Frustrated by the lack of coverage of the sport she plays and loves – women’s football (soccer) – and knowing that more than 130,000 women and girls also play the game week-in, week-out around the country, Ann Odong decided five years ago to do something about it.
Armed with nothing much more than passion for the game, her legal training, some community broadcasting, voluntary match reporting and a ‘how to’ via Google, she started up The Women’s Game – a website devoted to all things women’s football in Australia.
Over time, the site and the part-time team behind The Women’s Game have grown to enjoy a dedicated and almost cult-like following by the many men and women fans of women’s version of the game as epitomised by the W-League clubs and Australia’s national women’s team, the Matildas.
After five years of growing and consolidating interest in the site Ann, along with colleague Danielle Warby decided it was time for the next step: a weekly women’s football web series.
Thanks to some innovative crowd-sourced funding, and support from the players in the W-League and their clubs who provided items of value, The Women’s Game recently completed a pilot program hosted by former Matilda, Sarah Walsh. The pilot episode covers the Matildas recent internationals against New Zealand, the Netherlands and France, as well as the many Australian women's footballers plying their trade overseas.
"In a week where we celebrated our five year anniversary, we were very proud to release our web series pilot," says Ann.
"We were very lucky to gain the services of Sarah for the pilot. As well as being an astute football analyst, Sarah has a great camera presence and was wonderful to work with."
With the pilot being well received by the public, both in Australia and overseas, The Women's Game are pressing forward with their plans to raise funds to produce a full 15 episode series focusing on the 2013-14 W-League season that is expected to kick-off in October.
Ann says they decided to take a calculated risk with the pilot, and want to keep aiming for a regular program, because The Women’s Game doesn’t want to wait any longer for the mainstream broadcast media to do something. The ABC has had the rights to the W-League since its rebirth in 2008, and SBS-TV has traditionally had the rights to international women’s matches including the Women’s World Cup.
"At a time where women's sport still continues to battle for mainstream media column inches and airtime, instead of lamenting the situation, we want to be a part of the solution," says Ann.
They're just doing it.
Watch the pilot episode below and visit The Women's Game.
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