Up for the Cup
Women’s football is on the rise in Christchurch
The football season follows a familiar pattern.
The first encounters take place under greying skies and amidst falling leaves, as teams find their feet and feel each other out.
Most of it takes place on fields usually frozen or muddy, and in conditions better suited to curling up with a book than curling in a cross. These are the dog days — the results start to pile up and the league hierarchy takes shape.
It ends in spring, as the sun breaks through again. At the top end of the table, each game becomes vital; at the other end, games take on a carefree nature. And another competition begins — the knockout cup.
Before you know it, it’s cup final day, the grand occasion that marks the season’s end.
This year, Canterbury football fans were given the gift of two cup final days. On the first weekend of September, the local men and women’s contests took place, and then a week later, the national competitions came to town for the first time in twenty years.
It’s the men’s games that get all the pomp: the top billing, the mid-afternoon kick-off times, the bigger crowds, and in the case of the Chatham Cup, the TV coverage. But in the mornings, while the sausage sizzles are still getting set up, the women played. And in their two games, there was plenty to suggest the women’s game is making its mark on Canterbury.
First up was the Reta Fitzpatrick Cup, contested by Western AFC and Cashmere Technical on September 8.
Only seven minutes into the game, and with their first attack, Western scored. A quick break down the right flank; a cross to captain Aimee Phillips in the middle of the park; the ball in the back of the net.
The rest of the half was all Cashmere, and they would have felt unlucky to be behind at the break.
Two minutes into the second half, their hopes of mounting a comeback were dealt a serious blow.
Gathering the ball 25 yards out, Phillips saw Cashmere keeper Megan Andrew was off her line and let rip, her shot dipping neatly into the corner of the goal.
Up two-nil, Western had breathing room. As the half dragged on, Cashmere forced Western deeper and deeper, but as hard as they fought, they couldn’t break through.
As she collected the cup, Phillips addressed the crowd:
“Females in football, it’s a growing thing.”
29 million women play football worldwide. When last counted in 2011, 23,500 played the beautiful game in New Zealand, around 1,000 of them in Canterbury.
Mainland Football development officer Emily Toase says having good role models is the key to attracting more players.
A girls and women’s week was held at the start of September. Mainland Football ran 16 events at Christchurch clubs and schools, with over 1000 girls taking part.
Two Young Football Ferns, Laura Merrin and Lily Alfeld, still teenagers themselves, helped run the sessions, which involved small-sided games, designed to give young girls a taste of football.
Toase says the events were all about making girls go home and say “Mum! I want to play football!”
They were promoting the girls-only summer league, which allows girls to give the sport a go while avoiding clashes with winter sports they already play. Last year, 75 girls took part and Toase is confident of attracting 100 this time around.
There’s no doubt girls football still needs help. There were 44 girls’ teams from 10th grade to 18th grade in Canterbury this year and 26 women’s teams.
There were 405 women and 561 girls playing, slightly down from 390 and 590 respectively in 2012. The number of teams in 10th grade nearly doubled, from five to nine, which bodes well for the future, but Toase says “it’s a major worry” that they were unable to hold a 16th grade competition this year.
“It’s very slow progress but that’s the way it goes in women’s football”.
For Coastal Spirit, the ASB Women’s Knockout Cup final on September 16 was a case of déjà vu.
They had already faced their opponents, Glenfield Rovers, two years earlier for the same prize, losing to Auckland side three-nil.
Coastal Spirit has been the team to beat in Christchurch; winning the league the last two years and the Reta Fitzaptrick cup the last four.
Football development officer Gareth Turnbull says one of the reasons for their success is that they put the women on an equal footing with the men at their club and expects no difference between them.
Toase has high praise for what Coastal is doing, calling it “a club where they take care of their women’s football” and says its clubs such as them, as well as Cashmere and Western, which are promoting the women’s game without being asked, that Canterbury needs more of.
It’s for moments like this, the chance to win the cup, that people take up sport.
Cup finals have a certain aura about them.
As Coastal defender Maia Vink puts it, “you never know when you’re going to get to play in another one”.
For seventy minutes, it seems like it might be another opportunity missed for Coastal. Glenfield were both an older and stronger side, and made their advantages count, dominating possession and creating more chances.
However, none of them were particularly threatening, and as the game drags on, nerves, and Coastal, crept back into it.
Still, the game looked headed for extra time.
With 30 seconds to play, Coastal had a free kick, outside and to the left of the box.
Fullback Laura Merrin swung it in with her left boot.
The ball dipped into the box, where a Rovers’ defender met it.
It looped up and towards their goalkeeper, who tried to claim it, but in the end could only help it over the line.
One-nil to Coastal Spirit.
Vink said she felt “absolute relief” when the final whistle went.
Coach Alana Gunn was pleased to be able to reward the players who had given so much of their time over the last few years towards winning this cup.
A crowd of 1000 turned up to watch the final, making it the largest crowd Vink and her teammates had ever played in front of, and Vink said it was great to know that they “do mean something to the community”.
As massive a result as it was for Coastal Spirit, Toase thinks it could lead to an even bigger boost for women’s football in the region.
“The fact that it was so well supported is really, really good”.
“The biggest thing for us is getting that cup”, says Toase. “We now have more role models that we can use to spur the game on”.
Since this was written, the national women’s league has started. After four of seven round-robin games, Mainland Pride sit in second place, unbeaten with a pair of wins and draws. Ahead of them on the table is Northern Football, who come to town on November 17, for what should be a cracker of a game. Their coach Gareth Turnbull,in his second season in charge, was excited about their prospects when he spoke to me in September, saying the plan had been to win it in year two. So far, it seems they’re right on track.
