Janette Melvin thundering home the winning goal. Green Gully won the Cup, defeating Melton 2-1 in a replay.
Other pioneers of the game in Victoria around this time included Betty Hoar, a player in the first season, she would ultimately assume the roles of team manager and administrator at both state and national level. Hoar is recognised in the Roll of Honour of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and was an inaugural inductee in the Victorian equivalent in 2010. Hoar and Theresa Jones, goalkeeper for the national team for a decade, are also recognised in trophies awarded to the best junior and youth players by Football Victoria. Both Anne McPhee and her daughter Janine were highly influential in promoting the women’s game when it did not have the profile it has and deserves today.
On the pitch, Greensborough ultimately assumed the honour of the first powerhouse of Women’s football in Victoria and claimed 10 consecutive league championships from 1975 to 1984, finishing unbeaten in six of them. They won the Cup eight times throughout this period too, with Dandenong (1977) and North Dandenong (1984) the only teams to curb their total dominance.
By 1987, Greensborough were no more and players had moved to Coburg and Nunawading City, a trend that would prove common in the Women’s game for years to come. The league itself was under threat from extinction owing to a drop-off in player numbers, with only four teams in a single division at one point. North Dandenong would run out winners and ultimately set about its own period of dominance claiming the following three championships under the amalgamated Dandenong banner. The team featured Australian stars Debbie Nichols, Theresa Jones and Jane Oakley, as well as Victorian representatives Judy Pettitt, Rachel Tolan and Lisa Davis.
Season 1992 heralded the introduction of a rebranded Women’s Premier League, with Berwick City inheriting many of the Dandenong cohort, as it too would claim a run of four championships as the league began to expand and finally gain some level of stability. Brunswick Zebras, featuring a young Melissa Barbieri (as an outfielder) and Louisa Bisby would win back-to-back championships (1996-1997) before Cranbourne reasserted the dominance from the south-east claiming the last honour under the VWSA banner.
The preceding quarter of a century provided some level of success for Victoria, particular at national championship level. Governed by the Australian Women’s Soccer Association, the National Championships not only provided elite level competition for the best players in each state, but allowed the Australian Head Coach to confidently select a national squad for international competition.
Victoria were runners-up at home in 1976 and in Darwin in 1979 but would finally win the title at a fourteenth attempt, defeating Northern New South Wales to claim honours in Alice Springs in 1987. Success followed again in Canberra in 1989, and Brisbane in 1992, and the Vics would claim their fourth honour at the last AWSA Championships in Devonport in 1998.
Stars of those early teams included internationals Shona Bass, Andrea Martin, Monika Werner and Theresa Jones, with Janette Melvin, Beverley Hubbard and sisters Karen and Andrea Delves featuring heavily. Jane Oakley and Debbie Nichols would soon enter international reckoning via their performances at Nationals.
Much discussion had preceded the ultimate amalgamation between the VWSA, or as it was then known, Women’s Soccer Victoria, and the Victorian Soccer Federation (VSF). Ultimately, the amalgamation established an integrated structure to provide professional administrative services and infrastructure to all female participants in football. This resulted in a Women’s football competition for junior and senior teams beginning in 1999 and other initiatives aimed at grassroots and elite player development.
Participation has boomed in that time, both in senior and junior ranks, but the dominance of one or two clubs has been a continued trend. Cranbourne (now Casey Comets) won three championships in five years as the VSF amalgamation took hold. However, it would be Box Hill Inter that would assert their dominance, winning 9 championships in 12 seasons between 2001 and 2012. With Melissa Barbieri, Louisa Bisby, Georgia Koutrouvelis, Daniela Digiammarco, Aleksandra Sinclair and Anthea Vardakis just a few of the players to feature throughout, only Heidelberg United and South Melbourne could join Cranbourne in interrupting their dominance.
South Melbourne would claim the mantle of challengers to the dominance crown, their 4 championships in 7 seasons a testament to an investment in Women’s football which has witnessed the birth of the NPL era, where Calder United and Bulleen Lions have joined them as modern-day powerhouses of Women’s football. Melina Ayres, Catherine Zimmerman, Tiffany Eliadis and Melinda Barbieri have all benefited from time with these clubs, as they carve out domestic league careers in the A-League Women’s with Melbourne Victory.