The rise of women’s football in New Zealand
In just two years, almost 5000 women and girls have started playing the beautiful game. The Post reporter Hanna McCallum, also a player for Seatoun AFC’s women’s first team, explores the lasting changes football is having on girls, women and their communities.
When Scarlett Maddock was asked if she wanted to start a women’s team, there hadn’t been one at Eastbourne Football Club for at least 10 years.
Having played a total of four weeks of football in her life, her knowledge went as far as “I knew what a ball is” – and it turned out, she was one of the more experienced.
It was the year of the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup, co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, when her chairperson threw the idea on the table.
With a woman stepping into the Eastbourne Football Club’s chairperson role that year and the Women’s World Cup coming up, it felt like the right thing to do at the right time but until then, Maddock had never considered football could be her “thing”.
