WOMEN IN PRIME POSITION
Women's Premier League set to headline FNQ Football derby
WOMEN’S football will be given the platform a generation of top-quality players have earned on Saturday night when it is the main event in FNQ Football’s biggest derby clash.
Edge Hill United’s Round 11 Women’s FNQ Premier League clash with Leichhardt has been moved to the prime time slot for the first time in years.
It is an opportunity to showcase the immense talent of both teams in what is building up to be an incredible clash, and also serves as the best advertisement for the strength of women’s football in FNQ in the lead-up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2023.
Both Edge Hill United and Leichhardt are undefeated through the first 10 rounds.
WOMEN’S football will be given the platform a generation of top-quality players have earned on Saturday night when it is the main event in FNQ Football’s biggest derby clash.
Edge Hill United’s round 11 Women’s FNQ Premier League clash with Leichhardt has been moved to the prime timeslot, the first of the year.
It will be the first of two straight games at Tiger Park to receive top billing this year. Edge Hill’s round-12 game against JCU Strikers will also be played under lights.
Edge Hill United president Terry McDonough said it was an opportunity to showcase the immense talent both teams possess in what is shaping up to be an incredible clash.
It also serves as the best advertisement for the strength of women’s football in FNQ in the lead-up to the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
“We wanted to promote the women’s game, especially with the World Cup coming up, but they deserve it,” McDonough told the Cairns Post. “The women’s games will be big, both this and next week.”
The change in kick-off time means two of the six senior fixtures at Tiger Park will be headlined by the all-conquering women’s team.
The Tigers have won the past two grand finals, and are undefeated this year as they chase the treble.
Edge Hill United has arguably been the strongest club for women’s football in the past decade, claiming plenty of silverware over the years.
It comes a week after Leichhardt’s
clash with Mareeba was shifted from the regular 3pm slot to 5pm, just before the men’s Premier League contest.
Earlier this year, a former premiership-winning coach at Edge Hill United, Rose Calvert, called for women to be given the spotlight they deserve.
Calvert, a player-coach of last year’s grand final-winning team, was the only woman at a Football Queensland consultation meeting in July, and called out the competition’s treatment when FQ CEO Robert Cavallucci was in town.
“I think it has to start at the grassroots level, so what I spoke about in the meeting was, on a very basic level, let’s put the women’s games in FNQ in the premier timeslots,” she told the Cairns Post after that meeting. “It’s a simple measure, I can’t see anything wrong with that.”
Women’s Premier League games have generally been played before the men’s reserve grade. That traditional format has been in place to ensure reserve grade players are fit and ready to back up for the men’s top grade.
The rise of women’s football in recent years has forced that view to be reconsidered.
The Women’s Premier League clash will headline a full day of fixtures at Tiger Park.