If ever there was a time for the Matildas to be featured in a standalone farewell fixture, their Rio farewell would be it – yet again though, they find themselves tacked onto a Socceroos fixture.
In case you missed it, the Matildas’ farewell match before they depart for Rio will be played at 5pm on a weekday to take advantage of the Socceroos vs Greece match directly afterward.
Promoting women’s sport is a tricky proposition in the Australian market, with a whole raft of debate opening up whether standalone fixtures are the way to go or bandwagoning on the increased audience of male sides is the way to go.
It is a debate which has played out in rugby, cricket, AFL, and in the W-League.
The thinking goes that a lot more people will turn up directly before a men’s match to support the women than to a standalone women’s match – which, sadly, has some merit.
POPULAR ARTICLES
Alen Stajcic: Matildas gunning for Olympic gold
Larissa Crummer wants to bring W-League form to Rio
The thorny issue is that by bundling women’s matches into men’s clashes it creates the perception that women’s sport cannot attract an audience on its own, and is used as a crutch by administrators so they do not have to think of a way to separately promote a women’s match in the most effective manner.
In short, it is lazy, and does not help the perception of women’s sport if that is the best solution they can come up with.
That being said, giving women’s football the opportunity to be on the same stage as the more popular men’s game will help attract more people to the game.
It is a catch-22 which sports administrations in all codes need to deal with, and to be fair it is not as if the Matildas have not played standalone matches before.
But in the context of renewed national pride in the Matildas following their wonderful qualification process, is this not the perfect opportunity to give them a prime-time spot?
From 30 May to 7 June there is a FIFA-mandated international window in which national sides can play with impunity.
Given there’s a whole seven days preceding the 7 June fixture there is an opportunity to hold a standalone fixture for the Matildas, with the possibility of selling the match to Channel 7 for greater free-to-air exposure.
For example, why wouldn’t a game on the preceding Friday or Saturday night go well? Is the FFA afraid of being crowded out by other sports during the busy winter season?
There is precedence here for a standalone fixture.
Last year The Matildas played a farewell match against Vietnam as it prepared for the World Cup in Canada, smacking them 11-0.
On a sodden Thursday night at Jubilee Oval, over 4000 turned out to watch them play – and this was before the Matildas’ World Cup run and Rio qualification captured the public’s imagination and launched them into a new stratosphere of awareness and appreciation.
It is quite likely the FFA and the venue were caught off guard by the attendance given only one tuck shop was open on the night to feed the hungry masses (speaking from personal experience).
One can only imagine the turnout if the Matildas had played the same fixture post-Canada and Rio qualification.
There will be standalone fixtures for the Matildas before they depart, but we will not be able to measure the effect of the buzz on a farewell match.
Instead, they will be playing at 5pm on a Tuesday, hardly the best timeslot for a standalone fixture for a match of such significance.
But it is not a standalone fixture.
The question remains whether the majority of Socceroos supporters in Melbourne will cut out of work early to go and support the Matildas – but it could yet be another route to exposure for them.
If all goes to plan, it is not hard to envision a crowd of 10-15,000 people turning up early and strengthening as the match goes along, much more than a standalone Matildas fixture may get.
Of course, we will never actually know.
If ever there was a time to heavily promote the Matildas and test the waters to see how large a crowd they could draw on their own, the farewell match would be it – instead the waters will be muddied by the Socceroos fixture afterward.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
