Spring Hills FC makes History with All-Female Junior Coaching Staff in NPLW Victoria

Declan Chan23/03/2026 6:05 am21/03/2026

Image Credit: Football Victoria

Spring Hills FC has become the first club in the National Premier Leagues Women’s Victoria structure to field junior teams coached entirely by female coaches – a milestone that reflects a broader transformation at the Springside Reserve-based club since joining Football Victoria’s Club Changer Program in 2023.

The achievement is one of several markers of rapid growth at the club. In 2023, Spring Hills fielded 101 female participants. By the end of the 2025 season, total club membership had grown to more than 550 players, a 28 per cent increase over two seasons, driven in large part by a deliberate investment in creating pathways for women and girls at every level of the game.

That investment has extended well beyond player numbers. The club has expanded its volunteer base, increased female representation in coaching and leadership roles, and progressed from local community competition into the Victorian Premier League and now the NPL Women’s Victoria structure, providing a sustainable pathway for young female footballers to develop within their own community club.

“The Game Changer initiative has helped our club rapidly progress female participation, both on the field and in coaching roles,” said Club President Tom Markovski. “It has provided the framework and support needed to grow opportunities for women and girls and strengthen our entire football community.”

The implications reach beyond Spring Hills. At a time when women’s football in Australia is drawing record crowds and producing players competing at the highest levels of the global game, the pipeline that feeds it depends on clubs willing to invest at the grassroots. Spring Hills’ story demonstrates that when the structures are right, the growth follows.

The club’s Club Champion, Aleks Sinclair, has been recognised for her leadership role in driving the program forward.

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

Declan Chan15/04/2026 6:15 am14/04/2026

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

Patrick Irving15/04/2026 6:05 am14/04/2026

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.