2022-23 Liberty A-League fixtures to promote more fan engagement

Avatar
A-League
Image provided by Australian Professional Leagues

The Liberty A-League Women 2022-23 season have been released alongside a new show, free tickets for juniors and kick-off times.

A heap of measures to drive engagement with an expanded Liberty A-League Women’s competition have been unveiled by the Australian Professional Leagues (APL), building on feedback from fans and players in the lead-up to the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

The fixture schedule has the majority of games at family-friendly kick off times and many based at boutique venues in a deliberate effort to build atmosphere.

This season, for the first time ever, all registered junior players across the country, boys and girls, will be welcome for free at Liberty A-League games – offering young fans the chance to see current and future Matildas every week as excitement grows ahead of the World Cup.

After consulting with fans and players in the off-season, APL has moved to consolidate kick-off times to make games as accessible to families as possible.

The APL is also announcing its investment in an innovative broadcast format designed to give fans a compelling live experience every week.

As well as showing every game of the Liberty A-League live and free on 10 Play and live on Paramount+, the Saturday afternoon games will feature in a new ‘goal rush’-style show, switching from game to game as the action unfolds and with the host and experts having a two-way live conversation with the audience during the simultaneous games.

Australian Professional Leagues’ Chief Executive Officer, Danny Townsend said in a statement:

“87,000 fans watched the UEFA Women’s Final in July and the English FA Women’s Super League Clubs immediately reported memberships going through the roof. In the year that the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, we are orienting our business to Licapitalise upon that opportunity and ensure a lasting legacy for women’s football.

“This year, we have every single Liberty A-League Women game available live and free for the first time ever, and free access for every participant under season to watch the games in person. We know how our fans are consuming sport and we are better serving that growing audience of young, digitally connected fans.”

Commenting on the Liberty Pass, Liberty’s Chief Executive Officer James Boyle, said via Australian Professional Leagues:

“We’re looking forward to another electric season of Liberty A-League and are delighted to be introducing the Liberty Pass to young football fans, keen to experience the passion and quality of women’s professional football. The Liberty Pass will make football even more accessible, allowing freethinking families to enjoy an exciting live sporting experience at games throughout the season.”

The drive to reimagine the experience for both fans at the games and viewers comes as Western United joins as the competition’s 11th team, adding more games for fans and more match minutes for players.

APL has previously announced that Central Coast Mariners will join the competition next season, taking it to 12 teams with a full home and away fixture list – providing players with the same match minutes as the benchmark women’s leagues in Europe.

The players will also enter the second season of a five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) which mandates the same standards for men and women across areas such as hotels, sports science and training facilities, as part of APL’s sustained and extensive investment in growing women’s football.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

Avatar
Image credit: Melbourne Victory

The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

Avatar
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend