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 NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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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.

Marie-Louise Eta makes history as new Union Berlin head coach

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Image credit: FC Union Berlin

In an historic appointment, Eta will take over as head coach of Union Berlin until the end of the season.

History in the making

Previously the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history with Union Berlin, Eta will now take the reigns of the men’s first team on an interim basis.

Currently, the club sit in 11th place in the Bundesliga table, but with only two wins so far in 2026, relegation appears an all-too-real prospect, and one which the club is desperate to avoid.

“Given the points gap in the lower half of the table, our place in the Bundesliga is not yet secure,” said Eta via official media release.

‘I am delighted that the club has entrusted me with this challenging task. One of Union’s strengths has always been, and remains, the ability to pull together in such situations.”

Eta will begin as Union’s new head coach with immediate effect, and will be in the dugout for the club’s matchup against Wolfsburg this weekend.

 

A step into an equal future

Eta’s appointment signals a major step towards a more level playing field in the football landscape.

Furthermore, Eta joins other coaches including Sabrinna Wittmann, Hannah Dingley and Corinne Diacre who, in recent years, have blazed a trail for female coaches to step into the men’s game.

Wittmann currently manages FC Ingolstadt in Germany’s third division, and was the first female head coach in Germany’s top three divisions.

In 2023, Dingley became caretaker manager of Forest Green Rovers, and thus the first woman to lead a men’s professional team in England.

Diacre, now head coach of France’s women’s national team, managed Ligue 2’s Clerment Foot between 2014 and 2017.

 

Final thoughts

The impact therefore, is that Eta’s appointment will show future generations of aspiring female coaches that men’s football is an equally viable and possible pathway as the women’s game.

The time is now to level the playing field.

And while it may be a short-term role, its effect on attitudes towards equality and fair opportunities in the game will hopefully resonate long after the season ends.

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