Five Matildas figures recognised Among Australia’s Most Influential Women in Sport

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Mary Fowler walks out onto the pitch during Australia v Korea in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. Image Credit: Rachel Bach; By The White Line

Code Sports‘ annual list of the 100 most influential women in sport is one of the more closely watched measures of where women’s sport in Australia stands. This year’s edition, released against the backdrop of a record-breaking home Women’s Asian Cup, features five women connected to Australian football across its top 100. Their collective presence on the list reflects a sport that is, by almost any measure, in the midst of a significant moment.

Mary Fowler has been ranked the most influential woman in Australian sport for the second time in three years, topping Code Sports’ annual list of 100 as the CommBank Matildas compete in a home AFC Women’s Asian Cup that has already rewritten the record books for women’s football globally.

Fowler’s ranking comes after a year defined as much by what happened off the pitch as on it. An ACL injury in April 2025 threatened to rule the Manchester City forward out of a home tournament with ten months to recover. She returned to club football in February 2026, was named in Joe Montemurro’s squad, and scored on her first start for Australia in 332 days, finding the net in a 4-0 win over Iran at Stadium Australia in front of a capacity crowd.

Sarah Walsh, ranked 14th, has been central to that shift as Chief Operating Officer of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026 Local Organising Committee. The former Matilda has overseen a tournament that has surpassed 250,000 tickets sold, demolishing the previous all-time record of 59,910 set across the entire 2010 edition in China. The opening match in Perth drew a record-breaking attendance of  44,379 fans at a Women’s Asian Cup. It lasted one week before 60,279 people filled Stadium Australia on International Women’s Day for Australia versus Korea Republic.

Those numbers carry weight beyond the scoreboard. They make the commercial and strategic case for continued investment in the women’s game in a way that advocacy alone cannot.

From the Pitch to the Boardroom

Captain Sam Kerr enters the list at 17, having returned from a 634-day ACL absence to score two goals in the tournament, including the opener in Perth on the first night. Kerr’s presence in the squad, and her continued ability to perform at the highest level, reinforces the argument that the Matildas’ 2023 World Cup run was not a ceiling.

Heather Garriock arrives at number seven having become the first woman to lead Football Australia, appointed Interim CEO in 2025 before transitioning into a newly created Executive Director of Football and Deputy CEO role following the appointment of Martin Kugeler as permanent CEO in February 2026. The role was designed to retain her influence within the organisation. With the Socceroos preparing for a sixth consecutive FIFA World Cup and the Matildas mid-tournament, Garriock’s position at the executive level of the sport’s governing body is not incidental.

At number 84, Lydia Williams enters the list in retirement. A proud Noongar woman and recent recipient of Professional Footballers Australia’s Alex Tobin Medal, the organisation’s highest honour for career-long contribution, Williams made her international debut in 2005 and retired in 2024 with more than 100 caps, becoming the first Australian female goalkeeper to reach that milestone and only the second Indigenous footballer after Kyah Simon to do so. She now sits on the board of the Australian Sports Commission.

The transition from player to policymaker matters because the decisions shaping Australian sport in the next decade will be made in rooms that have not always had people like Williams in them. Her presence there is part of the same story the rest of this list is telling.

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Football Queensland to celebrate Female Football Week with statewide events, awards and coaching programs

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Brighton women's football motion
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football Queensland will mark the 2026 Female Football Week with a program of statewide events, competitions and professional development opportunities running from May 8-17, as the governing body continues to push for broader access and representation across all levels of the women’s game in Queensland.

The nationwide initiative, now a fixture on the Australian football calendar, provides a concentrated period of visibility for female participation across playing, coaching, officiating and administration: areas where structural underrepresentation has historically limited both the growth of the game and the opportunities available to women and girls within it.

“Female Football Week provides us with a valuable opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women and girls across our game while continuing to increase the accessibility of football in Queensland,” said Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci. “We encourage our clubs to host their own Female Football Week events and activations for female participants.”

 

Elite Competition Meets Community Access

The centrepiece of Football Queensland’s program is the return of the NPL Women’s Magic Round to Nudgee Recreation Reserve on May 8 and 9, featuring five NPL Women’s Round 13 clashes alongside a Girls United Junior Carnival and family-friendly activations. Each Magic Round game will feature an all-female refereeing panel, a deliberate and visible commitment to developing the next generation of female match officials at a moment when referee shortages are among the most pressing structural challenges facing the game nationally.

A Women in Football networking event will be held on the opening night of Magic Round, bringing together coaches, match officials and administrators. The inclusion of that event alongside elite competition is significant because it positions professional development and community building not as supplementary activities but as core components of what Female Football Week is for.

The Central Coast region will host its own Magic Round on May 16, featuring a Youth Girls game and three FQPL Central Coast Women’s matches, while a Darling Downs Junior Girls Day will take place at Captain Cook Park on the same day, extending the reach of the week’s programming beyond the southeast corner of the state into regional Queensland.

 

Coaching access as a structural priority

Football Queensland will deliver a series of female-only coaching courses around Female Football Week, with clubs also able to express interest in hosting their own. The initiative addresses one of the most persistent barriers to female representation in football administration- its coaching pipeline.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented at all levels of the game in Australia, and the barriers to accreditation, including cost, availability and the cultural environment of mixed coaching courses, compound one another in ways that individual ambition alone cannot overcome. Female-only courses create environments where women can develop without those barriers, and their delivery during Female Football Week signals that the commitment extends beyond celebration into structural change.

The Girls United Carnivals, running in both Metro and Far North and Gulf regions alongside the Q-League Schools program at Meakin Park, extend that access to players at the earliest stages of their football journey.

Football South Australia renews partnership with Datacord as Community Football Commitment Deepens

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Image Credit: Football SA

Football South Australia has announced the renewal of its partnership with Datacord, continuing a relationship that has grown steadily since the South Australian print and document solutions provider first entered the football community as naming rights sponsor of the Collegiate Soccer League Division 1.

That initial agreement, which saw Datacord align with one of Adelaide’s most historic amateur competitions, marked the beginning of what has since developed into a broader commitment to South Australian football at every level. The renewed partnership extends Datacord’s involvement beyond the CSL and into the wider Football SA ecosystem, with clubs across the state now able to access exclusive offers and preferred pricing on photocopying, managed print services and tailored business solutions.

The practical value of that access should not be understated. Community football clubs operate on tight margins, relying heavily on volunteer administrators managing everything from registration paperwork to grant applications. Cost-effective print and document solutions reduce the operational burden on those volunteers, a small but meaningful contribution to the sustainability of clubs that form the backbone of the game in South Australia.

“George is a great supporter of sport in South Australia and we are delighted to have Datacord as a supporter of football,” said Football SA CEO Michael Carter. “Service is second to none and we highly recommend their services to the business community within the Football Family.”

For Datacord Managing Director George Koutsoubis, the renewal reflects a genuine investment in the community rather than a transactional commercial arrangement. “It is important to support the local community, and Football South Australia is the perfect place to start spreading the word about Datacord and what we do for the South Australian community,” he said. “We are locally owned and operated, and I think it is a great partnership to be part of.”

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