EDITORIAL: The Central Coast is currently in the grip of football fever, thanks to the FIFA Women’s World Cup and excitement over the Mariners’ coming season, with soccer taking hold in the hearts, minds and feet of locals.
The Central Coast Mariners have in many ways come of age, with the club’s second Championship win in the men’s A-league competition last season now coupled with the club’s imminent entry into the National Women’s A-league competition.
The club has passionate, brave and inspired football management and ownership.
As a result the Mariners now fly the region’s flag higher than any other institution on the Coast.
It is no small wonder, given the fact that over 16,000 football (soccer) players are registered to play the game with the regional association Central Coast Football (CCF).
CCF has done a remarkable job in raising the profile of the popular sporting code in a region once traditionally known for other forms of ball sports.
The sweet irony of English footballers being at the head of our two Mariners teams (Nick Montgomery and Emily Husband) and the English Lionesses being based at Gosford’s Industree Group Stadium throughout the Women’s World Cup should be seen as a strength of the world game.
This football ecosystem, from grassroots to regional and state competitions and on to national and international arenas, is a perfect example of how to build the region’s capacity.
A great example of football building community was when Mariners’ women’s team coach Emily Husband and fans gathered to support footballer Fran Hurndall as she passed through Gosford recently on her running journey from the Gold Coast to Sydney.
Hurndall was on a mission to make history as the first woman to run 1,000km from the Gold Coast to Sydney dribbling a soccer ball.
The Matildas’ history-making run for the FIFA Women’s World Cup shows us all that football is so much more than football, it is about aspiration, diligent work, organisation, hope and unity.
Policymakers and politicians could do well to look to football on the Central Coast to build other sectors of our community successfully.
David Abrahams