We’ve had an action-packed March with a wide range of events for Girls and Women’s Month. There have been Have a Go days in both Dunedin and Oamaru, A Women in Refereeing Webinar and a Girls Multi-Sport Event. 

Our first event of the month was our Have a Go Day in Dunedin. On Sunday 7th March, Football South took over Logan Park and over 100 girls came and played football for either the first time or continued their love of the sport! We had plenty of activities available for a wide age range (our youngest footballer was 4 and our oldest 40!) and the girls learnt the basics of refereeing, did shooting drills and even had the opportunity to play in a small-sided game.  

Football Ferns Tessa Nicol, Blake Currie and Rebecca Lake all attended the event and thoroughly enjoyed getting involved with the girls. Tessa, who plays for Southern United as well as Green Island AFC, was delighted by the turnout and reflected on the event, “It was great to see new girls who came along to give it a go, it can be really daunting to come and try a new sport!” Blair, who plies her trade for Southern United and Otago University Premiers, was stoked with how the day went, “It was so cool to walk around and see all the girls smiling and just having a great time!” She told us all about which activity she thought the girls had enjoyed most, “The refereeing course was great, the girls loved getting to give red cards – I think I got at least 12!” Canterbury Pride’s captain Rebecca travelled down from Christchurch, “My favourite part about today was not only playing football with all the girls but joining in with the colouring competition!”   

Less than a week later, we held another Have a Go day at Awamoa Park, Oamaru. A host of local schools attended including Pembroke School, St Kevin’s College, Fenwick, Waitaki Girls’ High School, amongst others. There were an array of activities on display including fun with flags, football fitness exercises and passing practice. It was great to have so many new faces getting involved in the game. Allys Clipsham, Football South’s Community Development Officer (G&W’s, Referees), was pleased with how both Have a Go Days panned out, “All involved made the events fabulous and I’d like to thank everyone who turned up, both participants and volunteers!”. This coming Sunday, we are holding another Have a Go Day at Sir Basil Arthur Park, in Timaru.  

On the 11th March, a host of influential female referees hosted the Women in Refereeing webinar. After an engaging introduction, the webinar went into breakout rooms hosted by referees Lindsey Robinson, Nadia Browning, Anna Marie Keighley, Beth Rattray, Allys Clipsham and Sarah Jones. It was great to hear these experienced referees sharing their stories of how they got into refereeing, and what they loved most about being a referee. One of our highlights was hearing Lindsey Robinson’s journey in refereeing, she spoke of her transition from playing to refereeing, “I started in the Men’s Sunday pub league, it was a great laugh and great to be involved. I mainly did men’s football, went up to the National Northern League. I love enthusing people into the game and love to see people reach their potential!” 

Lindsey has had many incredible experiences through refereeing and for her, no other experience surpasses refereeing the 2018 Women’s FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea. The match was in front of a record crowd with over 45,000 fans at England’s National Stadium, Wembley. “It was a big London derby, the biggest women’s crowd too! It was the first time my mum saw me ref, she was in the royal box. If she was in the stands, she’d be telling everyone off who was having a go at me!” 

We have pathways for girls and women to get into refereeing and our Referee Development Manager Lindsey Robinson and our Community Development Officer (G&W, Referees) Allys Clipsham began our latest Level 1 refereeing course on Monday 11th March, which is a female only intake. If you are interested in becoming a referee, check out this link. 

On Thursday 18th March, in collaboration with Otago Cricket and Hockey Otago, we held a Girls Multisport Day at Logan Park. Over 400 young girls got the chance to play the trio of sports and we had Football Ferns Anna Leat and Hannah Hegarty helping out the wee ones. It was a hugely successful day and we hope to run more events like this in the future!  

We are so excited for the return of our girls-only Soccer Sisters Holiday Programme! It will run alongside the Skill School on the 20th, 21st and 22nd of April at Logan Park Turf. For more details and to register for either programme,click here. 

It has also been great for us to touch base with girls and women already in the game, we have run a series of posts about Girls and Women’s Month on our social media platforms this week. Through this, we’ve spoke to a host of different wahine in the game from those just starting out all the way to referees with a host of experience. We are filming a G & W special on Footy Chat next week so keep a lookout for that, our host Morgan Jarvis will be joined by our Community Development Officer (G&W, Referees) Allys Clipsham and Green Island’s Jess Fuller. We can’t wait for next year’s Girls and Women’s month... and next year means the 2023 Women’s World Cup is only a year away!  

Article added: Tuesday 23 March 2021